I needed a laugh - Peggy Noonan provides

A postelection stay in the cool, cloudy capital reveals a sober Republican Party attempting every day in conversations throughout Capitol Hill a rancor-free analysis of why the party lost....

For something serious try Thom Hatmann's new book: Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class.

Top 25 Censored Stories this year

What you didn't see in the Houston Chronicle, Fox News, CNN News, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

#1 Net Neutrality - the future of the internet is being sold to the highest paid lobbyists.

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran. Cheney had advocated against all boycotts of Iran - in yet another sign a war is imminent as these old birds always turn on their former allies. (Media - quit referring to it as an attack or strike - this will be a war.)

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger. Finally at the end of the year this one is starting to percolate up. A finding that all ocean fish stocks are on target to be wiped out in a few decades can do that.

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US. That doesn't fit the GOP and media narrative so that gets buried.

#5 High-Tech Genocide taking place in the Congo.

Continue all the way to #25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region. Did you hear about that? A big story in Latin America and another black eye for the United States. I read it in several stories but I don't depend on American mainstream news sources and, despite appearances, can't report on everything I read. Check them out - what the world knows but Americans don't.

Tags: real news, project censored, SCLM

Latest Outrages

White House - medical drugs are so cheap the government should not negotiate for lower prices.

Fox News's 'so-called liberal' commentator calls Pelosi "the Wicked Witch of the West."

Laura Ingraham's voter fraud hotline phone jamming scheme not a worry to Justice Department.

Public still being prepped for war with Iran. Ambassador concurs - Bush not afraid of the war. Bush, Olmert turn up heat on Iran. Four U.S. carriers currently off of Iran, Enterprise has not left to return.

Triple Cross - Ali Abdel Saoud Mohamed, Osama bin Laden’s most trusted security adviser, who infiltrated the U.S. Army Special Forces and served as an FBI informant—all the while overseeing some of the most infamous Al Qaeda terror strikes of the last decade.

The Buck stops at the Bush - CIA says Bush authorized terrorist detention and interrogation practices. Senate seeks documents.

Iraq Study Group a/k/a Baker Commission Outlines Four Point "Victory Strategy"; Will Likely Call for More Troops

More rumors of Bush drinking.

There were many more including new Bush appointments and several instances of GOP Senate hypocrisy but it is the holidays and I'll try to lighten up.

THIS WAS POST 13,000 on this blog.

Minimum Wage Facts

* If the minimum wage were increased nationally to $7.25:

- 14.9 million workers would receive a raise,
- 80% of those affected are adults age 20 or over, and
- 7.3 million children would see their parents income rise.

* Families with affected workers rely on those workers for over half of their earnings.
* 46% of all families with affected workers rely solely on the earnings from those workers.
* Some minimum wage workers remain in low-wage jobs for substantial periods.
* The best recent research on the economic impact of the minimum wage shows positive effects without job loss.
* Even the research that suggests a negative labor market effect shows only a minimal impact that is more than offset by the higher wage levels.
* The states that have adopted higher-than-federal minimum wages have seen low-wage workers’ incomes rise with no negative side-effects.
* Over 650 economists, including five Nobel Prize winners and six past presidents of the American Economics Association, recently signed a statement stating that federal and state minimum wage increases “can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families, without the adverse effects that critics have claimed” (EPI 2006).

The federal minimum wage of $5.15 is currently at its lowest real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) value in over 50 years. Historically, when the federal government has failed to raise this floor, states have stepped in. In fact, a greater percent of the U.S. workforce is currently covered by higher state minimum wages than ever before. Twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia have minimum wages above the federal rate, covering 58% of the nation’s labor force.

Tags: labor, minimum wage

Sekula-Gibbs, Temp Congresswoman

The Houston Chronicle has updated the story I reported of the hissy fit and the charges my new congresswoman has filled against her staffers that quit after meeting her. It seems House rules require PCs be scrubbed when a new representative takes over.

David James, who was chief of staff under DeLay and ran the office after the Texas Republican resigned in June, flatly denied that he or his colleagues had acted improperly.

House rules demand that computers be scrubbed clean before a new representative takes over, James noted.

James had previously been unwilling to discuss his five-day experience working for Sekula-Gibbs, but said he could no longer remain silent after accusations against him and co-workers with more than 30 years combined experience on Capitol Hill.

"Never has any member of Congress treated us with as much disrespect and unprofessionalism as we witnessed during those five days," he said. He declined to detail specific behavior.

Sekula-Gibbs also leveled charges of unprofessionalism against the former aides, saying they "left without notice and their departure raises suspicions." An eighth staffer who left was a part-time employee shared with other offices.

Defenders of the departed aides were puzzled by Sekula-Gibbs' actions, saying the former DeLay staff members were hard-working, loyal employees dedicated to the Texas district, particularly at a time when the office lacked a representative.

"We had the good fortune of working with them over the years and every one of them, to a person, has unimpeachable character and integrity," said Tony Essalih, chief of staff to Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.

A former congressional staffer familiar with the 22nd District's operations also praised the aides. "They know the district like the back of their hand; it has been their lives for years and it was with a heavy heart that they had to leave," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity....

"As public servants, they have harmed the 22nd Congressional District and they have brought shame to this office," Sekula-Gibbs said in a statement. "I have a duty to investigate."

The Chronicle editorial page wags its finger:

If Sekula-Gibbs hoped to burnish her reputation as a lawmaker in order to run for the seat in 2008, alienating the staff that served the district when DeLay was in office was a very poor strategy. If she runs for the seat again, Houstonians will be reminded that in resigning her council seat only to win fleeting, unflattering national exposure, she cost city taxpayers approximately $1 million to stage a special election to choose her replacement.

Her actions have already lead to a credible candidate to announce that he will battle her for the chance to take on Rep. Lampson in 2008. Bettencourt, like Sekula-Gibberish, will force a million dollar replacement election when and if he resigns to run.

Tags: Sekula-Gibbs, Texas

40 Janitors on Strike Arrested In Downtown Houston

The Houston Chronicle story.

What was left out: “The horses came all of a sudden. They started jumping on top of people. I heard the women screaming. A horse stomped on top of me. I fell to the ground and hurt my arm. The horses just kept coming at us. I was terrified. I never thought the police would do something so aggressive, so violent.” -- Mateo Portillo, 33 (Photos and clips are at the link so you can judge for yourself..)

From an email:

As you may have heard, there are many injured janitors in jail after last night when Houston Police violently backlashed against janitors non-violent act of civil disobedience in downtown Houston.

What can you do to help?

Contact the District Attorney and ask him to release the janitors!

District Attorney
Charles A. Rosenthal, Jr.
ChuckRosenthal@dao.hctx.net
713-755-5800

Here is the footage that I took last night.

More at Houston Justice for Janitors and Houston Indy Media.

Community activists and leaders expressed concern and dismay at the police’s use of horses to intimidate and corral janitors participating in non-violent civil disobedience. The police’s choice to use horses to stop the protest resulted in four people being injured, including an 83-year old janitor from New York....

As the janitors began to sit down peacefully in the intersection, Houston Police Department mounted police charged violently into the intersection to break up the demonstration, endangering workers’ lives and using their horses to physically intimidate the peaceful protestors.

Workers report they were stepped on by horses leaving an unknown number of protestors with bruises and other injuries. The number of workers who sustained injuries is currently unknown. Immediately after the act of violence, the police arrested the protestors and put them on a bus took them in for booking. While the cops moved the activists onto the sidewalk, the intersection remained blocked off until after 6pm.

At least one protestor, Hazel Ingram, an 83 year-old janitor from New York City was injured in the police action. She was taken to Ben-Taub hospital for an injury to her arm.

"A protest is a sign of freedom in the United States and exercises our basic rights to free speech. I am calling for a swift and fair resolution to this matter before more people get hurt needlessly." - Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee

Janitors from across the the country come to Houston to comit civil disobedience in support of a living wage for local workers. HPD give a traditional southern welcome of hospitalizing old ladies and breaking people's arms.

Tags: union, Houston, janitors, strike, police

Evidence 2006 Congressional Elections Hacked

The original raw exit poll data matches the expected Republican and Democratic breakdown and the 2004 Presidential election results, it has to be biased in the GOP's favor by 4% to match vote results. The margin of error of the exit polls, revamped and improved from the 2004 election is 1%. The speculation is software was adjusted in early October to get a small margin of victory and did not take the continued Democratic surge into account. More detailed explanation here.

There is no smoking gun evidence, for that someone involved or some physical evidence is needed or the mechanism identified, but this election is claimed to be another case of results too biased and anomalous in one direction to be true. This rigging of the results would have to be done someone working for one or more electronic voting machine companies or people working in several department of elections. A more detailed analysis is needed with a closer look at specific elections and specific machines or central tabulating software. Bradblog has more. This has been reported on Raw Story as well as OpEd News.

In the one case we know of machine error - Jeb Bush appointed a partisan hack to head the investigation of the 18,000 missing votes in Sarasota county. That is headed for trials and audits despite some current Florida delaying tactics.

The computer programmer chosen by the state of Florida to lead the audit is Alec Yasinsac, a computer scientist at Florida State University. In 2000, Yasinsac stood on the steps of the Florida Supreme Court wearing a T-shirt reading "Bush Won," and told a local paper that ''I'll never be a passive political participant again.'' He made good on that, working on Republican Tom Gallagher's failed bid for governor this year.

As if that wasn't enough, he's also an ardent advocate for the accuracy of electronic voting machines -- which he'll be auditing for accuracy.

How to ensure an accurate election one proposal - mandatory open election night 10% recounts in every precinct. I think there could be problems with this.

Someone with a metal cat knew this would happen.

Tags: black box voting, hack the vote, election fraud, e-voting, recounts, exit polls, electronic voting machines

The problem with CAFE

Jim sends this discussion going on at The Truth About Cars.

Pew Poll: Public Cheers Democratic Victory

My Temp Congresswoman Throws a Hissy Fit

When you embarrass the folks at Lone Star Times you are acting way out of line.

Shelly Shelly My Shelly Sekula Gibbygelly provoked the mass resignation of the staff in Tom DeLay's old office by going on a 15 minute fit according to the Lone Star Times. "Sources close to the situation indicate to LoneStarTimes.com that SSG’s outbursts included a 15 minute long body-shaking, fist-pounding screaming fit." The Congressional newspaper The Hill reports she was upset the President and Vice President didn't personally visit her temporary office says LST.

Now breaking is that she is after the staff for deleting files and wants them investigated. Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Sekula-Gibbs said in a statement Thursday that seven employees in her Washington office and the district office in Stafford, Texas, outside Houston, "deleted records and files without my knowledge or permission" before quitting.

The temporary congresswoman had earlier embarrassed herself by promising sweeping changes during her one week of voting in a major Washington Post story, had caused even Republican members to walk out of a memorial service to a Houston police officer after she turned it into a campaign speech, and had switched stripes from being pro-choice when running for Houston City Council to anti-abortion when running for Congress, along with suddenly developing other conservative interests.

The Chronicle now has the story but except for a new odd quote from Miss Hissy Fit doesn't advance the story.

Roll Call also claimed that Sekula-Gibbs was upset that President Bush and Vice President Cheney did not attend a reception in her office Tuesday. "It's just rumor, rumor, rumor," Sekula-Gibbs said.

Her chief of staff and former council aide, Lisa Dimond, who has worked with the interim congresswoman for more than two years, said her boss is wonderful to work for.

"She is a doctor and she has wonderful people skills," Dimond said of the dermatologist.

I have heard the same thing said about Senator Cat-Killer Frist.

Tags: Sekula Gibbs, Texas, CD-22, Tom DeLay,

Zogby Online Polls - Highly Inaccurate but Right

Thats the interesting result from going through and grading the pollsters this election. Zogby Interactive Online predicted 18 of 19 Senate winners correctly but was on average off by 8.6 percentage points - over twice the phone polls studied. A disadvantage of the Zogby online polls was not polling closer to the election. Taking an average of the five most recent polls, a measure compiled by Pollster.com, yielded a higher accuracy rate than most individual pollsters. "Rasmussen (25 races) and Mason-Dixon (15) each were off by an average of fewer than four points on the margin. Zogby's phone polls (10) and SurveyUSA (18) each missed by slightly more than four points."

Survey USA also has a 2006 poll scorecard for all pollsters in races they covered.

More discussion on best pollers here.

Except in the Texas Governor's race Zogby Online had the closest poll.

Tags: polls

Houston Janitors Still On Strike

Up to 50 janitors and supporters from around the country and in Houston prepare to risk arrest to challenge the real estate industry to settle the strike and agree on a contract that provides the 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance. Houston has never seen non-violent civil disobedience on this level, and the sheer size of the arrests—as many as seventy over two days—shatter any previous records. For details on actions planned in Houston today, please call SEIU’s Lynda Tran at 202-907-1172.

Houston has been douing its best to try to ignor the strike and hope it goes away and the Union actions in publicizing the strike, inconveniencing people at malls and busy intersections, have been what is needed to get attention.

Nine House Races still to be decided

Two runoffs, six recounts, and one Florida investigation and audit.

Proof That Google is God! - The Church Of Google . Org

I found this link at Sharon's. I am now studying this and thinking of becoming a minister. This belief may be spreading faster than the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Perhaps they both should consider going the Church of Universal Life route of spreading the good news and join up with the Brights.

Technorati Tags: Alternative Religion, Brights, Church of Google, Universal Life Church, FSM

Headline WingNut News

Glenn Beck, on his CNN's Headline News show, first calls out our new Muslim Congressman to "prove he is not working with America's enemies" and then compares Hillary Clinton health plans to Hitler's "decree permitting euthanasia."

Has CNN gone too far in permitting this right wing nut to occupy their portion of American public broadcast space? Or better, should Headline News add a liberal viewpoint show with Phil Donahue, Al Franken, or Thom Hartmann to balance him out?

More instances of CNN Headline news bias as documented by Media Matters. Thank Jim for the heads-up.

Tags: CNN, Glenn Beck, fair and balanced, SCLM

NJ Teacher: You Belong in Hell

A High School teacher in Kearny New Jersey was caught teaching more religion than history in his classes. Among other teachings was that if you didn't accept Jesus you go to Hell and the "unscientific" theories of the Big Bang and evolution. A student was shocked when his instructor concentrated more on Jesus, Heaven and Hell than American history and started recording his lessons. During a much delayed meeting between the student and school officials to discuss his complaints the teacher, also a Baptist minister, denied he taught religion in class. Then the student produced the CDs. The School Superintendent has praised the teacher and kept him teaching history although promising some future corrective action. Shouldn't the preacher have automatically been fired when he lied during the investigation? Are you surprised this Baptist preacher lied? Shouldn't his church question his lying? Link from Jim.

A very disturbing message urging patriarchy and large families

More disturbing is the DLC is studying how to make these people vote Democratic. Why?

CD-22 experienced staff quits en masse after meeting Sekula-Gibbs

She has had rocky relations with other staff before.

Peak Oil, the debunking that isn't

Looking at the CERA report conservatives are touting as debunking the Peak Oil crisis theory shows that it actually supports peak oil but just moves the crisis back a couple decades from 2010 to 2030. This is a best case scenario that says oil production will reach a maximum in less than 25 years and alternative fuels need to be found now. Environmentalists need more such debunkings.

Environmentalists did not get it recently on a reported global climate change debunking with this latest news article claiming it is a conspiracy. That article is simply bad and unscientific and contradictory. This debunking didn't support or debunk climate change - it was just garbage from a non-scientist.

Thank John Edwards for helping turn Dallas 'D'