Easter Lemming Liberal News

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Happy Feet, Insane Republicans

I finally saw Happy Feet. We were going to see Blood Diamond or some other movie but realized I wouldn't have time because of the Christmas party. A good happy, fun, singing and dancing movie with great animation. Kids love it. Huge, huge box office. Great movie.

According to conservative Republicans this is liberal propaganda ruining America. When I write something like that I may get responses that I am taking a few nut blogs and taring the right side with the views of a few extremists. Here are some of the obscure nut jobs that nobody pays attention to ranting in this case.

Neil Cavuto, one of the Fox News anchors, said "big time objectional" and made the observation that "it was just like an animated Inconvenient Truth. I half expected Al Gore to pop up!" (There is nothing about global warming in the movie.)

Cavuto's guest, Christian family entertainment critic Holly McClure, said:

I went watching this movie thinking, "OK, great. A lighthearted, fun film. Love these animated pictures, and it's interesting how realistic it looks." And you get in there and you're enjoying all the fun and frivolity, and, yes, it's kind of a takeoff of the penguin documentary, and then along comes the subtle messages. And one by one they come in, and I felt like I was watching Dirty Dancing, penguin-style. You know, the preaching against the tap dancing and being liberal and stay conformed. And then it started to get into the other messages. Yes, we had that plastic ring around one of the penguin's neck. From there it got worse.

I happen to know many people who love Dirty Dancing, which she may be melding with Footloose, and I don't believe I know anyone who objects to that movie. Note she is introduced just as an entertainment critic but her only gigs have been Christian conservative broadcasting shows and now Fox News. These Christian broadcasting networks have millions of viewers and listeners.

Glen Beck, conservative radio host with a show on CNN Headline News, also labeled it "propaganda" and an "animated version of An Inconvenient Truth" - demonstrating that he watches Cavuto on Fox News and not CNN.

His guest, Dr. Robert Thompson of the Center for the Study of Popular Television, told Beck he was blowing this way out of proportion and "I don't think this story is going to get you a Peabody." (Much like the Razzies are the anti-Oscars can some group make up anti-Peabody awards?)

Michael Medved, former conservative mainstream movie critic, now conservative talk radio host and columnist:

Crappy Feet - "This may be the darkest, most disturbing feature length animated film ever offered by a major studio... The propagandistic theme suggests that the biggest menace for the lovable penguins is the human race... There’s also a bizarre anti-religious bias operating unmistakably and gratuitously in the film... As in so many other recent films, there’s a subtext that appears to plead for endorsement of gay identity."

So when the assertion that Happy Feet was pro-environment and anti-business didn't hurt the box office they started on it promoting the gay agenda. "There's a whole flock of penguins who are basically, well, gay." "When Mumbles tells his father 'Accept me for who I am, I can't change' that's going to go right over the heads of kids. But we know what he is."

This is crazy. First - They are saying that a movie that promotes following your own dreams and promotes tolerance is like so wrong. Second - who thinks conservatives have this finely honed animated penguin gaydar? It'll probably "go over the kids' heads" because the hero is hetero and is in love with a girl penguin and marries her and has a kid. All the other penguins are obsessed with finding their opposite-sex mate and having kids. Why don't conservatives go back to outing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Tinky Winky for their serious discussions and waste of cable news space?

BTW - what you should know about penguins if you are a conservative. Half the species are facing extinction, the majority of Emperor penguins get new mates every year, Emperor Penguins are in a dangerous decline, many penguins are gay parents, the Antarctic is rapidly shrinking and melting, plastic six-pack rings are bad for animals including penguins, penguins can't really sing American and Spanish pop songs or dance. No wonder conservatives hate penguins.

Some links for this rant. None to conservative blogs because I am treating myself by avoiding them until next year but many on the left observed this insanity. Links may contain adult language.

Media Matters.

The Greenbelt

The Carpetbagger Report

Lean Left

Pissed on Politics

Hillbilly Report

Hell Fell

You Are Dumb

A Penny's Worth

Bush is "disappointed in the pace of success"

Bush: "I thought we would succeed quicker than we did, and I am disappointed by the pace of success."

Hirohito: "Despite the best that has been done by everyone . . . the war situation has developed not necessarily to our advantage."

Easter Lemming: "I am disappointed in the pace I am adding to my harem."

Friday, December 08, 2006

Everything you heard on Right-wing talk radio and read in Wingnut Blogs was wrong

That was the basic message of the Iraq Study Group in the first half of their report. The administration and the military had been spinning and lying. The war is a disaster. The So-Called-Liberal-Media reports have been right and Fox News wrong. This was why it was a very emotional Republican Senator taking to the floor to admit he was wrong in his past support for the war. It take strong clear language from people they trust to break through years of BS from administration officials and all the conservative news and opinions they listen to.

How much of the right-wing noise machine will admit the truth of the Iraq report? How much of the report will not be reported on? How many will simply call the group "surrender monkeys" as the New York Post did on their front page? I don't know.

Just since the election there there has been big right stories that are pretty much lies they tell and probably tell themselves that shows no sign of slowing down and may even have become more hysterical.

The lies about the Associated Press making up stories when the Shiite Iraq Interior Ministry has a huge incentive to lie and the AP has repeatedly gone beyond the call of duty to verify the Sunni Mosque massacre.
The lies and hysteria over the Muslim religious leaders kicked off a plane in this country and driven to a police station in handcuffs over passenger hysteria.
The reaction, including advocating bombing the UN, to UN ambassador John Bolton being finally removed from his post at an institution he hated and could never get Senate approval for.

Some of the reaction beginning to form against the Iraq Study Group from the right is not hysterical but simply dismissive. A lot is hysterical like Atlas Girl or even paranoid like Gateway Boy. Overall a river in Egypt reaction without most even reading the report like RUSH LIMBAUGH: "Unite the American people in defeat. Unite the American people and surrender. The Iraq Surrender Group unite the American people in getting out of there."

I think for the rest of this year I will try to quit reading the wacky right's ignorant, sad, pathetic, fearful, hysterical, paranoid, bigoted posts and give a present to myself of avoiding the stupidity. The only problem is that as Media Matters points out the mainstream media and Washington Establishment is scarcely any better.

The Clueless George Presidential Library from Amazon.com

A Christmas gift idea for your liberal friends. The amazing illustrated adventures of Clueless George collected in one library set at a great price. One amazing thing about these books is that they are from a political cartoonist in the Salt Lake City Tribune whose previous books are mainly about Utah and the Mormons.

Florida election could be 1984 replay

On a vote along party lines Democrat awarded seat in the U.S. House in 1984.

What happens when a soldier finds God?

Sergeant Logan Laituri informed his superiors he could go back to Iraq but just don't give him a weapon. Interesting story of what lead up to that and what happened. "One commander, who is also a Baptist preacher, assured Laituri that since he was a Christian, Jesus had died for all his sins, and therefore he was already forgiven for whatever he would do on the battlefield." I am not fond of a lot of Baptist ministers.

Tony Snow lies about the ISG milestones and timetables

Feingold on Olbermann: ISG was composed of people who did not have the judgement to oppose the war in the first place

The 25 Stupidest Political Quotes of 2006

We have some stupid politicians and pundits and Daniel Kurtzman collects what they say.

From 25) "I think I'd just commit suicide." --Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in October, on the prospects of the Democrats taking back the Senate in the November election to

1) "How's my favorite young stud doing? ... Strip down and get relaxed ... Good, so you're getting horny? ... Cute butt bouncing in the air ... Get a ruler and measure it for me. ... (Page: "My mom is yelling") ... Cool, I hope she didn't see anything." --from the transcript of a sexually explicit IM chat Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), chairman of the Congressional Missing & Exploited Children's Caucus, had with a 16-year-old male, the revelation of which prompted him to resign.

Kurtzman also collects the talk show political jokes.

"The Democrats, it's less than two weeks since they took power and already they're fighting among themselves. ... Say what you want about the Republican Congress, those guys were always on the same page." --Bill Maher

"Today was the first and only day of confirmation hearings for his replacement Robert Gates. ... The committee immediately confirmed the guy. They really only had one question: Are you now or have you ever been Donald Rumsfeld? He said, 'No.' ... He showed them his driver's license and utility bill, and boom, they confirmed him." --Stephen Colbert

Senate Republican Turns Against War

From Atrios:

CNN -- In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Sen Gordon Smith, a moderate Republican from Oregon who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore."

Smith said he is at, "the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up the same bombs, day after day.

"That is absurd," he said. "It may even be criminal."

Smith said he has tried to quietly support President Bush during the course of the war -- and doesn't believe the president intentionally lied to get the U.S. into the war -- but now recognizes, "we have paid a price in blood and treasure that is beyond calculation" for a war waged due to bad intelligence.

Both my Dad and borther-in-law were talking today that Bush should be impeached. There are both moderate swing voters from the South.

Atrios also had: "According to new AP/Ipsos poll, 60% of the country favors a complete withdrawal in 6 months. That number jumps to 71% for a 2 year timetable."

Update: Welcome Buzzfeed readers. Click here for more news and for a RSS feed link.

It's Official - KTRH has joined the Right Wing Media Machine

After picking up Joe Pagliarulo, known as Joe Pags, Houston's KTRH 740 AM completes its transition to all right crap daytime as an early Christmas unpresent to Houston starting December 18. That will be when you can hear Rush Limbaugh from 11 - 2 everyday on Houston's former information source.

They have kept their lone liberal voice, a delayed Ed Schultz, 8 - 10 weeknights, when he is not preempted by a game. Ed is moving his slot to go head-to-head with Rush on the live shows. I wonder if Rush likes him tape-delayed on the same station and how long KTRH will keep Ed?

KTRH used to be one of the best news radio stations in the country. I am going to need to find another bad weather station. A lot of the changes and decline in quality at KTRH may be cost cutting moves. Clear Channel, which owns KTRH, is notorious for cost cutting stations into the ground. (added - Of course, Clear Channel is also notorious for being right-wing.)

One suggestion for your replacement is Houston's Pacifica KPFT 90.1 FM which has greatly expanded its news programs in the last several years. Democracy Now which they carry is also becoming better and better. Where else in Houston can you hear about the privatization of Iraqi oil recommended by Jim Baker's Iraq Study Group?

For centrist news there is Public Radio KUHF 88.1 FM with the NPR slate of programs. Of course, studies have shown they have more Republican and conservative guests so it is not an even balance.

If you want to spend the money there is satellite radio, which is the only way to receive Air America in your car in Houston.

Keep up with Progressive talk radio here and at Liberal Talk blog.

Tags: Houston, radio, KPFT, KTRH, KUHF

Dean - Congress should call for a new election in Florida

Hell, they should call for a few new elections in Florida going back to the 2000 Presidential but for now he is talking about the 18,000 missing votes in the Sarasota house race. Democratic Congressional leaders are seriously considering not seating the Republican ahead by 369 votes by Florida's count.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

White House Briefing -- Iraq Study Group Brings Reality to Washington

UPDATE - corrected link to wrong briefing.

Froomkin has the best round-up including this quote:

"The report's description of the violence in Iraq, which amounts to an attack on the administration's understanding of the facts on the ground, will likely set the new baseline for how the Iraq conflict is portrayed ....

"The report is replete with damning details about the administration's competence in Iraq. It notes, for instance, that only six people in the 1,000-person U.S. embassy in Baghdad can speak Arabic fluently, and recounts how the military counted 93 acts of violence in one day in July when the group's own examination of the numbers found 1,100 acts of violence. 'Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes discrepancy with policy goals,' the report says."

Moderate Republicans a lost species, Democrats recognizing the class war

By one measure, the 110th Congress will have the fewest moderates since the 19th century. This finding is based on an analysis of voting records by Keith T. Poole, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego, and Howard Rosenthal, a New York University politics professor.

For the purpose of the study, a moderate is defined as someone whose votes consistently fall near the middle of the political spectrum on both fiscal and social issues.

The decline in moderates has had a greater impact on Republicans than Democrats. According to Poole's calculations, almost half of House Republicans were moderates 30 years ago, compared to well under 10 percent today. The professors argue that the decline of moderates in Congress has increased polarization.

The polarization is more the result of economic issues than social issues according to their colleague Dr. Nolan McCarty. There is a free PDF download of the paper McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal wrote about the history of polarization in American politics and how to measure it, which became the first two chapters of the book. The important chapter three explores income polarization of voters as the politicians became more polarized. Their findings concerning the links between mounting inequality, immigration, and the rise of political polarization are vital to any understanding of American politics.

In other chapters not online they also other insights:

In a chapter worth the book’s price, the authors show that astronomical gains for the very wealthiest have opened up opportunities for the “passionate rich” to invest in the ideological extremes. The “swift-boating” of Kerry was not an aberration; it is the new status quo. Democratic victories and policies, if and when they happen, will certainly activate a right-wing backlash.

....As they demonstrate, income inequality has grown least among regularly participating voters. It has done the most damage at the bottom end of the income scale, where both immigrants and citizens are less likely to vote. A voter backlash, by definition, has to come from voters. Not surprisingly, Republicans have pushed voter-identification legislation to discourage lower-income voting and promoted a policy to make immigrants wait 17 years for the right to vote.

....Would America be better off with a “centrist” coalition via divided government, as under Clinton? In a sobering conclusion, the authors show that divided government is actually worse. Legislative stalemate paradoxically increases the power of the presidency and hurts the poor, who are left to fend for themselves as government freezes up. For example, McCarty and colleagues demonstrate that states with Democratic governors and Republican legislatures, other things equal, have the least generous welfare programs.

The next big issue for Democrats should be the growing inequality gap. The scientists have demonstrated pretty conclusively that political polarization is indeed related to economic inequality. They show how ideological polarization and income inequality fell together from 1913 until 1957 and that both inequality and polarization have been rising again since 1977. As liberals say, the Republicans have been waging class war and the poor and Democrats have been losing. With the recent reversal in Congress and the growing populism among Democrats the Democratic leadership may be getting the message. The campaign for the presidential nomination and Congressional actions next year will see how much this knowledge has sunk into the party leadership.

Tags: partisanship, class war, polarization, inequality, Rosenthal, Poole, McCarty, Congress, political scientists, vote analysis

My 79 year old mother cried when she went to get her prescription

Another story about runaway health care costs.

NY Post Becomes the Weekly World News

Global Warming effect on Ocean warming dire

NASA satellite study shows great reduction in plankton, which removes carbon dioxide and is the ultimate source of food for much sea life.

Tags: science, global warming, climate change, oceans, NASA

A Soldier's Story

The best article from a soldier in Iraq. He knows what is going on and that they are in a desperate race they are probably losing to prevent a civil war and create stability before we leave.

Tags: Iraq, civil war, soldiers

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Littlest Cheney will have two mommies

Research Indicates Marijuana not a gateway drug

WP columnist acknowledges his blog critics and readers were right

I am not making this up - David Ignatius:

In a column last week, I praised Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel for his prescient early warnings about the risks of U.S. involvement in Iraq. Some readers complained that for all his prescience, Hagel still voted to support the war, and that I was ignoring the many Democrats who were similarly wary of Iraq -- and who voted against war funding. These readers are right. Hagel took political risks expressing his concerns back in 2003, but so did Democrats who voted against the Iraq mission despite a vitriolic barrage from the administration.

Debkafile.net - knows a lot of spies

Interesting article on Debkafile.net which is political military gossip from Israel. They often get the story wrong, not admited here, but they repeat all the gossip coming in from a lot of sources. If you take everything they print with a grain of salt and look for possible agendas they can tell you what experts are thinking on terrorism, military and foreign affairs. Overall their sources are very conservative, which is to be expected.

Bush's new North Korea Plan

Same as the Clinton plan - offer aid for them to give up nukes

Quit stealing jokes for policy proposals

Hysteria in the WSJ

The Imam story won't go away. Where to start with the lies by the hysterical Debra Burlingame.

1. Allahu Akbar is the traditional call for prayer - God is Great.

2. They went to their assigned seats except their leader got an upgrade to first class and they asked another passenger to trade seats with the blind Imam.

3. Most reports say two heavy Imams in robes asked for seatbelt extensions which were willingly provided by the flight crew.

4. She plays the race card - calling comparisons to Rosa Parks being pulled off a bus and the Black Muslims supporting fellow Muslims "racial politics at its worst."

5. She plays her own sympathy card as the sister of a pilot killed on 9/11.

6. She actually proves the case that flying while acting Muslim was the crime and wants Muslims to stop it. Her scorn is directed at the Muslim call to prayer in a rank distasteful display of prejudice and ignorance. The writer, Debra Burlingame, is a former Democrat who has since 9/11 become a spokesperson for the PATRIOT act and other conservative causes.

Richest 2% hold half the world’s assets

Poorest 50% hold only 1% of wealth.

Becoming overly emotional is a sign of senility

Spaniards Vow To Reconquer New World, Launch Fleet

Juan Carlos issued an Imperial decree to build an "unstoppable" naval fleet of some 130 ships constructed from the "finest timbers felled from the grandest forests of Christendom," the likes of which, according to Spanish lore, "has not been espied on the high seas since the glory days of the 16th century."

Analysts say that Spain, with a standing army of 86,000 and one of the smallest military budgets in Western Europe, will face significant challenges in its rise to empire.

"It remains to be seen how the highly organized information- and service-based economy of the Bahamas will adapt to brutal conquest and forced labor," said University of Chicago political science professor Thomas Osbourne. "But the Spanish do have centuries of experience, so they should not be underestimated

The Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics

This was a Matthew Yglesias classic for some reason I never linked to.

One Story, Two Very Different Slants

From News Hounds a story that demonstrates how FOX News is the FEAR! network and MSNBC is the anti-Fox.

Think Equal.

Think Equal Ad - Gay Marriage or Civil Union?

New Jersey has to choose between offering gays civil unions or marriage. An online blog campaign has been started to run the above ad. The site - a blog for New Jersey Democrats. So the New Jersey Democrats are promoting gay marriage - what perversions are Republicans promoting?

How to make War on Christmas - A Field Guide

The Political-Religious War in Texas and America

Michelle Goldberg visited San Antonio to declare: "no room for healing the rift between the Christian nationalist extremists and advocates of a secular society."

Goldberg was in San Antonio as a guest of the SoL Center and the Texas Freedom Network on the last leg of her national tour for Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, an in-depth history and analysis of the movement to establish a Christian theocratic government in the U.S. (see: the demonization of homosexuality by megachurch pastors, battles against teaching evolutionary theory in schools, the development of “the abstinence industry,” and the right’s war on the nation’s courts).

Despite recent Democratic congressional victories and falls from grace by conservative leaders such as Tom DeLay and Ralph Reed, Goldberg says the movement has hunkered down strong with a number of diffuse local organizations and, at the state level, “patriot-pastor networks” that use megachurch and church-related organizations as centers for right-wing political organizing.

“This movement is not a religious movement but rather a nationalist political movement that cloaks itself in religion,” Goldberg said.

“It is not synonymous with evangelical Christianity and it does not make up a majority of Americans or evangelicals. It is just that it makes up the most highly organized political group in America until now. For various structural reasons, it has come to dominate the government far in excess of its numbers.”

New game not playing well at Lakewood Church

Religious game based on Olsten book gets non-endorsement from Lakewood Church.

Somewhere there was a miscommunication and there are copies of Your Best Life Now — The Game, "inspired by" Joel Osteen's best-selling book out there. Joel Osteen didn't like some of the examples and the way the game played and found the game was already published. Oops. Amazon has the best discounted price now - $19.95.

With several blogs I sometimes have trouble deciding where a link goes. This could have gone in my games blog but it relates to Houston and religion so I'll put it here. If I think a story might appeal to more people I am also inclined to put it here.

Rebuilding the Texas Democratic Party

Seeing what the GOP did in Florida and a talk with Howard Dean lead lawyer Fred Baron to become the Texas Democrats biggest booster.

This effort is not without controversy within the party as little or no help was given to most campaigns. There was both no help toward statewide candidates, except for one $25,000 donation to Chris Bell, and no help to most state house candidates except for the improvement to some party infrastructure tools. Fred Baron is also not part of the growing populist faction in the Texas Democratic Party.

Fred Baron did contribute to the big effort in increasing Democratic turnout and straight ticket voting in Dallas which led to an unexpected sweep of all contested races. Houston is looking at closely at Dallas results as Dallas has long been considered a GOP stronghold, much more than Houston. There were plenty of encouraging signs in Houston this election which political strategists will be making decisions on.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Best Iraqi division not prepared to fight

Will Every American wheat farmer be bankrupt by 2050?

Why global climate change is a loser for the Republicans. By denying the problem and doing nothing to prepare for it or reduce CO2 emisions they will lose their MidWestern base. I'll bet ADM is looking at those maps which show the wheat growing zone in 2050 compared to now.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Duncan tells me it is too late for Bush to declare victory and pull out

We have to get rid of Bush for that to happen. He has had plenty of opportunities to do that and passed them all by and is now stuck.

NASA plans a permanent camp on the moon - Los Angeles Times

We need better spaceships, better telerobotics and better ecological support systems. They should be conducting biological and agricultural systems development in Antartic. I like science programs. Government science and technology programs are feed stock for future development.

Is It Fascism Yet?

RU Sirius at 10 Zen Monkeys ask 10 progressive intellectuals if the United States is Fascist now.

Harris County Democratic Party Holiday Celebration

HCDP HOLIDAY PARTY

Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are just around the corner! Join HCDP and our gracious hosts, Texas Senator Rodney Ellis, Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, City Council Member Ron Green, State Representatives Garnet Coleman and Jessica Farrar and Communication Workers of America Local 6222 in celebrating the seasons at our annual Holiday Party.

DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 2005
TIME: 6:00 pm
LOCATION: CWA Local 6222 Union Hall, 1730 Jefferson in Downtown Houston.

Admission is free and so is the dinner. A cash bar will be available. Please bring non-perishable food items for donation to the SEARCH Homeless Project. We will also be collecting items suitable for sending to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for the holidays. We have received requests from them for decorations, party items, letters, holiday cards to the soldiers, cookies, candies, and toiletries of any kind.

Gerry Birnberg - Chair, Harris County Democratic Party:

Locally, we Democrats have much to be proud of:

Tom DeLay no longer sits in Congress. NICK LAMPSON does!

ELLEN COHEN won overwhelmingly in a district thought to be 60% Republican.

HUBERT VO convincingly retains the seat he won two years ago by defeating a powerful ally of the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, the chair of one of the most influential committees in the Texas House.

SCOTT HOCHBERG handily dispatched his Republican rival, in a district drawn specifically to elect a Republican to the state legislature.

ANA HERNANDEZ got more than 70% of the vote against a Republican opponent who had the backing of the Republican establishment.

JIM SHARP won Harris County, becoming the first Democrat to do so since 2000 and only the second to do so since 1996, a proving that judicial candidates can win county-wide in Harris County!

Tags: Texas, Harris, Houston, Democratic Party

More on that great booming Texas economy

My brother Jim sends this from a friend of his. Edited to suppress names and details and for clarity.

I can't afford the insurance that Home Depot offers (even as a manager.) I went to the dentist, they said that I have TMJ (Temporomandibular joint diseases and disorders) and need a splint to wear at night to keep me from grinding my teeth and breaking my fillings which I have already done.

The splint cost $700 and I was turned down for their payment plan. I also have a cyst in my jaw that is causing my jaw joint on the right side to disintegrate, there is no tissue left around the joint. He wanted to send me to an oral surgeon to have it cut out and removed but that cost somewhere in the thousands of dollars range, so I just paid $77 that I didn't have to find out that I have to live with the pain and cannot afford to have anything done about it.

I burst into tears in the dentist office and made a total ass of myself. I am going to take a shower now, and just focus on cleaning my house and setting up my Xmas tree, it's all I can do right now.

This was another Texas example where the fundamental problem is that the lack of meaningful affordable health care is driving people close to or over the edge. A booming economy for the 80% super-majority of Texans would be raising salaries and providing better benefits.

She should call the new state referral number, 211, to locate free or low cost dental care in her area. If that number is not yet working in her area, there is a list of numbers available here. For the Gulf Coast Region (Houston) the numbers are 211 or (713) 957-4357 or 1-800-833-5948. She might with a managerial job fall above the free plan.

Tags: Texas, Jim, economy, health care, dental care

Un Ambassador Bolton leaves - Irrational Right-Wing threatens to blow up UN building

Go to any of the radical right sites and feel the hate.

This threat in the comments was on Michelle Malkin's new site. You can see many instances of the irrationality and hate in nearly all the sites on the right today.

Tags: right-wing, hate, UN, Bolton

Chavez: New 'defeat for the devil'

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

If you think you believe in a Christian God that answers prayers this is the most important question you can ask.

Joe Biden's Trent Lott moment - CorrenteWire

Conservative blogger pajamahadeen declares latest jihad on AP

I am getting annoyed that the most worthwhile things to write about are the continued absurdities of the right-wing bloggers and their media cohort.

The AP reported on an atrocity - Shiite militia attacked a Sunni mosque and burned alive six people. The Shiite run Iraqi Interior Ministry denied that it happened. The US military in Baghdad questioned the story and its source. The AP went back and resourced and expanded its witness list for the story and reconfirmed it. The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied it again and said it would adopt new rules against journalists spreading falsehoods. Our right-wingnuts orgasm with joy and get a conservative pundit in right-wing fish-wrap to denounce the AP.

NYT blog on the story.

It comes down to who you believe. The AP has interviewed this police officer in his uniform in a police station numerous times and the Iraqi Ministry and the Green Zone military PR people say he either doesn't exist or lately that he isn't authorized to speak to the press.

The most authoritative credulous blogger.

The Shiite Iraqi ministries do not want bad PR and will kill anyone who supplies it. The AP just wants to get a story. The right-wingnuts just want their bigoted paranoid reality lacking worldview supported and to beat up on the press and any liberals.

This will get people to want to fly?

The House of Death and the Texas Drug War

The DEA and Justice Department in Washington got a high level informant placed with one of the worst Mexican drug cartels. He captures on tape his own involvement in a drug killing. Despite the evidence they now have against the target for murder and drug traficking and despite guestions about their own informant's involvement, high level officials in Washington decide to do nothing and gather more evidence. After the informant reports on over a dozen more killings an agent in the DEA protests their lack of concern over murders and their almost letting another DEA agent and his family get killed. He is fired and meanwhile an American resident is mistakenly killed in the growing death toll. The person in charge in Washington who let the investigation slowly continue is a friend of President Bush. The American resident mistakenly killed leaves a wife, Janet Padilla, and three children.

Earlier this year Sutton was appointed chairman of the Attorney General's advisory committee which, says the official website, 'plays a significant role in determining policies and programmes of the department and in carrying out the national goals set by the President and the Attorney General'. Sutton's position as US Attorney for Western Texas is further evidence of his long friendship with the President - falling into his jurisdiction is Midland, the town where Bush grew up, and Crawford, the site of Bush's beloved ranch.

'Sutton could and should have shut down the case, there and then,' says Bill Weaver, a law professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who has made a detailed study of the affair. 'He could have told Ice and the lawyers "go with what you have, and let's try to bring Santillan to justice". That neither he nor anyone else decided to take that action invites an obvious inference: that because the only people likely to get killed were Mexicans, they thought it didn't much matter.'

In the days after Reyes's death, officials in Texas and Washington held a series of meetings. Finally word came back from headquarters - despite the risk that Lalo might become involved with further murders, Ice could continue to use and pay him as an informant. And although Santillan had already been caught on tape directing a merciless killing and might well kill again, no attempt would be made to arrest him.

On 24 February, Sandy Gonzalez, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA office in El Paso, one of the most senior and highly decorated Hispanic law enforcement officers in America, wrote to his Ice counterpart, John Gaudioso.

'I am writing to express to you my frustration and outrage at the mishandling of investigation that has resulted in unnecessary loss of human life,' he began, 'and endangered the lives of special agents of the DEA and their immediate families. There is no excuse for the events that culminated during the evening of 14 January... and I have no choice but to hold you responsible.' Ice, Gonzalez wrote, had gone to 'extreme lengths' to protect an informant who was, in reality, a 'homicidal maniac... this situation is so bizarre that, even as I'm writing to you, it is difficult for me to believe it'.

But Ice and its allies in the DoJ were covering up their actions, helped by the US media - aside from the Dallas Morning News, not one major newspaper or TV network has covered the story.

Gonzalez was told that Sutton was 'extremely upset'. Gonzalez, who had enjoyed glittering appraisals throughout his 30-year career, was told he would be downgraded. On 4 May, DEA managers in Washington sent him a letter. It said that, if he quietly retired before 30 June, he would be given a 'positive' reference for future employers. If he refused, a reference would dwell on his 'lapse'. Gonzalez resigned, and launched a lawsuit - part of which is due to come to court tomorrow.

Link from Raw Story.

Kofi Annan: Iraq Worse Than Under Saddam

"When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war - this is much worse," Annan said in an interview with BBC television and radio to be broadcast on Monday.

Annan said he agreed with Iraqis who say that life is worse now than it was under Saddam.

"I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life," he said.

"If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison - that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, 'Am I going to see my child again?" Annan said.

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was not approved by the UN Security Council and Annan subsequently called "illegal", divisions among UN members have sharpened.

"I really believed that we could have stopped the war and that if we had worked a bit harder, given the inspectors a bit more time, we could have," Annan said.

I had to get this off of Al Jazeera in English.

The Genocidal Fury of Thomas Friedman

"How dare those Iraqis be so primitive and barbaric. A proper forceful occupation will fix them but might be too expensive." I believe the term "racist loon" is what comes immediately to mind in reading his tract as Chris Floyd doesn't quite say but one of the commenters supplies.

D.C. could get vote in Congress with Utah compromise

The great crusade against Vaginofascism

For far, far too long, America has gazed upon the specter of vaginofascism with indifference. We saw Lindsay Lohan's--and did nothing. We saw Paris Hilton's --and did nothing. Who will next unleash pantiless destruction upon a complacent America?

Radio Host on what to do with Muslims

On Sunday afternoon, Washington, DC radio host Jerry Klein of WMAL was commenting on the Muslim Imams kicked off a flight. Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

Among the callers:

"Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us."

and:

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

Finally a half hour into his show, Klien revealed the game:

"I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said. For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people's bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver's license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It's beyond disgusting.

Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous."

Friedman and Establishment Washington can't face responsibility for their actions

The American Baptist/Talibani Alliance latest crusade

Pass a law that everyone has to be sworn in on a Bible. Despite the fact this violates the Constitution, and that members of Congress don't swear in on anything. Those are strictly photo-ops they make for constituents. I was surprised to read recently of the Christian Amendment to the Consitution that was pushed starting in the 1860s and that never went anywhere. Our new fundamentalists have a rich tradition of never learning about history to draw upon.

I have always thought that our representatives should swear on a copy of the Constitution, just like our children should pledge allegiance to the Constitution and not to the flag.

The Establishmentarian New Majority Leader

A long interesting article on Steny Hoyer and his corporate ties, centrist positions and questionable commitment to Democratic core values.

As Hoyer points out, discord between the leader and the whip is nothing new, and previous leadership teams have overcome it to work together effectively. But Hoyer’s April 2005 vote for the bankruptcy bill suggests a more fundamental problem. The legislation, a long-held priority of the credit-card industry, makes it more difficult for those in debt to get a fresh start by filing for bankruptcy. Pelosi at one point warned that the bill would turn hardworking Americans into “modern-day indentured servants,” and many Democrats saw the vote as a defining issue of economic justice, hoping to use it to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and bolster their party’s appeal to working- and middle-class voters. That task was made all but impossible when Hoyer—who has received sizable contributions from the banking industry—and 72 other Democrats voted for the bill. At a whips’ meeting soon after, a furious Pelosi accused the bill’s Democratic supporters of selling out to special interests, while Hoyer defended them—and himself.

Hoyer noted to me that he had voted for the bill when it had come up several times in previous years, and said his decision was based on a belief in personal responsibility. “The argument that bankruptcies were becoming simply a way to excuse irresponsible behavior had validity to it,” he told me. “I believe that personal responsibility expectations are very important. No Child Left Behind, the accountability of students and teachers and parents and administrators to provide taxpayers their value ... The core value of personal responsibility is what I felt was manifested in the bankruptcy bill.” But Elizabeth Warren, an expert on bankruptcy at Harvard Law School, points out that 90 percent of families who file for bankruptcy do so after a job loss, a serious medical problem, a divorce, or a death. “What was the personal responsibility that they were missing?” Warren asks. “Was it that when Dad had chest pains and fell to the ground, he went to the emergency room rather than saying, ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to pay for it’? ... Was it that when Mom got laid off from her job, she didn’t just hand over her keys to the landlord and move into a cardboard box on the street with her two children?” ....

.... leaves only two plausible explanations for his decision: Either he favored the bill on the merits—which suggests a fundamental disharmony with his party’s core values—or he was doing a favor for corporate lobbyists. Or maybe both.

Mort Kondracke: Due to the American people the Axis of Evil are winning

Saturday, December 02, 2006

The Progressive Daily Beacon: "Number One National Security Threat: Today's Republican Party"

From a new publication for me, A. Alexander:

Republicans like Gingrich, Bush, Cheney, and the rank-and-file Party members that support them claim American kids are fighting and dying in Iraq, so that "we" can "bring freedom" to the Middle East. Somehow their outrageous hypocrisy escapes them. They say "we" must "bring" this "freedom" to the Middle East in order to save ourselves from the terrorists who, according to Republicans, "hate us for our freedom and liberty." Yet, while our kids die in Iraq, Republicans insist we must consider doing away with the First Amendment; they say we must allow government the power to search our homes without warrant or warning; they say we must surrender our right to privacy and allow the government to read our mail; they say we must agree to give government the power to monitor our email, and willingly agree to allow the government to listen in on our phone conversations; they say we must grant government the liberty to incarcerate citizens without the right to trial or charge; and they say we must turn a blind eye when our government tortures human beings - including fellow citizens. This is the only way that, Republicans insist, they can "protect" our freedom and liberty from the terrorists.

The ultimate act of self-sacrifice that no one noticed

Anti-war suicides do not work. I am tempted to say as a practical matter if you insist on going that route take a few SOBs with you. But that would be wrong and bad karma.

Democratic leader Chavez heavily favored for third Venezuelan presidency

Venezuela is sharply polarized. Many poor people applaud Chavez's spending of oil income on health and education while some upper- and middle-class voters say he is a fledgling dictator determined to follow the lead of his ally, Cuba's Fidel Castro.

The most recent opinion survey, commissioned by the state oil company with a U.S. pollster, showed Chavez with a 19-point lead over Rosales.

Continued Right-Wing Media hysteria over flying Imams

Any hope that the right-wing blogosphere would be embarrassed by their hysteria over the six Muslim religious leaders removed from a flight has been blown away. More bloggers have latched on to the story and it spread to Drudge Report. There is now the police report with the statements by the witnesses which confirms it was a case of not being quiet and subservient while flying as Muslim. One of the supposedly informed witnesses claimed that one Imam "pretended" to be blind. He was blind. A passenger has also published her uninformed opinions. Pauline the hysterical passenger:

"I think it was either a foiled attempt to take over the plane or it was a publicity stunt to accuse us of being insensitive," Pauline said. "It had to be to intimidate U.S. Airways to ease up on security."

Friday, December 01, 2006

Iraq - It's all the Iraqis or the Democrats or the American People's fault that Bush wasn't magnificent

Cordesman Speaking Out

VOA -

A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research and analysis organization, paints a bleak picture of the war in Iraq, and says Americans will have to accept what it calls a high-risk, high-cost strategy in order to reverse the country's slide into civil war. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Washington.

The report's author, Anthony Cordesman, a senior military and national security analyst with the center, is a former director of intelligence assessment for the secretary of defense.

Cordesman, who has made numerous trips to Iraq, says there is no doubt the conflict there has become a civil war, and there is a critical risk the violence will get much worse in the coming months.

Cordesman says while some progress has been made in the training of Iraqi security forces, they and the central government in Baghdad are still too weak to maintain control.

David Corn :

Cordesman to Bush Administration: "Stop Lying"
Once again, Anthony Cordesman--the hawkish military analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies--has accused the Bush administration of misleading the public about the harsh realities of Iraq. Every few months, he produces a report that socks it to the White House and the Pentagon. And he has new one out today.

Links from cursor.org. I previously reported on him here when writing about 600,000 additional dead Iraqis.

In other Iraq news - Iraq's oil production falling due to civil war? From the press conference in Jordan that was what Bush was really after - some things to salvage the oil deals. And David Corn reports the Baker report is going to adopt all the Democratic Iraq strategy, the one released to media silence last Spring.

Do-Nothing Congress becomes Dump, Squawk and Run Lame Ducks

Quack Quack!

Mitt "I'm all for cutting illegal immigration but leave my gardeners alone" Romney

Classic. The hard-talking Republicans are taking advantage of the illegal immigrants they supposedly hate.

Lying BS from George Will

George Will wasted a column noting the exchange between new Senator Webb and President Bush. He then leaves out parts of the exchange to call Webb, and not Bush, rude. The exchange as reported in the Washington Post. As reported in The Hill. The comment from Bush that provoked the exchange is entirely omitted from Will's column as well as Sen. Webb's repeated use of Mr. President.

George Will, leaving off part of the exchange is inaccurate and unseemly and rude and misleading. Thats OK, to have you suddenly horrified of the example of the new conservative wave of Democrats you were touting two weeks ago might be worth it. My only regret is too bad Webb is so polite. If Webb had taken a swing at the President he would now be leading in the 2008 Democratic Presidential polls.

Why does Rep. Barton hate autistic kids?

One of the major defeats in Texas in November was "Smoking Joe" Barton remaining in Congress. Rep. Barton held up a widely popular bill expanding research into autism trying to bargain releasing it only with his pet project of limiting funding for the National Institute for Health. Dirty, anti-environment and backwoods strange he is a character Texas doesn't need. Fortunately with Barton no longer in charge of the subcommittee his holding the autism bill for ransom is over.

Maliki dinner-date snub rubs salt in Prez wounds

The New York Daily News is increasing its circulation by not being afraid to call out BS.

"You never postpone something like this at the last minute unless somebody's ripped," said a former top Bush aide, "and it's probably Maliki."

He could hardly be blamed after the blockbuster leak of a classified White House memorandum that amounts to a rousing no-confidence declaration by the Bush government.

The NYT was also willing to say

Still, tensions seemed to bubble just under the surface. The two leaders barely looked at one another during the news conference. And when Mr. Bush, at one point, asked the prime minister if he wanted to continue taking questions from reporters, the prime minister swiveled his head toward the president and shot Mr. Bush an incredulous look.

Froomkin points out another popular "No BS" journalist is Jack Cafferty on CNN:

The administration has little confidence in al-Maliki. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley calling him a strong leader, but said he's having trouble figuring out how to do his job.

His job?

He has no job. He doesn't govern anything. Iraq is in the throes of an escalating civil war and the elected government there is powerless to do anything about it. The power in Iraq is in the hands of the militias.

Froomkin: Failure to call out BS the major problem with the media

What is it about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that makes them so refreshing and attractive to a wide variety of viewers (including those so-important younger ones)? I would argue that, more than anything else, it is that they enthusiastically call bullshit.

Calling bullshit, of course, used to be central to journalism as well as to comedy. And we happen to be in a period in our history in which the substance in question is running particularly deep. The relentless spinning is enough to make anyone dizzy, and some of our most important political battles are about competing views of reality more than they are about policy choices. Calling bullshit has never been more vital to our democracy.

It also resonates with readers and viewers a lot more than passionless stenography. I’m convinced that my enthusiasm for calling bullshit is the main reason for the considerable success of my White House Briefing column, which has turned into a significant traffic-driver for The Washington Post’s Web site.

Study: Psychotics more likely to support Bush

Nice to have a study confirming what is obvious. Let us take a sample of some right-wing bloggers and see if medication alone can handle their problems in facing reality or if stronger measures are waranted.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

I can't believe it, NSA Head Hadley is worse than Condi Rice

Writes a memo dissing the Iraqi PM and has no clue about Iraq. Did al-Maliki blow off Bush because of the Hadley memo or because he just lost his governing majority for preparing to meet with him?

More interesting times bad dreams:

I had a dream last night. While Cheney was visiting the House of Saud he suffered a stroke and went into a coma. As an aide was rushing up to tell Bush in Jordan someone in al-Maliki's party blew them all up.

Hello President Hastert.

Who would be approved as VP? McCain? Lieberman? Frist? Allen? Gingrich?

We live in interesting times, as the Chinese say.

RIAA and US force Russia to stop cheap music downloads

Allofmp3.com has denied charges of piracy by pointing out that the company is compliant with Russian copyright law. It says it is careful to pay royalties to artists via the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, which claims to represent copyright holders.

Russia has agreed to shut down Allofmp3.com and other music sites based in that country that the U.S. government says are offering downloads illegally.

The nation has struck the agreement with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as it seeks entry to the World Trade Organization. The U.S. has suggested [threatened] that it would hold up Russia's acceptance in the WTO unless leaders there took action against digital piracy.

I downloaded my last Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny - "The Government Totally Sucks" for about 9 cents.

Now, I have $0.0525 left in my account which should be enough for a relatively low quality version of Neil Diamond's Cherry, Cherry but for some reason it won't let me get below 7 cents for that song. Is there some kind of conversion cost with a one song order?

OK, continued searching brought me to "How to handle a disaster" from the Broadway play "How to succeed in business without really trying." That will cost me 4 to 5 cents depending on format and quality - CD quality for a nickel. One megabit - five cents OK. I'll let them fight over the unused quarter cent I'll leave them with Putin and the RIAA.

I could have gotten instead The Pirate Dance from the same play for a nickel but only under Microsoft's lowest 50% quality WMA format. What a bunch of pirates - no way.

Maybe I should have been looking for the Beatles or the Beach Boys instead for my last Russian download. If you could get only two more downloads what would you pick? What should I be looking for now for totally free downloads instead?

AllofMP3.com was a high-quality excellent site I highly recommended.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

More on the lying fantasies of right-wing bloggers and pundits

One - anti-union attacks on Pelosi misfire. As an employer you are forbidden to encourage your workers to unionize and her vineyards pays better wages than union ones.

Two - AP accused by right-wing bloggers of making up a story on six Sunni worshippers being set on fire by Shiite militia. "AP wants terrorists to win" accusations thrown by some of the biggest and supposed most respected right-wing blogs. AP goes back and reconfirms the story. Should Powerline and Michelle Malkin commit harikari over their loss of face? Of course not, they are laughing all the way to the bank.

Then the Prager story and the Imam story and all the other Nancy Pelosi stories. I thought when they lost it might snap some sense into them, not make them more hysterical.

When will their hysterical fantasies be over? It looks like not any time soon as former Science Fiction great and now Right-Wing political hack Orson Scott Card releases a novel for a multi-media franchise on the Red-State / Blue-State Civil War. The liberal elite from universities in Blue States kill the Prez and VP and stage a coup with the help of Arab terrorists while gallant Christian men and their DINO wives struggle to keep the nation from falling apart or coming under the dominion of the scientifically advanced secular fiends. Beyond satire, beyond irony, almost beyond belief, but not beyond shameless hypocrisy. The dialogue is hysterically funny - think right-wing blog talk and Ralph Peters and Sgt. Fury - Agent of Shield. Despite all this, OSC knows how to tell a story based on the excerpt.

Speaking of irony, Robert sent me this from the NYT:

"Among the concerns voiced in the memo was that Mr. Maliki was surrounded by a small group of advisers from the Shiite Dawa Party, a narrow circle that American officials worry may skew the information he receives."
***
thank god our own executive branch doesn't suffer from that problem!

Dennis Prager - Bigoted Ignorant Tool

Dennis Prager shows he knows nothing of the Constitution or history when he writes a Muslim must take the oath of office on a Bible. I'll let Carpetbagger speak for me:

Prager's commentary is wrong, sloppy, dishonest, bigoted, and embarrassing. And yet, some right-wing groups, including the Eagle Forum, were so impressed with it, they sent it to their membership via email yesterday.

Of course, Stop the ACLU doesn't know its history or the Constitution either while disagreeing mildly with Prager.

Nearly all of the right-wing bloggers also went hysterical on this story of the 6 Imams removed from a plane. Note that it is from the right propaganda paper the Washington (Moonie) Times. It has no statements from anyone on the record and is all wild hysteria and speculation. That was perfect for the xenophobe bigot blogs.

The truth is the Imams were religious leaders. They prayed as their religion requires them to do. Hysterical passengers overreacted. The Imams went to their preassigned seats on their tickets. They asked one passenger if they could switch seats because one of the Imams was blind. Two of the Imams were fat so they asked for seat belt extenders which the steward agreed and gave them. During the long, long wait the head Imam went to talk to the others. After their release from being hand-cuffed and after over five hours of interrogation, US Airways denied them passage on any of its other flights and refused to help them obtain tickets through another airline. Amy Goodman had the real story.

I hope they sue US Airways for a few million.

Bigoted, ignorant scared-to-death fools - the Republican Party base now. Bigoted, ignorant tools - the Republican Party spokesmen now. Stupid airlines going bankrupt - the price for ignorance and hysteria now.

So how is that booming Texas economy?

Jim forwarded me this from a friend:

Yesterday I got real bitchy, because TXU, the fascist regime that they are, turned off my electricity again. I had mailed the check, but because of the holiday they didn't get it in time. So a couple of hundred phone calls later, I got it turned back on, with all the fees and whatnot added in. Plus the fee to cancel the check that I had mailed. Whatever. It still upset me and made me stressed out.

But what hit me later was the fact that I was stressing harder than I needed to because of my little house guest. Ashley, sweet, sweet, dear Ashley, Ravenne's best buddy in the whole world, is staying with me this week. Her father and her two brothers are staying at a hotel. In the last six months that man has had to endure more than most people do in a lifetime.

Edward is a nice man, a good father, a single father, to two rambunctious boys and Ashley. He had a good job working for the school district and had just bought a house and a used mini van. One day he collapsed after having suffered from migraines for a few weeks. His children called 911, and he was rushed to the hospital with a near fatal case of spinal meningitis. He was in a coma for 3 days and in the hospital for about a month. During that time, he lost his job. Then he lost the car. And then the house. They had to move into a really rough apartment complex that he could barely afford, and he started working nights at the grocery store, leaving his 3 kids alone overnight. But his strength wasn't back yet and between walking to and from work and the overnight job, he couldn't manage, and quickly lost that job. Then he went to work as a manager at Jack in a Box. But they couldn't work around his having to walk his kids to school, so he lost that as well.

Now the crappy apartment complex that they were living in was just bought by another company and they have decided to raise the rent in the middle of every one's leases and if you can't afford it, then they are evicting everyone. Right now, as I said, Ashley is staying with me, her dad is unemployed and not able to get a job because he is too busy walking over 20 miles a day to get her brothers to school and to meet with charity organizations to try and find some help for their family. I have done as much as I can, but he doesn't like asking for help, so I never know if I'm doing enough.

All I'm saying is that with the holidays coming up, and Ashleys birthday in about 2 weeks, this guy has got to be losing it. But he's cheerful, tries to stay positive and is fighting for his children with an amazing tireless strength. I gave him a ride today, and he apologised the entire time. I told him that there have been times when I was in a bad way, and if I didn't have my family, my friends, people that stepped up and helped me, then I wouldn't have made it. And I know those people would want me to help someone else if I could.

So my little day of a few hours with no electricity seems rather silly now. It's back on, I still have a roof over my head, and my kids still have a home. Not such a big deal really when you think about it.

I'll add to that story two more anecdotes. I just returned from getting a part-time job at a community college for $7.40 an hour, the only "benefit" is you are in their retirement annuity system instead of Social Security. Unless you are an upper income employee and stay a long time this is actually a "disability" instead of a "benefit."

Pat is also applying for temporary Christmas job at $7.50 an hour tomorrow - "We will work you 12 to 16 hours a day for 10 days with no overtime."

Once many people get a good job with benefits they start voting Republican because of the one constant Republican promise - we won't tax you as much. They overlook that the richer friends of Republicans are getting better deals and they don't care what government services and regulations are cut. The best a good Democrat can say is that if you are an average citizen your taxes may go down because we will make sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes and we will attempt to help the less fortunate and prevent the most blatant unfair labor and health practices. Some DINOs won't promise that much. Who you vote for, how you vote, affects a lot of people.

New Senator wanted to slug Bush already

Expect to see the first Democratic member of Congress who actually slugs W to jump to the lead in Democratic presidential polls.

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

“I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing,” Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but of course didn’t. It’s safe to say, however, that Bush and Webb won’t be taking any overseas trips together anytime soon.

Iran war games: Clear message to neighboring states - don't support an attack

First Saratoga Audit Test Finds Errors

Stupid bad test, but the results were wrong.

Perry's Unethical Texas Ethics Panel

The stupid cronies of Perry's have refused to see reason and continue to say gifts to candidates or public officials need no real description. "Check" is good no matter the amount. "A wheelbarrow" is sufficient rather it is empty or gold plated or filled with a few million in cut diamonds. "Currency" or "cash" can be used for all cash contributions.

The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who unabashedly accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws.

"What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.

Charles Stross - A dirty killing and a clear warning

Whoever killed Putin critic Litvinenko in London demonstrated they have access to current restricted nuclear materials. If they wanted to that could have been a dirty bomb in London. One particle 1/100th the size of a period on this page will kill if inhaled. The suspects are Putin or a rogue intelligence operation in Russia. Litvinenko is a former Russian intelligence agent who has been telling of Russia's nasty dirty tricks and other nasty things involving the increasingly dictatorial Vladimir Putin.

Bush might need to go back to Moscow and relook Putin in the eye to recheck his soul.

Cheney didn't plan to consult with the House of Saud

They summoned him. Buried in the Washington Post article about the chaotic breakdown and no plans for Iraq you learn the real President was summoned by the real masters.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

UPDATE - Peace Sign in Christmas Display - Satanic or Anti-Bush?

A story about a stupid homeowner's association and it's freaky President. After recieving some complaints about a home that had put up a Christmas display that included a wreath in the shape of a peace symbol the President of the home owners association referred it to the control committee. After the committee saw nothing wrong with the display he fired all five members and sent the resident a cease and desist order and threatens a $25 a day fine. Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs is a real character - also calling the peace symbol a sign of Satan. Bob Kearns also said Wednesday that he had required another resident to remove peace symbols a week before, and that property owner complied.

"I just wanted to put a message of peace out there," said Lisa Jensen, who hung the wreath Nov. 19. She said Wednesday she didn't intend the wreath as a statement against the Iraq war.

"I was really trying to be in favor of something - peace," Jensen said.

More here - which also indicates the board is not enforcing the restriction they have cited in numerous other instances.

UPDATE: The President of the homeowner's association surenders to peace. Peace wreath can stay. Spreading bad publicity forced him to get an unlisted number. Offers poured in to Lisa Jensen to pay the fines. Kearns and two board members who supported him resign. Residents in town held a march and stamped out a giant peace symbol in the snow in the soccer field.

OnlinePhoneBanking.com for Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23):: Contact Collaborate Unite

You can support Texas Democrats from where you are right now.

Just pick up the phone and try it out.

Houston Chronicle Runs Anti-Union Lobbyist Letter to the Editor

Rick Berman is a nasty man and a liar. He was a corporate lawyer for large corporations until he found he could make a great living setting up front groups to be nasty for companies and lie for them. Those that paid his million dollar fees.

One of the companies that paid him was Uniroyal, the company that produced Alar(tm), a pesticide used on apples. It was generating a lot of bad PR because scientists said it caused cancer. Through one of his front groups, then the Guest Choice Network (currently the Center for Consumer Freedom), Berman published a newsletter that minimized the risks of Alar to children. In the newsletter it stated, "According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one would have to eat 50,000 pounds of apples a day over a lifetime to contract cancer from Alar." EPA spokeswoman Denise Kearns responded: "To my knowledge, EPA never issued that kind of statement." Later Berman was forced to admit that the source of his information was Uniroyal and not the EPA. Alar was later banned due to cancer risks as scientists warned. Information from SourceWatch and more here and here.

Recently he started a new group to go after unions. He won't reveal who is funded this "Center For Union Facts" though Wal-Mart or people connected to it are suspected. It may include very rich conservatives that hate unions and the support they give to regular workers and progressive causes. It may include some anti-union restaurant groups. Wal-Mart has admitted to a close relationship with the group but denies the company is funding it. Wal-Mart is not required to reveal its financial support. The recent activities of CFUF have been general union bashing though advertisements and PR work. The ads resemble the worst of bad political campaign smears but I already said that Berman and his groups are nasty and liars.

Bret Jacobson, senior research analyst at the Center for Union Facts and one of their few employees, has been functioning as a PR spokesperson. He told Cybercast News Service he viewed a new alliance between the United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club as a sign of desperation for both groups. He also took the occasion to repeatedly bash the USW to the extreme conservative news group and its readers.

Upon the settlement of the Houston janitor's strike the Houston Chronicle printed a Letter to the Editor from Bret Jacobson. The letter was a generalized smear of the SEIU and the settlement it won for the workers and revealed little knowledge of the facts. The strike only last a few weeks and the members were not required to strike if it created hardships. Despite this Jacobson, or his boss, claims that "it will take a long time for the 1,700 striking janitors to earn enough in their slightly higher salaries to make up for missing weeks worth of pay." A quick calculation reveals that workers who struck will win back all the lost wages in a very few months while the wages go up for three years with annual large percentage increases and the settlement also includes many other benefits. Many of the workers were only working 4 hours a night for $5.15 an hour. The additional hours and the wage increase mean that janitors who make $5.15 an hour will see their income more than double by the end of 2008.

I am surprised that the Houston Chronicle accept a non-local letter from a professional paid to write lies and nasty smears. Do you think the Chronicle should be told that is outrageous?

Thanks, MoveOn

Introduction to a Real Centrist Agenda

Wage Standards and Workplace Freedom
Balancing Work and Family
Health Care for All
Smart Growth and Clean Jobs
Tax and Budget Reform
Clean and Fair Elections

One small demographic, what Pew calls "Enterprisers" who make up just 9% of the population, are the ONLY group whose members generally oppose raising the minimum wage, the ONLY group which opposes guaranteed health care, the ONLY group that thinks outsourcing is good for the economy, and the ONLY group whose members generally think environmental regulations are not worth the costs.

What is startling is that this last small voting group, just 9% of the population, in combination with the corporate-backed rightwing apparatus, has been the tail wagging not only national and state politics but driving many policies with which even the majority of the Republican base disagrees.