Patterns2

2010-01-21T21:40:00.000-08:00

Supreme Court's ruling on corporate campaign spending

The Future is Here

Sci fi has reached us. The future is here.

1984....The Bush (43) years

Soylent green....Steam shovels in Haiti (unfortunately)

Fahrenheit 451....TV Walls (Published 1953)

Rollerball: Today's Supreme Court ruling on corporate campaign spending:
"In the film, the world of 2018 is a global corporate state, containing entities such as the Energy Corporation, a global energy monopoly based in Houston which deals with nominally-peer corporations controlling access to all Transport, Luxury, Housing, Communication, and Food on a global basis." From Wiki

Quotes from Rollerball:
"Jonathan E.: What do you know about the corporate wars?
Cletus: Oh, they were naaaasty... Woooh.

Bartholomew: Corporate society takes care of everything. And all it asks of anyone, all it's ever asked of anyone ever, is not to interfere with management decisions. From IMDB

"P.A. Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, will you stand please for the playing of our Corporate Hymn"

Who will be the next Jonathan E.?

2009-09-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

Braille Note and Jaws
Part 3

2009-04-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Obama has fired the CEO of GM
Michael Moore comments

Friends,

Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors -- a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else -- "You're fired!"

I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"

This bold move has sent the heads of corporate America spinning and spewing pea soup. Obama has issued this edict: The government of, by, and for the people is in charge here, not big business. John McCain got it. On the floor of the Senate he asked, "What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" Senator Bob Corker said it "should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise." The stock market plunged as the masters of the universe asked themselves, "Am I next?" And they whispered to each other, "What are we going to do about this Obama?"

Not much, fellows. He has the massive will of the American people behind him -- and he has been granted permission by us to do what he sees fit. If you liked this week's all-net 3-pointer, stay tuned.

I write this letter to you in memory of the hundreds of thousands of workers over the past 25+ years who have been tossed into the trash heap by General Motors. Many saw their lives ruined for good. They turned to alcohol or drugs, their marriages fell apart, some took their own lives. Most moved on, moved out, moved over, moved away. They ended up working two jobs for half the pay they were getting at GM. And they cursed the CEO of GM for bringing ruin to their lives.

Not one of them ever thought that one day they would witness the CEO receive the same treatment. Of course Chairman Wagoner will not have to sign up for food stamps or be evicted from his home or tell his kids they'll be going to the community college, not the university. Instead, he will get a $23 million golden parachute. But the slip in his hands is still pink, just like the hundreds of thousands that others received -- except his was issued by us, via the Obama-man. Here's the door, buster. See ya. Don't wanna be ya.

I began my day today in Washington, D.C. I went to the U.S. Senate and got into their Finance Committee's hearing on the Wall Street bailout. The overseers wanted to know how the banks spent the money. And many of these banks won't tell them. They've taken trillions and nobody knows where the money went. It certainly didn't go to create jobs, relieve mortgage holders, or free up loans that people need. It was so shocking to listen to this, I had to leave before it was over. But it gave me an idea for the movie I was shooting.

Later, I stopped by the National Archives to stand in line to see the original copy of our Constitution. I thought about how twenty years ago this month I was just down the street finishing my first film, a personal plea to warn the nation about GM and the deadly economy it ruled. On that March day in 1989 I was broke, having collected the last of my unemployment checks, relying on help from my friends (Bob and Siri would take me out to dinner and always pick up the check, the assistant manager at the movie theater would sneak me in so I could watch an occasional movie, Laurie and Jack bought an old Steenbeck (editing) machine for me, John Richard would slip me an unused plane ticket so I could go home for Christmas, Rod would do anything for me and drive to Flint whenever I needed something for the film). My late mother (she would've turned 88 tomorrow if she were still with us) and my GM autoworker dad told me in the kitchen they wanted to help and handed me a check for an astounding thousand dollars. I didn't know they even had a thousand dollars. I refused it, they insisted I take it -- "No!" -- and then, in that parental voice, told me I was to cash it so I could finish my movie. I did. And I did.

So on that March day in 1989, as I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue, my 9-year-old car just died. I coasted over to the curb, put my head down on the steering wheel and started to cry. I had no money to take it in to be repaired, and I certainly had nothing to pay the tow truck driver. So I got out, screwed the license plates off so I wouldn't be fined, turned my back and just left it there for good. I looked over at the building next to me. It said "National Archives." What better place to donate my dead car, I thought, as I walked the rest of the way home.

Though it wasn't easy for me, I still never had to suffer what so many of my friends and neighbors went through, thanks to General Motors and an economic system rigged against them. I wonder what they must have all thought when they woke up this Monday morning to read in the Detroit News or the Detroit Free Press the headlines that Obama had fired the CEO of GM. Oh -- wait a minute. They couldn't read that. There was no Free Press or News. Monday was the day that both papers ended home delivery. It was cancelled (as it will be for four days every week) because the daily newspapers, like General Motors, like Detroit, are broke.

I await the President's next superhero move.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
(Go State!)

P.S. Please know that it has not been lost on any of us from the Rust Belt how our corporate bigwigs were treated (remember, the auto companies wanted a loan, not a handout) compared to how the titans of Wall Street got trillions of free cash, lunch at the White House and a photo op with the Prez. Trust me, we get it. And, if there is a God in heaven, the thieves of Wall Street will soon pay. Also... the sight of our president having to promise that he would back every GM warranty and give consumers a bonus if they trade in their old Grand Am for a hybrid, was alternately sad, hilarious, and just plain weird. This is what it's come to: the Commander in Chief of the Free World is now Mr. Goodwrench. Jeesh.

E-mail from Michael Moore, 4/1/2009

2009-03-07T21:54:00.000-08:00

Food Recall Widget
Including peanuts

FDA Product Recall List

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph/widget.html

2009-01-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

8 Years of BushCo in 8 Minutes
Keith Olbermann Still Speaks for Me

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2008-12-22T22:49:00.000-08:00

The Economic Downturn Hits the Rich Hard
Tough Times for Them

It's breaking my heart, I tell ya. The folks in both Palm Beach, FL and The Hamptons, NY are being hit hard by the financial downturn. One former Lehman Bros. VP is forced to put his second mansion in tony Bridgehampton up for sale. And it's SUCH a BAD time to do that don't ya know.

Asking price: $32.5 million.

Luxury downturn hits U.S. beaver trappers

"Nobody's buying right now," he said.

Renfro, 46, is the first cog in the many-layered, $15 billion global fur industry, one that is caught in the steel jaws of the global economic downturn.

Thirty years ago, when he started trapping, a beaver pelt would fetch $50. Last year, prices fell to about $12 a pelt."

http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSTRE4BG04C20081217

*REAL people wear FAKE fur, always*

2008-09-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

McCain and Gramm

We're whiners & the economy's sound

2008-09-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Robert Reich's Vetting vs Sarah Palin's

She wasn't vetted at all

Vetting

Having been through the process of “vetting” prospective cabinet members, I can tell you it’s time-consuming, detailed, and thorough. I’d like to think the vetting of a vice presidential nominee would be more so – especially one whose odds of becoming president, should she be elected, are somewhat higher than that of the normal vice president.

Sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton’s “vetting” team asked me and other prospective cabinet members for (1) our tax returns, going back at least five years, (2) our bank records, (3) a detailed listing of our assets, (4) the names and places of everywhere we had lived, and the names and phone numbers of neighbors whom they could call about us, (5) a description of every job we had ever had, every client we had ever served, and the names of employers and clients with whom they could check, (6) the names of our family members, their ages, their occupations (if any), (7) a description of any civil or criminal investigations or prosecutions in which we had been involved (8) and – perhaps most importantly – “anything we should ask you about, the answer to which might cause you or the administration any embarrassment.”

It didn’t stop there. Investigators checked our answers, interviewed our friends and neighbors and former employers, asked for more records if uncertain. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation did their own background checks. Staff members of the relevant congressional committees, representing both parties, looked over the files and added questions of their own.

It didn’t even stop there. I recall two large, three-ring black binders containing passages from books and articles I had written that might prove troubling to some of the Senators. My vetting team suggested I be prepared to answer questions about them.

The process took well over a month, not including the Senate confirmation hearing. I don’t recall doing anything during that interval except responding to questions from the vetting team, the FBI, and oversight committee staffers, both Republican and Democrat.

Do you believe Sarah Palin was put through anything remotely like this before John McCain decided she would be his vice presidential candidate, and possible President of the United States?

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

2008-09-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

You Should Vote Republican if You Believe the Following:

By Bob Kendall
09/01/2008 06:55:52 PM EST

We should all be proud of going to war in Iraq on the basis of lies and distortion.
We should not worry a second about the skyrocketing national debt, which is greater than all the national debts combined since the U.S. was founded 232 years ago.
The best reason for having children in the U.S.A. now is because they can be saddled with paying off the bill (our national debt) that Republican hero George Bush has gifted us with.
You should demand that Bush speak at your convention so he can glibly explain how he achieved this monumental debt.

If you enjoy watching wars on TV -- pleased consider that Iran may be next on the busy Republican war agenda.
If you want to avoid socialism vote Republican. Bush tried valiantly to privatize Social Security to give Wall Street a break. Maybe McCain will be lucky as Wall Street investors lead the way.
If you would like to help China, India, the Philippines or even Bangladesh we could go right on transferring our jobs overseas. This could advance stock market revenue because labor costs are cheaper overseas, without all that environmental and safety silliness.

These are the seven lucky reasons to be a family values Republican voter this time around. We must also add that you'll get a woman vice-president thrown in, a really tough babe, a hunter who appreciates a good family moose meal, especially one she killed and cooked!

http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2008/9/1/185552/4709

2008-08-31T17:05:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore*

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

Dear God,

The other night, the Rev. James Dobson's ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be cancelled.

I see that You have answered Rev. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention.

Now, heavenly Father, we all know You have a great sense of humor and impeccable timing. To send a hurricane on the third anniversary of the Katrina disaster AND right at the beginning of the Republican Convention was, at first blush, a stroke of divine irony. I don't blame You, I know You're angry that the Republicans tried to blame YOU for Katrina by calling it an "Act of God" -- when the truth was that the hurricane itself caused few casualties in New Orleans. Over a thousand people died because of the mistakes and neglect caused by humans, not You.

Some of us tried to help after Katrina hit, while Bush ate cake with McCain and twiddled his thumbs. I closed my office in New York and sent my entire staff down to New Orleans to help. I asked people on my website to contribute to the relief effort I organized -- and I ended up sending over two million dollars in donations, food, water, and supplies (collected from thousands of fans) to New Orleans while Bush's FEMA ice trucks were still driving around Maine three weeks later.

But this past Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that the Republicans had begun making plans to possibly postpone the convention. The AP had reported that there were no shelters set up in New Orleans for this storm, and that the levee repairs have not been adequate. In other words, as the great Ronald Reagan would say, "There you go again!"

So the last thing John McCain and the Republicans needed was to have a split-screen on TVs across America: one side with Bush and McCain partying in St. Paul, and on the other side of the screen, live footage of their Republican administration screwing up once again while New Orleans drowns.

So, yes, You have scared the Jesus, Mary and Joseph out of them, and more than a few million of your followers tip their hats to You.

But now it appears that You haven't been having just a little fun with Bush & Co. It appears that Hurricane Gustav is truly heading to New Orleans and the Gulf coast. We hear You, O Lord, loud and clear, just as we did when Rev. Falwell said You made 9/11 happen because of all those gays and abortions. We beseech You, O Merciful One, not to punish us again as Pat Robertson said You did by giving us Katrina because of America's "wholesale slaughter of unborn children." His sentiments were echoed by other Republicans in 2005.

So this is my plea to you: Don't do this to Louisiana again. The Republicans got your message. They are scrambling and doing the best they can to get planes, trains and buses to New Orleans so that everyone can get out. They haven't sent the entire Louisiana National Guard to Iraq this time -- they are already patrolling the city streets. And, in a nod to I don't know what, Bush's head of FEMA has named a man to help manage the federal government's response. His name is W. Michael Moore. I kid you not, heavenly Father. They have sent a man with both my name AND W's to help save the Gulf Coast.

So please God, let the storm die out at sea. It's done enough damage already. If you do this one favor for me, I promise not to invoke your name again. I'll leave that to the followers of Rev. Dobson and to those gathering this week in St. Paul.

Your faithful servant and former seminarian,

Michael Moore

P.S. To all of God's fellow children who are reading this, the city New Orleans has not yet recovered from Katrina. Please click here for a list of things you can do to help our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast. And, if you do live along the Gulf Coast, please take all necessary safety precautions immediately.

* E-mail received 8/31/08

2008-07-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Food safety: Priority for Next President
Seems like the least he can do for his people is keep them alive

Texas Department of State Health Services
NEWS RELEASE
July 17, 2008

Non-Outbreak Salmonella Detection Prompts Recall

A South Texas produce importer/distributor is voluntarily recalling avocados, serrano peppers and jalapeno peppers after laboratory tests by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) laboratory and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services lab found salmonella in samples of those products from the company.

But DSHS officials said the salmonella strain found in serranos and jalapenos tested by DSHS is not the strain responsible for the nationwide outbreak of salmonellosis over the past two months.

The outbreak strain is salmonella, group B, type saintpaul. The salmonella detected in the peppers DSHS tested is salmonella, group C1. The North Carolina lab found salmonella in avocados and jalapenos, but results of tests to identify the group and type are pending.

DSHS and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are overseeing the recall being done by Grande Produce, Hidalgo.

The detections were made in ongoing efforts to find the source of the salmonella causing the national outbreak. The DSHS lab has tested some 70 food products for salmonella in recent weeks. The only two found to be contaminated were the serranos and jalapenos from Grande.

DSHS and FDA are working to identify where the avocados, serranos and jalapenos from Grande were shipped and where and how the recalled produce was contaminated. The company’s clients are being notified to pull the products.

Consumers and food services personnel are reminded to wash any fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly before eating or serving.

Officials said the findings and subsequent recall are limited to those specific products from Grande Produce. At this point, they do not apply to all avocados, serranos and jalapenos on the market, to products from any other distributor or to Texas-grown produce in general.

-30-

2008-06-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

"McCain Proposes a $300 Million Prize for a Next-Generation Car Battery"

The stupidest idea to date!
This falls into hair brained schemes!

FRESNO, Calif. — In the 18th century the British offered a £20,000 prize to anyone who figured out how to calculate longitude. More recently, Netflix offered a million dollars for improving movie recommendations on its Web site. Now Senator John McCain is suggesting a new national prize: He said here Monday that if elected president he would offer $300 million to anyone who could build a better car battery.

The high cost of gasoline — a gallon of regular was selling for $4.65 at a gas station near California State University, Fresno, where Mr. McCain spoke — has made energy policy a big issue in this year’s presidential campaign, and barely a day has passed recently without one of the candidates weighing in with new energy policies, proposals and attacks on opponents.

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, alienated some environmentalists last week during a speech in Houston when he dropped his opposition to allowing offshore drilling for oil; this week, in a swing through California, he spoke about trying to wean the nation from its dependence on oil. He called for improving the enforcement of fuel economy standards, building more cars that could run on alternative fuels, dropping the tariff on imports of sugar-based ethanol from Brazil and offering big tax credits for nonpolluting cars.

“I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people,” Mr. McCain said, “by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.”

He said the winner should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs. “That’s one dollar, one dollar, for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency,” he said.

The Obama campaign countered by noting that Mr. McCain had voted against improving fuel efficiency standards in the Senate. Jason Furman, the Obama campaign’s economic policy director, said in a conference call that Mr. McCain had been focused on “meaningful relief for oil companies that are struggling with record profits.”

In his speech in Fresno, Mr. McCain called for automakers to act more quickly to build so-called flex-fuel vehicles than can run on alternative fuel. He approvingly cited the example of Brazil, which he said had moved to building 70 percent of all new vehicles that way in just three years, and he issued a not-so-veiled threat to automakers.

“Whether it takes a meeting with automakers during my first month in office, or my signature on an act of Congress,” he said, “we will meet the goal of a swift conversion of American vehicles away from oil.”

And Mr. McCain emphasized one of his differences with Mr. Obama, without mentioning him by name, by restating his opposition to subsidies for corn-based ethanol, which Mr. Obama supports.

“As taxpayers, we foot the bill for the enormous subsidies paid to corn producers,” he said. “And as consumers, we pay extra at the pump because of government barriers to cheaper products from abroad.”

Mr. McCain, who spoke against corn-based ethanol when he ran for president in 2000, said this time around that he became a supporter of it when oil grew too expensive, but he has said he still opposes subsidies for ethanol.

While the McCain and Obama campaigns were sparring over energy, Mr. Obama was in Albuquerque, where he focused on the economy and working women, a critical constituency. He journeyed deep into the prosaic land of gut-level economics at the Flying Star Café Commissary, where talk of globalization and vertical economies yields to “how can I afford to make it through this week and the one after that?”

Speaking to a group of women, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, was offered a glimpse into one of the realities of the American economy: that wages for the working-class have lagged far behind those of upper-income Americans. Some of the women at the commissary, like Carrie Hummel, 28, told of holding down multiple jobs and still barely being able to find the money to pay for gas, much less for her health insurance. “You know, this life is pretty hard,” she said.

Ms. Hummel was followed by a woman who asked Mr. Obama if he would consider waiving taxes on tips, and another who asked about the cost of college tuition, which has risen at a rate far outstripping inflation.

Mr. Obama offered a variety of proposals, including requiring employers t0 provide seven paid sick days for all employees (he has not specified the size of the employer) and extending the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover any company with 25 or more employees (the act now applies to those with 50 or more employees).

He also criticized Mr. McCain over his opposition to legislative action to help bring wages of women up to those of men. The McCain campaign fired back, saying the legislation to do so would have been a boon to trial lawyers, who have supported Mr. Obama’s campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/politics/24campaign.html

2008-06-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Vonage Cancellation Numbers
So very hard to find!

It's unfortunate that Vonage makes it so hard and frustrating to cancel your account or port your number to another provider. This is documented throughout the internets. Just Google Vonage and customer care, etc. There are other reports that they "Can't do that".

Because a lot of folks often change carriers, Vonage has managed to delete themselves now from my ever returning to them due to the hassle. The original issue is that my ISP is not reliable. When the computer's down so is Vonage and one's left with neither computer nor "home" phone. Having a cell phone as a back up is very helpful.

Customer Care = 1- 866-243-4357 (1-VONAGE-HELP)
M - F 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern time

Cancellation Department = X - 55862 He didn't know the main number to call that goes with this extension.

Other numbers:
1 888 510-1820
Vonage UK 0808 168 1000

You talk with multiple people who keep repeating themselves. You need to have the following information available. Some of it's found in your online account

Phone number

Security number

Pin

Year service started

That you need to have changed to another provider, FIRST, which I'd already done. That stumped him.

You need to understand foreign accents.

The conversation ended with me laughing as I know what I have to do. I need to call during business hours and stop at the bank and close the account from which this is being debited.

2008-06-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Wallpaper
Peonies

2008-06-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

The FISA "Compromise" Big Brother, Again
Here are the Dems who voted for this sorry thing
Read 'em and weep

Aye AL-5 Cramer, Robert [D]
Aye AL-7 Davis, Artur [D]
Aye AR-1 Berry, Robert [D]
Aye AR-2 Snyder, Victor [D]
Aye AR-4 Ross, Mike [D]
Aye AZ-5 Mitchell, Harry [D]
Aye AZ-8 Giffords, Gabrielle [D]
Aye CA-10 Tauscher, Ellen [D]
Aye CA-11 McNerney, Jerry [D]
Aye CA-18 Cardoza, Dennis [D]
Aye CA-20 Costa, Jim [D]
Aye CA-27 Sherman, Brad [D]
Aye CA-28 Berman, Howard [D]
Aye CA-29 Schiff, Adam [D]
Aye CA-36 Harman, Jane [D]
Aye CA-37 Richardson, Laura [D]
Aye CA-43 Baca, Joe [D]
Aye CA-8 Pelosi, Nancy [D]
Aye CO-2 Udall, Mark [D]
Aye CO-3 Salazar, John [D]
Aye CO-7 Perlmutter, Ed [D]
Aye FL-11 Castor, Kathy [D]
Aye FL-16 Mahoney, Tim [D]
Aye FL-2 Boyd, F. [D]
Aye FL-22 Klein, Ron [D]
Aye FL-23 Hastings, Alcee [D]
Aye FL-3 Brown, Corrine [D]
Aye GA-12 Barrow, John [D]
Aye GA-13 Scott, David [D]
Aye GA-2 Bishop, Sanford [D]
Aye GA-8 Marshall, James [D]
Aye IA-3 Boswell, Leonard [D]
Aye IL-3 Lipinski, Daniel [D]
Aye IL-4 Gutierrez, Luis [D]
Aye IL-5 Emanuel, Rahm [D]
Aye IL-8 Bean, Melissa [D]
Aye IN-2 Donnelly, Joe [D]
Aye IN-8 Ellsworth, Brad [D]
Aye KS-2 Boyda, Nancy [D]
Aye KS-3 Moore, Dennis [D]
Aye KY-3 Yarmuth, John [D]
Aye KY-6 Chandler, Ben [D]
Aye LA-3 Melancon, Charles [D]
Aye LA-6 Cazayoux, Donald [D]
Aye MD-2 Ruppersberger, C.A. [D]
Aye MD-5 Hoyer, Steny [D]
Aye MI-1 Stupak, Bart [D]
Aye MI-5 Kildee, Dale [D]
Aye MN-7 Peterson, Collin [D]
Aye MO-4 Skelton, Ike [D]
Aye MO-5 Cleaver, Emanuel [D]
Aye MS-1 Childers, Travis [D]
Aye MS-2 Thompson, Bennie [D]
Aye MS-4 Taylor, Gene [D]
Aye NC-1 Butterfield, George [D]
Aye NC-11 Shuler, Heath [D]
Aye NC-2 Etheridge, Bob [D]
Aye NC-7 McIntyre, Mike [D]
Aye ND-0 Pomeroy, Earl [D]
Aye NJ-13 Sires, Albio [D]
Aye NV-1 Berkley, Shelley [D]
Aye NY-1 Bishop, Timothy [D]
Aye NY-17 Engel, Eliot [D]
Aye NY-18 Lowey, Nita [D]
Aye NY-20 Gillibrand, Kirsten [D]
Aye NY-24 Arcuri, Michael [D]
Aye NY-27 Higgins, Brian [D]
Aye NY-4 McCarthy, Carolyn [D]
Aye NY-5 Ackerman, Gary [D]
Aye NY-6 Meeks, Gregory [D]
Aye NY-7 Crowley, Joseph [D]
Aye OH-18 Space, Zackary [D]
Aye OH-6 Wilson, Charles [D]
Aye OK-2 Boren, Dan [D]
Aye PA-10 Carney, Christopher [D]
Aye PA-11 Kanjorski, Paul [D]
Aye PA-12 Murtha, John [D]
Aye PA-17 Holden, Tim [D]
Aye PA-4 Altmire, Jason [D]
Aye PA-7 Sestak, Joe [D]
Aye PA-8 Murphy, Patrick [D]
Aye RI-2 Langevin, James [D]
Aye SC-5 Spratt, John [D]
Aye SC-6 Clyburn, James [D]
Aye SD-0 Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie [D]
Aye TN-4 Davis, Lincoln [D]
Aye TN-5 Cooper, Jim [D]
Aye TN-6 Gordon, Barton [D]
Aye TN-8 Tanner, John [D]
Aye TX-15 Hinojosa, Rubén [D]
Aye TX-16 Reyes, Silvestre [D]
Aye TX-17 Edwards, Thomas [D]
Aye TX-22 Lampson, Nicholas [D]
Aye TX-23 Rodriguez, Ciro [D]
Aye TX-27 Ortiz, Solomon [D]
Aye TX-28 Cuellar, Henry [D]
Aye TX-29 Green, Raymond [D]
Aye TX-9 Green, Al [D]
Aye UT-2 Matheson, Jim [D]
Aye VA-9 Boucher, Frederick [D]
Aye WA-3 Baird, Brian [D]
Aye WA-6 Dicks, Norman [D]
Aye WA-9 Smith, Adam [D]
Aye WI-3 Kind, Ronald [D]
Aye WV-3 Rahall, Nick [D]

2008-06-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, the real reason for the war in Iraq

"Big Oil Firms Ready to Sign Agreements With Iraq

Two-Year, No-Bid Contracts Aimed at Boosting Production"

By Ernesto Londoño and Simone Baribeau

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 20, 2008; Page A12

BAGHDAD, June 19 -- Iraq is preparing to award contracts to several Western energy companies to help develop its vast oil resources, allowing them to consolidate their positions in a country that has seemed less threatening in recent months as security has improved.

The two-year, no-bid contracts will be awarded to companies that have been advising the Iraqi Oil Ministry in recent years, said Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the ministry. He said officials expect that U.S.-based Exxon Mobil and Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total and British oil company BP will secure the biggest contracts.

"We have had discussions since last year" regarding deals that would formalize the advisory role some of them are already playing, Jihad said. "The discussions have now ended."

The contracts will be presented to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet for approval in coming days and could be announced by the end of the month, Jihad said. He added that more than 30 contracts will be signed but declined to describe their scope or provide other details.

He said the Iraqi government informed oil companies several months ago of its needs. Subsequent negotiations led to the contracts, which would allow the government to step up efforts to increase production while legislation setting guidelines for foreign investment in the oil sector remains deadlocked in parliament.

The contracts would expand relationships between the Iraqi government and the energy giants, which have eyed the country's oil fields with interest and apprehension since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Some companies have been working with the ministry under memorandums of understanding.

While the contracts would limit the companies' role to infrastructure refurbishment and technical support, the agreements would also position the firms for future deals in Iraq that could include exploration and drilling.

The impending signing of the contracts, which was reported in the New York Times on Thursday, comes as members of Iraq's parliament remain at loggerheads over legislation to regulate the country's oil reserves.

Iraq's largest oil fields are in the heavily Shiite south and predominantly Kurdish areas in the north. Parliament members and leaders have argued over whether oil revenue should be distributed evenly across the country or whether oil-rich provinces should be entitled to a larger share.

They also have squabbled over the role foreign companies should play in Iraq, particularly whether they should be given licenses to drill.

A higher-profile role for Western companies in Iraq's oil industry is likely to revive speculation that the Iraq war was motivated by a desire to tap into reserves that were controlled by foreigners until the 1960s, when the industry was nationalized. The belief is widespread in the Arab world.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday said the U.S. government played no role in securing the deals. She called the impending contracts a sign that security gains are attracting foreign investment in Iraq.

"It demonstrates that the private sector is beginning to get interested in Iraq, that it recognizes the tremendous potential for Iraq to become an even more major oil supplier," Rice told Fox News. "That's really a good sign, and it will be a good sign if Iraq can increase its oil production, because of course the supply and demand of oil is a major concern to all of us."

Iraq's oil reserves are among the largest in the world, but years of economic sanctions, war and political turmoil have taken a toll on the industry. During the first few months of this year, output reached 2 million barrels a day. Hussein al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, told parliament this year that output could more than double within five years.

Officials at some of the oil companies that are expected to sign contracts issued muted statements.

A spokeswoman for Exxon Mobil, regarded as one of the most risk-adverse players in the industry, said the company would be interested in working in Iraq.

Toby Odone, a BP spokesman, said the company has been providing technical assistance to Iraq for years and is formalizing its role in the country.

Shell spokesman Adam Newton said that the company is negotiating "service agreements" with the Iraqi Oil Ministry but that the details are confidential.

Total spokesman Kevin Church confirmed that the company is discussing its future role in West Qurna, one of Iraq's largest oil fields in the south.

Large energy companies have in recent years lost ground in oil-rich countries such as Russia and Venezuela, as governments have tightened their control over the industry.

Manouchehr Takin, a senior analyst at the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies, said the names of the companies negotiating contracts is not surprising.

"They're the big international companies," he said. "They're qualified and experienced."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061903232.html

It wasn't Sadam nor democracy nor WMD's. It was oil all along. Reminds me of the film, "Mad Max".

There was a long time early on in this administration when we neither saw nor heard from Cheney. I suspected then that he was carefully mapping out Iraq for oil and cutting the slices just a little thicker for his buddies.

2008-06-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

The Underlying Cause of the Gas Chaos
Keith Olbermann Speaks to It

It has to do with the ENRON Loophole and, of course, THIS administration, and the Farm Bill to rescind it. And then there's this: Deregulation of the futures market & mergers of refineries allowed by antitrust types.

KO did a Special comment about this tonight.

"McCain, gas prices & the Enron loophole"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

We don't need to drill for oil. Congress needs to rescind this unregulated futures market on oil and the price will quickly drop as the futures floor won't be able to keep bidding the price sky high. I suspect that if this doesn't happen, there'll be a big oil balloon bust.

2008-06-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Obama’s New Web Site Strikes Back at ‘Dishonest Smears’

Hooray!

Fight the Smears
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

2008-06-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Kucinich's 35 articles of impeachment
Bush should be impeached

"Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate:

Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.

In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the following abuses of power.

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War

Article IV
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States

Article V
Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression

Article VI
Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114

Article VII
Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII
Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter

Article IX
Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X
Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI
Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII
Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources

Article XIIII
Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV
Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV
Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI
Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII
Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII
Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX
Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX
Imprisoning Children

Article XXI
Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII
Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII
Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV
Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV
Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI
Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII
Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII
Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX
Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX
Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI
Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII
Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII
Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV
Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV
Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders"

http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

2008-06-12T22:56:00.000-07:00

Olbermann: McCain should know better

Context and decency elude the GOP presidential nominee

"You have attested to: a fairly easy success; an overwhelming victory in a very short period of time; in which we would be welcomed as liberators; which you assured us would not require our troops stay for decades but merely for years; from which we could bring them all home, since you noted many Iraqis resent American military presence; in which all those troops coming home will also stay there, not being injured, for a hundred years; but most will be back by 2013; and the timing of their return, is not that important.

That, Sen. McCain, is context.

And that, Sen. McCain, is madness.

To die, for your misdirection, for Mr. Bush’s lies, for whoever makes the money off building 58 permanent American bases and all the weapons and all the bullets and all the wiring so costly and so slip-shod that it electrocutes our comrades as they step, not to fight freedom’s enemies, but into the shower at the base.

That, Senator, that is context.

It is an easy thing to dismiss Sen. McCain as a sad and befuddled figure, already challenging for some kind of campaign record for malaprops.

"I don’t know if I would want him (Cheney) as Vice President. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah."

The context of the kaleidoscope of confused rhetoric, and endless non sequitur, and mutually exclusive conclusions—and what they add up to: a veritable tragedy, a microcosm of the American tragedy that is Iraq, a tragedy of a man who himself will never understand… "the context."'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25126582/

These particular comments are spot on. McBush, besides being too old for the job, has presented a bumbling and befuddling list of "endless non sequiturs".

KO continues to speak for me!

2008-06-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

A Vote for McCain
is Another 4 More Years of Bush
McBush

2008-06-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

"We the willing,
led by the unknowing, are
doing the impossible
for the ungrateful.
We've done so much for so long
with so little,
we're now qualified
to do anything with nothing"
... Anonymous

From C-Bob's Blog
http://colorado-bob.blogspot.com/search?q=

2008-06-04T00:19:00.000-07:00

Vote for Obama
He's the ONLY choice!

2008-05-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

War, Oil and Unemployment
The truth from "Good Will Hunting", 1997

Will: What did I think?

(A beat. Will has obviously been stewing on this.)

Will: Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a no problem with get killed. (rapid fire) Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddie from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up oil prices. A cute, little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink seven and sevens and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. (a beat) So what'd I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure I'll eliminate the middle man. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? Christ, I could be elected president.

~From a script of "Good Will Hunting" 1997
Written by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck

2008-05-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Fighting Global Inflation Dynamics

The sky is falling!

"At a press conference in Jerusalem of leading international bankers on Monday, European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said that financial markets are experiencing an ongoing correction but that the G7 group are concerned over the excessive dollar volatility. He refused however to comment on soaring oil and commodity prices and European inflation but declared there was cause for concern.05/26/08"

Video:
http://www.infolive.tv/en/infolive.tv-23020-israelnews-fighting-global-inflation-dynamics

2008-05-21T23:59:00.000-07:00

House easily overrode President Bush's veto
At last!

In swift rebuff, House overrides Bush veto of farm bill

Republicans broke with White House on the measure

By Jonathan Weisman and Dan Morgan Washington Post / May 22, 2008

WASHINGTON - The House easily overrode President Bush's veto of a $307 billion farm bill last night, handing him the most significant legislative rebuff of his presidency after Republicans broke with the White House en masse to side with farm groups, antihunger advocates, and the biofuels industry.

With a Senate override vote all but guaranteed, Congress prepared to deliver only the second veto override of Bush's presidency and the first on a major piece of legislation.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/05/22/in_swift_rebuff_house_overrides_bush_veto_of_farm_bill/

2008-05-20T19:01:00.001-07:00

For the Women

Women over 50 don't have babies because they would put them down and forget where they left them.

A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills... she has 14 kids but doesn't really care. &nb sp;

One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5 lbs.

My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.

The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes .

The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body and your fat are really good friends.

Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.

Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.

I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knicker's.

Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!

Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like... 'You know sometimes I forget to eat!' ......Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my keys, but I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!

The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then they marry him.

I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are eating too much, impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!

2008-05-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Sex and the Man
vs
Sex and the Woman

2008-05-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Sex: What a Disgrace
Shame on you Randi Rhodes

Misogyny I Won't Miss

By Marie Cocco

Thursday, May 15, 2008; A15

As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it's time to take stock of what I will not miss.

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan "Bros before Hos." The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won't miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item.

I won't miss episodes like the one in which liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a "big [expletive] whore" and said the same about former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Rhodes was appearing at an event sponsored by a San Francisco radio station, before an audience of appreciative Obama supporters -- one of whom had promoted the evening on the presumptive Democratic nominee's official campaign Web site.

I won't miss Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.

Political discourse will at last be free of jokes like this one, told last week by magician Penn Jillette on MSNBC: "Obama did great in February, and that's because that was Black History Month. And now Hillary's doing much better 'cause it's White Bitch Month, right?" Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski rebuked Jillette.

I won't miss political commentators (including National Public Radio political editor Ken Rudin and Andrew Sullivan, the columnist and blogger) who compare Clinton to the Glenn Close character in the movie "Fatal Attraction." In the iconic 1987 film, Close played an independent New York woman who has an affair with a married man played by Michael Douglas. When the liaison ends, the jilted woman becomes a deranged, knife-wielding stalker who terrorizes the man's blissful suburban family. Message: Psychopathic home-wrecker, begone.

The airwaves will at last be free of comments that liken Clinton to a "she-devil" (Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who helpfully supplied an on-screen mock-up of Clinton sprouting horns). Or those who offer that she's "looking like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court" (Mike Barnicle, also on MSNBC).

But perhaps it is not wives who are so very problematic. Maybe it's mothers. Because, after all, Clinton is more like "a scolding mother, talking down to a child" (Jack Cafferty on CNN).

When all other images fail, there is one other I will not miss. That is, the down-to-the-basics, simplest one: "White women are a problem, that's -- you know, we all live with that" (William Kristol of Fox News).

I won't miss reading another treatise by a man or woman, of the left or right, who says that sexism has had not even a teeny-weeny bit of influence on the course of the Democratic campaign. To hint that sexism might possibly have had a minimal role is to play that risible "gender card."

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven't publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

Would the silence prevail if Obama's likeness were put on a tap-dancing doll that was sold at airports? Would the media figures who dole out precious face time to these politicians be such pals if they'd compared Obama with a character in a blaxploitation film? And how would crude references to Obama's sex organs play?

There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton's political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/14/AR2008051403090_pf.html

2008-05-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

It's Very Taxing
Taxes

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Tax

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service charge taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

2008-05-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

What is a Billion?
A million here and a million there.

What is a billion ?

The next time you hear a politician use the

word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about

whether you want the 'politicians' spending

YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,

but one advertising agency did a good job of

putting that figure into some perspective in

one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1969.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were

living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at just one example, New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division:

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), had asked the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number; what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of

New Orleans (every man, woman and child), you

each get $516,528.

B. Or if you have one of the 188,251 homes in

New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or if you are a family of four, your family

gets $2,066,012.

D. From another perspective that would mean that every man, woman, and child in the US would be writing a check for $830.17 and sending it to New Orleans.

Washington, D.C . HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

2008-04-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

2008-03-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

An Exact Example of the Texas Democrat Caucuses
It was like this in Dallas too.

2008-03-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

I voted soon and soon I will vote often in Texas
A Texas primary devised by Rube Goldberg

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
March 3, 2008 – 4:01 p.m.

The Texas Primary Explained: Why Tuesday’s Dem Winner May Not Be Obvious

By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

Some states choose presidential convention delegates through primary elections. Others use a system of caucuses. Texas is holding both on Tuesday.

Say again?

That’s right — Texas is a primary state and a caucus state. And there’s a Texas-sized explanation for this unusual setup.

Texas voters don’t register with a political party, so any registered voter can participate in either party’s primary election. Anyone who votes in Tuesday’s Democratic primary — in which New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are in a critical contest — can also participate in precinct conventions (caucuses) that will begin shortly after the polls close at 7 p.m. local time. (Nearly all of Texas is in the Central time zone; its western tip is in the Mountain time zone).

The purpose of these precinct conventions (caucuses), which will be held at the polling stations, is to select delegates for county conventions or state Senate district conventions on March 29 that in turn will elect delegates to the state Democratic convention on June 6 and 7. The state convention will determine the full delegate slate that will attend the Democratic national convention in Denver in late August. Texas Democrats are allotted 193 pledged delegates and 35 unpledged “superdelegates.”

But wait, it gets more complicated.

At the Democratic precinct conventions, attendees will sign in and reveal their presidential preferences (though they can be “uncommitted”) and elect delegates to the county conventions or state Senate district conventions. The more votes that a voting precinct gave in November 2006 to Chris Bell, the party’s losing candidate for governor, the more delegates it is entitled to send to the county or state Senate district convention. Of the 193 pledged Democratic delegates, 67 will be determined through this caucus process.

Obama has dominated Clinton in nearly all caucus contests that have been held to date, so he’s expected to win the lion’s share of the preference vote among Democrats who participate in the post-primary caucuses.

The other 126 pledged delegates will be determined by the primary vote and are distributed among the 31 state Senate districts. Each state Senate district is allocated between two and eight delegates, depending on the Democratic turnout in the past two general elections.

For example, Texas’ 14th senatorial district, which includes the state capital of Austin, is assigned eight delegates because there was a huge Democratic vote there in the past two elections. But the 31st senatorial district, which takes in the heavily Republican Panhandle, is assigned just two delegates because recent Democratic candidates didn’t get that many votes there.

Under this unconventional system, it’s possible that the winner of the overall statewide vote could capture fewer convention delegates than the runner-up. It may be hard to know exactly who won how many delegates Tuesday night when the results come in.

Texas Republicans also use this unusual primary-caucus system, though their process is less complicated. And the GOP race hasn’t received as much attention as the Democratic contest because Arizona Sen. John McCain has effectively sewn up the GOP nomination.

Any voter who cast a ballot in the Republican election can participate in his or her precinct convention on primary night. Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans won’t hold a presidential preference vote at the precinct conventions, which will elect delegates to the county or state Senate district conventions on March 29.

Congressional district caucuses on June 12-14 will elect 96 district-level delegates — three in each of Texas’ 32 congressional districts — to the Republican national convention in September. The state Republican convention also will be held June 12-14, and it will elect the 41 at-large delegates to the national convention. Three delegate spots are automatically awarded to the state party chairman and the state’s Republican national committeeman and Republican national committeewoman.

The winner of the statewide primary vote will take all of the at-large delegates if he wins a majority of the vote, and a majority-vote winner in a congressional district would also win its three delegates. In cases where a candidate does not win a majority of the vote statewide or in a congressional district, the delegates will be distributed proportionally among candidates who received at least 20 percent of the vote.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002680003

2008-02-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

A Theory About the Elections
Perhaps a conspiracy Theory?

This is the theory posited: The men in suits behind the scenes of the Democratic Party are tipping the scales in favor of Obama because they want a man in the office and don't care what the color of his dick is. Obama can beat McCain because he has less baggage than Hillary. When Obama wins, the men in suits will run the show and control Barack, and he will become a puppet. The men in suits have never tried to control a woman as President and don't want to deal with that fearing that they won't be able to.

Also asked: What's happened to the white supremacists and all their variants? Nary a word has been heard from them.

I found these interesting to ponder.

Thanks to Joan.

2008-02-23T00:03:00.000-08:00

Countdown's "Worst Person in the World" Music

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor J. S. Bach

2008-02-21T22:41:00.000-08:00

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

The Onion

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

2008-02-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

Video Trail Mix: Losing Pretty or Winning Ugly
Craig Crawford: Trail Mix

Video Trail Mix Webcam Edition: Losing Pretty At Dem Debate
Craig Crawford: Trail Mix

2008-02-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

Texas Democratic Election a Primary/Caucus Hybrid, requires an extra trip to the polls

It's so Texas

"February 7th, 2008

I’d like to thank Bryan who attended an Obama meeting last night, and Rep. Eddie B. Johnson who sent an email, for providing me with some information that I did not know. I was planning to early vote for the Texas Primary, but it looks like in order for my vote to fully count, I’ll need to get back to the polls on election night.

Click here for Texas rules on Democratic delegates.

I’m not going to give the full rundown yet, but let me give you the cliff’s notes version as I understand them so far:

Texas has a two step process that is open to all registered voters.

When you cast your vote in the Texas primary, in essence it’s only 75% of a full vote.

126 of Texas’ 168 votes will be allocated to candidates based on the ballots cast.

15 minutes after the polls close (7:00 p.m.) those who voted must return to their precinct.

This “precinct convention” is how Texas will decide how to divide the remaining 42 delegates.

The rules were originally put in place to insure that the Democratic hierarchy would have more say.

That’s it in a nutshell. I had never heard of this before, but then again a Texas primary/caucus has never mattered since I’ve been voting. Thanks again to Bryan and Rep. Johnson."

http://dallassouthblog.com/2008/02/07/texas-democratic
-election-a-primarycaucus-hybrid-requires-and-extra-trip-to-the-polls/

2008-02-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Voting in the March 4th Texas Primary
I voted early so that I can vote often

I voted today in the Texas primary against my feeling that Super Delegates will rule the day and not moi. Here's how it goes: Stand in a moderate line at one of the designated early voting locations. Man asks if the front of your voting card is signed. But you don't need that here, a driver's license or maybe dog license will do. You get to the table and a woman asks you which party. You say, in front of everyone, which party and hand her the card. She hands it to a man on her left behind a big, white box who does something with it and hands it back to you with his right hand. Another woman writes your name down after asking you again, which party? She writes it on a long sheet. One long sheet for each party. In this case, the Republican sheet had about 5 names and the Democratic one probably 50, a long list. This woman hands you a credit card type card and you move to the computerized voting machine that's lined up out in the open next to others. Insert card, touch English, touch who you're voting for, touch Cast Vote and return the credit card to the woman. Off you go with no back up record of how you voted.

2008-02-15T21:06:00.000-08:00

Clinton
Who has experience? My first special comment.

I've given it a lot of thought, mulled it over and pondered it. I think that the Clinton people should stress the Clinton years as they were good ones for us regular folks. The change we want is from the Republicans and their insufferable ways. The economy, jobs, foreign policy and general ambiance was good. The country was in good shape. It would have been in even better shape if a health care plan, that Bill & Hillary tried to get passed, had happened back then. Maybe we wouldn't be in such horrendous medical straights now.

Clinton has had much more experience on a federal, national and probably international level than Obama, even if she had nothing to do with policy & was just in and around it in the White House. Talking change isn't the same thing as having been there.

I was able to raise my 2 kiddos during the decade of the 90's. I would have had an even harder, nearly impossible, time of it during the horrible past 8 years. The dissonance between the 2 decades is unmistakable, and the Clinton campaign should highlight that difference.

2008-02-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

Daily KOS

Very Funny!

Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

by Bill in Portland Maine

Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 06:10:48 AM PST

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

The BiPM answering machine. Last Sunday morning:

[Beep!] Hello, this is Barack Obama reminding you to come out and caucus for me on Sunday. Together we can bring hope and change to America. Thank you.

[Beep!] Hello, this is Hillary Clinton. If you agree that we need a new direction in America, please caucus for me on Sunday. I have the experience needed to hit the ground running on day one. Thank you.

[Beep!] Hi, Barack again. Did Hillary just call you? Look, she and I were friends before the primary season and we'll be friends after. But right now she's just acting crazy, understand? Vote for me and I may let you stand next to me at my inauguration.

[Beep!] Hillary here. Barack's feeding you a line 'o crap and he knows it. Not only will I let you stand next to me at my inauguration, but I'll give you the cabinet position of your choice. You have to admit, that's pretty sweet. Love ya!

[Beep!] Hey, it's Barack. Love ya more. Wanna be my VP?

[Beep!] Oh, he's not gonna make you vice president and he knows it!

[Beep!] Will too!

[Beep!] Will not!

[Beep!] This is Chelsea Clinton. Have you seen my mom or my dad? I'm supposed to be at a rally with 'em but there's no one here. Today's Nebraska, right?

[Beep!] Hi, this is Oprah. Despite what the Clinton campaign says, I am not going to crush your skull between my thighs if you don’t vote for my man Barack. That would let you off too easy! Hint hint.

[Beep!] Hi, Barack again. That wasn't Oprah. That was Hillary pretending to be Oprah. You see how these people work? I think it's... Oh, wait, it was Oprah. Never mind. Vote for me!

[Beep!] Hi, this is Chuck Norris. I'm hiding behind your bathroom door, and as soon as you come in to pee I'm gonna break every bone in your Defeatocrat body. I'll start with your femurs.

[Beep!] Hi, this is Mike Gravel. Chuck's hanging by his underwear from a hook on the back of your bathroom door. The police are on their way. Wish I could stay but I've gotta stop a meteor that's hurtling toward Earth. Have a nice pee.

[sigh]

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

http://www.dailykos.com/

2008-02-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

Coultergeist "I'll campaign for Hillary if McCain is the nominee"
Yee-haw...the Republicans are sooo screwed up.

2008-01-25T19:33:00.000-08:00

"Sicko" has been nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary
An e-mail from Michael Moore

January 25, 2008

Friends,

I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know (if you didn't already) the good news that "Sicko" has been nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary. It was a pleasant surprise when we got the news on Tuesday.

Of course, every reporter who's called me in the past few days wanted to know if I plan on giving an "anti-war" or "anti-Bush" speech, should "Sicko" win, as I did when we won the Oscar for "Bowling for Columbine" in 2003. (As you may recall, it was the 5th day of the war when those Oscars were held, and I said from the stage that, while I enjoy making nonfiction films, we live in fictitious times with a man of fiction in the White House. A ruckus ensued with a loud roar of cheers and boos, then someone cued the band to get me off the stage. As host Steve Martin said a few moments later, Teamsters were out back loading me into the trunk of a car.)

Well it's five years later and we are still at war. But there's no booing these days. 65% of the public is now opposed to the war and to Mr. Bush. The Academy, instead of cutting off the microphone, now nominates anti-war films for Best Documentary. That's right, three of the five nominees this year are Iraq War films!

I am very honored to be in this group of documentaries, three of which I brought last summer to our film festival in northern Michigan. "Taxi to the Dark Side" is a brutal examination of U.S. torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Operation Homecoming" has actors reading letters from soldiers in Iraq. "No End in Sight" has ex-Bush administration officials admitting how they messed up the occupation, lamenting how things would have been so much better if only Bush had put people in Baghdad who knew what they were doing (and wouldn't we all have loved to see THAT? Hahaha). And "War/Dance" tells the moving story of kids in a dance competition in war-torn Africa. A diverse group of films, and proof that nonfiction movies are stronger than ever.

A lot of people ask me, 'how does this whole Oscar voting thing work?' Well, actors nominate actors, directors nominate directors -- every branch essentially votes to nominate their own (including documentary filmmakers in my branch) -- and then all 6,000 Academy members vote for the Best Picture nominees. After the nominations are announced, then all 6,000 vote for all the categories.

Documentaries, though, have one special rule: The voters have to verify they have seen all five nominated films. As some of these films, unfortunately, don't have the distribution they deserve, special Academy members-only screenings of all five nominees are set up for this very purpose in the next few days in New York, and in the next couple of weeks in L.A. and elsewhere, and that's when any Academy member can vote for Best Documentary.

But will there be an Oscar show this year? As you know, the Writers Guild (of which I am a member) is on strike and the Oscars are a union show. If the strike isn't settled, they won't be able to put on the typical telecast as no actor, writer or anyone I know will cross the picket line. This is all happening because a couple of hotheads at the studios (some would say union-busting knuckleheads) have walked away from the negotiating table in what seems like an attempt to simply get rid of the union. What do they think we are, air traffic controllers?

The writers are only asking for about 2.5 cents out of every dollar made on Internet sales (that's right, not even 3 pennies!), a small pittance compared to what the studios or networks rake in. That's it. The union has dropped the demand to unionize the reality shows (in 1993, I created the first unionized reality show, "TV Nation," but the Writers Guild unfortunately wasn't able to build on this).

I would like to believe that the honchos will come to their senses and settle this strike. Otherwise, I won't be able to talk to Joan Rivers on the red carpet or attend all those Oscar parties afterward! Don't make me suffer like this! My wardrobe and stylist people are already in tears.

In the meantime, I'll send you some pre-Super Tuesday thoughts next week. Thanks again for all your nice comments on the Oscar nod and I hope this extra attention on "Sicko" will help to push for the day when every American can go to the doctor or the hospital and never be asked "what's in your wallet?"

Yours,

Michael Moore

2008-01-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

John Edwards 2008
ONE AMERICA

2008-01-24T09:42:00.000-08:00

John Edwards for President '08
ONE America

Dear Friend,

I want to tell you about John Edwards' campaign for President -- a campaign that calls on all of us to begin taking action now to change our country and ensure America's greatness in the 21st century.

We cannot wait until January of 2009 to begin to change America -- and if we act together, we can make a difference today.

Please take a moment to check out the campaign website at:

www.JohnEdwards.com

If you're ready to take responsibility for changing our country, please join me at:

www.JohnEdwards.com/action/join/campaign/

Sincerely,

I like Edwards

2008-01-23T23:22:00.000-08:00

Obscene Amounts of Money Squandered in Presidential Race

$420 Million! And they're broke - except money man Mitt

Banking on Becoming President

After nine months of fundraising, the candidates for president in 2008 have already raised about $420 million. This presidential money chase seems to be on track to collect an unprecedented $1 billion total. By some predictions, the eventual nominees will need to raise $500 million apiece to compete--a record sum. To find out where all this money is coming from, explore the options to the left. Year-end reports are due to the Federal Election Commission by Jan. 31.

Candidate	Home State	Q3 Raised	Q3 Spent	Total Raised	Total Spent	Cash on Hand	Debts
Democratic Candidates
Clinton, Hillary	NY	$27,859,861	$22,623,680	$90,935,788	$40,472,775	$50,463,013	$2,347,486
Obama, Barack	IL	$21,343,292	$21,519,790	$80,256,427	$44,169,236	$36,087,191	$1,409,740
Edwards, John	NC	$7,157,233	$8,271,938	$30,329,152	$17,932,103	$12,397,048	$0
Richardson, Bill	NM	$5,358,585	$6,666,681	$18,699,937	$12,878,349	$5,821,588	$75,222
Dodd, Chris	CT	$1,522,061	$4,025,458	$13,598,152	$9,723,278	$3,874,874	$0
Biden, Joe	DE	$1,757,394	$2,635,896	$8,215,739	$6,329,324	$1,886,340	$128,210
Kucinich, Dennis	OH	$1,011,696	$888,774	$2,130,200	$1,803,576	$327,094	$0
Gravel, Mike	AK	$130,598	$144,224	$379,795	$362,268	$17,526	$85,853

Candidate	Home State	Q3 Raised	Q3 Spent	Total Raised	Total Spent	Cash on Hand	Debts
Republican Candidates
Romney, Mitt	MA	$18,396,719	$21,301,756	$62,829,069	$53,612,552	$9,216,517	$17,350,000
Giuliani, Rudy	NY	$11,624,255	$13,300,650	$47,253,521	$30,603,695	$16,649,826	$169,256
McCain, John	AZ	$5,734,478	$5,470,277	$32,124,785	$28,636,157	$3,488,628	$1,730,691
Thompson, Fred	TN	$12,828,111	$5,706,367	$12,828,111	$5,706,367	$7,121,744	$678,432
Paul, Ron	TX	$5,258,456	$2,169,644	$8,268,453	$2,824,786	$5,443,667	$0
Huckabee, Mike	AR	$1,034,486	$819,376	$2,345,798	$1,694,497	$651,301	$47,810
Hunter, Duncan	CA	$536,357	$618,117	$1,890,873	$1,758,132	$132,742	$50,000
Keyes, Alan	MD	$21,218	$10,139	$22,768	$10,139	$12,629	$12,876

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.asp

2008-01-23T18:27:00.000-08:00

The Bush Administration's 935 Lies
Impeachment???

False Pretenses

Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith

"President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/Default.aspx?src=home&context=overview&id=945

2008-01-22T21:26:00.000-08:00

Edwards for President

The only one who makes sense!

2008-01-21T19:04:00.001-08:00

A Gallon of Milk Costs More Than a Gallon of Gas

$3.23 more!

Any car gas per gallon = ± $2.76

1 gallon of Borden's milk = $5.99

Recession, here we come!

:-(

2008-01-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

Bobby Fischer Dead at Age 64
Was probably on the autism spectrum

Icelandreview Online

Fischer in Iceland

Fischer did not give many interviews after he come to Iceland. He claimed that regular chess was no longer interesting but recommended the game called Fischer random in which the back row of the chess pieces was arranged in a random fashion. He claimed this was the only way to keep the game interesting after computers had analyzed the regular game so that no excitement remained.

Fischer was often seen in book stores. He was usually on his own and seemed to look for books about outlaws and rebels. He was in contact with a few people; some of whom had been instrumental in insuring his release from jail. Grandmaster Helgi Ólafsson talked to Fischer regularly and said that he clearly followed chess news up to a point a least. Sometimes chess matches are televised in Iceland and on one such occasion Fischer, in a phone call with Helgi Ólafsson, pointed out a brilliant move that had escaped the attention of all Icelandic experts.

Fridrik Ólafsson, Iceland's first grandmaster and one of the players who knew Fischer from the very early days in 1958, kept some contact with Fischer. Ólafsson said that he had suggested that Fischer join him on a trip to Tallinn in Estonia for a chess conference but Fischer would not go, amybe out of fear that the US government would try to have him jailed again.

Boris Spassky came to Iceland in 2005 to play Fridrik Ólafsson in the occasion of the latter becoming 70 years old. At the time a meeting with Fischer was arranged and finally took place after Fischer had shown almost paranoid behavior, insisting that the meeting place be kept secret and all windows sealed and covered. The meeting itself was reportedly friendly.

Fischer was sometimes seen in bars in Reykjavík and was usually not disturbed by the other customers. He was often seen walking alone in Reykjavík, unshaven and looking like a hobo. His Japanese girlfriend visited him often and was with him over the new year's celebrations. After that she left for Japan.
Bobby Fischer died on January 17 at the Icelandic National Hospital of kidney failure. He had not been well for the last year. According to mbl.is he had not been a believer in Western medicine and was not an easy patient to help.

http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=298975

2008-01-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

Chris Matthews Mea Culpa
At least he said "he got it"

2008-01-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

Chris Matthews DOES Have a Problem with Women!
Contact MSNBC

Does Chris Matthews have a problem with women?

Using overtly sexist language, he has referred to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) as a "she devil" and compared her to a "strip-teaser." He has called her "witchy" and likened her voice to "fingernails on a blackboard." He has referred to men who support her as "castratos in the eunuch chorus." He has suggested Clinton is not "a convincing mom" and said "modern women" like Clinton are unacceptable to "Midwest guys." He has called her "Madame Defarge" and "Nurse Ratched."

Had enough? Contact MSNBC to tell them what you think.

Mr. Phil Griffin,
Senior Vice President, News
NBC Television Network
30 Rockefeller Plz
New York, NY 10112
phil.griffin@nbc.com

Steve Capus,
President, NBC News
steve.capus@nbc.com

MSNBC
letters@msnbc.com
MSNBC/Microsoft-NBC
30 Rockefeller Plz
3rd Fl
New York, NY 10112
(212) 664-4444

Chris Matthews
hardball@msnbc.com

After Clinton won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Matthews asserted: "[T]he reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around." He described her performance at a debate last Saturday as apparently "good enough to seem good enough here for women who wanted to root for her anyway."

His sexism is hardly limited to comments about Clinton. During coverage of the New Hampshire primary, he said that Clinton is the only viable woman presidential candidate "on the horizon." He couldn't think of a single female governor eligible to run: "Where are the big-state women governors?" he asked. "Where are they? Name one." In fact, several of the states that currently have women governors are comparable in population to the states in which the male presidential candidates serve or have served as governor.

In November 2006, shortly after the Democrats took the majority in Congress, Matthews asked a guest if then-presumptive speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was "going to castrate Steny Hoyer" if Hoyer (D-MD) were elected House majority leader.

During coverage of a presidential debate last spring, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell was compelled to remind Matthews that Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) wife, Michelle, is a Harvard-educated lawyer after he focused obsessively on her physical appearance.

The good news is that people are speaking out against Matthews' flagrant, persistent sexism.

Of the New Hampshire primary results, the blog TalkLeft, observed:

"It was a revolt of women sick and tired of the likes of Chris Tweety Matthews and the Media Misogynists.

Barack Obama did not lose New Hampshire. The Media did. Their misogynist hatred of Hillary Clinton was soundly rejected by the voters. Especially the women voters of New Hampshire.

How the Media will react to this well deserved rebuke is the question. And let's be clear, Chris Matthews should be removed from covering this race. His offensive behavior is a disgrace to NBC."

It's time to play a little "hardball." Please contact MSNBC and Chris Matthews today and let them know what you think.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801110002

2008-01-16T01:18:00.001-08:00

Huckabee: Keep Your Hands OFF the Constitution!
We the People....

2008-01-15T22:55:00.000-08:00

Mike Huckabee is DANGEROUS
Amending the Constitution is the Tip of His Agenda!!!

Huckabee Wants a "Faith-based " constitution

Video here: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/15/huckabee-wants-a-faith-based-constitution/

(I)n Warren, Michigan on Monday, Huckabee declared his personal crusade to amend the Constitution by copying and pasting from the Bible:

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And thats what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.”

In case there was any remaining doubt, that astounding statement eviscerated Huckabee’s pretense of upholding the separation of church and state. In December, Governor Huckabee offered this charade on Meet the Press, words which obviously are no longer operative:

“The key issue of real faith is that it never can be forced on someone. And never would I want to use the government institutions to impose mine or anybody else’s faith or to restrict.”

As it turns out, using the institutions of government to impose his faith is exactly what Mike Huckabee has in mind. Quick to denounce sharia law and “Islamofascism,” Huckabee is seems quite eager to embrace a Christian version of God’s law here at home.

Please. Make. It. Stop. I hate to break it to the Huckster, but the Middle Ages weren’t really that much fun. Why is it that the Republican Party seems to want to force us all back there?

2008-01-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

A Letter from Michael Moore

It's the War," Says Iowa to Hillary -- And a "Happy Blue Year" To All! ...from Michael Moore

January 3, 2007

Friends,

There was no doubt about it. The message from Iowa tonight was simple, but deafening:

If you're a candidate for President, and you voted for the war, you lose. And if you voted and voted and voted for the war -- and never once showed any remorse -- you really lose.

In short, if you had something to do with keeping us in this war for four-plus years, you are not allowed to be the next president of the United States.

Over 70% of Iowan Democrats voted for candidates who either never voted for the invasion of Iraq (Obama, Richardson, Kucinich) or who have since admitted their mistake (Edwards, Biden, Dodd). I can't tell you how bad I feel for Senator Clinton tonight. I don't believe she was ever really for this war. But she did -- and continued to do -- what she thought was the politically expedient thing to eventually get elected. And she was wrong. And tonight she must go to sleep wondering what would have happened if she had voted her conscience instead of her calculator.

John Edwards was supposed to have come in third. He had been written off. He was outspent by the other front-runners six to one. But somewhere along the road he threw off the old politico hack jacket and turned into a real person, a fighter for the poor, for the uninsured, for peace. And for that, he came in a surprise second, ending up with just one less delegate than the man who was against the war from the beginning. But, as Joshua Holland of AlterNet pointed out earlier today, Edwards is still the only front-runner who will pull out all the troops and do it as quickly as possible. His speech tonight was brilliant and moving.

What an amazing night, not just for Barack Obama, but for America. I know that Senator Obama is so much more than simply the color of his skin, but all of us must acknowledge -- and celebrate -- the fact that one of the whitest states in the U.S. just voted for a black man to be our next president. Thank you, Iowa, for this historic moment. Thank you for at least letting us believe that we are better than what we often seem to be. And to have so many young people come out and vote -- and vote for Obama -- this is a proud moment. It all began with the record youth turnout in 2004 -- the ONLY age group that Kerry won -- and they came back out tonight en force. Good on every single one of you!

As the only top candidate who was anti-war before the war began, Barack Obama became the vessel through which the people of this Midwestern state were able to say loud and clear: "Bring 'Em Home!" Most pundits won't read the election this way because, well, most pundits merrily led us down the path to war. For them to call this vote tonight a repudiation of the war -- and of Senator Clinton's four years' worth of votes for it -- might require the pundit class to remind their viewers and readers that they share some culpability in starting this war. And, like Hillary, damn few of them have offered us an apology.

With all due respect to Senator Obama's victory, the most important news out of the caucus this evening was the whopping, room-busting turnout of Democrats. 239,000 people showed up to vote Democratic tonight (93% more than in '04, which was a record year), while only 115,000 showed up to vote Republican. And this is a red state! The Republican caucuses looked anemic. The looks on their faces were glum, tired. As the camera followed some of them into their caucus sites, they held their heads down or turned away, sorta like criminals on a perp walk. They know their days of power are over. They know their guy blew it. Their only hope was to vote for a man who has a direct line to heaven. Huckabee is their Hail Mary pass. But don't rule him out. He's got a sense of humor, he's downhome, and he said that if elected, he'd put me on a boat to Cuba. Hey, a free Caribbean vacation!

Bottom line: People have had it. Iowa will go blue (Happy Blue Year, Hawkeyes!). Whomever your candidate is on the Dem side, this was a good night. Get some sleep. The Republicans won't go down without a fight. Look what happened when Kerry tried to play nice. So Barack, you can talk all you want about "let's put the partisanship aside, let's all get along," but the other side has no intention of being anything but the bullies they are. Get your game face on now. And, if you can, tell me why you are now the second largest recipient of health industry payola after Hillary. You now take more money from the people committed to stopping universal health care than any of the Republican candidates.

Despite what your answer may be, I was proud to sit in my living room tonight and see you and your family up on that stage. We became a bit better tonight, and on that I will close by saying, sweet dreams -- and on to that other totally white state of New Hampshire!

Yours,

Michael Moore

2007-09-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Shadow Company, A Film by Nick Bicanic & Jason Bourque
"The rules of war have changed"

2007-08-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

"I WANNA BE LIKE OSAMA"

It's the new "Springtime for Hitler"?

2007-07-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Text Of Senate Letter Calling For Special Counsel On Gonzales

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Today, Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible wrongdoing by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. In a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement, the Senators called for a special counsel to be appointed to examine Gonzales on potential charges of obstruction of justice, false statements and perjury in the firings of federal prosecutors and the president's domestic spying program.

Here is the text of that letter:

The Honorable Paul D. Clement
Solicitor General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Clement:

We write to you in your capacity as Acting Attorney General for matters where Attorney General Gonzales has recused himself. We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether Attorney General Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress.

We do not make this request lightly. We believe a special counsel is needed because it has become apparent that the Attorney General has provided – at a minimum – half-truths and misleading statements about the removal and replacement of U.S. Attorneys, about his role in trying to circumvent Acting Attorney General Comey, and about the Administration’s position on the NSA wiretapping program. For example:

Attorney General Gonzales testified on February 6, 2006 that within the Administration “there has not been any serious disagreement about the [Terrorist Surveillance Program].” Yet, Attorney General Gonzales indicated in his testimony this week that the purpose of the March 10, 2004 briefing for the “gang of eight” was to advise them “that Mr. Comey had informed us that he would not approve the continuation of a very important intelligence activity.” General Hayden stated in unclassified testimony on May 18, 2006, that the very same briefing for the “gang of eight” was on the “warrantless surveillance program.” Thus, Mr. Gonzales’s statements about the lack of disagreement regarding the surveillance program are deeply troubling.

Attorney General Gonzales testified that the purpose of the March 10, 2004, meeting “was for the White House to advise the Congress that Mr. Comey had advised us that he could not approve the continuation of vitally important intelligence activities,” which the Attorney General later testified was “not” the NSA wiretapping program. This is contradicted by an unclassified letter from John Negroponte, then Director of National Intelligence, to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert on May 17, 2006, describing the same “Gang of Eight” briefing as being “on the Terrorist Surveillance Program.”

On April 19, 2007 when discussing his role in the U.S. Attorney investigation, Attorney General Gonzales testified, “I haven't talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven't wanted to interfere with this investigation”; however, Monica Goodling testified before the House Judiciary Committee that she had an “uncomfortable” conversation with the Attorney General where he outlined his recollection of what happened and asked her for her reaction.

Unfortunately, these are only a few examples. As the nation’s top lawyer and head of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General should be held to the highest ethical standards. While we believe the investigations of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) are important and must continue, we believe the question of the Attorney General's truthfulness in testimony before Congress is sufficiently important to merit the appointment of a special counsel, and sufficiently distinct from internal Department matters the Inspector General and OPR are investigating. This matter is sufficiently integral to the Department’s relationship with Congress that we would hope you would find it prudent to proceed expeditiously with special counsel.

The special counsel should be an independent person of unimpeachable integrity, ability, and experience, who can approach this investigation without any hint of conflict of interest or question of character, and who can be read into classified programs sufficiently to perform these duties.

The scope of the special counsel’s jurisdiction should include the veracity of the Attorney General’s testimony before Congress related to issues including the replacement and removal of U.S. Attorneys, the implementation of the PATRIOT Act’s provisions relating to U.S. Attorneys, and the authorization for the NSA wiretapping program. It should examine whether misleading statements have been made to Congress and the public, and whether potential charges should be filed involving obstruction of justice, perjury, and false statements.

Sincerely,

Signed by Senators Schumer, Feinstein, Feingold and Whitehouse.

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/07/text-of-senate-letter-calling-for.html

2007-07-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

"Rumfeld Remains Defense Department ‘Consultant,’ Opens ‘Transition Office’ Near Pentagon"

Gone, but Not Really Gone

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “has left the Pentagon, but not the Defense Department.” The Washington Times reports:

On Jan. 4, Mr. Rumsfeld opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him, a Pentagon official said.

The Pentagon lists Mr. Rumsfeld as a “nonpaid consultant,” a status he needs in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said.

The Times reports that Rumsfeld has brought with him close adviser Stephen Cambone, a fierce advocate of the Iraq war and the chief planner of questionable interrogation tactics at military and CIA detention sites around the world.

Rumsfeld’s new office is reportedly raising eyebrows at the Pentagon:

The Pentagon official said former secretaries are entitled to a transition office to sort papers, some of which can be taken with them for a library, for archives or to write a book.

The transition office has raised some eyebrows inside the Pentagon. Some question the size of the staff, which includes two military officers and two enlisted men. They also ask why the sorting could not have been done from the time Mr. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8 to when he left the building Dec. 18.

Rumsfeld’s predecessors, William Cohen and William Perry, both returned to private life immediately after leaving the Defense Department. Cohen had “two military personnel…sort through his papers for about six weeks,” while Perry had his papers mailed via compact disk to Stanford University.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/25/rumsfeld-consultant/

2007-07-24T23:26:00.001-07:00

Ashcroft and Comey
Separated at Birth?

2007-07-22T00:26:00.000-07:00

"Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq"
Can You Believe This?

Message to the Congress of the United States Regarding International Emergency Economic Powers Act

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:

Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,

(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:

(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or

(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;

(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or

(iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.

(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to, (i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and (ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

Sec. 3. For purposes of this order:

(a) the term "person" means an individual or entity;

(b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and

(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.

Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.

Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.

Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government, consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.

Sec. 7. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under 31 C.F.R. chapter V, except as expressly terminated, modified, or suspended by or pursuant to this order.

Sec. 8. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

July 17, 2007.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html

2007-07-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

Bush Is Prepared to Veto Bill to Expand Child Insurance

What a Sicko!

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: July 15, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 14 — The White House said on Saturday that President Bush would veto a bipartisan plan to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, drafted over the last six months by senior members of the Senate Finance Committee.

The vow puts Mr. Bush at odds with the Democratic majority in Congress, with a substantial number of Republican lawmakers and with many governors of both parties, who want to expand the popular program to cover some of the nation’s eight million uninsured children.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said: “The president’s senior advisers will certainly recommend a veto of this proposal. And there is no question that the president would veto it.”

The program, which insured 7.4 million people at some time in the last year, is set to expire Sept. 30.

The Finance Committee is expected to approve the Senate plan next week, sending it to the full Senate for action later this month.

Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the committee, said he would move ahead despite the veto threat.

“The Senate will not be deterred from helping more kids in need,” Mr. Baucus said. “The president should stop playing politics and start working with Congress to help kids, through renewal of this program.”

The proposal would increase current levels of spending by $35 billion over the next five years, bringing the total to $60 billion. The Congressional Budget Office says the plan would reduce the number of uninsured children by 4.1 million.

The new spending would be financed by an increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco products. The tax on cigarettes would rise to $1 a pack, from the current 39 cents.

Mr. Fratto, the White House spokesman, said, “Tax increases are neither necessary nor advisable to fund the program appropriately.”

Democrats in the House would go much further than the bipartisan Senate plan. They would add $50 billion to the program over five years, bringing the total to $75 billion. By contrast, in his latest budget request, Mr. Bush proposed an increase of $5 billion over five years, which would bring the total to $30 billion.

White House officials said the president had several other reasons to veto the bipartisan Senate plan.

“The proposal would dramatically expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, adding nonpoor children to the program, and more than doubling the level of spending,” Mr. Fratto said. “This will have the effect of encouraging many to drop private coverage, to go on the government-subsidized program.”

In addition, Mr. Fratto said, the Senate plan does not include any of Mr. Bush’s proposals to change the tax treatment of health insurance, in an effort to make it more affordable for millions of Americans.

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said he would like to consider such tax proposals. But, he said, “it’s not realistic — given the lack of bipartisan support for the president’s plan — to think that can be accomplished before the current children’s health care program runs out in September.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/washington/15child.html?ex=1342152000&en
=c056687392859d9c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

2007-07-13T01:33:00.000-07:00

Strange Bedfellows by Cindy Sheehan
Interesting

Since I announced my challenge to Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi a few days ago, I have been very thrilled
that issues like impeachment and the inherent
corruption of the “two” party system have been brought
to the forefront of public discourse. Every interview
that I have done has given me the opportunity to throw
the impeachment issue out there. The democratic
blogosphere has predictably lined up against me and
must be very frightened because they are repeating the
scandalous lies of the right. Wow, the right and left
are finding common ground over slandering me. I must
be a uniter.

I received an email from David Swanson from
AfterDowningStreet.org yesterday saying that ADS was
in trouble because the blogs were trashing us for
targeting John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi. My question
for these bloggers is whom should we target? Should we
go after House Minority Leader John Boehner? Repugs
are literally like rats jumping off the sinking ship
of state and they are distancing themselves from
George and Dick faster than the Democrats. With the
mood of the country, we know this is not a moral
position but a politically expedient one. Why can’t we
urge the Democrats to a moral position? Because they
have been elected with a (D) they become one of the
Untouchables?

Instead of trashing David Swanson and I for wanting
our leadership to do their jobs why can’t the left
join with us and be concerned with the people who are
being killed, maimed and displaced on a daily basis
and not worry about Dems being held to the same
standards that we have been trying to hold the Repugs
to? David has a baby boy named Wesley that deserveds a
better future. There are millions of children in Iraq
that deserve a better future. There are over 600
American troops that have been killed since the Dems
took over the power structure in DC and did nothing to
stop George’s murderous surge. When the Repugs were in
power we targeted them. Now the Dems are in power so
they are the ones that we have to focus on. It is not
a difficult concept.

There must be an underlying shady reason that Speaker
Pelosi took impeachment off the table. Her office
stated the other day that she will not put the issue
back on the table because she is focused on “ending
the war.” The statement would be laughable if it
weren’t for the fact that she is using a neo-con
strategy of saying the exact opposite of what is true.
Ms. Pelosi would not allow Rep. Barbara Lee’s bill
that truly supported the troops by fixing a quick
timeline for their withdrawal to be brought to the
floor and instead used her power to whip her caucus
into approving a “non-binding” resolution that by its
very name is meaningless and useless. The Dems can
accomplish much if they put their muscle behind it and
the Dems could impeach BushCo and end the war if that
was truly their focus. Besides all this, actions speak
louder than words and one cannot say that she is
focused on ending the war with her mouth while she is
signing a one hundred BILLION dollar check to keep the
war going with her signing hand.

Since I announced, along with the expected slurs from
the “left,” my team of my sister and assistant, and I
have received thousands of messages of support. People
are lining up to donate to a potential campaign and
are pledging to close businesses and quit jobs to move
across the country to San Francisco to work on my
campaign. I have been asked to run for Congress from
districts all over the country, but I am a California
home-girl and have spent the last 15 years less than
an hour away from what we call “The City.” If Ms.
Pelosi does not exercise her mandatory (A president
and vice-president SHALL BE impeached) constitutional
duty to remove the uncontrollable Bush mob from power
and I do run against her it will be a pleasure to
sleep in the same bed every night and live near my
family and friends!

I will be running on the People for Humanity platform
that is coalescing right now with other possible
exciting candidates coming on board to challenge other
corrupt Repugs and do-nothing Dems. Politics are not
the be-all and end-all of our society and one thing we
all need to learn is that people power should run this
county not a bunch of corporately controlled wealthy
elitists that are disconnected from humanity and
reality. The system of constant war and constant war
profiteering needs to be challenged in a very
pronounced way if we want constant peace and a system
of sustainability. Great social change will not happen
without great sacrifice and maybe its time to suck it
up and work for a better country, and then a better
world by default.

Our Journey for Humanity and Accountability has gotten
off to a great start. We left Camp Casey in Crawford
on July 10th. Our “parade” (we got in lots of trouble
for not having a permit) that walked along the Lone
Star Parkway in Crawford for about a mile received
honks and waves and not one middle Our first stop was
Houston, the former home of Halliburton and the
headquarters of many immoral oil companies. Our second
stop was New Orleans where mostly people of color are
still homeless, or inadequately housed and still
desperately seeking help. The young people who still
put their own lives on hold to come from around
America to help them are still my heroes.

Change is hard and scary, I know this all too well. My
life changed irrevocably when Casey was killed in the
occupation of Iraq that has been supported and funded
by both parties. But oftentimes change can be good.

Don’t fear change especially when the status quo is so
freaking frightening.

For more information, or to donate money to our
Caravan, please go to

http://www.thecampcaseypeaceinstitute.org/

2007-07-12T23:14:00.000-07:00

Craig Crawford’s Trail Mix: Bush’s Iraq Shell Game

Right on the Money

By Craig Crawford | 10:45 AM; Jul. 10, 2007 |
Perhaps when President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009, with about as many U.S. troops in Iraq as are currently deployed there, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill will finally figure out that they’ve been the victims of a shell game — with many Republicans playing his shill.

Once again the administration is putting out contradictory hints about plans for fewer troops, more troops or just talk of yet another “new strategy.”

As in the street version of a shell game, nobody but the operator knows which shell contains the correct answer — and, if skilled at the required sleight of hand, the operator can always move the shells around without detection.

Democrats have built their strategy upon the hope and expectation that enough GOP lawmakers will abandon Bush to allow them to take control of war policy. But until those Republicans cast actual votes to do so, there is every chance that Democrats are just getting played.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/2007/07/craig_crawfords_trail_mix_bush_6.html

2007-07-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

The new but not so improved Patterns.
Here I go, again. 7/11/07

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Illegals: One Person's Opinion
An e-mail from a friend

Interesting that you bring up the topic of the illegal aliens and their extraordinarily multifaceted impact upon us, as well as your getting 'dissed' for speaking of a Mexican alien encounter in any manner. The negative feedback situation that you ran into just by making a casual rather neutral reporting reference to an alien interaction is not at all unusual. This thing of giving the 200% benefit of the doubt to an illegal alien with obvious social graces issues just has to stop and stop right now. As US law breakers, we owe them zero. If you feel that I am prejudiced because I lived elbow to elbow with swarms of illegal aliens and had my own series of substantially less than positive encounters with them wherever I turned, then so be it. I found their collective least common moral and social denominator driven wolf pack activity mentality to be quite disturbing. I once found myself in a rather tenuous position directly witnessing one of the local Mexican alien wolf packs harassing a young Caucasian woman at a local convenience store and there was not much that I could do about it because they out numbered me 6 to 1. That was really pretty unnerving for me. My only option was to call 911 and I did not like that at all.

Personally, I believe that your reaction to typically uncouth and rather rude personal behavior of the non English speaking roofer was totally understated and about as middle of the road and neutrally nice as you could be. There was absolutely no reason there for anyone to take offense at your statement, however that particular illegal Mexican alien supporting behavior just seems to be par for the course today. For me, I get absolutely seethingly incensed whenever someone starts a sentence with, "Well, you know that we cannot round them up and deport them, . . . " Candidly, I have absolutely no idea why we in the US cannot do exactly that. Why in holy hell should we have to foot the social bill for decades and decades of total government despotic corruption and associated government condoned crime in Mexico that has forced the native Mexicans out. The government of Mexico has made their legacy of government graft and corruption our problem (totally in spades).

And for me, the very first tip off for finding the illegals here is to look for packs of Spanish speaking folks with brown skin, brown eyes, and in many cases seriously bad oral hygiene. Another clue is that in a lot of instances this particular target group doesn't have any appropriate legal immigration status indicating documentation. Surprise, surprise, surprise. For openers as a solution, whenever an illegal crosses paths with any aspect of our US law enforcement or US social services (via domestic disturbance, traffic accident, traffic law infraction, applications for services, etc.) and they cannot document their legal existence here then lock them up and deport them.

It would also be prudent for our prison system to deport back to Mexican custody all of the illegals currently incarcerated. That would supposedly free up a minimum of 35% of our overall prison system capacity. Then, why not have the US government set up a special deal with Aero Mexico after which we can do a wholesale round up, deportation, and dump of each and every illegal Mexican alien on a remote airfield on the way southern border of Mexico? Then let's see then how many illegals can make the entire pan Mexican cross country trip in order to reenter the US illegally again. Maybe those that can figure out how make it again can be allowed to stay as they are really some pretty seriously stout folks.

Additionally, the porous border problem could be fixed in several months at minimal expense by establishing a series of tall, armored, and secure guard towers along the border and populating the towers with round the clock border guards armed with night vision equipped .50 caliber sniper type of weapons and instructions of shoot to kill at the border line. That is a 100% clean, relatively inexpensive, and totally workable solution. Overnight you would find that our borders would be secure and that they would stay that way for the duration. With numerous people coming across our southern border seemingly wishing to do us in, the use of deadly force to guard our border only makes good sense. As an additional benefit, this armed border guard approach would also immediately stem the entire flow of illegal drugs from over the border. As you might notice, I am not in the the moderate or the liberal camp of what to do with all of the illegals.

And then while we are at it, I believe that we should rescind the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which allows the illegals to come over pregnant and drop their 'anchor' babies. That Amendment was originally designed to give bona fide unquestionable citizenship status to the children of emancipated black slaves. It was not designed to provide a safe haven for Mexican criminals.

So, those are my off the top of the head seriously proposed solutions to the illegal alien problem and my suggestions to stem the tide of the additional flow of illegals. Given the widening stress fractures that I see developing throughout our entire societal economic and social fabric, we are in truly deep shit already and it is time for quite serious measures to bring us back to just a moderate social and economic loss position as a country. Otherwise, my sincere fear is that we are headed toward some type of a general uprising and eventual revolution. Not cool, but perhaps necessary. Really big sigh here.

Patterns2

Supreme Court's ruling on corporate campaign spending

Luxury downturn hits U.S. beaver trappers

Robert Reich's Vetting vs Sarah Palin's

You Should Vote Republican if You Believe the Following:

"McCain Proposes a $300 Million Prize for a Next-Generation Car Battery"

"Big Oil Firms Ready to Sign Agreements With Iraq

Two-Year, No-Bid Contracts Aimed at Boosting Production"

Obama’s New Web Site Strikes Back at ‘Dishonest Smears’

Hooray!

Fighting Global Inflation Dynamics

In swift rebuff, House overrides Bush veto of farm bill

Republicans broke with White House on the measure

With a Senate override vote all but guaranteed, Congress prepared to deliver only the second veto override of Bush's presidency and the first on a major piece of legislation.

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS March 3, 2008 – 4:01 p.m.

The Texas Primary Explained: Why Tuesday’s Dem Winner May Not Be Obvious

By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Texas Democratic Election a Primary/Caucus Hybrid, requires an extra trip to the polls

Daily KOS

Cheers and Jeers: Wednesday

by Bill in Portland Maine

Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 06:10:48 AM PST

Banking on Becoming President

False Pretenses

Following 9/11, President Bush and seven top officials of his administration waged a carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Does Chris Matthews have a problem with women?

"I WANNA BE LIKE OSAMA"

"Rumfeld Remains Defense Department ‘Consultant,’ Opens ‘Transition Office’ Near Pentagon"

Bush Is Prepared to Veto Bill to Expand Child Insurance

Saturday, July 07, 2007

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
March 3, 2008 – 4:01 p.m.