Florida - Voter Supression Is The Norm

Election Day in Florida May Look Familiar

The League of Women Voters in Florida and its 27 local groups have helped thousands of residents register to vote over the years.

But just over a week ago, the organization’s leaders said they would have to stop their current drive because the state’s top election official planned to enforce strict deadlines and fines of up to $1,000 for groups that lose voter registration forms or turn them in late.

“We’re an all-volunteer organization,” said Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti, president of the League of Women Voters in Florida, which plans to sue. “It’s a matter of being able to protect the leagues from liability.”

Eight years after the debacle of “hanging chads,” Florida once again seems to be courting electoral trouble. A handful of laws have been passed since the 2000 presidential recount, with state officials saying they bring order to a chaotic system.

“Some say we err on the side of caution,” said Joe Pickens, a Republican from Palatka who served on the Florida House’s Ethics and Elections Committee in 2005 and 2006. “I would say that’s the place we should be.”

But Election Day may end up looking oddly familiar. According to independent elections experts at Pew’s Electionline.org and other organizations, it is now harder to vote here than in nearly every other state in the nation. Some critics predict that tens of thousands of potential voters will be kept off the rolls — many of them poor, black or Hispanic.

What is amazing is that we (the good ol’ USofA) would have a cow over these same issues in the running of an election in some third world country, Here we are this “great” example of democracy suppressing minority votes, with no working election commission and the high courts blessing. We have about as good a chance as a free and fair election this fall as Zimbabwe.

McCain Of The Moment -Katrina

The McCain of The Moment wants you to believe he would have been all over the Katrina thing unlike GWB.

McCain to New Orleans: Never again

McCain was unsparing in his criticism of the Bush administration on Katrina, and said members of Congress must share the blame for putting money into pork-barrel projects when those dollars could have been used to fortify the region against disaster. He said his record was clean on that count, with a consistent opposition to wasteful spending.

Without mentioning Bush directly, McCain said that when Katrina struck, "If I had been president, I would have ordered the plane landed at the nearest base and I'd have been over here." He repeated that later, saying, "I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."

But pictures tell a different story – the folks at “seeds of doubt” made a nice little poster to remind us what McCain of The Moment was doing when Katrina hit.

The Real McCain - Wow The Mainstream Media Starts To Notice

McCain offers tax policies he once opposed

Reversal includes new support for Bush cuts

On May 26, 2001, after then-Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) cast his vote against President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut, he trudged back to his office, convinced, he recalled, that he had been the lone Republican to oppose the largest tax cut in two decades.

But Chafee's staff told him that one other Republican, who had largely avoided the grueling efforts at compromise, had joined him in dissent. That senator, John McCain, was marching to his own beat, Chafee said, impervious to pressure from either side.

Now that he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, however, McCain is marching straight down the party line. The economic package he has laid out embraces many of the tax policies he once decried: extending Bush's tax cuts he voted against, offering investment tax breaks he once believed would have little economic benefit and granting the long-held wishes of tax lobbyists he has often mocked.

Boy it’s about time, they are just now noticing this guy will do and say anything to become President.

Our Police State

U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population. But it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations.

Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences.

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China's extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

………….

There is little question that the high incarceration rate here has helped drive down crime, though there is debate about how much.

Criminologists and legal experts here and abroad point to a tangle of factors to explain America's extraordinary incarceration rate: higher levels of violent crime, harsher sentencing laws, a legacy of racial turmoil, a special fervor in combating illegal drugs, the American temperament, and the lack of a social safety net. Even democracy plays a role, as judges — many of whom are elected, another American anomaly — yield to populist demands for tough justice.

Whatever the reason, the gap between American justice and that of the rest of the world is enormous and growing.

 

This will come back to bite us, as we create a generation of career criminals.

What Really Happens With Republicans In Charge

David Fiderer @ The Huffington Post puts some interesting numbers together, read this and ask yourself. why, oh why do people vote republican? Oh and this will even be uglier after 2008 is added.

The Simple Arithmetic of Republican Failure:

Numbers tell a story. Especially over time. They compel us to focus on results -- success and failure. Over the short term, maybe a few years, numbers can be manipulated or give false signals. But not over decades, and not over a generation. The numbers over the past 30 years are not refutable. When it comes to creating jobs and managing the nation's finances, Democratic presidents demonstrate success while Republican presidents show failure.

Job Creation

Jimmy Carter, 1977-1980: 10.5 million new jobs
Bill Clinton, 1993-1996: 11.6 million new jobs
Bill Clinton, 1997-2000: 12.4 million new jobs
Total: 33.6 million jobs created over 12 years, or 2.8 million jobs per year

Ronald Reagan 1981-1984: 5.2 million new jobs
Ronald Reagan 1985-1988: 10.8 million new jobs
George H.W. Bush 1989-1992: 2.6 million new jobs
George W. Bush 2001-2004: 0.2 million fewer jobs
George W. Bush 2005-2007: 5.5 million new jobs
Total: 24 million jobs created over 19 years, or 1.3 million jobs per year

Government Spending

How much did the government spend for every dollar of revenue?
Jimmy Carter, 1977-1980: $ 1.16
Bill Clinton, 1993-1996: $1.25
Bill Clinton, 1997-2000: $1.01
Democratic Average: $1.16

Ronald Reagan 1981-1984: $1.31
Ronald Reagan 1985-1988: $1.38
George H.W. Bush 1989-1992: $1.34
George W. Bush 2001-2004: $1.27
George W. Bush 2005-2007: $1.24
Republican Average: $1.29

The difference between $1.16 and $1.29 may not seem like a lot, but the impact on the national debt is huge, especially when you consider that $1.29 applies to 19 years, and the budgets under this president are so much larger.

Increases in Government Debt

Growth In Debt Held By the Public [$US trillions]
Jimmy Carter, 1977-1980: 0.2
Bill Clinton, 1993-1996: 0.7
Bill Clinton, 1997-2000: -0.3
Democratic Total: 0.6

Ronald Reagan 1981-1984: 0.6
Ronald Reagan 1985-1988: 0.7
George H.W. Bush 1989-1992: 0.9
George W. Bush 2001-2004: 0.9
George W. Bush 2005-2007: 1.1
Republican Total: 4.3

The financial markets only pay attention to the amount of debt held by the public. This is the number that helps drive down the value of?the dollar and makes bankers nervous about inflation down the road.

Growth of Debt Held By "Government Accounts" [$US trillions]

Jimmy Carter, 1977-1980: 0.00
Bill Clinton, 1993-1996: 0.4
Bill Clinton, 1997-2000: 0.8
Democratic Total: 1.3

Ronald Reagan 1981-1984: 0.1
Ronald Reagan 1985-1988: 0.3
George H.W. Bush 1989-1992: 0.5
George W. Bush 2001-2004: 0.8
George W. Bush 2005-2007: 1.4
Republican Total: 3.0

Debt held in government accounts is very much a misnomer. Debt, in the real world, is a fixed obligation to make a payment on a specific date. Not so for debt held in government accounts, according to this White House.

The Bush administration opposes including Social Security and Medicare in the audited deficit. Its reason: Congress can cancel or cut the retirement programs at any time, so they should not be considered a government liability for accounting purposes." USA Today, August 3, 2006

This subject warrants a separate article, but, there, in a nutshell, is the basis for the Republicans' "Social Security Reform."

In very simple terms, what happens is that the money contributed by everyone into Social Security, intended to build up a surplus to fund the baby boomers' nest egg for their retirement years, is actually used to reduce the government's reported deficit. Is it a huge scam? You bet. President Clinton, anticipating the problem, proposed some kind of undefined "lockbox" to prevent the pillaging of the Social Security surplus that's taken place under the current White House. Of course, the Republicans shot that down.

Anyone who speaks of a crisis in Social Security is really talking about a problem that can be laid at the Republicans' doorstep. It's not class warfare, just simple arithmetic.

Sources:
Job Creation: Bureau of Labor Statistics Seasonally adjusted nonfarm payrolls, calculated on calendar years
Government Spending: OMB, On-Budget Outlays divided by On-Budget Revenues
Increases in Government Debt: OMB

 

Another Victim Of Economic Debacle - Honey Bee Farmers

Mystery Solved – We have all been wondering what was the root cause of the great honey bee crisis – now we know, Honey Bee Farmers are just another victim of the failed Bush economy. The Bees have taken a page from the “Bee Movie” and have decided to slum in abandoned houses.

 

Floridian Is the One to Call When Bees Move In

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — In a county with one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates, empty houses have attracted a new type of nonpaying tenant: bees.

Tens of thousands of honeybees, building nests in garages, rafters, even furniture left behind.

When a swarm came to the foreclosed ranch house at 3738 Santa Barbara Place in Cape Coral, town officials called B. Keith Councell, a fourth generation beekeeper and licensed bee remover.

On a recent evening, Mr. Councell stood at the light blue house’s open garage door as hundreds of honeybees buzzed over his head and past his ears, disappearing into a hole behind the water meter. The house has been without a human occupant since December.

Then he did what he does at most foreclosed homes: nothing.

“If it’s in the yard I just take care of it,” Mr. Councell said. “But if it’s in the structure, usually I can’t get permission to go in. And it’s a problem, because somebody’s going to get stung. It creates a risk for everybody around.”

Foreclosed houses around the country have been colonized by squatters, collegiate revelers, methamphetamine cooks, stray dogs, rats and other uninvited guests. Mr. Councell, 35, only has eyes for bees.

Last year, he said, he answered calls about bees in more than 100 vacant houses, and the volume was higher this year.

Lee County, on Florida’s southwest coast, was until recently a boom area, with brightly colored ranch houses and Spanish-style bungalows drawing investors, snowbirds and refugees from colder climates, followed by new malls and big-box retail stores. Muscovy ducks wander through yards. But like other fast-growth regions, the county is now a focal point in the foreclosure meltdown. By one measure it had the highest foreclosure rate in the country earlier this year. “For Sale” signs and abandoned houses dot high- and low-income neighborhoods alike; billboards advertise foreclosure rescue services.

But for area bees, the real estate boom is just beginning. “Abandoned buildings attract bees,” said Roy Beckford, the University of Florida agricultural and natural resources agent in Lee County, who said he had received “quite a few calls” about bees in empty properties.

“Bees anywhere in the world will make homes in any building that is not occupied,” Mr. Beckford said. “They send scouts out, and find a place where they will not be disturbed. They’re looking for a sheltered place to build colonies and make honey.” Bees also live in occupied homes.

Most hives have 15,000 to 60,000 bees, said Prof. Jamie Ellis, a bee specialist at the University of Florida.

Mr. Councell said he noticed an increase in calls to vacant houses two years ago, and steadily more since then. “If that continues, then we’ve got a big problem,” he said.

Ok, ya got me, but I just couldn’t resist, it was just too funny to tie the two together. (wow and all three to,two,too;s in a single sentence)

1984 - The Bush Propaganda Machine

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.Skip to next paragraph

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

The never ending stream of propaganda , misinformation, hidden facts that has come from this administration has damaged our country beyond what most people realize, it will take decades to repair.

More - McCain of the Moment

He can’t even keep it straight to days in a row:

From Think Progress:

Yesterday, Bloomberg TV aired an interview between host Al Hunt and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which the presidential candidate attempted to distance himself from President Bush and empathize with middle-class Americans who are struggling financially:

I respect the views of people who basically think that the status quo is satisfactory today. I don’t. I think Americans are hurting, and hurting badly. In fact, I think Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago, when you look at what’s happened to middle-income Americans.

Watch it:

These remarks seem disingenous. On Thursday — just one day before the aforementioned interview, McCain also sat down with Bloomberg TV’s Peter Cook. During that interview, he said there had been “great progress economically” since Bush took office:

MR. COOK: You think if Americans were asked, are you better off today than you were before George Bush took office more than seven years ago, what answer would they give? […]

SEN. MCCAIN: I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time. But that’s no comfort. That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges.

So despite all this “great progress,” Americans are still “hurting badly”? Maybe that explains why McCain has said that many of the country’s economic problems are just “psychological.”

Imagine That - Crazy High Oil Prices After A Couple Oil Men Get Re-elected To The White House

There Is No Gas Shortage

But Washington, Wall Street, and ethanol and oil and gas
companies want you to think there is, says automotive expert Ed
Wallace

"It should be obvious to you all that the [gasoline] demand is
outstripping supply, which causes prices to go up."

- President George W. Bush,
Associated Press, Mar. 5, 2008

One wonders if verifiable facts ever get in the way of this
administration's statements on issues that are critical to the average
American's wellbeing. After all, last time I checked, when politicians are elected to public office, or appointed, as is Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, they must take an oath to the American people before assuming their new positions. How can they forget a sacred oath so quickly? Were they daydreaming when theytook it, so it never meant anything to begin with? Maybe it's just another promise you have to make to get into office: When you're securely incumbent you can ignore even solemn oaths you took.
............

1. There Is No Shortage

Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early
1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation's refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined. In fact, average gasoline reserves on hand have risen since this past October, while oil reserves in this country have gone up virtually every week this year-and only fog in the Houston Ship Channel that kept oil tankers from unloading their crude one week kept it from being every week........

Here's the scorecard, in case you missed it. There's no shortage of
gasoline or oil in the U.S. today, and we have near-record reserves on
hand. Meanwhile the Congressional mandate for ethanol has jacked up the price of chicken feed for Pilgrim's Pride, which is the U.S.'s largest processor of chickens and turkeys-by $1.3 billion. And that's for just one company processing chicken. This is what passes for acceptable to our Energy Secretary?

2. Demand Is DOWN, Yet Prices Are UP

Just so we can all get on the same page, here are the verifiable facts
on oil supplies, production, and gasoline demand.

In January of this year, the U.S. used 4% less petroleum than we did a
year ago. (Oil demand was down 3.2% in February.) Furthermore, demand has been falling slowly since July of last year. Ronald Bailey of Reason Online has pointed out that worldwide production of oil has risen 2.5% in the first quarter, while worldwide demand has grown by only 2%.

3. Speculation is Up, and the Dollar Is Down

......?. no less an authority than ExxonMobil Chief Executive Officer Rex
Tillerson was quoted by Marketwatch as saying, "The record run in oil prices is related more to speculation and a weakening dollar than supply and demand in the market." He added, "In termsof fundamentals, fear of supply reliability is overblown."

As for the speculators, in 2000 approximately $9 billion was invested in oil futures, while today that number has gone up to $250 billion. Now, if any publicly traded company had an additional $241 billion put into its stock in the same period, its stock would rise out of sight too-even if the company was not worth anywhere near that amount of market capitalization.

Moving on to the weak U.S. dollar as a primary cause for skyrocketing
oil prices-there is "some" truth in that statement. But consider this: The dollar has depreciated 30% against the world's currencies since 2002, while the price of oil has gone up 500%. So is it the weak dollar that has caused a 500% increase in the price of oil, or is it the extra $241 billion worth of speculation? You can make the call on that one.

Possibly just to ensure oil prices don't respond to real-world
marketconditions, Goldman Sachs forecast on Mar. 7 that turbulence in the oil market could cause oil to spike as high as $200 a barrel. This flies in the face of all known information-but then again, Goldman Sachs is the world's biggest trader of energy derivatives, and its Goldman Sachs Commodities Index is a widely watched barometer of energy and commodities prices.

We're Paying for What?

When it became undeniable that poor decision-making by company
executives had put a respected 85-year-old U.S. institution in financial peril, why did the Federal Reserve rush in to save investment bank Bear Stearns Of course, we need to restore confidence in our financial institutions, but why protect the personal assets of those who were responsible for the mess? Both the corporation's officers and its board members should contribute their personal assets toward saving the bank they put in the ditch-the bank all of us are going to pay to bail out.

Instead, the Bush administration is protecting those responsible for creating yet another speculative bubble in oil futures, and is protecting investors in the ethanol industry-much to the detriment of food-processing companies such as Pilgrim's Pride. And the net result of all this is that the prices of crude and gasoline rise ever higher thanks to a "shortage" that does not exist, while food costs are soaring thanks in part to the ethanol mandate.

The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, but the cost of mortgages goes up six weeks in a row-and last month Bank of America credit-card holders started being charged more than 24% interest on new purchases.

This is what they call "Republican Prosperity?" Ronald Reagan was both right and wrong when he said, "Government is not the solution, government is the problem." And government is still the problem. Instead of a fair and open market they gave us a free-for-all marketplace with no regulations at all, which lately these "bubble boys" have sent south for all of us.

One would guess that Washington missed the obvious: Protect all
U.S.consumers and you're also protecting business expansion.

This is payback time for George and Dick, pay off to their rich Oil friends
who funded their election campaigns in 2000-2004, now that they do not have
to worry about re-election, nor carrying the party through a midterm, they
can focus on what they really desire, forcing ?he country into a modern day
serfdom, With the working class toiling away to pay the exorbitant prices
charged by the wealthy class for goods and services

McCain Of The Moment

McCain Outlines Broad Proposals for U.S. Economy

VILLANOVA, Pa. — Senator John McCain offered the broadest look yet at his economic policies in a speech on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, outlining a series of tax reductions and backing away from his pledge to balance the budget by the end of his first term.

The speech, delivered on the deadline for filing taxes, afforded the clearest view to date of what McCainomics might look like. There was a dash of populism, as Mr. McCain criticized executive pay and corporate wrongdoing. There was a strong supply-side bent, with Mr. McCain focusing on cutting corporate taxes and making permanent the Bush tax cuts that he once opposed. And there was a decidedly less hawkish note on deficits, as Mr. McCain called for spending cuts but did not mention balancing the federal budget.

It’s not McCain’s Senior moments that are the problem, it’s the McCain of The Moment we need to worry about, is there any issue he has not been on both sides of?

Thought for the day

I guess I am in a reflective mood this morning and I found this thought from Anne Frank inspiring.

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.
Anne FrankOnly One Earth

1984 - It's Time For Regime Change

Administration Asserted a Terror Exception on Search and Seizure

 

The Justice Department concluded in October 2001 that military operations combating terrorism inside the United States are not limited by Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, in one of several secret memos containing new and controversial assertions of presidential power.

The memo, sent on Oct. 23, 2001, to the Defense Department and the White House by the Office of Legal Counsel, focused on the rules governing any deployment of U.S. forces inside the country "in the event of further large-scale terrorist activities" by al-Qaeda, a Justice Department official said yesterday.

Administration officials declined to detail what domestic military operations were being contemplated at the time, and the legal status of the secret memo is now unclear. Although the memo has not been formally withdrawn, the Justice Department yesterday repudiated the idea that there are no constitutional limits to military searches and seizures in a time of war, saying it depends on "the particular context and circumstances of the search," according to a statement.

The Fourth Amendment assertion is one of several far-reaching legal arguments revealed by the disclosure Tuesday of a 2003 Justice Department memo that authorized harsh military interrogations. In its footnotes, asides and central text, that 81-page memo asserted nearly unlimited presidential powers during a time of war, although the Justice Department later said the military should not rely on its reasoning.

The document disclosed, for example, that the administration's top lawyers had declared that the president has unfettered power to seize oceangoing ships as commander in chief; that Congress has no ability to pass legislation governing the interrogations of enemy combatants; and that federal laws prohibiting assault and other crimes did not apply to military interrogators who questioned al-Qaeda captives.

I am more convinced everyday that some Constitutional Crisis will arise that will require President Mugabe  Bush to suspend the constitution and not give up power.  Either that or another rigged election to ensure McCain can follow the fascist guidelines.

1984 - More Bush Censorship

Crooks and Liars has the whole story

A medical librarian, who ran a typical search on POPLINE, (the world’s largest database on reproductive health) found something very disturbing. The term “abortion” had been pretty much blocked from its database for normal searches . Go here and try the search. I did and got “No records found by latest query.”

What is POPLINE?

the world’s largest database on reproductive health, containing citations with abstracts to scientific articles, reports, books, and unpublished reports in the field of population, family planning, and related health issues. POPLINE is maintained by the INFO Project at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development. (USAID).

I was contacted yesterday by someone and given this email thread. Here’s what he/she said in the email:

The e-mail exchange below is fairly straight-forward: a governmental database on Population, POPLINE (POPulation OnLINE) has been changed so that one can no longer search the term “abortion.” As the representative from POPLINE states, “As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.”

I suspect pressure was placed from on high to do this. Why would the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where POPLINE is hosted, decide on its own to eliminate searching for information on abortion? I hope you can publicize this outrageous maneuver.

Here’s the email conversation that was posted here. It’s quite troubling. Names were edited for confidentiality!

Boy we are different from those repressive third world regimes how?

More Taser Tag - 11 Year Olds and Medical Conditions

It’s not Tasers in general I have a problem with, but that fact that incompetent cops are allowed to use them in situations that make no sense. We have police tasing an 11 year old girls, tasing a man who they were called to help because of obvious medical issues. Come on an 11 year old, if you cannot manage an 11 year old girl without a Taser no matter how out of control she is you are in the wrong job.

Man dies after Taser used

The Shawnee County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday released the identity of a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. employee who died Sunday after being tased by a sheriff's deputy.

The man who died was Walter E. Haake Jr., 59, of Lawrence. However, the sheriff's office released no other details about what led to the tasing at the Topeka Goodyear plant.

Early reports indicated Haake had been suffering from a medical condition and had resisted emergency personnel's efforts to subdue him. The sheriff's office said after several attempts to control Haake, a deputy used a Taser on him.

Haake was taken by ambulance to a Topeka hospital and later pronounced dead.

11-Year-Old Girl Tasered At School After Punching Officer In Face

An Orange County deputy said she had no choice but to shock an 11-year-old girl with a Taser on Thursday morning in an elementary school classroom. Deputies said it was to stop a violent temper tantrum.

The girl at Moss Park Elementary punched the deputy in the nose so hard the deputy went to the hospital. While an 11-year-old shocked by a Taser sounds extreme to some parents, other parents told Eyewitness News the girl deserved it.

More GOP Hypocrisy

Republicans lead "pork" spending lists: report

Republicans in the U.S. Congress, trying to appear frugal with taxpayer dollars this election year, found on Wednesday that some in their own ranks topped a list of "pork" spenders in a watchdog group's analysis of government waste.

The annual survey by Citizens Against Government Waste claims that 11,610 special-interest projects were stuffed into spending bills approved by the Democratic-led Congress last year at a $17.2 billion cost to taxpayers.

But according to the survey, it was individual Republicans who pushed the most "pork" last year. In addition, the three House of Representative Republicans who sponsored legislation calling for a moratorium on such spending all engaged in the practice, the report said. They are Jack Kingston of Georgia, Zach Wamp of Tennessee and Frank Wolf of Virginia.

For months, House Republican Leader John Boehner has been leading a crusade against such projects, known as "earmarks," which routinely benefit lawmakers' hometown districts.

Boehner, of Ohio, has called for suspending "pork" spending this year and has criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, for not yet agreeing to do so.

On Tuesday, House Republicans tried and failed to advance their earmark moratorium. Last month, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected a similar proposal.

House Republicans have attacked Democratic Rep. John Murtha for delivering a pile of special-interest funds to his western Pennsylvania district.

But according to the report, two House Republicans bested Murtha: Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who recently became a U.S. senator, and Rep. Bill Young of Florida. The two scored $176.3 million and $169.5 million in earmarks respectively, beating Murtha's $159.1 million.

Boy this one just isn’t working out the way John “tear in my eye” Boehner planned. The GOP was gonna pull a ”homeland security” number on the Dems this year with “earmarks” being the big issue, suddenly the party in control for 12 years was gonna find religion on “earmarks” and blame it all on the Dems. Guess they will have to find plan B as the rank and file ignored ya John (expect the 2 morons from Minnesota).

Stop Wasteful Earmarks. "In addition to supporting an immediate freeze on all
taxpayer-funded earmarks, House Republicans have called for a permanent end to
so-called 'monuments to me' (earmarks for projects named after Members of
Congress), unscrutinized 'airdropped' earmarks inserted into House-Senate
conference reports, and other reforms that will change the earmark process as we
know it. In addition to blocking a vote on the GOP-proposed moratorium,
Democratic leaders have refused to support these reforms, which have already
been adopted unilaterally by House Republicans."

Not quite the way it worked out huh John?

Glenn Beck - America'a Biggest Douche Bag

Glenn you dumb shit, contract? Contract my ass, as an employee of Wal-Mart there are no contracts for retail level employees, the language is in the lame ass insurance that the employee had no say in the selection of. Beck you are an absolute ass wipe, I am amazed someone can be so clueless. I struggle for words as I watch what has happened to this country in its march to fascism. I struggle because I am one of the lucky ones, I have a good education, a good job for a great employer(which unlike Wal-Mart has a level of social responsibility) and yet I see the middle class that I belong to becoming smaller and smaller as we are divided into haves and have-nots and the Becks of the world think it’s all just fine. I know the idiot says the things he does because it’s his “bit”, but dude, words have meaning and consequences.

The Douche Bag Rants:

But let me pile it on again. She not only has short-term memory loss and lost her son, that short-term memory loss allows her or forces her to forget that her son is dead. So every time she remembers her son, she says how is he, they have to say he's dead. So it's like he's dying all over again for the first time. Now how bad do you feel? Well, now I just want to rip the head off of Wal-Mart. For what? For what? Giving her the $470,000? Making sure that she was covered in medical care, making sure that she didn't have to fight soothe and nail for the medical care, that she got it. For what? You're mad at Wal-Mart for living up to their end of the bargain and then compromising and saying you owe me $470,000 but we'll take the $417,000 that you have in the trust fund? What? For making that compromise, you're angry with them?

Another curious statistic that has been tossed in every article I've seen about this is the net sales of Wal-Mart for the quarter, $90 billion. What does that have to do with this story? Here's what this story is about. You go to work; you do your job. You then go out and you're driving around and some senseless accident happens. You then have to have your medical bills paid. Your employer has done the right thing, has paid your medical expenses, has paid for your insurance, made sure that everything is up to date. He pays for it, makes sure that you're taken care of. Then you decide to sue. You sue. Well, you have this obligation to pay back that medical expense. You want to know why everybody's medical insurance is so expensive? Because everybody sues and nobody wants to take responsibility. Nobody wants to even take responsibility of saying, no, you know what, I don't think I need that test. Nobody wants to take responsibility in a doctor's office because they've got to give you that test because they know if they say "I don't think you need this test but if you want to get this test, we can get it." Even if they say that and you made the decision to not have that test, if it turns out you needed that test, you'll sue the doctor. Nobody's willing to take responsibility for anything. Nobody's word means anything anymore.

When you do business, your word is your bond. Everybody would be up in arms if Wal-Mart didn't cover this woman, but they did. All they're doing is asking for the money back that the insurance company spent. But everybody sees insurance companies as just these evil corporations that are just getting rich. And Wal-Mart is just getting rich. Do you know even their attorney said "We don't believe that they have a right, that the Shank family has a right to this money." We're not saying that Wal-Mart has a responsibility to pay us or to let us have this money. We just think it would be, you know, good of them. We think we deserve it more than them. Even their attorney says they don't have a right to this money.

Now, what happens to Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart, because everybody jumps on Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart decides to fold yesterday in the dumbest thing I think they could have ever done. You know what, Wal-Mart? I don't know how you got to be this big. I really don't. Because you're this stupid? Now you've just said that you're going to rewrite your medical insurance so it doesn't say that. It says we will review it on a case-by-case basis. Do you have an attorney? Is there anybody in your PR department? You're going to review it on a case-by-case basis. Hmmm. So in other words, you decide who you're going to help out and who you're not going to help out. Oh. Well, that doesn't sound like a litigation waiting to happen. That doesn't sound like a PR machine just gearing up. How many people are going to sue you now? How many people are going to say, wait a minute, Wal-Mart doesn't need that money. They have a policy, they review case by case. I lost my legs in a meat grinder making sausage on a Saturday and what happens? They don't pay me. Why? They pay the white woman. What about me? I'm black. Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure, the black guy, they paid the black guy who lost his leg in a sausage factory. I lost both of my eyes playing pickup sticks. What? Is it because I'm purple? They won't pay me because I'm purple? That's what's going to happen. More lawyers, more litigation, more people going after them with PR. And yet nobody in the media, nobody in the media. Wal-Mart can do no right to anyone. I'm not a big Wal-Mart fan. I mean, I want you to know I don't care about Wal-Mart. I really don't. But I am so tired of distortion. I am so sick and tired of the lies. I'm so sick and tired of principles not meaning anything. Once you get off of principles, principles are the things that tether you. You have to know what you believe because the storms are going to crash against you and you need to be tethered by principles. If you are not tethered by principles, you are going to crash against those rocks every time.

Well, what are the principles? The principles are right is right, wrong is wrong. No matter how much I need it, no matter how hard it is for me, no matter how much it sucks, it's not right. My word is my bond. I made an agreement. I didn't see it in there. Sorry. Man, it sucks. It's really going to be tough, but this is extortion. This is blackmail. I'll go to the media. I'll expose you. For what? For living up to my end of the bargain? For what? That is blackmail. And yet Wal-Mart folds. You don't deal with terrorists? Really? You just did. You just dealt with economic blackmailers. You had people who said, their own attorney said Wal-Mart, we can't legally ask them. They don't have to do this. But then -- and I don't even put it on the family as much as I do on the media. The media, they just -- MSNBC, man, they can just make hay with this. And what does Wal-Mart do? They make it worse for themselves in the long run and yet they won't say anything about, you know what, I give to charity.

Wal-Mart Caves - Sort Of!

Wal-Mart announced it would not require repayment from Debbie Shank and her family after their victory at SCOTUS:

Statement from David Nassar, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director: 

"We are elated that after months of public pressure and national outrage, Wal-Mart says it is finally going to do the right thing for Debbie Shank and her family. 

"During the past few weeks, Jim Shank has brought to life Debbie's tragic circumstances and vividly shown that her case is a scorching symbol of Wal-Mart's decision to insufficiently fund its health care plan for its 1.3 million U.S. workers.

"Debbie's case exemplifies what Wal-Mart Watch and others see every day:  the world's largest employer choosing to put less into its benefits than it should.  This leaves thousands of Wal-Mart associates with choices about preventative care and necessary care that are driven by what they can afford rather than by what is in their best interest.  Debbie Shank's story is not only a personal tragedy; it poses a cautionary tale for all Wal-Mart associates.

Do not get too excited folks, while this is great news for the Shank family Wal-Mart really never cared about the 470K, the issue is much bigger for them, they now have a legal precendent set that will allow them to do this same thing over and over again without all the bad press, a little bad press now followed by the last minute (after the SCOTUS win) cave costs them very little in short lived bad will. But now they can do this crap with impunity and it just will not be news. Big Win for Wally World, Big loss for middle america.