Lost and Confused - George at his best

He thinks it’s a friggin’ joke:

If Impeachment wouldn’t just make it worse…….but really the man is just a moron.

Oh how wish I could comment but......

Due to my personal occupation as Telecom Manager for a major corporation it just wouldn’t be prudent (as GHWB would say)…..

So I will have to let others……

Think Progress
Daily KOS
The Body Politik

Plus I would hate to have them kill my Internet connection

Deadbeat Dads - get a small fraction of what should be coming to them

Mary T. Wagner’s essay for the Washington Post “Corralling Deadbeat Dads” gets to the heart of the matter…..or rather the lack of heart.

Statistics on the Web site of the federal Administration for Children and Families show that the federal and state partnership governing child support enforcement carried a caseload of 15.9 million families in fiscal 2005. Those numbers reflect the mandatory inclusion of parents who have custody and receive some kind of government benefits, and other custodial parents who voluntarily seek state help in getting their child-support orders enforced.

During that fiscal year, more than 11 million of those cases were listed as having some kind of child support arrears due -- and only a little more than half of those were listed as having payments coming in toward the arrears in child support. That's a lot of money not sent or spent on shoes, school supplies, haircuts or summer camp.

How, just how do these guys walk away from their children’s welfare like that.

I’m sorry but 2 and half years is not enough. Any man who walks away from supporting his children should be chemically castrated to ensure he never reproduces again…and you all thought I was a bleeding heart liberal…then put to work in a forced labor camp where every cent earned goes to catch up back support.

I have a 7 year old daughter who is the joy of my life, and no matter what negative thing could ever happen between my wife and I (and I pray everyday nothing ever does), I could never walk away from her emotionally or financially and live with myself.

I am not talking about those who choose to put their child up for adoption, just the opposite, I believe those individuals made the ultimate sacrifice to do what they truly felt was best for their child at heart wrenching personal expense.

I am talking about those who have chosen to walk away from clear moral and legal obligations they have to the welfare of their child(ren). I have no sympathy for them.

Yet there is a large group of Dads who I do have sympathy for, the ones who are up to date on support and do make every effort to be a part of their child(ren)'s life, yet they have to deal an ex-(wife-gf-lover etc) who uses the children as a weapon .... and yes I will stick my neck out and and say this is done by women much, much more often then it is ever done by the men.....they withhold visitation, they create every obstacle possible to the father being in their child's life.

So there now I have successfully pissed off everyone......could there be anything more pragmatic?

Fred Thompsons campaign heading in what direction ?

"George Allen has joined the Fred Thompson '08 campaign. I assume he¹s not there as speech coach."

Will Durst

Was Qwest CEO Punished for refusing NSA

That’s the question Raw Story asks:

A former CEO who stood up to the Bush administration's demands that he assist in the warrantless surveillance of Americans suggests in court documents that the National Security Agency withdrew a lucrative contract in retaliation for his refusal.

USA Today revealed last year that Qwest was the only phone company not to comply with the NSA's request to compile phone records into a massive computer database, which it said was instituted only after 9/11.

Stern said at the time that Nacchio had asked the NSA whether "a warrant or other legal process had been secured." Stern said Nacchio learned there was a "disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process" and concluded that "the requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommunications Act."

....and I unfortunately can not comment

Time for Prolifers to start acting like it

They claim to be pro-life yet they vote against health care for poor and lower middle class kids, they claim to be pro-life yet they support the death penalty (which all studies show is unequally applied by race), They claim to be pro-life yet support the indiscriminate massacre of untold thousands during the bombing of Iraq when they posed no threat to us.

Now they have chance to actually do something pro-life.

A new study shows that making abortion illegal does nothing to lower the abortion rate, it just increases the death rate of the mothers.

A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.

Moreover, the researchers found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortion accounts for 13 percent of women’s deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, and there are 31 abortions for every 100 live births, the study said.

It is time that pro-lifers to start truly trying to reduce the need for abortion. This study shows that millions have been wasted in trying to make abortions illegal in this country. Just think what that money could have done to actually reduce the need for abortions, by educating our kids about safe sex instead of these namby-pamby abstinence only classes that have shown to have no impact.

Sexual Behaviors—Six evaluations measured short-term changes in sexual behavior.

• Three of six programs had no impact on sexual behavior (California, Maryland, and Missouri).
• Two of six programs reported increases in sexual behavior from pre- to posttest (Florida and Iowa). It was unclear whether the increases were due to youth's maturation or to a program's effect, as none of these evaluations included a comparison group.
• One of the six programs showed mixed results (Pennsylvania).

Income inequality worst since 1920s, according to IRS data

Boy we know what happened then………….Raw Story reminds us:

The superrich are gobbling up an ever larger piece of the economic pie, and the poor are seeing their share of earnings shrink: new IRS data shows the top 1 percent of Americans are claiming a larger share of national income than at any time since before the Great Depression.

Chalk another one up for Racism in the USofA

Black Man kills a dog, he goes to jail……White Man kills a Black Boy, no big deal (yes I know the defendants were of multi ethnic backgrounds, but let’s not kid ourselves , the all white jury failed to convict because whites were on trial also)

After only about two hours of deliberations, a jury in the boot camp case returned not guilty verdicts against all eight defendants today about 1:15 p.m. Central Time.

The six-member, all white jury found seven guards and a nurse not guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-year-old boy who died on his first day at the camp after an altercation with guards.

The judge announced the unanimous verdicts, acquitting guards Henry Dickens Jr., Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr., and Joseph Walsh II, and nurse Kristin Schmidt.

Which one of the rightwing nuts job will be the first to blame the boy and his family and insist that they should return the the settlement from the state on the civil issues…my money is on Coulter.

Can we start a pool???

Moral Crisis on the Right - Who Woulda Thunk it DOH!!!!

PAUL KRUGMAN of the NY Times brings us more on the bashing that the rightwing nut jobs have trying to do on the Graeme Frost 12 year old.

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.

Meanwhile, leading conservative politicians, far from trying to distance themselves from these smears, rush to embrace them. And some people in the news media are still willing to be used as patsies.

Study reveals stressed out 7-11 year-olds

Boy and we here in Florida require 9^th graders to choose a “Major”…… I would guess the kids in Britain are not much different then here in the good ol’ USofA …….the fascists in charge here are not letting go of national testing either.

The Guardian has a round up on a Cambridge study:

Today's Cambridge University report, Community Soundings, says national tests leave most children stressed and some middle class parents paying for a "parallel" education system employing tutors to get children through their exams even before the age of 11.

Some pupils said the tests were "scary" and made them nervous.

"These findings do build up to a sense that important changes are needed within the primary sector," said Robin Alexander, a fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a former professor of education at Leeds and Warwick, who is heading the Primary Review. Today's research will feed into the review, which reports in a year's time and is expected to have a significant influence on education policy.

He said: "The surprise is that although we made considerable efforts to tap a wide range of opinions inside and outside of schools ... there was a large degree of consensus on what are the big issues."

Many adults questioned for the study voiced concerns over the influence of the media on children and pressures of consumerism while more suggested that they believed that there is a break down in family life and community.

"The responses reveal a pervasive anxiety about the current educational and social contexts ... and a deeper pessimism about the world in which today's children are growing up," the report says.

Pupils feared the world outside their school gate - those in urban areas were particularly worried about violent crime although parents' biggest fear for their children was traffic accidents.

Researchers found that pupils in schools which tackled the problems they worried about, such as those with eco-clubs and recycling schemes to teach children about environmental problems, were happier.

"Where schools had started engaging children with global and local realities as aspects of their education they were noticeably more upbeat. In several schools children were involved in environmental projects and the sense that 'we can do something about it' seemed to make all the difference," they write.

School staff told the researchers that some parents were not involved enough, while others were too "pushy" and demanding of their children academically. The General Teaching Council for England opposes national tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-olds, the results of which are published in league tables and scrutinized by parents when choosing a school. Wales has scrapped them. Ministers in England are adamant that they will remain.

Oh my! I thought we got past this part......

In eyes of a prominent seminary, a women's place is at home.

At a Texas school, homemaking classes help to teach women how to serve men.

This fall, the internationally known seminary -- a century-old training ground for Southern Baptists -- began reinforcing those traditional gender roles with college classes in homemaking. The academic program, open only to women, includes lectures on laundering stubborn stains and a lab in baking cookies. Soon there will be classes teaching how to set tables and sustain lively dinner-time conversation.

It all sounds wonderful to sophomore Emily Felts, 19, who signed up as soon as she arrived on campus this fall. Several relatives have told Felts that she is selling herself short. They want her to become a lawyer, and she agrees she would make a good one. But that's not what she wants to do with her life. More to the point, it's not what she believes God wants of her. "My created purpose as a woman is to be a helper," she said firmly.

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

The NY Times has the lead story:

''His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change,'' the citation said. ''He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.''

Let’s see 3^rd Democratic Presidents or VP to win the NPP…….The Republic party 1 (and for that you have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt…..who would be marginalized in today’s Republic party)

The Rats are leaving the sinking ship

The Republic party can expect a lot more “defection” at the state and national level in the next 12 months.

Saying the Republican Party no longer represented her values, Republican state Rep. Debbie Stafford of Aurora announced today she is switching parties, becoming the 40th Democrat in the state House of Representatives….. I am not leaving the Republican Party as much as I believe the Republican Party left me."

We heard a lot of that from the Dixie democrats in the mid 90’s……my how the pendulum swings.

Did Ann finally have her "Imus" moment

Will the MSM news channels finally quit giving her the forum to spew her venom?

The Raw Story among others has more

Host Donny Deutsch asked Coulter what her ideal picture of America looked like and she recalled the 2004 Republican convention in New York City.

 "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America," she said.

Deutsch asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?"

Coulter replied "yes," and reiterated her declaration again later in the interview, although she denied wanting to wipe all Jews off the map.

"We just want Jews to be perfected, as they say," Coulter said.

 

Redneck Rash!!!!!

This is the best ever!!!

House aides visiting racetracks advised to get immunized

NASCAR fans might seem rabid, but are they actually contagious?

Getting a hepatitis shot is standard procedure for travelers to parts of Africa and Asia, but some congressional aides were instructed to get immunized before going to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord and the racetrack in Talladega, Ala.

The House Homeland Security Committee planned a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings and decided to conduct the research at two of the nation's most heavily attended sporting events, NASCAR's Bank of America 500 event this weekend and the UAW-Ford 500 last weekend.

Republic party is starting to panic over all the retirements

Jim Ramstad is being begged by national party leaders to reenter the race, as they fear a major blow out in ‘08

Political observers note that while Ramstad's third congressional district in the Twin Cities' western suburbs has historically leaned Republican, a Ramstad decision to postpone his retirement could save the cash-strapped GOP campaign committee as much as $1 million to defend the seat, a factor that could be huge in a tough presidential election year.

"With Jim Ramstad out of the race, it will be a competitive district, and probably a seven-figure race on each side," said former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, a prominent GOP strategist and lobbyist in Washington. "With Jim in it, it's a put-down hand for the Republicans."

These guys amaze me, they spend the last 12 years marginalizing a quality moderate like Ramstad and when he finally says “enough is enough” they start begging him to stay…..they are in a world of hurt in ‘08

 

About-face: Tutu gets St. Thomas invite

After having caved to a small number vocal critics of Bishop Tutu and refusing a department request to invite him to speak, St. Thomas' president, the Rev. Dennis Dease, change his mind. On Wednesday. Due only to the pressure brought by the blogosphere after the City Pages pointed it out.

The Reverend attempts a Mea Culpa:

"I have wrestled with what is the right thing to do in this situation, and I have concluded that I made the wrong decision earlier this year not to invite the archbishop," Dease wrote. "Although well-intentioned, I did not have all of the facts and points of view, but now I do."

But it is tough to explain this away when this is the same guy who approved an Ann Coulter visit to campus 2 years ago,

Let’s hope Bishop Tutu blows them off and speaks at Metropolitan State University instead.

GOP out of Touch on Economy

"At the Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan, candidates expressed amazement that Americans think a recession is near. You know what these guys need? An advisor who actually works for a living"

Will Durst

http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/10/dose_of_durst_64.html

Pres. Carter: US tortures prisoners, 'I know it'

The Raw Story has a great story & the video on the CNN Wolf Blitzer interview with President Carter:

Former president Jimmy Carter isn't just suspicious that the US is using torture to extract intelligence from detainees -- he's absolutely convinced.

Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if, by Carter's definition of the word, the United States had used torture during the Bush administration, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was adamant:"I don't think it, I know it," he said.

"Certainly."Pressed by Blitzer on whether that meant that President Bush was lying, Carter was equally clear."The president is self-defining what we have done and authorized in the torture of prisoners," said Carter."Yes."

Jimmy kicks Cheney’s Ass too:

Carter was equally outspoken in a Wednesday interview with the BBC, calling Vice President Dick Cheney a "disaster," according to Reuters.

"He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military," he said of Cheney, adding that the vice president "has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world."

Bush's torturers follow where the Nazis led

Andrew Sullivan points out that the Bushies have everything but the goose step down:

George Orwell would have been impressed by the phrase “enhanced interrogation technique”. By relying on it, the White House spokesman last week was able to say with a straight face that the administration strongly opposed torture and that “any procedures they use are tough, safe, necessary and lawful”.

So is “enhanced interrogation” torture? One way to answer this question is to examine history. The phrase has a lineage. Verschärfte Verneh-mung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the “third degree”. It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.

Old George Orwell had it right, just 25 years off on the date. (Although in all fairness Reagan set the whole thing in motion with phrases like “peace keeper missiles”.

The last of our moral high ground - Gone!!

It is gone, we have lost the last piece of moral high ground we had.

When our Government can kidnap an innocent man from a foreign country…render him for torture in a third country and simply wash our hands of it with no redress available to the victim, it’s over , we have become what we claim to be fighting against, and the right-wing nut jobs that run this government just don’t see it.

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets

The Washington post reports on just how inept our current Government is:

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

 

What a bunch of clowns we have running the place

Rightwing nut jobs at it again

Think Progress explores just how low the wing-nut right will go.

They have no shame and almost Always distort the truth………

Think Progress points out that they’ll even tell half-truths and lies about a 12 year old if it helps maintain the fascist state, as in the case of Graeme Frost who delivered the Democratic response to Bush's weekly babble the Saturday before last.

Here are the facts that the right-wing distorted in order to attack young Graeme:

1) Graeme has a scholarship to a private school. The school costs $15K a year, but the family only pays $500 a year.

2) His sister Gemma attends another private school to help her with the brain injuries that occurred due to her accident. The school costs $23,000 a year, but the state pays the entire cost.

3) They bought their “lavish house” sixteen years ago for $55,000 at a time when the neighborhood was less than safe.

4) Last year, the Frost’s made $45,000 combined. Over the past few years they have made no more than $50,000 combined.

5) The state of Maryland has found them eligible to participate in the CHIP program.

The Inconsistent Waffle Factor

Shankar Vedantam points out that apparently it’s ok for conservative republicans to flip flop, just not liberal democrats:

The psychologists found that while waffling among all candidates was frowned upon, voters were more likely to punish Democrats who waffled. "Moreover," they noted in an article they published this year in the North American Journal of Psychology, "the Democratic candidate was perceived to be more of a waffler and was less likely to be voted for than the Republican candidate."

Mitt and Rudy have got to be loving this bit of news.

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal

Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

Washington Post
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.

"I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."

So just as Dick predicted back in 1992………we’re stuck there.

God's Only Party

God’s Only Party
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071007_gods_only_party/
Posted on Oct 7, 2007
By Will Durst
Earlier this week, a clandestine cadre of controlling conservative Christian captains (bunch of right wing religious nut jobs is what I’m getting at), threatened to run from the GOP like ducks from an alligator the size of a Buick if any infidel they don’t anoint is nominated for president. And yes, specific former New York City Mayors were mentioned. Funny you should ask.
At a meeting in Salt Lake City, (where else- you thought Vegas maybe?) Heaven’s Soldiers, collectively decided they would rather support a burned- beyond- recognition, duck- billed- platypus with wire- coat- hanger hands than a certain Mr. Rudolph Giuliani. Apparently the Mayor of 9/11 is not the answer to their prayers.
Oh, they have their reasons. Mr Giuliani’s serial inclination to appear at fundraisers in drag, resulting in his being photographed wearing a dress more often than Hillary Clinton, could be one. His brazen courting of the pro choice, pro gay rights, pro gun control wing of the Republican Party might be another. The fact that the Rudy clan, including both ex wives, (two too many) are campaigning for other people, doesn’t help much either. A bit of a sticky wicket that: trying to swing Independents with your Family Value bonafides, when your own family hates you. With megaphones.
The zealot heads went so far as to talk out loud about forming their very own party if Giuliani does weasel his way to the top of the ticket. And since white Protestant Evangelicals make up a third of the electorate in the early primary states of Iowa and South Carolina, they believe the threat of mass defection is too big of a bluff for the GOP leadership to call. Because, as we all know, a Republican Party without Christian conservatives is like a snake handler with no snake. A scorpion minus the stinger. Hell without dental surgery.
You might think this is one of those cut off your nose to spite your face kind of deals, because, well, it is. But evangelicals are sick and tired of being taken for granted, and count on party bigwigs to remember how Ross Perot threw the 92 & 96 elections to Bill Clinton. Which in those kinds of Kool- Aid circle jerks is like handing the keys of your children’s soul to Satan for a bucket of deep fried Twinkies. But let’s leave Bush’s fiscal policy out of this.
Not only are some dogmatic noses severely out of joint from having the door of implemented policy change slammed in their apostolistic faces, but they also have a few canonistic bones to pick with some of their recent higher profile disciples like Mark Foley, David Vitter, Larry Craig and the Creator’s own personal mouthpiece, Ted Haggard. Guys whose newsreels feature more extra curricular sexual footage than you’d run into at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch during an after hours party for the Adult Video Awards.
Of course, if they do form a third party, the big question is what to call it? “The Holier Than Thou Party,” is a bit put offish. “God’s Only Party” would be confusing, especially if the media tried to acronym it. “The Everyone Has to Live Like We Think They Should Live Party” is probably too long. I did come up with the perfect name, but unfortunately, “The Taliban,” is already taken.

MPR - Select a Candidate

Select a Candidate

The first one I have seen for 2008

This one is a simple 14 item quiz from the folks at Minnesota Public Radio to see which candidate best reflects your views on issues facing us today.

I will be keeping an eye out for additional candidate selectors as they come online.

Here's another one

And don’t forget the old stand by Political Compass, if you just want to see where you are on the political compass compared to friends, family or the current batch the egomaniacs who want to be President.

You show me yours, I will show you mine J

Does CNN have the gonads to use this

Young Alex Dowd does a great job on this:


So will CNN have the gonads to use this in the debate

VOTER FRAUD: Texas GOP Leader Claims to Combat Voting Fraud - Even While Committing it in the Legislature

And listen to the lame excuses she gives for the practice. The hypocrisy is incredible

NeoCon Gold - So True, Yet So Scary

Blimptv.com has an absolutely hilarious parody of the classic TV record pitch called NeoCon Gold

It reminds me of my favorite Drew Carey show of all time – Whose line is it, anyway?

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for pointing it out this morning

Surtax on war is sacrifice we can all make — right?

Surtax on war is sacrifice we can all make, right?
Would conservatives and Republicans support the war in Iraq if they had to pay for it?

This is the immensely useful question that Rep. David Obey, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, put on the table this week by calling for a temporary war tax to cover President Bush's request for $145 billion in supplemental spending for Iraq.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5192545.html