More Problems for Rudy are on the way

CBS reporter: Giuliani values 'loyalty over everything'

This week, a federal grand jury voted to indict Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, the corrupt protege of Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani, on charges stemming from tax evasion and corruption allegations. While it was believed that Giuliani did not know of Kerik's legal woes before they grew close, Andrew Kirtzman, a journalist for CBS 2 in NYC and a long-time Giuliani reporter, tells a different story.

"It turns out that Giuliani was briefed about Kerik's relationship with this allegedly mobbed-up company even before Giuliani named him police commissioner, long before Giuliani recommended Kerik to be Homeland Security Chief," he told John Roberts on CNN's American Morning. "So, it raises a lot of questions. Giuliani has a lot of questions to answer on the campaign trail about his judgment."

If our MSM ever gets off their collective arses and actually asks some tough question of Rudy, he is in deep sh*t.

You gotta be kidding......can't let a little bridge collapse mess with the hanky panky

MnDOT official fired over improper trips

The Minnesota Department of Transportation emergency response executive who failed to return to the state for 10 days after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed was fired Friday for taking unauthorized trips, making excessive personal calls on her MnDOT cell phone and bringing embarrassment to the state………

…..On the night before Pitt was to fly back to Minnesota, a shuttle service sent her a confirmation e-mail detailing where the driver would pick her up. The shuttle would pick her up at 6 a.m. at an address listed as Ferezan's residence, according to the e-mail and a review by the newspaper of Ferezan's prior addresses.

Documents show that Ferezan and Pitt met in mid-September 2006 at an infrastructure security conference in Orlando, Fla. Ferezan, 61, who lives in suburban Washington D.C., has some responsibilities for emergency coordination related to transportation security.

From TwinCities.com

According to MnDOT's investigation, Pitt's unauthorized use of state resources included:

-- Taking work pay for days when she was actually on vacation.

-- A series of unapproved trips. All to DC or Vegas…uuuhhhmmm

-- Inappropriate use of her state-provided cell phone. Managing disaster..more minutes to boyfriend then to staff in Minnesota…uuuhhhmmmm

-- Illicit upgrades of her travel arrangements. Worn out from grueling workload, needed first class to unwind?

Regarding a trip to Las Vegas, the investigation said "authorization was never requested because it would have been rejected."

Other alleged misuse of state resources includes 2,132 minutes of calls to Dan Ferezan, a federal highway administrator in Washington, D.C., and five trips this year to Washington, including a weeklong stay in the days after the I-35W bridge collapsed Aug. 1 in Minneapolis, according to MnDOT.

On July 26, Pitt flew to Washington and stayed four days before flying to Boston for a work-authorized conference.

On Aug. 3, she flew from Boston to Washington and stayed until Aug. 11.

Her termination letter said she had "no work-related reason to be in Washington, D.C., after Aug. 3."

One of the reports suggests Pitt, "inappropriately prioritized her personal relationship ... and concludes that Pitt's choosing to remain in Washington, D.C., rather than return to Minnesota compromised Pitt's ability to fulfill her job duties relating to the agency's emergency response efforts."

Many of the findings about Pitt's personal relationship were blacked out in the documents that MnDOT released.

Let’s see, the largest, highest profile disaster in state history and the State Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management decides to stay on the east coast to get laid??

DC Girls, this guy has got to be something special in the sack……I am guessing he may be available after this all “blows” over…….you might want to look him up……

I wonder how much of those unauthorized expenditures on the expense reports were for Viagra?

Where was her boss Michael Campion during this?? His ass had better be fired also.

Ready to Blow - Give or take 10,000 years

Yellowstone: the time bomb under America

Deep beneath Yellowstone National Park lies a vast super-volcano which, if it blew up, could devastate much of the US. Recently, it's been a bit too restless for comfort. David Usborne reports

Visitors to Yellowstone National Park in the north-western United States know not to be careless about the bears that roam its pines or the many hissing and sizzling geysers that dot its magnificent landscape. Few ever worry about being blown into space, though.

Startling new geological data published yesterday in the journal Science suggests that it might be a good idea for most of us – and certainly those living in the region – to be aware that there is more to Yellowstone than grand vistas and abundant wildlife. The hot springs are a clue to what lies beneath: seething layers of molten magma, super-heated gases and hydrothermal liquids.

Yellowstone straddles one of Earth's most studied "hot-spots", where fissures in the crust, created by volcanic eruptions of eons past, have allowed giant streams of molten rock, or magma, to push closer than normal to the planet's surface. In recent years something intriguing – if not to say thoroughly nerve-rattling – has been going on. The magma is on the move. And so is Yellowstone…..

Remember the destruction when Mount St Helens flipped her lid in 1980, turning 240 square miles into a wasteland? The energy released at Yellowstone would be many hundreds of times greater.

Moreover, Yellowstone may be due a massive release. Geologists believe that the super-volcano beneath the park has undergone major eruptions at roughly 650,000-year intervals. There have been about 140 such events over 16 million years. Because the last serious explosion is believed to have taken place 640,000 years ago – although there was a minor flare-up 70,000 years ago – who is to say, really, that another one is indeed not imminent?

Wow, that would suck !!!!

The Evil That Is Our Insurance Industry

Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders

Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed……

 

…Insurers maintain that cancellations are necessary to root out fraud and keep premiums affordable. Individual coverage is issued to only the healthiest applicants, who must disclose preexisting conditions.

 

In other words if we can not get rich off your ass we won’t cover it.

Faux News - now you really pi**ed me off!

So the one time one time I give them a little credit and link to faux news , for some "fair and balanced" reporting, turns out the bastards didn’t even have the facts straight; as Daniel Rubin points out:

I read this and started steaming. Then a little voice started whispering somewhere in the back of my head, "ah, is this actually true?" Not according to Clear Channel.

The radio behemoth, which owns six Philly stations, issued a news release the other day in response to the Banned in the USA rumors.

It quotes airplay stats from Mediabse that show Clear Channel is playing more "Magic" songs than any other radio group in the country. It owns "only 8 percent" (it's words) of the radio station in the U.S. and in the first days after the record's release, it was responsible for 21 percent of the airplay those songs received.

I tried, I really tried to give them some credit for rational thought, but they couldn’t get it right.

*In the interest of full disclosure I have been forbidden to buy the new "Bruce" or "Fogerty" albums by my wife..........but I assure you that it has more to do with the fact that I am impossible to Christmas shop for. :)

I haven’t heard any word on whether they have started playing any of the awesome(so I have been told and from what songs I have heard) new Fogerty album yet (hey I listen to NPR), but with lyrics like these I bet not:

I Can't Take It No More
I Can't Take It No More
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I Can't Take It No More

You know you lied about the casualties
You know you lied about the WMD's
You know you lied about the detainees
All over this world

Stop talking about staying the course
You keep a-beating that old dead horse
You know you lied about how we went to war
I Can't Take It No More

I can't take it
I can't take it

I bet you never saw the old school yard
I bet you never saw the national guard
Your daddy wrote a check and there you are
Another fortunate son

I can't take it no more
I can't take it no more
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I can't take it no more

I can't take it no more
I can't take it no more
I'm sick and tired of your dirty little war
I can't take it no more

Rocky gets it

Address by Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson on October 27, 2007
By davidswanson Created 2007-10-29 16:45

Salt Lake City, Utah --
Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: “You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.”

“While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral, military, and national security abyss.”

“You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution, permitted the violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of law.”

“You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never before countenanced in our nation’s history as a matter of official policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder.”

“We are here to tell you: We won’t take it any more!”

“You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and balances among the three presumed co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation’s treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”
“Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false ‘patriotism,’ our world is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of terrorism is far greater than ever before.

It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side nonsense – when what you have done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling – and disgraceful. What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do you not understand? What part of the “Golden rule” do you not understand? What part of “be honest,” “be responsible,” and “be accountable” don’t you understand? What part of “Blessed are the peacekeepers” do you not understand?

Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many thousands of people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and millions have been run off from their homes. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our brothers and sisters around the world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly as we can, ‘We won’t take it any more!’ ”

“As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings around the world, you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find what you have done to men, women and children, and to the good name and reputation of the United States, so appalling, so unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel us to call upon you to step aside and allow other men and women who are competent, true to our nation’s values, and with high moral principles to stand in your places – for the good of our nation, for the good of our children, and for the good of our world.”

In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment and removal from office, without any further delay from a complacent, complicit Congress, the Democratic majority of which cares more about political gain in 2008 than it does about the vindication of our Constitution, the rule of law, and democratic accountability.

It means the election of people as President and Vice President who, unlike most of the presidential candidates from both major parties, have not aided and abetted in the perpetration of the illegal, tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it means the election of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return our nation to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from torturing human beings.

In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who are diligent enough to learn the facts, including reading available National Intelligence Estimates, before voting to go to war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will jealously guard Congress’s sole prerogative to declare war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will not submit like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests for blank checks to engage in so-called preemptive wars, for legislation permitting warrantless wiretapping of communications involving US citizens, and for dangerous, irresponsible, saber-rattling legislation like the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment.

We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged our country – and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled by the American people – 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks – a people who know and care more about baseball statistics and which drunken starlets are wearing underwear than they know and care about the atrocities being committed every single day in our name by a government for which we need to take responsibility.

As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship -- as veterans, as teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women, as students, as professionals, as businesspeople, as public servants, as retirees, as people of all ages, races, ethnic origins, sexual orientations, and faiths -- we are here to say to the Bush administration, to the majority of Congress, and to the mainstream media: “You have violated your solemn responsibilities. You have undermined our democracy, spat upon our Constitution, and engaged in outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to a point of immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented proportions.”

“But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers and sisters of those who have suffered as a result of the imperial bullying of the United States government, and as moral actors who must take a stand: And we will, and must, mean it when we say ‘We won’t take it any more.’”

If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be principled, courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has demonstrated that our elected officials are not the leaders – the leadership has to come from us. If we don’t insist, if we don’t persist, then we are not living up to our responsibilities as citizens in a democracy – and our responsibilities as moral human beings. If we remain silent, we signal to Congress and the Bush administration – and to candidates running for office – and to the world – that we support the status quo.
Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what’s right and never letting down can we say we are doing our part.

Our government, on the basis of a campaign we now know was entirely fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a nation that posed no danger to the United States. Our government, acting in our name, has caused immense, unjustified death and destruction.
It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people, been? At this point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while at demonstrations and complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress, and about the pathetic news media. We point fingers and yell a lot. Then most people politely go away until another demonstration a few months later.
How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning about and opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have spent watching sports or mindless television programs during the past five years? Escapist, time-sapping sports and insipid entertainment have indeed become the opiate of the masses.

Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we abide what is happening to our nation, to our Constitution, to the cause of peace and international law and order? Why are we not doing all in our power to put an end to this madness?

We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising hell on our campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible that apologies or convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don’t cut it when presidential candidates and so many others voted to authorize George Bush and his neo-con buddies to send American men and women to attack and occupy Iraq.

Let’s awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do all each of us can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the country, as we ask others to join us: “We won’t take it any more!”

I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking point is. How much will you put up with before you say “No more” and mean it?

I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities in Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who will not commit to remove all US troops, as soon as possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has supported legislation that takes us one step closer to attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has not fought to stop the kidnapping, disappearances, and torture being carried on in our name.

If we expect our nation’s elected officials to take us seriously, let us send a powerful message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we really do have our moral breaking point. Let them know we have drawn a bright line. Let them know they cannot take our support for granted – that, regardless of their party and regardless of other political considerations, they will not have our support if they cannot provide, and have not provided, principled leadership.

The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years, but let us pledge that we won’t let it go on one more day – that we will do all we can to put an end to the illegalities, the moral degradation, and the disintegration of our nation’s reputation in the world.

Let us be unified in drawing the line – in declaring that we do have a moral breaking point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops and in gratitude for the freedoms for which our veterans gave so much, that we bring our troops home from Iraq, that we return our government to a constitutional democracy, and that we commit to honoring the fundamental principles of human rights.

In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of our shared values as Americans – and as moral human beings – we declare today that we will fight in every way possible to stop the insanity, stop the continued military occupation of Iraq, and stop the moral depravity reflected by the kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of people around the world.

Faux News claims to be fighting indecency, yet leads the way in adding smut to the "news"

See more at FoxAttacks

"Fox News shows more sexualized violence and humiliation than probably any other network -- all in the name of condemning it -- while under-showing violence in Iraq, all in the name of supporting it. After this video, smart viewers and advertisers will boycott Fox." -Gloria Steinem

Another classic example of how the Right has been manipulated the past 20 years by the Limbaugh’s and O’Reilly’s of the world.

I told you this whole veto override was a sham

From Russ Feingold:

I can only conclude that many of our colleagues think the status quo is acceptable. To me, there is nothing acceptable about a $58 billion backlog (soon to be $81 billion) of authorized but unfunded projects. Some of my colleagues have argued it is okay to authorize $23 billion in projects, because WRDA only authorizes projects and does not appropriate funds. This approach shirks our responsibility as elected officials. By authorizing WRDA projects, Congress is indicating these projects are worthy of funding and that taxpayer dollars should be committed to these projects. Unfortunately, without some way of prioritizing and with a limited annual construction budget of around $2 billion, our nation’s critical infrastructure and restoration projects—and the American people that depend on these water resources projects—will suffer.

This veto override did nothing but provide political cover for a few embattled Republicans, who now, after years of enabling Crazy King George, can use this vote to distance themselves from the administration.

I told you so

More on the "fake presser" and the lame excuses!

Just Who Was At That Fake FEMA Briefing?

CBS News has obtained this photo of the now infamous fake FEMA press conference held during the California wildfires. The photo, taken by a FEMA employee, is one of the only known photos of the press gallery of that event.

The gallery is not filled with members of the press but with high-level agency employees.

At the podium on the left is Vice Admiral Harvey Johnson, the second in command at FEMA.

The former director of public affairs at the agency, John "Pat" Philbin told CBS News last week, "I am not aware that he knew what was happening and all of sudden staff were asking questions."

Identified in the photo are staff members that Johnson works closely with on a daily basis.

The new Fascist in charge at Justice

Michael Mukasey who, as we all know, will follow in the footsteps of Alberto Gonzales and allow George Bush to ignore the Constitution and torture in the name of the United States, was confirmed by a vote of 53-40, as the next Attorney General.

This is a classic example of why the Democrats will never effectively manage Congress again. When key players such as Schumer and Feinstein can not hold with the party there is no hope of ever effectively holding the party line. The Republicans will always find one or two to pick off as they continue to hold together even after the 2008 defeats.

**** update******

I just do not get this sh**............

Daily Kos

The so-called "60-vote requirement" applies only when it is time to do something to limit the Bush administration. It is merely the excuse Senate Democrats use to explain away their chronic failure/unwillingness to limit the President, and it is what the media uses to depict the GOP filibuster as something normal and benign. There obviously is no "60-vote requirement" when it comes to having the Senate comply with the President's demands, as the 53-vote confirmation of Michael Mukasey amply demonstrates. But as Mukasey is sworn in as the highest law enforcement officer in America, the Democrats want you to know that they most certainly did stand firm and "registered their displeasure."

Reid Allowed Vote On Mukasey In Exchange For Military Funding Bill - The Huffington Post

According to sources inside and outside the Democratic leadership, Harry Reid allowed a vote on Mukasey because in exchange the Republican leadership agreed to allow a vote on the big Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains $459 billion in military spending but doesn't fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid had wanted to get this bill passed before the end of this week, and in fact, the defense bill did come up for a vote late last night and was passed after the Mukasey vote.

One key reason Dem leaders wanted this defense approps bill passed, sources tell me, is that they wanted to be able to argue that they had sent a bill to the President funding the military, if not the war itself. The idea was that doing this would allow them to protect themselves in the days ahead when the battle over Iraq funding heats up and Republicans inevitably charge that Dems are refusing to fund the troops.

FEMA - No Concern for Safety of Displaced Families

FEMA To Workers: Stay Out Of Trailers

Amid Health Concerns, FEMA Bars Workers >From Stored Trailers; 48,000 Still Occupied

CBS News has learned that while telling the residents of its trailers that it is still working on the formaldehyde problem, it appears it prohibits its own staff from even briefly stepping inside trailers once residents have moved out.

We obtained these exclusive emails that show the reason why: It is just too dangerous, Keteyian reports.

In an Oct 19 email, a worker asks if there is “any safety reason you know of that says we can't go into a [deactivated or previously used] trailer quickly to shut a vent.”

The response from the director of the Baton Rouge office, Jon Byrd, said, “the issue is formaldehyde."

Then, on Oct. 22, this final answer from FEMA's head of safety in Washington, David Chawaga: "Please reinforce … FEMA employees do not enter stored TTs until further notice..."

“They are telling their employees it’s too dangerous to go into the trailers, yet we're letting people continue to live in these trailers with excess formaldehyde levels,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

 

These people are just plain sick!!!

Where is the MSM when we need them?

Bush Moves Toward Martial Law Written by Frank Morales

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

This is scary stuff people! Where was our Main Stream Media while this is taking place?  This was barely mentioned by the MSM last year when it happened, I would think the actions by Pakistan’s Musharraf would have us asking could it happen here?

The Law of Unintended Consequences

The Mahler Blog asks Why the sudden increase in E.coli cases?

Why the "Uptick" in E. coli cases in 2007?

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Food Poisoning Lawyer

I have been pressing everyone I know in food safety and the meat industry about the “uptick" in E. coli cases in 2007. Here are some ideas from recent press reports:

USDA says has enough legal authority to do recalls

“Raymond said there are several factors USDA is investigating that could be responsible for the uptick in E. coli discoveries. Among them include the pathogen becoming resistant to drugs and changes in weather or diet that can lead to stress in the animal. He assured lawmakers it was not because companies are being careless or inspectors sloppy in their work. "I think it's starting with the animal's environment," said Raymond. "There is a change in what we feed cattle and I don't know if that has created a problem."

Is this an explanation? What is the change? I understand that perhaps with the increase in the price of oil there has been an increase in ethanol production and waste products – eaten by cows? Anyone have any other ideas? How about this:

Crackdown Upends Slaughterhouse’s Work Force

“Last November, immigration officials began a crackdown at Smithfield Foods’s giant slaughterhouse here, eventually arresting 21 illegal immigrants at the plant and rousting others from their trailers in the middle of the night. Since then, more than 1,100 Hispanic workers have left the 5,200-employee hog-butchering plant, the world’s largest, leaving it struggling to find, train and keep replacements. Across the country, the federal effort to flush out illegal immigrants is having major effects on workers and employers alike. Some companies have reluctantly raised wages to attract new workers following raids at their plants. After several hundred immigrant employees at its plant in Stillmore, Ga., were arrested, Crider Poultry began recruiting Hmong workers from Minnesota, hiring men from a nearby homeless mission and providing free van transportation to many workers.”

Hmmm, a influx of unskilled US workers with high turnover – sound interesting. What other ideas?

Or are they having to cut corners due to short staffing, putting our families ask risk?

You mean, simply telling teenagers not to have sex doesn't work?

The Carpetbagger Report has a great take on another failed attempt at privatization:

There seems to be something of a pattern here. A study is commissioned to test whether abstinence-only programs are effective in affecting teens’ sexual behavior. Another study is commissioned, and we see the same results. And on and on.

Those who are concerned with reality probably didn’t need more evidence, but we have some anyway. The nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released the results of its latest research project today. (thanks to R.K. for the tip)

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

“At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners” among teenagers, the study concluded. […]

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having “positive outcomes” including teenagers “delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use.”

“Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect,” said the report.

You mean, simply telling teenagers not to have sex doesn’t work? And quality, comprehensive education does? And the Bush administration insists on supporting the prior while rejecting the latter? You don’t say.

This comes on the heels of a congressionally-mandated study released in April that found — wait for it — the exact same thing.

Surely, in light of the overwhelming evidence, the government would stop throwing money at programs that obviously don’t work, right? Wrong.

A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.

Yes, lawmakers are giving extra money to abstinence-only programs that don’t work, because Dems need to make the spending bills more attractive to Republicans, and this is what the GOP wants to see.

Another failed attempt at privatization

Ohio Goes After Charter Schools That Are Failing

Ohio became a test tube for the nation’s charter school movement during a decade of Republican rule here, when a wide-open authorization system and plenty of government seed money led to the schools’ explosive proliferation.

But their record has been spotty. This year, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.

Now its Democratic governor and attorney general, elected when Democrats won five of Ohio’s six top posts last November, are cracking down on the schools, which receive public money but are run by independent operators. And across the country, charter school advocates are watching nervously, fearful the backlash could spread.

Attorney General Marc Dann is suing to close three failing charter schools and says he is investigating dozens of others. It is the first effort by any attorney general to close low-performing charter schools.

The privatization zealots have had free rein through much of the country these past 8 years and we are beginning to see the damage, in our prisons, in our schools, in our military , in our social services and any other facet of our lives that has seen services provided successfully for generations by our government suddenly shelled out as government contracts to corporations that in many cases sprung up over night to fill the sudden demand artificially created by Crazy King George and his ilk these past 8 years. Is it any wonder that so many of these fail? With many of the contracts going to companies with little no experience other then at lobbying and making the right campaign contributions.

Not surprised by this one.

Blackwater shooting called unprovoked

But State Department clears security team in killing of three Iraqi guards

Last Feb. 7, a sniper employed by Blackwater USA, the private security company, opened fire from the roof of the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The bullet tore through the head of a 23-year-old guard for the state-funded Iraqi Media Network, who was standing on a balcony across an open traffic circle. Another guard rushed to his colleague's side and was fatally shot in the neck. A third guard was found dead more than an hour later on the same balcony.

Eight people who responded to the shootings -- including media network and Justice Ministry guards and an Iraqi army commander -- and five network officials in the compound said none of the slain guards had fired on the Justice Ministry, where a U.S. diplomat was in a meeting. An Iraqi police report described the shootings as "an act of terrorism" and said Blackwater "caused the incident." The media network concluded that the guards were killed "without any provocation."

The U.S. government reached a different conclusion. Based on information from the Blackwater guards, who said they were fired upon, the State Department determined that the security team's actions "fell within approved rules governing the use of force," according to an official from the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Neither U.S. Embassy officials nor Blackwater representatives interviewed witnesses or returned to the network, less than a quarter-mile from Baghdad's Green Zone, to investigate.

We have lost all credibility in the world, and it all falls at the feet of Dick and Crazy King George

Those who ignore History are destined to repeat it

The Enemy Within Finding American Backs to Stab

By William J. Astore
The world's finest military launches a highly coordinated shock-and-awe attack that shows enormous initial progress. There's talk of the victorious troops being home for Christmas. But the war unexpectedly drags on. As fighting persists into a third, and then a fourth year, voices are heard calling for negotiations, even "peace without victory." Dismissing such peaceniks and critics as defeatists, a conservative and expansionist regime -- led by a figurehead who often resorts to simplistic slogans and his Machiavellian sidekick who is considered the brains behind the throne -- calls for one last surge to victory. Unbeknownst to the people on the home front, however, this duo has already prepared a seductive and self-exculpatory myth in case the surge fails.

The United States in 2007? No, Wilhelmine Germany in 1917 and 1918, as its military dictators, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and his loyal second, General Erich Ludendorff, pushed Germany toward defeat and revolution in a relentless pursuit of victory in World War I. Having failed with their surge strategy on the Western Front in 1918, they nevertheless succeeded in deploying a stab-in-the-back myth, or Dolchstoßlegende, that shifted blame for defeat from themselves and Rightist politicians to Social Democrats and others allegedly responsible for losing the war by their failure to support the troops at home.

The German Army knew it was militarily defeated in 1918. But this was an inconvenient truth for Hindenburg and the Right, so they crafted a new "truth": that the troops were "unvanquished in the field." So powerful did these words become that they would be engraved in stone on many a German war memorial.

Let's give Thanks this holiday season

A Very Blackwater Thanksgiving
by Glenn W. Smith
Profiteers are wrecking our health and destroying our security.
Last modified Wednesday, November 7, 2007 08:59 AM

Share your comments about this article on the Rockridge Nation Blog.
As Thanksgiving approaches, we should pay homage to the 17th Century Blackwater-like private security firms who made the very first Thanksgiving possible. That's the message from Serviam, a magazine committed to the unstinting defense of private profiteering in every realm of human endeavor. By the magazine's stuffed-turkey logic we should give thanks for all the profiteering and the accountability-killing privatizing that dominates what was once a public sphere. From health care to a mercenary army, profit is alpha and omega, while the moral fabric that holds us together is being ripped apart by pirates. Yes, even our health has been blackwatered. Thank-yous are hardly in order.

Ann Jocelyn, writing for the privateers' private gazette, says, "If not for the private security contractor (PCS) business, there would have been no Thanksgiving at all."
That's a rather unfortunate claim, since Thanksgiving is an "invented tradition" according to the historian for the Plimoth Plantation, who ought to know. And, if there was no originary "thanksgiving" to take credit for, what becomes of the privateers taking credit for it? I'm not disputing that private ships carried the Pilgrims, who were, after all, fleeing the government that lorded over their public sphere. But inventing a role for yourself in a holiday that was itself invented is a bit disingenuous.

Serviam's claim also conveniently avoids a brute historical fact that the American Revolution was, in part, fueled by anger against the privateers. Here's how Thom Hartmann puts it: "Although schoolchildren are usually taught that the American Revolution was a rebellion against 'taxation without representation,' akin to modern day conservative taxpayer revolts, in fact what led to the revolution was rage against a transnational corporation [East India Company] that, by the 1760s, dominated trade from China to India to the Caribbean, and controlled nearly all commerce to and from North America, with subsidies and special dispensation from the British crown."

Taking credit for Thanksgiving is ridiculous, but then, the colonization of our historical consciousness is a key tactic of the privateers, and Thanksgiving is particularly vulnerable. With the possible exception of the idolization of a bunny to mark the resurrection of a divinity at Easter, perhaps no holiday has been as gobbled up by myth and fantasy as thoroughly as Thanksgiving. To set the record straight, big shoe buckles were not yet the fashion, and the 1621 Puritan/Native American harvest festival was a three-day, dance-and-eat-and-eat-and-dance party. It was not called a "thanksgiving" because that term referred to a pious religious event. Also, this was not even the first of a new tradition; it was a singular celebration.

The Easter Bunny and be-buckled Puritans have nothing on the blackwater movement when it comes to fantasy, however. Inventing a need for themselves is something of a tradition among mercenary birds-of-prey who somehow get us to stay still while they, all beak and talon, swoop down on our treasuries, our health, and our morality. "Who will guard our diplomats in Iraq if the privateers don't?" they ask self-approvingly. There is a clue in that rhetorical and misleading question to the sorry state of the American health care system, which is entirely dominated by Blackwater-like, privateering insurance companies. "Who will provide health care if you hurt our profits?" insurance company executives and defenders ask. "Our armed forces," should answer the private security executives' question. "Uh, doctors and nurses," should be the answer to the insurance profiteers.

It is not a stretch to refer to the invention of a private health insurance industry in America as the "blackwatering" of health care. The insurance industry did not even enter the health business until the 1940s. Before then, they couldn't figure out how to make a profit. Life insurance had a great business plan. Invest the premiums of a customer over a lifetime, and you will earn far more than you will have to pay out in (so to speak) once-in-a-lifetime death benefits. Likewise, most property does not suffer catastrophic damage requiring hefty insurance payouts. But everyone needs a little health care now and then and a few need a lot of health care all the time. Why, there's no time to invest those premiums. But wait, the insurance executives calculated, if we can exclude the risky and deny enough claims to policy holders, we can earn a profit. Katy bar the door. A new industry was born. Unfortunately, it was an industry that thrives by denying health care. A profiteer's ultimate dream.
The blackwatering of health care – putting the power in the hands of unaccountable, non-medical, private interests – has taken a deadly toll on our health and lives. We have been so long in the blackwater that we forgot what it would be like to breathe the air of a health care system based on empathy and responsibility, a system that puts citizens' health above private profits.

It's not lost on Blackwater that it will make more money the more dangerous our lives become. That's the logic of the arms industry. War is their profit center. And it's not lost on an insurance industry that the increased fear, imagined and real, of ill health leads to higher premiums and more profits when it is allowed to make its money by denying health care to those who need it most.

The health insurance industry has no more incentive to keep us healthy than Blackwater has in helping us avoid wars.
And the stories they tell us to convince us otherwise have no more reality to them than the Easter Bunny.
At least the Easter Bunny is a cute fiction.

PBS Programming Note

Showdown Over Children's Health Insurance NOW t r u t h o u t

Programming Note
Wednesday 07 November 2007
PBS Airtime: Friday, November 9, 2007, at 8:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings at http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html)

What's behind the political showdown over children's health insurance? Next time on NOW
On Friday, November 9, at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings), NOW investigates the latest Congressional maneuvers to determine the fate of a children's health care program. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, is a block grant from the federal government to cover children whose family incomes exceed that which would make them eligible for Medicaid, but are too low to afford private insurance. But the fund is quickly running out of money. President Bush vetoed a bipartisan SCHIP reauthorization bill on October 3, claiming it would attract recipients who could otherwise afford private insurance. Now, the issue has become a political free-for-all, with family lives hanging in the balance.

As part of its investigation, NOW interviewed Graeme Frost and his parents. Graeme is a twelve year-old boy whose family has been using SCHIP to pay for his medical expenses following a car accident. After Frost told his story as part of the Democratic weekly radio address at the end of September, he and his family became the targets of right-wing attacks. Many are now asking: Did Congressional Republicans assist in a smear campaign?
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The NOW website at www.pbs.org/now will provide additional coverage starting Friday morning, November 9. Features include state-by-state information about health-care coverage programs for children.
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Dysfunctional Family Values

In today's political lexicon, the term family values has been hijacked by the Christian political right as a way to define an ambiguous set of moral beliefs and standards that they use to further a morally defenseless political agenda. In the early 1980's, individuals such as Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, through The Christian Coalition, began to target the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could promote their conservative religious agenda and inject that religious agenda into mainstream American politics. They successfully combined their moral conservatism with political conservatism, resulting in a politics that is neither morally nor ethically based.

The agenda of The Christian Coalition of America is to, "offer people of faith the vehicle to be actively involved in shaping their government - from the County Courthouse to the halls of Congress. Today, Christians need to play an active role in government again like never before. We continuously work to identify, educate and mobilize Christians for effective political action."

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III

Robertson Endorses Rudy ????????? Gotta Love it

So Pat “I totally concur...” Robertson endorsed Rudy “Divorced Twice, Adulterer, Cross Dressing, Gay Supporting, Pro Choice” Giuliani;

Washington Post

Pat Robertson, one of the most influential figures in the social conservative movement, announced his support for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The rabbit hole just gets stranger everyday.

Is Pat really so afraid of the Mitt’s Mormonism?

 

The Republic Party's Not So Presidential Hopeful?

Even Fred Thompson doubts he'll be president

Trying to encourage his studio to hurry up so an interview could start, Carl Cameron of Fox News said into his microphone: "The next president of the United States has a schedule to keep." Standing beside him, a deadpan Mr Thompson interjected: "And so do I."

As some Thompson aides looked bemused and others cringed, a taken-aback Mr Cameron, Fox's chief political correspondent, exclaimed: "You can't do that kind of stuff!"

The self-deprecating quip said much about the former Tennessee senator's candidacy.

He was lampooned mercilessly after a YouTube clip showing him asking an audience Iowa underwhelmed by his stump speech: "First of all, could I have a round of applause?"

I Thought Fred was riding in to rescue the republic party from that liberal Rudy and the crazy Mormon Mitt.    

The Surge is Successful ..........My ASS

2007 Is Deadliest Year for U.S. Troops in Iraq

Six American soldiers were killed in three separate attacks Monday, the military said Tuesday, taking the number of deaths this year to 852 and making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for United States troops.

Military officials announced the discovery of a mass grave holding 22 bodies in a rural area north of Falluja. It also said that nine Iranians being held in Iraq would soon be released, including two detained during a January raid of a consulate office in Erbil.

Five of the American soldiers died in two roadside bomb attacks on Monday near Kirkuk, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, director of the communications division of the Multinational Force-Iraq, the formal name for the United States-led forces.

A sixth soldier died Monday during combat operations in Anbar Province, according to a military statement.

The deaths come only a few days after the military announced a steep drop in the rate of American deaths this year. In October, 38 American service members died in Iraq, the third-lowest monthly tally since 2003, according to Iraq Casualty Count, a Web site that tracks military deaths. November’s total, if the current pace continues, would be higher but still far below the war’s average of 69 American military deaths per month.

Despite the decline, American commanders acknowledged that 2007 would be far deadlier than the second-worst year, 2004, when 849 Americans died, many of them in major battles for control of insurgent strongholds like Falluja.

 

A few Republicans finally found some 'nads

House Votes to Override Bush’s Veto of Water Projects

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 — The House voted 361 to 54 this evening to override President Bush’s veto of a $23 billion water projects bill, apparently sealing Mr. Bush’s first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress.

The House tally was well over the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. And since the Senate voted for the bill by 81 to 12 on Sept. 24, it seems certain that the bill’s supporters will have enough votes in the Senate as well to override the veto, which the president announced last Friday.

If the Senate does vote as expected, this will be the first of Mr. Bush’s five vetoes during his two terms as president to be overridden.

The bill, formally the Water Resources Development Act, would authorize $3.5 billion in work for the hurricane-stricken region of Louisiana and nearly $2 billion in Everglades restoration. It also includes billions of dollars more for flood control, restoration and other projects favored by individual lawmakers, which was a key to its passage in Congress.

Although as I mentioned earlier it may all be an evil plot to allow endangered Republicans to distance themselves from Crazy King George.

How does he stay on the air?

How does the “religious right” justify associating with this man? He is pure evil, everything he says is hateful, spiteful or hurtful.

Crooks and Liars has the story:

Rush Limbaugh went after a young HS graduate on his radio show because she broke down and cried talking about the environment and Global Warming.

via email:

An 18-year-old Inuit from Alaska sobbed through her congressional testimony before Edward Markey’s committee this morning as she described Global