Media driven mad by Democratic ticket (imagine that!)

If Labor Day is the traditional start of fall election season, get ready for the media hit pieces against the Democratic ticket. They're starting to appear by the dozens now.

All it proves is that - even though the DLC sucks 77 flavors of ass - the media has charged to the right at an even faster rate than the Democratic Party has. Not that the media wasn't right-wing to begin with, because for me it's already dredging up bad memories of 1988.

The AP has a lot of nerve harping on Democrats' military records when Republicans like Slim Cheney and Saxby Clueless were such chickenhawks that they refused to serve their country when they had the chance, even though they supported the war that they were eligible to serve in. What it really shows is that the Republicans are in such dire straits that the AP has to come up with something - anything - to "fix" things.

It's no wonder newspapers keep dropping the Assholciated Press.

Right-wing cartophobia challenged!

Eek! It's a map! Run for your life!

Because the Far Right now seems to be afraid of maps just like they're afraid of everything else, now is a good time to unveil what may be my next gainful project:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

That page features a map that I made, which I plan to be part of a series. I made that map all in one sitting a couple weeks ago, and it features the town of Woodlawn, Kentucky. I started off with Woodlawn because it's a small area, but I'm working on other maps.

These maps are intended for bicyclists. The colors of roads and paths indicate bike suitability. The yellow roads on this map would be green, except they're too hilly.

Looks pretty spiffy for a couple hours of work on a home computer, doesn't it?

Rolling out the unwelcome mat

I'm saying it now, in case the brownshirts are already planning for their 2012 convention.

The Republicans ought not even think about holding their next convention in the Cincinnati area. They are not welcome here. I live in the area, and I say so. Republicans are only a small minority of registered voters in the area (even if you include most suburbs), and as voters, we all say so.

Our territory, our rules. Not the GOPstapo's territory, not their rules.

If they decide to hold it here anyway, and if I'm in town and am in reasonably good condition, I will be among those protesting. I will. That is a 100% ironclad guarantee!

After the way they've acted in Minneapolis, New York, and Philadelphia, they are not welcome.

More about the school cretins

After I got that strange Transformers-themed phone call a week ago that I traced to a small Catholic high school I last attended 18 years ago, the school's unfettered cretinousness is now even clearer than before.

I was kicked out of that miserable school on April 20, 1990. April 20 just happens to be Hitler's birthday, and I truly believe that the school chose that day to expel me because they considered both that date and my expulsion to be causes for celebration. I believe they admired Hitler, and they thought they could honor him by using his birthday to purge a student who had been scapegoated by the school for 3 years.

And now the school's kooky ways are even more obvious. Last night I went to a family event, and a family member brang up last Sunday's strange phone call. This family member pointed out something to me that I utterly missed last week.

Can you guess what it was? Read my initial article about the incident again.

Note the time of the call: 4:21 PM. At least that's what the phone company's record lists. Let me put it this way: I believe the phone company lists the time the call ended, and it was a minute-long call.

In my high school's world, I don't think 4:20 means what it means in cannabis culture.

I've made an issue of the connection between my expulsion and Hitler's birthday before, and the school knows it.

My school would be so screwed if people weren't conditioned to believe private schools are 100% perfect and live in denial when caught for something like this. But I'm 35 now (almost as old as the principal was when he seized power), so if folks are programmed to believe the adult world is always honest (which I don't believe at all), they must be torn whether to believe me or the school.

Weigh the facts: I traced the call directly to the school's number and posted a clip of the proof. Even without this prima facie evidence, you have to consider that the school is still more powerful than I am. So if they do wrong, they're far less likely to get caught than I'd be. They can get away with harassing people; I can't.

I'd still love to see the circumstances of last week's call. As it occurred on a Sunday, was it placed by a faculty member? Was it one of my former schoolmates visiting because their kids go to school there now? It was on the same day as the Freshman Welcome Mass, but the Mass wasn't on school grounds. Were parents transported to or from the school before or after the Mass?

It took 15 years to even start recovering from the repeated abuse I suffered at that school, and the school knows I don't want them in my life. Any attempt by them to contact me is harassment. I am willing to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

Twin Cities under siege!

The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is under siege, as the region seems to have been (all too predictably) deeded out to the Republican National Convention's unsavory partisans.

First there was the rental hall raid in St. Paul by gun-brandishing cops - for which authorities at first illegally refused to provide the reason. Authorities later claimed the raid was for a fire code violation (which wasn't true). Then they said they had a warrant to search for (gasp!) maps. Now there's been an equally outrageous raid in Minneapolis.

Police there raided a small house, accusing the residents of "conspiracy to riot." (?!?!?!) The charge was entirely baseless. After that, city inspectors arrived and boarded up the house, accusing it of code violations. The city refused to specify what these violations were. Later they said it was because there were too many people sleeping in the attic.

Then the city tried charging the residents $6,000 for the house being boarded up! It also tried making tenants fix the back door that the police kicked in.

With command state actions like this, at least now we know Freepers run the city of Minneapolis. You'd think Minneapolis would've learned from New York having to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement for its Nazi-like suppression of antiwar activists.

Twenty years ago, stormtrooper repression like this was much more limited in most major American cities. In conservative cities like Cincinnati, you'd hear of things like illegal sweeps where anyone who looked like they were under 18 was considered a "habitual truant." But most cities were relatively laid-back. But now the whole country is a police state.

I mean, come on! Minneapolis too?????

America is now BushAmerica.

(Source: http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/6240/city-inspectors-board-up-raided-home-for-code-violations)

Republicans sell racist $3 bills at state fair

I know better than to expect the Republicans of today to not be face-deep in racism, because of their own abysmal record in recent years. But that's still no excuse for their bigotry.

In the state of Washington, the Snohomish County Republicans set up a booth at the state fair. They sold fake $3 bills full of boring, idiotic mockery against Barack Obama. Much of it was racist. All of it was stupid.

The fake bills were made by a California firm specializing in conservative "humor."

And if you don't think the right wing is playing the race card in this election, you haven't been monitoring some of the racist comments the regulars on Freak Rethuglic have made.

(Source: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080827/NEWS01/708279862&news01ad=1)

Here comes something big... (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Here comes something big from the gum people!

It's a bunker blast! Just joking! Actually it's another hilarious installment in regaling you with the influence of bubble gum on modern society:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kA7xV6Yyc4

In that memorable commersh for Extra bubble gum from the early '90s, nobody bubbled - unless you count the person who was just offscreen blowing that gigantic bubble.

Extra of course is part of the sugarless gum wars. In addition to artificial sweeteners being extremely dangerous (you can find evidence of this from countless sources), folks long complained that these Frankenstein-like additives gave gum a medicinal flavor and prevented it from bubbling effectively. Extra did produce bubble gum before this ad: Once in high school, I saw a classmate eat a grime-coated stick of the stuff he found behind the radiator (next to a used Band-Aid). But this zany commersh acted as if Extra bubble gum was a new product with a "classic bubble gum flavor."

As further evidence of the hilarity of gum's mere existence, the colossal bubble that expands from offscreen (actually a pink balloon) is almost exactly like a monster in a Dungeons & Dragons parody that was a huge pink bubble that floated around in caves and engulfed people.

Gum. You know that, everyone? Gum.

The repression in the Twin Cities begins!

It happens every 4 years, peeps!

In whichever city the Republicans happen to hold their little brownshirt gathering, they always deputize the entire city government to carry out their dirty work. The whole city seems to be deeded out to them.

Without fail, the result is always unconstitutional suppression of dissent. Always. At least in this decade. It happened in New York in 2004 and Philadelphia in 2000.

Promises to the contrary notwithstanding, America is about to be treated to a big, stinky, wafto-like repeat. In preparation (H) for this year's looming Republican National Convention, police in St. Paul raided a rental hall used by protesters.

Nobody was arrested, but an army of about 30 cops temporarily detained at gunpoint and photographed over 50 people in the building.

The police claim they were executing a search warrant. For what??? Because BushAmerica is a dictatorship, they refuse to say for what. In other words, folks were detained without even being told why.

They had 30 cops with their guns drawn just to photograph 50 people who weren't even doing anything wrong!

If I was one of the people who was detained, I would be hounding the authorities until I got answers as to why. Someone said it was a fire code violation, but that's bunk gas. A rental hall would surely hold 50 without violating the fire code. If it was a fire code violation, wouldn't you try to get people out of the building instead of bringing in 30 officers and detaining everyone?

All this after the city said they'd leave protesters alone (which turned out to be a lie).

How many more examples do we need to show America has become an authoritarian command state?

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/30/rnc.protest)

Can you believe it? Another protest!

There's no rule that says we can't protest the teen torture center on the east side of Cincinnati on 2 Fridays in a row. So, by golly, we did precisely that!

I had an injured foot, but I got called to the scene again last night. It was a rainy day, but the rain ended just when we arrived in Milford. And not a moment too soon!

We arrived just as about 5 cars full of parents were pulling out of the cult's driveway. One of them zipped across the street to where the 3 of us were standing. It turned out the man in the car was the same guy who got out of his vehicle last week and charged towards us.

This time, the folks in the car began arguing with us. They were upset because we were filming our protest using a camera on a tripod. When one of our group replied that this was "perfectly legal", the man in the car angrily declared, "It's perfectly legal to sue you too!"

For what? Well, his argument the past couple weeks has been that one of our signs is "false advertising" because it says, "HEAR BOTH SIDES."

On an equally amusing note, we noticed that the 2 new private property signs that the facility had just posted before last week's protest were gone already. Apparently they were so incompetent at the simple task of posting signs that they either didn't fasten them tightly enough to keep the wind from carrying them away, or they were on the public right-of-way so they had to take them down.

After the initial rush, we stood around for about an hour, and nothing happened. But I was persistent. I knew we'd get more action if we were patient, so I voted not to leave yet.

My persistence paid off. Soon, more sets of parents streamed out of the abusive facility, and they saw our signs. The latest babyish strategy of this cult is for them to shine their brights right into our eyes - thus demonstrating their own immaturity and lack of a spine.

All in all, my 11th protest against this abusive program was a major success!

(More info: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)

Court lets Bush block mad cow tests

There's no end to the right-wing judicial activism and harmful policies that prevail under this stinky administration.

The right-wing U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has just ruled that the Bush regime can block farmers and meatpackers from testing cattle for mad cow disease.

Seriously. Bush has a regulation to make food less safe, and the court has upheld it. Evidently, the only regulations on businesses that Bush supports are those that actually harm people.

The Agriculture Department tests only 1% of cows. A small Kansas meatpacker wanted to test all its cows. But large corporate meatpackers opposed allowing this testing. They say that if the small packers start advertising that their cows have been tested, they'll have to test their cows too.

Well, boo hoo fucking hoo. There's no reason in hell why they shouldn't test them.

This fear of competition from smaller packers is what led the Bush regime to issue its diktat barring expanded mad cow tests.

The court's ruling is out of whole cloth. They pulled it out of their ass.

The Bush regime says the fact that only 1% of cows are tested shows how rare mad cow disease is. In other words, they think the disease is rare because they don't look for it. They apparently believe that the lack of testing has eliminated the disease. This is exactly like how that McCain adviser says that barring the Census Bureau from asking if folks have no health insurance will solve the insurance crisis.

A federal district court had earlier ruled that the small meatpackers have a right to conduct the tests. The Agriculture Department can regulate treatment - but it can't prohibit tests that may save lives. The Bush brain trust (as it were) argued that tests are the same as treatment, although they are not. But the right-wing circuit court has now overturned the district court's sensible ruling.

How are the Republicans going to put a happy face on this? They can't. Their policies help only large corporations and harm the American public.

It really is difficult to imagine a clearer instance of the government deliberately working against the people.

(Source: http://www.startribune.com/nation/27659099.html)

Man has face sliced off for supporting Obama

The thugs who are inspired by right-wing hate radio aren't getting any less dangerous. Just this week, a gang of 4 was caught in Colorado planning an assassination of Obama, so you know they're out of control. And now there's been yet another incident of right-wing violence.

Yesterday in San Francisco, a 35-year-old man who works for the Obama campaign was verbally assaulted and slashed in the face with a knife. The attack happened in plain sight of 2 police officers, who arrested the assailant.

If a man can have his face sliced off by a right-wing terrorist in what is supposedly the most liberal big city in America for supporting the "wrong" candidate - and the assailant is unbashful enough to attack the victim in full view of police - just think what the conservabots might get away with elsewhere if we don't keep an eye out for them.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/29/BAJO12KNGU.DTL)

Therapeutical correctness runs amok at Iowa college

Iowa Central Community College is as egregious as one of my alma maters - Northern Kentucky University - in giving special favors to athletes while overreacting to mere suggestions of wild behavior by the school community in general.

A few years ago, ICCC president Robert Paxton was charged with tampering with public records in a scandal in which student athletes were awarded false grades. Three other college employees pleaded guilty to changing athletes' grades to benefit them. Despite the fact that these 3 employees had changed students' grades, they were allowed to keep their jobs.

This is more evidence that the American education system not only gives athletes special treatment but also coddles those who allow it to go on. While hate papers like Campus Report cried about grade inflation benefiting students in general (which was a hoax), the right-wing media never raises a peep about real grade inflation and outright fraud that benefits only athletes.

Paxton accepted responsibility for the transcript fraud going on at his school, and the charges against him were deferred. Frankly, he should have been fired on the spot, but he too kept his job.

Now Paxton has made the news again. In the grade fraud scandal, he got off easy after accepting responsibility for the deceit taking place under his watch. But now the opposite has happened: He's been forced to resign over a party that occurred on his own time and where (as far as I know) he did nothing illegal.

Paxton went to a Fourth of July boat party and was photographed appearing to pour beer from a keg into a young woman's mouth. By all accounts, everyone at this party was an adult, and the keg was actually broken (thus no beer could come out). Also, because the people at this gathering were adults, they were old enough to be responsible for their own actions.

Also by all accounts, this was not a school-sponsored event. It was Paxton's personal life.

But when the photograph of Paxton pouring the keg got out, his bosses at ICCC forced him to resign.

Why?????

Much clatter is generated about political correctness, but there's a flip side, which I've long referred to as therapeutical correctness. I call it that because of the Far Right's worship of Big Medicine. It is quite literally political correctness by the right wing.

The college's excuse for forcing Paxton out? The president of the school's board said the party "reflected poorly on the college."

It wasn't a college-sponsored event, smartypants. So who the fuck cares?

Paxton himself appears to be mighty conservative: He donated to a Republican congressional candidate's campaign. The irony is that he got forced out by a college that's so right-wing that it tries to police what employees do off-campus when such actions harm nobody.

As with NKU, this policy of trying to keep members of the school community in suspended animation is amplified when anything connected to beer is involved. When I went to NKU, the mere mention of beer - even by someone who was at least 21 - was the #1 taboo. At NKU, everything was refracted through the "evils" of drink. If someone wanted a serious discussion about a totally unrelated topic - like parking or the student radio station - campus officials would quickly corrupt the issue with their paranoia about beer.

To school officials, every student was considered a drunk by default - and if a school employee didn't toe the line, they'd catch hell. I guess ICCC is no different. And I'm sure this is also true of countless other campuses these days.

Another irony is that Paxton gets $400,000 in severance pay under his new contract. So the college is really costing taxpayers by forcing him out.

I don't know if there's anything else to this story. As always, there could be. I know how deep corruption runs in schools and governments, especially when there's no accountability and when schools fall over themselves to mimic the corrupt corporate world. But based on the facts I know, Iowa Central Community College clearly can't get its act together: The school allows athletes to cheat and won't fire those who help them cheat, but the school throws a screaming fit when someone is seen with a beer keg at a party on their own time.

Just like NKU.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080829/ap_on_re_us/college_president_photo;
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080828/NEWS/80828006)

Sarah Palin??? Really??? Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Hey John McCain, you're hilarious, you know that?

Time magazine reported a week ago that Mitt "The Shit" Romney was McCain's running mate. I believed this to be true, but this has turned out to be like in 2004 when the New York Post prematurely reported that John Kerry had selected Dick Gephardt. I run a fast-add blog, and I didn't want to sit on the laughable news of the Romney pick, so I reported what Time reported.

It's a death-defying life I lead, I'll take my chances.

But in reality, McCain has now picked Sarah Palin - SARAH PALIN, for crying out loud! - as his running mate.

If you thought Romney was funny, you'll think that selecting Palin - the right-wing Alaska governor and former sportscaster - is downright hilarious!

Palin, 44, is awash in scandal herself. She's been the target of an investigation by the Alaska Legislature over her firing of the state's Commissioner of Public Safety - a firing that the commissioner claimed was because of his refusal to interfere with the disciplinary proceedings of a state trooper who was in a divorce battle with Palin's sister.

Not only did McCain probably just lose the election (though he still does have a sliver of a chance). I think this choice may have destroyed the Republican Party for years to come. I can't imagine anyone taking the Republican ticket seriously now.

Child poverty soars in Kentucky

Are liars like Phil Gramm still going to insist that the worst economic situation in 75 years is a hoax?

According to new Census Bureau data, the poverty rate in my home state of Kentucky increased in 2007 - as it has nationally. But the big picture is that families did progressively worse as the decade trudged on.

The online remnant of the Kentucky Post preposterously called it "a period of economic expansion." What expansion? The so-called economic growth actually wasn't growth at all: The circumstances of the Bush years left Kentuckians with a lower median income in 2007 than in 2001, when adjusted for inflation. In fact, Kentucky incomes dropped from 2006 to 2007 - even when not adjusted for inflation!

So how ya doin' 28 years after the beginning of America's agonizing decline?

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f05575ed-9748-4aad-abb6-2cd9f37e49fa)

McCain adviser says uninsured don't exist

The McCain campaign appears to be hell-bent on living a life of delusion (as Joe Walsh might say). First, Phil Gramm (who McCain had foolishly hired as an economic adviser) said the recession was a hoax. And now this.

John Goodman, a health care adviser for McCain's faltering campaign, absurdly claimed that everyone in the U.S. already has health insurance. (Incidentally, this is not the actor John Goodman.)

What's Goodman's basis for this claim? He says nobody is uninsured, because everybody has access to a hospital emergency room.

He says an ER is the same as insurance? Does he really believe that? If you have to go to an ER, and you have no insurance, you can go broke later just paying for the visit. And are people supposed to run to the ER when they have better medical options? It sounds like Goodman is saying everyone should just clog emergency rooms when they should be just as well served by a nonemergency appointment.

After Bush issued an illegal executive order to gut EMTALA, does everyone still even have access to an ER?

Goodman also heads the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-wing stink tank funded by ExxonMobil. This organization focuses largely on attempting to privatize America.

What's Goodman's "solution" for the health care crisis? He says the President ought to sign an executive order barring the Census Bureau from categorizing people as uninsured. "Voila! Problem solved," he declared.

Yes, he's being serious. He's actually saying that denying that the health care crisis exists will solve it.

Man, the Republicans really have gone bugfuck insane, haven't they?

Now the McCain camp is denying that Goodman is an official adviser. Too late, geniuses!

(Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/28/mccain-adviser-everyone-in-us-has-some-health-coverage)

McCain would wreck VA

It doesn't make sense that a former POW would support dismantling much of the Department of Veterans Affairs - but there's a lot of stuff in the current presidential campaign that doesn't make sense.

McCain has been talking about a proposal of his that would practically gut some of the VA's most important functions. Under his plan, brave veterans with noncombat medical problems would be sent to for-profit hospitals for care instead of getting care from the VA.

For much longer than most Americans have even been around, the VA has provided medical care for vets. When compared to the disastrous profit-driven system that defines America's civilian health care, the VA's care has been regarded as more reliable and of better quality. The RAND Corporation (a think tank that does research for the American military) says VA patients get better, faster care than they get from private health corporations. (Anyone familiar with what America's private health care system is like today knows that few things can possibly be worse.) McCain's plan would make veterans use the greed-driven medical system that's already failed everyone else.

What really drives McCain's idea is the fact that corporatism has become so firmly entrenched in his party. The Republicans would rather have important services provided by private for-profit monopolies than by government agencies.

A lot of that could be explained by the fact that powerful Republicans own or lead some of the corporations that would be in charge of such services. When a public agency provides a better service than a for-profit corporation, they can't stand it, because it pokes holes in their rigid ideology.

When conservatives take control in the government, they've been known to set public services up for failure, just to make it look like a profit-driven system is better. That's why the Bush regime chose not to hire enough VA doctors when Bush started the Iraq War.

There's also the question of what a noncombat injury is. McCain says he'd only make vets go to for-profit hospitals for noncombat injuries. But the Pentagon says that any injury that isn't caused by direct enemy fire is a noncombat injury. If a soldier is injured in a military vehicle that gets run off the road by hostile fire, the Pentagon calls that noncombat, because the direct fire was sustained by the vehicle, not the soldier.

The VFW opposes McCain's plan, because the plan would be potentially detrimental to vets.

In his Senate career, McCain is covered by the Senate health plan, but what would've happened to him if the VA hadn't been there for him? America can't afford to disassemble the Department of Veterans Affairs.

(Source: http://www.military.com/news/article/mccain-plan-moves-some-out-of-va-care.html)

Kucinich speech butchered by party big shots

Although the Democratic National Convention that's in progress now has been graced by great speeches by Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Joe Biden, we can all agree there hasn't been nearly enough raw roughage. Not even close to enough. Meaning zero.

The party has become so lightweight that it looks like that's how it's going to stay. Party apparatchiks even ruined a Dennis Kucinich speech in an effort to keep razor-sharp thoughts and words at bay.

Kucinich gave a speech at the convention on Tuesday. (I didn't know it though, because I don't know of any networks that showed the speech.) Kucinich had planned on saying that the Republicans "want 4 more years, when they ought to get 10 to 20 in prison."

But the party bosses who screen each speech axed that line. Too inflammatory, you see.

Now do you see why the Democrats don't have a lot of pull with me anymore? (They certainly have more than the Republicans, but not much.) Kucinich's line was perfectly valid. It's the type of thing that's sorely lacking at this convention. But the party's so-called leaders want to be "consensus-minded", you understand.

When a party doesn't even stand up and fight, why should we spend our energy doing what party leaders fail to do? With the party's current attitude, the Democrats shouldn't be surprised if they have to get used to being perennial also-rans again like they were in the early 2000s.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blog02&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aec38bb2b-982e-46ba-819a-da01a547e8eaPost%3ab4a39235-6c9c-4a71-89b6-214f718dee3e&s)

Idiot steals book from library

Every few years you hear about some batshit loser borrowing books from a library and refusing to return them because they don't like what the book is about. It's a form of censorship.

Now a woman in Lewiston, Maine, is censoring a book by doing precisely this idiotic action. She borrowed a book from the library titled 'It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex And Sexual Health'. The volume is said to be a sexual health book that contains cartoon-like illustrations. The woman is refusing to return to book, saying it violates obscenity laws.

Who appointed this right-wing busybody as judge, jury, and executioner?

If I wanted to borrow a book from the libe, I'd be furious if I found out someone was censoring it by borrowing it and refusing to return it.

A judge has ordered the woman to return the book. If she doesn't return it by tomorrow evening, she may be jailed on contempt of court charges.

Wait a minute here! Of course it's contempt of court, but isn't it also theft? I worked at my local library for most of the '90s, and I know Kentucky has a law specifically dealing with depriving a library of books or other materials. If you borrowed a book and refused to return it after repeated warnings, that was considered depriving the library, and it was a crime. I don't know how specific Maine law is, but willfully failing to return a library book should certainly fall under theft.

I know that at least once, the library where I worked called in the Campbell County Sheriff because someone either ruined an item they borrowed or failed to return it.

If there's another nationwide conservative wave, get ready for more intolerant crackpots trying to decide for us what to read. With the federal law requiring libraries to censor Internet access, the Far Right already practices more library censorship in the United States than at any other point in my lifetime.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=3a784c05-2266-45f4-bfac-1f45e35cdddb)

Richmond bawl

Richmond Mall - a shopping facility in Richmond, Kentucky - became the target of ridicule when it made a young woman leave because she wore a short dress.

Regardless of whether the mall had a legal right to escort this customer off the premises because of her dress, Richmond Mall looks mighty idiotic. A short dress is no more offensive than anything else you might see at a mall. (This dress was no more revealing than what's widely seen all over the country on a daily basis.) If someone is kicked out of a mall for a short dress, what's next? Blacking out all the cuss words in books at the bookstore with a marker? (The mall is especially hypocritical because the "offensive" dress was purchased at this mall!)

The story gets weirder. The Internet can be a seething cauldron of right-wing batshittery, and there's some folks on the 'Net who just can't accept it when a mall ends up looking stupid. So they get desperate. And they spread lies.

We've probably all seen these types. Any newspaper website that allows public comments on articles inevitably finds its comment section filled with right-wing harangues - claiming this and claiming that, with no proof. They bawl, they cry, they scream, they whine.

When the Richmond Register reported on the mall episode, some right-wing galoot posted a comment claiming that the customer who was escorted from the mall had exposed herself to children and adults who were shopping there. Although I don't know any of the people involved in the incident, this certainly sounds to me like a baseless allegation.

Baseless, almost certainly. But it's exactly the type of bald-faced lie wingnuts spread about people on the 'Net.

Many victims of false Internet accusations would just feel browbeaten into not doing anything about it - while their reputation agonizingly gets destroyed. But the young woman in this case isn't putting up with this shit. She's suing for defamation.

The Richmond Register had deleted the comments and banned the user who posted them. Now the company that manages the Register's comment forums is trying to find the poster's identity.

And I hope they do find it. Spreading made-up crap about people is known as defamation, and one can be held liable in a civil suit for it.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue1/story.aspx?content_id=76a0f345-ba25-40d4-bef0-a9c3cdc2560b)

Medicine "suspects" not charged with meth

A minor detail has emerged about the 9 unrelated allergy sufferers in upstate New York who were charged with buying too much over-the-counter medicine.

I suspected this was so, but this tidbit reinforces my belief that they're all innocent of any real crime. The U.S. Attorney's office that's charging them admits that none of the 9 are accused of using the allergy drugs to make meth or run an illegal lab.

The only thing they're charged with is buying too much allergy medicine - which wasn't illegal until the Patriot Act reauthorization of 2006.

You call that a drug bust?

Despite the flimsy charge, each "suspect" still faces up to a year in prison and fines of $1,000 to $100,000 each.

The failed War on Drugs is about to make statistics out of 9 unfortunate people who may be guilty of nothing more than bad seasonal allergies. The drug warriors are always eager to make statistics out of the innocent.

(Source: http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=43de6f5f-2328-4a92-a535-3cb5274bcde0)

9 arrested for buying too much allergy medicine

It's happened again - this time in upstate New York.

The Nazis' mid-decade reauthorization of the Patriot Act established draconian limits on buying over-the-counter cold or allergy medicine. The federal limit is a mere 9 grams in 30 days, and you must sign a log every time you buy the frigging stuff.

Anyone with allergies can easily burn through 9 grams in a week. I know I have - at least back when you could still buy this product without being hamstrung by the Idiot Act.

Bush's sad excuse for a Justice Department has now charged 9 people in central and northern New York state with the "crime" of buying too much cold or allergy medicine. From what I can gather, none of the 9 people had any connection with each other. They were probably all people with allergies.

Apparently they were caught because the DEA (which is corrupt beyond hope) checked the logs they were forced to sign.

When people read that the 9 "suspects" are being accused of "drug charges", they probably think they're trafficking coke or something. But nope. From what I can tell (unless the accounts I've seen left out crucial details), their only "crime" is having allergies.

Meanwhile, the government continues to spew its warmed-over propaganda about the Idiot Act's "success."

(Source: http://www.wwnytv.net/index.php/2008/08/27/two-lowville-men-arrested-on-federal-drug-charge)

What's missing from the convention

I've watched the Democratic convention this week, and the parts I've seen so far (which are the parts PBS opts to show) haven't been truly miserable. They've generally been average. (Ted Kennedy's speech was certainly above average though.)

(This fact does not excuse the choice by the networks - public and commercial alike - to completely ignore the Green convention.)

But you know what the Democratic convention needs?

It needs a speech that refers to the Patriot Act as the Idiot Act.

Seriously. It needs a rip-roaring populist speech in which the speaker comes right out and calls it that. It could be a politician, a union leader, an average worker, or anyone. But they need to call it the Idiot Act.

I'm getting an idea here of what I'd say: "We must have the courage to repeal the Idiot Act! And we must have the will to wad up that Idiot Act and throw it right at the Republicans until paper cuts mar their oozing faces! Then we need to stomp on the Idiot Act until it becomes compost!"

I don't expect such an incisive speech, because the Democrats have to please the DLC that helped pass the stupid Idiot Act. The party would certainly be more credible if it purged the DLC from the big tent. (The fact that it didn't is why I switched to the Greens.)

Delta wastes concourse

Today, when I read that Concourse C at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport was closing, I hoped to holy high bejeepers that this wasn't the multimillion-dollar concourse that had just opened in the '90s.

I remembered that around 1994, The Last Word seriously questioned the fact that Delta was spending some $20,000,000 on a new concourse that was long on form and short on substance. Despite this expense, the doors frequently malfunctioned, causing a passenger to get bopped in the nose. But that was just a side plot to the airline's garish display of extravagance.

When I read about the closing of a concourse today, my heart sank when I got to the part about the airport "opening it in 1994."

Yep, they closed the same concourse that had been criticized for its cost only a few years ago. Twenty million dollars, down the portable poopot.

Concourse C was used by Comair, a Delta subsidiary. When the concourse opened, the local media (which always seems to have a booster's view favoring corporate excess) thought it was the greatest thing since poop knives. But now it's gone. It's closing up. Probably never to be used again.

You expect a concourse - especially one that cost $20,000,000 - to last more than 14 years. It's possible for buildings to stand for 200 years and be almost like new - so expensive concourses should at least last more than 14.

Talk about waste in the corporate world!

Part of the sticker shock derived from the fact that there was so much poverty locally. And there still is. Cincinnati - which was America's epicenter of corporatism in the '80s and '90s - still ranks as one of America's poorest big cities, because of this ideology of money worship. According to new census figures, an astounding 23.5% of the city's population lives in absolute poverty.

Under corporatism, money flows away from the average person - and to powerful corporations that squander it on concourses that they abandon after a few years. No wonder there's such a big gap between the rich and the poor.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=866368b6-cffa-44cc-94dc-a0ff873f1fa2)

Meet Eldon Smith

The man pictured here is Eldon Smith. Back in 1986, Smith spent hundreds of thousands of dollars remodeling an Arizona mansion. The mansion was not in the district that John McCain represented...hey, wait a minute!

Eldon Smith looks an awfully lot like McCain, doesn't he?

That's because he is McCain!

In 1986, McCain was a congressman from an Arizona district. That year, he remodeled a Phoenix mansion owned by his opulent father-in-law. The $225,000 project added such amenities as a pool and a jacuzzi.

Trouble for McCain was that, although he and his wife Cindy were moving into the mansion, it was outside the district he represented. So he submitted the blueprints under a fake name - Eldon Smith - in the hopes nobody would notice.

Isn't it illegal to falsify official documents like this?

Oops.

So if you happen to bump into John McCain at your local supermarket or at work, be sure to say to him, "Hey Eldon!"

(Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0808/The_GOPs_2008_nominee_isEldon_Smith.html)

Beet, beet, sugar beet, beet, sugar beet, sugar beet-beeeeet... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

You know what?

Beet, beet, sugar beet, beet, sugar beet, sugar beet-beeeeet! That's what!

Everyone loves classic 'Sesame Street', and this '70s-era segment was one of the all-time most memorable:



That entertaining little clip was filmed at a sugar beet farm and mill in Wahpeton, North Dakota, and shows sugar beets being grown and made into sugar. It's replete with a kid angrily throwing a sugar beet plant down on the ground near the beginning.

At the end of the segment, a Walter Cronkite look-alike extracts a handful of sugar out of a large machine that looks like either a washing machine or a toilet. He licks his finger and happily declares, "Sugar!"

When I figured out that the only word in the English language that rhymes with 'sugar' is 'booger', I came up with a parody in which the man at the end picked his nose, licked his finger, and said, "Booger!"

Is this clip still shown on 'Sesame Street'? One has a right to hope so, but the outlook appears grim in the cutesy 'Sesame Street' of today.

Bush appointee covers for suspects in Obama assassination plot

What's in store for the 4 suspects in the foiled attempt on Obama's life?

Although one of them reportedly admitted that the group was going to shoot the senator, and members of the group were found with arsenals of guns, ammo, and other gear, Bush's so-called Justice Department appears poised to drop the ball. Troy Eid (pictured here), the U.S. Attorney for Colorado, said the suspects posed no threat to Obama - despite all the guns and the reported admission.

What idiot appointed this idiot? Must've been a real idiot, I'll tell you that much.

You guessed it: Troy Eid is a Bush appointee. Prior to joining the Bush regime, Eid was a confidant to right-wing then-Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado.

So a Bush appointee in the Justice Department is covering up for clods who tried to assassinate a presidential candidate. Clearly that's what's happening. If a heavily armed group threatens a candidate's life almost in plain sight like this, how can you deny that they posed a threat to the candidate?

It just doesn't get any more corrupt than this.

(Source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/26/us-attorney-3-men-arrested-posed-no-threat-to)

Assaults up 89% in Nashville under uniforms

Another deathwatch for both the pop-up media and the American school system.

In the year since the Nashville school district implemented mandatory uniforms, assaults at school have soared 89%. Assaults are up over 200% in the high schools. Suspensions are also way up.

The dinosaur media has long carried water for school uniforms, but this ought to silence those who insist uniforms are a cure-all for disciplinary woes. Still, it does not. Regarding the spike in violence, the Tennessean (Nashville's daily paper) published a lightweight piece that the Nashville Scene's Bruce Barry called "a new low for lazy, incompetent local journalism."

Despite the fact that assaults have almost doubled, school officials still don't get it. They claim uniforms made the schools safer, despite all the proof to the contrary.

Who's surprised? I'm not. When I was in school, discipline problems were many times worse in schools that had uniforms than in those without. In all these years, that looks to be one truism that's never changed.

(Source: http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2008/08/when_you_wish_upon_a_pair_of_k.php)

Obama assassination plot suspected

There's weirdoes, and then there's weirdoes.

At least 4 people are now under arrest in the Denver area over a possible plot to assassinate Obama during his convention acceptance speech.

One of the suspects reportedly said the group was going to shoot the candidate "from a high vantage point" with a rifle. The apparent plot is now under investigation by various federal agencies.

See what I mean when I talk about dangerous right-wing terrorists? If the suspects were indeed potential assassins, then these are the type of individuals everyone needs to keep an eye on - not bloggers who call Rick Santorum a "poopyhead."

(Source: http://cbs4denver.com/investigates/assisination.plot.obama.2.802827.html)

Texas school district begs to be sued

The school system in Fort Stockton, Texas, is just begging to be sued.

With another grueling school year starting, the district has a new policy. Under this new rule, students can be paddled whether their parents support it or not.

In 2008???

Prior to the rule change, kids in that western Texas town couldn't get swats if their parents requested that they not receive corporal punishment. But now the school system has just decided to paddle kids even when parents don't want it.

I think most folks will agree that this is just crying out for a lawsuit. I'll almost guarantee you that sooner or later, they're going to paddle a kid, and the parents are going to be quite upset - not at their kid, but at the school.

I can absolutely guarantee you that if I had children who got paddled in school, I'd be calling a lawyer right quick.

(Source: http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=7858)

Court upholds unions' right to picket malls

Gosh, the 9th Circuit has actually made at least 2 rulings lately that I agree with! The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is usually an outpost of Bushism, but this time they actually made a correct ruling.

In a 2 to 1 decision, the court has now ruled that union members have a right to picket malls and shopping centers. This ruling nixes restrictions that a mall management company in California tried to impose.

This follows a decision last year by the California Supreme Court that says unions have a right under state law to distribute leaflets in malls and encourage customers to boycott stores.

The union's lawsuit was actually against the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB (which is stacked with Bush cronies) had ruled that the mall had a right to bar the unions. Seriously. They actually said that - despite the fact that even state law supports the rights of the union to picket.

One would have hoped the 9th Circuit's ruling in favor of the union would be unanimous instead of merely 2 to 1. The vote against the union's free speech was provided by Judge Consuelo Callahan - a Bush appointee. Callahan ridiculously said that favoring the union "attempts to elevate expressive rights under California law" over the mall management company's "property rights."

Um, perhaps that's because California law (in addition to the U.S. Constitution) safeguards expressive rights? If a law says you have expressive rights, then that's the law. No real legal theory allows the alleged property rights of corporations to trump expressive rights in places that are open to the public if the law protects expressive rights.

Luckily, the flawed notion of corporate personhood didn't prevail this time.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/25/BAEE12I1NG.DTL)

Something funny I noticed

I'm watching the convention, and I noticed something funny.

It appeared as if Nancy Pelosi was chewing bubble gum throughout the first part of her speech.

But she didn't bubble.

Border fence causes flooding

No matter what you believe about immigration, one thing is clear: The new border fence is a disaster.

The government's fence along the Mexican border will cost millions and is expected to last less than 30 years. Now an incident in Arizona proves how out of control this project is.

Last month, debris and water backed up along the fence during a storm - blocking the entrance to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It turned out that the reason for the flood was that Department of Homeland Suckyurity Director Michael Chertoff opted to disobey environmental laws to speed up the fence's construction.

Now the fence will cost even more, because of flood cleanup.

Many of the areas where the fence is being built don't even want the fence! Here's hoping that these communities send law enforcement in to remove their respective portions of the fence. It would serve Michael Jerkoff right - especially after he decided environmental laws were just "damn pieces of paper" (to borrow Bush's phrase).

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_re_us/border_fence_floods)

More social engineering crap from the Far Right

I'm an economic populist first and foremost. But conservatives' social engineering bullshit is what often makes them fall down so hard that it's difficult not to call them fools to their faces.

An upcoming ballot proposal in Arkansas will let voters vote on whether to make it illegal for unmarried couples to become foster or adoptive parents. Seriously.

If Arkansas voters approve this referendumb, that would just be downright shameful. There's a shortage of potential foster and adoptive parents already. If this passes, that would make a lot of people ineligible to be adoptive parents who would have otherwise been considered suitable.

It also raises a serious question: Would unmarried people who have already adopted lose their adopted children?

What prompted this measure? Well, in 2006, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to bar someone from being an adoptive parent because they are gay. Because the Far Right hates gays, the new ballot measure was concocted as a method to circumvent this ruling (as gay marriage isn't legal in Arkansas).

Conservatives are so consumed by their hatred of gays that they're willing to do anything to make sure that ruling is thwarted, even if it means a majority of the people adversely affected by the referendum aren't gay.

This is so far over the top that I don't think it'll pass even in a state that's fairly conservative. Stranger things have happened than it passing, but by supporting the measure, conservatives are just looking every bit the fools that they've long appeared to be.

Talk about a bunch of obsessos. This is as silly as the Far Right's catatonic hatred of the poor circa 1995.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080825/ap_on_re_us/gay_foster_ban)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Curt Bramble!

There's no rule saying we can't have more than one Conservative Fool Of The Day! Especially today, which so far has been like a big 'Price Is Right' loser horn for conservatism. ("Voopvoopavoop...")

Curt Bramble, a Republican, is the right-wing Majority Leader in the Utah Senate.

Last week, Bramble made a fool of himself when a pizza driver delivered pizzas to his mansion. Bramble tried paying with a check, but when the driver told him the restaurant didn't accept personal checks, Bramble proved himself to be a complete dick.

Odds are, Bramble has piles and piles of cash. He is not poor. He could have easily paid for the pizzas with cash. But instead he demanded that the driver take the pizzas back to the restaurant and waste them.

Apparently the eatery does accept credit cards. I'm sure Curt Bramble has at least one of those. But he was reluctant to pay with a credit card and practically accused the driver right to her face of trying to defraud him.

The pizza driver posted about the experience on her blog and mentioned how Bramble tried abusing his position as a state senator to get his check accepted and how he left a meager tip. This incident was the only time ever that anyone told that particular driver to take pizzas back to the restaurant.

Bramble's wife had been given the option of paying with cash or a credit card when she placed the order. Nothing about checks. So Bramble must have a mighty short memory if he didn't know he couldn't pay with a check.

Maybe more businesses would still accept checks if not for Congress's check-bouncing scandal. Though it was a bipartisan scandal, Republicans (Bramble's party) were (per member) more prone to abusing the House Bank.

In a separate incident, Bramble reportedly once ate at a steakhouse where he demanded free dessert just because he's a senator.

The blog exposing Curt Bramble's pizza tirade became a sensation - and Bramble the would-be pizza waster is a humiliated disgrace.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/25/82327/3536/167/574440;
http://cartoonbrickwall.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-run-in-with-majority-leader-in-utah.html)

Diaper Dave can't use campaign funds to cover prostitution expenses

Aw, boo hoo!

The Federal Election Commission has ruled that right-wing Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) can't use campaign funds to pay over $160,000 in legal expenses he racked up after he hired a prostitute to indulge his diaper fetish.

Gee, Diaper Dave, that's some expensive hooker.

Normally I wouldn't be concerned with a politician hiring a prostitute. It's their life, so let 'em do what they want. But when a politician has that nasty Republican label next to their name, we should expect them to hold themselves to a higher standard, because the Republicans are usually the ones preaching to everyone else how to live.

A lot of people don't understand that. But if that sounds like a double standard, the GOP has brung it on itself by acting so holier-than-thou.

A politician of any party should be held up to industrial-strength ridicule if they actually think they can use campaign funds to cover fees resulting from them visiting a prostitute. Somehow I don't think Vitter's donors thought they were paying for hooker visits.

The FEC let Vitter pay for about $30,000 of his legal tab with campaign funds, because that part covered an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. Everything else has to come out of his pocket. (Do diapers even have pockets?)

(Source: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/vitter_cant_use_campaign_funds.php)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Tom Davis!

Did you know the economy is in tiptop shape?

It is according to right-wing Rep. Tom Davis (R-Virginia). Davis says times have never been better!

How does he know this?

Because things are doing just fine in Fairfax County, Virginia. Which just happens to be the richest county in the entire United States.

Seriously. He thinks that because everything is going so well in America's richest county (much of which is in his district), that's a sign that the national economy is doing just as great.

He made this statement during a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.

Still don't believe the Republicans are out-of-touch elites? Davis boasted that Fairfax County has "362 foreign-owned companies and tens of thousands of employees with foreign-owned firms."

Where's the American-owned companies, Tom?

Fairfax County's affluence reflects rich corporate lobbyists and executives of these foreign firms - not average workers.

I guess that in the mixed-up world of Tom Davis, as go executives, as goes America, huh?

(Source: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008083421/trade-report-gop-cites-americas-richest-county-proof-economy-doing-well)

California nixes noncompete clauses

As another example of right-wing hypocrisy, the right-wingers who favor work-for-less laws are usually the same ones who support letting businesses enforce noncompete clauses. Noncompete clauses are rules that employers impose on workers that forbid them from working for a competitor for months after they've resigned.

In other words, the same people who back misnamed "right-to-work" (union-busting) laws support infringing on your right to work for your former employer's competitor.

But now the California Supreme Court has correctly ruled that noncompetes are illegal. They pointed out that state law has specifically forbidden noncompetes since 1872.

Noncompetes run afoul of basic rights of workers. Workers are people, not company property. If you're no longer working for someone, it's none of your former employer's damn business where you work next.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/08/BUUH12716R.DTL&type=printable)

More pro-bullying tyranny

How far is the system willing to go to punish victims of school harassment while mollycoddling the harassers?

We've already seen this trend with the tyranny of "no pass, no drive" - which punishes students for poor grades but not for serial harassment. Now America is being treated to a big, stinky, bunkeroo-like repeat at the hands of a new program in Texas.

Several cities in Texas have implemented a right-wing program to track so-called truants by forcing them to wear a GPS ankle bracelet 24/7. School harassers are not punished in this fashion. But alleged truants are.

Tell me if that's not giving special rights to bullies.

And if you think this program won't expand, I wouldn't be surprised if students "at risk" of truancy are next. Harassers will be the last ones punished (as is clear from other right-wing gimmicks like this). Things like this always start off small, but before you know it, you're in an America you don't recognize.

(Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/23/national/main4376972.shtml)

Stupid school tricks

I'm emotionally numb right now.

I'm in complete, absolute shock that a party that I've spent the past 15 years publicly criticizing would target me personally with a gambit that I've publicly criticized for just as long - and not even cover its tracks.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not too surprised they did what they did. I'm only shocked that they were dumb enough to leave evidence in plain sight.

At 4:21 PM today, the phone rang. I ran into my front room as the answering machine picked up the call. I heard what sounded like a recording of a man talking in a deep cartoon superhero voice. It started off, "This is Optimus Prime. Take a break from blogging and listen to me." The voice said that it's "moving into Kentucky."

Most of the recording seemed to be talking about Transformers (the popular toy and the cartoon that it spawned). It urged me to visit a website advertising an upcoming Transformers movie.

The answering machine stopped recording during the call, but I figured it must have been a telemarketer advertising Transformers products. I figured one of the blog sites I use must have sold my personal info to the Transformers people. Otherwise they wouldn't know I was a blogger.

In any event, I'm on the no-call list, and I didn't want to get any more calls from them. So I dialed *69 so I'd know what part of the country the call came from. I figured I'd block 'em if I had any room left on my block list.

When the phone company's *69 recording read the number, I was a little surprised to find it started off with 859, which is my own area code. And that the exchange happened to be in my county - which made it all the more suspicious.

I went online, typed the full number into Google, and what's one of the first pages that comes up? My former high school. A Catholic high school that I got expelled from 18 years ago is making stupid-ass recorded phone calls about Transformers to my home.

My heart raced, and my palms sweated.

I was in disbelief at what I was seeing.

Here's the deal: I got an unsolicited recorded phone call and traced it to a number that belongs to my first high school - a school that I've lambasted in my newsletter and on my website for years.

I know you would not believe me if I didn't record both the call and the *69 recording right after the fact. But I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emXqOIcON_4

I'm not embedding the clip here, because I know my alma mater will cry "harassment!" But that's the link to the recordings.

I can hardly believe it either. Are the idiots who run my former high school that fucking stupid that they didn't think I'd save their calls?

What's their defense? They were caught red-handed this time. Their Transformers Underoos and hanging down around their ankles this time, and there's nothing they can do.

Are they going to make me see a shrink who says it's all in my head when the proof is in plain view? They've got no defense this time. None. They're screwed.

After years of listening to repeated denials that this is even going on, how does one react when the proof finally appears in plain sight, before God (or whatever you believe in) and everyone? I'm too shocked to know what to do.

Not like the proof does much good in court, because the system has covered for this so-called school for decades. If that wasn't the case, my former school wouldn't be dumb enough to risk being fined hundreds of dollars for phone harassment.

I'm in less disbelief than I'd be in if I hadn't seen how teen confinement centers (like the one targeted by our roadside protests) specifically pursue individuals who are their most vocal critics. If teen programs can do this, why wouldn't schools do it too? Nobody has publicly criticized my former school anywhere near as much as I have.

And the school absolutely cannot stand it when I criticize it. They hate it.

I still want to know what connection my former school has to the other parties who I've gotten harassing calls from - including Citizens United and an assortment of local businesses and individuals. Because my number is unlisted, I'm also wondering how they got that.

Verdict: guilty. Now I know the school is guilty, and anyone who clicks on the clip knows it too - unless they're so in denial that they're delusional.

My old high school has got to be much more desperate than I thought. Making bizarre calls like this isn't what people do when they're in the right frame of mind.

Heating costs to jump over 20%

The "regulation for thee, not for me" crowd has long propagated a Big Lie: According to them, deregulation lowers costs.

This story again proves what a lie that is - but they keep repeating it in the hopes people won't be fooled.

In the Midwest, the price of heating oil is expected to soar 29% this winter. The price of natural gas is expected to jump 23%.

Weird. I sure don't know many people who make 23 to 29% more money than they did last year.

And so, the handouts to Big Business permitted by regulators who won't regulate continue.

(Source: http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2008/08/24/news/doc48b0e42faebb9591674181.txt)

Court upholds state pollution laws

In the '90s, the Far Right wanted to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency - the EPA. They considered any reasonable regulation on Big Business to be a government "taking", even though no property changed hands.

It was the ideology of propertarianism taken to the point where (if the Far Right had its way) only large property owners would be allowed to participate in government.

The EPA almost has been dismantled under Bush. Now the EPA's only function seems to be telling the states that they can't place environmental regulations on Big Business.

A 1990 congressional change to the Clean Air Act clearly authorized states to limit polluting emissions from factories and utilities. Despite this, Bush's EPA began placing harsh limits on the states' power to monitor industrial emissions.

Weren't the Republicans the ones who were running on states' rights? Did they lie about that just like they lied about their other campaign promises? (Yes.)

But now a federal appeals court has slapped the Bush regime silly.

In a 2 to 1 ruling, the court says Bush's EPA can't restrict the states in this manner.

Gee, ya think? After all, the law is perfectly clear in authorizing states to curb polluters. Why isn't the ruling unanimous instead of 2 to 1?

At least Bush got smacked down - making this one of few instances in his whole lifetime of failure that someone's ever told him no.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/washington/20air.html)

Clear Channel pulls anti-nuke ads

What happens when most of America's advertising venues are concentrated in the hands of one greedy corporation with right-wing leanings?

You get bullshit excuses, that's what.

A few days ago, Clear Channel removed an ad from a billboard it owns at the Minneapolis airport. The ad was placed by the Union of Concerned Scientists and urged McCain to rethink the country's policy on nuclear weapons.

Crap Channel pulled the ad because of complaints by Northwest Airlines, the official airline of the Republican National Convention. (So much for corporations' alleged nonpartisanship, huh?) The airline called the ad "scary."

Now Clear Channel has pulled the UCS's billboard at the Denver airport that made the same plea of Obama that the Minneapolis billboard made of McCain. This time, Clumpy Channel appears to have yanked the ad on its own, instead of following airline complaints.

Clear Channel's rejection of advocacy ads on the basis of the ads' stance is more proof of how media monopolies are antithetical to democracy. The free flow of ideas is stifled when so much of the media is concentrated in one corporation.

Clear Channel and Northwest Airlines think the billboard is "scary", but nuclear propagation isn't? This is like when Jim Inhofe talked about being more "outraged by the outrage" over Abu Ghraib than by the scandal itself.

(Source: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7299)

Bush cultists force cancellation of media cookout

The spittle crowd doesn't just criticize actions. They police thoughts. Bush's cultists are un-American and intolerant.

The city manager of Golden, Colorado, invited Al Jazeera to broadcast from a cookout in his back yard during the Democratic National Convention. Al Jazeera certainly has better war coverage than the American-based networks, and its coverage even of American politics is also said to be vastly superior. (How can it be much worse than that of the U.S. press corpse?)

But when some local Bush followers got word of this, they went berserk. They hate Al Jazeera because its coverage isn't uniformly pro-war like most of the American media's is. They stamped their shit-caked little footsies until the city manager rescinded his Al Jazeera invitation.

Obviously there is no freedom of the press in America anymore. If there was, a handful of morons with the emotional stability of a baby wouldn't be able to drive out a news organization like this.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/23/politics/p050523D38.DTL&tsp=1)

Age of majority can't be 19

I'd planned on touching on this issue months ago, and now I think it should be moved back to the frontburner. The media has become careless about factual errors, but this is one that it's actually repeated.

The age of majority is the age that a person is considered an adult. A common misconception is that minors have no legal rights. In reality, however, a minor is supposed to have a minority of the control over their decisions (as opposed to no control at all), and a major (adult) is supposed to have a majority of such control. As an adult, one is no longer subject to parental authority.

The error in question is the media's repeated claim that the age of majority in Nebraska is 19. Even the respected New York Times claimed several months ago that this is the case. Now the AP has repeated this mistake.

Nowhere can the age of majority be 19. Nowhere! Not any place in the world.

There may be statutes in some states and countries that claim it's 19, if not higher. But these laws are no more valid than a law declaring 2 plus 2 to be 5. Under common law, once you're 18 - kablammo! - you're an adult. States and countries can set the age of majority lower - but not higher.

I've heard other misconceptions too. For instance, I've been told that in Kentucky it's 19 if you don't have your high school diploma yet. While parents of 18-year-olds who are still in high school might be able to collect child support in Kentucky, that does not increase the age of majority for those who have yet to graduate.

I hail from Kentucky and turned 18 before I graduated - and I guarantee I would've raised hell if I was not legally considered an adult. Discriminating against someone based on their educational level would be so much like the vainglorious approach that Kentucky lawmakers take to education, but I've yet to find a Kentucky law that robs anyone over 18 of adult status - and if there is such a statute, it's void under common law anyway.

If I was from Nebraska, I would've raised hell too. You can't legally claim someone is still a child once they're 18. You just can't.

This has come to the fore now because Nebraska has a new law that would potentially allow parents to abandon unruly teenagers at hospitals. So Nebraska tries making adults live with their parents until they're 19, but lets parents abandon their kids before they even turn 18? How's that for legislative doublespeak?

I guess the fact that a law lets kids be abandoned just because they got in trouble at school or listened to "druggie music" is a sign that today's America is a throwaway society. If someone or something isn't 100% perfect, they get tossed out like food wrappers in the street.

More hypocrisy? I would bet you that the first people who'd support seriously enforcing such a high age of majority would be the first who'd favor lowering the age at which a minor may be tried as an adult for minor violations of the law. You can bet the farm on this.

Another problem with both the high majority age and the abandonment of teens: Both of these are likely a boon for abusive teen confinement facilities. With a higher age of majority, there's more people who have the potential to be placed in an abusive program by parents. With teenagers abandoned, there's also a greater chance that the system will place them in such a program.

Government doublespeak can be quite profitable for "the industry."

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080822/ap_on_re_us/children_safe_havens)

You're in the big leagues! (Bubble Gum Weekend)

The hilarity of bubble gum's mere existence just keeps on mounting!

Peep Big League Chew, for instance. Introduced in 1980, it's a brand of BG that comes in pouches which (to much controversy) resemble those in which chewing tobacco is sold. The gum itself looks like pink spaghetti.

It's funny stuff. You know why? Because it's gum, that's why. And gum is funny.

Take a gander at this uproarious commersh from the early '80s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GyEkvqtHPs

Although the ad talked about "man-sized wads" (hey Beavis you said "man-sized wads") of bubble gum, this brand enjoyed brief interest among men, women, and children alike. People bubbled with it.

Big League Chew gained renewed attention in 2005 in Newport, Kentucky - the same city where I was born some years earlier! A 25-year-old woman got busted for stealing several pouches of the stuff (along with 2 cases of Slim Jim beef sticks) from the Remke's supermarket on Carothers Road.

Now she's probably not in the big leagues but in the big house (jail)!

I guess she was desperate to blow the World's Biggest Bubble if she was willing to risk jail time to steal gum.

We protest a cult!

Last night I got deployed to my 10th protest against the teen behavior modification cult on the east side of Cincinnati. This roadside rally wasn't particularly long, but it turned out to be not uneventful, and it was certainly a success!

It started off slow as the 3 of us basked in the stifling heat with bottles of icy cold wawa. But when a police car pulled in to the facility's driveway, the real amusement beginned.

The cruiser drove back towards the building where we couldn't see it, but emerged about 10 minutes later. Then the policeman got out of his car and approached us.

I began to fear that our rally might be suppressed, but the officer quickly assured us we were in the right. He informed us that the facility has a new "policy" of calling the police every time we protest. But the friendly cop also told us that because we are not breaking the law, we can keep protesting.

What it boils down to is that the facility is committing harassment. If you keep calling the police on someone when you know they're doing nothing wrong, that's harassment, and it's a crime.

No normal person would repeatedly call the cops on someone for doing something they know is legal and rant at the officers for 10 minutes.

During the event, I also discovered that the facility had painted a white line at the entrance to its driveway and posted more anti-trespassing signs - just for us! This is of iffy legality, because it appears as if the white line may actually be on the public right-of-way.

The day's highlight came near the end of our protest. A parent of one the detainees pulled up in his car and fumed about how we were "attacking" the program. He then jumped out of the car and marched towards one of our protesters in a threatening manner. He adjusted one of the new signs along the driveway and drove off.

After our protest, we bipped over to some folks' house for some delicious lasagna and sodie-pop. Later we went to Perkins in Highland Heights, where we got more hydration. To celebrate our successful protest, we blew bubbles through the straws in our beverages until they rose to the top of the glass.

Here's to success! Blublublublublub!

(More info: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)

Obama picks Biden

Obama has picked longtime Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate, just like I predicted.

I know a lot of folks are saying Obama could've picked a better running mate - but it could have been worse too. Much worse.

Put Biden up against Mitt Romney, and that's not even a contest.

Pilot's career almost ruined by TSA list

Is there any doubt remaining that America has become a command state?

A pilot who works for a small regional airline has found his career in jeopardy after his name turned up on a Transportation Security Administration list. The TSA keeps telling him he is on "a list" - but it's unclear if this is the hated no-fly list that's been found to be discredited many times over. He and his wife have been stopped and harassed repeatedly by agents when they travel.

This is how the government treats a '91 Gulf War vet who served 13 years in the military?

It's believed that the TSA placed him on the list solely because his wife is from Pakistan and is a Muslim.

Because the man can't get answers from the TSA, and the TSA is refusing to remove his name, his career as a pilot is now at serious risk.

He's filed a lawsuit against the government to have the names of himself and his wife removed from TSA lists.

If America gets a real President any time soon, hopefully they'll tell the TSA to stick its watch lists where the sun don't glow.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/22/pilot.watch.list)

Demonstrators win millions over bogus arrests

A 2003 protest in Manhattan against the Iraq War went awry when demonstrators were arrested on bogus charges.

Some of them spent 12 hours in jail on these phony charges, even though police video proved they broke no laws. But dozens of these dissidents sued the city of New York for its suppression of free speech.

Just a few days ago, the city finally agreed to settle the case for $2,000,000.

It's unfortunate that New York City incurred such a massive expense by arresting the demonstrators. If the city had left the protesters alone and let them exercise their free speech rights (like free countries do), the city never would've been sued. What's even more unfortunate is that city taxpayers have to foot the bill for the intolerance of the municipal regime they pay taxes to.

The voters need to just clean house in the next election.

Incidentally, New York City authorities didn't learn their lesson quickly enough. After that protest, they carried out even more heavy-handed suppression during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

I know these episodes are only a tiny fraction of the public repression that's plagued America the past 8 years, and the $2,000,000 settlement is just a drop in the bucket. You have to wonder how many incidents go completely unreported. (The Devou Park Showdown has probably never been reported outside The Last Word and this blog.)

(Source: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/21-14)

Mitt Romney??? Really???

According to Time magazine, McCain has settled on right-wing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate.

Something tells me McCain just lost the election right there. Mitt "The Shit" Romney is bugfuck crazy. And that's putting it mildly.

Right about now, McCain's opponents (major party and third party alike) are probably saying, "Bring it on!" From Romney's record of incompetence as governor, it damn sure ain't gonna help the GOP win Massachusetts.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/29/mitt-romney-mccains-vice_n_115647.html)

Alabama penalizes workers because of weight

This is something that - if it isn't illegal already - damn well ought to be.

Alabama is becoming the first state in the U.S. to place a surcharge on state employees who are deemed "overweight." The state will soon begin charging workers an extra $25 a month if their weight isn't within what the state considers an acceptable standard.

Charging workers now? Back in my day, people used to get paid to work instead of having to pay.

It's bad enough when big corporations try keeping their employees in suspended animation, but for a state to do it is just as ridiculous. Indeed, it's outright discrimination.

And what does "overweight" mean? Under new official guidelines promulgated by the federal government the late '90s, I'm "overweight." I fucking sure wouldn't appreciate being charged $25 a month over it.

I firmly believe one of the main reasons for the new guidelines was so more people could be classed as "overweight" or "obese", just so there'd be an excuse to micromanage their lives or shake them down for a few dollars like what Alabama is doing to its state workers (and what Big Business has tried to do).

(Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=619057)

John McCain and Mr. Monopoly: separated at birth?

Remember when it was discovered that Mike Huckabee bears a striking resemblance to Gomer Pyle?

Now someone on another website has discovered something almost as funny!

John McCain happens to look a damn lot like Mr. Monopoly, the typecast wealthy man who has long graced Chance and Community Chest cards in the Monopoly board game.

Here's McAin't:


This is Mr. Monopoly:


Now, if Mr. Monopoly shaves off his 1920s 'stache, we get this:


A clean-shaven Mr. Monopoly surely does look like the current Republican standard-bearer, doesn't he?

I guess it's fitting because McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns. He probably owns a hotel on Park Place or Boardwalk too.

Antiwar shirt ruled legal

Psychologists define camisaphobia as the fear of shirts. This disorder disproportionately plagues modern conservatives.

The only things I find fearsome in this story are the fact that several state legislatures banned a particular shirt, and the continuation of Bush's illegal Iraq War, which the shirt protests.

Lawmakers in Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas passed state laws designed to prohibit selling a shirt that lists names of thousands of soldiers who were killed in the war. It was surprising that any legislature would pass such a silly law. (Even in an era when lawmakers regularly hold the Constitution in contempt, this law was a shock.)

The law was clearly unconstitutional on free speech grounds if it was used to go after sellers of such a shirt. If this law was allowed to be used for such a purpose, what's to stop journalists from being prosecuted for reporting that a soldier was killed? You can't censor facts.

But now a federal judge has permanently barred Arizona from using this law to prosecute the shirt's seller.

Arizona actually tried enforcing this law? Prosecutors really stepped right into a lawsuit, didn't they?

The seller isn't completely free of legal troubles yet. He now faces a class action civil suit by a Tennessee plaintiff that seeks to make him pay $40,000,000,000 just for selling the shirt.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/20/soldiers.names.ap)

Right-wing sour grapes about movie "censorship"

The right-wing thought police has a weird idea of what censorship is.

To them, the Pentagon's suppression of journalists' coverage of war deaths isn't censorship. To them, a government ban of video games they don't like also is not censorship. But failing to release an unpopular TV miniseries on DVD quickly enough is.

In 2006, ABC (which now seems to stand for Anti-Barack Channel) aired 'The Path To 9/11', a miniseries that blamed Bill Clinton for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company.

So what's the Far Right to do? They're blaming Disney for censoring the very miniseries that the company conceived, bankrolled, distributed, and broadcast. ABC aired the docudrama even after it was proven that it was full of errors.

If not for Disney, 'The Path To 9/11' never would have existed. So how are they censoring it?

Conservatives claim Disney is censoring the series because they haven't rerun it or put it out on DVD yet.

Maybe that's because there's no demand for it, perhaps? For all the visibility the wingnutosphere has, it has only a few diehard followers. There's probably not enough people out there who are willing to buy this shit.

The right-wing intelligentsia (or more accurately, stupidsia) is milking the bogus controversy for all its worth. Right-wing hatchet man David Bossie and talk radio loudmouth John Ziegler have teamed up to make a direct-to-video documentary titled 'Blocking 'The Path To 9/11'' - which is all about (you guessed it) the big, mean conspiracy to "censor" ABC's miniseries.

Although it's a direct-to-video release, it will be shown in some movie theaters just before the election.

When this turns out to be a box office disaster, what's next? 'Blocking 'Blocking 'The Path To 9/11'''?

If you want censorship, how about when conservatives cowed CBS into canceling its airing of 'The Reagans' because they claimed its depiction of Ronald Reagan wasn't positive enough? 'The Path To 9/11' was shown on network TV. 'The Reagans' was not.

Mmm! Mining waste! Dee-lish!

The dinosaur media hasn't exactly been on top of this story, has it?

I saw a blurb in the online version of the Cincinnati Enquirer today about Ralph Nader's ballot efforts in Ohio, and it mentioned yet another Bush fuck-up that I don't remember seeing anything about. According to this article, the Bush regime unilaterally gutted the 1977 Clean Water Act by letting mining waste get dumped in streams and wetlands.

So we're drinking mining waste now.

You mean the Decider's "unitary presidency" has fouled our lives yet again? This is like Bush's efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act or his illegal rule by decree that sapped EMTALA and promoted patient dumping.

There has been little coverage of any of these diktats, because why would the media want their friend Bush to take the blame for these things?

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blog02&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aec38bb2b-982e-46ba-819a-da01a547e8eaPost%3a7ade904b-afee-43f2-a12e-5e1a42f38f77&s)

Buffoons conduct 8-year study of '08 campaign

There's no end to what the right-wing noise machine will come up with, is there?

The Media Research Center - a right-wing media analysis group founded by Brent "Bozo" Bozell III - has made a spectacle of itself with its latest endeavor: a study of the current presidential campaign.

Trouble is, the MRC calls its own report an 8-year study. You mean the 2008 campaign was going on in 2000? You mean I almost got arrested at that Bush rally in Devou Park for nothing?

You're idiots, MRC.

So what's the MRC's conclusion from this magical time-traveling study? It says TV news coverage is biased in favor of Obama because the networks failed to call him "liberal" often enough.

I swear I am not making this up.

Honestly, is Obama really even very liberal? The center of debate has moved so far to the right that what's liberal by today's standards could be considered conservative by any unadjusted measure.

According to the MRC, the networks gave Obama the Democratic nomination by not calling him "liberal" as much as the MRC felt necessary.

Alright, Media Research Center, that's about enough out of you for one day.

This is why Media Matters for America charged that the MRC viewed the media "through a funhouse mirror that renders everything - even the facts themselves - as manifestations of insidious bias."

Cincinnati voters to vote on red light cams

I quite frankly am glad folks will get a say on an important local issue.

In November, voters in the city of Cincinnati will get to vote on whether the city should outlaw red light cameras. The fact is that the cameras have never been about public safety. Other cities have tried them, only to have tickets repeatedly sent to the wrong motorists. They have failed to improve safety and have enriched only the companies that run them.

Often the yellow phase of a traffic light has been shortened just so more people are ticketed. This has the potential for disastrous consequences.

The vote will occur if the signatures on the ballot petition are verified. (Colorado's Republican Secretary of State certified that state's work-for-less referendumb even though countless signatures were fake, but I don't know what the policy in Ohio is.)

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080820/NEWS0108/308200055/1169/NEWS)

American schools like hitting kids

With stories like this, I can't believe this is 2008 and not 1808.

The American school system means a hefty dose of corporal punishment. A lot of school administrators enjoy paddling kids. To them, it's a sport or a comedy routine.

They enjoy it through and through. They smirk and laugh throughout the paddling. I've encountered very few paddlers who didn't. They like coming up with snappy catchphrases to accompany the punishment like, "Pick a brick."

During the 2006-07 school year (the most recent year for which numbers are available), almost a quarter-million American schoolchildren received corporal punishment. Almost one-fourth of them were in Texas.

These usually weren't even for major violations. Quite frequently, prekindergarten students were beaten for petty offenses like chewing gum.

Minor transgressors are probably more likely to get swats than serious troublemakers. It surely seems that way. Cretins like some of my former schoolmates never received an appointment with the hickory dickory stick - but then again, no other form of discipline was ever tried with them either.

Members of Congress have introduced bills that would have in effect outlawed corporal punishment in American public schools. For the life of me, I don't know why these bills never passed. There should be a nationwide ban of paddling.

Until that happens, we're just going to have to rely on brave parents to challenge schools' abuse.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1931921320080820)

'Pail now a year old!

This year has a lot of important anniversaries. Why, the 20th anniversary of both the Plop Lecture and the disastrous 1988 presidential election loom. The 15th anniversary of the founding of The Last Word occurred earlier this year.

And today is the first anniversary of the founding of this fine blog! I was right when I said The Online Lunchpail would be a truly unique project, wasn't I?

I don't remember any of the other names I had proposed for this blog, but I settled on The Online Lunchpail because of the blog's working-class appeal. And it's an appeal we've lived up to.

So when it's time to relax after a hard day of work, enjoy the 'Pail! I hope the 'Pail stays in business many more years to challenge the evils of corporatism.

Also, when I started the 'Pail, I announced its founding several days late, because I wasn't even sure it would work and I wanted to unleash it right before Labor Day. I goed swimming after I published the first entries and before I made the big announcement, and I remember thinking how great this blog was going to be!

Today, my annual swimming outing may possibly loom, so I may get a chance to think of more ideas for this blog as I bask in the crisp, cool wa!

Here's to success! Blublublublublub!

Cookie Monster the cannibal ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Gasp!

How could Muppet-on-Muppet cannibalism have ever been permitted on public television?

Or is it really cannibalism? You be the judge...



Whether this is cannibalism hinges on one question: Are Cookie Monster and Guy Smiley of the same species? Many believe they are, as they are both Muppets. But Muppets might be more like a phylum or a genus, not a species. Many biology textbooks state that Guy Smiley evolved from the microphone, while Cookie Monster is the secret love child of Miss Piggy and Sherlock Hemlock. If this text is accurate, Guy and the Cookster must clearly be of different species.

It is suggested from other sketches that Cookie Monster suffers from illiteracy, but he appears in this segment to have rudimentary reading skills. The main theme of this skit is his poor grasp of rhyme.

Notice also that the baker in this segment strongly resembles the dour customer who frequents Grover's restaurant or the guy who sings the long-forgotten "bawm bawm bawm" song.

I also find it rather amusing that this segment appears to start out with the baker singing, "420 blackbirds baked in a pie..." Yes, 420! Speaking of which, there's something baked in that pie, and it ain't blackbirds or lemon harangue!

Conspiracy mongers like WorldNutDaily would be bound to find some significance in the fact that the YouPube copy of this clip is 6.66 megabytes. Maybe Cookie Monster is the Devil! Nah. That's ridiculous. Prairie Dawn might be, but not ol' Cooks.

School crybabies didn't bother to check the law first

Hilarious!

Totally fucking hilarious!!!

All the pundits and educrats who keep going around saying how great school uniforms are have just received a colossal smackdown! And it was so needed!

Everyone knows what I think about their inane cant, and now I'm laughing square in their faces!

The right-wing school board in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, has been going on and on all summer about how badly mandatory student uniforms are needed. They act like the world will end without them. So recently they formed a subcommittee to study the fascist plan.

Fortunately, Rhode Island law prohibited mandatory uniforms in public schools. Unfortunately, then-State Rep. Roger Picard - a staunch DLCer - introduced a right-wing bill to change that. The school board thanked Picard for passing this law and saving the day for totalitarian social control.

But now - after the Woonsocket school bored launched its committee to explore uniforms - something funny was discovered about that new law: It had never passed.

Ha ha!

Picard says he doesn't know why the bill never got off the ground in the Rhode Island House. Maybe because it's not a wingnut state, perhaps? Boo fucking hoo, Roger.

I guess if that school system wants uniforms, they're going to have to do what that Nazi school district in Massachusetts did when it broke that state's law by requiring uniforms.

Rhode Island's Democratic Party doesn't seem to get the message any more than you'd expect the Republicans to. The party website features a newsletter touting Picard's uniform bill.

Now you know another reason I switched to the Greens.

(Source: http://www.woonsocketcall.com/content/view/47269/1)

NYPD to scan every car

Who's the fuckhead who thought of this?

The New York City police have announced a new project to scan and track every vehicle in Manhattan. And people are outraged.

Police will store data on every car's movements for 30 days.

Who the fuck would even want to implement such a shitty program? You have to remember though this is the same sort of Orwellian fascism as the Patriot Act, TeenScreen, friskings at NFL games, and other pet programs of the spittle crowd. This tyranny has gotten so far out of hand that it seems almost anticlimactic now.

Under this surveillance system, all cars would be scanned and photographed as they cross bridges or tunnels. About 3,000 cameras would dot Manhattan.

It gets worse: Booths would also be erected (hey Beavis you said erected) on street corners to spy on pedestrians and passing cars.

A similar right-wing plan is in the works for Washington, D.C., following a bribe by the Department of Homeland Suckyurity. In the Washington area, fixed tag readers will scan every car that drives past and match it against federal databases.

America is a police state. Not just a police state, but a Stalinist police state.

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/BBC_Residents_furious_over_NYC_terror_0819.html;
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/NYC_police_propose_massive_public_snooping_0812.html;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081602218.html)

Psych ward tortures man to death

The carnage in America's psychiatric "hospitals" - which have become brutal death camps - continues.

Investigators say that at a state mental "hospital" in Goldsboro, North Carolina, a 50-year-old man was cruelly tortured to death back in April. The man was left in a chair for 22 hours, denied food, and not allowed to use a restroom. When the man choked on his medication, a so-called nurse stood idly by without helping him.

While the man was being tortured, guards at this death camp watched TV, played cards, danced, and kissed.

It was later discovered some information in the man's records were falsified by the "hospital."

In a separate incident, a doctor at this torture center punched a developmentally disabled teenage male.

This is part of a pattern that's gone on long enough. The victims could have just easily been you or someone you know. These days, it often takes only one person with a grudge to have someone locked up forever.

(Source: http://cbs4denver.com/health/north.carolina.patient.2.798794.html)

Cities drive out poor

With poverty and economic turmoil on the rise, where can America's poor go? Obviously not the exurbs or outer suburbs, because we all know what that's like. Not the rural areas, because so many of these communities have been devoured by creeping exurbanism and because it's too far to travel anyway. And now not even the cities, because city after city has begun demolishing poor and working-class neighborhoods and actively limiting them only to those who are relatively well-off if not downright opulent.

The cities are actively importing suburban norms and constructing what amount to no-go zones where the working poor aren't even welcome (even if they lived in these areas before they were "rebuilt"). Inhabitants of these newly rich areas actually receive amenities on our dime.

It wouldn't be fair to blame these new residents as a group. But it's certainly fair to blame our governments for using our tax dollars for this, when the new inhabitants are well-off enough to pay for these benefits themselves.

And it's certainly not fair for supporters of this trend to blame the working poor when they're driven out of their own communities.

This trend is even seen to an extent in Cincinnati. Lately some of the poorest Cincinnatians have been forced to move to near the edge of the city limits, while close-in neighborhoods like those along the former Eastern Avenue have become full of new luxury homes.

This phenomenon isn't making cities any more livable. The crime rate certainly hasn't dropped (despite what the boosters of this trend gleefully predicted). Incapacitating fear that 30 years ago was unheard of can now be found in neighborhoods of every economic level.

Because this trend is part of an active effort by both governments and private developers to drive out the poor simply because they're poor, I think some action has to be taken. Classism is a civil rights issue, and if there's ever a decent President, hopefully their administration will go after cities that practice this form of oppression.

I'm sure it's illegal for local governments to try to keep the poor out based on their economic level, and if the laws aren't specific enough, Congress needs to close that loophole.

Right-wing hate speech unearthed

Following the Tennessee church shooting and the Arkansas assassination, I've found a list of numerous recent examples of right-wing commentators and politicians inciting violence against opponents. This list is borrowed from an article I found on AlterNet, but the quotes themselves belong to the loudmouths who initially issued them.

For instance, Rush Limbaugh declared, "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have 2 on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for."

Right-wing Rep. Peter King (R-New York) once encouraged the assassination of the late Tim Russert. "I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot," King cried, regarding an unspecified incident.

Right-wing commentator Melanie Morgan said she would "have no problem with" the editor of the New York Times "being sent to the gas chamber."

Bill O'Reilly invited Al-Qaeda to blow up San Francisco. Ann Coulter once said, "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee." Another right-wing commentator, Kathleen Parker, said that Wesley Clark, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt, Dennis Kucinich, and Rev. Al Sharpton "should all be lined up and shot."

I know these commentators mean it. They mean every word. I learned that at the Catholic high school I attended while the '88 election was going on. I don't remember the exact words of a confrontation I had with a right-wing schoolmate when I was 15, but this account is nearly accurate:

Right-wing schoolmate (referring to the presidential election): "Who are you for?"

Me: "Dukakis."

Right-wing schoolmate: "Dukakis is a liberal who's for killing babies. All Democrats are. That means you're for killing babies, because you're a Democrat."

I tried walking away, but he persisted.

Right-wing schoolmate: "Only stupid hillbillies are Democrats."

I tried walking away again, but he began raving against labor unions, accusing me of "killing babies", and ranting about other grievances. He approached one of his friends, pointed at me, and said, "He's for Dukakis."

Immediately, the other so-called student walked up to me and punched me in the stomach as hard as he could.

Now we know who grew up to be "values voters", I guess.

This violent behavior was the norm at this school, because the school administration encouraged it, but that's not the point. (A secret ballot of my sophomore class had Dukakis winning in a landslide, but I was one of few who admitted voting for him, because of the bullies' climate of fear.) The point is that members of today's conservative intelligentsia are distinguished by an almost lifelong history of promoting violence against dissenters. Conservatives used to be more respectable, but in the past 20 years their debates have turned into bully runs.

(You can argue whether today's conservatives are even conservative at all. One thing seems certain: They aren't liberal and are certainly right-wing. You can call it whatever you choose.)

The Arkansas and Tennessee murders aren't isolated incidents but represent a pattern of violence incited by right-wing leaders.

(Source: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/95112/the_tragic_arkansas_shooting_and_conservative_hate_speech)

At the car wash...

Idiot Bush thinks laws are just "damn pieces of paper." Apparently that's also what some car wash owners in New York and California think about labor laws.

In New York City, state inspectors have discovered that 78% of the car washes they checked were violating minimum wage or overtime laws. This echoed similar discoveries in California.

The minimum wage in the state of New York is $7.15 an hour (the national minimum wage doesn't go up to $7.25 an hour for another year), but many car washes weren't even abiding by this law. Other car washes had employees work as much as 70 hours a week but didn't pay overtime. Others took workers' tips - which is illegal, as the lawbreaking by Starbucks showed.

Workers were looted to the tune of $6,500,000.

New York officials are now vowing to investigate complaints in other industries as well, because ignoring minimum wage laws is so rampant in BushAmerica. One official said that in these industries, "labor law compliance is unusual."

Do big business owners not understand the concept of what a law is?

Notice also that the U.S. Department of Labor is completely AWOL, as it generally has been throughout the Bush era.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/15/national/a142028D67.DTL)

Court lets passengers challenge no-fly list

The no-fly list is like a Bushist Bible.

Party goons who run the TSA rely on it to keep innocent people from traveling, as they consider it an inerrant document. No challenge to their dogma is allowed.

Until now.

This time the 9th Circuit actually got something right. (This is a rarity for the 9th, as this court is actually far to the right of where many observers think. Usually the 9th Circuit just does Bush's bidding.) The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has now correctly ruled that passengers can challenge the secret no-fly list in court.

Passengers who discover they are on the no-fly list can now ask a jury to decide if their inclusion on this list violates their rights. The ruling stems from a college student's lawsuit that resulted from her being handcuffed and illegally detained while preparing to board a flight.

If Bush's trousers weren't full of mookystinks already, he'd be so mad that he'd be pooping bazooka holes through his pants right now!

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/18/BA2212DEQU.DTL)

Why I think Biden will be Obama's running mate

You know why that is?

Because the media has taken it upon itself to narrow the field down to 3 people - Joe Biden, Tim Kaine, and Evan Bayh. The Obama campaign is revealing Obama's running mate to folks who signed up for his e-mail list first, and they will be receiving text messages and e-mails about the choice when it happens. (I signed up just so I'd receive the e-mail, even though I'm a Green.)

Bayh and Kaine would be such devastatingly bad choices that a lot of rectum emptying would occur among frustrated recipients of such a message. I don't think the campaign wants America's sewage handling systems stressed, so something tells me the choice will be Biden.

"Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd"???

At the 2000 Republican convention, Elizabeth Dole gave a speech in which she said Bush would end "Smash Mouth politics."

Nobody could figure out what the hell she was talking about. I assumed she meant the band Smash Mouth, but I could never figure out what it had to do with Bush.

Now a McCain aide has come up with a phrase that's just as bizarre.

In an effort to accuse opponents of smearing McCain, Michael Goldfarb said, "It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of Mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others."

"The pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd"?????

What the hell does that mean anyway?

This remark accompanied the claim that McCain's opponents are smearing him by accusing him of ripping off a story about his time as a POW. But the thing is, I have yet to see any blogs outright accuse McCain of ripping off this story. I surely made no such accusation. I didn't even hear about any of this story until I saw the article with Goldfarb spouting off.

So McCain's aides are trying to defend him from charges that apparently hadn't even been made against him!

If people start thinking McCain isn't being honest about the incident he described, it'll only be because his aides were so defensive about the story when they probably didn't need to be.

Is going around talking about "the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd" and defending McCain from accusations nobody made going to be their campaign strategy? McCain may have lost much of the role-playing game enthusiast vote right there.

(Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/18/mccain-camp-slams-skeptics-of-his-saddleback-cross-story)

Homeowners' association forbids pickup trucks

These days, homeowners' associations are found in American neighborhoods of every economic level, and they too often spin out of control. It's become harder and harder to find neighborhoods that aren't governed by associations that micromanage everything residents do.

A man in Frisco, Texas, purchased a Ford F-150 pickup truck. It's a popular brand of truck for the average pickup owner, and it's useful for carrying large items.

But after the man parked the truck in his own driveway, his homeowners' association crapped a hole clean through its pantaloons.

The reason? The homeowners' association thinks the F-150 isn't upmarket enough. They've threatened to fine him if he keeps parking it in his own driveway - even though he's reportedly lived in his home since 1996!

The association allows luxury trucks, SUV's, and even Hummers. But it doesn't allow F-150's or most other common pickups.

A board member for the association boasted, "The high-end vehicles that are allowed are plush with amenities and covers on the back." When the pickup owner appealed to the board, the board reportedly replied that it allows luxury trucks like the Lincoln Mark LT but not the F-150 because "it's our belief that Lincoln markets to a different class of people."

Well, gee. Nice to know the homeowners' association makes its classism obvious instead of trying to hide it like most classists do. This rule is a really a concerted effort to keep a class of people (namely, those who are not of the highest income groups) out. And the rule is almost certainly illegal on that basis.

Quite honestly, if I was the pickup owner, I'd tell the homeowners' association to fuck off. How the hell does it plan on collecting the fines anyway? The association doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Or, since they don't want the truck parked in the driveway, maybe I'd park it on the lawn instead. See how the association likes that!

(Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/frisco/stories/DN-friscopickups_17met.ART0.West.Edition1.4d8a269.html)

Obama wins rural Kentucky support

You heard it from me: Obama has oodles of support in rural Kentucky (which the punditocracy thought was a McCain stronghold).

I'm a Green, and I've discussed before how the DLC has contributed to the Democrats' self-demolition in rural areas by shifting the party away from economic populism. I believe the trend would be worse if Hillary Clinton was the nominee, despite her doing better in rural areas in the primary (for primaries have a lot of DLC influence). But if the sign war was any gauge, Obama would win rural parts of northern Kentucky hands-down.

Take Camp Springs, for instance. Camp Springs is a rural community in Campbell County. Though Campbell County has a vexingly large suburban base, Camp Springs seems to be miraculously free of exurban sprawl, possibly because of hilly terrain. I was there in May, and it was still a country crossroads, not an exurb full of new fall-apart mansions and big box stores.

Though Bush managed to win Camp Springs twice (also a miracle), I'm told that if you go there now, Obama campaign signs greet travelers.

I know that's just the sign war, and I don't know how many other rural Kentucky communities have seen the same phenomenon. But I've done a lot of work and recreation in rural Kentucky, and I've never lived far from the line between urban and rural. Geographically, I'm much closer to what are supposedly among Obama's weakest areas than I am to Berkeley or New York.

I don't visit every Kentucky county every year, but folks tell me what's going on when I can't check for myself. Obama may very well surprise some people who think he can't win rural Kentucky precincts. (I never said he wasn't going to win any, even with the rural GOP trend.)

Legislators want National Guard troops home

Lawmakers in several states want to do something that's long overdue: bring National Guard troops home from the Iraq War.

In New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, legislators are trying to defederalize the National Guard. It's an excellent idea, but the situation shouldn't have gone this far out of control in the first place - for the National Guard is made up of state units and is supposed to serve in domestic disasters, not foreign wars.

Because Bush was using the National Guard for his war, the National Guard couldn't be used to its full potential during major domestic emergencies like Hurricane Katrina.

All the states need to bring the National Guard back home. As one New York legislator said, "The governor has the power to decide if our National Guard troops are to be used on a federal level." The governor. Not Bush.

One of the reasons the Bush regime is using the National Guard instead of full-time military troops is that the National Guard is considered part-time and its members aren't eligible for the same benefits. Bush spends billions on the war, but he doesn't even want to spend the money to pay people to fight it for him!

I guess this is like how he forces injured soldiers to pay for their flights back home and steals signing bonuses from them if they're too injured to complete their service.

(Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-lisold0817,0,770155.story)

Drug warriors raid wrong home (again)

On countless occasions since the '90s, drug agents have raided the wrong home - often killing innocent people or their pets, or leaving them seriously injured. These attacks are becoming more common.

This incompetence is too often forgotten after the initial tumult. Reasonable law enforcement officers would not make such a dumb mistake as to go to the wrong home, ransack it, blow someone's face off, and refuse to apologize. But in these cases, the authorities weren't being reasonable.

In the latest story, a police shooting was only narrowly avoided. In Buffalo, New York, drug agents barged into an apartment with a battering ram and terrorized a family of 8. They claimed to be looking for heroin - of which the family had none.

Then the cops beat the man who lives there using a shotgun and brandished guns at the family's children. The drug warriors boasted that they had raided the house before and that they could do it again even without a warrant. (Even if it had been raided before, police still need a warrant.)

Of course it turned out police had raided the wrong home. Oops.

Now the man - who is an Air Force veteran - is seriously injured: His arm was dislocated in the mayhem, and he has to have glass surgically removed from his foot. The door to the apartment is in tatters, and the police won't even apologize. This is how a man gets treated after serving his country?

Then, when the police finally raided the right house, no arrests were made. Which means they likely had bogus information in the first place.

This is what happens when we continue a long-discredited War on Drugs: It corrupts authorities, leads to careless official decisions, promotes unprofessional police behavior, mortgages basic liberties, and terrorizes the public. This war partly funds itself by confiscating innocents' property to sell off so agents can buy more weapons to carry out bigger raids. The system is so eager to carry out its corrupt drug war that it didn't even make sure it had the right house - and then violated the rights of innocents in the home that was raided.

Don't think the same thing can't happen to you - even if you've never touched drugs in your life. The victims in this story are probably as shocked as anyone that it happened to them.

(Source: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/415938.html)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Michael Doherty!

I know that Kentucky legislative candidate John Albers should really be today's ConservaFool, but Michael Doherty's strange ideas should give any other right-wing fartpipe a run for their money.

Michael J. Doherty is a Republican legislator in the New Jersey General Assembly with Big Business and other right-wing ties. He calls himself a climate change skeptic.

That stance alone is almost a surefire way to be ConservaFooled, for this skepticism is really a cult. Climate change is real. Those who deny it keep telling us to trust their side just because. They never offer any credible evidence suggesting that climate change is fake.

It's instructive that industry groups with a vested interest in denying climate change have supported Doherty's political campaigns.

Now Michael Doherty is claiming that there's new data showing climate change isn't real, and that this "fact" should result in ignoring a new state law designed to combat climate change gas emissions. He also wants the new law repealed.

Uh, what??? Is this like a couple months ago when conservatives kept claiming they had an ad with 30,000 signatures "proving" climate change was fake? That sure turned out to be a bust, didn't it?

What's Doherty's "evidence" that climate change is made-up? He said it's not real because (according to him) the planet is actually getting cooler, not warmer. Um, Michael? Even if that was true, wouldn't that be climate change??? Duh!

There is a scientific consensus that climate change is real and is caused by human activity. If Michael Doherty wants to argue with NASA and the USGS about it because he doesn't want regulations on his polluter friends, let him look like the illogical asshat he is.

(Source: http://www.politickernj.com/bguhl/22291/doherty-new-scientific-data-justifies-repealing-global-warming-response-act;
http://www.logicalscience.com/consensus/consensusD1.htm)

Recruiter threatens teen for not joining Army

I think this story is a sign that Bush's failed war has made it all the more difficult for the American military to get new recruits. Maybe this is why recruiters have begun resorting to threats.

A Houston teenager was threatened with arrest because he didn't join the Army. The high school student had thought about enlisting, but then he changed his mind and signed up for college instead. So the recruiter threatened to arrest him for desertion.

How can you be a deserter if you're not even in the military?

Threatening teenagers with arrest if they don't enlist in the military is really sort of a draft. This is like during the waning days of the Soviet Union when authorities used to sweep through bus stops and arrest any teenage male they could find on bogus draft evasion charges.

Turns out there was another incident like this in Houston 3 years ago - and the recruiter actually got promoted to station commander!

Maybe if the country wasn't embroiled in a pointless, failed war that was never popular to begin with, it wouldn't have as much trouble getting people to serve.

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Congressman_wants_hearings_into_Army_recruiting_0807.html)

GOP politician arrested for firing gun at neighbor

John Albers is the Republican candidate for Kentucky Senate in a Louisville district.

Last week, the 47-year-old Albers was charged with wanton endangerment, assault, and menacing after a confrontation he started with a neighbor.

According to a police report, Albers confronted the man, accused him of stealing items from him, grabbed him by his shirt, and threatened to kill him. Then Albers reportedly went back to his car, got his gun, and fired it at the man.

This followed an earlier incident in which the victim reported that Albers punched him in the face and brandished a gun.

Did John Albers really have much of a chance of winning this election anyway (even if he wasn't a maniac who fires guns indiscriminately)? There's been so many elections all over America in which the Democrats didn't have a candidate even though they would've had a good chance at winning. But the GOP almost always has a candidate even when they don't have a chance in hell. Maybe this is why they have to recruit weirdoes to run.

(Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/NEWS0106/808150435)

Bush regime to ease domestic spying rules

When you think the ruling regime can't get any worse, it always does - as it has for 8 years.

Bush's alleged Justice Department has quietly released a new proposal that would make it easier for state and local law enforcement to gather information about Americans and share this sensitive information with federal agencies.

This effort is designed to permanently preserve repressive policies that have gained height under the Decider.

What it means is that if the local authorities have a grudge against you, you end up in a federal database for good.

But have no fear. I'm sure the Democratic Congress will stop this. Right? Well, won't it???

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503497.html)

Vermont may hang up on phone investigation

What's the point in even dividing the country into states anymore, when an overbearing, authoritarian federal government dictates everything the states can do? (Even the notion of the U.S. being divided into states is a misconception, as the country is supposed to be a creation of the states - not the other way around.)

The state of Vermont now says it may end its probe of Verizon and AT&T for their role in Bush's illegal wiretapping program. The state's Public Service Department says this is because of the new federal law giving phone companies retroactive immunity for their lawbreaking.

Um? What???

The Constitution doesn't authorize the federal government to make states halt investigations against corporations that broke the law. States clearly have the constitutional power to rein in lawbreaking companies like this.

If I was Vermont, I'd just continue the investigation.

Must be great being a corporation. Only corporations can break the law and help subvert the Constitution and get retroactive immunity for it.

(Source: http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/81718)

Dissidents win thousands over illegal strip search

Having to pay out hefty settlements to dissenters ought to teach the government a lesson in how to treat people. The taxpayers ought to be furious at the government for getting itself into a situation where it's liable for such an amount.

In 2004, 2 retired teachers were arrested and illegally strip-searched because they disagreed with Bush during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The charges against the dissidents were later dropped.

Just this past June, a federal jury awarded the women $750,000 in the lawsuit they filed. Now Iowa's State Appeal Board has awarded them another $50,000.

The dissenters deserve every penny.

Because we're the ones footing the bill for the repression suffered by the dissidents, we should remember not to elect right-wing tyrants like Bush who allow this repression to fester and grow.

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-bushprotesters,0,2510112.story)

Now in bubble gum too! (Bubble Gum Weekend)

How can you have a bubble gum commersh without any bubbling?

Care-Free did it in 1976:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFqnhqcaAaU

For the nation's Bicentennial, Care-Free (a brand of gum laden with artificial sweeteners) unleashed a series of patriotic commercials featuring actors portraying Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, the Wright brothers, and other historic figures.

The ad featuring Franklin, however, lacked any bubbling - unlike some of the others, whose catchphrase was, "Discover bubble gum too!"

Also, this commersh is erroneous, as Washington, D.C., was not founded yet during Franklin's lifetime. Nor was Care-Free. Or bubble gum. (Imagine a life without bubble gum!)

Is it just me, or does that jingle at the end sound like it's straight out of 'Grease' - which also didn't exist during Ben Franklin's time?

These ads continued until about 1978 or 1979, and they were on the radio too. I remember when I was about 5 years old hearing one of these ads on the AM radio in my parents' Horizon as we pulled into the parking lot at the Fort Thomas IGA.

So let there be 32% more gum - for as I always say: Burn gum! It melts!

More about entitlements and Big Business

I used to work for the phone company, so I have a little bit of firsthand experience with how utility monopolies work. I know utilities are an industry where people at the top effectively receive handouts but have little incentive to improve their product. (That's probably why your phone service has gotten so shabby.)

Utilities are supposed to be regulated by state committees. But these committees are filled by political appointees who were appointed by elected officials who were often backed by the utility companies. So if a utility wants a rate increase, that's considered an entitlement. This belief has become so entrenched that it afflicts both major parties.

I mean that literally. A few years ago, when a utility in Kentucky wanted to raise its rates on residential customers like you and me, the state vowed to fight much of the hike - but wouldn't touch part of the increase, because that part was considered a "right", even if the company failed to demonstrate that its service had improved.

Yes, I know: How dare I criticize Big Business, because they provide jobs. But like I said, I worked in the phone biz only a decade ago, so I'm not completely alien to the corporate world. I know the entitlement culture that pervades Corporate America isn't limited to utilities, but the prevalence of monopolies makes it stand out more.

If someone has a sense of entitlement, it means they think someone owes them without having to show they've earned it. Their priority isn't what they can contribute, but what they can receive. I believe this culture afflicts executives and wealthy stockholders in Corporate America. They too often believe a business's only purpose must be to serve the people at the top - namely, themselves. They believe it isn't there to serve workers, because we workers are considered machines to be exploited for the profits of the folks at the top. They believe the business isn't there to serve customers, because we as consumers are just dollar signs to them.

Corporations should be damn thankful for average employees and customers. Still they hamstring us with endless rate increases.

You know a utility company has gotten bitten by this bugbear when it demands (and gets) a yearly rate increase just because - even when wages haven't gone up a penny. (It's called stagflation.) In fact, sometimes they do it more than once in a year.

Is this a handout? You bet your bizcream it is! The only difference between this and what we normally think of as a handout is that it eliminates the middleperson of taxation.

Act like utilities are there to serve you - not the other way around. You pay your bills every month, so hopefully they'll deliver. People have made sure I delivered in every job I've taken, because that's what this country's supposed to be built on: accountability.

GOP fraud suspected in California

The cheating really is starting early, isn't it?

In Riverside County, California, a Democratic group became very suspicious of something. Although the county is trending heavily Democratic, an inexplicable gain in new Republican voter registrations has been found in part of the county that was tilting Democratic by an even greater margin.

The Democrats say this is probably fraud. I agree. And they want an investigation into this apparent flimflam.

Democrats say a group that gathers outside stores and asks folks to sign a petition against child abuse actually is not what it seems. Following complaints from the public about this group, it is believed that the petition is actually a Republican registration form.

It's ironic the Republicans would claim to have a petition against child abuse, because the biggest child abuses of all have been their party's doing. War (like the one the current regime started) is one of the ultimate forms of child abuse. And Mel Sembler - a former ambassador appointed by Bush - figures prominently in the racket of dangerously abusive youth "rehabs" and "treatment" centers.

If you can't find any recent prosecutions of Republicans for election fraud, it's because their party is so firmly in charge in so many areas that hardly anyone goes after them. I remember when a heavily Democratic precinct in my hometown reported a 100% vote for a statewide Republican candidate, and that was dismissed as just a faulty voting machine.

The events of the past 20 years really ought to snap us out of our denial mode over GOP election fraud. I know bullshit when I see it.

(Source: http://www.desertvalleystar.com/Investigating_voter_registration_08-14-08.html)

Right-wing shirts encourage terrorism

Imagine if you can what would happen if someone wore a shirt featuring the Republicans' stylized elephant logo behind crosshairs, with the words "got ammo?"

The government would almost certainly put the person on the no-fly list, and the person would likely be labeled an enemy combatant. I'd say there's greater than a 50/50 chance they'd be arrested just for wearing it to the supermarket.

But when conservative whack-a-doos sell shirts encouraging violence against the Democrats, that's considered A-OK.

There's clearly a link between incitements to violence and the recent spike in right-wing terrorism (like the Tennessee church shooting and the assassination of the Arkansas Democratic chairman). Talk radio is full of this shit on a daily basis. This is nothing like "violent" media in general: "Violent" video games or TV have no link with real-life violence. Not so with these shirts: The shirts don't just portray violence but actually incite violence against a very specific target.

Conservatives indoctrinate their children with this garbage too: The shirt is also available in infant sizes. (That's future Congress for ya!)

You also know damn well that if a school claimed this shirt violated the dress code, the school would be sued for it - even though schools are never sued for uniform policies that are much stricter. The plaintiff would enlist out-of-state legal foundations and get Klanpus Report on the story pronto.

Not like I give a shit what a fucking dress code says. But why is there such a double standard? If society allows shirts that promote politically motivated violence, then our taxpayer-funded schools should damn sure allow just about any shirt.

Conservatives' pro-violence shirts may be perfectly legal, but we can no longer deny that we need to watch conservatives like a hawk. Domestic terrorists actually pose a much greater threat on American soil than international terrorists who we hear much more about. When there's another right-wing domestic terrorist attack, you can't say I didn't warn you.

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3440276)

Peter Pan and Minnie Mouse arrested for supporting better benefits

Here's a story you won't see on ABC (because Already Been Chewed is owned by Disney).

Yesterday, Disneyland workers who were in costume as Peter Pan, Snow White, and other characters were cuffed and stuffed by police during a labor rally.

There's several stories here: One is the Walt Disney Company's shabby treatment of hotel workers. Another is the outright suppression of the protest by authorities, which violates the First Amendment.

Since BushAmerica is a model of corporatism, Big Business dictates how authorities respond to dissent from their order. Thus the arrests. When corporatism guides the law, no dissent is allowed.

The dispute surrounds a labor contract involving dishwashers, maids, and other hotel workers at the resort. After the contract expired, Disney offered proposals that would make health care unaffordable to many employees and create a category of workers who'd receive vastly reduced benefits.

The union had agreed in earlier contracts to a lower wage for the first 3 years of employment in exchange for a free medical plan. But now Disney is trying to get rid of the medical plan. And the new category of workers wouldn't even receive holidays or even sick days. (Would you want to stay in an inn where employees were forced to go to work sick? The board of health ought to be all over Disneyland.)

Families visit Disneyland from around the world. How many children did Disneyland and local law enforcement traumatize by taking Minnie Mouse away in handcuffs?

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jXGsA6a9caN4qHy8j7npWIv68-GwD92IGR380)

McCain tells everyone to get a second job

How out of touch is this man on matters economic?

According to one of McCain's own speeches printed on his website, the Republican standard-bearer blames the foreclosure crisis on people not working hard enough.

What's his remedy for the nationwide foreclosure pandemic? He says that if you have a job now, get a second job. And cancel your vacation you worked so hard for.

Seriously, he said that.

Then again, how can you find a second job when there aren't even enough first jobs? Have you seen the unemployment numbers lately?

If there's anything that reinforces the old image of Republicans being dour, out-of-touch elites who don't know anything about how working Americans live, this is it.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/14/224010/063/931/567566)

McCain runnin' on empty

Remember that Jackson Browne song "Runnin' On Empty"?

Browne has now filed a lawsuit against John McCain and the Republican Party for using this song without permission in a campaign commersh.

The fact that the ad continues McAin't's idiotic meme of blaming Obama for oil companies' price gouging is laughable enough. But what makes it even more astounding is that McCain has already gotten in trouble at least twice already for misusing other songs.

Hasn't McCain learned his lesson yet? You'd think after the first time, he'd stop, but he keeps making the same mistakes over and over.

John Hall (formerly of the band Orleans) already blasted McCain for abusing "Still The One", and John Mellencamp had already forced McCain to stop using his songs. Hall is now a Democratic congressman, and Mellencamp was a John Edwards supporter. Jackson Browne was also an Edwards backer - which makes McCain 3 for 3 in misappropriating songs that were written by people who oppose his politics.

What's worse is that McCain used Browne's tune in a commercial - not just at a campaign rally.

Just a few days ago, Mike Myers requested that McCain remove an Internet ad that misappropriated a scene from 'Wayne's World'. Also recently, a McCain speech about the Georgia conflict ripped off Wikipedia almost verbatim.

As long as McAin't surrounds himself with speechwriters and ad makers who don't respect intellectual property, it's going to keep becoming even more obvious that the GOP has no respect for the law in general. Lately, it's seemed like the Republicans only respect criminals like those in the Bush regime.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/14/jackson-browne-sues-mccai_n_118977.html)

Graffiti attack likely a hoax

You're gonna think I'm going way out on a limb here. But I'm not. For starts, this is a blog, so it's certainly fair to offer insight and speculation and not just parrot aspects of a story that are already known. For another, I have experience with bad school systems, so I know how they operate.

In my case, the place was Campbell County, Kentucky. Horrible, horrible school system. Simply awful. I never did get around to going into detail about how the already overcrowded school district closed the elementary school in the most heavily populated part of the district just so students would have to travel 4 miles out of town. This was just the latest foible in a decades-long pattern of incompetence by the school district.

A few years ago, someone slashed the tires of buses parked at the school district's garage. And wouldn't ya know it, when school had to be canceled because of this, the district tacked on another day of school at the end of the year - which spoiled vacation plans.

I firmly believe that the school district authorized this vandalism just so it would have an excuse to extend the school year. I'm 90% sure that's what happened. I know that school system like the back of my serrated incisors, and that's exactly the type of shit they'd pull.

What do you expect from a school district that in the late '80s had more cases of corporal punishment than the entire state of Minnesota?

I think something very similar to this apparent hoax has now happened in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The Stroudsburg Area School District has been sued several times in recent years over various travails, which makes it a candidate for being the Campbell County of the Keystone State. So it ain't looking good for 'em.

Recently, Stroudsburg's school bored approved a right-wing uniform dress code that is mandatory for all students in grades 5 through 12. Last night, graffiti vandals hit the junior high school. They painted messages all over the joint saying "NO UNIFORMS" and "FUCK YOU-NIFORMS." (Get it? Get it? Get it? Get it? Get it?)

However, according to the Pocono Record, the vandals "had little effect" because nobody saw the graffiti except school staff.

In the immortal words of the Church Lady: How convenient!

Isn't it odd that nobody was around except school system employees? Very, very strange.

The graffiti also included several swastikas. Is it just me, or does this sound like the same serial smear that's run rampant on the Internet for years? It sounds to me like whoever did this was trying to portray uniform opponents as Nazis.

If you want to be heard, you don't put Nazi swastikas on your own work (even if your activity is something that can get you in trouble even without it). I truly believe (by the same 90% standard) this vandalism was done by someone authorized by the school board in an effort to make it look like uniform opponents are Nazis.

I believe this is what happened, despite the fact that such an effort is absurd on its face. One of the very first things Hitler did when he seized power was implement uniforms in public schools. For decades after World War II, public school uniforms were nearly taboo in central Europe - largely for that reason.

I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect that the school board authorized the vandalism as part of an effort to discredit opponents. Not unreasonable at all. It's possible I'm wrong, but I can't possibly imagine that this was not a set-up. I've been around 35 years, and I'm no fool.

Police say the vandals were seen on video, but I know no other details. Even if the vandals were young people, that doesn't mean they weren't deputized by the school system to do their dirty work. If the cops catch them, hopefully they'll check to see if their parents happen to be school board members or administrators who support the new dress code.

(Source: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/NEWS/80814010/-1/NEWS01)

America is all fucking gone

Only in BushAmerica: It's considered A-OK for spoiled brats to call their classmates nasty names 500 times a day right to their face and slug them in the head. But when someone uses a vulgar slang term only once as an adverb to describe an inanimate object in a private conversation with a family member, it seems like the authorities call in all 4 branches of the Armed Forces and all law enforcement within a 100-mile radius to nab the person.

You see, repeatedly smashing someone in the skull is considered protected speech. Cussing in a private conversation is not, because it might hurt the feelings of the inanimate object being discussed.

In La Marque, Texas, a 28-year-old woman was handcuffed because she was overheard cussing at a Wal-Mart. While strolling through the store looking for batteries, she discovered the batteries were all sold out. So she turned to her mother and said, "They're all fucking gone."

The local assistant fire marshal happened to overhear this discussion. He suddenly popped out from behind a shelf and reportedly warned, "You need to watch your mouth!"

The woman apparently did not know that the man was a firefighter and offered what sounded like a halfhearted apology. (The marshal's lecture was just as rude as the woman's cussing.)

But the marshal continued badgering the woman and finally cuffed her (and checked her for warrants). The woman was charged with disorderly conduct and must now either pay a fine or go to court to challenge the charge.

All this over a little bit of cussing? The woman is 28. She's an adult. Who the hell cares if she cusses in a private conversation? While this sort of language may be taboo for a religious sermon or a children's cartoon, it is found in many of the later collegiate dictionaries.

And if a pack of batteries has its feelings hurt, tough shit.

Naturally, the Free Republic thought police is praising the authorities for going after the woman over something so petty.

(Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5942630.html)

"Nations don't invade other nations"???

According to John McCain, "In the 21st century, nations don't invade other nations."

Well, obviously they do, as a certain Republican war proves. I wish it wasn't true, but it is.

Isn't that right, Mr. Hundred Years' War?

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/13/171547/963/27/567469)

Arkansas Democratic leader assassinated

When you hear anything on the news about the head of a political party in another country being gunned down, the account correctly refers to it as an assassination.

Why should we not call it what it is when the same happens in America?

Earlier, a gunman barged into the Arkansas Democratic Party headquarters, demanded to see the party chairman, and promptly shot him. The victim of the shooting, Bill Gwatney, a former state lawmaker, later died.

The attacker led police on a 30-mile chase before being killed in a shootout with them.

Unfortunately, terrorism like this has become par for the course among the right wing lately. This follows closely the gunman in the Tennessee church massacre shooting his victims because of politics. But it's also not a surprise, because right-wing talk radio is full of exhortations for listeners to do exactly what these shooters did.

(Source: http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0808/543890.html)

Louisville sees 40% jump in meth labs

After 6 meth labs were found in Louisville in less than a week, the city is set to see a 40% increase in the number of meth labs over last year.

Last year's number was an increase over 2006 - which in turn was a jump from 2005.

Notice that the increases started right when the laws requiring people to sign a log to buy cold and allergy medicine took effect. This after the laws' supporters kept claiming the new laws would eliminate meth.

Surprised? I'm not.

In fact, local law enforcement even admit the new laws aren't working. They say this is so, because anyone who wants to make meth just buys pseudoephedrine-containing drugs at more than one store to evade the stringent purchase limits - which still affect allergy sufferers who use the over-the-counter drugs for their legal purpose.

Now can the country end this fuckheaded habit of punishing the innocent? Or is the political will for this gone too?

(Source: http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/WHAS11_LOCALNEWS_080813_METHLABS.437666d1.html)

Today's culture can't even handle Mister Rogers

First it was Oscar the Grouch, and now it's...Mister Rogers???

PBS has announced that, starting this fall, affiliated stations will receive only one episode of 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' each weekend - instead of a rerun per day.

But why? Although host Fred Rogers died in 2003, the large library of his show's reruns is still suitable for today's children.

Or is it? Don't tell me that some wingnut somewhere got offended by Mister Rogers so they have to relegate the series to one show per weekend.

I'm guessing that's what happened. You will not believe what offends the Far Right these days. You just won't. Some stuff that could be shown on a kids' show 30 years ago can never be shown now. Producers of 'Sesame Street' even said they could never develop a character like Oscar these days because his negative outlook would be considered too offensive.

It's been speculated that the real reason 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood' is receiving fewer airings is to make way for new "art." Um, hello??? Have you actually seen the newer kids' shows? I'd hardly consider most of today's shows for children to be artful or educational. Today's kids' shows are usually forgettable, dull, and emotionless. Mister Rogers at least featured creative puppet skits, timeless film segments, and memorable songs.

Already, many old Mister Rogers episodes haven't been aired in years. Now the memory hole has just gotten even wider. The America we once knew is almost completely history.

It's not such a beautiful day in the neighborhood now.

Mucus Man admitted he'd ignore regime wrongdoing

Michael Mukasey - the dickhead who serves as Attorney General under Bush - admitted in a written statement before he was confirmed by the Senate that he wouldn't go after Bush regime officials for their lawbreaking.

In this admission, Mr. Mucus said he met with the leading dimbulbs of Far Right activism and assured them he wouldn't go after figures in Justice Department scandals like the illegal firings of the U.S. attorneys and the department's support of torture.

Because of this, the Justice Department's reputation is now in even worse shambles than it already was.

Mukasey actually had the audacity to boast about this policy - now known as the Mukasey Doctrine - in a speech to the American Bar Association. "Boys will be boys," he bragged.

Is the DLC happy now for confirming Mukasey, who won't even prosecute those who abuse the public trust? They'd never confirm John Edwards, all because he had an affair, but they confirmed Mucus Man without hesitation - even though he had already admitted he wouldn't prosecute regime thugs.

(Source: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/08/hbc-90003387)

Corporate America's entitlement culture

You're working hard for Coprorate (sic) America in more ways than one: Not only is Big Business making money off your labor, but your tax dollars are also subsidizing their extravagance and greed.

Media talking heads are always griping about the poor getting government benefits, but corporate welfare and tax evasion are never addressed.

After the discovery that most American corporations haven't paid a nickel in taxes in 10 years (while we pay more taxes than before), we can't keep being suckers by continuing to allow this. But the center of debate has moved so far to the right that there's no political will to remedy this outrage (or that of Bush's tax cuts for the rich).

Guess we can't let big corporations pay taxes when they already have to pay for solid oak desks and prized artwork for executives' offices, right?

Now why again am I working? Why in the holy high shit did I even bother to work at the library all through college? I damn sure can't afford fancy desks and artwork, but Corporate America effectively gets them free from the taxpayers.

The amount of sales tax I pay each year can probably buy a couple of round-trip bus tickets between Cincinnati and, say, Fort Wayne. But instead the government redistributes my money upward like a reverse Robin Hood.

I guess corporations genuinely believe it's their birthright to be supported at our expense. Maybe this is the same philosophy that guided Cincinnati's street name change that appeased powerful developers (which was opposed by most of the public). During the "vote" on this proposal, property owners received one ballot for each parcel they owned. Instead of "one person, one vote", it was "one parcel, one vote."

That's what corporatism has wrought: Money is now more important than people. Those who had the most were making decisions about how those who had the least saw their tax dollars distributed.

We have to break the viselike gag that Big Business's handout culture has on us. Right now there's almost no scrutiny or accountability of how our taxes get spent.

Taxes are like a contract. We pay them, and we expect something in return. But right now, our representatives aren't keeping their end of the barg.

Man jailed over $12 trespassing fine from 24 years ago

What the hell is wrong with the idiots in the government these days? They're so petty that they go after someone over a $12 trespassing fine from 1984, but they won't do a thing to abusive teen "rehabs" that destroy lives.

Recently, a northeastern Ohio man got pulled over on his motorcycle because of a burned-out taillight. It's a pretty minor matter, and you'd think that at most he might get a small citation for it. But instead he got jailed immediately when police discovered he had a warrant over a trespassing charge from 24 years ago.

Back in 1984, when the man was 26, he got busted for trespassing for camping in a gravel pit at a local business. He was fined $25 but could only pay $13, leaving him still owing $12.

But now, at the age of 50, he had to spend a night in jail until his wife could produce the $91.50 that the court was suddenly charging him for the 1984 trespassing incident. This ordeal spanned both the county where the man was recently picked up and the one where the trespassing occurred. Yes, there's actually 2 counties in Ohio that dwell on stupid crap from 24 years ago. (Some of my school harassers must have taken over those counties.)

To add insult to injury, the $91.50 includes a $10 jail fee. In other words, they made him pay $10 to go to jail, when he never should've gone to jail.

So in Ohio, a man went to jail and almost lost his job all because of an ancient trespassing warrant, but the youth torture racket operates without any limits. How topsy-turvy can you get?

(Source: http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/26466344.html)

Milk, milk, milk... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

I've found what is arguably the second-scariest segment ever to appear on 'Sesame Street'!

I've always wanted to rank 'Sesame Street' skits based on how scary they are, and while the "D for Dart" cartoon is the one that sent me screaming and running out of the living room more than any other skit, it has stiff competition. For instance, the "Banjo Bert" segment has to rank very high - and believe me, I would be floored to find that one on YouTube!

I think the one that ranks second behind "D for Dart" is a lengthy live-action clip from 1975 about milk:



This clip is cited by countless others as the one that frightened them to no end. It was often considered a thrill like a haunted house or riding down Dayton Pike at night in the '70s.

The yodel produced by the hard-working farmer with big sideburns at the beginning is scary enough even if it wasn't a sign of what was to come. When the music gets faster as the guy runs out to the milk truck, one is reminded of a terrifying emergency like a bowl full of soggy cereal being spilled all over a kitchen floor.

The man in this clip is truly a textbook example of a life on the edge!

Notice also near the beginning of this segment that a dog is sniffing a cow's ass.

What type of music is that anyway? Others have described it as a jazz score, but the vocals and the low notes with the organ-like instrument remind me more of the softer new wave from the early MTV years.

Mill-mill is good for you!

"Experts" whine about Obama tax plan, shrug off corporate tax cheats

Is this story one from the Department of Hypocrisy Department or what?

Presidential frontrunner Barack Obama has announced part of his tax plan: If you're a senior citizen who makes less than $50,000 a year, you'll pay no income tax. But that's not the hypocritical part of this story.

His tax plan is workable, and it sounds fair to me. But not to the Washington intelligentsia (to use the term loosely).

They call it a subsidy to seniors. Um, what??? How is poor and middle-income seniors not having to pay income tax a subsidy? If seniors were getting so many subsidies, they'd be able to retire instead of having to keep working at the age that their parents retired.

And if they're not still working, they're probably on a fixed income. So how is that an advantage? It isn't.

Meanwhile, however, the self-styled "experts" completely laugh off the near-total immunity that corporations have from taxes.

The Government Accountability Office (Congress's investigative arm) says that most American corporations haven't paid one penny in federal income taxes since at least 1998. Not a cent. Nor do most foreign corporations that do business in America.

According to the GAO's report, two-thirds of American corporations paid no income taxes between 1998 and 2005.

So while the stink tanks complain about poor and middle-income senior citizens getting a tax break, I guess it's fine with them if corporations that rake in billions a year have gotten an even larger tax break for a decade.

I guess they believe in Leona Helmsley's dictum that "only the little people pay taxes."

(Source: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080811/D92GAVIO0.html;
http://www.newsnet5.com/money/17165868/detail.html)

Disaster Daniels wants to protect teachers who beat kids

Of all the positively idiotic, stupid things Disaster Daniels has tried to do, this has got to be one of the very worst!

If a school principal or teacher paddled your child without permission, what's the obvious course of action? Most parents would sue 'em to court.

But in Indiana, right-wing Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to give legal immunity to school personnel who practice excessive discipline of any sort.

Republican Daniels - being the crackpot he is - said lawsuits over school discipline are "legal harassment." He's even asked the Indiana Attorney General to assist school employees who find themselves sued.

As further proof America no longer has a two-party system, the campaign of Daniels's Democratic opponent Jill Long Thompson signed on to Daniels's worthless idea. (I've yet to hear who the Green candidate is.)

A school board member in northwestern Indiana's Portage Township grumbled that teachers avoid corporal punishment because of lawsuits, and he praised Daniels's proposal.

During a year in which over 100 American school employees have been convicted of sexually abusing students and in which hundreds more are in trouble for physical abuse and making students soil their pants, do we really need this?

Instead of giving school faculty immunity, why not fire bad teachers and keep the good ones? Maybe it's because that would make too much sense, and Disaster Daniels isn't known for doing anything that makes sense.

(Source: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/NEWS05/808120386;
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1102809,daniels.article)

Bush may gut Endangered Species Act

Is the Decider consciously trying to top his own kill-and-destroy record, or is the liar on autopilot now?

For 35 years, the Endangered Species Act has encompassed federal agencies. As long as I've been alive, government scientists have always reviewed federally authorized projects to protect threatened species.

But now the Bush regime wants to gut this law by letting federal agencies decide for themselves if their actions will harm endangered animals and plants - with no independent reviews by scientists.

Science never was the ruling regime's strong suit, and the regime's excuse for this change makes this even more obvious. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the change is needed to keep the Endangered Species Act from being used to regulate climate change gases.

Um, Dirk? That's exactly why the change isn't needed. Early this year, the polar bear became the first species officially declared threatened by global warming. If climate change threatens species, then why shouldn't there be some regulation on agencies emitting gases that cause this phenomenon?

If the regime gets its way, federal agencies won't even be allowed to assess emissions from their own projects.

How utterly revolting and greedy can the Bush regime get? Much of this change was designed to appease powerful developers who were mad at projects they support being delayed.

Maybe the states need to step in and require the scientists' reviews to continue.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_endangered_species)

GOP lines up behind legislator who assaulted wife

Minnesota State Rep. Mark Olson (Conservative Fool Of The Day 11/14/06) is a Republican allied with right-wing congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Texas-based First Amendment skeptic David Barton.

Olson is thoroughly nuts.

Mark Olson was thought to be finished once he was convicted of assaulting his wife mercilessly - during a trial in which he blamed his wife for the abuse. GOP leaders had pledged to ask Olson to resign if he was convicted - but they broke this promise. (Of course.)

Now the Republicans are all lining up behind the disgraced Olson in his bid for a Minnesota Senate seat! They've never met a spouse abuser they didn't like, I guess.

Meanwhile, the Republican endorsement for Olson's House seat has gone to...Mary Kiffmeyer (Conservative Fool Of The Day 8/18/06). Kiffmeyer is the right-wing former Minnesota Secretary of State who did not believe in separation of church and state, illegally tried to suppress Native American voting, and (when faced with the prospect of a Republican congressman not qualifying for the ballot) stupidly said that the state's ballot laws only applied to third parties and independents.

Man, the Minnesota Republicans must be a total joke! Just lately, they've made up lies about poor people abusing the state's assistance program, and now they've endorsed someone convicted of domestic assault.

(Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/26423509.html)

McCain speech plagiarized Wikipedia

Is 'plagiarism' too strong of a word for something like this?

I mean, everyone knows damn well that if Obama had been caught doing the same thing, his campaign would be over.

Much of a speech McCain delivered about the crisis in the Republic of Georgia was copied from the Wikipedia article about that country - much of it almost word-for-word.

Fer instance...

Wikipedia said that Georgia is "one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as an official religion."

McCain said that it's "one of the world's first nations to adopt Christianity as an official religion."

Wikipedia said, "After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia had a brief period of independence as a Democratic Republic (1918-1921), which was terminated by the Red Army invasion of Georgia. Georgia became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 and regained its independence in 1991. Early post-Soviet years was marked by a civil unrest and economic crisis."

McCain said, "After a brief period of independence following the Russian revolution, the Red Army forced Georgia to join the Soviet Union in 1922. As the Soviet Union crumbled at the end of the Cold War, Georgia regained its independence in 1991, but its early years were marked by instability, corruption, and economic crises."

Wikipedia is free to use, but its terms of use do require proper attribution.

McCain hires speechwriters who are so lazy that they just copy Wikipedia?

Maybe when McAin't gives a speech about bubble gum and calls it "bubble poo", people will take notice that he's just ripping off Wikipedia.

This proves that if McCain gets elected, he's going to surround himself with intellectually lazy clods who just rip off other people's work.

(Source: http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/politicalinsider/2008/08/did-mccain-plagarize-his-speec.html)

System drops ball following our protests

When crime is evident, we as taxpayers have a right to expect the system to investigate - and prosecute if the need arises.

But when it comes to the teen torture industry, the system has been dropping the ball too damn much. It has for decades.

Take our July 11 protest against this racket, for instance. You know, the one in which the Harangue stole our sign. Recently I learned that authorities are refusing to charge the Harangue for theft after she stole the sign. It is unknown why - for the theft (which of course was not very professional behavior) was caught on video.

But we should be less concerned about a sign on thin paper that took only a half-hour to make than we should be about apparent misdeeds that would be far more serious. For instance, look at what happened during our July 14 rally. Near the end of the event, a car taking detainees to their host homes pulled out of the facility. A young person in the car pressed a piece of paper saying "HELP ME" against the window, where we could see it.

This is a clear indication that something very serious is going on that shouldn't be. If so, it would have to be either at the facility itself or one of the host homes authorized by the program. We got the car's license plate number, and we called the police. We were told that an alert was put out all over the Tri-State for the car.

I'm fully aware that there's a stock program response to cries for help like this. Almost without fail, facilities accuse the kid of lying. They will call the kid a liar right to their face, no matter how truthful the kid is being. No real investigation is made. And the young person is likely to be punished severely and docked a few levels. It was like this in 1990, and it's probably worse now.

Based on this, it's not surprising when facilities drop the ball - but what about the system?

In Ohio, all roads lead to ODADAS - the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. If a facility is billed as a drug rehab - which the one that we protest is - ODADAS is supposed to make sure the program meets state standards.

Well, I already knew that this particular center had 38 deficiencies at an inspection not long ago, but ODADAS allowed it to stay in business anyway. And now it turns out ODADAS thinks there's absolutely nothing wrong with the July 14 incident.

For starts, ODADAS claims the police alert was only for Clermont County, not the entire Tri-State. This means that either the police dropped the ball or ODADAS is lying. Based on ODADAS's overall dishonesty, it could very well be the latter.

How full of shit is ODADAS? It also claimed that "there has been nothing to substantiate" that the program "has violated ODADAS standards."

Oh yeah? What about those 38 deficiencies?

It's safe to say ODADAS is corrupt. When "treatment" centers that have so many serious deficiencies don't even get shut down, and when ODADAS lies to cover up for them, it's clear ODADAS is corrupt.

What? Corruption in a government agency? You gotta be kidding me!

(Source: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)

Another welfare fraud hoax

According to so-called "compassionate" conservatives, anyone who deservingly receives government benefits is committing welfare fraud.

I know this is bullshit, but in the past 15 years, this lie has become so entrenched in American social lore that it's hard to dislodge it. Whether you get disability benefits or if you're an impoverished, struggling child, the conservative wrath will fall on you with the fullest force.

I'm all for going after real welfare fraudsters. And I'm against corporate welfare and handouts to the rich (programs conservatives have long supported). But the portrayal of poor welfare recipients as being generally fraudulent was a hoax spread largely by talk radio, right-wing politicians, and the Internet (when the 'Net first became popular). However, this hoax encouraged "soak the poor" policies like Congress's failed welfare "reform" law of 1996.

Even after America's poorest families and disabled workers have been hopelessly left in the lurch, conservatives can't stop kicking them when they're down. And the media is always eager to lap up this demagoguery and spread misleading headlines.

For instance, a biased headline in a Minnesota paper about the latest story reads, "GOP shows it's so." So if the Republicans say something, that makes it true? Investigating the story, it turns out it isn't so.

Minnesota issues welfare in the form of benefit cards. In the past year, about $500,000,000 in transactions were made using these cards. I'm guessing that would be only about $500 all year per recipient - or under $10 a week.

While a poor Minnesotan spends only $10 a week in benefits, the Republicans cry that every recipient is ear-deep in fraud. They cite statistics showing that $10,000,000 of the $500,000,000 that recipients spent was in other states. For instance, they spent over $2,000,000 in both Wisconsin and North Dakota, which are immediately adjacent to Minnesota.

Republican lawmakers' conclusion? "THEY'RE VACATIONING ON THE TAXPAYERS' DIME!!!" they cry. Um, no. This $10,000,000 is only 2% of the total $500,000,000 spent. Most of this accounts for the 2% of Minnesotans who shop in, say, Fargo or La Crosse because these cities have the nearest stores to their homes.

It's exactly like how I go to Cincinnati all the time. Was I "vacationing" in Cincinnati when I did work for the Department of the Interior there? (To give you an idea of how many people commute, 48% of employed residents of one of the biggest counties in Minnesota work in the county that contains Fargo, North Dakota.)

Further, if a transaction appears to be out-of-state, it doesn't mean the buyer went out of state. Online orders count with the state where the seller is located. If you're in Minnesota, and you order a product from a seller in Hawaii, the purchase counts under Hawaii.

So shut your mouths, conservos. Quit judging what you know nothing about.

I have not one iota of sympathy for right-wing lawmakers who were born into wealth, make hefty salaries (paid by state taxpayers) to do their jobs all wrong, and then complain about the poor having it too easy. Not one fucking iota.

In sum, the latest alleged crisis of welfare "fraud" is yet another Republican hoax designed to whip up another frenzy of classism just for political gain.

Programmies lie about protesters

Hmm, where do I start with this story?

You may be aware that on 9 occasions since last November, I've participated in roadside demonstrations against an abusive teen "treatment" facility near Milford, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati. I was invited to these protests by organizers, because I was interested in this cause following my own experiences with another gulag.

Concentration camps like this must be shut down. They simply must be. There's no indication that the abuse found in facilities like this has been eliminated - especially judging by our most recent protest, during which a youngster being transported from the facility pressed a handmade sign saying "HELP ME" against the car window.

I'm going by what I or other protesters saw firsthand. Programmies can deny it all they want, but facts are facts.

But now, the facility is lying outright about the protesters!

The facility's website has added a section called "Our Critics", in which it tries to discredit us. You know we've done a good job of calling attention to their tyranny when they go through the trouble to make a page just for us.

Their missive tells folks that "you may come upon negative information from a small group of people" who accuse the center of "inappropriate and abusive treatment programs." The piece is clearly referring to our protests. The article claims that "none of these people" are "graduates or parents of graduates" of the program.

That is an absolute, utter lie.

I was not a detainee in that program - but some other participants in our protests were. That is a fact. So what the program said is an out-and-out lie. And they know it.

The piece further declares, "Our attempts to have a dialogue with these people have not been successful." Say what? We're the ones who've tried having dialogue with them. And they have done nothing but behave irrationally in return. The facility's director stealing one of our signs and making false police reports against us is not what I call dialogue.

The piece further declares that "some have suggested" that the facility sue us. Which means they've almost certainly considered suing us. For what, I don't know. Then again, a lawsuit wouldn't be that surprising, because other confinement centers have filed SLAPP suits against other dissenters.

The rest of the program's "Our Critics" tirade is typical misleading industry propaganda.

Maybe they've decided against suing because they didn't want to have to explain themselves. Why do people come from all over the eastern half of the country to protest this center unless there's a damn good reason?

Please, folks: Weigh both sides of the issue. Our side has gathered people from several states (most of whom never knew each other before) to use legitimate, peaceful methods to protest against this cult. The other side steals signs, cries to the police, fires off illogical rants about "critics", encourages parents to yell ready-made responses to us from their cars, and places bags or eyeless hoods over kids' heads.

(More info: http://www.isaccorp.org/kidshelpingkids.asp)

Arkansas town under martial law

If you think you can be outside on your own property (or the property that you rent) without going to jail, you'd be right - if you live in a free country.

But in BushAmerica, you're not so lucky.

The city of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, has imposed what amounts to martial law on a mile-wide section of town. (Helena and West Helena merged in 2006.) It's like a strictly enforced curfew that applies to every person, of any age, at any time of day, for any reason.

If you so much as step out of your house, even if you don't leave your own yard, you go straight to jail.

This is another example of how when all you have is a hammer, the whole big, nasty world and everything in it looks like a nail. Every problem - whether real or perceived - is confronted with a sledgehammer "fix" that penalizes the innocent.

The ACLU has correctly issued a letter calling the martial law unconstitutional. And residents are furious at the new curfew. One called the situation a "jail" in which "you can't go to the store without being harassed by police."

Martial law is what America has come to these days?

(Source: http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=26fb4396-0109-40ed-aec7-48924ac4cd26)

Music legend Isaac Hayes dies

Another loss in the music world occurred today: Musician and songwriter Isaac Hayes died at the age of 65 after collapsing at his Memphis home.

Hayes was probably best known for his "Theme From Shaft", which won Academy and Grammy awards. (The song featured the "wokka wokka" sound that characterizes what's often called 'Electric Company' music. It is called this because the sound was prominent in funky music beds featured on the '70s educational show.) Hayes also did the voice of the school cook on 'South Park', made commercials for Tennessee tourism, and received recognition for humanitarian work.

(Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_ISAAC_HAYES?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)

Akron schools fall to Far Right (sigh)

Because the so-called public school system of Akron, Ohio, doesn't believe in the Constitution, it too has fallen to the pressures to implement mandatory uniforms - in this case, from kindergarten through 8th grade.

Of course, some clothing stores in the area support it, because the policy lets them sell uniforms in addition to normal clothes. The uniform ensembles cost about $100. Pretty much everyone else is against it, as usual.

But everybody is so browbeaten that they just go right along with it.

Another fine city is now in ruins.

(Source: http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/26466269.html)

Racist vandalizes Democratic signs

Vile racists have been trying to overrun the town of Viroqua, Wisconsin, lately.

Last month, some beezweezer vandalized an Obama campaign sign outside the local Democratic headquarters. Last week, a right-wing fool did the same thing again, by painting a racial slur on such a sign.

Gee, I bet that'll really help the GOP cause - not! This shows you what a disgrace the conservative camp has become.

(Source: http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=8809065)

Nowhere to hide from Bush repression

There really is nowhere to hide anymore, is there?

The Patriot Act is a pile of shit, for sure, but when the states start mimicking it, you've got real problems. And that's what happened in Oregon when it began punishing allergy sufferers in the name of the failed War on Drugs.

So what're the Bushbots to do? Export their tyranny, of course.

They've pressured Mexico into passing the same law as Oregon - and now the state of Washington may follow suit, this time at the hands of the DLC thought police.

In the meantime, "demon" pseudoephedrine is being removed from cold and allergy medicine throughout the U.S. and being replaced with crap that doesn't even work - all to appease the purveyors of the Patriot Act and the War on Drugs (which is a price support for violent gangs).

This is yet more prima facie evidence that the virus of Bushism needs to be vanquished wherever it is to be found - to keep it from spreading elsewhere.

List of things the Taliban hates

While we're on the subject of people being judged by those who misuse the Bible to attack them, here's a list of things that the programmies threatened eternal damnation for when I was a teenager:

• music videos ("I'll show you the memo that says, 'No, no, no!'")
• Dungeons & Dragons
• sweatpants
• Motley Crue
• 'American Gladiators'
• 'The Simpsons'
• whispering

I know there's more, but this is enough to acquaint you with the programmies' control freak ways.

I guess after almost 20 years, they've moved from "the industry" to the media and the wingnutosphere.

That said, I think it would be nifty if some of us put up a website - even a blog - listing the many passions that supposedly damned us victims of the teen torture racket to the fiery pits of the level 1 (or lower) that awaits us in the afterlife.

The Judgment Hour

I don't claim to be an adherent of any religion these days, and I haven't been to a weekly church service since the Reagan years. But I'm not any worse of a Christian than the so-called Christians who continue to judge John Edwards.

For the record, I never said he was right to engage in an extramarital affair. But I don't judge him after the fact. Further, despite what the media claims, the former senator was not involved in the affair after Elizabeth Edwards's cancer returned: The affair was confined to 2006, and the cancer did not return until 2007. Further, Elizabeth Edwards learned of the affair even before the cancer came back. When the media claims otherwise, it's lying outright.

As for the right-wing whack-a-doos who judge John Edwards, well, um - didn't they read the Bible that they thump at everyone else?

Luke 6:37 says, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Isn't that enough for you, judgies? Maybe if that verse is too long, try Matthew 7:1: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

It's in the Bible, geniuses. Dominionists like using the Bible to claim they have a "right" to beat their kids (and other people's kids) - but they ignore everything the Good Book actually says. I guess it's because they're illiterate and they don't really know what it says.

Maybe we need to buy the judgies some Hooked on Phonics tapes.

I surely wish there were words in the English language sufficient to express my scorn for those who would judge someone based on a private matter that he had long ago put behind him. Again, I never said Edwards was right to have an affair. But the judgies judged, and did not forgive.

Imagine what it's like for the Edwards family to see the media lining up against them over a years-old incident just for political gain.

If Obama wins, I'm inclined to help launch a nationwide effort to draft John Edwards as Attorney General. Because of his courage in admitting the affair, I admire Edwards more now than I did before this story, and I certainly think he can find a place in a national administration.

Edwards may have been wrong about some things before - and I'm a Green, while he's a Democrat. But, by golly, I will defend him from judgmental hypocrites and liars.

What hath deregulation brung?

Well, what hath it?

Yesterday I was doing an important chore at the home of a family member who has…cable TV! Of course, I haven't had cable since I went out on my own when I was 19 - but that was before the failed Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Whooooo, man! I thunk cable was bad before '96, but now that I've had probably the best look at post-1996 cable that I've had so far, I long for my younger days! But the problems aren't limited to cable.

First off, several of the most appealing channels on our cable system were out of service all day yesterday. (Yes, these were ones my family member had paid for.) No surprise, as our cable system is the great-grandsprog of the reviled Storer Cable.

The content of the channels we could get was just as heart-wrenching. For one thing, at least 3 of the local over-the-air stations were showing infomercials in the middle of the day. Strikingly, so were several of the major cable channels.

People pay $50 a month to watch infomercials now?

So I put the TV on the so-called "news" channels. What do you think they were talking about? Bush just got caught with his shit-encrusted Huggies down around his ankles ordering the CIA to forge a letter as an excuse for the war - but suffice it to say, there wasn't a word about that. The "news" channels instead dwelt on the John Edwards affair that ended in 2006.

Incidentally, this was also the top news story on the phone company's high-speed ISP's website - even though the story itself was from the day before.

See what I mean about the other side living in the past? They can't get over grade school squabbles from 25 years ago, so I guess we shouldn't expect them to get over a respected statesman's extramarital affair from 2 years ago. (Does anyone else find it suspicious that the Edwards story was released by most of the media just after the latest Bush scandal broke?)

The glut of infomercials was made possible by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which deregulated the industry. This illegal law likely also contributed to the cable outage, because cable companies are now more likely to be monopolies, so they have no incentive to provide reliable service. (Before 1996, a significant percentage of American communities had cable competition.)

This monopoly culture has also contributed to the biased news coverage that plagues the media today.

My party - the Green Party - explicitly endorses repeal of the '96 telcom law in its platform. I also believe we need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, a concept that served America well for decades.

TV has the potential to educate and inform, but instead bandwidth gets wasted on infomercials and one-sided "news" coverage. It's time to bring the medium back out of the vast wasteland it's become.

School district may get Tasers

The fortification of the American school system expands, as the Uniontown, Pennsylvania, school district may get Tasers.

Welcome to BushAmerica - the land of Tasered tots.

The school district's security director boasts of his desire to see Tasers in schools - but parents are outraged (as they should be). Still, the director remains undeterred. He said of the Tasers, "I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it." Which means what?

If I was a betting dude, I'd wager that the first time a Taser is used in the Uniontown schools, the district finds itself the defendant in a lawsuit.

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is…Steve Miller!

Steve Miller - not to be confused with the singer and musician of the same name - is a former Las Vegas city councilman. Now he writes loopy articles for the misnamed Canada Free Press, a right-wing website in the WorldNutDaily mold.

Miller's latest rant is titled "Barack Obama is not legally a US natural-born citizen." In this absurd tirade, Miller claims the Democratic standard-bearer is not a natural-born citizen because the law at the time of his birth said that one is not a citizen if one parent wasn't a citizen and if the other parent was a citizen who did not live in the U.S. for 5 years after the age of 16.

One problem with that, Steve. If you're born in the U.S. - as Obama was - you're a citizen regardless of whether your parents were citizens. Duh, Steve! (The only exception is if you are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction - an exception that applies to the offspring of dignitaries who have diplomatic immunity.)

Miller stupidly declares, "Presidential office requires the person elected to be a natural-born United States citizen if the child was not born to two US citizen parents." Um, Steve? It requires you to be a natural-born citizen regardless of who you were born to. But since Obama is a natural-born citizen, that point is moot.

Steve Miller really is the Joker!

Hey! Is that Bubble Yum bubble gum?! Down into the fiery pits of level 1 with you!

One more entry before I have to leave for the day!

Remember the bubble gum wars of the late '70s? It was a bit like the soup wars of the current decade, in that the battles were fought fiercely in TV ads.

Bubble Yum's commersh mascot was the Flavor Fiend - who appeared to be Cookie Monster's orange-haired cousin. YouTube once featured another commercial that contained the ol' Fiend, but apparently it got removed because of the feewinghurt induced by people (and puppets) bubbling. So now the only usable Flavor Fiend appearance on YouPube seems to be this 1977 ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b56tfNiAiI

"Hey! Is that Bubble Yum bubble gum?!" the Flavor Fiend loudly asks. This inquiry appears to have influenced a common saying from when I was in high school years later. This saying was delivered in a drill sergeant voice and referenced the level system that characterized teen "treatment" facilities: "Hey! Is that Bazooka you're chewin'?! Down into the fiery pits of level 1 with you!"

I always thought the bubble gum commercials of the time were amusing in that a person always made a big spectacle of squeezing the piece of gum to demonstrate how soft it was.

I also wonder how they got the puppet to bubble.

Another observation: Early in the commersh, when the pack of gum is being passed along, notice that they're holding the book they're reading upside-down.

I guess the Flavor Fiend learned to read upside-down and now gets everything backwards. So maybe now he's a media exec who follows tabloid scandals while ignoring important stories like Bush forging the Iraq letter as an excuse to start a war.

Open thread time!

I figure you're entitled to see the "Just think..." banner at least once a year, and that I'm also entitled to a day off at such an interval, but anyway...

Tonight I'm going to the Bellevue Vets Carnival, and tomorrow I have to spend most of the day working on a family chore I promised to do. So I probably won't be able to do many entries here until Sunday. I may be able to do a few entries from a family member's house, but that's not a guarantee.

So just think! You might get a whole day without having to hear about any new conservative foibles! Isn't that refreshing?

In light of that news, consider this an open thread.

A double standard?

Much noise is generated about this blog's alleged focus on conservative or Republican scandals while ignoring liberal or Democratic scandals.

Oh, there's a double standard all right, but it ain't from me. I noticed back in 1988 that the media hyped Democratic scandals and ignored GOP ones. At the time, I was a 15-year-old kid, and I could see it already.

So why would I pay more attention to conservative scandals than liberal ones?

Sigh. I know I've explained this before, so let me do it again: It ain't "the liberals" who are so holier-than-thou. The conservatives are.

It is generally the conservatives who waste time writing useless legislation dictating how people live their lives, especially regarding sex and personal relationships. So if they have a sex scandal, I'm likely to report it. "The liberals" typically ain't the ones who try passing useless laws. Thus, I'm just as likely to ignore similar travails on the liberal side.

People have personal problems. It might not be anything criminal, but it's a fact of life. It doesn't make one a hypocrite unless they tried dictating to everyone else how to live. That's what hypocrisy means. Is the original offense any worse than the public hypocrisy that might surround it?

No progressive ever called me a druggie or told me I was going to hell for listening to the "wrong" music. But conservatives have. Thus, if someone on the liberal side has personal issues, I have no reason to make an issue of it. If someone on the conservative side does the same thing, I sure as hell do, because conservatives sermonized about the "sins" of others.

Is that a double standard? No - at least not for its own sake. You can't criticize someone for hypocrisy when they have no hypocrisy to criticize. When someone rants about others' alleged immorality, you have to hold them to a stronger standard than someone who does not.

A lot of folks don't get that. But it makes perfect sense.

Of course, this makes the media's double standard that lets Republicans off the hook much more vexing.

Washington Times lies about Bush record

Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times is a staple among the conservative intelligentsia. The scumbag rag is a treasure trove of right-wing talking points - which its readers pick up and spread fungus-like.

Yesterday, in an editorial praising Bush, the Times lied outright about his miserable record.

The piece claimed Bush had approval ratings between 80 and 90% throughout his first term. That is a lie. His approval ratings were shaky when he took office and were so again 4 years later. And even those figures were filtered through the polling machine that always inflates public support for right-wing causes and individuals.

The article went on to claim that the Decider had reduced unemployment to record-low levels. That too is an outright lie. The lowest the unemployment rate has ever gotten during Bush's reign is still higher than it was immediately before he seized power. (You have to remember that doesn't even count underemployment. Just think if it did.)

And when in the fuckola did Bush "reform Medicare"? I sure as shit don't remember that. He may have ruined it, but I sure don't remember him reforming it.

Just setting the record straight, folks. Let's close the floodgates of the Timesies' lie before the rest of the media amplifies it.

If anyone doubts that the media sometimes lies outright to defend the ruling party, this ought to lay those doubts to rest.

(Source: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808070011)

NFL sends tailgaters to sidelines

"And I guess that's why they call it the Nazi Fascist League..." (Sung to the tune of "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues.")

Just days after the National Football League trotted out its idiotic new "code of conduct" for fans inside the stadium, it's now implementing a new rule for those outside the stadium as well. The NFL has decreed that folks won't be allowed to tailgate outside the arena unless they have a ticket to the game.

Under this ukase, security must scour the parking lot and kick out anyone who doesn't have a ticket. The NFL has ruled that this shall be done at every venue that hosts an NFL team.

Why the hell should you need a ticket if you're not even inside the stadium? This is exactly like the NFL making people who watch the game at home shut off the TV if they don't have a ticket. (The greed-driven blackout rules are so stringent that they might as well.)

The NFL's excuse is that this will prevent fans from causing trouble. They fail to explain how. I think the reason for the rule is to keep people from having a good time.

The NFL's determination to take the fun out of football dates back at least to 1989 when it implemented the "Ickey Woods rule." Under this rule - prompted by Woods's hilarious dance in the end zone - players are prohibited from "excessive" celebratory performances.

There's some people who just don't like it when others have a good time. The NFL is driven by the same mentality that's led to crackdowns at festivals.

With the NFL's expanding no-fun policies, anyone who attends a game almost expects a gulag to break out.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story.aspx?content_id=42a41c97-5193-406c-aa13-5a3ec37257ae)

Tennessee GOP congressman loses primary

David Davis is a one-term congressman from northeastern Tennessee. A Republican, he has a strongly right-wing voting record. He's also considered next to useless.

But yesterday he lost the Republican primary for another term - making him the first incumbent U.S. House member from the Volunteer State to lose a primary since 1966.

Wow, that David Davis must have really been pathetic! For a district that's had a Republican congressperson since 1881, at least it's good that a GOP primary can be competitive enough to fire an incumbent. (Not like most other Republicans would be much better.)

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_21CQEmVXaRLlqpw6n7eqnKIyNwD92DTD200)

GOP lawmaker indicted for sexual assault

Missouri State Rep. Scott Muschany is a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of Frontenac. He was considered a rising star in the party's extreme right wing.

Now Muschany, 42, has been indicted for a felony charge of deviate sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a girl who was only 14.

If he's convicted, Muschany may face a fine of up to $5,000 and up to 7 years in prison.

What is it with the Republican Party that's drawn so many weirdoes lately?

(Source: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/3D590F8A376046948625749D0070B9D8?OpenDocument)

Anthrax suspect a member of conservative group

This is a story I've seen only in an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, paper. Most of the media refuses to pick it up.

It turns out Bruce Ivins - the suspect in the deadly 2001 anthrax terrorist attacks who committed suicide last week - was a member of Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, a Religious Right hate group that supports censoring media materials that fail to reflect its values.

Ivins donated heavily to the AFA, especially after the organization defended a Baptist school in Greendale, Wisconsin, that was under investigation over its use of corporal punishment. Investigators think a return address used on the anthrax envelopes may be a reference to that school.

Ivins's letters to the editor of his own local paper espouse very conservative politics, which investigators believe are related to the anthrax mailings to several Democratic senators.

Keep in mind though that Bruce Ivins was an anthrax suspect - not a convict. But if it can be ascertained that he did indeed send anthrax through the mail, the media is going to look awfully stupid for denying what was obvious all along - namely that the series of attacks were right-wing domestic terrorism. I could see that from day one. Instead, the media chose to blame everyone except right-wing domestic terrorists. This is exactly like how the media scapegoated environmentalists for the arson of a new subdivision in Maryland (which turned out to be the work of a white supremacist gang) or how it scapegoated antiwar activists for the Times Square bombing.

Why should I have concluded that the anthrax mailings were right-wing domestic terrorism, while the media was wrong to jump to its conclusions about this and other incidents? It's simple: For one, America's Far Right had a strong track record of lethal terrorism. This is the strain that produced Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, and Eric Rudolph. (If you doubt that the Unabomber was right-wing, his manifesto was strongly critical of the Left.) For another, why would anyone but the American right wing target so many Democratic senators?

I go by evidence and past performance. The other side goes by innuendo and scapegoating. If I'm wrong, I'll admit it. When the pop-up media is wrong, it never corrects itself.

I think the media has some explaining to do.

(Source: http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-news.asp?id=BHDSS6M9EoM)

Newtzi threatens government shutdown

Didn't this fuckhat take his ball and go home 10 years ago?

Yes, I'm talking about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - the creep who defined Bushism before it became Bushism. Even though he's out of public office, he still doesn't know when to shut up.

Newtzi was responsible for the oft-mocked government shutdowns of the mid-'90s, which resulted from his own shitty coping skills. Now he's urging the Republicans to do it again - this time to force a congressional vote on offshore oil drilling. (He thinks people aren't going to blame the Republicans for the artificially high gas costs, even though the GOP caused a vast majority of the problem.)

The Newter says that if the Democrats don't go along with the GOP's notion of trying to drill its way out of the gas crisis (instead of focusing on conservation and alternative fuels), the Republicans ought to make sure the government shuts down past September.

Please, Newty. Go for it. I would love to see the results of the next election if the Republicans try that. People aren't in the mood for a repeat of the kookish grandstanding of the '90s.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/7/135143/7871/282/564163)

Obama heckler's press credentials were real!

This story sounds like it's straight out of News of the Weird!

On Tuesday, some loudmouth bearing press credentials heckled Obama at an event in Ohio by demanding that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance. (This despite the fact that, to my knowledge, Bush never recited the Pledge at his events.) At the end of the event, the man refused to give his name to reporters in the press pen and ranted like a maniac.

Everyone assumed the man's press credentials were fake. Articles about the incident even reported they were phony. After all, why would a real reporter jeopardize the credibility of the news organization he works for by behaving in such an irrational manner? And why would any news outlet put its reputation on the line by allowing such behavior?

But now it turns out the press credentials carried by the man were real. Real, real, real, Bert! The man is a freelance photographer on assignment for Bloomberg News.

Well, he was. But not anymore, thanks to his little tantrum.

How unprofessional can the media be for its credentialed photographers to heckle candidates with moronic ravings?

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/7/12584/47553/313/564132)

EU approves airline merger

Yet another smudge on the European Union's sordid record that almost makes it sound like Bush appointees are running the show.

The EU announced today that it's approved the merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines - leaving approval by U.S. regulators the only hurdle to the merger. (Gee, I wonder what the U.S. regulators will do?)

This approval seems to leave EU's member nations out of luck if they opposed the merger.

The EU claimed that the deal "would not significantly impede effective competition" in the airline industry in Europe. But that's not true. Some routes between America and Europe are currently served by both Northwest and Delta - so there would be less competition.

But hey, monopolies and corporate power are what the European Union is all about.

If the merger is approved, there will also be fewer choices for air travel within the U.S. - and even higher fares.

(Source: http://www.europeanvoice.com/Article/61985.aspx)

Freeper cites nonexistent Allowed Cloud (more Freeper Madness)

Hahahahaha, I laughed out loud when I saw this! And you're gonna heehaw uncontrollably about it too!

You know why? Because it's funny. That's why.

Right-wing hate website Free Republic is interesting to monitor. You wouldn't believe some of the crap the terrorists on that site spew.

Like just now, when they posted in regards to Bob Barr's efforts to appear on the presidential ballot. Regarding this story, one of the Freepers (as they call themselves) cried:

"Anybody working with the Commie ACLU should not be allowed to run for office in America, just like Communists are barred."

Ooh, an Allowed Cloud!

Isn't that just the funniest thing you've ever heard?

Hey dummy, communists aren't barred from running for office in America. In fact, the Communist Party fielded a presidential candidate at least into the '80s.

At least get your facts straight, Freepers. That way, people won't mistake you for fools. Wait a minute, Freepers are fools. Never mind.

2 mustard gas leaks in less than 2 weeks

Less than 2 weeks ago, dangerous mustard gas leaked at an Army depot in Richmond, Kentucky.

And now it's happened again - at the exact same depot.

These leaks follow 2 leaks of sarin - a far deadlier chemical weapon - late last year and early this year.

Kentucky needs to evict this chemical weapons stockpile pronto. If there's a sarin disaster, Kentuckians are going to start asking why chemical weapons are being stored in their state.

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYmnRjXCHwFNYyig9mzQ-cTkfajwD92D1JR86)

Voter arrested for...well, trying to vote

The cheating by right-wing election officials seems to be in full bloom even months before the November election.

Back in February, when Missouri had its presidential primary, a voter in Independence, Missouri, tried to vote. That's why we call them voters, you see. It's because they vote. At least they try to.

The voter carried a proper ID issued by the election board, in keeping with Missouri law. It might not have been enough identification to please extremists who are always crying about vote fraud where none exists, but it was legally valid. Missouri had passed a much more rigid voter ID law, but it was ruled unconstitutional before that election.

When the voter presented his ID - which was not his driver's license, but was legally valid - the election judge thundered, "Look! Show me your driver's license or you don't vote!"

In response to the election judge's unlawful attempt to limit voting only to those who can afford a car, the voter did eventually present his license - but warned the judge he was filing a complaint with the election board over this illegal intimidation.

When asked about the complaint months later, the election board simply claimed the complaint had been "lost."

Yesterday, when Missouri had primaries for other offices, the saga of right-wing intimidation continued. The voter had previously spoken with an election board member, who had assured him that driver's licenses weren't necessary to vote, and that voters may instead present another official ID, utility bill, or bank statement. The voter was advised to call the election board if the judges didn't let him vote.

When he tried voting yesterday, the judges were again hostile - even when the voter showed them the list of voter ID requirements from the Missouri Secretary of State's website. He politely invited one of the judges to call the election board.

Soon the voter was confronted by the same election judge who had caused trouble back in February. The judge gave the voter a chest bump like that of a baseball team manager fighting with an umpire.

As the voter tried calling the election board on a cell phone, the cops arrived. Two officers grabbed the voter and his son and escorted them outside. Four other cops arrived in their cruisers.

The police threatened to arrest the voter and his son for trying to vote. When the voter failed to leave, he was cuffed and stuffed (as Rosco would say). He was taken to jail and released hours later. The popo threatened to file 6 counts of disorderly conduct because there were 6 election judges.

After being released, the voter went to the election board's office. An election board member offered to let him cast his ballot there - but how would he know if his vote even counted? If he had voted back at the precinct like he attempted to do in the first place, election officials wouldn't know which vote was his to throw away.

So let's sum up yesterday's events: A voter tried voting, the election judges argued with him about an ID that was perfectly legit, and the voter was arrested.

And I can guarantee you this is the sort of bullshit we have to look forward to in November. I think this year is going to make the stiff voting machine buttons, lost ballots, and right-wingers' illegal electioneering from 2004 look like nothing in comparison. You know why? Because they were allowed to get away with so much last time.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/6/9488/29311/996/563441)

School system ignores opt-out law (sigh)

You probably didn't know this, but I'm against school uniforms. I bet that never in your foggiest dreams did you suspect that! I'm 35, and I hate it more now than I did when I was 13.

Much as a public school system in Massachusetts implemented mandatory uniforms despite it being against state law, one in California is now doing something quite similar.

In Needles, California, the so-called public school system has implemented a mandatory uniform policy - requiring shirts of a specific style and color that feature the school logo. Parents are required to buy the uniforms from a specific vendor.

A big problem with that: California law says public schools must allow students to opt out of uniform requirements. You don't even have to give a reason to opt out. Out you simply opt. This issue has long been settled in that state, following the Long Beach case. (That's not to mention the fact that Tinker v. Des Moines declared uniforms in public schools unconstitutional nationwide.)

So the Needles school district decreed that you can opt out - but only by wearing uniforms without the logo.

Are they fucking serious?

Is that really what the school system calls complying with state law?

I'm not even linking to the Mohave Daily News article about this event, because it chooses to parrot discredited U.S. Department of Education propaganda that encourages uniforms. Much as with the new Rockefeller drug laws, dissenting views seem to be no longer tolerated in any newspaper marketed in afflicted areas. The truth is never to be told.

And so, another Nazi school district lands on the lawsuit block.

Poor people barred from registering to vote

If you want to talk about electoral corruption, it doesn't get much worse than this.

In Bristol, Virginia, housing officials illegally barred a voter registration drive in a public housing complex. The drive was led by the Obama campaign and was like registration drives affiliated with other candidates in other areas. The drive wasn't illegal; indeed it was protected by federal law.

The city's housing director came up with contradictory excuses for quashing the drive. First he charged that the campaign workers were breaking federal law. But there is no such law. Then he claimed that signs in the development forbid soliciting. That too is a falsehood. Besides that, soliciting regulations usually don't cover voter drives.

An editorial on the Bristol Herald Courier's website suggests the housing director's stance might be politically motivated: "One has to wonder if housing officials would have been quite so quick to eject volunteers working for Republican candidate John McCain ... Perhaps someone at the housing authority doesn't like Obama and doesn't relish the idea of a few more Obama voters taking part in the November election."

Surely that's true, but the fact is, there's a lot of people in high places who just don't like poor people voting. That's the reason Kentucky launched a selective crackdown on voter carpools.

After the electoral butchery in Kentucky paid generous dividends for the lunatic Right, why wouldn't the Nazis try suppressing turnout among the poor everywhere else too?

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/6/112151/9121/929/563500;
http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/opinion/editorials/article/political_speech_in_public_housing/12104)

Phill Kline loses primary

Phillip Kline used to be Kansas Attorney General, but he was such an incredible idiot that he lost his 2006 reelection bid in a landslide.

But since it's Kansas, county Republican committees get to appoint county officials directly when a vacancy occurs - and they appointed Kline as Johnson County DA.

Then it turned out that Kline didn't even live in Johnson County - despite this being one of the requirements for the job. Under state law, if a county official doesn't live in the county they claim to live in, they have to resign or be removed. But the Republican machine is so corrupt that they didn't remove him, despite being required to do so.

Maybe the machine didn't remove him - but now voters have. In yesterday's Republican primary, Phill Kline was soundly defeated by a political newcomer. I guess even the Republicans finally started realizing Kline was an embarrassing political liability, so they said, "See ya, Phill."

The man who defeated Kline was a prosecutor who Kline fired for political reasons when he took the DA reins.

(Source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/elections/story/735933.html)

"Ernie? I'm bald!"

Man, Bert and Ernie sure do rule!

They're part of the 'Sesame Street' kick-ass crew, you see.

Some of you who read my newsletters years ago know that Bert & Ernie's Garage is where you can buy gas for only 10 cents a gallon. But how does one half of the Dynamic Duo fare in the barbering business?

Hilariously, that's how:



What else could prompt innocent Bert to call someone a "ding-a-ling"?

It's especially funny when Bert says, "And I like my hair long, Ernie." Man, that Bert's a real hippie!

After Bert emerges from Ernie's barber chair a total chrome dome, Ernie assures, "Remember, it will grow back again." Unless of course you're a piece of foam rubber. Amazing how Children's Television Workshop ruined a perfectly good Bert puppet to film this skit!

Who in their right mind would ruin Bert?

That sketch was made back when Ernie, Bert, and 'Sesame Street' itself were much edgier. Now the ol' Ses is a world of cutesy. Let's bring back edgy 'Sesame Street' skits!

Candidate's son makes total ass of himself

The conservative intelligentsia (as it were) instills such poor discipline on its own spoiled children that they end up getting humiliated beyond all hope.

Bob Schaffer is the Republicans' right-wing candidate for U.S. Senate from Colorado. His 19-year-old son is a student at the University of Dayton. Now it's been revealed that Schaffer's son posted a totally idiotic, embarrassing webpage.

The website reportedly featured a photo of a waving Obama emblazoned with the words, "High Five, Who's Gay," and a picture of the Pyramids with the words, "Slavery Gets Shit Done."

The website isn't illegal - but it's stupid. Does anyone actually think it's funny? I have a good sense of humor, but I just think it's dumb (as well as trite). And this incident is embarrassing in the extreme to Schaffer's candidacy.

The University of Dayton, which is a private institution, is considering reprimanding the student over this humiliating display of stupidity.

What's really funny is that this embarrassing spectacle had to happen during a crucial point in Bob Schaffer's Senate campaign. Life doesn't get any sweeter than this!

(Source: http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/08/05/ddn080508studentweb.html)

Maniac fakes press credentials, disrupts Obama speech

Hahahahaha, what a weirdo!

During an Obama town hall meeting today in Berea, Ohio, some clod with fake press credentials made a complete jackass of himself. As the addled maniac photographed the event, he kept shouting that Obama had failed to call for the audience to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Finally, Obama invited the heckler to lead the audience in the Pledge - which he did.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Obama said to the man, "Thank you, sir, appreciate it."

The humiliated heckler was allowed to stay at the event - which is more than what Bush would have allowed.

This guy was attacking Obama because the event didn't start off with the Pledge of Allegiance? How many political rallies or candidate meetings like this feature the Pledge? I sure don't remember the Pledge of Allegiance being uttered at the Bush rally in my area in 2000 that went awry.

Sounds to me like the heckling was a Freeper-style attack that went horribly amiss.

Anyone know if that GOP operative from West Virginia who kept staging attacks against himself happened to be in Ohio today?

(Source: AP)

Bush ordered forgery of Iraq letter

Now can we impeach him?

Just this story alone would be cause for impeachment, so when we can get the ball rolling?

'The Way Of The World', a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, claims that Bush ordered the CIA to forge a handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. This forgery, which was backdated to 2001, was designed to falsely link Saddam with Al-Qaeda as an excuse for the Iraq War.

Suskind also says Bush had information from intelligence officials that said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - and that Bush ignored this information. Gee, there's a surprise. It was clear Bush knew Saddam had no WMD's, but he just didn't give a shit.

The forged letter had been reported for years - but the media acted as if it was real. London's Sunday Telegraph reported on the letter back in 2003, claiming in an influential article that it proved that a 9/11 terrorist was trained by Saddam.

Now that we know the letter is a hoax, will the Telegraph kindly retract that article?

If the media catches on to what Bush did this time, Bush could be in trouble. BIG trouble! Not like I expect the media to catch on, because it never does. It's illegal for the White House to use the CIA to drum up support for wars - let alone forge a letter.

It goes back to the same old story: Bush wanted a war, so he got one - by lying to build support for it.

Evidence for impeachment isn't a problem. Political will is the problem.

Maybe Congress will just pass retroactive immunity for all of Bush's lawbreaking, like it did for the phone industry's involvement in the wiretap scandal.

(Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html)

Democrats want D.C. gun laws relaxed

I guess the Republicans and the Democrats really are two distinct parties after all: The Democrats want the District of Columbia's gun laws relaxed, while the Republicans are for the most part sitting on their glutei maximi.

Incidentally, this is good work on the Democrats' part. I also think this (along with the Bush regime's support of D.C.'s rigid gun laws) shows how much easier it is for the Republicans to lapse into Allowed Cloud mode now that they at least have more power than they did 15 years ago.

A Democratic bill in the House would effectively end D.C.'s handgun control laws, in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that such laws are unconstitutional. It has 48 Democratic cosponsors. Many folks had long believed that these laws were unconstitutional - but the Republicans never erased these laws in the many years that they controlled Congress from 1995 through 2006.

I'm all for local autonomy, and I'll be the first to say D.C. should be given statehood. But the Constitution's safeguards of individual rights take priority - regardless of whether you're in D.C. or one of the 50 states. That's what the concept of inalienable rights means. You can't have a law that's unconstitutional. And D.C. and the 50 states shouldn't be able to avoid remedying such unconstitutional laws after they were ruled as such.

At least the Democrats are backing bills to support gun rights. Everyone acts like it's a Republican issue, but I for one damn sure don't want to see the Second Amendment trampled - much as I don't want the First Amendment trampled either.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402260.html)

Where Bush goes, trouble grows

Wasn't there a song in the '70s called "Where Bush Goes, Trouble Grows"? Or is that like "You Little Teethcoster"?

Today, Bush got a very negative reception on his visit to South Korea. Over 20,000 demonstrators protested the Decider's presence.

The South Korean government's reaction towards the demonstrators was about the same as the Bush regime's would've been if such a large group protested: Authorities unleashed water cannons and hoses against the protesters. (The water cannons were actually ink cannons: The water reportedly contained some sort of marking so the dissidents could be identified later.)

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (pictured here with Bush) is a Far Right conservative and a strong Bush ally. He took power early this year following another election influenced by the American media, which is always eager to export Bushism (as it has in Canada, Italy, France, and so on). Lee is an unpopular authoritarian who has limited public assemblies, threatened to "get rid of" labor unions, and restricted movement of the citizenry.

In essence, he's the Bush of South Korea.

As an example of Lee Myung-bak's authoritarian rule, his administration detained participants in another event for holding an "illegal rally." What a pro-freedom phrase! (More sarcasm, folks!) This rally followed Lee's efforts to import more American beef. Importing American beef raised concerns in South Korea because the U.S. government had begun suing any farmer who stepped up testing of their cattle for mad cow disease.

It's unclear why the Bush regime sued farmers who were interested in ensuring safe beef, but the lawsuits led people in other countries to lose faith in American beef - which is something America can't afford. But Bush doesn't care.

One of the main goals of Bush's latest South Korean visit is to promote free trade - which is something else that's been a proven loser for Americans.

If something is bad for the country, count on Bush to support it.

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j3b6xoPSXQAc5AoJwqPQit9OtitgD92C59SG0;
http://news.sg.msn.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1423679)

Republicans' "permanent majority" ends

After the 2004 "election", the GOP liked to gloat that they had a "permanent majority."

Thankfully, those days of shit-eating smirks seem to be over - at least for now. Starting in 2005, there's been a steady drop in the number of voters who register as Republicans. This drop is accompanied by an increase in Democrats - and, more strikingly, in independents and third party voters.

I know there tends to be a calm before the storm once every few years in American politics, but this time the trend has held for 3 years.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/us/politics/05flip.html)

Another school ignores Constitution

How fascist can you get?

This time, the trouble spot is East High School in Pueblo, Colorado. And the issue of course is The Big U (despite it being a public school).

A senior at the school summed up uniforms quite well: "I think it's pretty stupid."

The other public high schools in Pueblo are expected to follow East High's "lead" within the next couple years. I guess the Pueblo school system likes getting sued. I guarantee you I'd sue. Guaran-fucking-tee it!

(Source: http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8787171)

Disabled man loses home over parking ticket

Welcome to BushAmerica - the meanest society in the world.

A few years ago, a Milwaukee man got a $50 parking ticket. He forgot about paying it because of his own health problems and the death of his father. The man (who was once a Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin legislature) is now 62 and has been disabled since 2001 by painful degenerative diseases, chronic respiratory illness, diabetes, and other conditions. His disability left him financially ruined.

But now the city has suddenly remembered that old parking fine. So they've decided to foreclose on his house.

Foreclosing on his house because of a $50 parking citation?

What caused the parking fine in the first place? It's because he parked the car with no plates in his own driveway. He couldn't get the plates renewed until he had the money to fix the radiator.

You read that right: He's losing his house because of a $50 fine for parking his car on his own driveway.

And Bill O'Reilly complains about having it rough?

The only reason he was even caught for the parking "offense" was that his brother was mad at him and ratted him out.

Heavy-handed government actions against people who are in no position to fight are how societies end. For too long, laws have been written to favor the powerful. Now, for all you used to hear about America someday becoming a corporatist command state, it's happened.

(Source: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779234)

Obama leads among working poor

I get the feeling that if McCain wins the election, this will be another one (like almost all other GOP presidential wins in my lifetime) in which affluent suburbs provided the entire margin of victory.

A new poll by the Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University says that Obama is leading McCain by a 2-to-1 margin among low-wage workers.

The Democrat's appeal cuts across racial lines - thus rendering right-wing bloggers' use of the race card a smoldering ruin. Among low-income whites, Obama holds a commanding double-digit lead - which doesn't offset his overpowering leads among low-income blacks and Hispanics.

The survey also shows that the working poor find Obama to be the major party candidate who most shares their values.

The most important point is that this also makes the wingnutosphere look even more foolish than it already does when it tries claiming Republicans are the working-class party. Right-wing blogs and commentators expect people to follow their bovine bullshit unquestioningly, but this - along with Bill O'Reilly's idiotic complaint about having to pay more taxes because he's rich - should pretty much blow that claim out of the wa.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080804/pl_nm/usa_politics_poll_workers_dc)

Bill O'Reilly the crybaby

If Bill O'Reilly isn't the biggest goddamn baby ever to fill a TV screen or an op-ed page, I'll just shit.

A few days ago, O'Reilly - who keeps calling himself a working-class champion - wrote a commentary that appeared in the right-wing Washington Times complaining about rich guys like himself having it too hard in life. I swear I am not making this up.

O'Reilly once authored a book titled 'Who's Looking Out For You?', in which he tried to pass himself off as a voice of the common person. But now his phony claims to populism have fallen to rack and ruin with his latest piece, in which he gripes about being in the top 1% income group. "I am part of the 1 percent of Americans that paid an astounding 40 percent of all federal income tax in 2006," he says.

O'Reilly cries that if Obama is elected President, he'll "take from the rich and give to the not-so-rich" by raising taxes on the very wealthy. He further complains that Obama and congressional Democrats will fund things like child care for poor families.

Is that the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance I hear?

So much for (to borrow O'Reilly's book title) looking out for you, huh? O'Reilly is looking out only for the very rich such as his goofy self.

He grumbles that if Obama wins, he will take tax dollars of "me and other rich folks" to fund programs for people "who are too lazy to hold a job." Oh, you mean like that Republican contributor in Kentucky who got hired for a state patronage job and refused to answer phones so they just paid him to do nothing? What, that's not what O'Reilly meant?

Excuse me, Bill, for only working 60 hours a week (following years of health problems). Maybe if I'd work 100 hours instead, I might suddenly be able to live a life of caviar and bon-bons like O'Reilly here.

Only in BushAmerica can millionaires like Bill O'Reilly expect to be taken seriously while snuggling up in their mansions and pounding out psychotic rants about big, mean poor people having it too easy and taking their money.

You're a fucking BABY, Bill! Waaaaah waaaaah waaaaah!

Do you need you diaper changed, Bill? Or does the widdle baby want his rattle?

(Source: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/347)

FBI seizes library computers without a warrant

It's not easy being a library these days.

The public library in Frederick, Maryland, has found itself the target of several FBI actions in recent years. Usually the FBI comes along with a court order demanding records.

But this time, the FBI seized the library's public computers without any court order or warrant (despite being required by law to obtain one).

Who knows what this is about? Maybe it is about a serious case, but I doubt it. Even if it was, it still wouldn't make a warrantless seizure legal. The seizure of the computers probably came about because some right-wing exurbanite looked over someone's shoulder while they were on the computer and saw a rilly, rilly bad word like 'naked'.

(Source: http://wtopnews.com/?nid=598&sid=1452848)

Experienced workers take entry level jobs

Are liars like Phil Gramm still going to insist the recession is a hoax?

According to the Department of Labor, the unemployment rate among teenagers who are old enough to work has soared from 15.3% just a year ago to 20.3% - the worst numbers in over 60 years.

That's right, 20.3%.

Now why would that be? It's because entry level jobs that teenagers once took are now instead being taken by experienced workers who lost the much better jobs they once had.

People who are 45 and had factory or office jobs for decades are now being forced to fill fast-food positions. In the "war is peace" world of BushAmerica, that's called an economic boom. But in the reality-based community, it's called not just a disaster but the near-death of society.

What's the point in even going to college when the only jobs out there are entry level? Hell, what's the point in even finishing high school - unless it's to fill up your diary with entries about who put what in the toilet?

(Source: http://www.startribune.com/business/26210764.html)