The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...David Storck!

Racist attacks by the GOP are getting to be a daily thing now. Much as the toilets getting clogged was a daily thing in high school, Republican racism has become a daily event in this campaign.

David Storck heads the Republican Party in Tampa's Hillsborough County. Now he's distributed an e-mail from a party volunteer attacking black voters. It also assails Obama, calling him "at minimum a socialist and probably Marxist in his core beliefs."

The e-mail goes on to claim that Obama has "no experience or accomplishments but he is black."

Obama has a hell of a lot more experience and accomplishments than, say, Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney have. What did Romney ever do that was so great? He was governor of Massachusetts for 4 years, but he was one of the most unpopular and incompetent major politicians in America throughout his reign.

Now Storck says he didn't read the e-mail before he sent it out. You're an idiot, David.

There have been calls for Storck to resign, but the wingnuts want none of that. Their response to these calls? One wrote, "Is our free speach [sic] being threatened again?" Nice to know that newspaper comment sections have become like Usenet in 1998.

(Source: http://www.tampabays10.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=93204&provider=top)

Cindy Sheehan office attacked by terrorists

Yesterday, Cindy Sheehan's antiwar congressional bid in California came under attack by violent right-wing thugs.

Someone smashed all the front windows of her campaign office and stole a computer.

Wonder what Freeper did this?

Sheehan is running as an independent, but this attack was clearly from the pro-war camp. The modus operandi itself is a pro-war calling card. The chickenhawks have carried out similar incidents countless times before, so I don't even have a shadow of a doubt about the allegiances of the assailants.

I've said it before: Keep an eye on the wingnutosphere. Some of the regulars on right-wing blogs are every bit as dangerous as the international terrorists you hear so much about.

(Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Cindy-Sheehans-Campaign-Headquarters-Heavily/story.aspx?guid=%7B06D7B246-2AA6-452C-A072-36CE97B919C8%7D)

I'm voting Democratic!

...for state representative, that is!

Yes, I know, I know: I'm a Green, as I've said before. But there's no Green candidate, so you know how that goes. And I don't like making full-on endorsements anymore, because I've gotten burned on those too many times.

Anyway, it appears as if I'm in Democrat Dennis Keene's district, which covers the more Democratic portion of Campbell County. I'm not 100% sure, because Kentucky state legislative district boundaries change every time some Republican throws a fit and sues over them, but articles seem to indicate that I'm in that district.

Keene at least got rid of Campbell County's outdated tax that applied only in the more urban northern half of the county. (And the exurbs think the cities are getting special rights?)

The incumbent Democrat's only opponent in this election is independent Pat Lucas, an ultraconservative who grumbles about "socialism", wants to eliminate funding for public schools, and backs a confiscatory 10% sales tax.

Well, I think it's pretty obvious I ain't voting for Pat Lucas, isn't it?

And don't groan about how Dennis Keene is running unopposed just because his only opponent is an independent. That B.S. won't fly.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20081031/NEWS0103/810310402)

KHK is R.I.P.!

Well, now we know why last week's protest against the Kids Helping Kids cult was so uneventful.

It's because we had gotten the place shut down, and we just didn't know it yet!

I've waited almost a year to be able to say KHK is R.I.P., and now I just can't believe that it's true! Very few real events in my life have been too good to believe. The 2006 electoral rout against the Republicans was one. The closure of KHK is another.

But it's a fact: KHK has fucking closed!

It's gone!

And it's because we protested them!

This is such a great event that I'm still in disbelief, and I don't know how to react. I'm completely numb!

For the first time in about a quarter-century, that particular program is not in business in the Cincinnati area. We exposed them, and folks didn't want that facility in their community - and parents pulled their kids out of the program.

And we're going to try to make sure Kids Helping Kids never comes back.

There's a maxim that says: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. I think that applies perfectly here. Incompetence reigned at this program for decades under its various names. Even the structure of the program itself was a sign of gross incompetence. And in the end, it didn't pay off.

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

Every day a windfall for corporations (a blast from the past)

Are you a corporation? More specifically, are you a big drug company? If so, this is your lucky decade!

Every day is a windfall for Big Pharma. After reading about drug companies paying the government to publish a study encouraging the drugging of children, I did a little more research and found a little bit about a 2004 lawsuit involving Zoloft.

A California nurse sued Pfizer because the company covered up the drug's side effects. The suit was filed under a state law that lets average people file on behalf of the citizenry, much like an Attorney General.

The evidence supporting the plaintiff's accusations was clear. But the court thunk otherwise and rejected her claim in 2005.

It's one thing to just dismiss the claim. But it's another to make her pay all of Pfizer's legal bills - which the court forced her to do.

So Pfizer gets free legal help now? Since when do we make private citizens pay corporations' legal tabs?

I'm not against "loser pays" when a corporation that files a frivolous SLAPP suit loses. But when you're talking about real public interest suits filed by real, live people, there's nothing more chilling than "loser pays." That's why Big Business made tort reform that includes "loser pays" one of their major policy initiatives in the '90s.

Our corporate overlords think the world is so mean when a court makes them pay up for their SLAPP actions - but they make everyone else pay their legal fees every chance they get.

(Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2004_July_23/ai_n6122283)

Pro-drugging study funded by Big Pharma

Be forewarned: A study that encourages drugging children has just been released, and the right-wing media is already parroting it.

This new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, a government research organization, encourages pickling children's minds with heavy doses of the antidepressant Zoloft (sertraline) to control their anxiety. Isn't it nice to know our tax dollars are going to bogus reports encouraging forced druggings?

I'm reluctant to link to the AP piece, because it's so biased in favor of the drug, but the truth is buried in the article, one version of which appears here:

http://www.newsnet5.com/health/17850775/detail.html

The thirteenth paragraph tells us all we need to know: "Several study authors reported receiving consulting fees or other compensation from drug companies, including antidepressant makers."

You read that right: Big Pharma paid the government to produce a report favorable to its product. You can't get any more corporatist than that.

Of all the studies that show such drugs to be harmful, I've yet to see any that were funded by any corporation or outside pressure group. But the ones that "prove" these drugs to be helpful seem to almost always be funded by the drug makers - so it's clear that these studies work backwards from a predetermined conclusion.

Zoloft is linked to suicidal thoughts and behavior - as even the AP piece points out (though that part too is buried).

So the next time some shrink or other self-styled expert trots out this study to extol sertraline's greatness, point out to them that it was financed by the drug companies.

Delta/Northwest merger rubber-stamped

Surprise, surprise, huh?

The merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines (which join under the Delta name) has now been rubber-stamped by Bush's so-called Justice Department, thus making the merger nearly final. This follows similar rubber-stamping by European regulators (who are also preprogrammed to serve corporate interests). U.S. government lawyers said the merger (which creates the world's largest airline) would ease prices for consumers without crimping competition.

I know, man. All those mergers in other industries in the past 15 years or so have really cut my costs and fostered competition, haven't they? (That's sarcasm, folks!)

Is the government really dumb enough to think a merger means more competition? Did they actually say this with a straight face? The whole purpose of a corporate merger is to boost revenues and reduce competition.

Even if the newly merged airline keeps all the same routes, somehow I don't think there'll be any fewer on which it loses your luggage, breaks the clasps on your suitcase, and worse.

Now the only barrier to the merger is a pending antitrust suit by consumers. That is, unless the states act - which they have every right to do (but won't).

It's a hell of a time for a merger, huh? This merger was approved at the same time yet another report came out showing that Cincinnati - where the airport has a near-monopoly by Delta - has by far the highest air fares in America, even as fares nationally have reached their highest levels ever.

Lovely. Now the rest of the country is going to get a taste of what Cincinnati has dealt with for years.

Because Cincinnati's main airport is in Kentucky, the Bluegrass State has a right to regulate this monopoly. The state needs to hop to it.

Any state affected by the Delta/Northwest merger ought to break up the new entity and restore competition at their airports.

(Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/29/news/companies/delta_northwest.ap;
http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20081030/BIZ01/810300306)

AP calls MSNBC left-wing

How out of touch is the Associated Press?

I think the AP's playing up of the economic "prosperity" of the late '90s (which was a hoax) preceded the unasked-for rise of Dean Singleton, but it's even clearer where the Assholciated Press stands today.

Here's excerpts from an article from last night about MSNBC written by AP television writer David Bauder:

"... MSNBC's move to the left during this campaign ... MSNBC's left turn ... John McCain's coverage overwhelmingly negative since the conventions among all media ... MSNBC has been more negative toward Republican [sic] and positive toward Democrats in its coverage ..."

MSNBC has a few hosts who are generally liberal, but overall MSNBC's coverage has been well to the right. The network got shunned by this blog because early this year it made a shitty edit of a Michelle Obama speech in an effort to change the entire meaning of her statement.

I'm not a Democrat; I'm a populist Green. But come on! This incident was so plainly a smear that I can't believe it didn't receive more criticism from dissenting blogs.

The media in general has seemed for years like it's been out to kneecap anyone who diverges from the conservative order. In my adult life, major American news outlets have manipulated public opinion, shrugged off viewpoints that were perfectly valid, provided one-sided coverage, and launched hit pieces against political figures who seemed to pose a threat to right-wing hegemony.

November 4 is really going to be a long, difficult night for those in the media who think they can tell us what to think.

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...John Toplikar!

John Toplikar. A weird one indeed.

Toplikar is a county commissioner in Johnson County, Kansas. The election is on a nonpartisan ballot, but he is known to be a right-wing Republican through and through.

Now he's in trouble because he got caught on video stealing his election opponent's campaign signs. Now police have cited him for misdemeanor theft after the signs were found in his van.

His opponent had witnessed him stealing signs before, but police couldn't do anything until he was caught on video. Well, now that's happened.

Want to argue with it, conservos? Well, the video's right there on the Raw Story - and it came from none other than ABC, which ain't exactly a left-wing stronghold.

Now John Toplikar is trying to deny stealing the signs, even though he got caught red-handed.

Isn't it fun to watch the GOP become a humiliating shadow of its former self? Who needs comedy clubs when you've got the Republican Party?

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Republican_caught_stealing_opponents_campaign_signs_1029.html)

Wisconsin AG calls cops on voters

Now it's a crime in Wisconsin to vote?

I guess so - if you're not a Republican. Wisconsin's Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen wants to place police officers and state prosecutors in polling places in Democratic areas to intimidate voters.

How is this even legal? It isn't. But why is it tolerated?

Incidentally, Van Hollen is also co-chair of the Republicans' presidential campaign in Wisconsin. (Van Hollen's rise is also due in part to the detestable former Gov. Tommy Thompson, one of the meanest major politicians in America in the '90s.)

If I lived in Wisconsin and was threatened in any way by J.B. Van Hollen's machine, I would sue him so fast it would make his stupid face spin.

Van Hollen's efforts follow demands by Republicans that police and military personnel monitor polls in Democratic-leaning Milwaukee - but not in Republican areas. The GOP also demanded that voters' ID's be checked only in Milwaukee - again, not in Republican locales.

(Source: http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=9255077)

Trick-or-treat, trick-or-treat, give me a propaganda sheet!

In the past few years, the conservative intelligentsia has usually painted Halloween as eeeeeeeevil (peep the War on Halloween in our schools), but I guess now they've figured they can use the special day to their advantage.

And they're spouting their crap to your children.

In Broward County, Florida, the local Republicans have gotten their followers to place something extra in kids' trick-or-treat baskets: a GOP propaganda sheet. Measuring about 3 by 4 inches, the pieces of paper admonish, "Don't Make Everyday Halloween in America! Keep Barack Obama from using your hard earned dollars as his own personal 'Trick or Treat' bag!"

They're teaching this shit to your kids. Lovely.

(Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbsharonday1129sboct29,0,2527510.story)

BYU rescinds diploma

Schools are rescinding diplomas now?

I've heard of schools not letting someone get a diploma, but who's ever heard of a school taking away someone's diploma after they've received it?

Brigham Young University is a private Mormon institution and a bastion of conservative ideals. Now the school has revoked the diploma of a 31-year-old alumnus who has been excommunicated from the Mormon church for publishing a calendar titled 'Men On A Mission' that featured shirtless missionaries.

That's like if a Catholic elementary school I attended retroactively revokes all my credits now because I stopped attending Mass.

Does BYU spy on each graduate to make sure they don't slip up? I don't understand how a school can come back and say that an alumnus's years of study don't mean anything.

Although BYU is a private school, the man in this story has grounds for a lawsuit. It seems deceptive for a school to revoke someone's diploma after they've graduated.

This isn't the only story like this involving BYU. It's also been reported that when a student was expelled for wanting to leave the church, she was ordered to pay back her scholarships. BYU also reportedly refused to release the transcripts of a former student who had left the church - causing her to lose 2 years of credits.

That to me sounds like fraud. And it's legally actionable. If there hasn't been a lawsuit yet against BYU, there ought to be.

(Source: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2008/10/20/brigham-young-rescinds-diploma-of-excommunicated-alum.html)

Bush regime imports other countries' radioactive waste

Lovely. Two stories back to back about large quantities of toxic chemicals being needlessly stored near a large American city.

It turns out that regulators with the Bush regime allowed Canada and Mexico to send radioactive waste to the U.S. to be buried near Salt Lake City.

Utah officials never received the memo. The regional radioactive waste oversight committee Utah is part of never got the memo either.

Federal regulators admit they don't notify states if they consider the amount of waste to be "not significant." But how do you define "not significant"? "We don't have an exact number for that," admits one official. In fact, one license approved a shipment of 6,000 tons of waste.

Utah votes more reliably Republican than any other state. Yet the Bush regime still tries to turn the state into the world's toxic waste dump. That's because many of the Republicans elected by Utah are so willing to tolerate it. Some of the Republicans actually want this shit in their state! I guess they like to eat it or something.

Now the company that manages the Utah toxic waste site wants to import radioactive waste from Italy as well. This despite the fact that the regional committee does not allow foreign waste at the site - whether from Canada, Mexico, Italy, or anywhere else.

So poisonous waste is going to be flying from Italy to Utah over the airspace of many countries, including the United States.

(Source: http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10833088)

Sarin leaks at Kentucky depot

I warned of a sarin leak months ago when mustard gas kept leaking at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Lexington, Kentucky. And now it's happened.

In addition to mustard gas, the depot also has sarin - a far, far deadlier chemical weapon. The nerve agent is considered a weapon of mass destruction under UN guidelines, and it's illegal for any country to make or stockpile it. It's much more poisonous than even cyanide.

But the U.S. government seems to stockpile it anyway - and they do it in Kentucky.

Didn't the government promise to clean up the sarin at the Kentucky depot? They promised it years ago, and then this past summer they pledged to get right to it. But the deadly sarin remains.

They never fucking listen, do they?

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story.aspx?content_id=8760321e-d61b-4697-8454-7c0bd6fb170c)

The grouch you can depend on! ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Oscar the Grouch is cool!

I learned early in life that you can always depend on the ol' Osk to comfort you and make you feel better. If you need something, Oscar will get it for you lickety-split!

Like when Ernie lost his prized rubber duckie...



The ol' Osk buyed Ernie a brand new duck to replace the one Ernie carelessly lost! How nice!

Count on Oscar. He'll do favors like that for you. He works all day collecting trash so his friends on Sesame Street can have nicer lives. He's the guy to go to for rubber duckie replacement. I don't think Oscar can replace my birth certificate that's lost (the original was lost several years ago, and the replacement that cost $40 has since been lost too), but he can replace rubber duckies!

At 22 seconds into this clip, notice that Ernie has a Poo-Poo Cushion.

There's a happy ending to this 'Sesame Street' skit. It turns out Bert didn't flush Ernie's rubber duckie down the toilet after all, nor did Mr. Snuffle-Upagus steal it to use as a sex toy. The duck is found safe and sound!

And Oscar the Grouch has a spare squeaky toy for emergencies like this!

Stink again

Katherine Kersten is a far, far right-wing columnist for the declining Star Tribune of Minneapolis who writes a blog called Think Again. Her totalitarian bullshit has been in our backlog for months now, and it's time we expose this self-righteous, hate-filled crackpot - as we've done to so many other columnists and politicians.

Kersten is so extreme that her harangues have led many longtime readers of the paper to cancel their subscriptions.

In May, Katherine Kersten wrote a lengthy, psychotic pro-bullying rant. She absurdly claimed that efforts to halt school harassment were part of an "indoctrination" plot by gays. (?!?!?!) (Actually, parents are allowed to opt their kids out of the program she complains about the most.)

If you think you haven't seen the last of Kersten's extremism, well, think again.

One of her latest crusades involves her disgust for Al Franken, which manifests itself in a diatribe about the comedian-turned-politician. Kersten attacks Franken for some of his humorous monologues from years ago and accuses him of being anti-Catholic.

The strategy of smearing opponents as anti-Catholic has been a favorite of the right-wing intelligentsia in recent years. It is worse than a mere lie. It is a filthy lie. And it's spread by some of the most powerful political figures and commentators in America.

I think this vile lie stems from modern conservatives not believing in separation of religion and state. When someone challenges them, they have nothing to fall back on except personal attacks.

In the case of Kersten's attack on Franken, it's far more than simply annoying. The bogus talking point was promptly picked up by hate-spewing right-wing bigots like William Donohue.

The Star Tribune is declining largely because of its recent shift towards a far-right editorial stance - which some believe is to appease right-wing bloggers who had long blasted the paper. How fitting is it that the wingnutosphere bullied the Star Tribune, so it hired a columnist who supports school bullying in response? The wingnut blogs are laughing to themselves right now because one of their targets caved.

When people maliciously spread lies about political foes, we need to have a strong counterattack to swoop right in and expose what a lie it is.

(Source: http://mediamatters.org/columns/200810250003?f=h_column)

Another case...of HUD abuse...

HUD, some regional housing authorities, and some private concerns seem to be complicit in a scam built on the backs of some of America's neediest families.

In many American communities, you'll notice that public housing seems to be disappearing faster than the Republicans' election chances. Media accounts invariably laud these efforts. Rarely are the residents even asked for their opinions.

I'm sure the residents wouldn't oppose it if the housing was replaced by better dwellings in the same general area and if the community isn't broken up - and if they were able to move into the new residences. But in my area, that doesn't seem to happen. You hear of new low-income housing being built once in a great while, but it's scattered and often substandard.

Public housing residents are unfairly viewed by governments and the media as objects to be moved around, not as people trying to build a stable community.

When public housing is razed, new housing is supposed to go up somewhere in the community to accommodate all the residents. Clearly though this does not always happen.

With much of it flung into distant areas, it's inefficient - and it's much harder for residents to get to work. (Most residents are employed: If you drive through any public housing development, you'll see people in work uniforms heading off to work or arriving home.)

New housing built with funds from HUD and regional housing agencies that is reasonably close to the old housing is often a sham. While they claim that these are supposed to accommodate everyone who lived in the old housing that was torn down, there's often a wait of several years between the loss of the old housing and the opening of the new residences. Further, the new housing often isn't even open to all the residents of the old buildings.

Often there is in effect a minimum income requirement. The very poor thus cannot get housing to replace that which they lost.

Another issue is that HUD or public housing agencies are enforcing policies that would be illegal if a private landlord had them. For instance, it's illegal for building owners to discriminate against prospective tenants on the basis of disability. In some locales, there are specific regulations that say that a person who collects disability benefits can't be denied an apartment if someone who earns the same amount from gainful employment would not be denied.

Some of the new developments, however, run afoul of these regulations - despite receiving HUD money.

On and on this descent continues, as the press - which always takes a booster's view - turns a blind eye to the community's needs.

Wingnuts complain about the darndest things!

Supposedly there was a TV series a decade ago called 'Kids Say The Darndest Things'. I don't remember ever seeing this program, but I'm told it was hosted by Bill Cosby and Art Linkletter. The hosts would ask children questions, and the kids would give a cute answer.

I think we should start a show called 'Wingnuts Complain About The Darndest Things'. In its first episode, our show should profile the right-wing blogosphere's ongoing tantrum against the poor - specifically, this imbecilic meme against "redistribution" they've been dwelling on lately.

The conservative intelligentsia of late likes to portray itself as a bunch of beleaguered little voices determined to get government out of your hair. But they actually represent only those who are well-off enough to be in higher tax brackets and make decisions about hiring and firing. They represent corporations, executives, and very large landowners.

Now some right-wing blog is crying about a bill Obama cosponsored when he was an Illinois state senator. Obama's bill would have required building new public housing to serve the homeless and other low-income people.

What's wrong with Obama's bill? As far as I can tell, nothing. I didn't read the whole bill, but from the description it sounds reasonable. In fact, this bill was such an obvious idea that I'm almost inclined to fault any legislator who didn't cosponsor it.

But the fuckheadosphere sees a conspiracy in everything. The right-wing blog that grumbles about the bill sarcastically sniffed, "Boy, that sounds like a great idea - housing projects for the homeless. This is exactly the type of 'economic justice' Obama will pursue if elected president."

Well, hopefully it is. Hopefully. I'm a Green, but I hope the Democrats regain the political will to pursue it.

If America is the world's wealthiest country, why are there so many homeless people? With a record rate of foreclosure vacancies and a record rate of homelessness, it's obvious the market isn't working. If there's so many homeless but still so many vacancies, then it's clear the market has housing costs set too high.

Make no mistake: The conservative platform appeals only to the well-off who worship the riches they have. Every time they groan about "redistribution", they don't have your interests in mind.

Spread the wealth!

I know this election is pretty much decided, and I think I know why the GOP keeps bleeding votes.

McCain's so-called strategy is to attack Obama for his supposed "spread the wealth" proclamation.

If Obama said to "spread the wealth", that's one of the best moves he's made in his entire campaign. As far as I know, he's done almost everything right since the debates began, but "spread the wealth" is a home run he should've been making from the get-go.

Other national Democrats had almost completely ignored this theme for 15 years. It was about damn time this idea resurfaced.

And McCain thinks it's a good idea to attack him for it?

Really?

I know the wingnutosphere keeps gloating about how Obama dug himself in deep when he allegedly said to "spread the wealth" and when he touted a more progressive tax structure, but clearly the wingnuts are wrong (again). That's why Obama's poll numbers have soared lately.

McCain apparently believes in "hoard the wealth." In keeping with the classic image of the Republicans being out of touch, he seems to think those who are born rich and get richer on the backs of everyone else should stockpile their millions and let the people be damned.

For the life of me, I can't possibly imagine why anyone wouldn't want to "spread the wealth" - unless they're unbelievably opulent. The hoarders of wealth and power will find doctrinaire excuses to oppose it, but none hold water.

Too wide of a gap between the rich and poor is disastrous. Goods fetch higher prices, but are more out of reach of the poor. No society has lasted long with such a wide gap, for the economic power of the poor and working class becomes agonizingly drained. In fact, most modern democratic republics are built on a progressive economic structure in which the tax system makes some effort to ask the rich to pay their fair share.

If there's any issue on which McCain can't possibly attack Obama and come out ahead, this has got to be it. His handlers aren't savvy enough to ever figure this out, so I have no objection to publicly pointing out how silly they're being.

McCain backed land swap to benefit friends

Short version of story: McCain pushed for a land swap that would've benefited billionaire Carl Lindner, an associate of Charles Keating. The land deal would've ruined a desert featuring rare cactuses and Hopi artifacts by allowing a golf course and luxury homes to be built there.

Long version of story:

http://www.newsobserver.com/1573/story/1271052.html

This contrasts with McCain's efforts to paint himself as a maverick and a champion of congressional ethics.

Yes, I know that around the time this was going on, there was a wingnut-on-wingnut pie fight happening in my own region of influence, and it was hard to tell which side to oppose more. Hopefully this'll clear the air.

Ted Stevens found guilty on all counts

DU reports that the longtime Republican senator from Alaska has been found guilty on all counts at his corruption trial.

Every single damn count!

The GOP culture of corruption really has lived on, hasn't it?

Hopefully Bush won't abuse his pardon powers this time.

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3568145)

School sends drugged 9-year-old to jail

BushAmerica means children are drugged - then jailed and charged with a felony for fighting the staff at school.

This is precisely what happened to a 9-year-old girl in Fort Myers, Florida.

She had been prescribed several strong drugs for conditions like ADHD. The druggings later stopped when her mother would not agree to experimental "treatment." But these drugs often have lifelong effects.

Did the school ever stop and think that maybe it was the drugs that caused her to misbehave at school recently? Clearly, you can't charge a 9-year-old with a felony for an incident like this after her system has been filled with toxins for years.

But they're a school, so they do. BushAmerica means schools never have to act reasonably or admit they're wrong.

It gets worse: At the time the story was reported, authorities were threatening to use the much-abused Baker Act to forcibly "hospitalize" her. The Baker Act is a Florida law that's one of many frequently abused tools in the arsenal of the modern powermonger.

I think part of the issue may be that the school system is trying to gloss over its own failures. First the schools drug a child - then they blame the child for the disastrous results.

I'm also at a loss for words about how a school system can have a 9-year-old charged with a felony in this incident, while spoiled bullies run wild and don't face any punishment whatsoever (because that would violate the so-called "right" to be a bully that Samuel "The Veto" Alito created).

(Source: http://news-press.com/article/20081016/SS08/810160362/1075)

Palin calls herself "frugal" despite wardrobe debacle

You can't make this stuff up, people.

What does Failin' Palin have to say about her $150,000 designer clothes controversy?

In a Chicago Tribune interview, she whimpered, "Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are."

You're hilarious, Failin' Palin, you know that?

There's people starving in the streets all over America and worldwide, but this right-wing kook spends $150,000 on a wardrobe she wears only once?

The media went bugfuck apeshit when John Edwards spent more than $6 on a haircut, but when Palin spends $150,000 on her Republican National Convention outfit, hardly a peep is heard from the media.

Because the clothing seems to have been paid for by the Republican National Committee, the GOP's own donors ought to be asking some serious questions. They probably expected that money they gave to the RNC to be used for campaign ads and ground support, not $150,000 wardrobes.

Oh well. The more money the RNC wastes on clothes, the less they have to spend on other things.

And if Palin is so frugal, why does she force the taxpayers to pay for her and her family to attend basketball games and snowmobile races?

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-sarah-palin-1023-2,0,136871.story)

Professional "badass" pulled similar hoax during primary

Does the media even bother to check things out before it lapses into noise machine mode? (No.)

Now it turns out that not only did the McCain volunteer who staged a phony robbery lie about having leukemia and about graduating from Texas A&M. Back during the primary, she pulled a stunt strikingly similar to her Pittsburgh ATM feat.

Early this year, back in her home state of Texas, she claimed her tires were slashed because of her political views and Republican campaign paraphernalia was stolen out of her car. This turned out to be a lie.

If only the media had just bothered to check this before reporting the staged Pittsburgh robbery as if it was real.

But get this: Following the Pittsburgh incident, she's blaming the media for eventually reporting the fact that it was a hoax. Boo hoo hoo!

On her MySpace page, she lists her occupation as "being a badass." Yes, I know, that's something you'd really want to have on your resume, isn't it? I really don't think the job market is that good out there for professional badasses.

But maybe Republican campaigns pay badasses pretty well.

(Source: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/10/25/one-more-on-ashley-todd)

Family loses home for protecting car from thief

BushWorld means working hard only to have someone take away what you toiled so relentlessly for.

A man in San Antonio, Texas, was tired of the crime in his neighborhood. He was sick of people breaking into cars and stealing them. Someone smashed his apartment window too.

Recently, when he saw someone trying to steal his car, he fired his shotgun at the thief. It's legal to use force to protect expensive personal possessions, and the police filed no charges against him.

But get this: The apartment evicted him and his family for the "crime" of owning a gun. Thing is, it's not illegal to own a gun. Not in any of the 50 states. Some types of guns may be illegal in some places in America, but not most shotguns.

You read that right: The family was evicted despite breaking no laws. If the law says you can protect your property with a weapon, then that's the law. The owner of the apartment building doesn't get to decide that a law doesn't apply.

I bet the man worked hard to buy a car and to afford an apartment. But he was forced to lose one to keep the other from being stolen. What's the point in even working when you can't even protect what you work for?

The apartment building owners gave the family only 3 days to leave - even though a much longer notice is required.

Where's the Republicans to defend the guy? They claim to be the country's great Second Amendment champions, so where are they?

They're hardly doing shit to defend him. Most of them are hiding behind the sacred banner of corporate "rights", which they believe trump personal rights. To them, property rights of building owners are limitless, while property rights of a renter protecting their own property from theft elicit a whiny sigh.

It's much like how Walt Disney World cries about a new Florida law that lets employees keep their guns in their cars when they park their cars at work. In the eyes of Disney World, everything revolves around who already has the most power. Corporate "rights" first, everyone else's rights last. The same smug mindset seems to have come to the fore again in this story.

(Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Man_kicked_out_of_apartment_after_shooting_at_crook.html)

Bush bombs Syria; 9 dead

The Chickenhawk-in-Chief is at it still?

Now Bush has bombed Syria - for reasons unknown. At least 9 were killed - mostly construction workers.

One is reminded of Bush's illegal 2001 carpet-bombing of a soccer field in Iraq. Like that attack, the purpose of this assault seems to be to draw attention away from the ailing economy.

Now can we impeach him?

(Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031568.html)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Joe McCain!

Meet Joe McCain, the younger brother of the embattled Republican standard-bearer.

And he's every bit as hotheaded as ol' Mr. Monopoly himself is.

This was evident when Joe McCain called Arlington, Virginia, a "communist country."

On Tuesday, his hilarious lack of self-control surfaced again. Confronted with heavy traffic outside Washington, D.C., he made a 911 call to complain about the slowdown.

As you know, 911 is supposed to be used only for emergencies. Only. There have been reports from my area of folks calling 911 to get football scores, but these were probably just drunken fans.

Anyhow, Joe McCain called 911 to gripe about traffic being too slow. I guess it was keeping him from getting home to watch cartoons. He told the emergency dispatcher, "Well, it's not an emergency, but do you know why on one side at the damn drawbridge of 95, traffic is stopped for 15 minutes and yet traffic's coming the other way?"

When the operator asked the hapless clod why he was using 911 to eep about traffic, Joe McCain declared, "Fuck you!" He slammed the phone down in anger.

Dispatchers called him back to warn him that it was illegal to abuse 911. Regarding this call, Joe McCain later whined, "Somebody gave me this riot act about the violation of police."

Following his freeway tantrum, he was so disgraced that he withdrew from all campaign activities for his older bro.

Oh well. After reading the polls, it looks like it doesn't matter at this point.

(Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-joe-mccain-911,0,1008574.story)

Wingnut accused of threatening Ohio election chief

A 51-year-old Columbus man was jailed after he allegedly made a telephone death threat to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Brunner, a Democrat, has been flooded with irate phone calls from right-wing activists because she opted to do her job right. One of her official duties is to make sure the election goes smoothly and follows all applicable laws. But the Republicans want a repeat of 2004 when all those votes kept getting lost. (Remember that?)

The man who allegedly made the death threat (who is a registered Republican) faces 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted.

Meanwhile, Ohio Republican big shot Kevin DeWine thinks the recent security breach at the Secretary of State's website was a hoax by the big, mean libs to make the GOP look eeeeevil. Well, the GOP's been doing a good job of making itself look evil lately. (Look at how they voted on the teen gulag bill in Congress. Contrast that with the Democrats.)

(Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-elections-chief-threat,0,2981853.story)

Bush regime interferes with Ohio vote

Is King AWOL actively trying to think of new ways to keep his cronies in charge after his shit-caked trousers slink out the door, or is he just on autopilot now?

Bush has now directed his sad excuse for a Justice Department to investigate Ohio voter registrations - a move that may bar over 200,000 voters from voting.

The move is unprecedented. No White House has ever openly interfered with an election in this manner.

I guess when you live in a totalitarian dictatorship like BushWorld, voting is a crime, isn't it?

(Source: http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/426-bush-orders-to-doj-to-probe-ohio-voter-registrations.html)

There it went...Freshen-Up... (Bubble Gum Weekend)

It has long been customary in some circles for one to warn, "Here it comes," before passing gas. The bunker blast is usually followed by, "There it went."

That tradition brings even more humor to this already uproarious Freshen-Up gum commercial from 1982:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWF2bSZjGM

Freshen-Up is known for the liquid center in each piece of gum and for its miniature road atlas offer of long ago. People have been known to bubble with it.

Some have called that ad suggestive, but it's questionable whether it was intended to be, for it aired 24/7.

This commersh is ridiculously dramatic though, as the actress slowly places the piece of gum in her mouth. As that was the '80s, when gum was practically the national religion, you'd think she'd be so enthused that she'd shovel the whole pack of gum in her mouth as quickly as possible.

But nobody in the ad bubbled.

Another protest happened!

Yes, my friends, last night saw protest #15 against the teen torture gulag.

One thing is a fact: We've got them on the defensive. The exact extent is anyone's guess right now. They're cowards. I've known it for a year.

This was a relatively uneventful protest, but it was surely a success. (Blublub...) Anytime we know they're on the defensive, it's a success.

It rained about 5 drops, but I don't think we got any pictures of our roadside rally! Damn! But a good protest nonetheless!

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

McCain hoaxster admits making up story

Yesterday I told you about a McCain campaign volunteer who claimed to have been robbed at an ATM in Pittsburgh because her car had a McCain sticker. She claimed the attacker carved a 'B' into her face.

I knew the story was false because the 'B' was backwards and because surveillance video showed she wasn't even at the ATM when she said the incident occurred. I expected the right wing to rake me through quicksand when I called it a hoax, but apparently they realized they had no defense.

Turns out I was right.

Now the alleged victim has admitted making up the story. Charges will be filed against her for making a false police report.

The sound of the 'Price Is Right' loser horn plays: voopvoopavoop...

It also turns out that the so-called victim of this hoax robbery has a history of fraud. She once claimed to have leukemia, which wasn't true. She also claimed to have graduated from Texas A&M, which also was a lie.

In the meantime, the opposition was practically burned at the stake because of the media's initial reports that the robbery was real. So the hoax accomplished its goal - at least at first.

Police and the media must investigate to see who else in the McCain camp conspired with the hoaxster to orchestrate this fraud.

(Source: http://kdka.com/local/attack.McCain.Bloomfield.2.847628.html)

Open thread

County clerk distributes anti-Obama letter at work

This is what passes for political discourse in BushAmerica?

In Johnson County, Indiana, County Clerk Jill Jackson is a big Republican. As county clerk, she's one of the individuals most responsible for making sure elections run smoothly.

So naturally, Jackson used her workplace to disseminate a preposterous chain letter that called Barack Obama a "young, black 'Adolf Hitler.'"

Obama hasn't sent anyone to a concentration camp or censored any library books, but that's not really my point. (Certain Republican politicians have sent people to concentration camps or censored books, but that's not my point either.) My main point is that Jill Jackson is out there abusing her office by distributing political material on the taxpayers' time and dime.

If you're a county clerk, you're free to speculate all you want about how elections in your bailiwick might go, as long as you carry out your duties properly. But if a county clerk engages in political activities at work by handing out incendiary letters to workers who they know will be angered by it, you have to seriously question if the clerk will be unbiased in overseeing the election.

Jill Jackson ought to resign.

(Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IN_OBAMA_HITLER_LETTER_INOL-?SITE=ININS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-10-23-17-59-23)

Bloomberg machine guts term limits

Voters in New York City twice spoke clearly in the '90s: They want term limits for city officials. Two terms, and you're finished.

But in the world of conservative dinosaurs like Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who just donated $500,000 to the state GOP, despite his claims to independence), rules don't apply. Bloomberg wanted a third term rilly, rilly, rilly, rilly, rilly bad.

So now his friends on City Council have voted to let him seek a rilly, rilly, rilly, rilly, rilly bad third term.

Overturning a perfectly valid voter referendum with a City Council vote? How condescending can you get?

If a referendum is itself illegal, I can understand a City Council overturning it. City Councils have to follow the law. But the term limit referendum was wholly legit.

New York City Council voted to relax term limits - after it defeated a measure that would have put the issue to the voters again. I guess they knew their side would lose.

Because the new law also relaxes term limits for council members, a suit was filed calling it a conflict of interest. However, the Bloomberg machine doesn't agree: Inexplicably, the city's Conflict of Interest Board said this vote doesn't violate such rules.

The media isn't entirely blameless. They've dictated the framing of the term limits issue. In the early '90s, when Democrats controlled Congress, the media liked to prime the pump for congressional term limits. But after 1994 when Republicans seized Congress, the media quickly moved term limits clean off the radar screen.

No bias there, huh? (That's more of my sarcasm, peeps!)

I also find it interesting that Republicans seemed all in favor of term limits when the Democrats controlled Congress, but they never showed much support for the idea once they gained power.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/23/bloomberg.third.term)

AT&T hiking rates by 10 to 25%

Hey bubble gum blowers! Have you heard the minimum wage is going up by 10 to 25% on January 1?

What? It isn't?

Well, AT&T is hiking rates by 10 to 25% on millions of its customers in California (including many of its lowest-income consumers). It's only fair the minimum wage should go up by 10 to 25% too, isn't it?

(The minimum wage is scheduled to go up by about 10% in July, but that's under a law from 2 years earlier. Welp, AT&T just took that wage increase from us, didn't they?)

This is the same AT&T that conspired with the Bush regime in the illegal wiretap scandal and was granted retroactive immunity by an eagerly compliant Congress. Several years ago, America's Toilets & Testes also kept billing me for charges I didn't owe. They were practicing phone-slamming by signing me up for services I didn't order. Needless to say, I refused to pay. (Who knows what AT&T did to my credit rating in retaliation?)

AT&T has in recent years also been the top corporate contributor to Republican political campaigns.

The notice of the price increase comes right after America's Toilets & Testes announced that it had made a $3,200,000,000 profit in its most recent quarter. Hell of a time for a price hike, huh?

The California Public Utilities Commission - the Puke-O of the Golden State - is partly to blame. The Republican-stacked commission gave utilities the ability to automatically raise rates with inflation (even though wages were stagnant). They considered it to be the utilities' constitutional right to Make Money without having to earn it, you understand.

Just last month, the commission gave phone companies the "right" to increase the monthly cost for basic phone service by $6.50 over the next 2 years. The commission will stop regulating costs altogether in 2011.

Thanks a heap, Rethug-a-lugs.

We all know what happened when California regulators stopped regulating the electric industry, don't we?

Now that the California Public Utilities Commission has created a new "right" for utility companies out of whole cloth, how about if America's workers receive similar rights? There ought to be a law providing automatic minimum wage increases that keep pace with (whoosh...whoosh) inflation.

What's good enough for greedy corporations ought to be good enough for everyone else.

(Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10798659?nclick_check=1)

'B' is for bullshit

How much more fraud are we obligated to tolerate from the conservative intelligentsia? This isn't the first time an assault on some right-wing nobody has turned out to be a hoax, and I know it won't be the last.

A 20-year-old woman from College Station, Texas, has reported that she was robbed at knifepoint at an ATM in Pittsburgh because her car bears a McCain sticker and because she was wearing a Republican button. The alleged victim is a volunteer for the McCain campaign and has been a field rep for the College Republican National Committee. She claimed the robber was a large black man, and she said that he carved a 'B' into her face.

The story immediately thumped false, for the 'B' was backwards, as if the alleged victim carved it herself while looking at a mirror. The Associated Press, however, reported the story as if the robbery was real - even though it appeared off the bat to be a hoax.

It was clear that 'B' in this case stands for bullshit.

Investigators agree. A police spokesperson said, "We have learned that the victim's statement has a few inconsistencies in it and her statement has changed." Translation: the alleged victim lied. The young woman keeps adding new details about the attack.

Police say that the alleged victim's statements conflict with the evidence at the scene.

Now she says she doesn't remember being knifed in the face - another change in her story. She claims she didn't discover the injury until much later. This makes about as much sense as the urban legend about the man who got his scalp torn off when he got his hair caught on the axle of his car and didn't notice it until he went to the mall and got pointed at by other shoppers.

What really seals the deal though is the fact that the video of the ATM where the robbery of the McCain volunteer supposedly took place showed that the alleged victim wasn't even there! It's unclear if any man matching the description of the alleged robber was present, but I just can't help thinking of a line in an old Marky Mark song about the racial aspect of another case. In any event, the fact that the alleged victim wasn't present at the ATM is prima facie proof she wasn't robbed there.

The robbery was a hoax. If the video proves you weren't in a place where you claim you were robbed, that proves you're full of shit. That's it. End of story.

Naturally, the AP has yet to retract or correct its original story reporting the attack as if it was real. The AP continues to keep the story up, even though it's been debunked.

The robbery was a fraud just like everything else in the Republican Party these days. Their party's a fraud, their ideas are a fraud, and they're a fraud.

(Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/17789356/detail.html;
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212181240.shtml;
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_298121000.html)

GOP bugs opponent, accuses him of stealing recorder

Mr. Elbow Care strikes again!

The unforgettable Senate contest in Kentucky - whose major party candidates include Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford - has taken another turn for the weird.

At a debate at Kentucky Dam, someone placed a digital recording device on Lunsford's podium in the hopes of recording things he might say under his breath. Lunsford found the device when he was leaving, but he didn't know whose it was, so he picked it up in the hopes of returning it to its rightful owner.

But then the McConnell camp accused Lunsford of stealing the recorder and erasing the contents. They've actually filed a criminal complaint against him, accusing him of larceny and destruction of property.

If the recorder already contained recordings that were so important, why didn't the GOP operatives copy them before putting the recorder in a place where it might get lost? How stupid can you get?

The Republican camp also changed its story about where the recorder was. At one point, they said they saw Lunsford take it from his own podium; at another, they said the recorder was on the moderator's podium.

If they can't even get their story straight, why should we trust them?

Only a real sleazy bunch of political hacks would try to secretly record an opposing candidate and then accuse him of stealing the recorder.

(Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20081023/NEWS01/81023024)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Douglas Chumbley!

Meet Douglas J. Chumbley, a Republican judge from Miami. Or at least he was.

Now the 51-year-old Chumbley has resigned after being caught allegedly exposing himself in the restroom of a Starbucks coffee shop on a university campus.

University police arrested the judge and charged him with a misdemeanor count of indecent exposure.

Chumbley's career was already in its final throes after he lost his reelection bid prior to the Starbucks incident.

Starbucks, of all places!

(Source: http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/10/18/tennessee-tuxedo-disavows-gop-judge-flasher)

TV stations illegally give credit to congressman's campaign

When you see stories like this, you almost wish you hadn't dragged yourself out of bed in the morning.

Dave Reichert is a long-embattled right-wing congressman from the Seattle area who's now trailing in the polls. Reichert is known for storming out of debates and gloating about getting a school bus driver fired for opposing Bush.

Now it's been discovered that Reichert - who only has about $500,000 in campaign cash on hand - has purchased $1,100,000 of ad time on Seattle's 4 leading TV network affiliates.

How is that possible? How can you spend $600,000 more than you have? Records don't show Reichert to be a self-financing candidate, so he couldn't be paying for the ads out of his own pocket.

Clearly, the TV stations are extending credit to the beleaguered lawmaker. This isn't just dumb. (It seems foolish for a station to give credit to political campaigns that might not even be around after Election Day.) This is illegal.

Two of the stations have provided a weak excuse: They claim Reichert's campaign isn't getting the credit, but his media buyer, Media Plus, is. It turns out though that Media Plus boasts about influencing TV news content with ad dollars, which is bad enough on its own. It looks like Reichert plans on paying the TV stations later with corporate PAC dollars.

The Federal Election Commission has already made it perfectly clear that it's illegal for candidates to get a loan from TV stations in this manner.

If the FEC doesn't like it, what do you think the FCC would say? The stations should be in enough trouble already for news content being influenced by Media Plus. Maybe the FCC should be worrying about this instead of raiding 1-watt stations that don't harm anyone.

(Source: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9255)

The ACORN nonstory

The right-wing intelligentsia is so politically bankrupt that they have to go after ACORN, of all people!

I didn't think busting ACORN would be on the forefront of what passes for the wingnut conscience, but apparently the rightists have exhausted everything else. So they go after a nonpartisan community group like ACORN.

Wingnuts hate it when people with political interests different from theirs vote. That's what all of this boils down to. So they fight ACORN's voter registration efforts.

I've heard rumblings about the Bush regime trying to bring racketeering charges against ACORN, but I have yet to see any details. This wouldn't surprise me, given Bush's record of abusing his power to go after political enemies.

Right-wing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has gotten in on the act. The unsavory asshole has written a letter to Michael "Mucus Man" Mukasey asking him to launch a nationwide criminal investigation of ACORN. Cornyn even called ACORN a "criminal enterprise."

Like it ought to matter what someone who urged the assassination of judges who issue rulings he disagrees with thinks? If anyone in this story is a criminal enterprise, it's John Cornyn.

I don't place any credibility in the bleatings of America-hating terrorists like Cornyn, who deserves to be expelled from the Senate for threatening judges. Cornyn is under strict orders to go fuck himself.

ACORN itself has in rare cases suspected bogus registrations, but when it suspects such, it reports the matter to authorities. ACORN has what it calls "a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations."

It's also known that right-wing activists in Cleveland have been turning in blatantly phony registrations to ACORN in an effort to set ACORN up and then reporting ACORN to the local elections board. (Republican supporters were found to have voted fraudulently in Washington state 4 years ago - but these weren't ACORN registrations.)

In short, the ACORN flap is as weak of an issue as all the other grievances the Republicans have pumped up during this campaign.

County map predictions, anyone?

After I saw the Quinnipiac poll today that shows Obama leading by 14% in Ohio, I figure there's no longer much point in trying to predict who's going to win the election, because that looks pretty obvious now.

Instead I'm working on something that political geography junkies might enjoy. I'm not just trying to figure out who'll win what states, but what counties. I've drawn up a map of some of the states in my part of the country in an attempt to predict it:

(http://i35.tinypic.com/1zz5bi8.jpg)

Fun, no?

McCain counties are in red; Obama counties are in blue.

Yes, I know, Obama is winning the sign wars in Campbell County by far, but with this county's past frightful record, you have to prepare for a different story.

Some of the counties in Illinois are a bit shaky, but I don't know as much about the politics of Illinois counties as I do about the other states on that map.

Rain, snow, sleet, or hail, Illinois city gets no mail

You know there's Bushist waste going on when the price of a stamp soars year after year without respite while the U.S. Postal Service offers less and less delivery.

For the past 2 weeks, an entire swath of the city of Harvey, Illinois, has been without mail service of any sort. No pickup, no delivery, no anything. The post office's so-called reasoning is that the town is too crime-ridden.

Like that's supposed to halt the mail? Many of the city's residents are elderly and do not drive. Many others are too poor to get a car. They can't very well drive across town to the post office each day to pick up their mail.

America is full of dangerous neighborhoods, but that's never supposed to stop the mail.

To add insult to injury, the post office didn't even tell anyone when it decided to stop mail service in that area. So residents didn't even realize they had important mail held for them at the post office.

Now the postal service says it's going to put a cluster box at the edge of the neighborhood, forcing folks to travel blocks.

Meanwhile, an important post office in my area is about to face closure, reportedly because of budget cuts. Talk about spending more money to do less. That's Bushism.

The Republican Congress gave the postal service an annual automatic stamp rate hike so it can close down post offices and cut off delivery to entire neighborhoods?

One wonders what's going on here. Some high-ranking officials must be taking home postal service property or something, if it has to cut services despite rising stamp costs. The GAO ought to look into this.

This isn't a problem that'll go away anytime soon. Regime change doesn't mean Bush's patronage cronies will just be replaced. They'll still be gunking up the works years from now.

(Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/shooting.stops.mail.2.846703.html;
http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20081022/NEWS0103/810220392)

No Fun League not a No Fights League

Is the No Fun League happy now?

I don't wish to turn the 'Pail into a sports gossip blog, but the NFL's tyranny isn't having quite the results the league claimed it would have.

Every time the Nazi Fascist League starts treating fans more like criminals, fans become more like criminals. This is the league that began frisking spectators and has instituted a laughable "code of conduct" for tailgaters, yet fan misbehavior seems to get more and more out of control each year.

When our locally favored Cincinnati Bengals (now 0-7) hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium, it was a downright spectacle. A Bengals enthusiast reportedly joked to a Steelers buff that "you guys are going to be the L.A. Steelers", because of reports that the Pittsburgh team might relocate to California. When the man made this quip, someone sucker-punched him right in the snoot.

The man's wrist was broken, and blood ruined his prized Rudi Johnson jersey he was wearing.

What do those who claimed pat-downs were a cure-all have to say about this? This incident sure puts the kibosh on that claim, doesn't it?

It's just like what's been happening in America's schools. Every time students get treated more like criminals, there's more shootings, bullying, and other violence.

But I know what the response is going to be. The NFL will use the fight in Cincinnati as an excuse for even more stringent measures against fans. And then the fights will get worse. And the vicious cycle will continue.

Kind of like what's happened with the schools.

Turn the country into a prison state, and people become criminals.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081023/SPT02/810230377)

Teens restrained and drugged

If you were shocked that this could go on in 1990, who'd have thought it would still be going on in 2008?

At a privately owned but publicly funded confinement facility in Connecticut, teenagers being "treated" for alleged drug abuse or "mental illness" have been physically restrained by the guards while they are shot up with drugs.

Now state officials are asking why the department that's supposed to oversee the program hasn't been on its case. The program incidentally is run by former State Sen. William Aniskovich. I'll let you guess Aniskovich's party affiliation. (Here's a hint: He's a Republican.)

Meanwhile, the department's own psychiatric gulag for young people is under fire for dangerous restraints.

What millennium is this again?

(Source: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-dcfstonington1018.artoct18,0,2072169.story)

Violating an Allowed Cloud gets the old college try!

I'm still processing all my Allowed Cloud violations from a week ago!

This is one where I know I'm in the right: my appearance at Northern Kentucky University. For those unawares, I didn't have the greatest school record, but that's a story I don't have time to get into right now.

In 1995, when I was almost 3 years into my college studies at NKU, my previous school records caught up with me, and the school decided they didn't need me anymore. They sent me a letter that informed me that I was more or less expelled, and that I'd be arrested for "trespassing" if I showed up on campus again. The school did not follow its own stated policies regarding expulsions.

Months later, I tried using the university library, and sure enough, I was arrested for third-degree trespassing - even though it's illegal for police to arrest someone for third-degree trespassing in Kentucky, because it's such a minor charge.

All this despite the fact that NKU is a public institution. It has to follow the law when it decides to expel someone. They can't just wait until you're 3 years along and say, "Oh, this guy's got a history at other schools." And libraries at public universities are considered every bit as public as a regular community library is. Because they are public, it's impossible to trespass there.

The "trespassing" charge got more or less dismissed after a legal ordeal. Several years later, there was another protracted battle in which the university kept waffling and wavering about my status there.

I later continued my studies at a community college - without incident. But NKU apparently thinks it's still 1995. So this past May, I started challenging NKU again. I showed up on campus then just to be violating the trespass order.

And last Wednesday, I did it again:



I'm 100% within my rights. The trespass order had no validity 13 years ago, and it has none now. I pay for NKU with my tax dollars. It's public property, and I'm a member of the public.

If you don't like it, move to Russia.

56 to be arrested over cold medicine

The drug warriors and the media machine live a lie.

Every chance they get, they insist provisions in the Patriot Act reauthorization and various state laws are successful in curbing meth production and use. Arguing against this claim (a claim that is patently false) is not allowed. (Ooh, an Allowed Cloud!)

This isn't the only issue where only one side is permitted to be heard. With the media as one-sided as it is, other false claims and bizarre opinions are often repeated as indisputable fact.

Regarding the Patriot Act's new Rockefeller drug law against cold and allergy medicine, there's a concerted propaganda effort by law enforcement agencies and the media to tell people that the law has crimped meth - when it simply isn't true.

Now, in Auburn, Indiana, police are in the midst of serving 56 arrest warrants for the "crime" of buying too much cold or allergy medicine (which wasn't even illegal a few years ago). While one of the 56 has had drug-related charges before, the law of probability dictates that out of any group of 56 American adults, several will have had some illicit drug involvement. There's no indication that these 56 have had any more than any others.

There's no way that anywhere near all 56 planned on making meth out of the medicine they purchased. There just isn't the market for 56 meth labs in a town as small as Auburn. Nonetheless, this adds to 38 arrests from just 3 months ago. If there's no market for 56 meth labs, there's certainly no market for 94.

I'm not even linking to the TV station's article about this with all the street addresses of "suspects" listed. Other articles about similar cases have listed addresses, but this is overkill. With today's vigilante attitude in which people are presumed guilty, it's just dangerous for an article to include addresses.

O'Reilly to make $10 million a year

Mr. "We'll Do It Live! Fuck It!" strikes again.

Bill O'Reilly - one of the media's many champions of right-wing vitriol, who once threatened to blow up San Francisco's Coit Tower - has a new 4-year contract with the sorry-assed Fox News Channel. Under his new contract, O'Reilly will make $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 per year.

Ten million a year to spew bile on teevee??? Isn't this the same Bill O'Reilly who always talks about what a big working-class guy he is? (He grew up rich, but that's another matter.) How can O'Reilly's bullshit be worth $10,000,000 a year?

I have to take issue with the piece in the New York Daily News that said Faux News is "the top-rated cable news network." I've heard this claim countless times before, but I've yet to see any numbers to this effect. Apologists for the right-wing channel have also claimed that Pox News achieved first place despite being on fewer cable systems than CNN - though every system in the U.S. that I know of got Fox News when it started, and some now won't carry CNN (like that chain of hotels in the Midwest).

Everyone knows damn well that if I was conservative, I'd be given a national TV or radio gig worth millions a year, but since the media ain't big on balance, it ain't likely to happen.

(Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/10/21/2008-10-21_bill_oreilly_signs_contract_for_four_mor.html)

All that paper, wastage bastage! ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

I'm a man who cries when paper gets wasted.

I've seen paper wasted all too often in my time. School was the site of much paper wasting. One of my teachers in 6th grade threw a shitfit because I wrote on both sides of a piece of paper for an unimportant assignment. He insisted I use only one side. That was the same year another teacher made us buy a whole pack of file cards just so we could write the symbol for a chemical element on each card. And in college, I rescued gobs of blank paper from the recycling bin.

But that's nothing compared to the wastage of high school. In typing class, people squandered so much valuable paper that - little by little - I took home much of the paper the classroom had so they wouldn't have much left to waste. Some of these kids in high school would type one word or draw one stick figure on a sheet of paper and wad it up and throw it in the trash.

'Sesame Street' has always been about good stewardship of the planet's resources. This '90s-era clip is no exception:



I was a little too old for the ol' Ses by the '90s, so I didn't get to see that segment in my youth. But it features Bob reading a storybook called 'The King Who Wasted Paper', which was about a king who wasted paper.

He wasted paper, and he wasted paper. That's all he ever did in life. Just like some of my old classmates.

Ironically, it appears as if much valuable paper was crumpled during the filming of this skit.

On another amusing note, notice that the Royal Paper Maker's voice sounds like Mr. Burns of 'The Simpsons'.

I'm waiting for Go West to record a new version of their song "King Of Wishful Thinking" called "King Who Wasted Paper" as a tribute to this 'Sesame Street' segment and to the monarch's change in his wasteful habits.

Church burns rare porn

Anyone who'd burn unique works of art or science that have no other known copies should be assessed for fascist tendencies.

If a person would incinerate the only known copies of porn movies, do you really think they wouldn't do the same to scientific treatises, rare music recordings, or other works?

A church in Jacksonville, Florida, scattered history to the wind on Sunday when it conducted a bonfire to destroy pornographic movies from 30 years ago that it found at a drive-in theater it had purchased. No copies of the locally produced antique porn are known to remain.

I'd be really wary of this particular church. To destroy art smacks of fascism. One of the first things Hitler did when he took power was have artistic and scientific works burned.

Art expresses and inspires. Every time you destroy art, you could be setting back humanity by years.

(Source: http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/102008/D93U73386.shtml)

Dance teacher jailed for competing against former employer

Since when has it been the courts' job to protect a business's "competitive advantage" over another?

Since just a couple weeks ago, apparently. In Collin County, Texas, a dance instructor has been jailed for 30 days because he offered lessons that competed against those of his former employer. The court said he has no right to undermine his former employer's "competitive advantage."

I swear I am not making this up.

Only in BushWorld does the "free market" mean having courts back you up to shut a competitor down.

The case went to trial because the instructor was supposedly bound by a noncompete clause he signed with the dance studio where he once worked. Thing is, he didn't work there anymore. So how is he bound by a clause he signed with someone he no longer works for?

Contracts with employers are only legally enforceable if you're still working for them. Many states have laws that say this specifically. Even in those that don't, why should such contracts be valid? Contracts require a meeting of the minds. Dismissal or resignation clearly means the minds have become unmet again.

It also goes to show that "right-to-work" means just the opposite of what it appears to mean. In Texas, "right-to-work" only protects the nonexistent "right" of businesses to bust unions. It doesn't mean you actually have a right to work. "Right-to-work" is a filthy lie.

Hey, maybe I should move to Texas so I can sue all the other writers for "stealing" my business. That's about what this is like.

If you expect a "free market", don't go crying to the courts to punish your competitors.

(Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/101808dnmetchacha.3cf3f42.html)

Government may bribe banks to merge

We need this like we need a hole in the face, don't we?

As part of its quarter-trillion-dollar handout to the banking industry, the Treasury Department now wants to give some of the money to big banks just to swallow up smaller banks.

And this is supposed to help the economy how?

Now that everyone is realizing how catastrophic merger mania and deregulation have been, the Treasury Department wants to actually use taxpayer funds to pay banks to merge?

If this story wasn't so horribly real, suspension of disbelief would have to kick in.

Remember how many banks there used to be? At this rate, there's going to be just one bank soon. No choices. Just one giant bank that can gouge customers as much as it pleases, because there's no regulation or competition.

Maybe it's time the states step in and start regulating banks.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/business/21plan.html)

Another idiot steals library book

One of America's greatest Presidents, John F. Kennedy, once said libraries "should be open to all - except the censor." The right to read should be sacred.

But some busybody in Oregon doesn't think so. A parent of a 13-year-old student at Central Linn High School has borrowed a popular book from the school library but refuses to return it, because she doesn't want people reading it.

The volume, 'The Book Of Bunny Suicides' by Andy Riley, is full of drawings of a rabbit's attempt to end his own life. The tome's dark humor has found a receptive audience among high school students and others. It was even recommended by the American Library Association.

The woman who stole the book has demanded that the school review it. But for that to happen, she has to return the book. Otherwise, the school will buy another copy and bill her for it.

But she still refuses to bring back the book. Instead she is threatening to burn it. And if the library replaces it, she says she'll have someone else borrow that copy and demolish it too.

Censorship. The refuge of the modern scoundrel.

(Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/384107_bunnysuicide21.html)

Woman billed after not seeing doctor

The American health care system means failure. Failure in every way.

It means broken emergency rooms, nonexistent doctors, and bogus billing.

One night recently at a Dallas hospital, a woman ambled into the ER with a broken leg. The leg had already been x-rayed at a chiropractic school she attended, and the school referred her to the hospital. After signing in, she propped her leg up on a chair and waited.

Minutes turned into hours. She ended up waiting all night. After 19 hours without a visit from a physician, she gave up. She hopped right back out the door.

That's the American health care system for you. If the ER was that swamped, you have to consider that much of the area (like other American communities) has inadequate health care. Hospitals within a 50-mile radius are often ill-equipped themselves, forcing patients to commute to Dallas.

Two weeks after the ER visit that ended with no treatment came the real shocker: The woman was sent a bill from the hospital for $162.

Let's get this straight: A patient shows up with a known leg fracture, is not treated despite waiting 19 hours, and is billed $162 for nothing? What did the hospital do that could have possibly cost them $162? A nurse saw her for several minutes for assessment, but that was it. (That assessment didn't happen until 3 hours after the patient arrived.)

If a broken leg goes too long without treatment, there's a greater risk of a less successful recovery. So the hospital is actually lucky if it doesn't get sued.

The same hospital is already under fire because last month a man died after waiting 19 hours in the ER. And while the woman with the broken leg was waiting, a victim of a motorcycle crash gave up and left the ER after he had been forced to wait for hours.

The leg fracture patient was forced to treat her leg herself, even though she is not a doctor. (That's what I had to do when I broke my hand at work.)

And she damn sure ain't paying the hospital bill. I wouldn't either.

Is the hospital going to sue her for $162 when it didn't even treat her? Judge Judy would laugh that case right out of court.

This story underscores just how broken the U.S. health system is. And it gets worse each year.

(Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102108dnmetparklandbills.3ebcd5e.html)

GOP hungry like the wolf for vote fraud stories

Hahaha, this is downright humiliating!

The Republicans thought they finally hit paydirt when they inspected the New Mexico voter rolls and found that someone registered under the name Duran Duran had voted in the primary this year. "Fraud!" the GOP cried.

The Republicans never explained why anyone would turn in a phony voter registration under the name of the popular new wave band (pictured here) and think they could get away with it.

Now it turns out Duran Duran was actually the voter's real name.

Oops!

Sounds to me like the Republicans skimmed through a Hot 100 chart from 25 years ago to see what music people today are listening to and then went through the voter rolls to see if any names matched.

If some poor schmuck somewhere happens to be named John Waite, will the GOP falsely accuse him of vote fraud too?

(Source: http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/10/21/there-really-is-a-duran-duran-and-other-stupid-republican-tricks)

EPA lies to cover up for Bush

Now it turns out that Bush's EPA has been lying to cover up for Bush's waste and corruption.

A report by the Government Accountability Office (Congress's investigative arm) says the EPA has been cooking the books. (The expression "cooking the books" is not to be taken literally - much to the chagrin of Failin' Palin and other library censors.) The EPA's deceptive accounting practices have been covering up the Bush regime's slashing of penalties against polluters.

The EPA says it's justified because it's been going on since before Bush seized power. Oh, so if someone does something wrong, it's OK for everyone else to do it too?

Besides, it wasn't going on nearly to this degree before the Bush years.

(Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-epa-penalties,0,7849818.story)

New wingnut talking point: tax cuts = welfare

The right-wing kookosphere has a new screaming point, and it's already been picked up by the McCain campaign: According to them, tax cuts are now welfare.

That is, if the tax cuts are for the middle or lower class. It's not welfare if it's for the rich.

Of all the idiotic arguments made by conservatives lately, this is about the dumbest.

This talking point comes as a response to Obama's pledge to cut taxes for 95% of Americans who make less than $250,000 a year. Conservatives cry that this is actually welfare, and they're kooking out about it as I write this.

Who originated conservatives' moronic meme? Right-wing columnist Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent of the far-right Washington Times, spread this bogus argument in a piece he wrote recently. He whined that Obama's plan is actually "income redistribution from wealthier taxpayers to lower-income Americans." Boo-hoo, Donald, you big fucking crybaby.

But Lambro seems to have picked it up from Phil Kerpen of the misnamed Americans for Prosperity, a far-right advocacy group.

Even those who are too poor to owe income taxes are paying some form of taxes. In particular, the working poor pay Social Security payroll taxes. How is tax relief for the working poor a welfare program? It isn't.

If tax relief is welfare, what do you call those "stimulus" checks that went only to people who made enough money to pay income taxes? What do you call Bush's tax cuts for the rich? What about the fact that most major American corporations haven't paid taxes in 10 years?

But what Donald Lambro picked up from Phil Kerpen, John McCain picked up from Donald Lambro. Right-wing foolishness is contagious.

I think I'm starting to get it now: Under the Republicans, I'm supposed to work my whole life just to be told to get a second job because the GOP can't handle the economy. (McCain actually said people ought to take a second job just to make ends meet - even though there's not even enough first jobs out there. If that doesn't prove he's out of touch, what does?) But when I get my paycheck, I'm supposed to share it with millionaire CEO's who use it to go on ski trips.

Meanwhile, the GOP's supporters consider most jobs to be beneath them.

(Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stories/101808dnpolmccain.336602e.html)

Horrible Hephzibah House

Kids Helping Kids isn't the only teen confinement facility being protested.

In June, I told you about a confirmedly abusive facility for teenage girls in Warsaw, Indiana, that for decades has hid behind religion. The facility, known as Hephzibah House, is affiliated with a fundamentalist church and is based in part on Lester Roloff's dangerous practices.

The center was protested in June - and now another protest has occurred against the facility. I wasn't at this demonstration (or the June one), for it is hundreds of miles away. But the protest drew not only survivors of Hephzibah House but also those of other abusive programs.

It's a fight everyone is in together. Whether you were abused by a religious "boarding school", a cult-like so-called "rehab", or a money-grubbing "hospital", the fight is yours!

The Cincinnati media has mostly dropped the ball regarding KHK and other programs. But the media in northern Indiana has covered the Hephzibah House protests. Here's one clip:



Here's another:

Mr. Elbow Care thinks it's still 1980?

About Mitch "The Glitch" McConnell: He cracked a roo.

Just joking! (Though he likely has.)

McConnell - the longtime right-wing senator from Kentucky - apparently thinks it's still 1980! Or maybe he doesn't, but his followers sure as shit do.

A few days ago, I received a campaign mailing from the Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance. Free enterprise! It's one of these catchphrases used by conservatives to keep justifying a failed system.

Today I looked up this organization online, and it turns out it's an industry lobbying group that's also been responsible for mailers, TV ads, and harassing robocalls in other states - many of which attack candidates for their stance on labor unions. The Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance is virulently anti-union, judging from these efforts. And everything I've seen from it so far either assails Democrats or supports Republicans.

The outside of the Kentucky mailing that I received from the group thunders about the high price of everything. But when you open it up, the flyer refuses to place the blame where it belongs. Instead it attacks McConnell's Democratic opponent Bruce Lunsford (who holds no elected office and doesn't seem to have ever been in the oil business) for somehow raising gas prices.

I swear I am not making this up.

The basis for this attack? The mailer itself has to go way back to 1980 to find anything. 1980!!! Apparently, Lunsford worked in state government at the time and somehow caused the legislature to raise the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon - although he was not a legislator.

They're worried about 12 cents in 1980???

How about when gas prices went up by $2.15 in 2008??? Whose fault was that???

I don't like paying an extra 12 cents either, but I hate the extra $2 even more. My parents could still afford to drive in 1980 after the 12-cent hike; I can't afford it in 2008 after the $2 increase.

Though the mailer doesn't mention Mitch McConnell, it's not a stretch to assume the Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance backs him. Mitch the Glitch has also been one of the most powerful senators through all the nationwide gas price hikes of recent years. What did McConnell do to stem fuel costs?

Not one fucking thing, that's what.

I'm not a huge Bruce Lunsford fan, but come on!

The hypocrisy is just teeming out of that mailer. McConnell was part of the Republican machine that's manipulated fuel costs for at least the entire decade, and this flyer is complaining about Lunsford causing a 12-cent hike 28 years ago?

This campaign mailing comes across as self-righteous, hypocritical, and out of touch. One glance at the mailer, and you get the impression that it was pounded out by someone who'd physically assault folks at a rally if they supported an opposing candidate.

(Source: http://projects.newsobserver.com/tags/associated_builders_and_contractors)

The privatization of America, part 2

This is the second part of my 2-part investigative report about the privatization of America's land - and my defiance of this trend.

In the first segment, I clued you in on the takeover of our land by schools, which themselves have become de facto private institutions. My second segment deals with the privatization of residential neighborhoods.

Notice how many newer residential subdivisions carry a private property sign. It brings us to ask if the roads in these neighborhoods actually are private.

If they're private, who owns them? Who would have the money to own all the roads and rights-of-way in a development? And do you know anyone who owns such conveyances?

If the roads in developments of such a large size are under private ownership, they'd have to be owned by someone with a lot of money, wouldn't you say? And with so many subdivisions with private property signs now, there'd have to be an awfully lot of people with lots and lots of money, right?

Except there aren't.

So I did a little digging.

I was so confident that the private property signs are bogus that last Wednesday I took the Peace Bike through an allegedly private neighborhood in northern Kentucky - without gaining anyone's permission first:



More clues that such areas are public? The same traffic laws apply in these developments that apply elsewhere. Traffic control devices such as signs are even the same. Near the end of that video, for instance, we see a stop sign that's identical to those on public highways. Sometimes you'll see a sign that uses, say, a nonstandard font or unusual wording - but such is also the case on roads that are indisputably public. This for example is a sign on an undeniably public road in my area:


Roads Scholars may note that neither the font nor the wording of that sign is standard for traffic signs, yet it appears on a public way.

As for the road in the video, I checked around after the fact. At least one reliable source lists the road in the video as public. One commercial street map marks it as private, but that's probably because the mapmakers field-checked and saw the sign.

All of my research points to the road being public. The private property sign seems to be a bluff. Thus, as a member of the public, I have a right to use the road. I believe I broke no laws. That street is not a driveway; it contains numerous residences.

Later I saw a much larger development with a similar sign. Only it didn't say private property; it said no trespassing. I've determined that this road is also likely public - so it would be impossible to trespass. Furthermore, how would owners of properties behind that area be able to access their own property if that road was private?

If the roads I saw Wednesday are private, someone's stockpiling a lot of land. This isn't a case of someone buying a few buildings and getting $300 a month from renting them out. This is a case of developers and other wealthy corporations practicing an oligopoly.

In Hawaii 40 years ago, 72 landowners owned 47% of all land in the state, and that was considered a high enough concentration that the state instituted land reforms to break up this oligopoly. (In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court permitted the state to institute these reforms.) I've been told that land in my area is concentrated to a much greater degree than 72 owners owning 47%.

Why shouldn't local governments order big corporations to divest their massive land holdings that artificially jack up prices? This wouldn't be for some phony "gentrification" or "redevelopment" goal. This would be for public use.

Public land is part of America's heritage. The country never could have been built without public land. With so much land concentration, people are priced out of what once belonged to all of us. Small private landowners are also being denied access to their homes and farms by being hamstrung by powerful developers.

Election over?

All the scientific polls I've seen lately show Obama leading by between 4 and 14%, so if you consider that the average is about 9%, it's shaping up to be the biggest Democratic landslide in 44 years.

At this point in 1988, the media had effectively already called the election for Mad Dog Bush, and he won by less than 8%. In fact, they nearly called it for him probably in September.

No bias there, huh? (That's more sarcasm, people!)

I was alive in '88, and I remember it all too well.

If McCain was leading by 4 to 14%, the media would be none short of declaring victory for him.

Since it looks like this one's settled, I think all we need to do is - just for our own amusement - try to predict which states Obama is going to win. Or even more fun yet, which counties.

GOP operative arrested for voter fraud

Finally!

I've said for years the Republicans were up to their ears in election fraud - but now the bottom is finally falling out. The latest story brings a whole new meaning to the dictum about how first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

The owner of a firm hired by the California Republican Party to register thousands of voters this year has now been arrested for voter registration fraud. Investigators say the hapless galoot illegally registered to vote at a childhood address in California where he no longer lives, so he'd be able to sign up voters in that state.

This follows complaints by voters who were tricked into registering as Republicans by being falsely told they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. It turns out the same illegal tactic was used in Florida several years ago. So this is a nationwide pattern by the GOPoo.

And they finally got caught.

It's times like these when you've been waiting so long for something that you just can't believe it when it finally happens. But it happened: The Republicans finally got busted with their shit-caked Luvs down around their ankles.

Who's laughing now?

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3552492&mesg_id=3552492)

TV Guide sold for $1

Remember TV Guide? I haven't seen TV Guide in years, so the real story here may be that TV Guide is still around at all.

Now TV Guide has been sold for only $1. Not just one copy (which sells for $2.99), but the entire magazine. Shit, I could've buyed it!

Poor ol' TV Guide. It's a guide to TV. That's why they call it TV Guide. And that's why its logo is shaped like a television screen. But now (not unlike TV), TV Guide is but a shadow of its former self.

Although TV Guide through much of its later history was part of Rupert Murdoch's right-wing media empire, the magazine was once the most widely read in America. It used to feature pieces on the medium itself, such as articles about small desert communities trying to pull in distant signals.

TV Guide is also remembered for a series of synth-heavy commercials like this that flourished in the late '70s and early '80s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgRoHwXHtI0

Those ads were interesting because the synth sound reminds one of the old PBS bumper, and the voiceover guy sounds like Dan Rather. However, many viewers inexplicably report being terrified of these ads.

But the TV Guide of today bears little resemblance to that we remember. Reportedly, it even changed its page size, so the stores that still sell it have to crumple it beyond hope to fit it in the rack. Although the pages got bigger, the listings got smaller and far less detailed.

These days, the once-popular publication is a money loser.

Now, OpenGate Capital has purchased TV Guide for just $1 - one-third of the price of a single copy. A magazine that sold for $3,000,000,000 only 20 years ago is now worth a lousy dollar!

I could kick myself in the nuts a trillion times for not buying TV Guide. If I'd known it would cost only $1, I would have purchased it in a heartbeat.

Imagine being the owner of TV Guide! Maybe I'd bring back those old '70s ads.

(Source: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=131756)

University sues over "lost" tuition

Nice to know that greed rules the roost in America's education system these days.

The University of Cincinnati has hunted down a woman who the school claims owes them tuition from years ago. Trouble is, she didn't go to school there.

A number of years back, the woman went to UC's registration website to look at classes. But she logged out when she found out it cost less to take the same classes at Cincinnati State instead. She opted not to attend UC.

But according to UC's dream team of legal eagles, visiting the university website counts as enrolling. And now they want the woman to pay tuition from all those years ago. So they've sued her to court!

Tuition would've been $3,158, but they expect her to pay $6,360.97 because of interest and collection fees. Didn't UC's lawyers ever watch 'Judge Judy'? How many times has Judge Judy told plaintiffs, "You don't get interest"? It would be diff if a plaintiff didn't wait years to try to collect.

But that's assuming the woman in this case even owed any tuition - which she doesn't, because she never became a student at UC. UC claims it costs thousands to reserve a seat in class for students when they enroll. But I call bullshit. Besides, she clearly never enrolled.

The most ridiculous charge demanded by UC (other than interest and collection fees) is hundreds of dollars in mandatory student health insurance. Forcing students to buy insurance is a whole separate matter though.

The woman has witnesses: the professors for classes UC claims she signed up for. They may get to testify that she never attended those classes.

It's like outside agitation in reverse!

(And yes, wingnuts have already freeped the comment section of the Cincinnati paper.)

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081019/NEWS0107/810190397)

More West Virginia votes switched by machines

Yesterday I told you about voting machines in Jackson County, West Virginia, switching Democratic votes to the Republicans. Now the exact same problem has been discovered in another West Virginia county: Putnam County.

In both counties, Republicans are in charge of election oversight. In both counties, several voters found the machines flipping their votes from Democratic to Republican - while nobody reported the opposite. In both counties, election officials blamed the voters.

One voter put it succinctly: "If McCain wins, there was something wrong with the machines."

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

And if there's something wrong with the machines, well, the Democrats, the Greens, or the Libertarians don't run those counties.

There's something wrong with more than one machine: the voting machine, and the Republican political machine.

(Source: http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/News/200810180251)

GOP rioters gum up the works

The GOP base today is worse than any sports rioters.

They no longer limit their frustration to overt opponents. Now they also fight their inner turmoil by assaulting journalists as well. The Palin rally where someone kicked a reporter and somebody pelted an MSNBC sound man with rocks is just one example.

Now, at a McCain rally in Virginia, CNN correspondent Ed Henry was attacked just as viciously. One of the GOP cultists yelled that Henry was a communist. Another threw a pack of gum at him, hitting him.

You can't make this stuff up, people: The Republicans are attacking the media! Yes, the same media that's fawned over almost every national GOP ticket of the past quarter-century.

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth! What more from the media can they possibly ask for?

I guess the media is a convenient target. The media is influential but it's also reactive. If a storm against the right-wing consensus brews among the general public, surely it will come to light through the media (though certainly not without some distortion). Ever hear the saying that if you don't like the message, don't throw gum at the messenger?

If the right-wing mutiny continues at this rate, they're going to end up killing someone before long. I'm not joking.

The GOP base needs to start controlling its spoiled children more effectively - for the sake of itself, its opponents, the media, the country, and the public.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/18/22551/809/687/634956)

"Look! It's the Gum Fighter!" (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Look, everyone!

It's the Gum Fighter again!

What's he got?

Bubbling disease, apparently.

It's a disease that makes people bubble uncontrollably - as he does again in this '80s commersh for raspberry Hubba Bubba:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVK4jyXTumM

According to legendary Gum Fighter actor Don Collier, the Hubba Bubba ads were filmed in Australia, even though they were set in the Wild West.

In this commersh, the Gum Fighter rode into town with his new product, bubbled with it, and rode away just as quickly. The entire process took a mere 30 seconds. It was a surgical strike!

Also, all of Hubba Bubba's ads acted as if every TV viewer's life revolved around bubbling. In the Hubba Bubba world, everyone schedules their day around chewing bubble gum and blowing bubbles and worries constantly about whether the gum will stick to their face.

Kind of like how in the Gum Fighter's fictitious Wild West town, everyone's life revolves around waiting for the ol' Fighter to show up again.

Voting machines switch votes to GOP

In BushWorld, early voting means early stealing.

West Virginia allows early voting, so folks there are already getting a sneak preview (doo dooooo da doo doo doo) of what's going to be a national epidemic on November 4. The problem is not the fault of early voting - but early voting does expose it. In Jackson County, voters who showed up for early voting found the machines switching their votes to the Republicans.

Voters say that when they tried using the touch-screen machines to vote for Obama, the machine kept switching their votes to McCain. They complained to poll workers, who told them they were touching the screen too hard. But the problem continued when the voters gently touched the machines with their fingernails.

Isn't it weird how it didn't flip anyone's McCain vote to Obama?

The same also happened when voters tried voting for Democratic gubernatorial, legislative, and judicial candidates. Not a single damn report of the machine flipping any Republican votes to the Democrats.

How much more evidence of vote tampering do you need to say elections are rigged?

Now those of us without early voting know what's in store for us in a couple weeks. Get ready for more of this shit. And get ready for right-wing public officials blaming the voters (as what happened in West Virginia). And get ready for the media dropping the ball like it has for years now.

Imagine how frustrating it is for me to have reported vote tampering like this for over a decade, only to have the pop-up media never follow up. It doesn't say much for the media's professionalism when a one-man operation is more on top of things than they are, does it?

(Source: http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810170676)

Police attack antiwar vets

This is entry #56,867,910,635 about authorities attacking veterans all because they oppose the war. In BushAmerica, brave vets come home only to be treated like criminals.

Outside the presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, an organization called Iraq Veterans Against the War held a peaceful demonstration asking for an antiwar voice in the questions asked in the debate.

But that was too much for Nassau County police. Authorities immediately went on the attack, calling in an entire brigade of riot police to confront the vets. Several people were injured in the process. A former Army sergeant was knocked unconscious and had his cheekbone broken when police used a horse to trample him.

Ten members of the antiwar group were arrested for no reason. While they were detained, police called them "traitors", "cowards", and "idiots." Cops sexually harassed several women who were detained.

Competent police officers never would've arrested or trampled the protesters, let alone continued abusing them once they were detained. The real traitors, cowards, and idiots are those who abuse a badge to violently suppress dissent.

It's a shame there's people in charge who don't appreciate the sacrifices made by America's brave soldiers and sailors.

(Source: http://socialistworker.org/2008/10/17/antiwar-vets-attacked)

Open thread

Watergate '09?

Back around late 1995, a tiny blurb appeared in the paper reporting that Democratic congressional offices were burglarized and computers containing important data on health care legislation were stolen. Naturally, there was no follow-up by the media about what was obviously a Watergate repeat.

Now there's been yet another Watergate. This time, the victim is ACORN - yes, the same ACORN the Republicans keep complaining about as part of the Republicans' war against voting.

An ACORN office in Boston was burglarized, and 3 laptops were stolen. An alarm was also ripped out of the wall, a downstairs office was ransacked, and the vending machine was robbed.

How adult contemporary.

This is so clearly a politically driven Watergate-style break-in that it's like nails on a chalkboard for anyone to deny it.

(Source: http://cbs2chicago.com/campaign08/acorn.computers.stolen.2.842822.html)

Cloggin'-the-drain McCain!

Hahahahaha! McCain has a new symbol for his campaign!

It's a plunger!

Ever since the ridiculous Joe the Plumber flap, McCain's backers have taken an inordinate interest in plumbing tools. In Virginia, a group of 4 McCain operatives were photographed carrying plungers and smiling their asses off. (While plumbers and other workers were hard at work, these 4 guys were out goofing off.)

It must be a fetish. Kind of like that displayed by Mr. Sing 'N' Snore Scissors a while back.

It's only fitting that a plunger would become a symbol of McCain's candidacy, for his campaign is in the toilet.

(Source: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/17/plungers-greet-obama-at-virginia-rally)

Public property still public in Canada

In the good ol' U.S. and A. these days, if you mention public property, people look at you like you have a penis growing out of your face. Many folks seem to be programmed with a suspicion of all things public, after years of being forced to listen to assholes like Phil Gramm who don't believe in public property.

But in Canada, public seems to still mean public.

The rate of homelessness is nowhere near as mind-numbing in Canada as it is in the U.S., and heartless sweeps designed to punish the homeless are also far less prevalent north of the border. Still, some cities think it's just fine and dandy to go after the homeless but not homelessness.

The city of Victoria, British Columbia, tried to stop the homeless from camping out on public property such as parks. Problem with that: it's public. Public means it belongs to the people. Thus, the homeless (along with other area residents) own the parks.

In the U.S., evicting the homeless from public parks would probably prompt some criticism by progressive blogs - and gushing praise by right-wing blogs and talk-shit radio. Many of the homeless or their advocates are too browbeaten to fight it. But in Canada, the city of Victoria got sued to court!

And the city lost.

The British Columbia Supreme Court says the homeless have the right to camp on public property. Because it's public. See how that works? The court ruled that, in the absence of adequate shelter for the homeless, it's unconstitutional in Canada for the city to deny them the right to shelter on public land.

Authorities in the U.S. of A. need to study that ruling and use it to reacquaint themselves with what public means. Despite all the homeless sweeps in the U.S., I won't say that the next step in the U.S. is people being charged with trespassing for appearing on the public right-of-way long after being caught for some minor crime - because that's already happened, unfortunately.

(Source: http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=e76560c5-1b95-47fa-8834-44c794a97a88&sponsor=)

The privatization of America, part 1

This is part of a 2-part series about the Allowed Cloud of privatization - which the Peace Bike and I got a firsthand glimpse of on Wednesday.

One of the most enduring doctrines of civilization is that at least some land must be public to serve the people. It must be publicly owned and publicly accessible. Hand in hand with this concept is that services may be publicly controlled.

America has private and public schools, but one of the purposes of the latter is to guarantee a right to an education. The nation's young have long had a right to an education that is free and publicly supported.

In Hartford, Connecticut, this right was dashed in the mid-'90s when the city's school system was farmed out to a private, for-profit company - thus denying Hartford's youth access to public schools. However, this experiment ended when the company mismanaged the schools' finances.

But no matter! Today, America's schools are in effect public in name only. They get taxpayer funds, but they keep students out for "crimes" like disagreeing with uniforms.

Because schools have become effectively private, they fit into the protocol of the privatization of America. Which brings me to what I did Wednesday.

If a public road becomes part of a campus of a so-called public high school, is the road still public? In this case, the road clearly still exists, and it connects public roads. So how can it not be open to the public?

I speak of the part of 7th Street that seems to run through the property of Newport High School in Newport, Kentucky. A sign clearly says DO NOT ENTER. But I biked it, for I feel as if it is public, for it meets the characteristics described above:



I'm not too pleased at the Newport school system, because of its recent bullying scandal and several instances of the school system advancing right-wing causes or candidates. But the reason I used that street is because I considered it public and because it was an efficient path to the next road.

There's a big difference between some harmless guy like me biking on a street (that was once open to the public) to get from one place to another, and some weirdo going into the school and bothering kids. I believe I was right; the school would surely believe I was wrong. It would take an army of lawyers to figure out for certain.

To me, the campus was an obstruction of a road that was physically travelable. It was necessary for me to challenge the school's authority over the street, because if I don't, when will the trend of losing public land stop?

Reporter assaulted at Palin rally

It's not John McCain but Sarah Palin who is the new Bush or the new Newt: Failin' Palin manages to bring out the worst in the GOP thought police.

Many of my longtime readers will remember the Devou Park Showdown, an assault at a Bush rally in Covington, Kentucky, in 2000. Sarah Paliban incites the same spiteful feelings in GOP cultists that Bush prompted at that and other events.

But now it's not just the average dissident who gets assaulted. Reporters are under fire too.

A recent Palin appearance in North Carolina went awry. When dissenters chanted Obama's name, the GOP Movementarians in attendance couldn't take it. They got the cops to toss the Obama backers out. (Much like how the police backed Bush's violent Nazi thugs at the Kentucky event.) A second group of dissidents was also ejected.

At the end of the brownshirt rally, a reporter bipped over to the Obama supporters who were kicked out to try to get their take on things. While this was going on, a bumbling man decked out in McCain/Palin regalia got into the Obama backer's face and started yelling at him.

Just when the journalist politely asked the assailant to allow him to do his job, someone put up an Obama sign in a nearby college dorm window, prompting the Republican crowd to taunt the window.

The reporter chuckled a bit, prompting the man in the GOP regalia to exclaim, "Oh, you think that's funny?!" He then kicked the reporter in the leg, causing him to collapse to the ground.

Assault and battery is a crime, Republican fuckpoos.

This wasn't just criminal assault against a person. It was in effect an assault against the ideals of a democratic republic. And since it's been going on for years (and on an increasing basis), do you really expect the right-wing losers to stop?

This wasn't even the only act of right-wing violence against media folks at the rally. A sound man for MSNBC (of all places) was hit in the head with a rock. The fact that someone took a rock to the event proves they intended to use it as a weapon.

Imagine if you can what would happen if one of the Obama supporters had been found with a rock.

Guess McCain wanted a Rove-style campaign. What a crushing comedown for a longtime senator.

(Source: http://blog.news-record.com/staff/capblog/archives/2008/10/report_from_pal.shtml)

VA shreds claims

You can probably guess the Republicans are in charge when you see stories like this.

The RAND Corporation (a military think tank) says that patients who use the Department of Veterans Affairs get much better and faster care than those who use the broken, greed-driven for-profit health care system that plagues nonveterans. But the Bush regime has been gutting the VA just for the sake of bringing its quality of service down to that of the for-profit system.

The ruling party does this to make a political point. They want everything to be profit-driven. This is why the current regime intentionally didn't hire enough VA doctors and otherwise neglected the VA.

It's a bit like Rick Santorum's mid-decade move to shut down government weather services that "stole" business from for-profit services.

Now - as is to be expected under a malevolent D.C. regime - it's been found that the VA has been shredding important documents regarding the veterans who rely on its services.

At numerous regional VA offices, piles and piles of shredded papers have been unearthed. A probe revealed that they included veterans' disability and compensation benefits claims - as well as veterans' irreplaceable personal documents like their original birth certificates.

"Support our troops" isn't supposed to be just a slogan. For 8 years, the ruling regime has stabbed America's brave men and women in uniform in the back, and the shredding scandal is just the latest example.

Turning its back on the troops is a regime policy. Another example is when party hacks callously claimed post-traumatic stress disorder is a hoax by veterans gaming the system. Still another is when the government began making soldiers pay back their enlistment bonuses if they get wounded.

Right-wing backstabbers are running the country, and it shows.

(Source: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_va_stopshredding_101608w/)

Right-wing nutcase sues over Obama candidacy

You know the election is almost at the point of no return when you see stories like this.

Some right-wing kook in Fall City, Washington, is suing the Washington Secretary of State, demanding that he declare Obama ineligible to run for President because he hasn't proven that he was born in the United States.

This despite the fact that it was long ago proven that Obama was American-born. FactCheck.org obtained a copy of his birth certificate with a raised seal just to prove he was born in the U.S.

In addition, FactCheck.org provided the announcement from a U.S. newspaper from 48 years ago listing Obama's birth.

If the kookosphere really thinks Obama was foreign-born, they really do need to get their tinfoil helicopter hats adjusted. They shouldn't delay. It sounds like all the spittle might have jammed the propellers.

(Source: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/151678.asp;
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html)

Couple loses farm over courthouse error

Let me get straight what happened here:

1) Couple works hard their whole lives as long-haul truckers.

2) They cash in their retirement savings to buy a farm.

3) ORIX, a financial services giant, tries making them pay a debt owed by the farm's previous owner.

4) A court seizes the couple's farm to make them pay - even though it's not their debt.

5) The court also makes the couple pay ORIX's legal fees.

This actually happened in Dixie County, Florida.

Why was the couple being held responsible for someone else's debt? Because the courthouse didn't index the lien against the previous owner - even though the lien was recorded. This happened because some out-of-state company that dealt with the lien was so stingy that it paid for only one document instead of two - causing the county to refuse to index it.

Yes, some judge is actually making the couple pay for someone else's incompetence. The farm was to be seized and sold at an auction. Their life savings is gone. Gone into thin air.

It's even more unconscionable that the court made the couple pay $5,000 in ORIX's legal expenses.

How greedy can ORIX be to hold someone responsible for a debt they had nothing to do with and demand they reimburse them for legal fees? How broken can the courts be to allow this?

Under corporatism, it's a wonder this hasn't happened more. Corporatism means financial institutions and other corporations never have the burden to prove their case. When they say a debt is owed them, courts are happy to give them what they think is owed.

Naturally, the wingnutosphere is saying the whole thing is the couple's fault for not buying title insurance. This wouldn't have done any good, because title insurance doesn't cover clerical incompetence by others.

How about if the wingnutosphere gets ridicule insurance? It doesn't cost a thing. All that the wingnuts who populate right-wing blogs need to do to keep me from ridiculing them every time they blame the victim for something like this is to at least know what they're talking about before spouting off.

(Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20081013/NEWS/810130355/1003)

Colorado disfranchises voters over unchecked box

Anyone still not believe the Republicans are engaging in a war on voting? (That's what the ACORN flap is about, but I hope to get to that later.)

In Colorado, some 6,000 people might not be able to vote all because a box on their registration form wasn't checked. They can cast provisional ballots, but those might not be counted. Part of the form tells folks to enter a driver's license or state ID number. But what people didn't realize is that they're supposed to check a box if they don't have a license or ID.

It turns out the rule that disfranchises voters is being issued by Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman - a Republican, as you might guess. This is the same Mike Coffman who allowed the work-for-less measure to appear on the ballot even though the petition had so many phony signatures that it didn't have enough real signatures to qualify.

Coffman says he's just following federal law. Oh yeah? Well, Colorado is the only state that's been found to be doing this. Besides, it actually defies federal law.

Coffman has already been the subject of a state audit that discovered that he wasn't complying with voting laws. His latest diktat continues this pattern: It violates the motor voter law and part of the Voting Rights Act that says you can't be barred from voting because of an "error or omission" on registration forms.

The ukase by Coffman's office has nothing to do with the "integrity" of the voting system and everything to do with discouraging voting.

(Source: http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9171600;
http://cbs4denver.com/politics/registration.forms.colorado.2.839548.html)

Insurance industry ambushing youth?

Yesterday I violated many illogical Allowed Clouds with the Peace Bike and the Eyewitness Cam. But because I'm 35 and not 15, there was one I could not violate: the now almost universal rule that bars young people from food marts.

Food marts???

I know, man, those food marts are really seedy places, aren't they?

When I was about 10, a local corner grocery had a sign on its door that said something like, "No more than 2 kids allowed in store at the same time." I think it was the only grocery I ever saw with that rule prior to the 2000s. Even without the sign, the now-defunct store had a reputation for mean clerks and selling spoiled milk. It's long been suspected that the sign disappeared because families complained to Kentucky human rights officials.

But these days it's noteworthy if a food mart doesn't have such a twilight law against youth. I try boycotting stores with such a sign, because I hate irrational meanness, but I've found that to be virtually impossible. Around 2001 (ahem), it seems that most such food stores adopted such a policy.

The rule is still worded in a similar manner. It might say something almost identical to the aforementioned sign, or it might say something like, "No kids under 18 during school hours."

Why is this rule almost universal now?

I have a couple of theories. I think the stores' insurers might have forced them to do it. Why? Well, it doesn't have to be for any logical reason. It could be one of these things like how insurers won't insure homeowners if they have a dog of a certain breed. Just like how insurers think there's bad dog breeds (a belief that's been debunked), maybe they also believe the human species has bad age groups.

Maybe it's not insurers. Maybe local law enforcement are ordering stores to enact such policies to suppress youth. Why such an interest in what school hours are?

What if you're homeschooled? Homeschoolers often don't have the same hours as students at public or private schools. What if you're on out-of-school suspension? Schools today will suspend at the drop of a dust speck. If I was a store clerk, do you think I'd want to be a party to cooperating with a school's draconian discipline policy?

As a grown man, I believe the community has no obligation to cooperate with schools that are so patently unreasonable that they suspend a student for wearing a maroon shirt instead of red.

When people say it takes a village to raise a child, this isn't what it's supposed to mean. Adults should provide guidance, not fear.

Evidently, insurance execs or police officials have never been kids themselves. Yes, I know that's impossible, but it sure seems to be the case. It seems like those who oppress the young today are all the same age they were 25 years ago - and they're just as cranky.

Only now they get their way more often.

While there's less and less regulation on banks, insurers, and other powerful corporations, there's more and more regulation on individuals.

DFAF hypocrisy

The right-wing Drug Free America Foundation, which campaigns for draconian drug policies, evolved from Mel Sembler's Straight, Inc. "rehab" programs that were responsible for countless instances of abuse of teenagers.

DFAF lies. And it lies a lot. Many folks who have kept an eye on the failed drug war have reported on it.

Now DFAF is imposing itself on Massachusetts, where there's a sensible referendum on the ballot to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. DFAF is attacking the referendum by saying it's financed by out-of-state contributors.

Then what the fuck do you think DFAF is? They're based way over in Florida!

Not like I trusted the DFAF liars anyway, after discovering what a debacle Straight, Inc. (whose methods still influence youth confinement gulags) was.

(Source: http://stopthedrugwar.org/in_the_trenches/2008/oct/14/marijuana_campaign_turns_ugly_in)

New right-wing talking point: "Kill him!" rallies a hoax

In response to the revelation that Republican supporters at McCain/Palin rallies have been yelling "Kill him!" when Obama's name is mentioned, the wingnutosphere has proven it can't handle its own spoiled children.

They're claiming the whole thing is a hoax.

Oh yeah? Then how do you explain this:



Thirteen seconds into this clip of a McCain event, a bullying male voice clearly yells "Kill him!" when Obama's name comes up.

But according to the fuckheadosphere, it's aaaaaaaaaall a hoax.

They claim that the story of the threats didn't appear until yesterday when a journalist for a Pennsylvania newspaper reported hearing these words yelled during a Palin-centered event. That is a lie. There was an entry about the threats on this very blog on Saturday. I picked the story up from a CNN article posted the previous day.

What else is the wingnutosphere lying about?

Game over, McCain. You lose.

I just watched the final debate, and I think this election is over - unless Obama does something incredibly idiotic.

In this debate, McCain made so many mistakes that Obama had to spend much of his time correcting them. That's McCain's strategy, I guess.

I guess making mistakes is a strategy for McCain, for he's the guy who keeps using songs without permission at his campaign events and expecting not to get caught.

4 gallons of urine? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

It would hardly be Wednesday if it wasn't a 'Sesame Street' Wednesday. Wednesday is always a good 'Sesame Street' watching day. Even today, after I took the Peace Bike out all day, I owe you a classic 'Sesame Street' clip!

This time, the Number Painter is back. And he's such a cool dude that he's gonna paint a 4! Because that's what cool people do, I guess...



Evidently, that clip had been yanked from YouPube before because it hurt some right-winger's pwecious widdle feewings, but it's back now.

The woman with the umbrella is played by Stockard Channing. Channing is known for her many acting roles and for singing that song from the 'Grease' soundtrack that has the piano notes near the end that are the same as those of the unknown instrument at the beginning of "The Chipmunk Song."

Hilarity ensues at the end of this sketch when a chamberpot appears to be dumped onto the Number Painter and Stockard Channing from an apartment above. Before the days of plumbing, chamberpots were emptied of pee in this manner. And if people were standing below, that was too bad for them.

Maybe 4 is how many gallons of urine were in the chamberpot.

Four!

Voting Republican = dropping food on the floor

I hate it when food gets dropped on the floor.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

Because when that happens, the food is ruined - at least for civilized humans. Once when I was in high school, some kid spit a wet, sticky wad of gum on the floor of the school bus and crammed it back in his mouth, but he didn't exactly qualify as a civilized human.

Just now, a pile of snacks (through no fault of mine) tumbled out of the refrigerator and landed on the floor. That food is wasted! It's utterly ru! It had to be consigned to the gar-bahge.

And I hate food being wasted. I can't stand it.

Voting for today's GOP is like dropping food on the floor. It's a meaningless, senseless waste. One that almost brings a tear to your eye.

I remember once when I was about 2 or 3, I accidentally splattered a bowl of Frosted Flakes (with milk) all over the kitchen. I still feel a nervous jolt in my heart when I remember the blue cereal bowl tumbling off the table and landing upside-down on the yellow tiled floor.

Tony the Tiger may seem to defy gravity in the form of his Diving Tony toy, but his cereal doesn't.

But when Republicans get "elected" and splatter the country all over their own stupid faces, there's no mommy around to comfort you. And the mess never gets cleaned up. Instead it stinks forever.

Fake anthrax mailed to Obama office

The Palin cultists really are out of control, are they?

Today, an Obama campaign office in Philadelphia was targeted by an anthrax scare. The threatening mail that was sent to the campaign office contained a white powder that was designed to appear as anthrax.

Hazmat crews discovered the powder was actually sugar. Investigators are quite rightly probing the incident.

McCain wanted to appeal to kooks on the far right by picking Palin, and now we're seeing the results. Hate breeds hate. There's so much hate in the Palin wing of the GOP that its followers feel more and more energized to resort to all sorts of terror.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Keep an eye on your local kooks. They are dangerous.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/14/22951/274/834/630717)

McCain transition team linked to Saddam

Good grief!

I guess McCain wanted to run a campaign that didn't care who it associated with because he saw how well it worked against him in the 2000 primary. But now this may be the story that ends it all.

It turns out that William Timmons, the head of McCain's presidential transition team, worked for Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi dictator's efforts to relax international sanctions against his regime. Two lobbyists Timmons worked with later pleaded guilty or were convicted of federal charges that they acted as the dictator's unregistered agents.

It gets a little complicated, but I think now it's game over. Seriously.

Kind of takes the wind out of Free Republic's harping about the Ayers nonstory, doesn't it?

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/14/mccain-transition-chief-a_n_134595.html)

Mexico changes course on drug war

A bit of history about GOP and drug war imperialism: In the '90s - after the War on Drugs was already a known failure in the U.S. - a right-wing Congress attempted to blacklist Mexico, because it felt Mexico wasn't doing enough to fight the failed war. Around the same time, some of the same right-wing hacks who had been behind the 1994 electoral disaster in the U.S. were employed to help run Mexican elections. This too was a debacle: Many voters in Mexico were denied the right to vote because polling places ran out of ballots.

The big picture is that in BushWorld, countries besides the United States are browbeaten into doing the Republicans' bidding. It brings a whole new meaning to "resistance is futile."

Mexico complied with the GOP's demands by passing a law to completely ban cold and allergy medicine that contains pseudoephedrine - a goal of the U.S. drug warriors. The ban was supposed to take effect next year.

But now our friends south of the border have soured on the War on Drugs - now that they've finally gotten to see up close how ineffective it is.

The U.S.-backed drug war has caused about 3,500 murders in Mexico this year alone. Many of the victims are soldiers, police officers, politicians, judges, media figures, and their family members. Some of the killings were particularly graphic, as the severed heads of victims have been placed atop fenceposts.

The War on Drugs is a price support for violent cartels - many of which are peopled by corrupt former drug cops who received training from the U.S. It also props up the CIA and the Republican political machine in the U.S.

The drug war is such a failure that Mexican President Felipe Calderon now wants to decriminalize possession of small amounts of certain drugs. Several years ago, then-President Vicente Fox also backed limited decriminalization - but the Bush regime and the U.S. drug czar office forced him to back down.

Bush is the world's #1 exporter of right-wing tyranny (much as his daddy was its #1 importer, with his calls to adopt the policies of totalitarian overseas regimes). Much as eastern Europe used to live under the Soviet Union's thumb, the world now lives under the Republicans'. Hopefully, Calderon won't back down under pressure from an overbearing dictator like Bush.

(Source: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/102857/as_the_violence_soars,_mexico_signals_it's_had_enough_of_america's_stupid_war_on_drugs)

Maps go open source!

Gasp!

What is this world coming to?

Now even maps are open source!

Like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap is a project that lets you - the bespectacled personage - edit publicly viewable reference data from the discomfort of your own home. OpenStreetMap attempts to be a detailed street map covering this here entire planet Earth.

OpenStreetMap was founded back in 2004, and last year it added street data from the U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER service. But only now are peeps discovering OpenStreetMap.

I'd been making some minor forays into the map-drawing biz. I've drawn up some street maps for my area intended for bicyclists. If I was greedy, I could view OpenStreetMap as a threat to my business that must be halted at all costs.

But instead, I cope.

I deal with it.

I adapt.

The RIAA should learn a lesson. When online music sharing became possible, the RIAA did not adapt. It used every excuse in the book to get file sharing sites shut down. This hurt indie musicians and folks who only traded authorized files much more than it hurt those who copied music without permission. The RIAA not only was stuck in the pre-Internet era. By shutting down file sharing services, it was also using a pile driver to crush a gumball.

If I was greedy like the RIAA, I'd be screaming from the rooftops to have the big, mean OpenStreetMap shut down, and hiring folks to impersonate cops to raid its servers. But I'm not greedy like the RIAA. The theory behind OpenStreetMap is a good thing, for it brings more people to the wild party we call mapmaking. It generates more interest in cartography.

In fact, last night when I was told of OpenStreetMap's existence, I began making corrections to it for my area. I'm not going to publicize exactly where, because some Nazi will surely deface my edits.

Peep OpenStreetMap:

http://www.openstreetmap.org

Here's some of my revenue-generating bike maps for a handful of Cincinnati-area neighborhoods:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

GOP former lawmaker charged with child porn

This is why we call 'em Rethuglicans!

The GOP paints itself as the party of morality, but stories like these prove the party's hypocrisy. So I report these stories.

Chris Ortloff is a former New York state representative. Now he serves on the state's parole board. Big Republican, he is.

Now a guy who made laws and deals with convicts is in trouble with the law himself. Ortloff, 61, has now been arrested on charges involving child porn and his alleged attempt to pick up an under-age individual on the Internet.

Ortloff was always one of these self-styled "tough on crime" guys. Everyone else was considered a criminal by him. He was appointed to the parole board by Republican then-Gov. George "Wacky" Pataki, another politician who considered himself a superman of crime-fighting.

Another day, another Republican busted on child porn charges or for picking up minors online. This makes how many now?

As someone on DU pointed out, "tough on crime" types often do turn out to be criminals. Kind of like how people who think everyone else is lying to them turn out to be liars, and people who think everyone else is stealing from them turn out to be thieves. (We all know economic rightists who are good examples of the latter.)

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=169x8353)

Congressman gets investigated; Bush goes unpunished

Pictured here is Tim Mahoney, an alleged Democratic congressman from Florida's Palm Beaches area.

I say alleged because he's a member of the Blue Dog Coalition - which I call the Bush Dogs. The Blue Dogs are a soulmate of the wretched DLC. The Bush Dogs might pick better issues than the DLC for their respective districts, but overall they're a sorry-assed little club.

Now, ABC says Mahoney paid a former mistress over $100,000 not to sue him. I honestly don't know if it's true. You have to consider the source. It's been obvious this year that ABC is hell-bent on electing Republicans, and they're probably just trying to give his GOP opponent a boost.

If Mahoney did what ABC claims, it's gravely wrong. But what's amazing is that Democratic leaders are investigating Mahoney over a frigging ABC story while not doing a fucking thing about Bush - after promising to impeach him!

You read that right: They're investigating because of the say-so of ABC, of all people. These days, ABC (which seems to stand for Anti-Barack Channel) is only a few steps above Fox News. (Not like the other networks are much better.)

Nancy Pelosi wants Tim Mahoney "immediately and thoroughly" probed over ABC's allegation. Fair enough, Nancy - as long as Bush is also "immediately and thoroughly" investigated over the government spying scandal, the illegal war, and countless other misdeeds.

Otherwise, thanks for nothing, Nancy.

Why is a war criminal like Bush allowed to remain in the White House for 8 years without being investigated?

Even if ABC's story on Mahoney is accurate (and I'm sure they'd ignore the story altogether if a Republican was involved), there's already enough cause for the next Congress to launch hearings about Republican bias in the media. That's been long overdue, and the media's bias is so influential that Congress needs to get to it lickety-split.

October surprise?

I think I know what the Republicans' October surprise is!

I've long kept an eye out for the GOP's "gotcha!" politics, and I know that no opposition candidate is completely safe from it. Good candidates have found their campaigns in tatters, and I've seriously considered whether parties should be able to run new candidates when their initial pick is unfairly weakened by smears.

Lately, everything the fuckheadosphere has trotted out against Obama has been a bust. Today, however, I think I've finally figured out what the GOP's October surprise is: manipulating gas prices and the stock market.

The oil industry (a major Republican cartel) manipulated prices in 2006 by gouging consumers with record-high gasoline costs and lowering the prices just before the election to make it look like things were going just swell (even though the prices remained much higher than they were before the gouging). It's clear they're pulling the exact same stunt now.

Just a few days ago, the drop in gas prices was reported to be one of the biggest drops ever (if not the biggest). The only fact that gets reported is the drop - not the fact that the prices were artificially high to begin with (and remain so).

Today - at least according to NBC - the stock market posted its biggest one-day gain in history. This after the economy spent years faltering. The media paid more attention to this one-day boost than in the overall state of the economy.

The market actually bears little resemblance to real economic conditions. When you hear about the crash of 1929, it's important to note than many Americans had already been living a Great Depression. The 1920s were like the 1990s and 2000s: Millions of Americans lived in poverty, but everyone turned a blind eye and pretended it wasn't going on. My grandparents were raised in the 1920s, and I remember them telling me that they didn't even have electric fans (although electric fans had been invented by then).

I think the market is being manipulated to create the illusion of prosperity. At minimum, the media is manipulating it to make everything appear rosy.

If you were watching TV earlier when they broke in with the stock reports (which they've been doing every weekday lately), all you heard was how the government needs to help banks more, and how the market's sudden upsurge was a response to new industry-friendly policies.

Who knows how long that'll last? The stock market is antithetical to the economic interests of most Americans, but the misconception that a prosperous market means a prosperous America is entrenched. If today's boost is part of a successful effort to manipulate the market for political gain, the market will probably sustain gains for the next 3 weeks, Americans will continue to bleed jobs and money, and the Republicans will deny there's anything wrong with the economy.

But I don't think people will fall for it.

If manipulating fuel prices and the stock market is the best October surprise the Right can come up with, they're toast.

Obama calls for foreclosure moratorium (finally)

It's about time!

Deregulation of Big Business has become almost sacrosanct. Even as personal behavior becomes more regimented by countless laws, corporations operate with almost no regulations whatsoever. (Brings a whole new meaning to "regulation for thee, not for me", doesn't it?)

What's astonishing is that - despite all the years the economy has been in decline - it's taken this long for most Americans to realize how awful the economy is. It's taken just as long for most in politics to even hint that deregulation of Corporate America is the cause of this chronic recession.

Defenders of deregulation often link it with competition, but that's been a sham from the get-go. Every new wave of dereg brings more monopolies.

Until now, reregulation hasn't even been on the tip of political leaders' tongues since probably the days of big hair. Our so-called leaders aren't exactly on top of things, are they?

Democratic standard-bearer Barack Obama now wants a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures at banks that participate in the federal bailout. A step in the right direction, for sure. Not a huge step (for I'd support a longer moratorium at all banks), but a step nonetheless.

Finally! I just can't believe it's taken as long as it has for even the Democrats to advance any sort of control on financial institutions. I'd expect the Republicans to be against such a much-needed idea, but who'd ever think the Democrats would drag their feet for so long? Restoring the regulatory apparatus should've been one of the top priorities back when the Democrats regained Congress.

A moratorium seems to have widespread support - except in the wingnutosphere, where the GOP Movementarians paint it as some sort of handout that puts too much burden on poor, innocent banks.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081013/ap_on_el_pr/obama)

"The industry" falling from favor in Maryland

"The industry."

That's what many folks call the youth confinement racket. Many (if not most) teen residential programs (whether in the public or private sector) are known to be abusive, and many will take great pains to try to silence critics.

But now the state of Maryland is moving away from residential treatment facilities and opting instead for community-based programs. Why? Nonresidential community-based programs are much more effective than locking kids away. They have much higher success rates and cost much less. (Many residential programs are known to be wholly unsuccessful.)

Under this new policy, a 43-bed center is closing, and two-thirds of the juveniles held there are being sent home for community-based programs.

Nationwide, confinement programs have been dropping like raisins lately. At least one other has vanished just in the past week, and a confirmedly abusive program in New York state closed about a month ago.

This follows last year's closure of another Maryland facility after the brutal death of a youth there.

(Source: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/local_news/newsstory5.txt)

Student, parent arrested over wrong color bookbag

If there's one thing that's been a constant trend for close to 30 years, it's that American schools (like the economy) get progressively worse in almost every way.

Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts, is run by Nazis. I find that to be a fact. In addition to its fascist uniform policy (which violates a state law that explicitly forbids mandatory uniforms), it has a bookbag policy as well. School administrators seem to have anointed themselves as art critics, for they now prohibit bookbags that are of the wrong color.

Worse, like the Hitlers they are, they call the cops when students violate this rule. Recently a 16-year-old student came to school with a multicolored bookbag. As a result, police arrested both him and his mother.

Arrested over the color of a fucking bookbag?

I'm sorry, folks, but if I was the parent, I'd march right back to school the next day and give them something to arrest me over. That school is so Nazi that it's a miracle nobody has.

As for the dress code, which regulates even the color of shoelaces, it's supported by the city's Republican Mayor Michael Sullivan. That he'd back a policy that violates state law (not to mention the First Amendment) means he's not doing his job to uphold the law.

And yes, the spittle crowd has already flooded the comment section of the Massachusetts paper with racist posts attacking uniform opponents. (I knew you'd ask whether they had.)

(Source: http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_286040843.html)

Open thread

This is a 3-day weekend, and you're entitled to see the classic "Just Think..." banner from the old Conservative Fool Of The Day blog every now and then. (It's a constitutional right!)

This entry is an open thread, so start talkin', folks! Now that you can post here with an OpenID account, I expect the comment portion of this entry to be full by tomorrow!

Bush regime spies on soldiers' calls

Surprised that the same government that started an unnecessary war, revoked soldiers' signing bonuses if they got injured too severely to return to battle, and gutted medical care for vets just to make a political point is spying on soldiers' calls?

Two military linguists now say the National Security Agency has routinely spied on American military personnel and even Red Cross workers serving overseas. Discussions of personal matters were then shared among NSA operators.

A Senate committee is now looking into the revelation.

For several years, Bush screamed and cried that he wanted wiretap authority to stop terrorists. Apparently he thinks American soldiers are terrorists now.

Now it's clearer than ever that Bush doesn't give a damn about the troops. If he respected them, he wouldn't be spying on their phone calls.

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jGNgMYiSB-JrbSaDEtAWveHG9higD93N9EL80)

Important news about this blog!

Starting today, you can use an OpenID account to post in the comment section of entries here at the 'Pail!

The comment feature has been stymied because I've required commenters to have a Google account since the blog's early days. A few of you have gotten a Google account just for that purpose, and even used that as a reason to start a blog on Google's blogging service.

This is a good thing, of course, because blogs contribute to the marketplace of ideas. Ideally, however, it shouldn't be necessary to have a Google account to post here.

I implemented the requirement because originally it was either that or have no restrictions at all before posting. At first, this blog had no account restrictions, but I implemented the Google requirement because someone kept impersonating other posters. But now that Blogger accepts OpenID, you've got a whole new option!

The rule about impersonation remains unchanged: Posts that I believe are phony will be deleted on sight. If I can detect who's behind it, they will be banned for life from posting here. Lifetime bans carried over from the People's Forum remain in force here.

I also plan on having one open thread each weekend and on some holidays. When you see an open thread, gab about almost anything (provided it fits the guidelines of this blog)!

66-year-old man jailed for being too poor to obey homeowners' association

I've said countless times that homeowners' associations are paper tigers. Although many have become fiefdoms that micromanage residents' lives with illogical (often illegal) Allowed Clouds, they wholly lack arrest powers.

Until now.

In Bayonet Point, Florida, a 66-year-old grandpa has been jailed by his homeowners' association because he can't afford to resod his lawn.

The man has owned his home since 1998. His homeowners' association requires yards to be covered by grass, but his lawn went brown when his sprinkler broke. He's 66, and he couldn't afford to resod the yard. The man was in such dire financial straits that his car got repossessed.

Because he couldn't afford to keep his lawn green, the homeowners' association sued him to court. The court gave him 30 days to sod the yard. The court also made him pay hundreds of dollars to the homeowners' association in legal fees.

Needless to say, he couldn't afford that either. So the court jailed him for contempt - and is refusing to release him until he can afford to sod the yard and pay the association's legal fees.

Wasn't debtor's prison abolished in the 19th century?

And since when do courts do the bidding of homeowners' associations, which are not public entities but are organized under corporate law? That's like throwing someone in jail because they wore the wrong shirt to work.

Now I know why the community is called Bayonet Point. It's because homeowners' associations enforce their whims at the point of a bayonet.

This is how they treat a 66-year-old man with a heart condition?

The homeowners' association spent much more on legal fees than it would've paid if it had sodded the lawn itself. But the court's order for the man to pay up is a bonanza for the association: It lets the association effectively receive free legal help - plus reimbursement for the $150 fee it paid for an expert witness.

Being a corporation means never having to pay to fight your own battles.

Now someone's grandfather is rotting in jail (with no bail) all because he can't afford to put fresh grass on his lawn - or pay the legal fees of a corporation that sued him over this fact. The jail has a capacity of only 782 inmates, but it houses 1,132 - so it's already overcrowded to begin with.

The taxpayers are being forced to pay for the association's abuse of power. It costs money to keep people in jail, you know.

Welcome to BushWorld.

(Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article847365.ece)

Get ready for another right-wing tantrum!

Whooooo, man!

I think that if Obama's lead in the polls sticks, and he wins the election, the Far Right is going to throw the absolute biggest temper tantrum you've ever seen!

I was around in 1992 when Mad Dog Bush got his ass handed to him, but the resulting sore loser tantrum was nothing compared to what appears to be looming now!

Why, the Republicans are even mad at McCain for not being able to stop the bleeding! The GOP base is yelling "treason!" and "kill him!" every time McCain or Palin mentions Obama at a rally. One Republican cultist cried, "I'm mad. I'm really mad. And what's going to surprise you, it's not the economy. It's the socialists taking over our country." At another rally, a Republican follower yelled a racial slur at a press member.

I can predict what's going to happen: Obama will probably win. But the right-wing spittle crowd will throw an even bigger fit than they did in '92, try for a repeat of the electoral disaster that happened in '94, and try to blow up stuff like they did back then. If Obama does win, we can't let the sore losers on the right erase this win. We'll need to keep an eye on them.

My message in the short term: If you're a Democrat, a Green, or just a hard-working American who detests the GOP's incitements, don't be bullied. Vote for almost anyone but McCain. And stand your ground in the face of those who might throw toddler tantrums about the election results.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.crowd)

Palin booed at hockey game

Hahaha, this is funny!

Failin' Palin made a big issue of appearing at an NHL game in which the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New York Rangers. But when she appeared, she got booed for 90 seconds straight!

And during this spectacle, she dropped the puck like it was a piece of poo-poo!



Notice also that the arena amped up the music when the booing started so Palin couldn't hear the booing and be subjected to feewinghurt.

Sarah Palin acted like she'd never been to a hockey game in her life!

When Green means Republican red

Lovely. Now my Green Party is gaining its own version of the DLC.

With lawmakers' continued failure to pass instant runoff voting, the Republicans have realized they can let some of their partisans defect to the Greens to siphon votes from the Democrats. Arizona seems to be the center of this scam, now that the Greens have finally been given ballot access in that state.

In one of the most important state legislative races, the Green candidate was actually a Republican until 4 days before she filed to run! In another district, a prospective candidate switched from Republican to Green on the same day he filed.

This is more than merely irritating. It's an outright case of fraud. And it's possibly criminal.

For now, Greens in Arizona see through this con game. Several candidates running as Greens are being opposed by the state's Green Party because the candidates are running on a right-wing platform that sounds ripped straight from the fusty pages of the GOP. Some of the candidates in question won't even meet with Green leaders.

For Republicans to run as Greens would be like Democrats running under the misnamed Constitution Party.

If Arizona is like Kentucky, it would mean election rules state candidates have to follow the platforms of their parties. It would also mean this rule is not enforced. But for one party to run phony candidates under another party's line just to act as a spoiler seems to me to be a far sleazier affront than merely not following your party's platform.

(Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/10/11/20081011greenparty1011.html)

Goofy golfer gums gooey gum (Bubble Gum Weekend)

It's another sports-themed gum ad, and you're going to laugh just as much at this one as you have at the others!

Now is the time to draw a line as to what bubble gum is. If gum is labeled as bubble gum, it's bubble gum. The only functional difference between bubble gum and other gum is supposed to be the formulation: Bubble gum is designed to be stretchier, so people can more easily bubble with it.

The real difference is often only in marketing. Gum experts lament the current state of the industry, because nowadays, even products expressly labeled as bubble gum barely bubble. Thus, it's only fair that even gum that is not marketed as bubble gum is eligible for being featured on this blog.

Such is the case with this unintentionally funny Freedent commersh that bears a date of 1989:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlAriRgY9bg

Freedent always seemed to be marketed as gum for people with no teeth. Most people I know who are over 30, however, have hardly a tooth to speak of, yet when they chew gum, it's never Freedent.

This commercial features a man on a golf course in a goofy pink shirt extolling Freedent's capabilities. I forgot about this ad campaign for years until I found that clip on YouTube and remembered how I used to think the jingle that sang, "Moistens your mouth," actually said, "Poisons your mouth."

Freedent's selling point is that it doesn't stick, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of gum? Gum wouldn't be gum if it wasn't sticky. People like to chomp big wads of gum, let them get stuck in their dentures, and use the gum to plug up faucets in sinks in public restrooms - so the next time someone uses the sink, the water shoots out horizontally and hits them in the crotch so it makes them look like they pissed their pants. Freedent seems to offer no such amusement.

Let gum be gum. That'll make America strong again!

Panel finds Palin abused power in Troopergate

Gee, ya think?

I haven't seen much about this story in the pop-up media, but now the chief investigator of a bipartisan Alaska legislative panel has concluded that Failin' Palin abused her power as governor when she tried to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

In doing so, Palin violated an important state ethics law.

That's the Republicans' idea of "reform"?

Naturally, the McCain/Palin campaign is blaming "the liberals" for the whole scandal.

But in the eyes of the blogosphere, there's nothing to see here. They're more concerned about a writer scaring them 10 years ago than in a current vice-presidential candidate abusing her power.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story.aspx?content_id=276e8e82-5f56-4c17-b801-488ae58ab9c1)

County purposely misspells Obama's name on ballot

Weird how all the right-wing maniacs keep repeating the exact same stupid mistake, and everyone claims it's an accident.

Now it's happened again, this time in Rensselaer County, New York. Some right-wing operative with the county responsible for printing up absentee ballots purposely misspelled Obama's name as "Osama."

A Republican county commissioner said, "This was a typo." No. It was not. The 'B' key is nowhere near the 'S' key on any typewriter I've seen, and this exact same mistake has been "accidentally" made by other right-wingers before.

You'd really have to be naive to think this wasn't intentional, considering the McCain campaign has been one of the dirtiest in America's history (not counting those run by anyone named Bush). Yet everyone still keeps insisting is was accidental.

The intent of this display is even more obvious when you consider that if a voter crossed out the misspelled name and put the correct spelling, the ballot would be voided. So it's obvious they're trying to make sure Obama votes don't count.

The Republicans really are trying to steal another election, aren't they?

The moral of the story is: Wipe boogies all over Republicanism. It's a waste.

(Source: http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/10/ny-county-sends.html;
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=728326)

Clear Channel station accuses Magic Johnson of faking AIDS

The right-wing noise machine is a repulsive development, and it seems to get worse weekly.

KTLK-FM in Minneapolis is a right-wing talk station. (The American radio industry thinks every market "needs" rightist hate talk on FM, even where it already dominates AM.) Now conservative KTLK hosts Chris Baker and Langdon Perry have drawn criticism after they claimed basketball legend Magic Johnson faked AIDS to gain sympathy.

It's clear Baker and Langdon don't know what the fuck they're talking about. (Johnson has HIV, but in his case it has not yet developed into AIDS.)

An equally important issue is the ownership of the station. When I saw this story, I said to myself, "Bet it's a Clear Channel station!" I looked up KTLK's entry on Wikipedia, and sure enough, it is.

Clear Channel Communications is the right-wing media conglomerate known for suppressing criticism of the Bush regime, actively cheering the Iraq War, airing a disproportionate amount of right-wing talk programs, and hosting several so-called "personalities" who have urged listeners to mow down bicyclists with their cars.

The rise of Clear Channel was enabled by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which gutted ownership caps for radio stations. With the suddenly renewed interest in reregulation, maybe now we can put the repeal of this illegal law back on the frontburner.

(Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-magicjohnson&prov=ap&type=lgns)

It's got legs... (more Freeper Madness)

The unfathomable morons who people Freak Rethuglic never cease to astound!

On Wednesday, a Freeper posted an article they headered, "Archives prove Obama was a New Party member (Story is growing legs!!!)" Yesterday, the same user posted one headlined, "Obama and New Party Continues to Grow Legs." (Because Brit Hume mentioned it, you see.)

Well, yeah.

Guess what, Sherlock Hemlock? I probably would've been a New Party member too if Kentucky allowed it.

Let that story grow legs, will ya?

The New Party was the name of an American political party in the '90s that overlapped with the Democrats' progressive wing. It promoted electoral fusion, in which a candidate could be nominated by more than one party.

I read an article about the New Party during its heyday, and I said, "Go for it!" I dug what I saw. The party seemed particularly strong in New Mexico. Nationwide, the party reportedly won 77 of the 110 elections it ran in.

I expect to see outbursts on Free Republic called "Archives prove Lunchpail blogger was a New Party member (Story is growing legs!!!)" and "Lunchpail and New Party Continues to Grow Legs."

Somehow, I don't think Obama's feelings are hurt too much by the attempts to link him to the New Party. The New Party's positions weren't much different from many Democrats 20 years earlier, so the party was hardly radical. The New Party was like the Democrats minus the DLC and the Blue Dog Coalition. The Freepers' "discovery" appeals to few people other than their own bloc of losers.

We can only hope Obama truly was in the New Party. I'd feel much more assured about his views if he was.

School uniforms = sweatshops

I'm 35, and I don't wish to dwell on the matter of mandatory school uniforms. But as the cancer of uniforms grows, I must - even as I attempt to ration the number of entries here about the topic.

SweatFree Communities is a Maine-based organization that fights the evils that define sweatshop exploitation. SweatFree has now issued a report revealing that sweatshop labor is found in the school uniform industry.

Many uniforms are made at a factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, that dishes out ruinous abuses to its workers. The factory makes them work 19-hour days for only $20 a month - in clear violation of Bangladesh's minimum wage law. Employees are forced to stand for hours if they show up late. They are also beaten and verbally abused.

The sweatshop's biggest customer is...Wal-Mart. This despite the fact that Wal-Mart boasts in its ads that it prefers dealing in American-made goods (a claim that was long ago debunked). The retail giant sells the uniforms under the Faded Glory brand. The 19-hour days were introduced to meet Wal-Mart's orders.

SweatFree was more than fair. They sent Wal-Mart a draft of the report before releasing it to the public so the store chain would have time to mend its ways. But Wal-Mart pleaded and pleaded for the report not to be made public.

Too late, Wal-Mart.

(SweatFree was going to release the report anyway, but it was only fair to provide Wal-Mart advance notice.)

Wal-Mart is so influential in Bangladesh that if the company had taken steps long ago, sweatshop abuses could've been stemmed significantly. It's impossible for sweatshops to be so widespread there without Wal-Mart's approval.

School uniforms mean sweatshops and abused workers. Why should families be forced to buy extra clothes that were made in a ghastly sweatshop just to appease a school's diktat? Look hard enough, and you can find ordinary clothes that are certified sweatshop-free - and may cost less than the uniform your school makes you buy.

Is the media still going to claim uniforms are the world's great economic equalizer? They knew anyway it wasn't true, but are they going to keep getting away with it?

If you support school uniforms, you're supporting sweatshops.

Why should you let anyone force you to buy something made in factories where workers have to put in 19-hour days for subminimum wages and get beaten throughout?

(Source: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2008/db2008109_219930.htm)

This is a populist blog. Deal with it!

I now remember the elusive fourth dream I had yesterday morning. The dream featured this very blog, which someone in the dream flooded with bigoted propaganda. My response in the dream influences this entry, so here goes it...

A lot of folks don't understand me, my record, or this blog. I've been somewhat eminent for 15 years as a populist newsletter publisher. When some in this supposedly learned world hear of populism, they think that gives them an opening for attack.

I'm not talking about attacks from those who admit to being on the right; I'm talking about assaults from those who claim to be on the left. In the Internet world that flourished from the mid-'90s to mid-'00s, left-leaning economic views were often viewed as a sign that one was right-wing overall.

Got that? As the band Chicago might say: It's a paradox, full of contradiction.

The more left-wing I appeared on economics, the more I was falsely accused of being a racist, order-crazy right-winger, even though my posts usually had nothing to do with racial matters or culture war items. The truth is, I detest racism, and I'm highly permissive on personal freedom. But the online world - and some sectors of the offline world - were so out of step that they'd never conceptualized a progressive populist.

For them to claim I've ever been right-wing in my adult life is preposterous. There's no contradiction in the twin legs (economic and social) of the left.

I might just ignore this criticism except it hindered my efforts to fight the truly malicious activities I've seen. More than once, some asshole has distributed bigoted crap under my name. For a while, there were quite a few disgusting Internet posts designed to make it appear as if I wrote them. When I correctly denied posting them, critics pointed to my economic populism as "proof" that I'd post bigoted tirades. To them, economic left = social right.

And so, the fix was in.

This stigma on my record hasn't been fully erased. Even on this blog, when I used to link directly to Wikipedia photos, there have been problems because of right-wing fanatics uploading vile pictures to Wikipedia to replace those items.

What was I supposed to tell people when they saw that? Many folks aren't technologically savvy enough to know it was a hoax. If not for others deliberately trying to drag my good name and that of populism through cess, I could tell my side.

This is a populist blog. Not just populist, but progressive populist. And it's in Kentucky!

Deal with it!

Fuss weakly

This is my latest report about a likely act of censorship by a peeved patron at the Kenton County Public Library - much like the suspected cover-up of a local news story that I touched on a few days ago.

When I was at the libe in Covington on Monday, I noticed one more thing that seemed too suspicious for words. I was working on my writing at the table near the magazine stand, when I saw something strange. The spot where Us Weekly usually stood featured no magazine. Instead it had a sign that said, "THE CURRENT ISSUE OF US WEEKLY IS AT THE REFERENCE DESK."

It was immediately clear what had happened: Some wingnut, upset about Us Weekly's allegedly negative coverage of Sarah Palin, had started stealing or defacing the magazine. So the library was forced to start putting it behind the counter.

The thefts or sabotage apparently continue a month later, which is why the libe won't put Us Weekly back out on the shelf.

I didn't notice any other magazine that was missing.

It's nice to know that conservatives are such big babies now that they go to the library to ruin magazines that print things they don't like. They're a bunch of magazine-destroying losers.

Chicago sheriff halts foreclosure evictions

It's another tiny step in beating back the foreclosure crisis - but this step is certainly welcome.

In Chicago's Cook County, Sheriff Tom Dart, a Democrat, has announced that he will not enforce foreclosure evictions. A foreclosure eviction is the eviction of a renter from a building whose owner has been foreclosed upon. Foreclosures against landlords are more common than you might think. Banks and mortgage companies that foreclose frequently evict tenants.

Dart pointed out that the tenants had faithfully paid rent - even if the building owners could not pay the mortgage. The lawman said, "These mortgage companies only see pieces of paper, not people. ... We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We're just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today."

Many folks are surprised that financial institutions are even allowed to evict tenants of foreclosed properties. There should be a law banning foreclosure evictions of renters. Foreclosure evictions are bad for communities and families.

Illinois law already says tenants must be given 120 days of notice before being evicted under a foreclosure, but banks and mortgage companies regularly ignore the law. As a result of the law being flouted, unsuspecting renters often come home from work to find their possessions sitting on the curb.

How does the Illinois Bankers Association react to Dart's policy? They accuse the sheriff of "vigilantism" and "martial law." Is that the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance I hear again?

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. Several jurisdictions won't enforce foreclosures at all. In the Windy City, big banks are actually getting off easier than they could, because sheriffs aren't even required to enforce foreclosures.

And how is it "martial law" to not enforce such a quirky eviction? Barging into an apartment with a battering ram and taking tenants' belongings out to the curb just because of a greedy bank's say-so sounds more like martial law than Tom Dart's new policy does.

Banks accuse the sheriff of not following the law when banks don't even follow the law requiring a 120-day notice?

Hopefully other counties will follow the new Cook County policy.

(Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWQSAw_s2aqqnJS5Ib0-PbD24H5gD93MJAO00;
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/08/chicago.evictions)

Sheriff's tirade violated Hatch Act

Mike Scott is the right-wing sheriff of Lee County, Florida. (His physical resemblance to Men At Work lead singer Colin Hay has been noted.)

Scott is the reactionary beezweezer who appeared at a rally featuring Sarah Palin and made fun of Obama's middle name. Now that remark has resulted in a formal complaint about Scott violating the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act is a longstanding law that prevents government employees from engaging in partisan political activity. The sheriff - whose department receives federal funds - violated this law by engaging in political activity while on duty and in uniform. He also wore political buttons while he was on duty.

Scott so clearly broke the Hatch Act that a government investigation against him has now been launched.

He also appears to have violated Lee County's own code of ethics. This rule says county employees may not campaign in a county uniform, even if they're off-duty. However, one county official says Scott is not a county employee because he's an elected official.

Are you following that? They actually claimed the sheriff isn't a county employee because he's elected.

As an another example of Lee County right-wing doublespeak, Mike Scott said he was justified in ridiculing Obama's middle name because he had to give his own middle name to the Secret Service to speak at the event. This is relevant how? Obama wasn't at the Palin rally, and giving your own middle name to the Secret Service is a bit different from making light of someone else's in front of a crowd.

And this guy's a sheriff?

(Source: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081006/NEWS0107/81006002&s=d&page=3)

All I have to do is dream

Dreams are interesting! No doubt about it!

I've heard that dreams represent what lurks just below what we think of while awake. They can foreshadow - by putting together clues that we already have conscious knowledge of. And they can redo past events based on clues we should've put together long ago.

When I woke up this morn, I could clearly recall 4 dreams I had last night. For the life of me, I can only remember 3 of them now, but they sure do pib!

A recurring dream I've had for years involves some manner of defecting from my first high school and finding a better school before too much damage can be done. I think this shows just how close it came to happening in real life.

This wasn't the theme of last night's dreams, but 2 of them did involve teenage troubles. The first one involved me (in my current adult life) amassing a large group of people to raid an abusive teenage confinement facility and successfully freeing all the detainees who were unjustly held there.

The second one involved me (as a teenager) almost being sent to a right-wing religious prep school in Chicago after an article about it appeared in the paper. I'm sure this was based partly on a positive article I saw recently about such a school in another city.

Another dream wasn't related to teen woes, however. In this dream, I was on a family outing and found a Tresler Comet gas station. Taken by surprise at seeing a gas station chain that had long ago vanished, I tried photographing it, but the camera's batteries were dead. So I went to a nearby Kroger to buy new batteries, and a clerk (a woman who was about 60) told me the store only sold partially spent batteries. The exception was 'D' batteries. She told me the store sold fresh 'D' batteries "to see if they can float."

It remains unclear why anyone would want to know if batteries can float, why fresh batteries would be more likely to float than used batteries, or why they had to be in a store to see whether they could float.

The only thing I know of in real life that may have influenced that dream was that I recently saw an old news photo that featured a Tresler Comet.

Dreams must be interpreted to sift through what's realistic and what isn't. If something in a dream seems unrealistic or ill-advised if taken literally, it may have symbolic value. Maybe it means we should swallow batteries to see if they get pooped out as floaters.

Or maybe not.

Eli Lilly & Co. sucks again

Thirty-three states have just reached a record-smashing $62,000,000 settlement with Republican pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. over its improper marketing of Zyprexa.

This follows a $58,000,000 settlement earlier this year with Merck & Co. over Vioxx.

Even Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum was involved in the settlement, and McCollum is one of the most manifestly conservative major politicians in America. It shows you how out of control Lilly is when even Bill McCollum gets on its case.

The settlement results from the Indianapolis-based drug maker's "Viva Zyprexa!" campaign that deceptively marketed the drug for off-label uses. Lilly also failed to disclose side effects to doctors.

(Source: http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/160ED91F903304BA852574DB004BB3CD)

Court blocks release of Gitmo inmates

The right-wing ogre contingent that dominates the Republican Party can't go a day without getting their way, I guess.

After a federal district judge ruled that 17 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay torture center had to be released because the government couldn't prove the men posed a threat, the Bush regime asked a federal appeals court to block the release.

The appeals court complied by issuing a temporary "emergency" order blocking the men from being freed - thus giving the Bush regime time to prepare an appeal of the district judge's order.

Leave it to Bush to waste taxpayers' money on this shit when the government can't even prove its own fucking case. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If the detainees pose a threat, it's up to the government to prove it. That's supposed to be one of the most enduring legal doctrines in our system.

Does anyone still doubt the Decider's machine operates with almost no constraints, even as he ambles to the exit curtain like he's got 40 pounds of poo-poo in his trousers?

(Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/08/court-blocks-judges-order-to-free-chinese-muslims)

17 Gitmo detainees freed

Yesterday saw a stunning setback for the Bush regime when a federal judge ordered 17 detainees at the Guantanamo Bay death camp released. This was the first ruling like this in the 7 years of wrangling over Gitmo.

The men had been held there without a trial or due process since 2002.

The Bush regime had given up trying to prove the men were enemy combatants, so why the hell did they insist on keeping them detained? If the men posed a threat, why didn't the government prove it?

The case stemmed from the writ of habeas corpus - a right the Supreme Court upheld in a major decision this year. Although the Constitution says habeas corpus may be suspended "when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it", it can't be revoked permanently.

Habeas corpus. It's a precious concept that lets one seek relief from arbitrary detention. Knowing about habeas corpus can be invaluable. If only more people knew more about it, things could have been very different in the past few years.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/washington/08detain.html)

City wants Obama mural gone

How many of you - if you read that a city wanted a mural supporting Obama removed - believe the city would let a McCain mural stand?

A lot of hands went up, I see.

The city of Denver wants a 26-foot-long Obama mural on a fence taken down - even though it's on private property. The reason? The city considers the mural painted by local teenagers to be an illegal campaign sign. (The fence belongs to the grandparents of one of the teens and was painted with their permission.)

Where's the city's efforts to remove McCain signs then?

More proof the laws are being selectively enforced? When other political murals in Denver were painted over by police in riot gear, authorities cited the content of the murals - not the size or location.

Riot police for political murals? Who says America hasn't become a command state?

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4193349)

Peaceful dissidents entered into terrorism databases

Is it Nazism yet?

The head of the Maryland Police State Police has now acknowledged that the department classified 53 nonviolent activists as terrorists and entered their personal information into state and federal terrorism and drug trafficking databases.

This revelation came during a meeting before the state legislature about this growing scandal. The illegal spy operation targeted antiwar activists and death penalty critics.

Now the department has been forced to notify the activists so they can review their files before the files are purged. "The names don't belong in there," the police chief admitted. "It's as simple as that."

Who authorized the KGB-like spy operation?

It happened under the administration of right-wing then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich. The operation itself was authorized by Ehrlich's state police superintendent Thomas E. Hutchins. Hutchins continues to arrogantly defend the program, despite it being clearly illegal. He cried that the activists were dangerous "fringe people."

And the Free Republic terrorists aren't? The Freak Rethuglic fascists regularly conduct roadside rallies in Maryland in which they have started fights with dissidents. Why aren't the police keeping an eye out for them?

Needless to say, the surveillance failed to turn up any illegal activities.

The fact that the antiwar activists were also placed in a drug trafficking database is yet more proof that the War on Drugs is being used to wield against innocents.

Hutchins, Ehrlich, and others involved in the spy operation need to be tossed in prison. If anyone is "fringe people", it's them.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100703245.html)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for "I-Beam"! ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

'Sesame Street' used to be edgy: Cookie Monster was slovenly. The ol' Osk was a grouch. Cartoon darts carried people away and splattered their guts onto dartboards.

And the letter 'I' was a red-hot piece of steel!

Many 'Sesame Street' experts cite a live action clip titled "I-Beam" as one of the show's most thrillingly scary segments. And wouldn't ya know it! Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it's now on YouPube after many years of obscurity...



That clip from around 1977 shows a piping hot I-beam rolling through a steel mill! It was reportedly filmed at a mill in Pennsylvania, and it was designed to teach about the letter 'I'. Many are still unnerved by it, but clips like this made America strong!

The copy on YouTube starts out with a lengthy leader, for it was gathered at Sesame Workshop's archives. The segment begins 35 seconds into the YouTube clip.

Even the music in this segment is exciting! The clank at the beginning of the sketch always took viewers by surprise!

The only drawback to this clip is that when I saw it in my childhood, I wasn't sure it was supposed to represent the letter 'I'. I knew it looked like an 'I', but the font seemed unusual. I thought maybe it was a giant bone for dogs.

Clank!

Starbucks wastes water

I don't have the stomach to hear about "much-needed rain" in a place like Cincinnati when Starbucks leaves its water running nonstop.

Although Starbucks likes to talk about its environmentally friendly practices, it's now been revealed that the worldwide chain of coffee shops wastes 6,000,000 gallons of water each day. This wastage is accomplished by leaving the faucets running constantly - literally 100% of the time (except when a store closes each night).

Starbucks claims this is standard industry practice. But the 6,000,000 gallons it squanders each day would be enough to serve the entire population of the drought-stricken country of Namibia.

And when we say Namibia has a drought, we mean it's a drought. In my area, everyone thinks it's a drought if it goes a day without raining. But in Namibia, a drought is a real drought.

The world is running out of freshwater, yet Starbucks pretends as if there's no crisis.

(Source: http://www.wgy.com/cc-common/seasonal/gogreen/sub.html?feed=104764&article=4364172&lc=green)

McCain loses another debate

I watched tonight's debate (which again illegally eschewed third parties).

When McCain said nuclear power was a green technology, I knew that once again the GOP had turned in yet another weak performance.

Once again, I'm not even going to stick around for the punditocracy to have its say.

Embarrassing story covered up?

Yesterday at the library I discovered a likely cover-up of an ugly episode in the region's past.

You can log on to the Internet from home to access an index to the libe's newspaper collection. If you find an interesting article referenced in the index, you can go to the library later and read the article itself on microfilm.

While the local media in recent times has covered up stories like serial school harassment, it used to be pretty good about keeping folks informed. The apparent cover-up I found yesterday wasn't by the media but by someone trying to prevent the public from accessing media accounts. The cover-up concerns an unfortunate story of bigotry from some years ago.

I've read that regional history buffs don't dwell on stories like this, because they want history to be all good-timey. And I'm told there have been cover-ups of stories like this in other American locales.

Anyhow, I looked for the microfilm reel of the Kentucky Post issues that would've had articles about this story. In the drawer where the reel should've been, there was no reel. Instead there was an empty box that was the same size and shape of the reel boxes, bearing a sticker that said, "FOUND IN INDEXING." In other words, the libe had index entries to the articles, but not the articles themselves.

I concluded that the library likely did not intentionally lose that reel. I know I've had problems with the libe censoring my website on its computers, but if the libe was going to censor this story, it never would've included index entries for it. Besides, a small account of the story in the Cincinnati Enquirer was not missing from the library's collection.

I believe the reel was stolen. I think a disgruntled library patron didn't want the story getting out, so they smuggled the reel out of the library. Maybe that's why the library put the camera in the ceiling. Then again, the camera is at such an angle that the thief probably would not have been caught.

Varying levels of embarrassment could result from the suppressed story. Everyone in the immediate area probably knows someone who would feel personally embarrassed by it, but I was looking for details about actions, not people. I'll likely never know exactly what went on, all because someone decided I didn't have a right to decide for myself what to read.

Right-wing idiot wants to criminalize poor

Do you need any more proof that America's political "leaders" don't give a floating fuck about you or anyone else but their greedy selves?

In the eyes of the right-wing consensus that dominates modern American politics, everyone who isn't of above-average income is a criminal. That includes me, you, and tens of millions of others - young and old, urban and rural, and of all races. According to our so-called "leaders", if you have bad luck in life, it's entirely your fault, you're less of a person, and you should be punished further.

Another clod who subscribes to this belief is Weldon Davis, a right-wing Democratic candidate for South Carolina House.

The Democrats ought to tell Davis to take his class warfare to the Republican tent where it belongs, but they don't have the guts anymore. (Who says the DLC isn't still running the show?)

Key among the Spartanburg-area candidate's right-wing ideas is his plan to impose mandatory drug tests on almost everyone who gets any form of government assistance. It would apply to welfare recipients, food stamp applicants, and even public housing residents.

Davis whimpered, "In order to have the privilege to have a job -" Alright, Weldon, that's about enough out of you for this millennium. Since when is having a job a privilege and not a right?

Who says that everyone who gets benefits is unemployed? It's been pointed out by others before that many employees of Wal-Mart (one of America's largest employers) make so little money that they collect food stamps. The same is true of other assistance programs and of other jobs. That's what the working poor means, Weldon, you idiot.

Because many welfare recipients work, who says they aren't already taking a drug test at work?

Drug tests aren't even accurate!

Right-wing State Sen. David Thomas, a Republican, already introduced a bill to require random drug tests of people who get unemployment benefits. But that bill didn't get very far.

Drug tests for public assistance have been ruled unconstitutional already. Weldon Davis knows it. The Nazis' 1996 federal welfare "reform" law spewed so much hate and vitriol against the poor that it allowed states to make welfare recipients take a drug test. Michigan - under right-wing then-Gov. John Engler, long known as an asshole who's not fit to be called human - became the first state to go along with it. But this practice was quickly ruled to be a violation of the Fourth Amendment's safeguard against unreasonable searches.

That's not to say this ruling isn't being violated elsewhere. Chicago, for instance, illegally began requiring drug testing of some in public housing. A similarly illegal federal rule evicts entire families if even one member is convicted of a minor drug charge.

However, there is no law to evict the wealthy from their mansions if they get busted for drugs. Again, the poor are being discriminated against.

The war on the poor that gained steam 15 years ago and continues today is motivated by sheer hate and greed. The failed drug war is almost inseparable from it: If the war on the poor and the War on Drugs were represented by circles on a Euler diagram, the drug war would be the smaller circle, and 95% of it would be within the circle for the war on the poor.

Weldon Davis's idea has also been proposed in other states in the past year or so, following a wingnutosphere crusade built on a lie.

Where's the drug tests of greedy Wall Street execs who fleece the taxpayers out of hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of a bailout? Where's the drug tests of right-wing legislators who carry out their class warfare on our dime? They're obviously on something.

(Source: http://www.goupstate.com/article/20081006/NEWS/810060291/1083?Title=Drug_testing_proposal_gets_mixed_response)

Obama outdoes McCain on veterans' issues

How out-of-control is partisan strong-arming in Congress? Partisanship is so rampant that McCain - a former POW - has a record on veterans' issues that's not even satisfactory.

It's ironic that a former POW would have such a poor record on veterans' matters, but a new report card by the nonpartisan Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gives McCain only a 'D' for his Senate votes. Obama, meanwhile, scores a 'B'.

If you're an avid senator watcher like I am, the report gets even more interesting. The only senator to receive an 'F' is South Carolina's right-wing Jim DeMint. Yes, he's the hypocritical fascist who wanted to cut off funding for the city of Berkeley because of the city's antiwar views.

"Support the troops" isn't just a slogan, Jim, you moron.

(Source: http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-outscores-mccain-in--veterans-groups-report-card-2008-10-06.html)

Ex post nothing (a blast from the past)

This one's from way back, folks. But it's still relevant because it shows how fluently the law is misused.

Yesterday at the library I accidentally found a Kentucky Post article from 1982 about a man who sued the Villa Hills police over a false arrest. The 1980 arrest occurred when he was allegedly found with porn and fireworks.

In late 1981, a judge dismissed both the fireworks and the porn charges. Regarding the fireworks, there were penalties on the books in Kentucky for mere possession by late 1981, but no penalty at all in 1980 when the man was arrested.

1980, no penalty; 1981, penalty. Gee, is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?

Instead of keeping fireworks legal so they could be regulated, lawmakers realized that with the new conservative mood that gained power ("Well..."), they could just ban stuff outright and use the new law to wield against anyone for anything, no matter how illogical the authorities were being.

It's a perfect example of how there's so many laws on personal conduct that almost everyone breaks laws without even knowing it. When even a small percentage get caught, it's a boon for the corrections industry.

What's also amazing is that prosecutors seemed to be going after the guy on an ex post facto basis, which is strictly unconstitutional. They apparently wanted him punished under the law that was in force in 1981, even though it wasn't enacted yet in 1980 when he was arrested.

No wonder the cops got sued for false arrest. They arrested the man for something that wasn't illegal yet! However, it's unclear how this case turned out.

Locally, the system has a history of abusing the law like this. My memory is sketchy, but I seem to recall a later case in which prosecutors had a criminal suspect retried because the defendant was acquitted the first time. In other words, they were prosecuting over and over until a jury gave them the results they wanted - which violated the Constitution's double jeopardy clause.

Maybe I missed something, but it seems like there's been a whole system in place around here for years to run roughshod over the people's rights. I'm in the middle of a jury duty term, so I might get to see it up close and personal.

Anti-uniform petition nets 1,279 signatures

Finally, someone is fighting back!

A petition against school uniforms in Pitt County, North Carolina, has attracted 1,279 signatures. It wasn't just students who signed it. It was also parents and, yes, teachers.

Unlike the petition I circulated in 7th grade, probably nobody was immature enough to gum up the works by forging signatures of Pete Rose and Michael Jackson.

Because the Pitt County policy applies in public schools, if it was me, I'd just ignore the policy by refusing to wear a uniform. What the hell can the school do? Call the cops?

(Source: http://www.reflector.com/news/student-petition-protests-uniforms-170701.html)

Cult Twin powers, activate!

I did a little research at the library today and found something very, very...interesting.

As you know, I've attended roadside protests against an abusive teen "rehab" near Cincinnati 14 times in the past year. The facility is a cult.

I've also crusaded for years against a certain Catholic high school I once attended. Although the school claims to be based on Catholicism, it primarily is not. The school is actually a cult centered predominantly on the school's own leadership.

I'm 100% convinced both of the organizations I've criticized are cults. Not a shadow of a doubt.

But today I found a Kentucky Post article from 1987 - at which time I was in high school - that shows these two organizations joined forces. Many were probably hurt in the process.

Seems the school let the abusive "rehab" give a presentation there for the school's students and parents. I remember nothing of this appearance, but from the article it appears as if the purpose of it was to promote that particular program and bash other rehabs.

The scary part? If I was in attendance, I would've believed every word that was uttered at the event. Every last word. Back then, I didn't know any better. My high school was my drug, and it had a hold on me. If the school hosted what was purportedly a talk about drugs, I would've believed every syllable.

The event was sponsored by a civic organization, but I'll assume they had no knowledge of the facility's aims. But I'm sure my school knew. My school actually had "motivating" at a later event - which I'll never forget, because I was nearly trampled when I didn't know how to do it.

Abusive facilities recruit in schools. I think that's what was going on at the 1987 event, and I suspect the school knew it.

I don't know if all of you are on the same wavelength as I am, but to me this is an enormous discovery. It's downright damning. And it practically plopped right into my lap. I found the article because I was looking for information about the "rehab" - not about my former school.

If there were more people reading this who can appreciate my standpoint, it could easily blow the lid off some very dark secrets. But there are very few people reading this who have even heard of both cults, so I don't know where else to go with my discovery.

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

Big Library is watching you!

Straaawberyyy! Raaaspberyyy! Liiibraryyy!

Today I goed to the Kenton County (Kentucky) Public Library in downtown Covington, and I noticed something funny. Not ha-ha funny, but odd funny.

The libe is watching you!

The library seems to have at least one video camera in the ceiling. Among the row of microfilm machines, near the bluish-green wall, there appears to be a black sphere bulging out of the ceiling. That I'm pretty sure is a surveillance cam.

Why the libe would need a camera in that location is questionable. I plan on posting an entry soon about the incident that may have prompted the cam's installation, but the camera in that spot is a poor fix. Instead of deterring misbehavior, it seems to let the library in on what people are viewing with the machines.

How else would the friendly librarian have known I was having so much trouble with the machines today?

It gave me the creeps when she discovered the woes I was experiencing, and that's what led me to look around for a camera.

When I worked at the libe in Campbell County, we never had cameras, even though the technology had long since been invented. Knowing that there's cameras around certainly crimps customers who might need to read about embarrassing topics.

These days, you should be very, very careful when you visit libraries. Somebody might be watching. Treat all library equipment with respect. Bow before it, and kiss it on the cheek. Make sure you insert the microfilm reels frontward every single time, or you can be in for a lot of humiliation when the librarian catches you trying to read an upside-down newspaper from 1965.

Just as important as this, try to make sure you know where all the cameras in your local library are. When you think you know, warn all your friends and family. And try to keep an eye on the cameras.

That's countersurveillance on your part, and it keeps things honest.

Corporate entitlements fail the test again

Now that everyone knows the economy is in the toilet (after years of denial), is it fair to say the free market is to blame?

If you use the definition normally employed by our corporate overlords, yes. But if you break down the phrase, what does it mean? There's nothing free about the free market as we know it. It's free for Wall Street greed merchants - but not for us.

While the financial services industry and other Big Business interests enjoy a lack of regulation, we're hamstrung by price-gouging, work-for-less laws, and various legislatively imposed mandates that dictate how we spend our hard-earned money.

Under corporatism, that paradoxically is called a free market.

Corporatism means entitlements for Big Business - in the form of corporate welfare and a friendly regulatory climate. This has contributed heavily to the foreclosure crisis - one of the latest wrinkles in modern America's chronic recession.

In the phony "reform" binge of the '90s, the government actually created a new entitlement: the so-called "right" for Big Business to be free of regulation - and for dealings with consumers to seesaw in the corporation's favor by default. At the same time, it effectively created a new restriction for the public: deference to Corporate America.

Everything was to be within Big Business's framework. From your home to your job to your schooling to your mere existence, everything was ultimately to depend wholly on the whims of the corporate empire.

The greed merchants gave lip service to supporting smaller government. But they actually favored it only when it benefited them. They and their followers blasted poor families who received welfare - yet they demanded corporate welfare for themselves.

What's amazing though is that Wall Street and our political "leaders" use the economic crisis caused in part by corporate welfare as a pretext for yet more corporate welfare! That's exactly what the bailout is.

And you know what? After Bush signed the bailout bill into law on Friday, I bet things will be even worse next year than they are now. It's a vicious cycle: Greed kills the economy, leading Wall Street to demand more money from the taxpayers, which makes matters worse, which leads to bigger demands, and so on.

It's a shame this vicious cycle hasn't ground to a much-needed halt.

Now it shines for none!

This is yet another entry in the dinosaur media deathwatch - and I'm not very sorry to report it, because it involves a newspaper that didn't contribute shit to serious news coverage in the first place.

The modern incarnation of the New York Sun was founded in 2002 but took its name from an earlier paper. The new paper's slogan: "It shines for all." But the new daily broadsheet quickly proved it wasn't exactly a respectable paper.

Like the Washington Times, the new Sun was a particularly shrill voice for the Far Right. The Sun was one the media's leading cheerleaders for Bush's illegal Iraq War. Also like the Washington Times, it was read avidly by right-wing insiders, which gave it influence much greater than its laughably weak circulation numbers.

The skimpy scumbag rag had so little respect for freedom of speech that in 2003 it published an unsigned editorial declaring that anyone who dared to protest against the war should be prosecuted for treason.

The intolerant Sun also practiced extreme right-wing advocacy on economic issues - and, like Campus Report, was bigheaded about all of its causes.

As evidence of the Sun's lack of objectivity, its editor Seth Lipsky once said, "I don't believe in journalists having 'responsibility.'" In his book 'The Republican Noise Machine', David Brock said, "The Sun has received universally bad reviews for sloppy and biased journalism."

Recently I heard that the New York Sun might soon face its demise. The paper threatened to fold at the end of September if it didn't get more backing.

I hadn't heard of whether the Sun met this deadline, so today I looked up its Wikipedia entry. Guess what? The Sun shines no longer!

The bird cage liner published its final edition last Tuesday, September 30. It went out with a whimper. It took 6 days for me to even find out the Sun was gone!

The media in a democratic society is supposed to offer a marketplace of ideas. Well, the marketplace of ideas spoke - and the New York Sun lost out. This blog lives on, while the Sun set without anyone noticing.

The lesson from this is that the public has little appetite for self-righteous right-wing propaganda like that the Sun provided. The Sun was an oozing, dripping furuncle, and the public saw it for what it was.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Sun)

Where's Ann Coulter?

Did the noise machine finally tell Ann Coulter to pipe down?

Did it finally sink in that she's the worst major spokesperson they have?

I've been told that she's been sighted on Fox News Channel lately, but Pox News has become such a miserable operation that all she's really doing is preaching to the right-wing choir.

Or has Ann Coulter just run her course, much as Rush Limbaugh's star began fading years ago?

Man wants whole town to suffer because he won't control his kids

It's bad enough when parents won't parent - but it's worse when they expect everyone else to pay the price for it.

An ultraconservative wingnut in Alcoa, Tennessee, is on a mission. He's mad because his daughters - a 9-year-old and a set of 6-year-old twins - argue with him every morning about what to wear to school.

In most households, the solution would be simple. If you don't want your kids to wear something, don't let them wear it. If that doesn't work, stop buying them stuff you don't want them wearing. And if that doesn't work, there's always private schools, which are much more likely to have uniforms.

But that doesn't cut it for this guy. Instead he wants the local public school district that his daughters attend to make uniforms mandatory so he doesn't have to worry about such hardships as parenting. You read that right: He wants other people's kids to be forced to dress like nerds because he won't parent.

He's launched a big crusade to browbeat the school system into adopting uniforms - citing long-discredited data and vomiting stale emotional appeals. The hapless galoot is threatening to circulate a petition supporting uniforms.

The man expressed the typical cranky arrogance that defines uniform enthusiasts. He sniffed, "Of course kids don't like it. Who cares?" I care, smartmouth. Children are people, not property. What gives this man the grounds to complain about children having too many rights when he doesn't even exercise any control in his own home?

So far, however, the school district has been reluctant to go along with the uniform campaign. Who can blame them? Why should a school system let one busybody dictate policy for thousands of families?

I feel sorry for the man's daughters. If uniforms are implemented, they're going to be the least popular kids in town. It won't even be their fault. It'll be the fault of their father for demanding the entire community follow his wishes after he let his own kids run his household.

This story underscores what a lazy policy uniforms are. Uniforms please adults who won't spend the time or energy to provide guidance and order. So they make the whole community pay.

There's a saying that it takes a village to raise a child, but somehow I don't think this is what it means.

(Source: http://www.blounttoday.com/news/2008/oct/01/benton-makes-bid-alcoa-school-uniforms)

MADD ejects paralyzed woman

Mothers Against Drunk Driving started out as a respectable organization, but it lost its credibility years ago. MADD is now shunned even by its own founder, who says it's become a prohibition group. Indeed, when temperance groups fell out of fashion, their members opted to join MADD to influence that group.

In Idaho, a woman who was left seriously injured by a drunk driver had arranged to appear at various MADD events, including MADD's tent at Ada County's Western Idaho Fair. The woman had suffered a brain injury, is paralyzed, has to use a feeding tube, and is blind in one eye.

But MADD ejected the woman from their tent at the fair because they deemed the sight of the paralyzed woman "too graphic." An employee of the company that manages the county-owned fair reportedly told the woman's husband, "I want you to take that woman and I want you to leave the premises." MADD also removed the couple from its volunteer list.

Now the couple has filed a complaint with the Idaho Human Rights Commission and the ACLU against MADD and the fair's management company.

MADD seemed to blame the whole incident on the media. A national MADD official sniffed, "I think that news reports are sensationalizing this a little bit, for sure."

This is what MADD has stooped to?

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/5/11268/5727/682/620715)

Dracula Davis refuses to debate challenger

How much of an arrogant, nasty little prick is northern Kentucky congressman Geoff Davis?

The Republican lawmaker is such a self-assured egotist that he's refusing to debate his challenger, Democrat Michael Kelley. This despite the fact that Kelley is a viable challenger and trails Davis by only a few percentage points in the polls.

Kentucky's public television stations had scheduled a debate between the two candidates, but with Davis being such a big baby that he's refusing to show up, only Kelley will appear.

Sounds to me like you've just given your opponent a free forum, Geoff, you big idiot. The congressman really shot himself in the foot, didn't he?

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20081005/NEWS0106/810050346)

The station the Taliban hated!

In August, I provided a partial list of things that were taboo at the youth confinement center where I was illegally locked up without a hearing in 1990 for the "crime" of getting expelled from a Catholic high school.

Last night I was reminded of something else that would've been on that list: now-defunct radio station Power 94½ of Lexington, Kentucky. (Those in the know called it WLAP-FM.) I thought of this because I got so bogged down by work last night that I listened to music instead - much like what happened often when I was in high school during Power 94½'s heyday.

Why did the programmies crusade against an out-of-town station? Power 94½'s signal reached northern Kentucky, but it hardly seems like it would've drawn that much attention this far north. Besides, the station in some ways seemed so innocent.

But what's fairly tame by the standards of myself and many other normal individuals is a cause for eternal damnation in the minds of the programmies. It seemed like their problem with ol' 'LAP-FM began when the station failed to censor a line in the song "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe that said, "Gettin' paid, laid." The facility's grudge against the station probably predated that tune, but this song became popular around the time I became incarcerated there.

Most of the time, my parents were not Power 94½ fans, but they weren't militant about it like the program was. Their distaste for this station stemmed from the fact that I listened to it instead of working on homework I didn't know how to do.

The programmies were against music in general - unless it was music they knew the detainees didn't like, which the program used as a torture device by piping it into the "quiet room."

From the list I posted in August, it's clear the program had a particular dislike of Motley Crue, because they considered it "druggie music." One of my fellow detainees said that he tried smuggling in a Motley Crue cassette in the front of his pants. He told the guards, "My dick's square." But then they strip-searched him and confiscated (stole) the tape.

Motley Crue was also heard quite a bit on Power 94½. Although one news article claimed the station failed to play the legendary metal band, this claim is debunked by my own personal memory and by audio clips on LKYRadio.com.

In case you're one of the 3 people who still listens to radio, WLAP-FM is now WMXL and has become part of the greedy Clear Channel wimpire. The programmies must be pleased, in light of Crap Channel's sanitizing of "dirty" lyrics.

McConnell ad takes vet's words out of context

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) ain't known as a pleasant guy, and now he's in trouble for a campaign ad that took a World War II veteran's words out of context.

Because of McConnell's dishonesty, the vet then appeared in an ad for McConnell's Democratic opponent Bruce Lunsford.

We're almost at the point where it'll take up less space to list the things the Republicans are telling the truth about than the many things about which they're lying.

(Source: http://polwatchers.typepad.com/pol_watchers/2008/10/mcconnell-changes-out-veteran-from-ad.html)

International House of Helium

While we're on the topic of old commercials, I thought I'd regale you with more! Although this is a political blog, this is a weekend, and we can't always bog ourselves down with serious topics.

I found what is probably the most hilariously bizarre commersh ever to appear on TV. As one who remembers the ad in which a woman praises Phillips Petroleum for preventing her face from falling off, that says a lot. The ad I found today is a 1969 piece for International House of Pancakes.

It's from before my time, but not by much:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_OS54FFFE

If you don't think that's positively the strangest commercial ever to appear on the small screen, there must be something seriously wrong with you!

The music in the ad defies description. It sounds almost like a gurgle - much like blowing bubbles through the straw in your soda at IHOP to celebrate some achievement. The vocals sound like the Chipmunks! But there's no actual reference to the Chipmunks or to blowing bubbles in soft drinks anywhere in the ad.

When bizarre, creepy, or ill-conceived ideas are found from any decade of the past 40 years other than the '70s, people try to say the '70s were to blame. An example is America's proposed switch to the metric system, which actually peaked under the elder Bush. The same is true of this 1969 ad, which people try to pawn off onto the following decade.

Many claim that the ad was designed to appeal to the psychedelic style of the time. But folks who were alive back then claim they never saw anything else this weird! In fact, some who saw it in 1969 thought even back then that the commercial was so ridiculous and eerie that they couldn't believe they weren't just imagining it.

How uproariously strange is this ad? Once around 1983, when I was about 10, I was about to doze off when I thought of something I'd include in a rock video. Even if neither the song nor anything else in the video had anything to do with 'Sesame Street', I'd include a 5-second shot of Bert, looking down at his head at a 45-degree angle. His mouth would be ajar, and his pointy noggin would slowly rotate. Even that scene would be nowhere near as off the wall as this IHOP ad is!

How was this commercial not deemed too ridiculous to make it to the airwaves? And how many millions of people rolled on the floor in laughter when they saw it?

Bubble Crisp (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Remember the '80s?

It was the decade of parachute pants, 'Thriller', and the Rubik's Cube.

It was also the decade when bubble gum frequently wormed its way into America's cereal boxes.

Not everyone is a bubble gum connoisseur. So including pieces of bubble gum as prizes in boxes of cereal created issues. Not only did the gum often acquire the taste of the cereal (and vice versa). It also led to bubble gum being needlessly hoarded in many American homes.

Many families were heavy cereal purchasers. But in some households, there was an Allowed Cloud against the use of bubble gum, for it got stuck in carpets. So, as soon as a box of cereal arrived home from the store, parents would often paw through the box so they could find the gum before the kids did. The gum was then hidden atop a shelf where the kiddos would never find it.

The bubble gum wouldn't be discovered until years later when the shelf was replaced. By then, it would be coated with dust and dead bugs, and it would be stale and not easily bubbled. Suffice it to say, it was ru. All that gum, wastage bastage!

Nonetheless, this commersh for Cookie Crisp cereal from the late '80s boasts of a special Bubblicious offer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qCHEnsB94U

Each box of Cookie Crisp at the time included a whole pack of Bubblicious! The commercial advertised this fact using kids wearing some amazingly hideous '80s fashions, dancing, and blowing bubbles.

If you're going to advertise either gum or cereal, it might be wise not to don such imbecilic attire. Advertising should create a connection with the viewer. This ad probably hurt sales of both Bubblicious and Cookie Crisp, because folks thought the product was for wearers of preposterous clothing.

Bloomberg wants third term, despite term limits

In the topsy-turvy world of right-wing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it's not about what the voters want. It's about what Michael Bloomberg wants.

In the '90s, New York City voters approved term limits for elected city officials: 2 terms of 4 years each. No exceptions. Now the billionaire mayor wants a third term - not by going to the voters and asking them to repeal the referendum, but by going to his friends on City Council.

He wants City Council to repeal a perfectly valid voter-led referendum? Not exactly a democracyish thing to do, is it?

Term limits were passed for a reason. It was to stop mayors and other public officials from amassing too much power and to prevent them from building too strong of a machine. Bloomberg is running roughshod over the will of the public.

Bloomberg boasts that he's shown "independent leadership", but that's wafto gas. Although he switched his affiliation from Republican to independent, he's still known for his right-wing wars against labor unions and the homeless and his support of school uniforms. His bid to gut term limits is supported not by average citizens but by powerful elites like Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller. They were among 30 elites who wrote an open letter demanding City Council overrule the voters' wishes.

That's Bloomberg's idea of "independence."

Rudy Giuliani tried pulling a similar stunt when his 2 disastrous terms were up: He wanted to stay on as mayor after his second term was over, but this was such an unpopular idea that he was forced to back off.

It's a sad day when America's so-called leaders are so condescending about not even caring what voters want.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081002/us_nm/us_newyork_bloomberg_10)

Elderly woman attempts suicide following foreclosure

You know the foreclosure crisis has gone too far when a 90-year-old widow is driven to shooting herself because she loses her home. But that's exactly what happened in Akron, Ohio.

Foreclosures will make folks do things they otherwise wouldn't. It's sad. How much money can you possibly be expected to have when you're 90? The elderly have some of the lowest incomes of any age group.

Counties have the option of not enforcing foreclosures. It happened in a county in Ohio some years ago, and Philadelphia recently made some moves in that direction. I hope more counties stop rubber-stamping foreclosure enforcement.

While the taxpayers are being forced to bail out Wall Street, it sounds to me like the big financial institutions don't need it.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/03/eviction.suicide.attempt)

Sarah Palin, populist???

In case anyone seriously thinks Failin' Palin is a populist, she's the most phony-baloney populist ever to tread the face of the planet.

Palin's disastrous performance in last night's debate didn't make her look very genuine. She used an unauthentic speaking style that lapsed willy-nilly between big, high-sounding words and folksy, populist-sounding expressions.

Paul Campos wrote an op-ed for Scripps Howard News Service that makes the grave error of calling Palin a populist. Scripps Howard is known for its off-base, frequently preposterous commentaries. Campos's piece hits the nail on the head - except it mistakes Palin's hodgepodge of indignation and ignorance for populism.

Palin is about as far from a populist as you can get.

I don't mean that just on the economic matters that Republicans have long held dear in their "soak-the-poor" Bizarro World. It's true of the culture war issues as well.

Many of the socially conservative stances that have gained traction in the GOP fold in recent decades are actually rooted in greed as much as control. Centuries ago, for instance, the forerunners of today's Far Right created bigoted canards as an excuse to exploit and oppress others.

That wasn't populism. That was unchecked gluttony - quite the opposite of what populism is all about.

A user of one message board told me I couldn't be a populist because my views on one axis canceled out my views on the other. Quite the contrary. There is a place for progressive populism.

Failin' Palin might not have had as privileged of an upbringing as Bush did, but in her political career she has certainly been one of the elite. Her presence on the McCain ticket continues this pattern, for McCain has proposed countless breaks for Big Business but nothing to help the working class.

(Work cited: http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue3/story.aspx?content_id=4b230d62-eb1f-4f47-8223-99bae4d1ea0c)

Hypocritical bigot demands that YouTube censor videos

Now there's a face that looks made for inducing vomiting.

William Donohue, who heads a hate group called the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, got a Conservative Fool Of The Day entry because of his unending bigotry and censorship efforts.

Donohue is a vicious anti-Semite who complained, "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular." He also bullies radio and TV stations that broadcast material that offends him. Donohue's Nazi-like followers threatened to burn down a theater that featured a play that Donohue deemed offensive. Donohue also made baseless accusations that John Edwards is anti-Catholic.

Some have reported that Bill Donohue was the founder of Domino's Pizza, but this is incorrect. This misconception comes from the fact that Domino's was founded by Tom Monaghan, who sits on the board of Donohue's organization.

Donohue claims to be a great civil rights champion, even as he runs roughshod over the rights of others. Donohue's latest campaign is his attempt to browbeat YouTube into yanking videos he doesn't like.

I had involvement with the Catholic Church for years. But quite frankly, I'm not even familiar with some of the ideas that Donohue put forth in his recent complaints. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention in Mass all those years ago, but in all honesty, I don't follow some of the man's grievances.

If a video on YouPube is offensive...don't watch it! It's that simple!

Are we even sure that the users who posted the offensive videos have never been members of the Church themselves? If they were, doesn't that give them authority to criticize the Church's bureaucracy? If they were not, why does Donohue think Church doctrine should govern them? Articles praising Donohue's crusade seem to espouse the view that the Catechism of the Catholic Church should apply to people regardless of whether they are Catholic. That's nothing short of theocracy.

The guards at Guantanamo Bay tearing pages out of the Qur'an and flushing them down the toilet would be considered just as blasphemous as anything you'll find on YouTube. But those who defend Bill Donohue's crusades never raise a peep about that scandal.

The Church's bureaucracy is considered by Donohue and the theocrats who admire him to be above criticism even by Catholics.

If Mr. Donohue was worth a shit, he'd spend his time and energy on efforts for the needy instead of firing off illogical harangues every time he gets offended over something he sees on TV or YouTube.

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Toby Keith!

Yet another entertainment celeb who thinks they know more than the average American out there.

Country singer Toby Keith is one of the music world's leading advocates of conservafoolery. Keith endorsed Bush in 2004 and donated to the Republican National Committee in 2006, which should surely guarantee him a place in the Hall of Shame of celebrity rightism. And now he's making a public spectacle of how he thinks the Democratic Party ain't worth missing because it's been taken over by the "extreme left."

Seriously. He said that.

Keith boasts that he's changing his voter registration from Democratic to independent because of this trend. (Like a Bush backer who gave to the RNC was a Democrat to begin with?) This despite the fact that the Democratic Party is probably the most conservative it's been since the 1910s.

The singer cried that the Democrats have "lost any sensibility that they had, and they've allowed all the kooks in." He complained that Failin' Palin is being criticized too harshly by "the kooks in the Democratic Party - this extreme left."

I agree with him that the party let too many kooks in - but they are kooks on the right like the DLC. Which is why I reregistered as a Green.

How hapless do you have to be to bolt the Democrats for being too liberal, when they've gotten more and more conservative for 15 years?

(Source: http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1596198/toby-keith-registering-as-independent-voter.jhtml)

Teacher makes racist comment about Obama

So I see Florida hires Free Republic regulars to teach in its schools.

In Marianna, Florida, a middle school teacher reportedly made a racist commentary about Obama's "change" mantra. According to numerous students and parents, the teacher wrote "CHANGE" on the board for at least 2 of his classes and wrote that it was an acronym that includes a racial slur. Then he laughed.

I'm not going to repeat the instructor's commentary here, because it's beneath the dignity of this blog. If I want to read racial slurs, I'll just log on to Usenet.

Surprised that a school board would hire someone who makes racist comments in front of students? The school system I was in also did, so unfortunately this isn't an isolated incident.

In the Florida case, the teacher was reprimanded, suspended, and transferred to an adult education school.

In the meantime, teachers in California who support Obama are being threatened with more severe disciplinary action all because one right-wing parent complained about them.

(Source: http://www.jcfloridan.com/jcf/news/local/article/marianna_teacher_told_students_what_change_stood_for/39223)