Amendment would allow mandatory school prayer

The Republican Right is so antithetical to the interests of the people that it thinks it can trot out nonsense like this to win back support.

Well, it won't work.

Right-wing Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri) may be best known as the idiot who sent a constituent a letter that concluded, "i think you're an asshole." Now she's proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would in effect make prayer in public schools mandatory.

This amendment would read in part: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual or group prayer in public schools or other public institutions."

I'm not concerned with the part about individual prayer - only the part about group prayer. Although the amendment also says states can't require prayer, some of today's matchbook jurists seem to view public schools as not being an arm of the states. That's how we've managed to end up with bizarre rulings lately allowing school policies that 30 years ago would have been overturned.

If this amendment passes, it would be the first time that anything in the Bill of Rights was ever gutted by a later amendment.

If the Constitution is amended, it should be to make the Bill of Rights an entrenched clause that cannot be repealed with new amendments. It's a sad day indeed when public officials seriously consider gutting rights that have not only been constitutionally established for over 200 years but had already existed in nature.

Right-wing suburbs continue War on Fourth of July

In America's outposts of Bushism, there has long been a War on the Fourth of July.

It's a war on you, a war on me, and a war on everything America is supposed to stand for. And each year around this time, this war seems to grow just a little bit more from the previous year.

In 2 right-wing suburbs of Chicago - Mundelein and Vernon Hills - authorities are threatening to throw folks in jail if they even use or possess any fireworks this July 4.

I'm talking about any fireworks at all - not just the artillery shells we've been known to set off at our Independence Day gatherings.

Indeed, Mundelein arrested 3 people last year just for possessing or using small fireworks items.

Frankly, that's fascist.

This prohibition policy has not made the public any safer. In fact, the rate of fireworks accidents has increased as the laws have clamped down harder. These laws are like blue laws. They exist only to keep people from having a good time.

Maybe the town officials are just mad because some residents know how to put on better fireworks displays than the town-sponsored displays.

Don't let anyone try to convince you there's no War on the Fourth. Science and the Constitution are on our side in this war. It's a shame a small number of extremists try to control our behavior, but I have no intent on being hamstrung by these blue laws.

(Source: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1644828,5_1_WA30_SPARKS_S1-090630.article)

GOP leader sentenced over child porn

Thomas Adams was the GOP mayor of Green Oaks, Illinois. He also headed the Lake County Republican Central Committee.

In 2006, Adams, then 67, was charged with numerous child porn offenses. Prosecutors believed he used phony names to send child porn photos and videos online.

Republicans continued to praise Adams despite his actions.

Now that Adams has been convicted on 16 counts of possessing child porn, he's been sentenced to 2½ years of probation, 30 days of periodic imprisonment, 200 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine. More serious charges of disseminating child porn were dropped because of a plea bargain. He must also register as a sex offender.

A state investigator said that in an online conversation, Adams discussed the possibility of sex with an undercover agent's teenage sons.

Another sick character in the GOP ranks.

(Source: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1645023,5_1_WA30_ADAMS_S1-090630.article)

Pigpen concedes

Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled against Norm Coleman's babyish delay of the election outcome from 8 months ago, I guess Coleman has finally realized he has no choice but to tuck his tail between his ass and concede.

It's about damn time!

The Minnesota Supreme Court is hardly a liberal bunch (as they seem to be somewhere to the right of the U.S. Supreme Court much of time), but nonetheless they were at a loss to let Pigpen have his way.

This could have all been avoided if the Senate had seated Al Franken when they were supposed to. But with Harry Reid being such a pushover, seating someone who was known to have won the election was too much to ask, I guess.

Legislators try to pull states out of health care reform

Remember when Tommy Thompson tried to make Wisconsin its own country? The incompetent Republican governor of the '90s decreed that poor families in Wisconsin would no longer be allowed to get federal welfare.

Thompson's legacy of trying to make constituents poor and barefoot lives on in the upside-down world of the rightist brain trust.

Right-wing lawmakers in several states are now mulling legislation to pull their states out of the Obama administration's health care reform - even though such reforms haven't even passed yet.

Under these bills, folks in these states wouldn't even be covered under a national health program.

I'm also reminded of all these right-wing governors trying to bar stimulus money from being used to benefit the people of their states.

Believe it or not, Arizona lawmakers have actually passed a bill to allow a voter initiative to pull the state out of national health care reforms. The initiative though has no chance in hell of passing. Nobody other than the few who are wealthy enough to buy decent private health care are going to vote for it.

I get the feeling that a vast majority of voters are going to say this: "You don't get to decide for me that I can't benefit from a federal program." Not like I expect right-wing legislators to give a shit about people.

Right-wing Arizona State Rep. Nancy Barto, who sponsored the initiative, said, "Our health care freedoms are very much at risk by health care reforms proposed in Washington, D.C." Freedom from what? If anything, health care reform would give us more freedom than what we have now.

Under the current greed-driven system, about the only freedom we have now is to wait a month to see a doctor when we get sick and pay hundreds of dollars just to be glanced at for 3 minutes and get an expensive prescription that doesn't even work.

If Arizona and other states are pulling out of health care reform, then can the states pull out of the 1996 welfare "reform" too? What about that same year's Telecommunications Act? Or all this "preemption" bullshit Bush kept trotting out?

In Wisconsin, right-wing State Rep. Leah Vukmir cried that national health reform is a "federal power grab that flies in the face of the Tenth Amendment." Then what do you call the welfare "reform" law and Bush's "preemption"? Obama's proposals wouldn't force the states to surrender any powers to the federal government. But "preemption", welfare "reform", and the telcom law all did. Under these Republican policies, the states become little more than federally governed provinces.

Countless Americans who worked for media firms were left jobless and hopeless after 1996 just so the 104th Reich could appease corporate broadcasters with a bailout they didn't need. But heaven forfend any of the states restore the station ownership caps that existed before then. The Republicans sure didn't stick up for states' rights then.

ACLU wins homeless case!

The city of Laguna Beach, California, was the site of a living example of right-wing meanness.

The town had passed an "anti-camping" ordinance designed to chase out the homeless. It applied on public property, even public beaches.

But now the ACLU has announced it has reached a settlement with the city. Under this settlement, the city won't cite or arrest homeless people just for sleeping in town for a period of 3 years. There will also be a process for expunging citations and convictions that were issued under the rogue "anti-camping" law.

As far as I'm concerned, city officials reaped what they sowed when they decided to pass such a law. Now that this law has been effectively discontinued, I'd like to see thousands of homeless people descend on the city and sleep right there in front of officials' mansions. That'll teach these officials a lesson.

In my day, public property meant public property. If a person can't use a public beach, when the city won't provide any alternative, then the city deserves to be sued.

(Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-public-settlement-2475051-aclu-sleeping)

California's most Republican county lives off tax dollars

If you happen to travel through a politically conservative, relatively well-off community, don't just assume that residents' vast riches paid for all the amenities the community has. Some of it comes to town for free, courtesy of the taxpayers.

Modoc County now has the highest Republican registration of all 58 counties in California. It always elects diehard conservatives who scoff at tax dollars flowing from the rich to the poor.

Yet Modoc County benefits from reverse redistribution: Taxes paid by poor central cities flow straight to Modoc County. The most Republican county in California gets more tax dollars per person than any other county in the state except one.

Republicans demand cuts in health care, education, and assistance for poor families in the name of balancing the state budget. But all the money for Modoc County remains sacrosanct. Because it's Republican, you see, and therefore special.

The only county that consumes more tax revenue than Modoc is another conservative county. Conversely, the counties that send in the most tax money per person are among the state's most liberal.

It's right-wing machine politics at its worst. Republican communities live off a spoils system that we're all paying for.

This is a bit like how several years ago, Wyoming got 7 times as much per capita homeland security funds as New York state, even though Wyoming had no likely terrorist targets, while New York had many.

If there's a budget crisis, the least the Republicans can do is share the burden. If the state can't afford to fund schools and hospitals for the public, it's only fair that Republican constituents should have to shed some of their perks.

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/30/MNUU18ETCF.DTL)

Hephzibah House protest a success!

The mischief rating for this trip sure is up there!

Our protest wasn't illegal, of course, but this point still stands.

I was invited to a protest against Hephzibah House in front of the Kosciusko County Courthouse in Warsaw, Indiana, yesterday. And I'd like to say this event was even more successful than our assaults on the KHK cult.

But I think it's pretty clear that nobody in that county supports the abusive Hephzibah House anyway. Among the few exceptions are a local Republican state legislator. But maybe people will take notice of this and vote him out next time.

Hephzibah House is so extreme that its opponents have a broad political base. I noticed that at least one car full of protesters had an Obama bumper sticker, but at least one car bore a McCain sticker. We drew about 70 - count 'em, 70 - demonstrators, from states at least as far away as Florida.

We attracted no counterprotesters. It was just little ol' us.

KHK sells building

Before I regale you with the smashing success (blub...blub) of yesterday's protest against Hephzibah House, I've just learned that Kids Helping Kids (the cult near Cincinnati we protested last year) is now selling its building.

It sells for a staggering cost of almost $800,000 - so at least we know the cult isn't "granting" the building to itself under a new name (which seems to be its modus operandi). And, because of this sale, it appears as if the cult won't be returning to that building - if it ever comes back to Cincinnati at all.

On the other hand, Pathway Family Center will have another $800,000 to throw at its other branches, like the one in Indianapolis.

But they won't be bringing back their Detroit branch, because they just had their license permanently "terminated" in Michigan. And if they want to come back to Ohio, they'll have to file a whole new application in the Buckeye State.

So it looks like this fraud is probably going to cling to Indiana for now.

(Source: http://www.fornits.com/?p=41)

Open thread

By request, it's an open thread!

I'm leaving later today so I can get to tomorrow's protest in time. I don't expect to be home from this fact-finding mission until pretty late tomorrow.

If all goes well within the next day, I'll see you in Warsaw, Indiana!

In the meantime, I expect to find many, many comments in this open thread. This blog gets thousands upon thousands of visitors daily, so let it rip...

Remember this oldie?

While I get ready to go to the protest against Hephzibah House, I thought I'd reminisce about this golden oldie.

This clip is from our protest against Kids Helping Kids on July 11 of last year:



I think that was shortly after KHK really started to worry about its own future. It lasted only 4 more months after this rally.

That was the same protest during which one of the programmies grabbed our sign and wouldn't give it back. That's commonly known as theft. And that's a criminal offense.

It was hotter than hell that day, so I was stumbling through my speech. We had a great time, but we were very serious about getting KHK closed.

And that we did!

Bill would let utilities trash others' property

Environmentalists and farmers are outraged at a new bill in Oregon. And who could blame them?

This bill, which passed the Oregon House recently, would let private companies like utilities and railroads obtain permits to decimate wetlands - on other people's property!

Shockingly, statutes in Oregon - as in several other states - already give these corporations the same eminent domain powers as government agencies. Indeed, these companies have even more powers than the government. Instead of being able to just take your property for public use, they can take it for their own private use.

This is unconstitutional, of course. The Constitution gives corporations no rights or powers. None. I'd be damned if I'd let a utility company condemn my family's property.

But, as we've seen, the Constitution means nothing to the matchbook legal eagles who have filled our legislatures and who have our corporate masters in their back pockets.

Oregon law also gives corporations another special privilege: Records of such corporate takings have to be sealed - to benefit the companies that take the land.

The apparent purpose of the new bill is to make sure companies already have their wetland destruction permits in place when they actually condemn your property.

The bill would expedite construction of a natural gas pipeline that doesn't even benefit Oregon. All this pipeline would do is transport (ppphh!) gas to and from other states.

Tidal wane (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Brands of bubble gum come and go - but mostly they just go.

It would take a while to list all the gum brands that seem to no longer be in business or have become impossible to find.

Case in point is Tidal Wave. This short-lived brand of bubble gum flourished around 1983. Supposedly it had a juicy center, but I never tried it myself to see if it was easily bubbled. In fact, I don't ever remember seeing Tidal Wave except in the commersh.

Despite this, every time a conversation turns to gum, someone inevitably asks, "Remember Tidal Wave?"

Here's a controversial old ad for this now-defunct bubble gum. I'm embedding it here only because this brand is no longer produced:



That commercial generated controversy because, according to critics, it seemed to depict cultures that were not European-American as being primitive and helped feed negative stereotypes. Despite this ad being highly offensive, it aired frequently during afternoon cartoons.

I only present it here as sort of a museum piece. If you're old enough to use the Internet, then you're probably mature enough to understand that this ad is a quarter-century old and not be influenced by its outdated theme.

On the other hand, defenders of this ad claimed that it likely wasn't intended to offend. They felt that the imagery in this commercial seemed to be simply to introduce a new product to people who had never seen it before.

After the explorers plundered their cultural artifacts, the locals seemed content to blow bubbles through a pipe. It's unclear if this inspired the website years later in which a hapless gentleman mentioned bubbling through a kazoo.

Hospital fined after 3 botched brain surgeries in a year (a blast from the past)

Is anyone still going to insist that America doesn't need health care reform pronto?

This story is from 2007, but it was largely covered up until now. (The media has instead been worried about folks in Britain and Canada waiting more than a week for cosmetic surgery.)

A hospital in Rhode Island was fined following its third instance in a single year of a surgeon performing brain surgery on the wrong side of the patient's head.

These 3 errors were by 3 different doctors. In one of these instances, the patient died.

And Richard Shelby calls this "the best health care system the world has ever known." Seriously, he said that.

(Source: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1127mistakensurgeries27-on.html)

Court guts ruling against bank

Sorry I have to use the L.A. Times (home of Andrew Malcolm's right-wing rants) as a source again, but it'll have to suffice.

This story is from early this month, but I had to put it on the backburner for weeks.

It seems like lately the California Supreme Court has taken a few cues from Bush's jurists by making up law as it goes along. This story is another like that.

California's high court has overturned a $1,000,000,000 jury award against Bank of America over its confiscatory fees.

A jury had ruled in 2004 that the bank had violated state law by taking fees from customers' direct deposit accounts they had for Social Security benefits. Over 1,000,000 poor, disabled, and elderly Californians had been affected by the illegal bank fees. Some of them lost 20% of their benefits in a single day just because of these fees.

But now the California Supreme Court has dashed this ruling to smithereens.

No apparent reason. Just because.

The law is very clear. The bank fees were illegal. The California Supreme Court pulled its decision favoring the bank clean out of its anus.

Even the court admitted that banks' policy of posting each day's checks in order from largest to smallest hurts the most financially troubled customers. Banks do this because they deem larger transactions more important.

The poor are always forced to be the last in line, aren't they?

If banks want to steal 20% of disabled Americans' money, then you know what? The American public should get its bailout money back.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bank-america2-2009jun02,0,4121940.story)

Cincinnati neighborhood ranked America's most dangerous

Cincinnati has earned another dubious #1 ranking.

A study published on NeighborhoodScout.com has ranked Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine area as having the worst rate of violent crime in the entire U.S. and A.

I'm actually a little surprised. That area and surrounding neighborhoods have become known for their occasional gun battles, but I doubt if it's much more dangerous than some suburbs. Central Parkway itself seems mighty safe.

Seriously, I feel far safer in most of Cincinnati than I do between Cold Spring and Alexandria. Undoubtedly, I've been the victim of far more crimes in suburbs than in central cities. But suburban violent crime generally lurks below the popular conscience.

The ranking of the top 25 most dangerous neighborhoods includes quite a few in conservative cities. I notice rightist giants like Jacksonville and Dallas on the list. San Francisco probably has the most liberal leadership of any major American city, yet it doesn't have any neighborhoods in the top 25 most dangerous.

Cincinnati has a conservative history: In the '80s and '90s, much of its resources were spent censoring porn instead of battling serious crime. The city was also known for its ineffective "truancy sweeps", under which anyone on the street in the daytime who looked like they were under 30 was assumed to be playing hooky and hauled away. This was compared to Soviet authorities sweeping through subways and accusing young men of being draft dodgers.

Policies like those in Cincinnati at the time contributed to serious crime by forcing authorities to take their eye off the ball.

In fact, since the '90s, many other large cities on the list also have had surprisingly conservative policies. (It's hard to say New York has had liberal leadership.)

For all you hear about allegedly liberal corruption in big city governments, you have to realize that even in major cities, many public officials today are hardly progressive by any measure.

(Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/family/19844389/detail.html)

Study finds benefits of "excess" pounds

I think we can safely say the "obesity pandemic" is a media creation.

You never hear of the fact that much of this phenomenon resulted from the government changing the definition of "overweight" to include more people. Using the current "official" BMI standard, a mild sniffle would likely kill you if you had the "correct" weight.

Now a new study says being slightly "overweight" may actually help you live longer. The report published in the journal Obesity says that people who were "overweight" were 17% less likely to die than those of "normal" weight.

This study isn't just a fluke. Scientists at the Center for Disease Control and the National Cancer Institute reported similar findings in 2007. Interestingly, that study was hardly ever reported in the press.

This is as much of a media issue as it is a health issue. Much of the popular interest in unrealistic weight loss goals was fueled by vanity and elitism, which in turn was backed by makers of diet drugs and other hawkers of horrid diet products.

In recent years, this became more driven by a desire to cover up other stories, especially after the 104th Reich's 1996 bailout of media monopolies.

For instance, if some government scandal appears on the horizon, a glut of hackneyed stories about weight loss seems to swoop in from nowhere to knock the real news off the front page.

This also serves the purpose of shifting blame for bad health statistics onto the public. Instead of confronting environmental pollution, a broken health care system, tainted food, and overwork, our corporate overlords can just say our problems are our fault instead of theirs.

I am 100% convinced that's what's been going on.

Will the new study get much press? Don't count on it. At all. So far, I've only seen it covered in the New York Times.

I'd also be willing to bet that the cover-up is even deeper than it appears.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/health/26weight.html)

Wal-Mart accused of unfair labor practices

Gee, ya think?

This week, Wal-Mart became the subject of a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board over its shrill practices at its store in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The complaint by a United Food & Commercial Workers chapter says that earlier this month, Wal-Mart reps held captive audience meetings with employees. No surprise there, as such meetings are a Wal-Mart hallmark.

Wal-Mart big shots also intimidated union supporters, boasted that they could acquire a list of signers of union authorization cards, and threatened to fire union backers. Managers also interrogated workers about their union support. The complaint alleges that this occurred around June 11 and ever since.

Well, yeah. It's Wal-Mart. This retail giant has a history of union-busting and illegal tactics.

Which is one of the reasons I haven't buyed a thing at Wal-Mart in years.

(Source: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4088)

Michael Jackson dead at 50

I can't believe it either, but singer Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50 of cardiac arrest:

http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-dies-chat

O, that silly Duke Energy

Since this is a day ending in 'y'. my power went out here again today - even though there was no storm anywhere in sight.

If the Cincinnati Tea Party shit-eaters want to protest against something, it should be Duke Energy.

I don't see how anyone can support keeping Dook as the local electric monopoly - especially after the Blackout of '08 and Duke's attempt to cash in on it.

Newspaper sat on Sanford scandal for 6 months

Since the Mark Sanford story broke, I've yet to see anyone deny that the media has a double standard that treats Democratic scandals more harshly than comparable Republican scandals.

But before anyone tries it, it's now been revealed that the State (the daily paper in Columbia, South Carolina) knew about this GOP scandal 6 months ago but didn't report or investigate it until this week.

But when folks in the media think they know about a Democratic scandal, it seems like they can't get it into print fast enough. The pop-up media pounces all over Democratic woes regardless of how true or how serious the story is, or how reliable or credible their sources are.

This is not a spang-new phenomenon. I noticed this double standard over 20 years ago, and I was only in high school then.

Meanwhile, there's no sign of Mark Sanford resigning. If he wasn't a Republican, he'd be gone by the end of the week. You know it, and I know it.

BTPers protest Channel 9

Brrrrring! Channel 9!

Many locals will remember that jingle as the mating call of Cincinnati's WCPO-TV in the '70s.

But to that comedy routine known as the Cincinnati Tea Party, it's: Brrrrring! Turn it off!

Yesterday, this band of right-wing galoots held a protest in front of Channel 9's headquarters. Their grievance was against an ABC special about the Obama administration's health care proposals.

This rally was a fraction of the size of the ones in March and April, and I didn't even know about it until after the fact. This shows that the LOSEianne crybabies are waning almost as quickly as they rose.

They seem barely relevant anymore. Not that they were very relevant to begin with. I considered them a circus act more than anything else.

The nobody who coordinates the Tea Parties in Cincinnati incoherently whimpered, "Government-run health care is bad and ABC is giving time for the President to run an infomercial is a bad thing for our country."

An infomercial??? Then what do you call Channel 5 preempting 'American Dreams' for a Bush rally?

Another participant in yesterday's event said, "Health care is not a right."

WRONG!!!

Health care is a right - not a privilege. Let's get that cleared up right now, before the BTPers try to run with the ball. And America's current corporate-run health care system is in shambles.

It's also true that ABC ranks up there with Fox News in trying to derail everything Obama. ABC has largely been a mouthpiece for his opponents on the right.

Gee. Don't you wish you were so lacking in a life that you had nothing better to do than spend your Wednesdays protesting TV stations over imaginary slights?

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Cincinnati-Tea-Party-Members-Protest-ABC/3kdx56LpVEKqN_X6qlDPVQ.cspx)

School strip searches struck down!!!

I was waiting on the edge of my seat for months to see how the Supreme Court would handle this case. Now, at long last, the Big Nine has finally come to its senses!

In a smashing 8-to-1 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled today that an Arizona school violated the constitutionally guaranteed privacy rights of a student when it strip-searched her for ibuprofen. The search yielded no ibuprofen or other contraband.

The Supremes did not hold the perverts who conducted the search personally liable, because protections against such illegal searches had already been gutted so much by the time the search took place. But the court did rule against the school system on the much more far-reaching issue of whether strip searches violate students' rights.

Even most of the court's conservative wing realized they couldn't find an excuse for the school's evil ways. Only conservative Justice Clarence Thomas sided with the school. Thomas's stance isn't much of a surprise, because his earlier writings show that he views students as wards of the government who possess no rights.

The next step should be criminal prosecution and stiff prison time for the school officials involved in the search. And we should pass new laws mandating life in prison for such officials in the future.

I doubt that will happen though. I've been amazed myself at some of the things school officials get away with. To them, schools are their own personal fiefdoms where no real laws apply.

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55O48120090625)

Actress Farrah Fawcett dies

Although this is a political blog, we often announce deaths of nonpolitical celebrities. Once again, we are saddened to announce the passing of another entertainment personality who was well-known back in my day.

Actress Farrah Fawcett died today at the age of 62 after a long battle with cancer.

She was best known for her role on the '70s TV series 'Charlie's Angels'.

More information:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/25/obit.fawcett

Disappeared GOP governor admits to affair

Why is there such a double standard?

If a Democrat had done something like this, it would be the talk of the pop-up media for years, and they could forget about ever winning elected office again.

But since South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is a Republican, little is said about it - even though the Republicans are usually the ones who try to run everyone else's lives.

Now Sanford has admitted to an extramarital affair, after he temporarily vanished over the weekend.

Mark Sanford, as you know, is an idiot. This is the man who allowed pigs to shit all over the floor of the state legislature because he had some point he wanted to make. (It was a bit like Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a chicken during a record company meeting.)

Laughably, Sanford has been considered a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. And he probably still is, because scandals that would destroy any Democrat forever don't seem to stick to Republicans.

Stand up and complain! ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Because this is Wednesday, that means we have to make sure the day gets Sesame Streeted in a big way.

Remember when 'Sesame Street' put out its first feature film? I'm talking about the 1985 classic 'Follow That Bird'. Now, I was a little too old for the ol' Ses in 1985, but I managed to catch 'Follow That Bird' years later when a local TV station aired it one afternoon.

One of the most memorable scenes in this movie was the opening song, performed by Oscar the Grouch. "The Grouch Anthem" implored folks to "stand up and complain!"



It's good advice from the ol' Osk, I'll admit. Sometimes, you have to "stand up and complain" just to be heard. I only wish I had done it more in life.

Something really is wrong with everything - except the way Oscar sings!

While I was watching this part of 'Follow That Bird' on TV many years ago, a neighbor in the same building must have been watching it too, because I heard the guy tell the kid that his mom was like the ol' Osk. "There's your mom on TV - Oscar the Grouch," the man declared.

Also notice how at the end of this clip, the animated Big Bird apparently seems to think the air pump is a control to detonate dynamite. He seems surprised that all it does is inflate a giant letter.

Destroying microwave OK; recording it is not

If a classroom is unruly, you'd think school officials would welcome a student who documents this misbehavior so it can be reined in.

But not at Clayton Valley High School in Concord, California.

In one class, rowdy students placed Play-Doh in the microwave oven, which made the Play-Doh explode. When the room filled with smelly smoke, the teacher refused to air it out. Students also set the garbage can in the classroom on fire and smoked cigarettes during class.

Although this is a public school, this lack of order sounds straight out of the pages of a certain Catholic high school I once attended.

The teacher also reportedly ridiculed and humiliated students in front of the class.

Finally, when disorderly pupils showed up for class and began flipping the light switch off and on, one student made a video of the incident with her cell phone - so school officials could be apprised of the situation.

The result? Suspension. But the unruly students weren't the only ones who were suspended. In fact, some weren't punished at all. Rather, this suspension was imposed on the girl who recorded their behavior.

The school said recording this misconduct violated the school's "zero tolerance" policy against recording devices.

So I guess the school has no policy against wrecking a microwave by cooking Play-Doh, or against setting trash cans ablaze?

In fact, the school falsely accused the student who recorded the commotion of participating in it herself.

Now the school district has had to expunge the suspension from her record, because the school didn't even bother to follow due process.

Somebody also needs to tell the school that its website is busted too!

(Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12666605;
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_12674434)

Cincinnati remains cancer capital

The media created a feeding frenzy last month when it reported that the rate of cancer deaths in the United States had declined rapidly since 1990. This story was a last-ditch effort by media corporations to save face for the rightist revolution as it winks into the history books, and to pump up praise for America's broken health care system.

Now it turns out this story is as bogus as everyone knew it was.

A new study by the EPA gives us the most detailed analysis ever of cancer induced by air pollution. Not surprisingly, counties around Cincinnati still have some of the worst cancer rates in America.

Indeed, a handy map published on USA Today's website shows that some of the worst rates are around major cities.

Tax dollars flowing from central cities to wealthy exurbs is probably one of the reasons air pollution doesn't get the attention it deserves.

But how can we fight this toxic scourge?

It certainly doesn't help that there are almost no limits on development, forcing more people to drive miles just to perform simple errands - which adds to pollution.

It also doesn't help that environmental laws that applied to industries have been gutted in the name of "preemption" and the "free market."

It's time for public policies that save lives rather than end them.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090624/NEWS01/306230076/1055/NEWS/Air+toxics+raise+cancer+risk+in+Butler;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/county-cancer-map.htm)

Congress wants bailout for foreign automakers

One can't help but be suspicious when the government bails out companies, even if they're American firms that vow to keep jobs in the good ol' U.S. of A.

But since America itself has become a corporation, who should be surprised that Congress now wants a bailout of foreign firms to produce goods abroad?

You read that right: Congress is now demanding that American taxpayers' money should be given to Nissan - a Japanese automaker - to produce cars in Japan.

Who says America hasn't become corporatist?

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g6oX6lRgmi3TpK7RPDQSTaQWSYpgD990B18O1)

Hasselbeck accused of plagiarizing book

The rightists don't seem to have many original thoughts in their minds anymore, after they've gotten most of their idiotic class warfare out of their systems.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck of ABC's 'The View' is known for her right-wing diatribes and her appearances at Republican rallies. No surprise there, as ABC lately has become almost as singularly dedicated to right-wing advocacy as Fox News is.

Now Hasselbeck is accused of plagiarizing a book about celiac disease. A federal lawsuit claims that she lifted content verbatim from the tome and used it for her own book.

Plagiarism is bad enough. But using it to sell a book is worse.

As if that wasn't enough, the book Hasselbeck allegedly plagiarized had been sent to her as a gift by the author! Plagiarizing a book that the author gifted to you isn't exactly what I call gratitude.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_45R86p21PatQFlrBzumh0sx7mQD990HGF00)

Supremes allow dumping of mine waste in lake

The hard freeze of the Federalist Society that has plagued the Supreme Court shows no signs of melting, and that's why we need court-packing pronto.

Yesterday, the SCrOTUS upheld a clearly illegal permit by the Bush regime that allows millions of tons of mining sludge to be dumped into Lower Slate Lake in Alaska. Although Sarah Palin supports the dumping of the sludge, this act will destroy almost all aquatic life in the lake by coating it with toxic waste.

This overturns a 9th Circuit ruling that said the permits violate the Clean Water Act. But the 9th Circuit was right when it said the permits were illegal. (Often, the 9th Circuit is about as logical as a canker sore, but that time, they actually made the proper ruling.)

I feel sad for the citizens of Alaska, who have an incompetent governor like Palin who supports the mine's dumping of the waste.

(Source: http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/06/22/Justices_Allow_Dumping_of_Gold-Mine_Waste_in_Lake.htm)

TV personality Ed McMahon dies

I've just learned that TV legend Ed McMahon died this morning at the age of 86.

McMahon, who was born in Detroit and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, was best known for his "Heeeeere's Johnny!" battle cry on 'The Tonight Show' and his distinctive laugh. He was also hired by the government to narrate a bizarre homeland security commercial a few years back.

In 2002, Ed McMahon filed a lawsuit over toxic mold that destroyed his valuable memorabilia collection and reportedly made his family sick.

Another broadcasting celebrity is gone, and will be missed.

Indiana wants you!

Indiana wants you!

And you're goin' back there! (As that song from the '70s would say!)

Seriously, folks, I'm fixing to do something I haven't done yet, and you're all invited to be at this event!

For the first time, I'm planning on turning a protest against an abusive teen confinement facility into an overnight trip. This protest is hundreds of miles from here, so I'll have to be gone overnight. And I do plan on going, barring some unforeseen circumstances.

This protest is against Hephzibah House in Warsaw, Indiana - a fundamentalist all-girls facility that is confirmedly abusive.

I've been invited to this protest, to show my support for the survivors of this abusive center. I also told you about protests against Hephzibah House last June and last October. You may want to read up on those episodes for more details about the program.

So here's the scoop about the upcoming event: It happens this coming Monday, June 29, from 10 AM to 1 PM Eastern Daylight Time! It's gonna be in front of the Kosciusko County Courthouse in the middle of Warsaw, Indiana! Be there or be square!

If all goes well this week, we're leaving Sunday and returning home on Monday after the event.

And I know what the naysayers are going to say, now that I know about a protest days in advance and am able to announce it here before the fact. Their argument against me this time is going to be how I already had a fact-finding mission this year, so I shouldn't go on any more, because it Kosts Munny. But this is only for one night - as was the last one. So smile and be happy.

See ya in Warsaw!

In the meantime, here's a couple clips about previous Hephzibah House protests:

Republican judge impeached

Samuel Kent is a federal judge appointed by the elder Bush.

Last month, Kent was sentenced to almost 3 years in prison for lying to investigators about a case in which he had been indicted for abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse. He was also the first federal judge in this fine land ever to be charged with federal sex crimes. As part of a plea bargain, he admitted the sexual conduct was not consensual.

Kent claimed he would retire, rather than resign. Retired judges get their full salary for the rest of their lives; resigned judges do not. However, Kent is 6 years short of the age at which he is allowed to retire.

He then claimed he was retiring under disability, but the government didn't buy that shit and forced him to resign instead of retire.

Now the U.S. House has voted to impeach Kent, while he serves his prison time. Lawmakers were furious at discovering that he was still drawing his full salary while behind bars, as his resignation doesn't take effect for another year.

This is the first impeachment of a federal judge since 1989. This is also the first impeachment of any federal official since President Clinton in 1998.

The next step is a trial by the Senate, which may remove Kent from his post immediately, instead of letting him wait a year for his resignation to become official.

Of course, Republicans have expressed sympathy for the disgraced judge.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hArT3lWtid4tX91JhgH69Q5FotmgD98TUPA83)

Graduation exam may face suspension

At least some Democrats still have sense - instead of just mimicking the right-wing Republican establishment.

In California, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been falling over himself to see what important state programs he can slash to ease the state's budget crisis. He wanted to abolish welfare altogether and dismantle important health and education programs.

But Democratic lawmakers have proposed a refreshing alternative to some of these proposed cuts: They want to save money by suspending the state's high school exit exam.

From the get-go, I have viewed this statewide graduation test with extreme suspicion. If a student passes all their classes, why should they take another test just to graduate? Indeed, tens of thousands fail this test each year despite getting decent grades.

The Democrats didn't count on something when they proposed suspending this test: Standardized tests like California's exit exam are the national religion now, remember? It's a cult, in fact. I'm convinced that the whole point of the test, which was first used in 2006, was to make sure more kids don't graduate. The effort to brand young people as failures in America's "modern" school system is frankly cult-like.

True to form, the Republicans are throwing fits about the possibility of a standardized test they worship being suspended. Schwarzenegger is threatening to veto the Democrats' plan.

The Republicks need to grin and bear it. They want to slash everything else so badly, so why is the graduation exam so sacrosanct?

Under the Democrats' proposal, however, the test would still exist - but it wouldn't be a graduation requirement. The test would still be given in order to comply with the No Child Left Behind law enacted by the Bush regime.

You know what? If I was in charge, I'd abolish the test altogether - No Child Left Behind be damned. Rogue dictators like Bush don't get to decide how a state runs its schools.

(Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_12624623)

Wrestler-turned-politician accused of beating sons

Brian Blair is a former pro wrestler who became a right-wing county commissioner in Tampa's Hillsborough County. He ran on a "family values" platform.

Blair was named Conservative Fool Of The Day for 5/9/06 because of a lawsuit he filed against a restaurant. He blamed the eatery for allegedly causing him to get drunk and fall, which he claims ruined his wrestling career. However, footage was found showing him wrestling after the "career-ending injury."

Uproariously, Blair lost his reelection bid last year. After the election, Blair sued his opponent for what he claimed was "libel."

Now the Republican former commish is accused of punching his teenage sons on Father's Day.

Authorities say Blair punched one son in the face and injured him, and then he put him in a chokehold. Then, according to this report, Blair punched his other son and injured him too.

It turns out that Blair was also accused of beating up a woman once. He was supposed to be charged with battery, but because he had left the country, no attempt was made to retrieve him.

But now he's charged with a felony for the incident yesterday.

GOP "family values" in action!

(Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1012183.ece)

Blocking Beale

The Constitution continues to be pulped to unrecognizable fragments.

Starting next month, Beale Street - a thoroughfare in Memphis known for its bars and entertainment venues - is going to be transformed into one of America's leading outposts of Stalinism.

Police and private guards are going to stand at the ends of that stretch of roadway and use handheld metal detectors to inspect every person who walks down the street.

Officials' excuse for this is that they want Beale Street to be considered one large establishment.

Cue the 'Price Is Right' loser horns: voopvoopavoop WRONG!

A public street is not an establishment. A bar is. A street is not.

This is like when Louisville officials tried establishing a dress code for a public street - and got their little pee-pees spanked for it.

Searching people on a public street without probable cause is unconstitutional. End of story. And that's precisely what Memphis authorities are planning to do.

I can guarantee you one thing: Sooner or later, somebody who gets arrested for refusing to be searched is going to sue the pants off the city. That's a given. But city officials have to learn the hard way, I guess.

Also, I'm pretty sure Tennessee allows concealed carry. So in addition to outraging Fourth Amendment watchdogs, the city has also angered gun control opponents by not recognizing the state's concealed carry law.

(Source: http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10551474)

"Grassroots" Tea Party charges $175 for admission

The BTPers have managed to outdo their stupid selves, haven't they?

Amidst the ruins of this year's Tea Party self-parodies, right-wing hate website Free Republic is now sponsoring a national Tea Party "convention" scheduled for September.

This event will be held at the Sheraton in Arlington, Virginia - which ain't exactly a budget hotel. Organizers are charging each attendee $175 just for admission. And they're encouraging folks to also lodge at the expensive Sheraton.

Doesn't sound too "grassroots", does it?

This after they went through all that trouble denying (and occasionally admitting) that they stayed at the very expensive Westin in Cincinnati.

Nothing highlights the LOSEianne crew's mantra of simultaneous persecution and privilege quite like being able to pay $175 just to get into a stupid protest and then crying about how hard we big, mean libs have made life.

Feewinghurt looms for gum haters (Bubble Gum Weekend)

I found this legendary commersh on YouTube 2 years ago and blogged about it on MySpace.

But YouPube yanked it because it hurt someone's pwecious widdle feewings. The very moment someone complains about a video on YouTube, it's gone - no matter how ridiculous their complaint is.

Maybe the person who complained doesn't know how to blow bubbles, so they think nobody else should be allowed to see bubble gum.

So here's the story about this ad...

Ever since I was very young - maybe 4 or 5 - I swore up and down that Bubble Yum had ads at the time featuring a monkey puppet. Everyone said it was just a figment of my imagination - until 30 years later when the miracle of YouTube finally proved I was right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk5rnRAAwFg

The puppet in that 1976 commersh was known as Flavor Fiend. It's hard to tell it's even a monkey, though that was the impression I got from other ads with this character. Flavor Fiend actually resembled an orange Cookie Monster.

This ad also featured Flavor Fiend bubbling.

The gum-hating thought guardians are going to be furious that this commersh has reappeared on YouTube! It took them so much work to cry the last time it was posted, and now all that effort has gone to waste! All that work, wastage bastage!

Even better, this copy of the ad is in better condition than the one that was pulled, so some of the missing frames have been restored. It appears to have been taped off what was then WOKR-TV, the Already Been Chewed affiliate in Rochester, New York.

So even people in Rochester, New York, know of bubble gum's hilarious existence!

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Richard Shelby!

Is there any chance the Senate can lose this idiot in the next election?

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) continues feeding the debunked rumor about President Obama's birthplace.

He also has some strange ideas about health care. This month, Shelby went on Fox News (the serial bully run of the American media) and complained that health care reform would be the "first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known."

You're hilarious, Richard, you know that?

Only problem is, nobody is laughing. At least not in the United States, where everyone knows someone who has had at least one experience with the complete breakdown of the American medical system. That's assuming the person they know survived at all.

And the Republicans wonder why people don't, you know, vote for them anymore.

(Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0609/Shelby_Obama_will_destroy_best_health_care_system_the_world_has_ever_known.html)

When our bodies belong to Big Business

This development is so outrageous that I couldn't possibly let it slide.

In Cincinnati, Western-Southern Financial Group now imposes a "weight surcharge" on employees. Workers are docked $15 to $60 a month if their body mass index exceeds limits that have been promulgated by the federal government.

So the company weighs employees each month to see if they're in compliance?

Hell, according to the federal guidelines, even I'm "overweight", so it's not like this formula makes much sense anyway.

I think we can say that America has become a corporatist command state. Our bodies are now considered company property. It's not just an issue of authoritarian control. It's also an issue of discrimination on the basis of physique.

There ought to be a law. Employers should be prohibited from instituting policies like this.

Court strikes down forced drug tests!

Finally, a court ruling we can agree with!

This wasn't a federal court, however. This was a North Carolina state court.

The court has struck down mandatory drug tests for public school employees - saying that it violates the North Carolina Constitution's broad protections against unreasonable searches.

Of course, the drug tests violated the U.S. Constitution too, but who's counting?

Supreme Court dashes age discrimination law

The matchbox law crowd is at it again.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court made it even harder to prove age discrimination. In direct contradiction to longstanding law, the Supremes ruled that employees had to prove age was the key factor in an employment decision - as opposed to just one of many factors.

Before anyone asks: Yes, it was 5 to 4. And yes, it was the same 5 GOP-appointed jurists who are almost always behind activist rulings like this.

This decision has already been likened to a previous Supreme Court ruling that made it harder to sue over past pay discrimination that was based on gender. That decision forced Congress to pass a new law to remedy it.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVG5CC4eeQYpi3XTlAAWz8h-wnYQD98T8PFG4)

Conservative activist convicted of hate crime

If I didn't think raw racists were total fools, I wouldn't be in this blogging job.

Marcus Epstein is a conservative activist who boasts of his "free market" credentials. He is the executive director of a conservative PAC and founder of an organization for conservative journalists. He has worked closely with major Washington political figures.

Now it turns out that in 2007, Epstein committed a racially motivated assault on a woman. He approached the woman on a street, struck her in the head, and used a racial slur.

Now Epstein has been convicted of this incident and faces sentencing next month.

You'd think America's conservative brain trust would be trying to distance itself from Marcus Epstein after this ghastly episode. Instead, they defend him.

Bay Buchanan (former U.S. Treasurer under Reagan) said about Epstein's assault, "Who cares? This is something that happened 2 years ago that Marcus has paid a price for."

I'll tell you who cares. We care. We care that a person with major influence in serious policy issues commits major violent crimes. This isn't an issue of somebody merely being associated with someone who was once accused of saying something idiotic. The issue here is the firsthand commission of a violent hate crime.

And conservatives are defending the man who committed this crime?

(Source: http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85:youth-for-western-civilization-co-founder-faces-sentencing-on-hate-crime-assault-in-july&catid=34:ye-olde-white-power-chopping-block)

Woman fined $1.9 million for downloading 24 songs

Tim's gotta get out his trusty scientific calculator for this one!

Twenty-four music tracks costing 99 cents each comes out to - hmm, 24 times 0.99 - that's $23.76.

Hmm, my calculator must be broken - because the RIAA just said it comes out to $1,900,000.

That's the sum that a Minnesota mother of 4 has been ordered to pay in a federal trial, after she was found to have downloaded these 24 songs. (I'd also like to know what "evidence" the RIAA used to find that she had illegally downloaded them.)

She has to pay $1,900,000 for 24 songs? Is the RIAA crazy, greedy, or both?

Hell, people out there who have been pirating my book don't have to pay a penny.

I doubt the songwriters, musicians, or singers will even see a dime of this $1,900,000. The RIAA represents corporations, not artists. Most of the money you spend when you buy music goes to big record labels who gouge performers and writers.

In fact, I doubt anyone will see much of this $1,900,000. The defendant in this case doesn't have even close to $1,900,000.

The states or the federal government need to rein in the RIAA for its ongoing threats and court filings against members of the public, many of whom have never used a computer in their lives. The RIAA has even assembled a private force to impersonate police to raid folks' houses. Where I come from, we call the RIAA's acts racketeering.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/minnesota.music.download.fine)

Oppressed minority fights for its rights!

Did you know the Republican Party is an oppressed minority?

It is - according to, well, the Republican Party.

So the poor, oppressed, innocent GOP is now abusing congressional procedures to fight for its rights!

Congressional Republicans were so peeved at the big, mean Democrats that they fought back by demanding roll call votes 52 times on the same bill yesterday.

They kept asking for revotes on amendments to the bill that had passed unanimously. Then they asked for votes on whether they could vote again. When they were out of amendments, they whipped up a few more revisions to this bill for them to vote on.

Republicans claimed they had a constitutional right to gunk up congressional business with these frivolous votes.

Nothing like a hilarious partisan tantrum to put a little spice in your afternoon, huh?

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gr9mQukbtBIKhscJsgwXKCrg-tKAD98TCK280)

Right-wing radio host reads phony election release

I think it's time to add a new item to the key for this blog: election fraud.

Recently there was a special election for a seat in the Alabama legislature. A Republican narrowly won (in one of the few states that seems to be maintaining its level of GOP support).

It turns out though that Dale Jackson, a right-wing commentator at WVNN radio in Huntsville, had read a bogus list of election instructions over the air that had been released by Republican officials.

This release falsely stated that the candidates had flipped a coin, so that the Republican's supporters would vote on Tuesday, while the Democrat's backers would vote on Wednesday (which was actually after the election was over).

The release was also posted on Jackson's website - and it misappropriated Alabama's state seal in order to look official.

Republicans defended this as just a "prank."

Um, no. It's not a "prank." It's election fraud. It was deliberately designed to tell Democrats not to try to vote until it was too late.

This strategy has been used by Republicans before, most notably in several recent presidential and congressional elections. Similarly, in 2004 and 2006, folks in Democratic precincts were phoned by Republican campaign workers reminding them that the election was on Wednesday - a day late.

Now Democrats are seeking an investigation into this cheating in the Alabama case. Even Republicans now admit the results of the election could end up in federal court because of this hoax.

(Source: http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/124462531383850.xml&coll=1)

Fox writer accused of hitting cyclist

Because this is a day that exists, we've received another account of some right-wing big shot being accused of intentionally mowing down a bicyclist. (In entries like this, if the assailant isn't someone with at least some celebrity status in right-wing circles, it's some everyday incompetent acting under the auspices of right-wing policies.)

Recently, Don Broderick, a writer for Fox News, allegedly plowed his swanky SUV into a cyclist in Central Park. The cyclist was dragged almost 300 feet.

Broderick is also a former reporter for Rupert Murdoch's New York Post - which is like a tabloid print version of Fox News (GOP bias and all).

This behavior is a pattern in the right-wing media. The fascist Clear Channel syndicate has been noted for its "personalities" at several different stations encouraging motorists to plow into cyclists.

It turns out Broderick has a long history of throwing temper tantrums any time he doesn't get his way. He was once suspended from work for throwing a punch at a colleague. In another incident, he told a production assistant that he would "tear your fucking head off" because she couldn't find a piece of video he wanted.

One former colleague called Don Broderick "a creep and a bully" who "really is crazy."

At least he's on the network that comes to mind immediately when you think of bullying and creepiness.

(Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/10/2009-06-10_fox_news_don_broderick_hit_me_with_his_suv_in_central_park_says_bicyclist.html;
http://gawker.com/5294529/next-time-ill-rip-your-f-ing-head-off-and-other-charming-stories-of-fox-news-road-rager)

Bill would enhance corrupt DEA's reach

The Democrats and the Republicans remain separate parties because...?

Because the sun rose in the east and will set in the west today, our so-called representatives are again thinking of ways to punish the innocent in the name of the failed War on Drugs.

After recent state and federal laws restricting over-the-counter allergy medicine have proven ineffective, Congress can't bring itself to do the sensible thing - which would mean repealing these laws. Instead, it's stiffifying them.

A new bipartisan bill would make sellers of these drugs register with the DEA - the most corrupt federal government agency, bar none. It would also require these retailers to certify employees regarding the existing draconian federal laws.

And of course, it'll pass by a veto-proof margin.

We really don't have a two-party system.

(Source: http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=17732)

Germany may ban all "violent" video games

After the right-wing German government banned paintball because it "trivializes violence", one starts to wonder whether Germans wouldn't have more freedom if East Germany had subsumed the West instead of the other way around.

Now this right-wing trend of regimenting personal conduct continues, as Germany prepares to completely outlaw all video games it deems "violent."

"Violence" would be defined as a video game in which players "play the killing of people or other cruel or inhuman acts of violence against humans or manlike characters."

In other words, it means practically every video game released after 1976 except Big Bird's Counting Game.

Since the European Union makes about 95% of member nations' laws now, hopefully it'll pass a law restoring the right to play video games. Don't count on it though, judging by the way the EU has gone.

Games that would be affected would include such bestselling titles as Grand Theft Auto. By the above definition, it also seems to include classic games such as Pac-Man, Dig Dug, or even Popeye.

Halo 3 would probably have to be modified so the only weapon you get is a paper airplane with a marshmallow taped to its nose, and every player has a bubble shield they can't escape.

The new law proposed in Germany would have dire consequences for the free flow of art even outside the country's borders. That's cuz some makers of these "violent" games sold in America and around the world are based in Germany, and the law would prohibit even developing such a game.

This follows the complete debunking of bogus claims that a German school shooting was inspired by video games.

Are there any free countries left, or just corporatist dictatorships? It's amazing how - just as with American attempts to ban these games - big retailers don't even have the courage to defend the games they sell and just go along with this censorship.

(Source: http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/formats/xbox360/all-violent-video-games-be-banned-in-germany-$1301757.htm)

Supremes gut right to test DNA

I think it's time for the Obama administration to do a little court-packing.

The Supreme Court ruled today that people convicted of serious crimes have no right to prove their innocence by testing DNA evidence.

DNA tests have exonerated over 200 innocent Americans who were wrongly convicted of violent crimes.

But now this safeguard is bye-bye - unless you're lucky enough to have been convicted in a state that specifically allows DNA tests.

The court's decision was by a 5 to 4 margin. The 5 in the majority are the usual Federalist Society whack-a-doos.

Haven't they ever heard of due process? Doesn't it matter to them if someone is innocent?

I guess they can't let science stand in the way of costing the "corrections" industry some of its business.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ix1c3b_XEnmXx0pcQHAss0mFFgiAD98T4PLG1)

121 arrested for buying too much allergy medicine

Authorities in Evansville, Indiana, must have nothing better to do than snoop at everyone's over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine purchases.

Drug warriors there have collected logs from local pharmacies and used them to hunt down 121 people who buyed too much of the stuff. They were charged under a state law barring folks from buying more than 3 grams in a week.

Not 3 ounces. Not 3 pounds. Just 3 GRAMS.

Does this product even come in packages that are that small?

Needless to say, there's no evidence that any of the 121 have been making meth. Why, even in a mid-sized city like Evansville, there's not even enough market for 121 meth cooks!

Let's also get this abundantly clear: The drug cops' inspecting the logs in unconstitutional. It was a search without a warrant or probable cause. Period. End of discussion.

If these cases are prosecuted, and if I was the judge, I would tell the prosecutor not to EVER bring frivolous cases like these into my courtroom again - unless the prosecutor wants to do time for contempt of court.

(Source: http://tristatehomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=76461)

Petition site attacked over views

This is another story that illustrates the increasing political intolerance of those on the right who can't cope with being repudiated by the voting public.

Care2.com is a website featuring petitions for various causes. I try to receive their alerts, but these e-mails keep getting lost somehow.

Yesterday, however, I did receive a Care2 alert warning that the site was the target of a denial-of-service attack. This e-mail says:

"Someone is attacking our site – and several other activism sites – presumably because they disagree with the positions of some of the actions on our site.

"In effect, they are trying to silence the voices of Care2 activists who are working for positive change in the world."

That the other side would send out a denial-of-service assault against a website over its views is not big news. It's happened before, but everyone seems to ignore it. I got hit by the Swen virus once right after the Iraq War started, because I had the "wrong" views.

I wonder who is bankrolling these attacks. It takes some knowhow to launch attacks like this, so it's clear that someone in a high place is directing them.

The Bert and Ernie appliance war ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Ernie and Bert are the coolest people who have ever lived in the history of the universe. Experts agree.

Who doesn't love it when the comedic 'Sesame Street' duo has an appliance war, as they did in this rare 1969 sketch?



Uh, fellas? That's not a TV. That's a refrigerator. Bert and Ernie are watching the ice dispenser!

They must have the same power company we have around here, if they can blow a fuse with only 4 things running.

Notice how one of the Muppeteers' heads appears around :53. It pops up briefly on the right.

This sketch kind of reminds me of a couple years ago when the neighbors in my building kept having stereo wars.

School faces claim over suicide

This story is from the L.A. Times and is a couple weeks old, but it's so important that I have to cover it here - even though it's received no coverage outside southern California.

The Capistrano Unified School District is facing a $3,000,000 claim because it allowed a high school sophomore to be harassed repeatedly since 6th grade - which resulted in his eventual suicide.

If the parents win their claim, the $3,000,000 will go to a children's shelter. They have what seems to be an open-and-shut case, but I can't guarantee they'll win. Even though our schools fail at everything else, they're good at one thing: getting out of a legal bind.

If you ever need a good attorney, you might want to hire one who also represents a school system. If you want to find an even better attorney, hire one who represents a shitty school system. The worse a school system is, the more the school seems to emerge victorious in court actions.

School officials in this story should be tried on murder charges.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-suicide-bully4-2009jun04,0,3806981.story?track=rss)

Reason #638,421,078,128 to homeschool

Homeschooling. It's not just for right-wingers anymore!

(Judging by my experiences with schools, it never was!)

Two elementary schools in southern California have opted to - on the spur of the moment - tack on an extra 34 days to the school year that was supposed to end tomorrow. This sudden schedule change has dashed summer activities and farming.

This despite the fact that school wasn't scheduled to end until June 18 in the first place!

What the fuck is wrong with these idiots?

The schools' excuse? Under state law, the schools' occasional "short days" were supposed to be at least 180 minutes, but they were only 175 minutes.

The "lost" time could be made up within a day. But the state refuses to count ANY of the 175 minutes.

America's corporatist brainwashing centers which are so loosely referred to as schools sure do want kids in their grip as much as possible, don't they?

"Clerical error", my knee. This was a carefully orchestrated fraud to make sure the kids were under the schools' spell for an extra 34 days. It's kind of like how every so often you read about schoolchildren being forced to take a standardized test twice because the school made some error in administering it or "lost" the results.

The good news? Most families are just ignoring the 34 extra days and going ahead with their summer plans. Regarding the 34 days, one mom said, "It's the school's fault. I'm not doing it."

If only everyone had that brave attitude.

I'd love to see how the schools react to having virtually empty classrooms all summer. They're going to look mighty silly when they cry "truancy!"

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hECDamfgm3lLhGwQI_ymYkDGyy2gD98RQAI00)

Jindal supports beating kids

Keep this in mind: A vote for Bobby Jindal is a vote for beating children.

Of course, this may be moot outside Louisiana, because Jindal is such an incompetent goof that it's hard to imagine him on a nationwide ticket.

Recently, when lawmakers in Louisiana voted on a bill that would prohibit paddling in schools, Jindal actually opposed this bill.

Hard to believe in 2009, but here we are. Electing outmoded idiots like Bobby Jindal has consequences.

(Source: http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/48214842.html)

Ensign an even bigger hypocrite than I thought

I hate to dwell on a politician's screwing around, but man, did the other side ask for it!

It turns out that John Ensign was one of the harshest critics of John Edwards for doing something very similar to what he did.

And of course, Ensign was an equally harsh critic of Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky affair. When Ensign served in the House, he voted to impeach Clinton for it, even though we've established a thousand times that it wasn't even a criminal act.

So can somebody give me a good reason why Ensign should not be expelled from the Senate after this? If political ruin is good enough for Clinton and Edwards, why isn't it good enough for Ensign?

Right-wing senator acknowledges extramarital affair

Meet Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada). A fairly conservative guy, he is. Big Iraq War supporter.

He's been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate for 2012. When I read that, I rolled on the floor with laughter.

But now Ensign admits to an extramarital affair.

On its own, I don't believe that's a big deal, except among his own family. A politician can have a million affairs without impeding their political effectiveness one iota.

But Ensign is a Republican - the party that tries to run everyone else's lives - so it's only fair that he should be held to a little higher standard. If his party hadn't anointed themselves as the nation's morality cops, Ensign wouldn't be the grade-A hypocrite that this story makes him.

After the Nazi media utterly destroyed John Edwards for having an affair, it's only fair that John Ensign should resign.

Edwards is almost excluded from winning an elected office again, because of the media's treatment of his unfortunate errors. So the honorable thing for Ensign to do would be to give up ever holding an elected position again.

Either that, or the media should just admit they have a double standard favoring Republicans.

Of course, I'm not under any illusion that Ensign will resign, or that the media will let this story hurt him one bit. If you think I've been displaying a double standard, consider it even with the pop-up media.

A Nazi speaks

Of President Obama's leading critics, only those on the left are credible. And I can't say I disagree with them. Then again, the Democrats are the party that gives us DLC lightweights like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, so you can't say you truly expected Obama to be a giant of populism.

Obama's critics on the right, however, are as irrational as one would expect. And that's being kind. Many of them are frankly Nazi.

It's a harsh description, but it's entirely fair, considering this message I received from a follower of the rightist strain of criticism:

"Bandit, let me know if you'd like a link to a picture of Obama buddy William Ayres [sic] standing on the flag. You're too young to remember him, but he's a communist and in the 60's he was a homeland terrorist bomber connected to the 'weathermen', and he and Obama go back. You are who you hang with man."

If I'm too young to remember Ayers, then Obama probably is too. The spittle contingent has long been trying to blame Obama for what Ayers did when Obama was only 8 years old - even though the closest connection these two men have with each other is that they both served on the same antipoverty board.

That's like blaming Paul Wellstone for things Jesse Helms did just because they both served in the Senate at the same time.

To be brutally blunt, the Obama/Ayers controversy has appeal only to Nazis - because it is bogus. And I guarantee you if the commenter who sent me that message had the nerve to make this comment to my face instead of over the Internets (sic), they'd be looking at some mighty costly dental bills.

Anyone who truly believes there are any major links between Ayers and Obama is too stupid to vote. I have no patience for such deliberate ignorance.

The commenter who sent me that message is a Nazi. End of story.

The comment was prompted by my exposing the Cincinnati Tea Party terrorists for their disrespect of the national anthem during their March farce. Instead of standing respectfully, they decided to get up and dance like there was a big disco ball suspended from the sky.

Since that clip irritated the fascist brain trust so much the first time (because it exposed their lack of patriotism), here it is again:



(Facebook folks may want to hound Facebook some more if that clip isn't showing up.)

Digital TV going down in flames

Repeat after me...

I.

Told.

You.

So.

I've explained for ages that digital TV is sensitive like a CD: Instead of getting a snowy (but still viable) signal, digital TV means a weak signal cuts off altogether.

And you thought I was just being paranoid, didn't you?

Now that analog TV has been discontinued, folks are learning the hard way about the rank rottenness of digital TV. And digital TV is going down like a lead gum bubble.

Cincinnati leads the nation in the number of calls to stations by viewers complaining about the loss of reception. Local stations have fielded almost 5,000 calls. Contrast this with nearby Dayton, where stations have logged only 33 calls.

I'm guessing Cincinnati earned this dubious distinction because of its high number of households with over-the-air TV and because of rugged terrain.

I've lost reception of at least 2 stations (not counting out-of-town outlets).

Give digital TV a few more months. I'm reminded of the ad for cable TV in which a distressed gentleman sings, "I want my cable back." I think we're going to see lots of people singing, "I want my analog back."

Digital TV is shaping up to be the New Math of the 2000s.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=5c49394b12564ab6832411d82ad3a991&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5c49394b12564ab6832411d82ad3a991Post%3a011d44bb-196a-45c1-a457-b053c0d33886&sid=sitelife.cincinnati.com)

Right-wing congressman wants to step up war on pot

If stupidity means doing the same failed act over and over and expecting different results, then whoever supports this proposal is either stupid or they're actively trying to prop up drug gangs.

Right-wing Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) is channeling Phil Gramm by encouraging even more ruinous penalties for minor drug offenses, even as he supports deregulation of Big Business.

Kirk plans to introduce legislation imposing 25 years in prison just for selling small amounts of a form of marijuana deemed more potent.

America is only now emerging from the worst economic times in 75 years, and the health care system is broken, yet this idiot is worried about a little weed?

The insane War on Drugs is in fact a price support for violent drug cartels. We've all seen how draconian drug laws have actually heightened gang violence. Those who doubt this must have been living under a rock for years.

An admitted child rapist just got sentenced to only a few months in jail. Yet Mark Kirk wants people to do 25 years for pot! That's his idea of "justice."

I'd love to see what the "regulation for thee, not for me" crowd has to say about this. Whatever excuse they come up with, it's got to be mighty laughable.

(Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-kirk-marijuanajun15,0,4381974.story)

Watch your wallet: More unexplained Duke power outages

No storms. Just more power outages:

http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Power-Outages-Sweep-Through-N-Ky/Ov24uRTSOkqFWAz-SHofSQ.cspx

Of course, Duke Energy doesn't know when power will be restored.

Get ready for another rubber-stamp rate hike, as Duke uses this as an excuse to recoup "lost" revenue for a product it didn't deliver.

(This time, I managed to be safe from the outages.)

Wingnuts can't blame this on Jimmy Carter

Peep this:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/15/content_11547835.htm

Before the wingnuts start blaming Carter, Clinton, Obama, and everyone else who doesn't have a Republican label next to their name, here's a little refresher: The Clinton administration made a deal in 1994 that froze North Korea's plutonium program. But Bush scrapped this deal in 2002 - which allowed North Korea to resume development of weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, Bush reinstated the old Clinton deal at the end of his reign - just so he could claim credit for it.

Would Bush's cultists be happy if America lost a city because of their hero's utter incompetence at foreign affairs?

Right-wing talker rips off crosstown station's name

You can't make this stuff up, ladies and gents.

After the debut of WQRT radio - which gives Cincinnati THREE right-wing talk stations (but no left-leaning counterpart) - station brass have chosen an on-air name for the station: Q-1160.

Are they even dumber than we thought? (Yes.) Anyone who has even a rudimentary knowledge of Cincinnati radio knows there's been a station in town with a nearly identical name (Q-102) for almost 40 years.

So WQRT thinks it can just take another station's name without permission?

And no, Q-1160 isn't owned by the same company that owns Q-102 - despite the near-monopoly that otherwise exists in this market.

Just when you think local radio big shots can't get any dumber, they always manage to outdo their stupid selves.

Q-102 wouldn't even let a station that was almost 150 miles away call itself Q-102, yet someone is dumb enough to think they'll allow a virtually identical name in the same city?

Or is this like when Clear Channel started stations called Kiss FM in markets that already had a Kiss FM, and the right-wing courts forced the original Kiss FM stations to change even though they had the name first?

(Source: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=147001.0)

2 schools abolish year-round calendar bullshit

This year-round school garbage is just that: garbage.

But now 2 schools in suburban Utah are abolishing the failed year-round calendar they've had for years and restoring summer break.

One of the schools pioneered the scourge of year-round school even before the spleezyglup wave of year-round switchovers that began in the mid-'90s. This school had been year-round for 18 years.

So the rest of the country was modeling itself on what a suburb in the most conservative state was doing? I wonder if they'll continue, now that this locale has abolished the very plague that it helped usher in.

Apparently, one of the excuses that these schools used when they adopted year-round school in the first place was that there wasn't enough room for all the students to be on the same schedule.

Bull. And shit. If there wasn't enough room, it was because they were too cheap to add more space until years later.

That the natural cycle has seasons is nature's way of telling us what's intended and what isn't. Science has been on our side all along.

(Source: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12593813)

Flu patient dies when hospital denies treatment

This story underscores again the urgency of health care reform - even as greedy medical corporations try to wrest every concession they possibly can out of the White House.

In Utah, a woman who was only 47 died of swine flu when a hospital refused to administer Tamiflu. She suffered for 8 days, while the hospital denied she was ill. Her flu turned into pneumonia, and her kidneys and lungs failed.

This follows Utah's attempts to shut down its state health department entirely. Utah did reduce funding for the department to just a token sum. This likely contributed to the Beehive State having one of the highest rates of swine flu.

Swine flu continues to spiral out of control in Utah because - as is typical in states with incompetent government - so many school districts have switched to year-round school. No Utah district has called off school because of the flu - even though they shouldn't even still be in school when it's June 15.

It's unnerving how much this reminds me of the attitude displayed by local right-wing BBS idiots who bragged that it would be worth getting sick to have a longer school year. And I bet they still say it. They don't care about anyone except having them around to exploit.

Sadly, that attitude kills.

It gets worse.

As more evidence of seemingly deliberate incompetence in Utah state government, officials there now say they're going to stop counting swine flu cases - using the excuse that it has spread too quickly.

Seriously, they said that. In other words, a problem is getting worse, so they're going to ignore it.

There should be tribunals against state officials for this. These are crimes against humanity.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/15/742704/-47-Year-Old-Dies-from-Swine-Flu,-Utah-Hospital-Refused-to-Give-Her-Tamiflu;
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12590187;
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12594446)

Malpractice suit hoax revived

The radical right generated much clatter in the early '90s about a problem that by and large did not exist: frivolous medical malpractice suits.

There were a few very isolated bogus suits here and there, but certainly no national epidemic. It was a bit like Reagan's made-up stories about welfare recipients buying new Cadillacs.

The purpose of this hoax was clear: It was pumped up to protect well-heeled medical corporations - not your family doctor. This campaign was bankrolled by Big Pharma, insurers, and other major corporations.

America's political leadership was highly compliant in soothing right-wing cries about frivolous suits. Much stricter limits were placed on malpractice awards. The Last Word's first criticism of the Clinton regime was over its proposal to outlaw malpractice suits entirely. (Do any of you seriously think Clinton was a liberal President?)

Even after patients' rights to collect full damages was gutted, the right-wing plen-T-plaint about frivolous suits has now been revived.

With health care reform in the works, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle now boasts, "Tort reform is going to be on the table."

Got that? Bush's impeachment was off the table, but crimping injured consumers' rights to collect malpractice damages is on the table.

Not surprisingly, this is the same Tom Daschle who couldn't even keep the Senate in Democratic hands despite the most mind-numbing Republican failures in the party's history.

It's not as if the Obama administration truly wants to gut our ability to sue even more than it's already been gutted. It's just that the administration thinks it's necessary as a compromise with the medical industry.

But make no mistake about it: If malpractice suits are further limited, we can kiss real health care reform goodbye.

That's not reform. Every country that has a real public medical system (which includes every industrialized nation except America) has a system of accountability for bad physicians. In most countries, there are almost no limits on the right of injured patients to sue.

Never compromise with interests as greedy and coldhearted as America's medical corporations. I'm talking about companies like the insurer that allowed a teenage girl to die before approving coverage of life-saving treatment.

Ever hear the saying "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist"?

Luckily, Obama hasn't flatly supported a cap on jury awards in malpractice suits - in contrast to Bush, who embraced every policy that harmed consumers.

There's an excess of medical lawsuits alright. But not malpractice suits filed by patients. I'm referring to suits filed against patients by hospitals and other corporations.

Our local paper used to list all the legal filings in some nearby counties, and an amazingly high number of them were filed by hospitals against individuals - almost never the other way around.

If you want to rein in health care costs, we should start by severely limiting providers' power to sue patients.

(Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/15/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5088733.shtml;
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/health/policy/15health.html)

Tea Party personality charged in fatal home invasion

Shawna Forde is known as a conservative activist who appeared at the Phoenix, Arizona, installment of the recent Tea Party farces. She also heads a chapter of the Minuteman Project, which has been praised by conservatives.

Forde has claimed to be the target of several serious violent crimes, which she blames Mexican drug cartels for. But she keeps changing her stories, which has led most folks to accuse her of faking the attacks.

Now you can append Forde to the list of people active in conservative causes who have been charged with major crimes themselves.

Forde, together with accomplices Jason Bush and Albert Gaxiola, are now facing charges in a deadly home invasion. Authorities say the trio broke into the home of a Tucson area family and shot 3 residents. The father and the 9-year-old girl who were shot died.

Shawna Forde is accused of masterminding this invasion. The sheriff called her "at best a psychopath."

It turns out Jason Bush also has Minuteman connections.

Draw your own conclusions about this ongoing violent pathology.

(Source: http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136:next-on-the-white-power-chopping-block-shawna-forde-jason-bush-albert-gaxiola&catid=34:ye-olde-white-power-chopping-block)

Casey Kasem retires

I grew up listening to Casey Kasem in the '70s and '80s.

I can't imagine what my life would have been like had Casey not helped create the long-running 'American Top 40' radio countdown.

He still hosts several AC-formatted shows, but this July 4, the 77-year-old Detroit native is hanging up his mike for good.

It's always sad when one of your major influences in life retires.

Open thread

Because it's your constitutional True Free Speach Now (tm) right to see the "Just think..." banner of mid-2000s fame at least once every 6 months, it once again graces your presence.

Today, I have important family business to take care of, and won't be able to blog again until at least late tonight. Hopefully, this won't be like the previous time I performed this task, which was right at the same time the media unleashed the story about John Edwards's infidelity, which I didn't give a shit about.

So consider this an open thread. If I don't find at least one substantive comment from the many readers of this blog, I'll cry like the macho superman I am.

It's old...It's Orbit... (Bubble Gum Weekend)

It's bad enough when gum manufacturers peddle varieties that are hamstrung with artificial sweeteners to adults.

We've all seen those ads. They always featured frumpy grownups talking about how they never gave up bubble gum - just the sugar!

But in 1983, Orbit gum - which according to Wikipedia was and is a Wrigley's product - decided to broadcast ads like these selling these frankensweeteners to children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7JiPEt00Pk

It's no wonder Orbit took an extended hiatus from the American market for years afterward. With the gum industry saturated with so many brands of sugarless gum that nobody wanted, one of them was bound to be discontinued. Orbit didn't appear in the U.S. from the mid-'80s or so until 2001.

It's suitable that this commercial featured a robot - because folks had to be programmed to think sugarless gum is great enough to sell as much as it does.

But people in the commersh bubbled. The robot, however, did not.

A bit of history about Orbit: This brand wasn't originally sugarless, but it was designed as a deliberately inferior brand during World War II, when Wrigley's had a hard time finding all the ingredients they needed for their main brands. Orbit was branded separately from Wrigley's classic brands, because Orbit didn't meet high enough standards for Wrigley's to even want their name on it.

Dumb right-wing quote of the day

Oh happy day. Another school uniform story.

I wouldn't have to keep writing about this issue, if the lunatic Right wouldn't keep trying to impose uniforms in America's public schools.

Uniform rightists keep getting sillier and sillier. This quote from a school board member in Athens, Georgia, proves it. She declared:

"I'm supportive of allowing students to wear what they want, and if the schoolteachers and principals and the parents at these 3 schools are in support of wearing uniforms, then I'll support that."

Oh, so you're supportive of allowing kids to wear what they want as long as it's a uniform? That's really what she said - unless I misunderstood, which is possible, considering the media's Bipford reportage.

It's time to pass a federal law against public school uniforms. The American public is tired of spending its resources on this matter.

More bad news for the map-hating Right

This has got to be the worst news so far for map-haters who compose the Bushist intelligentsia.

They're like that one idiot lawmaker in California who's trying to pass a law to make Google Street View blur buildings (thus rendering this service nearly useless). They utterly hate maps, because maps help people get around. They want everyone getting lost with no guidance.

So I'm pleased to announce the completion of what I believe is the ninth in the LeftMaps series of Cincinnati area bicycling maps. The newest addition is our biggest map yet. It's for Highland Heights, Kentucky - my original hometown!

For convenience, it also includes some unincorporated enclaves that this university city surrounds.

From the town's narrow Depression-era streets on the north to its maze-like modern cul-de-sacs on the south, you can now peep, weep, and oggle-beep at this now-declining city where I spent my formative years:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

When the Far Right sees this, they're going to crap a hole clean through their trousers!

Chamber of Commerce versus the American worker

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce stacks up squarely against me, you, and others who work hard to put food on the table.

Now the Chamber has joined an effort to make that big, mean Obama administration loosen "buy American" rules that apply to government agencies that use stimulus funds.

These rules - like the stimulus itself - were designed to perk up the long-ailing American economy. What good would the stimulus be if it didn't protect American jobs?

It would actually be a lot of good for the global greed merchants who want more power to exploit sweatshop labor abroad. But bad for American workers.

The Chamber of Commerce's plen-T-plaint isn't limited only to their attempts to gut "buy American" guidelines that govern stimulus spending. The Chamber also has its boxers in a spectacle over "buy American" provisions being included in other spending bills.

One labor official said that the Chamber's stance "doesn't pass the U.S. economic interest laugh test. The U.S. Chamber in Washington should change its name to the Chamber for Offshoring U.S. Jobs."

If the Chamber is so interested in "free trade", why doesn't it support eliminating new right-wing border restrictions that prevented a Michigan woman from even visiting her friends right across the river in Canada?

(Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/us-chamber-of-commerce-joins-fight-against-buy-american/article1178098)

Coke Zero zeroed in Venezuela

Health officials in Venezuela are on the right track, aren't they?

While the United States seriously considers government subsidies for cancer-causing artificial sweeteners, the administration of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is moving in the other direction.

Venezuela's health department has ordered Coke Zero - a beverage laden with artificial sweeteners - to be discontinued nationwide.

Very few tears are being shed.

Coke Zero, incidentally, was recently the subject of a grim marketing blunder.

As a marketing tie-in to a recent James Bond movie, a commercial for this product played an instrumental version of a song from the film.

The song's title? "Another Way To Die"!

I guess getting cancer from aspartame really is another way to die, isn't it?

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5597K620090611)

Pig farm to be sued over flu?

This story is from last month, but I wasn't able to get to it then. I haven't seen any new developments in this story since then.

The husband of a pregnant Texas woman who died in the ongoing swine flu pandemic has filed a legal petition to see if the operators of the factory pig farm in Mexico where the flu spread from are responsible for her death.

There should be no doubts that they are. This should be almost an open-and-shut case. When you run factory farms that are too crowded and full of large lagoons of animal feces, it's almost a given that disease will spread.

It's not as if the U.S. factory farms where swine flu previously originated are blameless. I'll go a step further: I believe there should be criminal charges against public officials who have helped deregulate factory farms.

Health officials claimed there was no connection between the flu outbreak and the factory farm in Mexico. This is patently false. Nearby residents have long linked the farm to a host of ailments. It was so bad at one point that government officials had to shut down the town to spray for swarms of flies.

When somebody allows conditions that spread disease, that makes them responsible for what happens.

(Source: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/woman-97913-dies-filed.html)

More Republicans covered up right-wing drug trafficking?

This story is a little hard to follow, but I think we can all start unraveling it now:

http://blogto2010.blogspot.com/2009/06/crist-skyway-communications-frauddrug.html

It's interesting that Asa Hutchinson was head of the DEA during the largest increase in heroin production ever. If Charlie Crist helped cover up drug trafficking, this also makes him look like a hypocrite for his coziness with the Semblers.

It's been clear for years that Republican administrations in the White House have been involved in drug dealing. The War on Drugs is a price support for them. But the media almost never even touches on it. And when any journalist starts to dig deep, they get fired or worse.

Another Hummer handout?

A few of you may recall the tax break (handout) for Hummers and large SUV's that the Bush regime provided in the mid-2000s. This giveaway let Hummer owners claim a business purpose for vehicles that were for personal use.

Now America is being treated to a big, nasty repeat...repeat...repeat...repeat....repeat.

An op-ed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) exposes this fleecing. Yes, I know: Collins and Feinstein aren't even my favorite senators, yet they seem to be on the ball this time (for once).

A new bill would have helped Americans trade gas-guzzlers for more efficient cars. But corporate lobbyists have gutted the bill by somehow making it so you can use it to buy a new Hummer H3T that gets only 16 miles per gallon, but not a used Ford Focus that gets 27 miles per gallon.

And the House has approved this version of the bill.

It is in effect a bailout for Hummers and other inefficient vehicles.

As for the portion of the bill that was removed because it disqualified foreign-made cars, I frankly don't see what was wrong with this provision. Reportedly, it was removed because it violated free trade laws. But if our trade laws are stacked so much against American workers that this provision had to be deleted, I think it's time to rethink our trade policies.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124467696781404127.html)

I think we can finally diagnose the wingnutosphere!

Some professionals now believe serial bitterness is a clinically identifiable psychological disorder.

Recently I read about post-traumatic embitterment disorder - the proposed name for a feeling that befalls people who spend their whole lives angry because of some perceived injustice:

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-bitterness25-2009may25,0,4544029.story

Far be it for me to rely on the L.A. Times, it was an interesting article nonetheless.

"Angry, pessimistic, aggressive, hopeless haters"? Sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I've told you accounts of the destructive irrationality of followers of modern right-wing politics for years. Could it be a clinical disorder?

I think they were so sour over being told "no" in 1992 that they never got over it, and never will. Ever. They're going to spend the rest of their lives gnashing their teeth and lashing themselves about the living room.

Unless they get help. Now.

They live only for revenge. Revenge against "the liberals." Revenge against me. Revenge against you!

This enduring sullenness resulted because they already thought of themselves as being on a mission. And when their ideas were thoroughly debunked by facts and repudiated by the public, they couldn't cope.

After reading about this disorder, I'm starting to wonder if the rank-and-file of the rightist intelligentsia is as culpable as they have appeared.

Certainly, their leaders are more to blame than they are. Right-wing politicians and talk show hosts exploit their feelings and allow this bitterness to fester and grow. The consequences have not been pleasant.

Even the President likes 'Sesame Street'

One of the highlights of every presidential administration is always their mention of 'Sesame Street'.

Even ol' Ronnie once mentioned the long-running children's TV show. In a feely-good speech in 1985, President Reagan said, "Imagine if people in our nation could see and hear the Bolshoi Ballet again while Soviet citizens could see and hear groups like the Beach Boys - and how about Soviet children watching 'Sesame Street'?"

Millions who read about the speech roiled with laughter at the mere fact that the name 'Sesame Street' would escape a President's lips.

The White House/1-2-3 Apartments connection is bipartisan.

Now that 'Sesame Street' is celebrating its 40th anniversary, President Obama has delivered a message praising the show.

The new leader of the free world declared, "There are many adults who could stand to learn again the lessons that 'Sesame Street' offers: lessons of compassion, and kindness and respect for our differences. The world is a better place for the world you create on 'Sesame Street' - a world that enriches our children's minds and hearts each and every day."

As pointed out in a recent Internet post, one person who may still need to learn this lesson is Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Although a surprisingly durable senator considering his party, Grassley is known for occasional episodes of instability.

Grassley recently logged onto Twitter and complained, "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

Only a few minutes later, Grassley continued, "Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."

Judging by Grassley's weak literacy skills, maybe he should not only watch 'Sesame Street' but 'The Electric Company' too.

New York Senate channels Kentucky

The New York Senate seems to be another body where the will of the people is a distant memory.

This week, 2 Democratic senators helped stage a coup to restore the Republicans to power in that body - even though the GOP is outnumbered. And the stench is overpowering.

This is strikingly similar to what happened in the Kentucky Senate in the late '90s, when right-wing Democrats joined a Republican coup to put the GOP in charge. As in New York today, Republicans' approval numbers in Kentucky at the time were laughably poor.

The general sentiment was that the Democrats deserved to lose the Kentucky Senate - but not to the Republicans, whose mismanagement and corruption in Congress at the time was infamous.

One of the Democratic turncoats in New York who aided the Republican coup is Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. A few years ago, 3 of Espada's cohorts stole food meant for poor and sick New Yorkers and handed it out at Espada's political rallies.

Espada also owes New York City over $60,000 in fines for years of fraudulent campaign activities. And he doesn't even live in the district he claims to represent.

The Republicans have rewarded Espada by making him president pro tem - which puts him a heartbeat away from becoming governor.

Meanwhile, with the GOP power grab in New York, important initiatives have been dashed. Restoring utility regulation? Gone! Ending the mismanagement of New York City schools? Bye-bye! New laws to help victims of clergy sex abuse? That's gone too.

All at the hands of a party that doesn't even have a plurality, let alone a majority - and 2 collaborators who enabled them.

I guess the Republicans realized they couldn't win back power through elections, so they had to stage a coup.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/nyregion/10about.html;
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EED61439F932A15756C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&scp=4&sq=Soundview%20guilty&st=cse)

AMA opposes health care reform

The American Medical Association has long been criticized for being a poor representative of our country's physicians.

The AMA has long opposed publicly funded health care, and it was once against even the Medicare program. The organization defeated health care reform in the '90s and has tried to gut patients' efforts to win malpractice awards.

The AMA has long crusaded in favor of government censorship of media materials. The Last Word of 6/30/07 describes the AMA's effort to encourage the Federal Trade Commission to stiffen the oft-ridiculed video game rating system (a form of government censorship).

Now the AMA is opposing the Obama administration's efforts to fix America's broken medical system. It particularly opposes a public insurance plan to compete with private insurance. The AMA says insurance should continue to be provided only through the private market - the same private market that has jacked up prices and refused to approve life-saving treatments.

This even as doctors are so hamstrung by private insurers that they've sought alternatives.

On the other hand, health care reform should focus more on the medical delivery system than in trying to make us all buy insurance. The priority should be on getting health care when we need it, not having to worry about insurance. After years of corporatist rule though, who really expects an ideal outcome?

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/us/politics/11health.html)

Museum shooter a Freeper

After the shooting today at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it was revealed that the shooter was an 88-year-old white supremacist, Holocaust denier, and right-wing website proprietor.

He was also imprisoned in the '80s for trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board at gunpoint.

And wouldn't you know it? It turns out he's a regular on Free Republic - yes, the same Free Republic that ranks as the most influential website among American conservatives:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5819351

I'm not in the least bit surprised, because this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

Who is going to keep living in denial about what Free Republic is all about?

P&G exec sent Red-baiting letter

Cincinnati's corporate culture held the city back for years. Mere criticism of this milieu brang swift condemnation on yourself. Cincinnati marched in lockstep with corporate interests more than any other American metropolitan area at the time.

Former Procter & Gamble vice-president Lou Pritchett has been rumored lately to be the sender of a frenzied right-wing open letter blasting the Obama administration. (I don't know if Pritchett was veep yet when P&G threatened to pull advertising from ABC if it didn't delete negative references to Sun Myung Moon from 'Soap', but that's another matter entirely.)

Now it turns out that this rumor is true, is true, it's all true!

Pritchett has confirmed that he was in fact the writer of this screed. He boasts that he sent it to the New York Times but they never published it.

Pritchett's letter whines like a big baby about Obama getting an expensive education, when Pritchett ain't exactly hurting for money himself. It's also rife with tired Red-baiting and sore loser talking points that make the Heritage Foundation seem almost calm in comparison.

The funniest part? It's where Pritchett tells Obama, "You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do." Then he complains that Obama wants to silence a whole slew of conservative radio hosts. If the media gave Obama a free pass, why would he want to silence it as Pritchett claims?

If any recent White House occupant has gotten a free media pass, it sure isn't Obama. If Bush hadn't been getting a free pass, how did he manage to win 2 terms?

Naturally, Corporate America considers Lou Pritchett one of its greatest geniuses.

Just last year, meanwhile, P&G was named as one of the 7 corporations that continue to flex unusual muscle over public policies in the Cincinnati region.

Nice to know one of America's largest metropolitan areas is still ruled by execs who are zillionaire sore losers who think people care about their ravings that look like they were copied from one of those goofy right-wing newspapers that used to pile up at NKU and ended up being hoarded for firewood.

(Source: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp)

Can you tell me how to get to Beekman Street? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Usually, this weekly feature resurrects a much-loved 'Sesame Street' sketch of old, but this week I'm doing something a little bit diff.

This installment highlights what I call the 'Sesame Street' Taboo. When I was about 10, I got to the age at which 'Sesame Street' was considered more of a target for crude humor than anything. I wrote entire storylines in which the whole cast of lovable Muppet characters was killed off by ridiculous means.

In fact, this brand of humor became so pervasive that my parents forbade any mention of the children's TV show at all. Yes, that was an Allowed Cloud.

This taboo didn't stifle my jokes and stories. We were traveling on eastbound Interstate 74 in Cincinnati several years later and saw a sign for Beekman Street. The name evoked the image of an anthropomorphic bird, so I leaned into the front seat, moved my hand like a beak and - in my best Big Bird voice - declared, "Beekman Street!"

Almost every mention of Beekman Street ever since has been delivered in this manner. That's because it's funny.

And it's funny because it's exactly what everyone else is thinking but doesn't dare to say.

I'm going on 36, and I still do it!

On Monday, the Peace Bike toured Cincinnati again (during the same trip in which I defied the latest Allowed Cloud on the Purple People Bridge), and I did it again:



I did this in public, no less!

The America I want to live in is one where people do Big Bird impressions in public. That'll make the country strong again!

France strikes down hated Internet law

It's a shame the U.S. Supreme Court isn't like France's highest legal authority.

France's Constitutional Council has now struck down part of a new law that set up a government agency to bar alleged file sharers from the Internet.

Right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy and "entertainment" companies had championed the new law, which would have barred people from the Internet for a year if they were accused of illegally copying files.

But consumer groups and Sarkozy's progressive opponents fought this law because it didn't give the accused any way to challenge the accusations against them.

Sarkozy was proven to be a hypocrite by supporting the new law even though he was caught using copyrighted music for partisan events without permission.

The Constitutional Council ruled that unrestricted access to communication services like the Internet is a right, not a privilege. Thus, a government board like the one established by this law cannot revoke someone's Internet access.

This ruling also bores a massive Bubblicious hole through the online thought police's longtime battle cry that "the internets is not a rite lololol."

(Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25619120-12335,00.html)

Kentucky town legalizes alcohol

Kentucky won't pass bills to rein in the cost of insurance, yet it's still illegal for adults of any age to buy alcohol in almost half of Kentucky's counties. (Brings a whole new meaning to "regulation for thee, not for me.")

In Kentucky (unlike Mississippi), residents of dry counties are allowed to buy alcohol in wet counties to be taken home for personal consumption. Maybe this is why there hasn't been as much interest in making dry counties wet as one would expect. After Prohibition, Kentucky counties were dry by default unless voters legalized alcohol - and that requires getting the measure on the ballot.

Dry counties certainly do not reduce highway crashes. A 2003 study shows a higher rate of traffic mishaps in dry counties, as residents drive further to drink in bars.

Cities in dry counties are allowed to become wet, and now this has occurred in Paintsville in eastern Kentucky, thanks to a voter referendum.

But the forces of prohibition still loom large elsewhere. Just a few years ago, Grant County in northern Kentucky voted by about a 2-to-1 margin to remain dry.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story/Town-Passes-Liquor-Referendum/fm_zyhQvXkuJKMisgcgIcg.cspx)

When our cities got robbed (a blast from the past)

Map fans like you must be excited to learn of the looming 2010 census.

But our cities are still paying for the botched 2000 census. And the 1990 census.

A 1999 Kentucky Post article says the city of Covington lost millions of dollars in federal funds because of undercounts in 1990. These errors resulted when the elder Bush vetoed a bill that would have made the census more accurate. This veto in turn was politically motivated - by Bush's desire to reduce funding and congressional representation for Democratic areas.

Covington votes Democratic, like other central cities. Most of the city's recent policies are not left-leaning, but the city's voters support more liberal candidates and causes than their suburban counterparts.

Regarding the 1990 undercount and robbery, Covington's fire chief said in 1999, "Covington lost over $13 million in federal and state funds during the 1990s.'' He was quoted as saying, "If the 2000 census maintains the same inaccuracies, it's estimated the city will lose $22.7 million in the next decade.''

In the '90s, the neighboring city of Newport lost $300,000 because of blatant census inaccuracies.

And I'm still waiting to receive my 2000 census form.

The cities pay more than their fair share in taxes - yet get back precious little in return, because the census skips so many people. Where does the cities' tax money go? It goes directly to affluent exurban communities that need it the least - and where few were skipped by the census.

(Source: Kentucky Post 12/23/99)

Meth labs soar in Kentucky following Sudafed law

Are the drug warriors happy now?

They treat every allergy sufferer as a criminal in the name of fighting drugs, and now their laws have again been proven to have the opposite effect that they predicted.

The number of meth labs found in Kentucky has soared in the past 18 months following passage of new laws to make everyone practically tell their life story just to buy a box of allergy pills at the drugstore. (This of course is an unconstitutional search, but who's counting?)

The ineffectiveness of these laws is underscored by the death of a toddler who drank drain cleaner that was apparently used in a meth lab.

In one part of western Kentucky, the number of meth labs in the first 5 months of the year has increased from 10 to 49 over the same period last year.

If any innocent people who I know are killed by meth labs in Kentucky following this new law, I will be on the drug warriors and our legislators like stink on shit. I'll be on their case anyway. Our lawmakers are supposed to be acting in our interests, yet their policies kill innocent children.

Tell me now who the real baby killers are.

What's the response of officials following the latest spike in Kentucky meth labs? They want even more draconian laws. Of course. Which I guarantee you aren't going to help matters, and will only inconvenience or kill the innocent.

When that fails, bet on even more rigid laws.

This vicious cycle known as the War on Drugs is a price support for violent gangs, and the drug warriors have got to know this by now. Either that, or they're in the worst sort of denial.

(Source: http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/822828.html)

Mountains to be covered by frozen wastewater

Yesterday, the Supreme Court dashed an effort by American Indian nations to halt an Arizona ski resort from desecrating sacred mountains by coating them with artificial snow made of frozen wastewater.

In doing so, the Supremes upheld the unasked-for judicial activism of the staunchly corporatist 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had allowed the resort to cover the mountains with the wastewater.

Do our courts even believe in the rule of law anymore? Environmental laws are pretty clear that you can't cover the mountains with snow manufactured from treated toilet water - especially when the mountains are in a national forest. There are also laws to protect cultural sites and religious freedom - which the court has run roughshod over.

All this so affluent tourists can have their ski resort open for a few more weeks each year.

The Southwest is in an extended drought, and a ski resort wants to use wastewater to make snow when the water could be used for something else (assuming it's as safe as they claim)?

Hundreds of years of genocide against American Indians wasn't enough to satisfy our court system, I guess.

(Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/06/08/20090608snowbowl0608-onl.html)

Rightists defend North Korea's jailing of journalists (more Freeper Madness)

The Whine Time Players at Free Republic aren't even funny anymore. They're pitiful.

After 2 American journalists were sentenced by North Korea to 12 years of hard labor, I didn't seriously believe America's rightist brain trust would publicly defend the harsh sentence - though I did point out that it would have been par for the course for them.

I didn't think they'd defend the punishment, because North Korea isn't considered an American ally as other totalitarian dictatorships have been.

But I was wrong.

Regulars of right-wing hate site Free Republic are doing exactly what I didn't think they'd have the unmitigated audacity to do.

After they questioned Ashton Kutcher's observation that the sentence is a "national crisis", one Freeper said of the jailed reporters:

"From what I have read, they snuck into NK and thought they could mingle for a story and got caught. When I visit other countries, I am pretty sure that I am supposed to follow their rules."

If your literacy skills were up to par, Freeper person, you'd have known that the journalists probably never set foot in North Korea. It appears as if they were in China and were nabbed by zealous North Korean border guards.

Even if they were in North Korea, a regime doesn't get to violate fundamental human rights that people are endowed with regardless of country - let alone be shielded from criticism for violating their rights.

In conservaworld, there is one notable exception to each country being allowed to enforce its laws: the United States.

The rightists are big free trade advocates who have let foreign fisheries exceed fishing limits in American waters - which American fisheries aren't allowed to do.

These neorightists support a cult founder from Korea who immigrated to the United States and promptly violated American tax laws.

They backed Bush's "preemption" efforts to run roughshod over laws in most of the 50 states that regulated Big Business.

Free Republic's thought sentinels are defending Kim Jong-il while fighting Kelso of 'That '70s Show'! Now you know why I'm a nonfiction writer: You can't write fiction that's more bizarre than this true story.

City pays up after harassing photographer

Anyone with an interest in the beauty of roads, bridges, dams, and power lines should perk up when they read this story.

In 2005, an art professor was stopped by police in Snohomish, Washington, for photographing power lines for an art exhibit. She was stopped despite the fact that the power lines are visible in plain sight and there are no laws against photographing publicly visible structures like this.

Cops handcuffed and frisked her and placed her in their patrol car for 25 minutes.

Now, after she sued the city, the city has settled with her over this incident to the tune of $8,000.

This follows a similar case in nearby Seattle. In 2004 (when American fascism was at its peak), an individual was arrested for photographing a set of canal locks. The city paid the same sum - $8,000 - to settle this claim.

These cases are of interest to me, because of my own innocent photography of roads and structures. And these cases are of interest to anyone else who gives a damn about our constitutional liberties.

In free societies, we don't arrest folks for photographing structures anyone can find in plain sight. Anyone who'd use terrorism to excuse the arrest is guilty of letting terrorists win.

(Source: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406968_aclu08.html)

Eyewitness Cam fights Allowed Cloud

After I overcame the time guardians this morn, I went Roads Scholaring again in Cincinnati, and I violated one of the most notable Allowed Clouds in months.

As I got onto the Newport Southbank Bridge, I noticed a new sign:


(http://i39.tinypic.com/w000t3.jpg)

Don't get upset, Newt Gingrich. The reason the walkway on the bridge is named Pagans Path is a local man who happens to be named Wally Pagan (seriously). But Pagans Path isn't why I took this photo.

I took this photo because it's a spang-new Allowed Cloud - with additional rules!

For one thing, the bridge is not private. It's owned by a committee that includes representatives of the city of Newport, Kentucky. So it's public. Public as a bird!

Because the bridge is public, the prohibition against distributing literature violates the First Amendment. Period.

But the Allowed Cloud I violated is the one that has to do with commercial photography. I promptly took this photo on the bridge:


(http://i40.tinypic.com/f02qvk.jpg)

If I include that photo in any income-generating project, it violates the Allowed Cloud. So a black-and-white version of it is going in my next book.

What are they going to do? Ban my book?

State and local taxpayers spent gabillions maintaining this bridge and converting it into its current condition. And now they're told (wrongly) that it's private and can't be used while it's deeded out to private events?

Somebody has to stand up against the privatization of amenities the public has paid for. Might as well be me.

Right-wing cult founder may get huge tax break

Wealthy right-wing activist, Republican former ambassador, and cult founder Mel Sembler strikes again.

This time, a Sembler development in DeKalb County, Georgia, may become the beneficiary of a proposed $51,000,000 tax break.

(Whispering mode on.)

Shh. We call that a handout.

Shh. You know, the same thing conservatives like Sembler are always accusing everyone else of getting.

Shh. Why are we whispering?

(Whispering mode off.)

Anything with a Mel Sembler connection always seems to be looking for handouts. Property taxes for everyone else in the county are going to have to be raised if Sembler gets this tax break. So the public is again paying for his greed.

This is particularly irritating because Sembler founded and ran Straight, Incorporated - a confirmedly abusive teen "rehab" cult.

Straight, Inc., spawned similar cults based on the same model - including Kids Helping Kids, the Cincinnati facility that was the target of last year's roadside protests I participated in.

This is the man who's going to get tax breaks that DeKalb County taxpayers are going to be paying for over the next few decades?

(Source: http://www.thecrier.net/articles/2009/06/03/front/asembler.txt)

Wingnuts gonna defend this?

We should all be outraged at this story. And I am.

The highest court in the "communist" dictatorship of North Korea has now convicted 2 American journalists of an unspecified "grave crime" and sentenced them to 12 years in a hard labor camp. (I don't know why the terrible North Korean dictatorship is referred to as "communist", for it outlawed the Communist Party in 1977.)

The 2 women worked for Current TV, a media company led by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt.

This punishment is horrible news - for the journalists, their families, and the free flow of ideas.

I'm waiting for the wingnut response. The modern strain of American conservatives usually claims to be big defenders of Red, White, and Blue, but how do they act when Americans are in trouble abroad?

Gingrich neorightists were the first people in America to defend Singapore in its caning of a young man who didn't even receive due process at his vandalism trial. And the Bush regime was notoriously weak on getting Americans out of trouble in right-wing theocracies like Saudi Arabia.

The rightist excuse is always that "it's their law", so foreign dictatorships can violate inalienable human rights if they please. Obviously, this "it's their law" business didn't work for U.S. states that had their consumer protection and other laws "preempted" by Bush, so you have to wonder whose side they're on.

Everyone knows North Korea is run by an insane dictator, so I don't know if wingnuts defending the regime will gain as much traction as defending dictatorships that are considered American allies. But I sure haven't seen the right-wingers get too upset about this story like we are.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hM96sRn69bkN1XDLqb2_pkmFxqdgD98M8TL00)

EU channels Contract With America

I think we can write Europe out of the league of democracies.

Here's a recipe for electoral disaster:

1) Right-wing media bias.

2) Low voter turnout.

3) Crooked election officials who don't place a high priority on the integrity of the vote.

It happened in America in 1994, and now it's happened in the European Union, as far-right parties have seized control of the European legislature.

The difference there is that the EU has long had a whole system in place to allow this to happen by giving too much weight to right-wing areas. (There is an American parallel though: The elder Bush vetoed a bill that would have made the 1990 census more accurate. Following this, Democratic states lost seats to Republican states.) The European left actually isn't any weaker now than before, except in the transcontinental legislature.

In fact, the British National Party - a right-wing, avowedly racist party - captured an EU seat for the first time ever, even though the BNP doesn't have a single seat in Britain's Parliament.

But make no mistake: The European right has the continent in its crosshairs and won't hesitate to flex its muscle - even on unwilling nations. Not unlike the disregard for local autonomy that defined the Contract With America and the Bush era.

So much for the "democratic" EU, huh?

Newt scapegoats Pagans

The so-called populism of modern American conservatives is vastly overstated. They have hardly a shred of peopleness in their whole lifeless bodies. They master wedge issues - not real populism.

A couple days ago, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Oliver North visited a Norfolk area church to deliver a right-wing tirade.

Gingrich claimed incorrectly that Christianity is a foundation for American citizenship. He also complained that the country is "surrounded by Paganism."

Does he even know what "Paganism" means? Or is this like how conservatives scream about "socialism" when they don't know what it means?

Newt intended bigotry. His statement was exactly like complaining that the country is "surrounded by Judaism" or "surrounded by Hinduism" or "surrounded by Christianity."

He kind of reminds me of the religious zealots we all knew growing up who didn't want kids in public school drawing pictures of Christmas trees because it wasn't the "real meaning" of Christmas. If there's a difference, it's that the fanatics of today such as Gingrich want a theocracy imposed by force.

And we've all seen that before. It was called the Taliban.

I truly hope Newt Gingrich is the Republican nominee in 2012. The way things are going, Obama would be guaranteed to win at least 40 states then. Maybe the wingnuts support force because they know they can't accomplish their goals via a democratic republic-like election.

(Source: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/06/gingrich-paganism)

Ad encourages wasting gum (Bubble Gum Weekend)

I'm a man who cries when perfectly good gum gets wasted.

So when I found this ad on YouPube, I almost went through a whole box of Kleenex within minutes.

It's a recent ad for Stride gum. I don't think I've ever seen Stride being sold in stores, but there's a lot of things the rest of the world has that we don't.

The omniscient Wikipedia tells of rumors that Stride wrappers are edible. However, officials for Stride's manufacturer "strongly discourage the ingestion of Stride gum wrappers."

How does this commersh condone the wastage of gum?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-S2PL9GdRQ

It tells folks to remove the piece they're chewing and replace it with a new piece.

Why not just add the new piece to the wad you already have? That's what everyone did back in my day.

Or are the dancers in this ad actually the manners police?

That would make about as much sense as a book I had as a youth that said it was good manners to press the CLEAR button on your calculator before turning it off.

But since this is a newer commersh, the comment section for it has been flooded with "lmao!" and "PWNED!!" instead of educational insight like the old Gum Fighter and Flavor Fiend ads always elicit. Who says the American school system hasn't declined since the '70s?

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Darrell Issa!

Readers of this blog, meet Darrell Issa. Darrell Issa, meet the readers of this blog. They're getting ready to laugh at you, Darrell.

Darrell Issa is a right-wing congressman from California who is perhaps best known for his involvement in the Gray Davis recall (also known as a GOP sore loser tantrum).

Issa seems to have a problem around cars. He once allegedly stole a car from an Army post. Later, he and his brother were indicted for allegedly stealing a car from an auto dealership. Later still, the brothers were charged for felony auto theft for allegedly faking the theft of Issa's swanky Mercedes.

He has trouble around guns too. Darrell Issa was convicted in Michigan for possessing an unlicensed gun. After getting into the car alarm biz (ironically enough), Issa allegedly took a gun into the office of a company executive he was firing and boasted about his firearm and explosives expertise.

Now - because this is another day ending in 'y' - Issa is making a spectacle of himself yet again.

Regarding a much-needed bill to guarantee paid parental leave for government employees, Issa made a YouTube video that attempted to link the bill with Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hugo Chavez.

Equating a popular, democratically elected President like Chavez with an insane right-wing dictator like Kim Jong-il was a phenomenal act of stupidity. Overall, Issa's display proves once again how marginalized the Republicans have suddenly become.

Actually, failing to pass the bill that Issa opposed would have made the United States almost unique among the world's countries. Besides the U.S., the only countries without such a program for parental leave are Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland.

Uproariously, Issa's Red-baiting clip didn't work. The bill passed the House 258 to 154. The vote wasn't entirely on party lines, but most Republicans were against it - which assures us they're going to be the party of background noise for the foreseeable future.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/04/AR2009060404455.html)

A poor lesson in honesty

Let me be clear: Cheating on tests at school is not what I call honesty.

But Centerburg High School in Ohio seems to have a knack for countering dishonesty with an equal amount of injustice.

After a cheating scandal in which approximately half of the senior class either cheated on a major test or knew about the cheating but failed to turn in the offenders, school officials have canceled graduation altogether.

What about the other half of the senior class - who, as far as anyone knows, are completely innocent? They're getting punished for classmates' misdeeds.

Gee, this'll teach them to keep being honest. (That's sarcasm!)

Now you know why I was so concerned about schools misusing honor codes. It can too easily be abused to impose collective punishment like this.

Frankly, I don't know if I would feel personally concerned if it was my graduation. I didn't even bother to go to mine. But it's the principle that matters. Innocent students have surely earned the right to attend their commencement.

This year's Centerburg seniors are having their diplomas unceremoniously mailed to them.

Certainly an evening to forget.

(Source: http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/06/05/centerburg.html)

Fix our time zones. Now. Please.

This is fucking ridiculous.

We have to either shorten Daylight Wasting Time or move Cincinnati to the Central Time Zone where it should be. Right now, the local time is almost 2 hours off from the sun's position for almost the whole year.

I have long-term health problems and literally cannot keep up with the time. And it ruins each summer.

I wanted so badly to accomplish something today, but I figured it was likely I'd oversleep even with my alarm clock. Sure enough, I did. Again.

This cannot continue. My death is almost certain within a few years unless something changes.

The current situation violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it's time we say so.

I don't care to hear from the exurban Phil Gramm cultists who think I'm just making a mountain of a molehill. They haven't walked an inch in my shoes, so they need to shut up. Because they're malfunctioning androids instead of actual humans who need to follow a natural cycle, they shouldn't be imposing their greed-driven standards on me.

We need to redraw our time zones to more closely follow the sun's position. And I'll be the first to draw up the map for ya.

Right-wing terrorists burn down topless coffee shop

In the world of the Right, force has become a first resort.

Recent incidents reveal that the modern right-wing mind has brainwashed itself into believing that violence - even murder - is the way. I've been on the defensive from their violence for years just because of politics or economics, and I know their minds like the back of my hand.

On Wednesday, a topless coffee shop in Vassalboro, Maine, that was the target of protests by the moral hypocrites of the Right mysteriously burned down. The shop was completely destroyed - along with the residence of the owner's family. Now fire officials have ruled that it was no accident. It was arson.

Emboldened by other recent right-wing violence, zealots in Maine felt encouraged to go after the risque coffee shop as well.

We need to call this arson what it is: terrorism.

Hell, the government charges folks on the left with "terrorism" just for speech - not even actions. The speech in question doesn't even encourage violence, yet still they are charged. In fact, there's Bush-era laws designed just to go after left-wing speech, while letting right-wing terrorism go unpunished.

Just because America's right wing has less political power now than any other time since 1981 doesn't mean we shouldn't keep a corner of one eye on them. That's why I monitor their Tea Party mockeries in person.

The extreme right has apparently convinced itself that the path to heaven involves controlling what other folks do in private. That mentality is dangerous.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/03/topless.shop.fire)

Bathroom Bachmann doesn't understand due process

There's a lot of things Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) doesn't understand.

Avoiding looking like an idiot is one of them. The Constitution and due process are others.

Yesterday, Bathroom Bachmann (who got this nickname when she hid from constituents in a lavatory) introduced a bill that deigns to prohibit organizations indicted for breaking state or federal election laws from getting HUD money. Bachmann wants to use this bill as a weapon against ACORN.

Anyone who doesn't have their head so far up their ass that it's reemerging from their mouth can see that the investigation against ACORN is politically motivated. This probe was launched by a Bush-appointed right-wing federal prosecutor in Nevada who had a beef with this organization.

The charges against ACORN are bogus. I can say that with almost 100% confidence, because I know the GOPstapo's vendetta politics like a book. It's also been found that Republican operatives have been submitting phony voter registrations to ACORN just so ACORN can be blamed for them.

The real issue with Bachmann's bill is that presumes guilt after indictment. The bill doesn't even bother to wait for a conviction. Every nutball prosecutor in the land has got to be rubbing their hands together in excitement waiting to harass some innocent organization just so they lose funding.

If anyone has gotten easy access to taxpayer money, it's right-wing groups like abusive teen "rehab" cults. Why do these criminal enterprises even get a penny?

And guess what? Michele Bachmann has supported earmarks of taxpayer dollars for these right-wing cults. Surprise, surprise.

Free speech is not available in our country

Yay! Government censorship! (That's sarcasm, people.)

The words "This video is not available in your country" are described by one website as "a message you will enjoy quite often if you browse Youtube and live in Romania."

And now the United States too.

Earlier, I tried viewing 2 apparently uncontroversial music videos on YouTube - which were posted by the band that made them. When I attempted this, YouTube scowled, "This video is not available in your country."

Goodbye, America. I never thought we'd see YouTube videos that were available almost everywhere in the world blocked in the United States, but here we are. I'd expect to see something like this in China, not America.

Anyone who still thinks government censorship has become less common in America since the '70s can sit down now.

Washington Times lies, but radio complies

In the wake of the debut of a third right-wing talk station in Cincinnati - WQRT - we're trying to investigate the new radio talk show launched by the far-right Washington Times, which WQRT will carry.

Little information has been found so far, and most of it centers on relatively recent instances of the actual paper's lack of journalistic credibility.

The Times was begun in 1982 by right-wing cult founder and tax cheat Sun Myung Moon. His cult continues to run the paper as a conservative organ.

Just last year, historian Thomas Frank said the Washington Times is "a propaganda sheet whose distortions are so obvious and so alien that it puts one in mind of those official party organs one encounters when traveling in authoritarian countries."

One of the goofiest recent Times scandals was its story claiming that the National Education Association (America's largest teachers' union) was teaching anti-American propaganda regarding 9/11 to schoolchildren. This Times piece was debunked instantaneously by several sources.

(For some reason, the NEA has long been a conservative target. To hear conservatives talk, you'd think America's educator posts are teeming with leftists. In this world we call reality, however, I don't think I've ever had a liberal school principal - and I don't remember many liberal teachers either.)

Now you know what nonsense is in store for listeners of Cincinnati's near-dead AM band.

The FCC used to take an extremely dim view of stations intentionally distorting news. That's because - although most stations are owned by private interests - the airwaves themselves are a public trust with limited space. It's not a stretch to say the FCC should make a serious review of WQRT's license instead of just rubber-stamping its renewal.

Hurricane survivors may buy trailers

Hurricane Katrina was compounded by Bush meanness.

The Bush regime gave survivors a strict deadline by which they had to be out of their temporary trailers - regardless of whether they had been able to finish repairing their permanent homes.

And many weren't able to complete their repairs, because they had been scammed by crooked builders or were hamstrung by policies that Bush had enacted!

Now the deadline is passing, Bush is gone, and the era of meanness for meanness's sake is coming to a close. So the Obama administration has now taken the smart step of letting hurricane survivors buy the trailers for $5 or less. Families still in trailers also get priority for housing funds.

If you think selling the trailers for only $5 is too much of a giveaway, it isn't, considering the circumstances. If the Bush regime hadn't mismanaged the recovery effort so spectacularly, and if it hadn't allowed contractors to bilk victims, folks might not still be in trailers.

That's not to mention the circumstances that led to the flooding in the first place. The government could have spent mere pennies earlier to avoid each dollar it has to spend now. But Congress had spent a decade practically dismantling the entire government - excepting of course their massive expansion of the failed War on Drugs and their generous bailouts to airlines and right-wing talk radio.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/04trailers.html)

Another sarin leak in Kentucky

The Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky is near a major population center. If there is a chemical weapons leak there, it has the potential to be one of the deadliest disasters in America's history.

The government promised to destroy chemical weapons stored there years ago. But every few years, they always delay this project - putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

There were 2 leaks at this facility last week - adding to countless others in recent years. One of them was deadly mustard gas. The other was far deadlier sarin - one of the most dangerous nerve agents ever developed.

And the government had put all this poison right here in Kentucky.

Why did Republicans ever win Kentucky after something like this?

The more urgent question is: When is this danger going to be cleaned up, as was promised years ago?

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story/Chemical-Weapons-Site-Reports-Two-Minor-Leaks/TyVPjdDDxkeTKbpHYUJ55g.cspx;
http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story/Army-Source-Of-Gas-Leak-Contained/rmXvOB_YH06YLVFS4HzShg.cspx)

Court guts incorporation doctrine

I cannot believe this ruling is not getting more attention. And when people do comment on it, it's usually not for the reasons that make this ruling such a grave threat.

Incorporation is a legal concept that says the Bill of Rights protects the public not only from federal government abuses but also abuses by the states (or cities, which are arms of the states). This was of course the original intent of the framers of the Bill of Rights. But incorporation wasn't properly implemented until after the Fourteenth Amendment, which safeguards due process.

Now - in what has to be one of the more bizarre major rulings in recent memory - the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Chicago firearms ordinance on the grounds that the Second Amendment doesn't cover what states and cities do. Thus, under this new ruling, part of the Bill of Rights no longer has incorporation.

This case should have been considered based on other factors - not this. There should have been no issue whatsoever whether incorporation applies to part of the Bill of Rights - especially considering that incorporation has been settled law since the 19th century.

If the court was going to uphold the Chicago ordinance at all, what possessed them to gut 150 years of law to accomplish this? I personally don't think the gun control ordinance is effective, but where do our courts suddenly get this cockamamie notion that incorporation no longer applies?

That, my friends, is downright wacky.

The 9th Circuit ruled in April that the Second Amendment is indeed incorporated. That court upheld a local gun control law, but only after acknowledging incorporation. The 7th Circuit, however, didn't even recognize incorporation.

This is a bad, bad, bad precedent. If the Second Amendment isn't incorporated, what stops courts from saying the other amendments are also not incorporated?

Do you really want the states to be able to ignore the First Amendment? The Fourth Amendment? The Fifth? The Eighth?

I should think not. But the 7th Circuit seems to think the states should be able to.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aliLOJoTvu0Q&refer=us)

Cincinnati gains another right-wing talk station

How many right-wing talk stations does Cincinnati need - when it doesn't have a single left-wing talk station?

This time, the culprit is AM 1160, whose oldies format is being moved up the dial to 1480. The new talk format bears the call letters WQRT - which ironically is amateur radio lingo for "I am now leaving the air." (In the meantime, 1480 loses its historic WCIN calls in favor of WDJO.)

WQRT will air Dr. Laura, Neal Boortz, and the Washington Times - which I didn't know was a radio show until now.

ANOTHER right-wing talk station in Cincinnati??? This makes at least 3 talk stations in the market now that are all or almost all conservative.

Why is this signal even continuing to operate, if the only material it can find to broadcast is this garbage? I'd rather listen to scratched-up 45's of toilets flushing, or play-by-plays of my former high school's football team that hasn't won a single game yet in the team's existence.

How was the Telecommunications Act of 1996 not a bailout for right-wing talk radio?

(Source: http://tinyurl.com/q3n2vn)

Meth labs soar in Missouri

It's nice to know the Patriot Act-fueled war on Sudafed is working.

Oops, it isn't working.

Missouri has its own version of unconstitutional laws to stop law-abiding people from buying cold or allergy medicine for its specified purpose. Of course, legislators' excuse for these laws is that the laws will stop meth abuse once and for all.

But whoever first came up with these laws did not have good intentions. At all.

Most lawmakers did indeed vote for these laws, after lots of arm-twisting and being fed loads of drug warrior propaganda. But whoever conceived these laws did so solely out of a desire to hurt innocents. That is not mere speculation. That is a fact.

The law would be ineffective at fighting meth, and they knew it.

Everyone in Missouri ought to know it now.

Because of these new laws being so ineffective, meth labs are on the rise in the Show Me State.

After Missouri took harsher measures than most other states in criminalizing allergy sufferers who had no meth involvement, Missouri leads the nation in meth incidents. This year, Missouri has had over 3 times as many incidents as its closest competitor, Mississippi.

Everything about the failed War on Drugs is constitutionally questionable at minimum - if not clearly unconstitutional. America has to be returned to its constitutional foundations. We are expected by our very nature to have the courage to defend and keep the rights listed in our Constitution.

Our patience has worn very, very thin.

(Source: http://www.fox4kc.com/news/sns-ap-mo--missourimeth,0,4344983.story)

When PBS got right-wing hate mail ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

It seems farfetched that PBS would get hate mail all because of a 'Sesame Street' segment.

The fact that it was right-wing hate mail and not apolitical hate mail makes the story even more amusing. It proves right-wingers have nothing better to do than sit at home and watch 'Sesame Street' for stuff to complain about. They're professionals, as right-wing organizations hire them to do this.

The notion of socially conservative luminaries mentioning 'Sesame Street' at all is another added element of amusement. I got an image in my mind of Jerry Falwell delivering a sermon about 'Sesame Street'.

Reportedly, however, PBS really did get hate mail from right-wing activists. Why? Here's why:



Yes, that was all it took.

Melissa Etheridge singing about the letter 'U' on 'Sesame Street' sent the conservative brain trust spiraling into irrational fits of fury. Like a lot of things do.

That segment was from 1996, so I was a little too old for 'Sesame Street' when it aired. This also happened to be at the height of right-wing efforts to defund and dismantle PBS. (This was before conservatives figured out they could just appoint their cronies to PBS's governing board and fill the network with nonsense like hit pieces against Hugo Chavez.)

The rightist uproar over this segment reminds me of an incident in college, when I was a DJ on the campus radio station. One day, a schoolmate who was hired as a manager for the station pulled all the David Bowie and Elton John tracks off the air. When one of the other DJ's asked why, he replied, "Because I don't want queers on my station."

Needless to say, Campus Report didn't cover that little outburst.

Dinosaur media deathwatch claims another

I remember a children's book titled 'Fortunately'.

The storyline was accompanied by large color illustrations, and the text went something like this: "Fortunately, Tommy got invited to a party...Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the world."

Well, this story goes something like this...

Unfortunately, a newspaper went out of business this week.

Fortunately, it was the Bulletin of Philadelphia.

This incarnation of the Bulletin was a far-right daily broadsheet that took its name from the more respected Philadelphia Bulletin of decades ago. The modern version of the Bulletin - which dissenters called the Bullshitin - began in 2004, riding that year's wave of right-wing totalitarianism.

But the Bulletin reportedly ceased publication on Monday.

We keep hearing how most American cities these days can barely support one daily paper even if it's a fairly moderate voice. So why did the founder of the modern incarnation of the Bulletin think a city could support more than one paper if one was as out of touch as the Bullshitin was?

As with the modern version of the New York Sun, which went out of business late last year, the Bulletin is the odd paper out in the marketplace of ideas. Like the Sun, the Bulletin was a voice of militant conservatism. Also like the Sun, the Bullshitin didn't make it in the marketplace of ideas, because nobody wanted to read bigheaded right-wing propaganda anymore.

Meanwhile, the 'Pail lives on.

I'm surprised the Bulletin didn't demand a bailout before going out of business. That's pretty much what the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was for right-wing talk radio, so why not?

Bush wasted millions on ranch trips

Why do I get the feeling we're going to keep finding scandals like this for years to come?

Or maybe not, since the media doesn't like printing anything that might cast a negative light on their precious little George.

A newly discovered report says that Bush traveled to his Texas ranch 77 times during his 8-year reign. These trips cost the taxpayers a minimum of $226,072 - each.

Multiply that by 77, and it works out to $17,407,544. And that's if each trip cost only as much as the cheapest one.

How does a single trip within the country cost over $200,000 anyway? I'm sure that even the Cincinnati Tea Party terrorists don't rack up such a bill when they lodge at the Westin.

And get this: This figure includes only the cost of flying the plane to and from the ranch! Does Air Force One use $500-a-bottle champagne as fuel?

Bush also visited Camp David 149 times in only 8 miserable years.

You still hear about Bill Clinton's $40 haircut from 15 years ago, but Bush wasted millions just to rest at his ranch or Camp David 30 times a year?

Stick to Google Street View, George.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/2/738037/-Bush-Made-77-Trips-to-Crawford-TX-at-$226,072-a-Pop)

Starbucks settles sixth labor complaint in 3 years

Many folks think that as long as a corporation isn't Wal-Mart or isn't one of the banking giants that wasted bailout money, the company's hat must be spotless.

Quite the contrary (though I agree that Wal-Mart is one of the worst major corporations).

Starbucks, for instance, has been blasted here for its greed-driven practice of illegally taking counter servers' tips. And now Starbucks has just settled its sixth complaint in only 3 years with the National Labor Relations Board.

Under this settlement, Starbucks must stop its illegal acts that have included threatening to call security on workers, barring employees from discussing labor matters, and firing union supporters.

Not exactly a dazzlingly bright corporate hat, is it?

(Source: http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4063)

Sex offender paid not to work

You can't make up stories like this, folks.

A teacher in Washington County, Alabama, was convicted for enticing a former student for sex. She was fired from her teaching job a year ago.

But - even as she serves time in federal prison - she still gets paid her full salary.

School officials say it's because state law lets teachers challenge firings before an arbitrator - which has forced the school to keep paying her while the challenge goes on.

Um. Hello??? This has been going on a whole year!

I'm all for the law to let teachers challenge dismissals. But I want to know who in the school system has been dragging their feet so a sex offender gets paid not to work.

I believe the law was designed to protect good educators who were wrongly fired - not federal lawbreakers. Just think of all the good teachers who won't see a pay raise this year because the school system is paying a federal inmate her full salary.

Must be nice being a sex offender. You don't have to work, and still you get paid. That really is the life, isn't it?

(Source: http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/46721327.html)

Yet another Republican in the Obama administration?

With John McHugh being appointed Secretary of the Army, this makes how many???

The Democrats spent all this money to elect a Democratic President, yet he keeps appointing Republicans?

Of course, this wouldn't be such a concern if the Republicans hadn't lost for a damn good reason.

(Source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/obama-to-name-ny-congressman-the-army-secretary/?hp)

Another life destroyed by America's fucked-up health care system

Is the Phil Gramm crowd still going to insist America has the greatest medical system in the world?

Well, are they???

Now yet another disastrous story has emerged, this time involving a Florida woman whose arms and legs had to be amputated because of a faulty diagnosis that slowly led to septic shock. In fact, she wasn't even tested until 16 hours after she got to the emergency room.

This happened because of a greed-driven health care system that puts the bottom line over even simple medicine. Hence, the greed symbol for this entry. Anyone can see that greed - especially by insurers and HMO's -forms the foundation of much of the modern American health care industry.

After her limbs were amputated, the woman sued the doctors. However, she didn't prevail: Although it was clear one of her doctors was at fault, the jury couldn't figure out which one, because the physicians kept blaming each other. As a result, the judge took the rare step of ordering a new trial, as evidence of medical negligence was so overwhelming.

It really is now or never, isn't it? If we can't have health care reform this year, I don't think it'll ever happen.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMSQh864URvJYaZ8uO-9LJQH0AKwD98FUT380)

Athletes protected while schools blab everyone else's grades

An investigation by the Columbus Dispatch finds that colleges and universities all over America are shielding important information about student athletes from public view.

Schools cite a multipartisan 1974 law that protects information about college, high school, and elementary school students from being disseminated. But this law was never intended to protect the kind of data that colleges are shielding. One of the law's authors even admits as much.

This isn't the athletes' fault. This is the schools' fault.

In fact, the law seems to specifically allow colleges to release the very data that they're withholding.

Colleges withhold information about violations of NCAA rules, team flight manifests, and even lists of people who get complimentary admission to games.

To put it in franker terms, schools are misusing the law to cover up information that should be public.

Meanwhile, high schools illegally blab students' grades everywhere - despite this being clearly illegal under the 1974 law. They release grades to the DMV, in the hopes of revoking a student's license if they don't score 100% on every standardized test.

A Kentucky judge already ruled this illegal, but lawmakers think they can circumvent this by making teenagers who get a driver's license sign a form to waive their right to not have their school release their grades.

Seriously, our legislators actually think that.

(Source: http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=cincinnati&sParam=30870973.story)

Racist school openly rejects "liberal" teachers

I guess America's schools have finally decided there's no point in trying to hide their right-wing bias anymore. Now a charter school in Oakland, California, is coming right out and admitting it.

Typically, a charter school is a school that is publicly funded but otherwise operates as if it is a private school. Although charter schools aren't exclusively conservative-themed, the movement gained height under conservatives trying to "prove" that private schools are superior to public schools. So far, however, charter schools have failed to prove anything of a sort, as the success of charter schools varies wildly from school to school.

American Indian Public Charter School is a school in Oakland that in the early 2000s was taken over by some right-wing nobody. This man has used racial and ethnic insults to refer to students of various backgrounds. (The San Francisco Chronicle once reported that he called a student a "lazy Mexican.") One parent called this school's harsh regime "a dictatorship."

The school recruits teachers that (in the school's words) "believe in free market capitalism." The school's recruitment pitch is that "ultra liberal zealots" are among those who "need not apply."

One of the school's selling points is that the staff "does not preach or subscribe to the demagoguery of tolerance." One student was punished with extra schoolwork because he watched President Obama's inauguration.

Well, at least this school isn't hiding its right-wing orthodoxy like so many other schools do.

This school is getting public money? In California, no less - a state with a budget deficit so deep that the governor is about to shut down the welfare system and most state parks.

Instead of cutting off important programs, why doesn't the state stop giving public money to ridiculous schools like this one?

Probably because the media appears ready to whip itself into a frenzy favoring the school. Trust me, it's a longtime pattern.

The school's unbending discipline is in some ways little different from some private schools - such as its use of detention for students who skip questions on their homework. The school seems to perform well on standardized tests (America's national religion) - but the school admits teaching to the test, not to the student.

These are features I'm all too familiar with, and to say that I'm unimpressed by schools with a similar environment is an understatement. I attended a Catholic school that had some similar practices but just wasn't as flamboyant about it. And believe me, I have nothing but bad words for my experiences there.

At American Indian Public Charter School, the Oakland school in this story, students are required to monotonically recite a mission statement in which they vow to be "productive members in a free market capitalist society." This sounds as cult-like as anything I experienced in school.

If I lived in California, I'd be furious at my tax dollars funding a cult that was run for most of the decade by a man who regularly used a racial slur to refer to students. Especially when state parks are about to be closed for lack of money.

And to think this school is just a few miles from Berkeley and San Francisco. If schools have become so right-wing in the Bay Area, think what it's like elsewhere.