A story CNN won't report

There's a lot of important stories CNN won't report - and not just war pieces that were bowdlerized by totalitarian foreign regimes that the Bush crime family supports.

This story is about CNN's own attack on working people.

Evidently, CNN fired over 100 workers 5 years ago all because they were union members. This firing was illegal: It's against federal law to fire employees because they organize. Bush hasn't been too serious about enforcing this law - because he thinks laws are just "damn pieces of paper" - but that is the law.

But now an administrative law judge has ordered CNN to rehire the employees. The conservative-leaning cable channel has also been ordered to recognize the unions.

It wouldn't have taken 5 years to reach this decision if Bush had just enforced labor laws, but like I said, he's the "damn pieces of paper" guy.

(Source: http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/11/24/cnn-ordered-to-rehire-110-workers-fired-for-belonging-to-a-union)

Lawsuits stop drilling despite DeMint's shitfit

When the Bush regime and the DLC defeatists recently gutted a nearly 30-year-old nationwide ban on dangerous offshore oil drilling, you could almost hear America's beaches becoming thick with goo.

We didn't expect to receive much more oil from offshore drilling. We knew much of the oil (that which didn't get spilled at least) would just be hoarded like much of that from onshore sites, forcing fuel costs up again.

Now fans of offshore drilling are facing a much-deserved hurdle they didn't expect! Conservation groups, states, and private citizens are now suing over oil leases - which has forced the drilling mania to grind to a halt, at least for now.

Last month though, America-hating right-wing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) introduced an industry-backed bill that would have allowed only 90 days to sue.

I guess DeMint would rather live under a legal system that lets corporate "rights" rule, huh?

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3616178)

Kentucky to go nuclear?

I frankly don't see the newfound appeal of nuclear power.

Although the conservative camp laughably insists that nuclear power is a "green technology", it's actually one of the most dangerous and costly forms of energy. So much so that Kentucky banned nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania.

But some want that ban lifted. State Sen. Bob Leeper introduced a bill this year to repeal Kentucky's nuclear ban - boasting that Kentucky could host numerous nuclear plants if his bill passed.

Of course it could, but why would most Kentuckians want that?

Even since Kentucky's ban was enacted, there's been enough worry over attempts to build plants just across the state line. Anyone who remembers the map inside the cover of the Campbell County phone book showing where the toxic cloud would hover in case of a nuclear accident in Ohio doesn't need to be reminded of that. Kentucky doesn't need nuclear power plants anywhere near, let alone within its own borders.

But a new report actually suggests Kentucky take a serious look at nuclear power. Several utility firms have already threatened to build nuclear plants in the Bluegrass State if they get permission.

You can just see Monty Burns tapping his fingers together and saying, "Excellent!"

If we want Kentucky to save energy, school boards should stop closing down schools in populated areas and forcing kids to be schlepped 10 miles out of town. And let's stop allowing big box stores and exurban malls to drive Main Street out of business and making everyone drive 30 miles just to get groceries.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue1/story.aspx?content_id=fde4ae72-ab43-473b-b54c-a6cfe8fa9a55)

Take it away...Wanna hear you play...

Perhaps no U.S. senator deserved to lose his reelection bid more than this asshole: Georgia's Saxby Chambliss. And he still may, because he faces a runoff next week.

Saxby Clueless won his Senate seat in 2002 after calling incumbent Max Cleland a communist - even though Cleland lost several limbs in the Vietnam War (while Chambliss dodged the draft).

Now Chambliss has again proven what an asswipe and bully he is. When a journalist asked him a question about his refusal to testify in the case of the Imperial Sugar explosion that killed 13 people, Chambliss angrily scowled to the cameraperson, "You can take it away now." The senator shoved the camera and placed his hand over the lens.

Here's a video of Chambliss's tantrum:



Take yourself away, Saxby.

As for the lawsuit itself, Chambliss has refused to comply with subpoenas - citing "senatorial immunity." However, there's no such thing as "senatorial immunity." None whatsoever. He pulled it out of his ass.

He also verbally harassed a whistleblower in that case.

I guess this is to be expected from Mr. UnfairTax, huh?

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/22/114818/60/1009/665120)

Bush imposes air "security" rules on Canada

Even as Bush eyes the 'O' keys of White House computers with his flathead screwdriver, he still hasn't stopped crapping his pants.

Now the Decider's Transportation Security Administration is going ahead with new rules that would disrupt the privacy and movement of not just U.S. citizens but Canadians as well. The TSA has decreed that Canadian travelers flying abroad from Canadian airports must provide all their personal info - even if the flight never touches down in the U.S.

This is supposed to boost America's security how?

Why does Canada tolerate this imposition? I know the Harper administration isn't exactly known for standing up against Bush, but come on!

Roch Tasse of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group put it succinctly: "It's the United States having control over which Canadians are allowed to board a plane or not." Last year, the Bush regime pressured Canada into creating its own no-fly list (which is like a Bushist Bible), so this imperialism isn't entirely new.

Obama's going to have his work cut out for him cleaning up Bush's mess. Now you know what he meant when he said he'd have to prioritize.

(Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081123.wflights1123/BNStory/National/home)

City ends "blight" fight

In Long Branch, New Jersey, a dull, peptic tower of luxury condos now looms over a working-class beachfront neighborhood - blocking the view that the older homes once enjoyed. The new condos cater exclusively to the wealthy, many of whom are early retirees.

But the new development will likely see no more expansion - much to the delight of its working-class neighbors.

Starting in 1994, the city of Long Branch tried to abuse eminent domain to seize houses in the neighborhood and turn the property over to the developers. However, both the federal and state Constitutions permit eminent domain only for public use. The new development is private.

As an excuse for this right-wing land grab, the city claimed the existing properties were "blight." In fact, hard-working residents were denied permission by the city to improve their homes just so the city could call them "blight." The city also refused to maintain the streets, for that same reason.

But now, the city is abandoning plans to seize over a dozen homes to allow the development to expand. Surely, some damage has already been done at the hands of this project - so the real blight is from the new luxury condos. But it now appears as if there will be no more.

Maybe the developers don't want the land anymore because the economy is so bad that whatever they build on it will sit empty. How much market can there possibly be for exclusive condos when everyone keeps getting poorer and poorer?

Powerful, greedy developers often browbeat people and local governments until they get their way, but this time it didn't work exactly the way they hoped.

A few of you remember us in the early days of The Last Word having those paranoid delusions about local cities trying to force working-class residents out to build upscale retail and residential developments. Damn, what a bunch of fools we Last Word people musta been, because everyone knows nothing like that ever happens in America.

Except that it does. And this story proves it.

(Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/long_branch_may_be_extending_o.html)

Nurse in boot camp death loses license

What happened at the Bay County Juvenile Boot Camp in Florida in 2006 was a clear case of murder: A 14-year-old who collapsed was beaten by drill instructors and had ammonia shoved in his face until he died.

Eight employees involved in the massacre were charged with manslaughter. They should have been charged with murder. But they were let off the hook for the manslaughter charge.

Now one of them - a nurse who refused to intervene to save the teenager - has lost her license to be a nurse in Florida. The State Board of Nursing said that her conduct during the assault was unprofessional and negligent.

Among other things, she improperly distributed the ammonia capsules to the drill instructors, she performed no emergency treatment on the teen at any time during the attack, and she didn't even provide paramedics with complete information.

With a new administration in Washington on the horizon, there may still be activity at the federal level against the guards and the nurse over the boot camp murder.

(Source: http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/33938754.html)

Interview tyranny

As a working-class blog, we've noticed that the labor market relies less and less on skill and substance, and more and more on style. The job market today is actually an elite fraternity.

When I got my first job - which was for the public library when I was 17 - the interview consisted of material that was relevant to what I'd be doing at work. As long as I could show an ability to perform competently, all I had to do to get the job was show up for the interview in a raggedy shirt and wrinkled jeans.

(A humorous monologue by Barry Fox of Power 94.5 had poked fun at job applicants who blew bubbles with bubble gum during their interview, but I noticed that a girl in a tie-dyed t-shirt who bubbled also got the job she applied for.)

Those days sadly have passed. Nowadays, you have to look exactly right and display a certain style and even a certain accent. Midwestern English, for instance, is often unacceptable to the corporate empire, which seems to instead use Valspeak as its official dialect.

They don't want you just to wear a suit and tie. They actually expect it to be of a certain color. According to a Cincinnati Post article from 2005, a career event for high school students suggested that males who are looking for a job anywhere should wear a black suit.

Hell, I don't even own a suit - of any color! Or a tie! By 2005, I was a writer anyway, so I was more or less self-employed, and none of the jobs I had before then required wearing suits and ties. (I had to work outdoors in the summer before then, so donning a suit would've been potentially dangerous.) If I was born 15 years later than I was, my library gig would've gone to someone who showed more style, even if they had a much weaker grasp of what the job entailed.

Life today really is a fraternity. Know the right people and dress the right way, and you might get the job. Who cares if you have skill, knowledge, passion, or competence? Maybe you have these things. But it won't help you unless you put on a black suit and tie and impress some big shot. Little matters these days except trying to impress a corporate mentality that's overstayed its welcome.

Hail, hail, Kenton Vale!

To challenge the dominance of the Far Right, I draw maps.

These are bicycling maps for neighborhoods in the Cincinnati area. My second map to be completed is of the town of Kenton Vale, Kentucky. As with Woodlawn, Kentucky, I did it all in one sitting, for the community is so small.

Kenton Vale is known for its distinctive fauna that produce shirts, almanacs, Oscar the Grouch memorabilia, balloons, allergy medicine, crayons, and other things that the Far Right is afraid of. Just joking. I made that up completely - just to make the Far Right mad!

As is usual with these maps, the green roads are better for biking than the yellow roads. The circle on the map at Kuhrs & Edwin is my symbol for a city center, though this is often hard to define in suburban towns.

So point your pooper here to peep these beautiful maps:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

Some more GOP congressmorons losed!

Lest you're wondering, it's now official: Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) got defeated in an upset. It took almost 3 weeks to count all the votes, but Goode has now goed!

I also forgot to tell you that Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-New York) is bye-bye as well. Kuhl was the Conservative Fool Of The Day for 9/19/06 because he threatened to shoot his wife during a dinner party. Kuhl blamed this act on his election opponent.

Although it was established on election night that Kuhl had lost, Wikipedia says he still refuses to concede. What a big baby!

These clowns utterly lostimated!

Mailman praised for not delivering junk

How much of your precious time and effort has been squandered going to the mailbox only to find another pile of junk mail and transporting it to the trash can? How much more have you spent on garbage bags just to handle it all?

Sure, it's fun to watch Super Shopper mailings burn, but you'd rather not have to deal with them at all. Junk mail wastes paper and clutters living spaces.

Folks in one North Carolina community are praising the local mail carrier because he refused to deliver junk mail - for 7 years! (I'm lifting my blackballing of the L.A. Times again.) For one thing, nobody wanted to get junk mail. For another, the amount of it was aggravating the mailman's heart trouble and diabetes. Instead of delivering the bulk mail, he buried it in his yard.

Not one person complained about his refusal to deliver junk mail. In fact he was hailed as a hero.

But the Postal Service isn't cheering - even though the Postal Service probably loses money on junk mail (forcing the cost of stamps for real mail to keep increasing exponentially). Nor is the Direct Marketing Association, because they think they have a "right" to fill your mailbox with unsolicited ads.

And the mailman was prosecuted for not delivering all the bulk mail. He avoided prison time, however. Instead he only received 3 years of probation, a $3,000 fine, and 500 hours of community service after compliments by locals poured in.

Sounds to me like he's a damn good candidate for Postmaster General.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-junk-mail22-2008nov22,0,42692.story)

Gum Fighter wins another gum fight (Bubble Gum Weekend)

Bubble gum. I never chew the stuff myself nowadays. My jaw gets stiff and locks up chewing anything chewier than a booger these days, so why chew bubble gum?

Because it bips, that's why. Just joking. Even if it bips, chewing bubble gum would be hard work indeed.

But it comes so easy to the Gum Fighter - the guy in the Western-themed Hubba Bubba commercials.

Although the ads were set in the good ol' U.S. and A., and the Gum Fighter was played by an American actor, he appears in this commersh that reportedly aired in the U.K. in 1982:

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

In that ad, several people bubbled after being chased by Hubba Bubba highway robbers on horseback. Apparently, the Gum Fighter and his crew haul Hubba Bubba around by stagecoach, leaving them susceptible to robbery. Gum is highly coveted stuff, you know.

At the end of the ad, of course, the Gum Fighter emerged a hero, and the women all flocked to him!

This commercial seems almost the same as the American version except for the jingle at the end: In the U.K. version, the jingle seems to be sung in a British accent.

Damn. When are the villains going to learn their lesson that the Gum Fighter is unstoppable?

Woman loses limbs and sight due to hospital incompetence

Welcome to America's profit-driven health care system, folks.

This is the system under which a dentist lodged a drill bit in a patient's eye socket because he was dancing to the song "Car Wash" while pulling a tooth. (This happened in 2004 in Syracuse, New York.)

Now a hospital in New York City is being sued for $100,000,000 because of a recent incident that cost a 32-year-old woman her hands, her feet, and much of her sight.

The woman went to the emergency room with abdominal pain symptomatic of a kidney stone. According to her attorney, the hospital sent her back home on a stretcher with no blood test. She promptly developed an infection, and her hands and feet had to be amputated because of gangrene. She is also now legally blind.

The life of a mother who is only 32 is now destroyed because of the sheer greed that defines American's health care system.

This isn't the first time in recent years that something almost exactly like this has happened in America's medical facilities.

Frankly, $100,000,000 probably isn't even enough for something like this. Who's really to blame? It sounds like most of it is indeed the hospital's fault. Perhaps the rest of it is the fault of America's political "leaders" of the past 28 years who have allowed the health care system to disintegrate.

(Source: http://wcbstv.com/local/brooklyn.hospital.lawsuit.2.870802.html)

Open thread

Freepers cry "economic terrorism!" (more Freeper Madness)

Here at the 'Pail, we're a mainstay of progressive populism. But Free Republic is the anti-'Pail. I know of no other major website that has so many contributors who are so wrong so often.

In their view, having the wrong opinion is "terrorism." If not "terrorism", they call it "treason", such as when a user called western Pennsylvania a "traitor area" because it elected John Murtha to Congress. The user said this despite the fact that Murtha is a decorated former Marine and a Vietnam veteran.

Recently, PETA released a video (filmed undercover) exposing the abuse of turkeys at farms in West Virginia run by poultry breeding giant Aviagen. The video showed real events. Making and distributing the video is free speech (regardless of whether one agrees with all of PETA's stances).

But what does the Free Republic brain trust have to say about this? One Freeper asked, "Coming right before the holiday season, when most of the turkeys are sold, can the release of this PETA video be considered economic terrorism?"

Simple answer: no.

If a company doesn't want to be exposed, it shouldn't allow turkeys to be abused at its farms. The real crime was committed by those at Aviagen who refused to respect animal welfare. The Freeper bots remind me of how during the Abu Ghraib scandal, Jim Inhofe was "more outraged by the outrage" than by the scandal itself.

What went on at the turkey farms is a serious crime. In West Virginia, cruelty to animals is a felony that carries stiff prison terms. A criminal complaint has already been filed over the abuse.

Freepers believe in corporate rights - not the welfare of living beings. They seem to think no corporations should be exposed if grisly events occur under their watch. In their funhouse mirror world, those who blow the whistle on corporate misconduct are considered "economic terrorists."

In the topsy-turvy world of Free Republic, corporations have limitless rights to violate animal cruelty and other laws, but nobody is allowed to exercise their First Amendment right to expose it.

Pro-drugging shrink received Big Medicine payoffs

Dr. Frederick Goodwin is a psychiatrist who hosted the radio show 'The Infinite Mind' on NPR.

Goodwin seemed to support drugging of children. In one of the most outrageous statements on his show, he claimed that children who were not drugged for bipolar disorder would suffer brain damage. This propaganda was broadcast to countless parents nationwide - and at taxpayer expense through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other organizations. He claimed the drugs were "proven both safe and effective in bipolar children" - though they were not.

Now it turns out that Goodwin received at least $1,300,000 from drug companies to give marketing lectures. This income was never mentioned on his show. He got $2,500 from GlaxoSmithKline just on the day he made his controversial statement.

When you see or hear a commercial, you know it's a paid announcement. But what Goodwin did was far more virulent, for it occurred as part of his show and didn't appear to be the paid plug that it was.

In another display of Goodwin's greed-driven drug plugs, he once falsely claimed, "There is no credible scientific evidence linking antidepressants to violence or to suicide." The same week he said that, he was paid $20,000 from Glaxo, a company that suppressed studies showing Paxil increased suicidal behavior.

As a result of this conflict, NPR is removing 'The Infinite Mind' from its lineup.

But a lot of damage may already be done. How many parents fed their kids antidepressants because Frederick Goodwin said they'd be brain-damaged if they didn't? The lives of many of these children are destroyed now because of Goodwin's "advice."

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/health/22radio.html)

Failed school system expands policy on...well, guess

I'll give conservatives a point on framing an important issue: monopolies in education. While they believe public schools have a monopoly, even where private schools propagate madly, my concern is that private schools actually have a monopoly - for many American public school systems are de facto private.

Can a school system truly be called public if it requires uniforms? If a job requires a uniform, you can at least choose not to work there. But school is compulsory. In every American community, there is "the school." In most cases, you can't just choose another school district if yours has uniforms. In over 20% of the country, uniform schools in general have no less of a monopoly than conservatives believe public schools have.

That of course includes Clayton County, Georgia. This school system has attracted national derision for being one of very few American school districts in recent years shitty enough to nearly lose its accreditation.

Like the right-wing school district where I grew up, the Clayton County system tries to gloss over its own incompetence with failed gimmicks. In Clayton County, that meant uniforms, which were implemented this year at elementary and middle schools.

This right-wing policy not only failed to stem disciplinary and academic woes. In fact, violence and other disciplinary issues have actually worsened this school year. So naturally, the school board expanded uniforms to the high schools as well.

I guess BushAmerica means a corrupt school board can deny a whole county its right to a public education. Public schools aren't so public after all if they can exclude students for not wearing a uniform.

(Source: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/clayton/stories/2008/11/20/clayton_schools_dress_code.html)

Right-wing meanness on display in Kentucky city

Covington, Kentucky, has become so hostile to homeless people that it appeared in a ranking of the worst cities in North America for the homeless. In addition to the illegal bulldozing of an encampment (in which a resident's cat was cruelly killed), there was also the infamous rally by wealthy locals attacking the homeless.

Now the meanness of right-wing city policies is being showcased once again for the whole wide world to ogle (beep).

Last year, the city of Covington unrepentantly outlawed homeless shelters (as reported in The Last Word of 11/3/07). Evidently, a year before, the city adopted a zoning rule to disallow new social service agencies anywhere near downtown.

These rules are being trotted out to keep a new shelter from opening - even though the shelter was already approved by the county, which owns the building.

You know, since conservatives jack off so much to "preemption" of local laws (one of Bush's major policies that he wields against regulation of Big Business), why doesn't it apply in this case?

And who's ever heard of a city zoning an entire district against social service agencies? A neighborhood might be zoned business or residential, but certainly not specifically against social service agencies.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20081121/NEWS0103/811210378)

Disabled man denied right to sue

Once again I'm suspending my spurning of the Los Angeles Times, for this is an important story.

Jarek Molski is a 38-year-old man in California who uses a wheelchair after being injured in a motorcycle crash. Many consider Molski a crusader for the disabled. He filed over 400 lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure compliance with this oft-ignored law.

Many of the suits seemed farfetched at first glance, but a majority of the companies that were targeted were indeed violating the ADA. I'm not saying businesses should be ruined over an inadvertent oversight, but there has to be some way to make sure the ADA is obeyed.

A Reagan-appointed federal judge accused Molski of merely trying to extort money from corporations. But the ADA is clear that reasonable accommodations must be made for the disabled. The judge even conceded that many of the businesses Molski sued were breaking the ADA. Despite this, the judge barred Molski from filing any more suits in that district ever again.

The right-wing U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that judge's ruling (of course), and now the Supreme Court has allowed that decision to stand.

Even some judges on the 9th Circus had dissented though, correctly pointing out that Molski was just exercising his right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

If the federal district court in California is so worried about vexatious litigants, why don't they do anything about clowns like the misnamed National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation? This organization files frivolous suits in that same district every time a union fails to represent nonunion employees.

Uh, California isn't a work-for-less state. Thus, dues paid by union workers there aren't required to be used to represent nonunion workers. I'm sure the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation knows this, yet its abuse of the legal system continues unabated.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wheelchair18-2008nov18,0,2293830.story)

Taxpayers pay for Gonzales's lawyer

Habeas corpus skeptic Alberto Gonzales is the defendant in not just one but at least 2 cases simultaneously. In addition to being indicted alongside Dick Cheney in the prison scandal, Gonzales is also a defendant in a suit involving himself and other Justice Department officials blocking law students from Washington jobs because of their political views.

Gonzales asked the Justice Department to hire a private attorney for him at taxpayer expense. And the department has eagerly complied.

Isn't it nice to know you're paying for the former Attorney General's private lawyer?

Isn't Alberto Gonzales an attorney himself? If you were Attorney General - the nation's top lawyer - shouldn't your legal skills be grand enough to enable you to defend yourself?

Or is this an admission that Gonzales doesn't have the legal knowhow of a pile of navel lint? Hell, he doesn't even believe in habeas corpus, which we were supposed to learn about in 7th grade. How can you be a lawyer when you don't even believe in something that the Constitution guarantees in plain sight?

(Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/56078.html)

School system nearly shuts down over Matchbox Twenty song

Eek! It's a voicemail from Rob Thomas! Call the FBI!

If Matchbox Twenty can induce an entire school system to practically close down, just think what some of the bands back in my day like Twisted Sister would do.

In Mercer County, Kentucky, a school system employee reported receiving a voicemail consisting of the song "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox Twenty, which appeared to be taped off the radio.

Most people wouldn't find anything offensive about the song itself. After all, it was played on the radio, and corporate radio these days isn't exactly known for its tolerance of lyrics. But school people aren't most people.

The school employee described the song as "disturbing", and she called the police. Cops are now launching an investigation into the song.

Meanwhile, the Mercer County Schools were turned into an armed fortress for days because of the song.

Talk about a school system with some really weak coping strategies. If an inoffensive tune can bring the system to its knees, how would the schools react if there was a real emergency?

(Source: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/598007.html)

Disabled services slashed

What did I tell ya?

Just 4 days ago, I posted here about how something like this was going to happen. Now it has. States are now slashing services for the disabled and elderly, using the excuse of budget shortfalls.

Because of these cuts, low-income disabled Americans are being shuffled off to nursing homes even when home-based care is much more suitable.

The shortfall excuse is just that: an excuse, not a valid reason. States and cities have managed to scrounge up millions for construction of equestrian centers for wealthy horse breeders to show off, new stadiums for greedy sports team owners, subsidies for rich private schools, land deals to benefit big box retailers, more prisons, and handouts to abusive youth confinement gulags.

They call that "compassionate conservatism"?

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714130153442755.html)

Palin may receive millions to write memoir

Sarah Palin comes from the petty "world-owes-me" school of right-wing politics. She was totally unprepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but she sure knows how to cash in on her electoral loss.

I know what people like that are like, because I grew up in an area that was a bit like Palin's is now. Not counting the river cities, my county had about as many inhabitants, was suburban-dominated, and was on the political right. Palin reminds me of some of the nobility in my area who gained power and tried turning every public and private agency into their own personal fiefdom.

Like much of our local nobility, Palin doesn't know what it's like to have to actually earn a living. If she was a city council member just for a day, she thinks she should be treated as if she was President of the whole solar system.

Now Failin' Palin is said to be nearing a deal that would give her $7,000,000 just to write her autobiography - even though she can barely form a complete sentence.

Even other politicians hardly ever get that big of an advance to write their life story. Bill Clinton didn't get much more than that - even after he was President for 8 years. Just a few years ago, the record for a nonfiction advance was $8,500,000 (for Pope John Paul II), and Palin has almost topped that!

Nice to know that if you've got a wingnut following like Failin' Palin has, all you need to do to get paid $7,000,000 is scribble down some garbledygoop about how the big, stinky, nasty world is so mean to you.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20081119/pl_ynews/ynews_pl157)

Number Painter gets his comeuppance? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

That Number Painter on 'Sesame Street' was a cool peep!

But even ol' Mr. Bentley isn't safe from paying the consequences for his numerophilia.

The Number Painter sketches featured all the numbers from 2 through 11 inclusive. In many of these uproarious skits, he emerges satisfied. In others, he is chased away but ultimately suffers no payback. In still others, his victim attempts to humiliate him, but the unembarrassable Painter seems undaunted.

But in the sketch for 11 - which is presumably his final appearance - the Number Painter finally learns whether vandalism truly pays:



In this clip, the Painter sneaks into a doctor's office and tries to paint an 11 on the window of the door. After almost being caught red-handed by the nurse (played by Stockard Channing), the Painter sits back down and reveals that although he's great with numbers, he is illiterate, as he holds his magazine upside-down.

After the window washer - a Painter victim in previous sketches - finally gets his revenge, he smiles with a deep sense of fulfillment. But this was just the beginning of the Painter's last stand.

As the Number Painter is reduced nearly to tears at the loss of his 11, the nurse opens the door and drags him into the examining room to see the doc.

Draw your own conclusions as to why the poor ol' Painter is never seen again.

I guess this was designed to teach kids that there are consequences for painting numbers on things. Hence, a generation of children were able to make informed choices about whether to engage in this death-defying activity.

TTYL, book burners

The world's working class has had very few enemies more virulent than censorship. The more censorship we let go unchallenged - even in school libraries - the more the censors are emboldened.

It's hard to claim America still has free speech when the meepings of one right-wing busybody can get a book pulled from a library shelf. But that's exactly what's happened now at a public school in Round Rock, Texas.

One dominionist parent in the community complained that the novel 'TTYL' by Lauren Myracle is "obscene" (even though it was intended for young readers). That was enough to get the superintendent to yank the book - even after 2 separate committees of parents and teachers voted to keep the tome.

So not only does America lack free speech, but the wishes of a majority aren't even followed. One person in a town of 60,000 doesn't make a majority. Even though the parent who demanded the banning of the book claims to have over 1,000 backers, it's still not a majority.

Sadly, the smell of burning books wafts over Round Rock today.

(Source: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/education/entries/2008/11/18/book_removed_from_round_rock_m.html)

Home Despot

The moguls and nobility of Corporate America can usually be counted on to be diehard defenders of right-wing politics. Worse, they support capital punishment for not favoring their causes.

Home Depot (the home improvement retail chain) was founded by Bernie Marcus and several others. Marcus left the company years ago and no longer owns any stock in it. But like a true corporate head honcho, he's not shy about telling the world what he thinks about political enemies.

What does Marcus think about closely contested Senate races like the one in Minnesota? He says that anyone in the retail biz who hasn't donated money to the campaigns of Norm Coleman and other right-wing Republicans "should be shot, should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."

Lovely. A founder of one of America's largest store chains supports assassinating or illegally firing people if their political views disagree with his.

This mentality has defined talk-shit radio and has helped contribute to the thuggery that's pervaded the Far Right in recent years. This is one of the reasons their followers start fights at campaign events, attack rallies, burn opponents' campaign signs or dissenters' houses (as what happened in Virginia), and lie about it.

The well was long ago poisoned and has yet to be decontaminated.

(Source: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/1872)

Flushing out again!

Years ago I decreed November 18 of each year to be Plop Day - to commemorate restroom mischief at my high school.

By a remarkable coincidence, the World Toilet Organization - whose website says "Improving Toilets and Sanitation Globally" - later declared November 19 of every year to be World Toilet Day.

Has the whole month of November gone plumb toilety?

Frankly, I never understood the appeal of flushing toilets. I can understand flushing home johnnypots, but in public restrooms it's of no use. All you do is risk getting germs on your hands from touching the lever.

But today, since it's World Toilet Day, the World Toilet Organization has a solution that may render this dilemma moot.

At the World Toilet Summit, the organization is promoting a nifty invention called a dry toilet. It separates the pee-pee from the poo-poo and completely, er, eliminates the need to flush.

By being flush-free, this amazing tinkletorium also saves water and provides fertilizer for crops. Worldwide, the average person flushes the toilet 2,500 times yearly. Think how much wa will be conserved!

In the meantime though, I won't be flushing any donickers in public lavatories.

Happy World Toilet Day, everyone!

(Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24670784-2,00.html)

Ted Stevens loses Senate seat!

"You had a bad day...The camera don't lie..."

I bet the GOP thought there'd only be one day of me laughing in their faces over the election results, but they had to drag it out, didn't they?

(And if you think I'm being too gleeful over the Republicans' many defeats on November 4, this is payback for 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1988, 1984, 1980...They so deserve it!)

Now it's officially been called: Alaska's Ted Stevens is the latest incumbent Republican senator to be unseated. I know it was close, which is why it took 2 weeks to decide it, but pre-election polls showed him trailing so much that he's lucky it was that close.

That it was this close shows how much the Republicans are willing to tolerate someone convicted of 7 felonies in the Senate. They got so mad at us for questioning the media's war on John Edwards, even though Edwards did nothing illegal. But they put up with a felon like Ted Stevens in the Senate!

Gonzales indicted with Cheney

Now you know the indictment of Dick Cheney is real, and wasn't issued by some kids playing grown-up court with some old powdered wigs and a hammer they found in the woods.

Bush's former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has also been named in the very real indictment against Cheney.

It turns out the indictment stems from the very real abuse of inmates at federal prisons in Texas. Sure Shot Cheney is an investor in the Vanguard Group, which owns parts of the private companies that run these prisons. The indictment accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" of inmates.

Gonzales is accused of abusing his Attorney General post to halt an investigation into prison abuse.

Another indictment accuses Texas State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of improperly profiting from his office by accepting honoraria from prison management firms.

The right-wing intelligentsia is already blasting the indictments as part of a politically motivated witch hunt by Democrats. Except Lucio is a Democrat, geniuses. Oops, another Freeper argument is out the window.

(Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6119394.html)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Wiley Drake!

Meet Rev. Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California.

The first time I remember hearing about the nutty pastor was last year when he demanded the death of those who questioned his IRS tax-exempt status after he used church stationery to endorse Mike Huckabee's ill-fated presidential bid.

During this controversy, Drake admitted, "I don't believe in the separation of church and state" - even though church-state separation is guaranteed by the First Amendment.

According to the Orange County Register newspaper, Drake recently ran for Vice-President as Alan Keyes's running mate on the America's Independent Party ticket.

Now Drake is truly proving what a sore loser he is!

The crazed minister is joining Keyes's frivolous lawsuit to keep President-elect Obama from taking office. The suit asks the California Secretary of State not to certify that state's election results. It charges that Obama hasn't proven that he's a natural-born citizen.

Wasn't that little Freeper rumor debunked months ago? It was debunked not only by the appearance of Obama's birth certificate but also by at least one website that scanned in a blurb from a Hawaii newspaper from 1961 that announced his birth in Hawaii. Clearly, the paper didn't run a phony blurb back in 1961. Because how would they know he'd run for President 47 years later?

Sounds like poor little Rev. Wiley Drake is upset because he lost! Someone call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance!

(Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/obama-drake-evidence-2232055-birth-certificate)