Hunting instructor expels Obama backers

How nasty and babyish is the Newtstapo even today?

Right-wing meanness has come to light again, this time in Tulsa.

A 13-year-old boy was told by his father that he'd be allowed to take a hunting safety course if he got his grades up. This safety course is a major step towards getting a hunting license.

But when the boy and his dad showed up for the class, they were met with a rude surprise.

The volunteer instructor asked the folks in his class if any of them had voted for Obama. The dad raised his hand.

The fact that someone in the hunting class had dared to vote for Obama sent the instructor into a screeching tirade. According to numerous people who were present, the teacher called Obama "the next thing to the Antichrist" and ordered Obama's supporters to leave.

When the 13-year-old and his dad refused to disappear, the instructor declared he would not teach "liberals" and that he'd cancel the course altogether unless they left.

The 13-year-old's father was a former Marine, yet some Bushbot has the nerve to treat him like this all because he voted for Obama?

Anyway, several folks walked out when the instructor launched his diatribe.

It's important to note that the instructor was conducting a state-sponsored class - on behalf of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife. So his harangue was on Oklahoma taxpayers' dime.

He won't be using taxpayer dollars for any other political rants like this though. When the agency found out about this incident, it promptly fired him.

It's also important to note that the hunting teacher is probably just repeating what's been fed to him by the right-wing brain trust, where the nonsense he spewed is pervasive.

(Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090307_16_A1_Thirte498540)

Ooh! Threats!

One of the great myths that many Americans actually believe is that corporations don't take political stances.

But they do - and they do it quite loudly when they feel their greed-driven hegemony is threatened.

Take their reaction to the Employee Free Choice Act, for instance. EFCA is a much-needed bill supported by workers and the Obama administration. It would ease workplace organization by letting workers simply sign cards if they want to unionize.

However, the incoherent ideologues of Coprorate (sic) America call EFCA a one-way path to bolshevism. Some companies do favor EFCA, but many large businesses do not.

Powerful executives are entitled to their opinions, of course. But what corporations are not entitled to do is bully workers and public officials to force them to abandon EFCA. Naturally, corporations are now doing precisely that.

The Consumer Electronics Association is an industry group that represents electronics companies. According to the group, some of its member companies are threatening to move factories to foreign countries if EFCA passes.

It's unclear which companies. But one thing is clear: I don't like threats.

When a company uses threats with the goal of driving down wages, you know what that's called? Racketeering. Any company that makes a threat like this should be charged under RICO.

What Big Business is doing is a crime. And we have to muster the political will and people power to resist it. Otherwise, we working Americans will lose yet again. Policies of the past quarter-century have already fostered chronic underemployment, and if the trend continues, America will be even more unrecognizable before long.

America needs EFCA, and we can't afford to buckle under to high-handed threats.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638372783358077.html)

Church leaders lobby against sex abuse bill

Stories like this leave me utterly speechless.

But I'm going to be completely unambiguous about this: Some so-called leaders in the Catholic Church are supporting child molesters. That's an indisputable fact.

I'm referring to the New York State Catholic Conference - which has resumed its lobbying against a bill in the state of New York that would allow lawsuits over clergy sex abuse to be revived.

The conference's excuse for opposing the bill is that it would permit more lawsuits - thereby costing the Church money. One Church official whined that the bill "is just a device to bankrupt us."

BOO HOO FUCKING HOO!!!!!

I don't know what else I can say other than this: The Church should have done something about abusive priests decades ago. It chose not to. So it should pay the consequences.

A similar bill had repeatedly passed the lower house of the New York legislature. But it was killed by the New York Senate because of Church officials' lobbying.

Now lawmakers say the bill might pass - because the New York Senate recently flipped from Republican to Democratic control.

In other words, it's not just the New York State Catholic Conference that supports child molesters. The Republican Party of New York supports them too. (Big surprise, huh?)

When a diocese allows sexual abuse of children, it deserves to be sued for everything it's worth.

(Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202428834924)

Stem cell research ban to be lifted

I'm an economic populist first and foremost. But the other side has always thought they had such a big statement to make about culture war issues that I don't always get to talk about the economy.

Since it's a weekend, I'm going to be brief but clear: The Bush regime's ban on stem cell research was wrong. Not much more to say about it.

I suspect Bush's cultists knew it, but didn't care, because making a point was more important to them.

But now President Obama is set to overturn this ban.

Is it just me, or does it seem like most of Obama's time in office has been spent reversing Bush's many errors? It's good that Obama's doing this, of course, but it's a shame Bush was such a cretin that his misrule has forced everything else to be delayed.

As an example of Bush standing in the way of progress, he twice vetoed efforts that would have overturned his stem cell research ban.

But now science is finally winning the day - at long last.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030602285.html)

Cold medicine prescription bill defeated!

This may be the first major inroad in blunting the government's war against innocent Americans who dare to find boogers in their noses.

In Missouri, right-wing State Sen. Jason Crowell (R-Cape Girardeau) had introduced a provision that would have made certain over-the-counter allergy and cold medicines available by prescription only. The rationale for this was that someone might misuse these drugs to make meth.

If it had passed, the bill would have punished only the innocent. And it would have clogged doctor's offices and spread germs by forcing patients to visit the doctor just to get a drug that a family member should be able to get for them over-the-counter. (Not like any cold medicine you get at a drugstore works worth shit anyway.)

I've said before that Missouri doesn't get to decide what drugs are by prescription. Federal law already says these drugs are over-the-counter. Period.

But the Missouri Senate has now defeated this bill 18 to 6.

A lot of Missourians won't be inconvenienced now - much to the drug warriors' chagrin.

(Source: http://www.fox4kc.com/news/sns-ap-mo-xgr--meth-prescriptions,0,7285196.story)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Zach Wamp!

Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee) was one of the kook-a-loons elected in the right-wing tidal wave of 1994.

This dinosaur lied when he pledged to serve only 12 years in the House - opting to run again in 2006.

Wamp grew up with the finest things in life, including a prep school education. That's no excuse for being as completely out of step with hard-working Americans as he is.

Lately, Wamp has been approaching a total meltdown.

With President Obama set to launch his health care reform program - which so far has been stymied by Republicans needlessly yelping - Wamp is on the offensive. He complained Obama's efforts are a "fast march to socialism."

Like that's supposed to scare people? Evidently, Wamp thinks socialism and communism are the same, so he thinks he can call something socialist and make people think it's communist.

What an outmoded goof.

Wamp also said health care is a privilege, not a right - and, in a hypocritical twist, said that claiming otherwise is "class warfare."

I don't know, Zach, but denying someone health care by calling it a "privilege" to be conferred based on status sounds more like class warfare to me.

Health care is a right, Zach. Not a privilege.

The interviewer asked Wamp, "If you have cancer right now, do you see it as a privilege to get some treatment?"

Wamp then offered some garbledygoop in an attempt to defend his untenable position, but just ended up looking like the incoherent fool he is.

How does this anachronistic moron keep getting elected?

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/GOP_Rep._Healthcare_not_right_0305.html)

Media waits until now to cover recession

I've noticed something very bizarre just in the past couple weeks or so. Except it's not bizarre if you're aware of the direction the media has taken in recent years. I thought I'd give you a heads-up about it so you can sort through the distortions.

It's a fact that the American economy has been in complete shambles since the Contract With America - largely because of the Contract's policies and because of the "new economy." It had been crumbling since even before then - but just not to such a pervasive degree. The economy got progressively worse through most of Bush's reign - because of his policies.

These are established facts. I don't go by what the media claims or even by the stock market. I go by the state of working-class America. The ever-widening gap between the rich and poor, and wages not keeping pace with inflation are dire economic indicators.

For a dozen years, however, the media paid hardly any attention to this chronic recession. It hyped the nonexistent economic boom of the late '90s, and even tried to convince us things were going dandily during the Bush era.

By and large, the media tried keeping up this charade even last year, when everyone finally knew the economic boom was a hoax.

Now, however, every other news story is about the stock market dive or some other economic woe.

Why did the media wait until now to extensively cover the recession?

If you don't know why, you probably haven't been reading this blog for very long: It's because there's finally a guy in the White House who the media doesn't like, so they're going to pull out all the stops to make sure he gets blamed.

It's also clear the stock market has been manipulated lately just so Obama is blamed for the recession. The success of the stock market in modern times is almost antithetical to the interests of average Americans - and a lot of that is because of intentional manipulation for political purposes.

If the market can overprice stocks for years, and engineer a crash, it creates a perception of a floundering economy - even if the economy is no worse than before.

Has the economy improved in the 6 weeks since Obama took office? Probably not at first, but that may be changing. I believe there's been a slight improvement just in the past 2 weeks or so that the media has been hyping the recession. I find it interesting that I'm making more money now than any other time since 1994, even though the recession is only now gaining coverage.

Make no mistake: The stimulus is working. I'm not being partisan (for I'm a Green, not a Democrat), but that much is clear.

Unfortunately, the media doesn't look at how we fare. It cares only about bogus numbers like the stock market, which are manipulated heavily.

Despite this new vista of hope, I won't say America is as prosperous as it was 30 years ago unless it gets back the factories it lost, and workers make wages equivalent to what they once made.

Veteran illegally denied gun permit

Bush conservatives claim to be such great patriots and such unmistakable Second Amendment champions that you'd think they'd let an Iraq War vet exercise his right to buy a gun. But this story is yet another that proves that what Bushists say doesn't always jibe with what they do.

A decorated Iraq War vet in Omaha has now been denied a permit to purchase a pistol. This despite the fact that he trained fellow Marines on firing guns, qualified as a marksman, and received a combat medal. Not only that, but he already has a rifle for target shooting, and he is still in the Marine Reserves - so why would he be denied a gun permit now?

Well, it turns out he has post-traumatic stress disorder from his war service. Because of current rules (which were supported by the Bush regime), Omaha authorities disqualified him from buying a gun.

Did the rightist bureaucrats even know what PTSD is? Probably. But they just don't give a shit.

PTSD is not a psychotic illness, and the veteran in this story has never been committed to a mental institution. Unfortunately, for 8 years, the Bush regime seemed always eager to outdo itself in stabbing veterans - especially those with PTSD - in the back.

If you think I'm just blustering because of my preexisting disapproval of the Bushes, read about an infamous individual named Sally Satel. Satel is a shrink who has authored several far-right titles. She was appointed by Bush to help run the hated TeenScreen and to encourage states to expand forced mental health treatment. Satel wrote an article in 2004 in which she absurdly claimed that PTSD is a hoax devised by veterans so they can collect more government benefits.

Satel's view isn't exactly what I call supporting the troops.

Unluckily, this was a pattern under Bush. I truly wish I could say America had a leader for 8 years who supported the country's brave fighting men and women. But when Bush was in charge, it didn't.

And frankly, the political views of the veteran in this story aren't an issue, as far as I'm concerned. It's unknown what his views are, but if he's a progressive populist, or if he thinks the Bushes are just swell, it should have no effect on whether he's allowed to buy a gun.

This story worked out in the veteran's favor: An appeals board has now approved his gun permit.

Perhaps the real lesson here is that nobody should blindly trust the mental health system - which seems hell-bent on denying everyone their rights.

(Source: http://www.military.com/news/article/vet-denied-gun-permit-over-ptsd-care.html)

Bill would censor online maps

Yet another public official seems eager to appease terrorists by cutting and running.

In California, far-right State Ass. Joel Anderson (pictured here) has a new bill that would censor Internet mapping sites. Anderson's bill would require sites like Google Earth and Virtual Earth to blur aerial and street-level photos of schools, hospitals, government buildings, and houses of worship.

His excuse is that terrorists who plotted attacks in India and Israel used mapping sites like these.

Except they didn't. That story has already been debunked.

It takes a real idiot to force the public to mortgage rights just because Bush couldn't capture a terrorist even if he had a map leading right to their hideout. Bush probably doesn't know how to read a map that's more detailed than the world map that used to be printed on soda cups at Long John Silver's.

The First Amendment protection of the free flow of information is pretty clear. Not like that's stopped the Republicans before from nibbling away at it.

Anderson reportedly appeared on Fox News Channel to defend his bill. He declared that nobody - not even law-abiding citizens - has a right or need to view the aerial photos provided by Google Earth or Virtual Earth. Nice to know some clod in the California legislature thinks he can decide what my rights and needs are.

If this bill does pass, it's not as if Google won't just lay down and take it. Google has already complied with undemocratic governments of other countries that have demanded yanking photos.

What's next? Banning computers? Banning breathing?

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ic3Izr3wpXcWAV3Ka0Dn0Wd8oS6AD96MO2300)

Too tired to blog...

(Sung to the tune of "Too Drunk To Fuck"...)

Went Roads Scholarin'
On the Peace Bike
Took about 50 pictures
Went near Wooster Pike

But now I am jaded
I gotta drop a log
I'm rolling down the stairs
Too tired to blog

Too tired to blog
Too tired to blog
Too tired to blog
I'm too tired, too tired, too tired
To blog...

Seriously, I am much, much too tired to blog today. I got back about an hour ago, and promptly fell asleep - after 9 hours of bicycling with hardly any rest stops.

And I did it all for you! Aaaww!

I did defy some minor Allowed Clouds that were placed by the Far Right, but not much. I did use a path near Mariemont that was roped off, and on the way home, I went through the forbidden zone off the end of the Trail to Nowhere again.

New CBS veep a right-wing lobbyist

Where's the outrage?

If a network hired some part-time reporter who turned out to be a registered Democrat, the right-wing brain trust would be asking for the network's head on a post.

But CBS hired a right-wing lobbyist for a position no less powerful than senior vice-president of communications. The new veep, Jeff Ballabon, is active in Bob Livingston's lobbying firm and has worked for many conservative public officials. He also raised money for Bush's presidential campaigns.

Ballabon once claimed that Democrats are evil. Later he declared, "Obama is incredibly dangerous."

In his CBS gig, Balloonbrain now oversees all media relations and public affairs for the network's news department.

Some "liberal" media, huh?

How can CBS expect to be taken seriously when it places someone so plainly partisan at the helm for public affairs? Easy. Because hardly anybody knows about it. Hardly anyone in the media has covered Ballabon's far-right links.

(Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ira-forman/cbs-news-pick-claimed-dem_b_168688.html)

Yes or no on Duncan's plan? ('Pail Poll)

Arne Duncan - in an apparent bid to compete with sweatshop economies abroad - has issued vague rumblings about adding yet more days to America's school calendar.

So far, the states have set how many days a year one is subjugated in America's broken schools. Nonetheless, any recommendation by Duncan is sure to have a grave impact.

The latest 'Pail Poll asks whether you'd favor Duncan's proposal - or if you'd only favor it for states that currently have shorter school years (since it varies from state to state).

Mr. Hooper the surfer ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

I miss Mr. Hooper. He was cool.

Ol' Hoops was the friendly storekeeper on 'Sesame Street' played by the late Will Lee. He was known for having to frequently correct Big Bird when he mispronounced his name.

I've found another sketch from the 'Sesame Street' fact-finding mission in Hawaii that aired in 1978. This was from the same trip as Oscar the Grouch's skirmish with the airport metal detector.

In this clip, we learn that Mr. Hooper is a fucking good surfer:



Even though the waves knocked his glasses off, Mr. Looper then opts to try it again!

This clip also shows the rank foolishness of the other cast members: First they dared Mr. Hooper to surf - and then, after he took the surfboard into the water, they finally start worrying that it might not be safe after all for an elderly man to suddenly take up surfing with no instruction whatsoever.

'Sesame Street' will never be the same without the original proprietor of Hooper's Store.

Tea Party farce to draw 1,200 people?

The BTPers are setting themselves up for a hilarious disappointment.

Organizers of the Cincinnati event now claim they're going to have at least 1,200 participants in their public temper tantrum. This sum was supposedly amassed thanks to hype by Clear Channel's right-wing WKRC radio.

WKRC barely has 10 listeners these days, let alone 1,200. Somehow I doubt the endless promotion by that station would draw that many participants to the event.

This of course is the same WKRC that helped organize pro-war rallies in the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

This much is clear: Most of the people at the Tea Party mockery won't be locals. A majority of them will be professional right-wing agitators who travel from city to city for rallies like this.

The movement is that phony. Much as the Tea Parties are secretly sponsored by corporate backers, many of the participants are paid operatives.

Must be nice to get paid to travel around the country! When I go on vacation, I work; when they "work", they go on vacation.

There's a 50/50 chance I'll be able to be on Fountain Square on March 15 to keep an eye on them. I bet that if I chased them to other cities, I'd encounter most of the same sorry individuals.

What's in your wallet? Teeth!

I should add another icon to the key for this blog: disgusting things found at Wal-Mart. Such as Wal-Mart.

As if Wal-Mart selling green beans containing a rat head and trail mix containing broken glass wasn't bad enough, customers are now discovering that wallets sold there are mysteriously sprouting teeth.

At a Wal-Mart in Falmouth, Massachusetts, a customer shopping for a new billfold discovered that a wallet he was about to purchase contained 10 human teeth.

According to police, the teeth came from an adult, and one even had a filling. No DNA tests can be performed, because the teeth lack blood or gum tissue.

Considering Wal-Mart's intent on selling goods made in brutal overseas sweatshops, they could be the teeth of some laborer who was murdered by their boss. Seriously.

(Source: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090303/NEWS11/90303001/-1/NEWSMAP)

Supremes toss drug lawsuit limits!

I've sporadically followed the case of a musician who was awarded $6,700,000 from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals because of the manner in which Wyeth encouraged doctors to administer Phenergan, which led to her arm having to be amputated.

Wyeth argued that this award in a Vermont state court should be gutted, saying that federal rules preempt such verdicts in state courts. Wyeth claimed that once a drug is approved by the FDA, that's proof that it's safe, and they can't be sued over it.

Seriously. They said that.

Naturally, the gleezixdolfs in the Bush regime backed Wyeth's so-called defense. The Bush empire had a strange fetish for federal preemption of the states' powers.

Wyeth fought the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court - only to lose spectacularly.

The Supremes have now ruled 6 to 3 against the pharmaceutical giant. This is an unexpected but welcome blast against corporate power.

The 3 Justices who sided with Wyeth in its greedy quest are (drum roll, please) conservatives John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, and Samuel Alito. Thus, the 2 Bush-appointed Justices are among the 3 who sided against consumers. See what I mean about elections having consequences?

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/04/AR2009030401407.html)

GPS tracking blasted

In a federal court case involving a man who received life in prison for a drug charge, civil liberties groups are challenging authorities' abuse of GPS trackers.

In some states, police have been secretly attaching GPS trackers to suspects' cars - with no warrant. This plainly violates the Fourth Amendment's safeguard against warrantless searches, of course. (Like the authorities are counting?)

Prosecutors say GPS tracking is no different from police's physical surveillance. But it's not as if police have unlimited rights to conduct surveillance - as the Maryland Police State Police spying scandal shows.

The American public has a reasonable expectation of privacy in their travels. Our constitutional system is supposed to allow no tracking of our movements without a warrant. That is the Constitution. Authorities don't get to decide that the Bill of Rights doesn't apply.

(Source: http://www.examiner.com/a-1882655~Police_use_of_warrantless_GPS_tracking_challenged.html)

More about the Facebook/YouTube fiasco

My battle with Facebook carrying my YouTube activity isn't the first time I've encountered monumental incompetence by a major website. But it's still unclear which party is to blame: YouTube or Facebook?

I actually favorite a lot of videos on YouPube. I'm interested in old TV and radio clips and highway footage. I also use the favorites feature to hoard numerous Ernie and Bert sketches and chewing gum commercials for 2 features on this blog.

If these were the only items I appeared to have favorited, I wouldn't be urgently worried. But the problem went much deeper.

For one, I never favorited the "Turtle Power!" video. In fact, I had forgotten about that song since I was in college. Facebook also claimed I favorited several videos of a particular hostess of some late night TV show who I had never even heard of.

Who knows how many videos Facebook claimed I favorited that I didn't favorite? And who knows if there were any of them that were embarrassing? I pulled the notice from my Wall before I could even find out.

Like I said, I don't know whether YouTube or Facebook is at fault. But the embarrassment factor is a key reason YouTube allows you to make your favorites private.

It's been some years since I encountered fuck-ups from a major website that might have been considered legally actionable. But this outrageous blunder certainly is. I guarantee you that other people are having the same problems, and I'm almost positive someone is going to file a lawsuit against whoever is responsible. If it's class action, I'm signing up.

Facebook claims I favorited YouTube videos I never favorited

I've been fighting with Facebook all day about their failure to import my latest YouTube videos, and a few minutes ago, I noticed another screw-up.

On my Wall, Facebook claims I favorited about 30 YouTube videos - many of which I never favorited.

I did favorite some of them (such as an old CBS Sports theme), but I did not favorite most of them. In fact, I had never even seen some of them. Frankly, I think some of the ones it did claim that I favorited were stupid.

Furthermore, my privacy settings on YouTube are not set to reveal what videos I favorite. So, even if I had favorited them, my privacy was breached.

I am investigating the situation, and I may take legal action against whoever is responsible. For my privacy to be breached in this fashion violates the user agreement of both YouTube and Facebook.

Court sidelines NFL pat-downs

California law is clear: A voter-approved referendum had long ago placed limits on corporations violating the right to privacy.

So when the San Francisco 49ers began enforcing the NFL's right-wing policy of frisking fans, the 49ers got sued clean to court.

Now the California Supreme Court has quite properly tossed these searches. The court said that if the 49ers intend on frisking spectators, they have to show the searches are justified, effective, and unintrusive, pursuant to the state law. It was a unanimous ruling.

I wish I could say that all the NFL teams in California will obey this ruling - but after a federal court also put the kibosh on the searches (a ruling that was inexplicably later overturned), I don't think many teams complied with that ruling.

I guess the NFL (like Bush) thinks laws are just "damn pieces of paper", huh?

(Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202428738944)

Score another one for restoring the rule of law!

In BushAmerica, laws were just "damn pieces of paper." In that massive ruin known as Bush's mind, laws weren't meant to be obeyed, so he just barked down orders in an attempt to undermine any law he didn't like.

Like last year, when he gutted much of the Endangered Species Act by erasing the portion that required federal agencies to consult with independent experts about the impact of their actions on threatened species.

But now America's long national nightmare is over, as Bush has toddled back to Texas in disgrace. And President Obama has now reversed Bush's illegal order.

Chalk one up for science, nature, and the rule of law.

(Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/03/obama_restores_endangered_spec.html)

Tea Party mockeries a corporate front

With the BTPers coming to Cincinnati on March 15, more has been learned about their phony Tea Party protests against the Obama stimulus package.

To the surprise of nobody, these rallies are not grassroots events but are bankrolled by far-right corporate interests - like so many other phony populist movements.

The domain name for the Chicago event - chicagoteaparty.com - had been registered to an experienced right-wing media operative since last summer. The website is also tied to Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, a so-called anti-tax group that developed from the misnamed Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was formed to increase corporate influence on public policy.

CSE was funded heavily by right-wing foundations and by corporations like Philip Morris and Exxon.

CSE also sprouted an affiliate that joined William Bennett's far-right Empower America.

General rule of thumb: If conservatives are protesting something, they're almost always being bankrolled by the Republican National Committee, major corporations, or right-wing foundations. Much like the countless right-wing websites out there that all repeat the same discredited talking points and lies.

Although the BTPers bill their scripted events as tax protests, this makes little sense - because Obama's economic plan would actually cut taxes for a vast majority of Americans. So why are they protesting? Because it cuts taxes for working-class families, not billionaires.

As irrational and babyish as the BTPers are, you still need to keep an eye on them. This isn't something like the Freepers' bluster about Republicans retaking Congress in 2010 which has no chance of happening. As inane as the BTPers' ravings are, they're a very real (bowel) movement.

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Tea_Party_protests_sees_as_corporate_0301.html;
http://www.alternet.org/story/129523;
http://sobeale.blogspot.com/2009/03/theres-astroturf-at-tea-party.html)

Sex offenders get special rights

I'm mad.

There's a pattern that's been expanding in America for years, and I'm disgusted that it's been allowed to continue: Convicted sex offenders are granted rights and privileges that nobody else can ever dream of receiving. I frankly am tired of having to deal with it every few months, but if society would stop pampering these monsters, I wouldn't have to keep this unsavory subject in the spotlight.

A case in point is a recent story out of Tacoma, Washington, in which a 40-year-old mother was sentenced to 3 months in jail for attacking a convicted child molester with a bat. (The molester had been convicted of abusing 2 girls who were only 5, and didn't even register under the right address in the sex offender registry.)

I fucking hate child molesters. I make no apologies for this sentiment. I'm not encouraging vigilantism, but we have a duty to keep them out of our communities.

But with a criminal justice system hell-bent on mollycoddling molesters, we haven't had much luck in this regard. Child molesters enjoy a revolving door justice system, in which they rarely have to do much jail time.

These days, if the parent of a sick child buys too much Sudafed, they're often looking at hard time. But if some creep molests a 5-year-old, they can often count on a light sentence.

You can argue that it was unwise for the mother in Tacoma to take matters into her own hands. But everyone knows that if someone who is not a sex offender was attacked with a bat, the assailant would probably never be sentenced to 3 months.

There was a case in my area a few years ago that was somewhat like the Tacoma case. The mother of a child who was molested attacked the molester, and was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Prosecutors were so determined to make the mother pay that, when a jury acquitted her, the prosecutors threatened to retry her until they got a conviction. (Retrying a defendant because the prosecutors didn't get a conviction is unconstitutional, of course, but it happens around here occasionally.)

One of few things of value I learned in high school was the chapter in history class about ancient legal codes. One of the old codes said something like, "If a man takes the eye of a free man, let him pay 1,000 cubits. If a man takes the eye of a slave, let him pay 100 cubits." The modern American legal system is a bit like this: Assault a sex offender, get 3 months. Assault someone who is not a sex offender, get 3 days (if that).

I am absolutely livid.

(Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/washington_mother_sentenced_fo.html)

Right-wing temper tantrum of the day

Found an interesting headline today in Minnesota's Star Tribune: "Coleman camp asks that election result be 'set aside.'"

Uh, Norm?

In a democratic republic, we don't "set aside" election results just because you lost.

This is the Coleman camp's way of admitting their challenge to the election result has no basis, so they think a court should let the embattled Republican incumbent be declared the winner just because.

Did Katherine Harris move to Minnesota?

Even more hilariously, judges ordered Coleman to pay a $7,500 fine for failing to disclose an important document regarding the vote count.

Good ol' dumpster-divin' Norm. Yes, this is the senator who in 2007 climbed into a dumpster and pawed around in it, claiming he was searching for an antique lamp his wife threw away. When he showed up for an important meeting covered with trash, it drew unhelpful comparisons to Pigpen and Oscar the Grouch.

(Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/40556467.html)

Legislator hates puppies

Meet Republican State Sen. Bruce Starr of Oregon.

Actually, if you have a dog, you may not want to meet him.

Starr has a new bill that - if it passes - would make Oregon the only U.S. state that would completely outlaw pit bull dogs. If you have a pit bull, your dog would be killed (even if the dog harms nobody and if there's nothing wrong with the dog), and you may face a year in prison.

Here's a new name for Bruce Starr: Puppy Hater.

I frankly don't buy the excuse that pit bulls are inherently more likely to bite than other dogs. I know of folks who have had pit bulls, and they say pit bulls are as gentle as any other canines.

Most pit bulls are good dogs. And most have good owners - but, as with any dog breed, there are some bad owners. And there are lots of bratty kids who simply don't know how to act around pit bulls or other dogs - and dogs pay for humans' misbehavior, because the system is stacked against dogs.

A few years ago, a young boy in my area found a pit bull in his neighborhood and locked himself in a closet with the dog. When the boy ended up being bitten to shreds, the dog was promptly ordered to be killed - even though the dog was only acting in self-defense.

It's a shame society has moved so far from reality that the so-called "rights" of those who provoke or otherwise abuse dogs are always allowed to take precedence over the dog's well-being.

I believe that if you intentionally provoke a dog, you have nobody to blame but yourself if your face gets gnawed off. And you have no right to expect the state to kill a perfectly healthy dog.

(Source: http://www.komonews.com/news/40476252.html)

Duncan gets ideas from China

We love you, Mr. President. But it looks like you may have another Cabinet member to fire.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan now says the United States should add yet more days to its ever-expanding school year.

Because we've all seen how well that's worked over the past 25 years. (That's more sarcasm, everyone!)

Actually, Duncan's rationale for his stance is that...China has done it already. Well, China has busted labor unions and imprisoned journalists too, so I guess that's next.

Nice to know America has an Education Secretary who takes cues from authoritarian overseas dictatorships.

The issue runs deeper though. The most vocal proponents of the idea are Big Business - whose primary concern is creating cheap, docile labor to be exploited in the gloBULL marketplace. Duncan complains that American children are "at a competitive disadvantage" - but one has to ask why the hell we're competing against oppressive regimes in the first place.

I also find it interesting that prior to the Reagan revolution, we learned more in school even though the school year was 5 weeks shorter.

It takes a lot of gall for Arne Duncan to have grown up in the era of the 9-month calendar only to try to deny it to future generations - just so Corporate America can Make more Money off their backs. Somehow I doubt Duncan's proposal would include any more civics classes. If it did, children might actually learn what the "standards" chase is really about.

Already, 30% of American high school students are pushed out of school before graduation - and there's a direct correlation between the burgeoning pushout rate and the increase in the number of days in school. Thus, Duncan's proposal doesn't just foster raw greed. It also heightens exclusion.

Expanding the school year would also be a grave setback in the fight against bullying. Given America's filthy school buildings, it would also increase disease.

It's hard to see how anyone expects to be taken seriously when they demand a longer school year. It's even harder to see why anybody actually takes them seriously.

I think it's time for a federally imposed cap on the number of days in school, because there's already too many states and communities that have in effect made our young people mere cogs in the corporatist wheel. Our children have a right to be free of exploitation - and a right to an education system that empowers, not enslaves.

In the meantime, my support for a nationwide boycott of school grows. I'm almost 36, and I'm less enchanted by the state of American schools now than I was in grade school.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/education.school.year)

Readers unanimously oppose DMCA

Well, folks, last week's 'Pail Poll is closed, and it's unanimous.

You voted 13 to 0 in favor of repealing the far-right Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Kinda puts the kibosh on the notion of the Contract With America being in touch with the American people, huh? The Republican Senate of the late '90s passed the DMCA unanimously - yet you opposed it unanimously.

How out of step with the public can a legislative body possibly get?

Before someone starts blaming "the liberals" for the DMCA, the law was introduced by far-right Rep. Howard Coble (R-North Carolina), who is also known for his praise of a white supremacist magazine (after it praised his continuing support for the internment of Japanese-Americans that took place during World War II).

Conservative commentator Paul Harvey dies

Radio commentator Paul Harvey died Saturday at the age of 90.

You may have heard Harvey's commentaries, because in some markets they ran on unlikely stations. He was known for his surprise-ending anecdotes and old-fashioned monotone.

Although Paul Harvey's political conservatism was often just as untenable as that of more modern commentators, he did have a few bright spots. For instance, when Harvey abandoned his support of the Vietnam War, he became known for this memorable criticism of Nixon: "I love you, Mr. President. But you're wrong."

Contrast that against the media chorus that went along with everything Bush did, and it becomes clear how far the medium declined in 35 years.

The Augusta Madman!

Madison, GA (2/28/09) - It was Saturday evening in Augusta, Georgia. We were on a fact-finding mish, and we were bipping into town on a suburban highway.

A white truck pulled up behind us. This was no ordinary truck. It was one of those shiny new hulkers. The kind wealthy suburbanites buy because they think it fools everyone into thinking they're working-class heroes.

I wasn't fooled, of course, but that's not the point.

Anypoop, we were on River Watch Parkway in the partymobile, when we heard a maniac screaming his noggin off.

I turned around and noticed that a young man in the passenger's side of the white truck was screaming at our vehicle - as if it was a living thing that could hear it.

I knew right then I was chomping on some major league right-wing indignation.

We drove into town and lost the crazed clod.

The moment I heard the hapless oaf screaming, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'd dealt with this type before, and I knew right away he was a spoiled brat just from his behavior. I was surrounded by assholes like this in high school.

Several years ago, he was probably slapping poor kids in the head at his own high school and pissing in their backpacks. That is, if there were any poor kids at his school. I'm sure he lives in a sheltered exurban neighborhood, so there probably weren't.

But we evaded the little loser, and now he's out there, somewhere, yelling into the cold night air. And nobody's around to listen to his kookish ravings. Poor baby.

Get a life, mister. Stop living off your daddy's money.

Honestly, I don't know what could have possibly set him off today. Was it our Kentucky license plate? Did he have an uncanny radar-like ability to detect those of other political ideologies or economic groups? Or was he just stupid?

I will forever call him the Augusta Madman. He joins Old Stopsignface and the Getty Grouch in the gallery of strange characters I've encountered on fact-finding missions.

What a beezweezer.

Cincinnati TV legend Uncle Al dies

I have just learned that Al Lewis, who hosted the Cincinnati-based children's TV program 'The Uncle Al Show', has died at the age of 84.

I enjoyed 'The Uncle Al Show' when I was a small child, and Uncle Al appeared at Oktoberfest just a few years ago, as he played his accordion and sang for the crowd. His show aired on WCPO-TV from 1950 to 1985.

He was a broadcasting legend.

(Source: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/Tri-States-Beloved-Uncle-Al-Passes-Away/mbqT7X002EG7deu_FvxVww.cspx)