GOP guvs may reject stimulus money

The legend for this blog ought to have a special icon for stories about the GOP brain trust putting ideology ahead of the interests of the public they're supposed to represent.

Several right-wing Republican governors are considering turning down money from the federal stimulus.

If you live in Alaska, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, or Texas, you might not see a dime from the stimulus - all because certain right-wing fools named Sarah Palin, Butch Otter, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barbour, Mark Sanford, or Rick Perry may decide not to let you or your state get any of this money.

We better hope a natural disaster doesn't hit any of these states. Sadly, there are few starker reminders of the need for the stimulus than a major disaster.

Granted, Republican states like these already receive more federal tax dollars than they pay out. But this money hasn't necessarily gone to projects that benefit average people. Even so, the 6 governors mentioned here will probably be begging for stimulus money once they realize they need it like all the other states. So their complaints today may amount to nothing but grandstanding for their copartisans.

(Also, notice that I didn't link to Yahoo!'s run of this story, because I haven't linked to Yahoo! since they started putting ads on their news articles again. That's what Yahoo! gets for ratting out journalists to authoritarian regimes.)

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD96EI3PG3)

Street View suit rejected!

Why should a populist blog cheer a corporation winning a lawsuit?

When the firm is being sued for not conferring special rights based on one's economic status, the usual rules are out the window.

Last year, an affluent couple in a posh Pittsburgh suburb filed a lawsuit against Google because its Street View feature failed to omit their street. They thought privacy rights meant that what was publicly visible on their street should not be photographed - even though Street View also features countless photographs from poor neighborhoods.

The couple sued despite the fact that they chose to skip Street View's method for having images deleted. In fact, Street View did delete their road when the suit was filed - yet the plaintiffs pressed on with the suit.

Now a federal court has dismissed this ridiculous lawsuit.

Neat how that works, huh?

(Source: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/18739087/detail.html)

PNC squanders bailout money on exec bonuses

In the bailout jumble, the big banks have learned one thing: Ask, and ye shall receive.

They've also proven another maxim: Receive, and ye shall waste. At least if you're a big bank.

PNC Financial Services Group was a major recipient of federal bailout money. How is PNC spending this taxpayer dough? By giving its top execs - including its CEO - bonuses worth millions. The CEO gets a bonus of $3,000,000 - courtesy of American taxpayers.

If a bank was floundering so badly that it truly needed a bailout, why would execs even deserve a bonus? Especially one funded by taxpayers?

Talk about a reverse Robin Hood!

PNC also used bailout money to buy a smaller bank. So our tax dollars are getting used to foster monopolies too.

Oh, did I mention that PNC also has ties to the Bush royal family?

(Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN136517920090214)

Missouri House full of right-wing fucknuts too!

In the wake of the Indiana Senate's approval of a bill to steal the parental right to sue a school, this seems to be the Far Right's current cause celebre.

Now the Missouri House has voted 160 to 0 to pass a bill that would do the exact same stupid thing.

The unanimity in passing such incredibly idiotic bills lately is astounding. One saving grace is that the Missouri House has 163 seats, so perhaps there were 3 legislators who opposed the measure but knew it was futile to even show up to vote on it.

Who can blame them for thinking that? Other blogs have described the Missouri legislature in recent years as a veritable Disney World of Far Right activism and experimentation.

The Missouri bill was sponsored by Republican State Rep. Maynard Wallace.

With the House's approval of this bill, you can just see a school principal standing there, paddle in hand, sneering, "Ha ha, you can't sue me!"

That's not the only thing this bill does. It also allows public school districts throughout the state to suppress freedom of conscience by requiring the wearing of uniforms. (Hence the yellow icons for this entry.)

(Right now, state law permits uniforms only in St. Louis. Of course, having different rules for St. Louis was part of a right-wing gambit to lay claim to areas that were less likely to support a right-wing agenda. But if you wanted to make things equal statewide, the proper thing to do would be to prohibit uniforms in St. Louis as they were prohibited elsewhere - not expand uniforms outside St. Louis.)

I think it's time for a nationwide boycott of schools - a general student strike, if you will. With individual and family rights curtailed daily, I don't even see how it's possible to benefit from most American school systems today.

(Source: http://www.bnd.com/336/story/659545.html)

No census consensus

I shouldn't even be dignifying the wingnutosphere's mindless blatherings of late, but for me to expose them is more than just a hobby. It's a career.

The latest right-wing nonstory is the supposed power grab regarding the looming 2010 census.

If there's a power grab, it's certainly not by the Obama administration. The distinction the wingnuts keep making concerns whether the census director will report to the White House or to the Commerce Department.

Apparently, the wingnuts must have all slept and thrown paper airplanes throughout 7th grade civics. If they paid attention, they'd know that both are under the control of the executive branch, so it ultimately makes little difference.

As Homer Simpson would say: You don't know how big this government is! It goes all the way to the President!

If the wingnut brain trust is so worried about the census being tainted by politics, why didn't they raise a ruckus in 1990 when Mad Dog Bush vetoed a bill that would have made the census more accurate? This veto was politically driven - and it showed in the following reapportionment.

Or what about the many errors in 2000? Although that was in the Clinton era, Republican influence still loomed large. There were countless instances of small towns in Democratic areas being skipped entirely. There was one in Pennsylvania; one in Missouri; Supai, Arizona (in Havasupai Indian Reservation); and the entire Miccosukee Indian Reservation in Florida. The census counted zero people in all of these places, despite them clearly being inhabited.

My building was skipped - and it's in a Democratic city. As per the census website, I even called to have a census form mailed to me. I never received the form.

The media's cover-up of this political gamesmanship has lasted 9 years.

Furthermore, an activist federal court ruled that the census couldn't use a sampling method that would have made it more accurate, especially regarding the homeless and central cities.

Because of these obvious mistakes, the 2000 census should be considered null and void.

Amazing that the fuckheadosphere would have the nerve to accuse the Democrats of trying to juice the census, when the Republicans have done this very thing since at least 1990.

So a pigeon walks into a bar and... ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Ernie and Bert are cool.

And funny!

At least Bert thinks he is, as seen in an old skit I found in which he tells pigeon jokes. I vaguely remember seeing this sketch in the late '70s or so:



I can think of a few pigeon jokes that are just as funny that ol' Bert missed:

Q: Why did the pigeon look in the toilet?
A: Beakause! Get it? BEAKause!

Q: What does 'pigeon' stand for?
A: Pooping In Gutters Every Other Night!

Q: Why was the pigeon kicked out of the brothel?
A: He couldn't pay the BILL!

Eeh eeh eeh! Eeeheeheeheeheeh! (Patented Bert laugh.)

Later, in the '90s, there was an actress who had numerous sitcom roles who laughed just like Bert. Remember her?

This sketch is also one of the few Bert and Ernie segments that Bert actually won. That is, if your idea of winning is making an ass of yourself in public.

Teen frisked, arrested for texting at school

One blog observes that a 14-year-old girl in Wisconsin may be the first American ever arrested for texting.

At Wauwatosa East High School, police were summoned because the student was texting using her cell phone. She was promptly charged with disorderly conduct, and cops seized her phone - after frisking her.

What? No waterboarding?

A timely question: was the school too fucking lazy to deal with the matter itself instead of calling the cops? (Yes.)

In an era in which everyone is expected to have a cell phone, I don't see how the school can expect to have someone frisked and arrested for having one.

Now you know why I'm opposed to laws that rob parents of the right to sue schools, don't you?

(Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/14yearold_student_arrested_for_texting_in_0217.html)

A state law? Really???

I know I've been in this job too long when I start seeing stories like this. But I've got 30 years left until retirement, so...

Maryland State Del. Marvin Holmes Jr., a diehard DLCer, has decided he wants to follow the right-wing trail blazed by another DLCer, Nevada State Sen. Bob Coffin.

I told you in November that Coffin's pet cause is his effort to pass a state law requiring public schools to make uniforms mandatory. Now Holmes is attempting to do the same in Maryland.

Holmes has sponsored a bill to require school uniforms statewide - and make parents pay for the uniforms.

Does anyone not believe the purpose of this bill is to impose groupthink? One school district - which doesn't have uniforms but does have a rigid dress policy - already forces violators to don a shirt saying "Support the Dress Code", so is there any doubt?

Is there also any doubt that it was a good idea for me to switch to the Green Party?

If Holmes's bill passes, what about school districts that don't want uniforms?

And what about the sweatshop scandal the media bots continue to cover up?

America's future is on the line, and this is one issue that continues to spiral out of control.

(Source: http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=216956&format=html)

Right-wing social engineering hits Kentucky

Gee, ya think?

Kentuckians are facing a lot of important issues: stagflation, a crumbling health care system, unemployment, broken schools.

But what issue is at the top of the agenda of State Sen. Gary Tapp (R-Shelbyville)?

Tapp doesn't give a shit about any of those things. His priority is his new bill to ban anyone "cohabitating with a sexual partner outside of marriage" from being an adoptive or foster parent.

it seems to be borrowed from a new Arkansas law - but very few other states seem to have such a law. (The Arkansas version is already facing court challenges because it's unconstitutional.)

Kentucky already has a shortage of potential foster and adoptive parents, so this certainly isn't the time for such a law. No time is a good time for such a law.

Tapp's bill isn't gay-specific, but there's general agreement that the bill was motivated by the fact that Tapp hates gays. Even so, it applies against unmarried people in general - gay or not.

What gnawing need is there for this bill? None.

This isn't exactly the type of bill that should win a "write-your-own-law" contest. If I had to write a bill to submit to the Kentucky legislature, I'd write one to increase the minimum wage or opt Kentucky out of Real ID. Social engineering serves nobody except those who think everyone else's private lives is their business.

I think maybe the legend for this blog needs to add another icon, this one for crackpot social engineering.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20090217/NEWS0103/302170043)

Bush rule would force books to be tossed

Americans my age grew up on books like 'The Foot Book' and 'The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes'. But these and other classics are about to be consigned to the memory hole.

When someone on the Internet mentioned that a new government rule would force children's books to be burned under the guise of cleaning up lead, I thought this was just an urban legend. I thought it was like the time talk-shit radio made up the story about the farmer who got jailed by Bill Clinton's EPA because he accidentally killed a rat with his tractor.

But nope. It's true, it's true, it's all true!

Last year, the Bush regime issued a rule saying that all kids' books in libraries and elsewhere that were written before 1985 have to be tested for lead or discarded.

Yes, I know: Lead in paper? As late as 1985, no less???

Congress had intended to prevent lead-laden toys from being imported into the U.S. It had no intention of letting one of Bush's agencies make everyone throw away books, of all things.

Of course, the media has waited until now to raise a stink about Bush's rule - as if it just now passed. And we all know why the media waited.

No library has the money to test every book for lead. Everyone knows this. So - because of this rule - Cincinnati's public library system is now required to throw away 1,200,000 books or bar kids under 12 from the library.

When I learned this rule was actually real and was handed down by a Bush agency, it was immediately clear it had nothing to do with getting rid of lead.

It's about censorship.

Why 1985? That year was at the midpoint of the Reagan era, but it just followed the heyday of the type of novels for young people that conservatives have long attempted to ban. Kids' literature (and other media) after 1985 has often been cheesy and sheepish. It's also true that scholarship after then has been tainted by right-wing politics.

Does anyone still think this story isn't about censorship?

If I still worked at my local library, I would refuse to throw away a single book under this rule. I am not going to be a party to right-wing book-burning. If they want to fire me, I guess they'd have to be parties to Bush's censorship by themselves.

The American Library Association asked for libraries to be exempted from Bush's order - and last week, the ALA won a reprieve. But next year, this battle is going to have to be fought again - on the media's terms, of course.

The America we knew growing up is slipping into the memory hole, and the talk-shit radio droids don't want to place the blame where it belongs. The cutoff date for censoring books is only a year off from the one this story evokes.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090217/NEWS01/302170030/1055/NEWS)

DHS helped Maryland cops spy

The scandal surrounding the Maryland Police State Police's spying against antiwar and other activists just keeps getting worse and worse!

Now it turns out that Bush's Department of Homeland Suckyurity actually aided state police in their illegal spying program.

Well, I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

At first, it appeared that state police were classifying peaceful activists as terrorists and giving their names to federal authorities. But now it turns out that the opposite was also occurring: The DHS was spying on protesters and giving the information to state cops.

Now can we indict Michael Jerkoff?

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601131.html)

Disciplinarian Disaster Daniels

This story doesn't fit nicely into any of the categories covered in the key for this blog. One wonders if Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels isn't so out of control that he needs a category of his own.

Just prior to the Indiana Senate's approval of a Daniels-fueled bill to rob parents of the right to sue schools, Disaster Daniels gave his State of the State address, in which he outlined the rationale for his bill.

The embattled Republican governor declared, "It is time Indiana said to its children: sit down and hush up."

Damn. Talk about having a bad attitude towards kids!

This shows Daniels thinks of children as property, not as people. It speaks volumes about the mentality he harbors.

Personally, I have no problem with lecturing and punishing a serial bully who chooses to violate what was once a taboo against school harassment. But Daniels didn't say bullies; he said children. We all know he's not referring to serial harassers, because they're not the ones who are ever disciplined by schools anyway.

If a principal hits a kid with a wooden board, the kid's parents have every reason to sue. So if anyone needs to sit down and hush up, it's you, Disaster Daniels.

Missouri may require prescription for over-the-counter drug (sigh)

When a right-wing lawmaker in Georgia wanted his state to join Oregon in making over-the-counter pseudoephedrine drugs available by prescription only, it behooved me to point out that Georgia and Oregon aren't the ones who get to decide these things.

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act says what drugs are prescription, and what drugs aren't. Some right-wing state legislator doesn't get to decide that the laws don't apply.

Lawmakers in Missouri, however, haven't seemed to learn their lesson.

A bill pending in Missouri would do the same thing as in these other states: You'd have to visit a doctor just to be able to buy over-the-counter cold and allergy drugs.

The right-wing kook-a-loons are still out in full force, I see.

If the bill passes, it would increase waiting times and the costs for folks who only need a box of Sudafed. (It costs money to see a doctor, you know.) Like we expect the drug warriors to give a shit.

Emergency rooms are over capacity already. Think what it's going to be like when people start coming in just to get Sudafed prescriptions. It's already happened in Oregon.

(Source: http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1037275.html)

DMV sued for disobeying marijuana law

It's a shame we had to blackball the L.A. Times because of Andrew Malcolm's hit piece that falsely accused Obama of making light of McCain's hand injury, but again I'm suspending this penalty.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is now being sued because it doesn't even know what the state's laws are.

In California, medical marijuana is legal if you have a doctor's recommendation. Period. The DMV isn't allowed to suspend your driver's license because you use marijuana legally and do not drive under the influence of the herb.

So naturally, the DMV goes ahead and suspends their licenses anyway (even if the motorist has a perfect driving record).

This policy has become especially problematic in counties that think that the state law that permits medical marijuana doesn't apply there. One motorist was reportedly told that Glenn County doesn't "recognize those kinds of things." Recognize what things? Laws?

But now a lawsuit has been filed to force the DMV to stop its practice of investigating legal pot users.

Busted, DMV!

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dmv-medical-marijuana16-2009feb16,0,1613207.story)

The Conservative Fool Of The Day is...Marsha Blackburn!

Economic stimulus is a good thing. As long as there's no more massive bailouts for greedy banks, and if we can ensure the states don't throw stimulus money at abusive confinement centers, the stimulus package may be the nudge America needs to finally see some sustained economic improvement.

But far-right Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) sees life quite a bit differently from the way we in the reality-based community see it.

Last month, Blackburn appeared on Roger Hedgecock's right-wing radio talk-shit program. When discussing the stimulus, Blackburn said bicycle paths were an example of wasteful spending and that they don't create any public or economic benefit.

They don't???

OK, I get it, Marsha. In conservaland, life is supposed to be all about driving hulking gas guzzlers 30 miles out of town just to get groceries, and plowing down any transportation device that doesn't have a motor.

Blackburn's stance clearly wasn't about saving the taxpayers' money - because not building paths would waste money and gas in the long run. It was about letting the posh exurbs continue to lord it over everyone else. Just admit it, Marsha.

This isn't the only bizarre Blackburn statement lately. Regarding the new law that restores legal remedies against pay discrimination, Blackburn said it was "little more than an earmark for the trial bar."

Go look up 'earmark' in your 'Charlie Brown's 'Cyclopedia', Marsha.

With congressional districts specifically carved for right-wing ideologues like Blackburn, Congress will continue to be a source of fodder for this feature.

Icons, icons, and more good icons!

I've just added a new feature to this blog: icons to tell you what right-wing vice the story deals with.

I did this because it seems like we keep dealing with stories about the same embarrassing shit over and over again, and having to keep using the big banners puts people off. For old time's sake, I'll still trot out the larger banners every so often, but these small yellow icons are meant for repeated daily use.

At right, this blog now features a key to tell you what the icons stand for.

So peep and weep!

Child locked up for misbehaving at school

In Largo, Florida, a 7-year-old boy misbehaved at school. That's because he's, like, only 7.

In a free country, grade school children being unruly would not typically be a news story. But Florida isn't a free country.

The Sunshine State is the home of the much-abused Baker Act. Under this law, any person of any age can at any time be transported to a psychiatric ward almost on the say-so of any other person. If you snap your finger, point at someone, and say, "Lock 'em up," off they go.

And it's up to the facility to decide when to release the person. If some money-grubbing psych ward can get insurance money to keep somebody locked up, they will.

In the latest case, police came to the school and promptly transported the child to a mental ward - without his parents' permission. The boy spent the night alone at the facility before being released the following day.

Police say the youngster attacked a school administrator, but if that's what the school told the cops, I frankly do not believe the school. Not for a second. A lot of folks have been falsely accused of attacking school personnel, and they've been wrongly called liars when they denied it. Happens to everyone in that situation, it seems.

Local experts say that even if the boy did what the "official" story claims, the police taking him to a psych ward was still an abuse of the Baker Act, because he posed almost no real threat.

It turns out that on the very same day as this incident, the county's schools also had several other Baker Act lockups. Is the school system going to say with a straight face that there was a sudden pandemic of classroom misbehavior?

Welcome to the police state, folks.

(Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article975987.ece)

Repeal work-for-less laws? ('Pail Poll)

Well, you scored well on last week's 'Pail Poll: You voted 12 to 4 in favor of a federal law to prohibit corporal punishment in America's schools.

This week's 'Pail Poll deals with an important issue: so-called "right-to-work" laws. Or as I call them, right-to-scab laws or work-for-less laws.

Over 20 states hamstring workers with these laws. Work-for-less laws weaken unions and workers. These laws drive down wages, and they undermine workplace safety standards. These statutes accomplish this by forcing union workers to pay to represent nonunion employees.

Work-for-less laws didn't exist in America until the late 1940s, when the Taft-Hartley Act passed over President Truman's veto. This federal law authorized states to pass work-for-less.

This week's 'Pail Poll asks whether these provisions should be repealed.

And repeal them we should.

Indiana wants me

Indiana may want me - but PFC's Indianapolis branch and the Indy police sure don't.

Friday night, I was deployed to Indianapolis for a peaceful protest there against the Pathway Family Center cult - whose Cincinnati branch was already closed following protests by myself and many others.

I figured I'd probably have to go to Indy eventually, and since it's only a 100-mile drive, why not?

We got caught in a traffic jam on 82nd Street with my bladder fuller than I ever remember it being. But after I satisfyingly drained the main vein, we bipped over to PFC Indy and got to work! That branch of Pathway is deep in an industrial park in the northeast corner of the city.

The Indy protesters were actually a much more conservative bunch than our Cincinnati crew. But we share a common goal of closing Pathway once and for all.

This protest was designed to be short but powerful. And it started off fairly uneventful, though I recognized some of the program parents whose kids were moved to Indy from Cincinnati. One of them pulled up to us in her SUV, and she said, "You people are crazy!"

Another woman walked up to one of the protesters and accused him of dwelling on abuse that occurred 20 years ago. Actually, that protester has a son in the program now, who he's trying to have removed from the program.

One of the programmies emerged from the building and photographed us. Fine with me, because it's not like I had anything to hide.

I counted 18 demonstrators on our side, give or take a few. It's more than we had in Cincinnati, because there's a lot of people in Indy who aren't too pleased about Pathway's shenanigans.

We weren't out there for very long when - predictably - 2 police cars showed up. As we found out in Cincinnati, calling the cops on protesters is PFC's "policy." Despite the Cincinnati region's stodgy record, police near Cincinnati never gave us any real hassles though - a fact that infuriated the programmies to no end.

Indy was a different story. We saw the IMPD officers repeatedly entering the building, coming back out, returning, and reemerging with one of the program big shots. At some point, a third police car showed up.

The cops approached the protester who organized our event and lectured him about being on private property. This was true - but we had permission from the owner of the property we were on. Someone told me that the roads in the industrial park where we were are also private, but I'm about 90% sure this information is mistaken. (Even Street View has the roads.)

If we were about to be run off by the police, it was of little immediate consequence, because we were about to leave anyway. Our carload left while cops were still lecturing our organizer - but when we met for supper, we learned that police barred our organizer from ever being in that industrial park again.

He can't be on the roads, he can't go to the buildings, he can't be on the buildings' lawns even with owners' permission. Banned for life from the entire park. And yes, that's an Allowed Cloud!

I'm not going to say who our organizer was, because I don't want to keep dragging others into my commentaries here. I don't know if I should even be mentioning the police confrontation at all. Suffice it to say, however, I'm sure we would have all received the same order from the cops if they didn't think we had long ago bolted - because we were all doing the same thing during the protest.

How do you ban someone from a whole industrial park? Especially when the roads are probably public? At minimum, the roads are open for public access. And how do you ban someone after one of the buildings in the park actually gave permission to use their property?

Oh well. It just goes to show the type of totalitarian regime in Indianapolis these days. Trust me, if the cops had ordered me not to return to the industrial park, I would have found a way to someday return at all costs - and probably filmed my visit there like I did with NKU.

The government won't regulate teen "treatment" centers like Pathway - but they sure as hell regulate people who protest them.

This protest was another smashing success!

As we were in the car on the way home, I emitted a stinging, heartburn-fueled hiccup - my first in 21 years.

Indiana wants me. And I will go back there - until the PFC cult is cleansed from that state too.

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

Bubble Gum Plop (Bubble Gum Weekend)

I think I found a candidate for one of the most ridiculous children's toys ever to be marketed in this fine land. Yes, it's even sillier than the Domino Rally in which the plastic snaps kept breaking off of the dominoes.

And it's gum-related. You know, that stuff people bubble with.

The product in question is something called Barbie Bubble Gum Shop. Since this toy is almost certainly no longer being made, here's an absurd commersh for it from 1995:



What exactly was the point of this toy?

It appears to me as if all the Barbie Bubble Gum Shop did was crush pieces of bubble gum into festive shapes. But why buy a whole toy just to do that, when all you need to do is step on a piece of gum with a gym shoe?

Considering Barbie's popularity, I found very few substantive mentions of this toy on the Internet. I did find a detailed page describing the patent for the process by which the toy reshaped the wads of gum. I also noticed several folks were selling this "rare" toy - sometimes for less than $1.

Why couldn't people just stick with Tinkertoys?

Yet another agency investigates PFC

Pathway Family Center - which ran the now-defunct Kids Helping Kids cult in Cincinnati - is now under investigation by a second Indiana agency.

This time, the Division of Mental Health and Addiction is investigating the embattled program.

While we're on the subject, notice how when a Pathway "client" talks to the media, the reporter usually notes that it's one who Pathway "allowed" to talk. In other words, nobody can talk without Pathway's permission.

If that's not a telltale, automatic sign of a cult, what is?

(Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/i_team_8/agency_inspects_teen_rehab_center)

Boy bruised by school paddling

Since we're on the topic of anachronisms in our so-called public schools...

In Decatur County, Georgia, a 9-year-old boy was bruised extensively when a school administrator paddled him 3 times in the same day.

"The main issue is not the paddling," the superintendent said. Um, well. Actually it is. He admitted himself that there's always a possibility of bruising when you take a wooden board to a child's buttocks.

If a parent administered corporal punishment that bruised a child, they'd probably be arrested (as they should be). But school administrators are a special class whom no statute controls.

I'm waiting for the lawsuit. Of course, if the Indiana Senate had their way, students who are abused by school personnel in this manner would be out of luck.

(Source: http://www.thepostsearchlight.com/news/2009/feb/13/boy-bruised-paddling)

Another outside survey about...just guess

It infuriates me to no end that public school uniforms are even an issue in America in 2009. But if you're bored with me writing about them, you have to stand up and be counted so uniforms are consigned to the toilet where they belong.

Uniforms don't belong in public schools, period. I've already given you many reasons why - in addition to the fact that public school uniforms are unconstitutional under Tinker v. Des Moines and the First Amendment.

The latest survey for you to fill out comes to us from Susquehanna Township near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You can fill it out regardless of whether you live in that area:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=GDIFVUypmX4oRT5vh_2b_2bA_2bg_3d_3d

Meanwhile, Cleveland schools have just expanded their fascist uniform policy to cover high schools. If I didn't know better, I'd say a school district with that many students is just begging to be sued, but too many parents have been browbeaten.

This policy was implemented despite the fact that a survey of students showed strong disapproval.

If there aren't at least 10 lawsuits a year in Cleveland over this, then it kind of debunks the hallucinations about too many lawsuits against schools, huh?

What if?

What would your reaction be if you discovered I went to Indianapolis last night to protest against a cult?

Would you:

1) Jump for joy?

2) Crap your pants because of something I supposedly did wrong?

Remember, Indianapolis is only a 90-minute drive, so it's within striking distance. And the KHK cult's parent organization is still in business in that market. So did you really think I wouldn't still be on their case?

Think this question over, and maybe later I'll post some details.

Bush regime spied on credit card records

This story is from a couple weeks ago, but I had to put it on hold (which is what Bush forced many to do with their whole lives).

It turns out that - amidst revelations that Bush's illegal wiretap program spied on journalists and entire news agencies - this program also snooped at Americans' credit card records.

Bush's NSA collected all domestic communications, including phone and Internet. It combined phone data with credit card and bank records to build databases on American citizens. This program uses a highly questionable algorithm to paw through this data.

This despite the fact that regime officials claimed there was no surveillance of U.S. citizens.

I sure don't feel any safer, do you?

Get ready, folks. We're going to be hearing more outrageous stories about the spying scandal for years.

(Source: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/nsa-whistlebl-1.html)

Lawmaker doesn't know what state he's in

In presidential elections, Virginia may have finally improved its standing over West Virginia. But at every other level, West Virginia still leads.

On most major economic matters, West Virginia's laws remain among the more progressive in America. West Virginia's activist conservative contingent also remains weaker than in Virginia.

But West Virginia Del. John Overington - a Republican - wants to change all that.

Overington has a cockamamie plan that he says would completely revolutionize the Mountain State. He's proposing a 1-page bill that would substitute Virginia's entire legal code in place of West Virginia's - almost verbatim.

"We would just adopt Virginia's statutes," Overington bragged.

In doing so, West Virginia would gain an oppressive work-for-less law and anti-consumer tort "reform."

John Overington and other Republicans tried this same gambit several years ago. Needless to say, it didn't pass. But he didn't learn, I guess.

When Overington's bill fails again this time, he plans to offer a specific work-for-less bill - which isn't likely to pass either.

The irony is that West Virginia was carved from Virginia during the Civil War largely because of political differences with Virginia. You've got a hell of a way to unwin the war, Ovie.

Uh, John? You're in West Virginia. Kindly act like it.

(And yes, Overington's physical resemblance to Captain Kangaroo has been noted.)

Attending "wrong" school brings felony conviction

Only in conservaland can a parent be convicted of a felony for enrolling her son in the "wrong" school district.

Not long ago, a woman from Clayton County, Georgia - where the right-wing school system is so bad that it lost its accreditation - decided to move to her sister's home in neighboring Henry County so she could enroll her teenage son in school there.

The result? A felony conviction. Prosecutors charged the woman and her brother-in-law of making a false writing - and they were convicted. Each of the defendants received 5 years of probation, a $1,000 fine, and 100 hours of community service, and were ordered to pay the Henry County school system the cost of back tuition.

What false writing did they make? If the teen lived in Henry County, how is enrolling him in school there making a false writing?

Are we going to prosecute every family that relocates in the hopes of finding what they believe is a better school system? That's exactly what happened here.

Also, I want to know what the big deal is about trying to attend an out-of-district public school, when the schools in your own district are deplorable. There's a few valid concerns, like tax dollars being spent to educate out-of-town students, but these concerns are pretty minor compared to the ravages of being subjected to a lousy school system. After all, schools not only spend money on each student, but also receive money.

Probably everywhere in America, there is "the school." Almost anyone who wants a public education is stuck with the school in their own district, no matter how bad it is.

The conservative "solution" has been to try to throw money at private schools instead. But conservatives have generally been opposed to letting kids attend out-of-district public schools. They like a captive audience. (If you think conservatives haven't opposed it, my experiences prove otherwise.)

This wouldn't be an issue if school officials would straighten up their act. But I guess they figure it's easier to hold kids hostage.

These days, America's schools often mean no future for our young people.

(Source: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/henry/stories/2009/02/07/felony_henry_school.html)

Frivolous defamation suit dismissed

You can't make this stuff up, people.

Last year, some right-wing nobody in Minnesota posted a clip on YouTube defaming Barack Obama.

But when people dared to criticize this video, this individual filed a defamation suit against these critics. He even tried to force Democratic Underground to disclose the identity of one of its users.

After tying up the courts for a year, I can tell you where that case went: nowhere. A federal judge has now dismissed the suit.

It was more or less a SLAPP suit: It was designed to bully critics by making them spend money defending themselves in court. Winning the suit probably wasn't even the plaintiff's goal.

So everyone's happy now, I guess.

(Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3733619&mesg_id=3733619)

4 Tennessee lawmakers prove they're sore losers

The right-wing crybabies just won't give up! They're funny when they lose, aren't they?

Now 4 legislators in Tennessee have joined a lawsuit to try to force President Obama to turn over his birth certificate and other documents to prove his citizenship.

The lawmakers are Republican State Reps. Eric Swafford, Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada, and Frank Niceley. When I saw this story, I just knew Campfield would be one of them. Some of you may recall that Campfield was the infamous "blogging legislator" who couldn't spell or form a complete sentence - which necessitated his fans proofreading each of his entries before he posted them.

What a lost cause this lawsuit is. Even the Supreme Court has already rejected an almost identical case. Not only that, but Obama's birth certificate (complete with a raised seal) was found long ago. In addition, a brief birth announcement from a 1961 newspaper has also been found.

The sore losers have no case. But it's fun to watch them have a meltdown because the election didn't go their way and they can't do shit about it.

Federal law allows plaintiffs and their attorneys to be fined heavily for frivolous cases. It would serve the crybabies right.

To make matters even more potentially humiliating for the sore losers, Swafford (one of the 4 legislators who agreed to be a plaintiff) abused House stationery to announce his intent to join the suit.

It must be nice to live in Tennessee if the most important thing lawmakers have to worry about is a frivolous lawsuit that doesn't accomplish shit except to soothe conservatives' Post-Election Derangement Obsession Syndrome.

(Source: http://tennessean.com/article/20090213/NEWS02/902130368)

Plane hits town; dozens dead

Another commercial flight has crashed in a residential neighborhood.

Last night, a Continental Express flight crashed into the small town of Clarence Center, New York. The fiery crash killed everyone aboard - and it also sent a house bursting into flames, destroying it as well. A local emergency official said, "It could have easily taken the whole neighborhood."

This story underscores an issue I touched on years ago - but which remains unresolved. Airline safety has become an issue not just for passengers and flight crews but for folks in their own homes.

Flight paths go over residential neighborhoods that are heavily populated but don't have the clout to fight the potential hazards - especially against the powerful airline industry. This could have just as easily happened to your city, your neighborhood, or even your home.

This follows the American Airlines crash just months after 9/11 that destroyed much of a Queens neighborhood.

In addition to other safety measures, I think it's time to take another look at remapping flight paths to keep tragedies like these from being repeated.

Will it take another Queens or another Clarence Center for the industry to act?

(Source: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/02/13/commercial_plane_crashes_into_ny_hamlet_killing_49)