The case of the ruined apple ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

In the wake of my apartment being burglarized at least 3 times in the past 3 weeks, we need Sherlock Hemlock on the case pronto!

Sherlock Hemlock (the defective detective) was a fixture on 'Sesame Street' in the '70s. He was cool. He ought to be President of the World.

He solved major crimes and important mysteries. Like in this 1970 sketch, when Ernie found a ruined apple laying on the counter:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGUf-EoY4VU)

That apple was utterly, completely ru. It seems like nobody in their right mind would want to eat it after it fell through the bag and landed on the filthy ground (because Ernie was dumb enough to use a bag with a hole in it). But ol' Sherms wants the half-eaten, dirty apple as payment for his amazing services.

Egad!

Siegelman conviction vacated

Today - in a surprise ruling - the U.S. Supreme Court vacated part of the corruption case against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Siegelman, a Democrat, was convicted in 2006 in a case that later turned out to be politically motivated. The case was prosecuted by Republicans in the Bush regime who sought a return to power in that state.

When '60 Minutes' reported on the motivations of the case, the CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, blocked that episode. Then the station lied by claiming that the blockage was just technical difficulties.

Meanwhile, Karl Rove remains at large even after defying Congress's subpoenas regarding the case.

(Source: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0629/supreme-court-vacates-conviction-don-siegelman)

LetMaps shows evidence of forced relocations

Many of you know of the link between this blog and LeftMaps - and the latest LeftMaps offering exposes a very serious issue.

One of the big local and national stories throughout the '90s and '00s was the closure of public housing. Most residents were never asked whether they wanted their housing razed. It also elicited this very urgent question: Where were residents supposed to go?

Most people who supported eliminating this housing wanted them to go...away. That's where. Relocation plans were inadequate and were made with almost no input from residents.

In brief, these were forced relocations.

Often, these were relocations to the streets, to homeless shelters, and even to morgues. Hardly any new affordable housing has been built in the region in years.

LeftMaps shows evidence of this campaign: The maps' dull pink land use shading is used for urban prairies. Not all urban prairies marked on these maps result from loss of public housing. But the urban prairie on the west corner of Newport - north of 4th Street - did.

With the completion of our fifteenth map last night, it seems as if we can now add another urban prairie resulting from the forced relocation of the poor. When we read about the fact that almost the entire Cincinnati neighborhood of English Woods - which had consisted primarily of public housing - had been abandoned since the last time I was near it, we drew a LeftMap of this small neighborhood.

The pinkish shading coincides with the site of this pogrom.

Ironically, the housing project was demolished despite Cincinnati City Council's opposition to this relocation.

To view the LeftMaps of English Woods and other local neighborhoods, click here:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

Facebook deletes anti-BP page

Facebook. It's where dreams go to die.

Facebook allows a group that tries to solicit President Obama's assassination. It also allows a group that openly endorses discrimination against the poor - including forced sterilization. But when anybody dares to criticize BP, they can kiss their group beddy-bye.

In the wake of the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, somebody on Facebook started a Boycott BP fan page, which attracted 800,000 fans - making it one of the most popular fan sites on Facebook. Folks used this site to share clips and photos of the spill.

You can argue over whether boycotting BP would be effective. Some have argued that a boycott would just lead the greedy oil giant to declare bankruptcy and shirk its responsibility for cleaning up the mess it helped make. But the real issue here is Facebook's reaction to this fan site.

Facebook - fueled by its own adoration of BP - deleted the Boycott BP page. This deletion was in effect a media blackout of BP's pants-pissing.

All this from the social networking site that provides every excuse in the book to allow the Obama assassination page to go unchallenged. They allow that, but they won't allow a Boycott BP page.

This is more proof that America has become a corporation, folks.

There's a happy ending though. After a small article appeared on CNN's website about Facebook's attempts to muzzle criticism of BP, Facebook has restored the Boycott BP page.

(Source: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-466703)

Death exposes Republicans' racial hypocrisy

The death of a Democratic political figure brings out the worst in the Republican Right.

Following Robert Byrd's death, the right-wing blogosphere has shown glee in pointing out that Byrd was racist...70 years ago.

Um, that was 70 years ago. Seventy. Despite Byrd's racism as a young man, he was a reliable backer of civil rights measures in recent years.

Byrd's later civil rights support doesn't justify his earlier racism. There's absolutely no excuse for the bigotry he once displayed. But at least the change in his views shows that he learned from his mistakes and turned over a new leaf - something the Republican intelligentsia won't do. The GOP is the home of Rand Paul, who opposes much of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It's also the home of Jim Talent and other politicos who sport recent links to the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens.

And the Republican Party is the home of Trent Lott, who said only a few years ago that America would have been better off if Strom Thurmond had won his presidential bid, which was built on a racist platform. The GOP is also the home of the bulk of the Tea Party movement, which is fueled largely by racism.

Republicans attack a Democrat for being racist 70 years ago, but they give a free pass to the continuing racism of their own party.

My writings have made much of the Democrats' expanding mimicry of right-wing Republican stances. In fact, I switched to the Green Party because of it. But make no mistake: These days, the GOP has nothing short of a monopoly on racism. I can't think of a single major Democratic politician today who currently displays the brand of raw racism that now pervades the GOP.

Sen. Robert Byrd dies

The longest-serving U.S. senator died this morning at the age of 92.

Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, served longer than any other senator in history. He was in his ninth 6-year term.

Details here:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/06/sen-robert-byrd-dies/1

TSA picks on little girls

The TSA's no-fly list is like a Bushist Bible. The forces of doom rely on this list as gospel truth. But instead of targeting terrorists, the no-fly list has been used to disrupt the travels of little girls, college students, monks, journalists, and elderly grandmothers.

Now the ravages of the no-fly list have struck again. This time, a 6-year-old girl from Ohio has turned up on the so-called terrorist watch list.

Worse, the Department of Homeland Security refused to remove her from the list when her dad contacted them about it.

It gets worse still! A recent change by the TSA expanded the no-fly list to cover not just international flights but domestic flights too. All this after the no-fly list was supposed to be abolished altogether with Bush's departure.

The fact that nobody even took the time to remove a 6-year-old's name from the list proves what a sick joke the list is. And it's going to keep getting worse as long as the problem goes ignored.

(Source: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/ohio-6-year-oid-alyssa-thomas-turns-up-on-terror-watch-list/19532082)

Jindal holds up National Guard deployment and lies about it

Right-wing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has a penchant for making things up out of thin air, and lately this habit has continued.

Jindal keeps blaming President Obama for BP's oil spill - accusing the President of not providing the resources to clean it up. However, President Obama has authorized 6,000 National Guard troops to fight BP's oil spill. But Jindal opted to activate only about one-sixth of them - letting the rest go unused.

In other words, Obama provided the resources, but Jindal just isn't using them. Jindal is holding up the National Guard so he can make political hay.

Jindal also said that he himself had requested the 6,000 troops but that the Coast Guard had denied his request. But Jindal's claim was an outright lie. The Coast Guard says it never denied any such request from any governor regarding this spill.

However, Jindal did use National Guard troops to stop CNN from covering the spill.

Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal supports more offshore oil drilling. Some folks never learn, I guess.

(Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/24/eveningnews/main6615414.shtml)

LeftMaps goes wild over Wilder

The Far Right plumb hates LeftMaps - the cartography business I run.

For this project, we produce detailed street maps of Cincinnati area neighborhoods. They're designed to show the best bicycling routes, and they're also good for identifying abandoned streets. Recently, we inaugurated a new feature that lets LeftMaps live up to its name: These maps now have a special symbol for political shrines around town, such as the infamous arrest at the Steely Dan Library, as shown on the southern Highland Heights map.

Now LeftMaps has finished its fourteenth map: the northern half of Wilder, Kentucky. This heavily industrial part of town offers much to local cyclists. LeftMaps plans to split Wilder in two, because of its geographic breadth.

So - if you opt to peep these fine maps - point your pooper here:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

BP starts its own country?

While Joe Barton, Rand Paul, and their media fellow travelers demand that everybody get down on their knees and apologize to BP for daring to criticize it over the oil spill, BP has found a new way to circumvent rules against offshore drilling.

To avoid the moratorium on drilling off the delicate coast of Alaska, BP is building its own artificial island. By doing so, BP can now place an oil well there and claim that it's not really offshore - thus making it legal.

The island consists of nothing but 31 acres of gravel. The rig - which will drill 2 miles under the sea - threatens Alaska's wildlife reserve. It's also the longest extended reach oil drilling ever attempted, and it pushes technology past its known limits. Observers call the effort very unsafe.

BP has named its new landmass Liberty Island - because it thinks the big, mean government is so oppressive.

If BP can build its own island for offshore drilling, doesn't that mean I can also build an island in the ocean and start my own country? If I wasn't a landlocked Midwesterner, it would be no more farfetched than the shit BP pulls.

BP has already committed felonies in the Gulf of Mexico leak, and BP's execs need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

(Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-liberty-artificial-island-alaska-2010-6)

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Tim Makes A Spectacle Of Himself"

As much as I admire Oscar the Grouch, sometimes I see the beauty in things that other people - least of all right-wingers - don't.

Take the expression "to make a spectacle of oneself", for instance. My 5th grade teacher was the first person I ever heard using this idiom, and when I heard her say it, I started snickering because of the image it created.

Some on the extreme right might not appreciate the humor in this expression. Thankfully, I'm not of their political guild, so I can appreciate the exquisiteness of those words.

The latest episode of 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' delves into those words' beauty:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuEwJFi_-g0)

Washington Times runs doctored photo of Elena Kagan

Never trust a convicted tax cheat like Sun Myung Moon to run a daily newspaper.

Moon's embattled Washington Times has once again proven it has absolutely zero journalistic standards - this time by publishing a doctored photo of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

The photo shows Kagan wearing a turban and accompanies a far-right op-ed that accuses Kagan of trying to introduce Shariah law to the United States. The accusation appears to be groundless. It's also unclear what the link is between Shariah law and turbans.

If anybody is trying to turn America into a theocratic state, it's conservatives who comprise the dwindling readership base of the Washington Times. Of particular note is Sun Myung Moon himself, who complains publicly that American-style democratic republics are Satanic.

Then again, it's not like many people even saw the doctored photo. If you want lots of people to see something, the Washington Times isn't where you want to put it.

(Source: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201006230017)

Cookie Monster interrogates Prairie Dawn ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

'Sesame Street' is cool.

And funny.

There was a sketch on the ol' Ses in which Cookie Monster had questions, and Prairie Dawn had answers.

Cookie Monster's question was, "Do people pop?" And Prairie Dawn's answer was, "If poo."

Just joking! Actually, the questions were all cookie-related:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul9MtMiIOnE)

This segment begs a cookie-themed question from us: Has Cookie Monster ever actually eaten a cookie? It seems like all he does when he tries shoveling cookies into his cavernous mouth is crush the cookies and let them fly all over the counter and the floor. Thereby wasting them. Kind of like how Republicans waste things.

Also, notice that oatmeal cookies are only the monster's second-favorite kind. That's because hemp cookies must be his favorite.

Cookie Monster. A king among men.

Activist judge guts drilling moratorium

After the BP oil spill began, the Obama administration issued a 6-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

But even this modest move is rendered a pile of dust by America's right-wing activist federal judges - who have become more or less a monarchy in black robes.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman (a Reagan appointee) has now gutted the drilling moratorium. Feldman's excuse for overturning a valid presidential order is that he thinks there's no evidence that offshore oil drilling poses any threat to anything.

Seriously. He said that.

The worst oil spill in history won't be plugged until Christmas or later, and some right-wing judge is standing there saying offshore drilling is perfectly safe. You can't make this stuff up, people. This reminds me of how all during the recession, the media kept saying how great the economy was.

(Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/22/gulf.oil.disaster/?hpt=T1)

Kentucky Democratic head honcho is a big GOP donor

By all accounts, Democrats in Kentucky should have their best year in recent memory - because the Republicans have giant targets painted squarely on their derrieres. But Kentucky Democrats are known for seizing defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Kentucky Democratic Party has now appointed Daniel Logsdon as its chairman and executive director. Problem is, Logsdon donates generously to Republican campaigns.

FEC records show that Logsdon gave $500 to Sen. Mitch McConnell's 2008 reelection bid. He also gave $1,000 to the failed 2007 reelection campaign of right-wing then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher. And he gave $250 to the campaign of GOP Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer.

Maybe if McConnell and Fletcher were worth a damn, Logsdon might be able to justify these donations. But the Republicans were a hopelessly tainted brand by 2007, and these 2 politicians exemplified the party's worst. Fletcher had already been indicted by the time Logsdon donated to him.

What's astounding is that Democratic "leaders" try to find excuses for Logsdon's GOP support.

This matter is already harming Democratic support in Kentucky. Some folks have warned that they will not support Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's reelection all because of this.

Just add another entry to the "Now you know why I switched to the Greens" file, folks.

(Source: http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2010/06/21/new-democratic-party-leader-donated-to-mcconnell-and-fletcher)

Fox News called GOP "town square"

Interesting article from Media Matters, which describes how even the AP reported that Fox News is a "town square" for Republicans:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201005040044

Fox's roster reads almost like a 'Who's Who' of GOP presidential hopefuls. The network now employs Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and even Rick Santorum.

Santorum is the funniest. Man, just think how many states the Republicans would lose if he was their nominee! That guy is so screwed.

Rick Santorum had more to do with the launch of the still-active war on the poor than almost anybody else. He actually ran on this platform in his 1994 Senate bid. Does he honestly expect the American public - which now has more access to Internet news sites than ever - to knowingly vote against its own economic interests in 2012?

One can almost hear the former Pennsylvania senator saying, "I hate you, your family, and your community, and I think they should be wards of the state. Now will you please vote for me?"

How positively stupid is this man?

Rand Paul's foot-in-mouth disease worsens

I can almost hear a collective "Screw you, Rand!" emerging from the beleaguered public.

During a campaign appearance on WVLK-AM in Lexington yesterday, Rand Paul - much-ridiculed GOP Senate candidate in Kentucky - demanded that unemployed Americans can just solve their plight by simply going back to work. He told long-besieged America to just accept jobs that are far shittier and pay far less than the ones they had.

Um, Rand, it doesn't work that way.

If you invest years of your life in a career, that should earn you a chance for advancement - not consign you to a worse job.

Besides, companies are now publicly declaring their refusal to even hire the unemployed. Hey Rand, why don't you tell these firms to straighten out their hiring practices?

I'm all for hard work. But I have a saying: A lousy job is better than no job, but no job is better than a shitty job. Rand Paul's America would be one where people (even college grads) are forced to accept bad, unsafe workplace conditions.

This proves how out of touch the candidate is. Someone on another website said this reminded them of a police lieutenant's remark during a pogrom against the homeless in San Luis Obispo, California. The cop said of the homeless, "Why don't they just buy a house like everyone else?" Everybody who heard this remark was floored at the lieutenant's ignorance.

Hey, here's an idea: Maybe all the unemployed can just create their own boards to certify themselves at something - sort of like some people we know, huh, Rand?

(Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/18/96187/rand-paul-to-jobless.html)

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "ATM's Are Not Magic"

Are ATM's magic?

Michele Bachmann seems to think they are.

She accused the Obama administration of turning the BP escrow fund into an automated teller machine. Uh, Michele, isn't that a good thing? After all, ATM's only give you a limited supply of money. You can't get more money from an ATM than your bank account has. Or at least I can't. Then again, I've never tried to get more money than my account has, so who knows?

In our latest 'Lawn Chair Quarterback', the fallacy of ATM's being private mints is explored:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoQKRgCDFJg)

Free checking checks out?

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday in depth about the looming demise of free checking at America's banks.

The article reports that free checking was almost universal throughout the land until the Reagan regime deregulated big banks in the early '80s, allowing banks to impose a fee for checking accounts. Later, however, many of these same banks saw dollar signs from low-income customers and decided to drop these fees in an effort to lure them in.

But now these confiscatory fees are roaring back with a vengeance, thanks to the almost total lack of banking regulations. This is expected to mean the end of free checking altogether.

Nothing like having to pay a fee to use your own money, huh?

Sillier yet, some banks apply these fees only to customers that have less than a certain amount in their account - so really it's yet another right-wing assault on the poor.

Congress needs to reinstate regulations of bank fees. If Congress doesn't act, the states must act with all deliberate gusto.

For most Americans, conservaworld means a life of Allowed Clouds. You can't do this, you can't do that. Unless of course you're a big corporation like a bank, which have almost no controls at all.

How long are our lawmakers going to sit back and stink?

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575311093932315142.html)

Herry rigs carnival game ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Remember Herry, the furry, blue monster on 'Sesame Street' with a voice like Patty and Selma of 'The Simpsons'?

That Herry must be a big Republican: Much as the GOP rigs elections, Herry rigs carnival games.

In this 1971 sketch, Herry even scammed our ol' pal Ernie:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja4sTQW0qdY)

Ernie should have known Herry's game was a rip-off, because the prizes are nowhere in sight.

Also, notice at the end of the skit that Ernie appears to start to pick his nose. I guess he figures he's entitled to pick his nose in public after being scammed so unjustly. It's kind of like the tradition of throwing garbage in the street on election night.

Bipartisan power grab of the day

Eat your heart out, Patriot Act.

Now there's a bipartisan bill in Congress that would revoke federal highway funds from states that don't raise the age to receive a full driver's license to 18. This despite the fact that the rate of serious traffic accidents among younger motorists has actually increased as some states have already started raising the driving age - which indicates that raising the driving age has been ineffective.

Naturally, insurance lobbyists are behind the federal bill.

What's next? A federal law to require year-round school?

Honestly, folks, if anybody seriously thinks this bill will save any lives at all, they're living in dreamtime (as Daryl Hall would say).

Meanwhile, BP goes uncontrolled.

While we're on the subject of congressional confrontations...

Why hasn't the media covered the incident last fall in which John Cornyn (who advocates assassinating judges he disagrees with) slugged a reporter?

Congressman fights back...then backs down

Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-North Carolina) said, "I've been spat at, pushed on, and threatened before, and that's no excuse for ... not walking on by."

Actually, it is an excuse - and a damn good one. If somebody spits on you or threatens you, you have every right to deck them square in the teeth.

"Walking on by" is why it took the Democrats 12 whole years to regain Congress.

And nice try, CNN, for relying on 2 incomplete Breitbart videos to try to fix another election.

New Facebook site: expel the fascists!

Since we're in a people-faced mood today, it's time to introduce another Facebook fan site that we know you're gonna love!

While the right-wing media portrays 30-year-old men who start fights with public officials as just innocent "kids", much of Congress supports abusing kids by placing them in confinement programs.

But now there's a new fan site on Facebook designed to counter this fascism:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Expel-members-of-Congress-who-support-abusive-teen-programs/131624260189645

Why expel these legislators from Congress? All members of Congress must take an oath or affirmation to uphold the Constitution. The teen confinement industry is built on violating constitutional rights. To support "the industry" is to violate one's oath of office.

The Constitution allows each house of Congress to expel members if two-thirds of lawmakers vote to do so. And members have been expelled - 20 times before.

Make no mistake: We are in a war against evil, as we have been for many years. And now we have the Evil Empire in our crosshairs. The lawmakers we plan to have expelled aren't simply misguided dummies. They are bad people. Period. And it's time we get that straight.

The first congressmoron we're targeting for expulsion is Louisiana's Rep. John Fleming (a Tea Party favorite), because he may be Congress's most arrogant defender of "the industry." His website - which was full of asinine items with names like "Every Child is a Potential Drug Addict" - featured links to confirmedly abusive programs.

It's actually easier to try to have some of these legislators expelled than it is to defeat them in an election, because they're so overfunded. At minimum, this expulsion drive probably does more to draw attention to the problem than a plain old election does.

Kentucky GOP official charged with vote buying

"But but but but the Republicans winned Kentucky fair and square lololol!"

Let's play another game of "guess the party affiliation", since the Cincinnati Enquirer won't list it. Here's a hint: He's a Republican.

In Monroe County, Kentucky, Judge-Executive Wilbur Graves and 9 others are accused of buying votes in the 2006 elections. (Judge-executive is the top county office in Kentucky.) Graves has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Of course, Rethug-a-lug vote buying goes on all across Kentucky in election after election. Usually, however, they don't get caught. We've seen the results of that.

Progressive points of interest mapped!

As the economic needs of yours truly grow deeper, LeftMaps has hired me to develop a whole new wrinkle in progressive populist mapping!

Since LeftMaps was founded in 2008, its name has thumped hollow. This set of Cincinnati area neighborhood maps has been great for finding bicycling routes and abandoned streets, but it hasn't lived up to what the name suggests.

But that's starting to change!

LeftMaps is now providing something unique for this region: progressive populist points of interest!

I plan to mark buildings and historic shrines of local progressive interest. These items will be labeled using the Lucida Sans font - NOT the ordinary Arial that otherwise peoples these maps.

Shrines are to be marked using a symbol based on Kentucky historical markers. Unfortunately, I only have one shrine mapped so far, as they are relatively few and far between. On the map of southern Highland Heights, the Steely Dan Library is labeled for the celebrated Last Word arrest. This libe has become a political shrine of sorts.

Another shrine like this is in Devou Park where the Bush rally went awry. But I haven't yet completed that map. Still another such shrine is the site of the now-defunct Kids Helping Kids cult, which faced a barrage of roadside protests a couple years back. But I haven't even started that map yet.

In addition to these shrines of recent political history, certain buildings will be labeled in italicized Lucida Sans for their current practical or educational interest. For instance, I believe the Freedom Center should receive this special font, simply because of its subject matter. However, I don't have that map finished yet either, and I haven't relabeled this building yet.

Want to see how our map of southside Highland Heights handles the Steely Dan Library? Point your pooper here:

http://bunkerblast.info/maps

Idiot Bloomberg defends BP

Right-wing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ought to have a few beers with Rand Paul sometime. They'd really hit it off, seeing how they both like BP so much. Then again, beer is too plebian for their aristocratic tastes.

Now billionaire Bloomberg has joined the embattled Kentucky politico in demanding that critics take it easy on poor, oppressed BP.

This guy has absolutely no sense of how most of America lives. None whatsoever.

This after Loonberg also defended banks that refused to reveal which execs got bonuses from bailout money and after he whined that CEO's of drug companies "don't make a lot of money" and should be held blameless in the health care debate. He even said Con Ed "deserves a thanks from this city" following its series of power outages.

(Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/11/national/main6572621.shtml)

Vacation, 'Pail style

For the next month, this blog is in vacay mode!

I'll still blog here, but only when I feel like it. Why? Because today, somebody pickpocketed $120 from me. So I'm just not going to do any real work for the next month.

I don't work for free, and I damn sure don't work to support some thief who doesn't want to make an honest living and chooses to steal instead. This is the second time within the past year or so that a large sum of cash was stolen from me (not counting Google's theft of my ad revenues), and I'm tired of having to start over every time this happens.

My money getting stolen means I don't work. Fair is fair.

The obvious question is this: How am I supposed to support myself for the next month if I don't work? Well, I can't support myself by working, because my money just gets stolen, so why does this make any difference? Book sales and LeftMaps will support me - or they better.

Vacation begins now!

School district bars girl from using sign language

School officials in Branchburg, New Jersey, need a nosebleed really bad.

This story is from April, but it's been almost completely covered up until now. Branchburg school officials have singled out a severely hearing-impaired girl by telling her she's not allowed to use sign language on the school bus. They've threatened the 12-year-old with suspension if she disobeys.

Sign language was the only way she had to communicate on the noisy bus.

The school system's excuse? They said sign language is a safety hazard. Seriously, they said that.

Fuck you, school officials.

Is the school district going to bar students who are not hearing-impaired from talking? If not, then school officials can look forward to a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act (the law Rand Paul wants to repeal). I hope the school is sued for everything it's worth and then some.

But if I was the parent of a child who was being discriminated against like this, I wouldn't wait for the lawsuit. I'd march right down to the school and make them pay.

It turns out the girl's hearing loss developed when a classmate shot a bottle rocket too close to her ear. The girl's parents already sued the Branchburg schools over that occurrence. One almost suspects that the school is retaliating over this lawsuit. America's schools are full of bitter, vindictive administrators, so who'd be surprised? Stuff like this happened to me, and it happened to lots of folks.

Mitch Daniels wants to make it impossible to sue a school, but he won't do anything about schools' retaliatory behavior.

Lawn Chair Quarterback: "Studmuffin"

This week's episode of 'Lawn Chair Quarterback' deals with one facet of the extreme right: the teen confinement industry.

"The industry" is made up of abusive centers ranging from phony "rehabs" to psychiatric gulags to goofy wilderness boot camps to checkbook clergy boarding schools. This 'LCQ' installment examines the attitudes the guards had towards various television shows:



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd5XGfqukeA)