"Real" parents

According to the Stephen Bennett, the SpokesMAN for Concerned Women for America:

What is extremely troubling is the official White House caption that appears underneath the photo on the official White House website:

"... His parents are the Cheney's daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. White House photo by David Bohrer."

Since when have two homosexual women been able to naturally procreate?

Fact is Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter - in one way or another - received a male's sperm. She is the biological mother, parent number one, and some man, somewhere out there, is Samuel David's real biological father, parent number two.

Unlike the official White House photo caption, a man and a woman, a Daddy and a Mommy, are Samuel David Cheney's REAL biological parents.

Then who is Heather Poe?

Heather Poe is Mary Cheney's live-in lesbian lover. She may act like a parent, she may treat the baby as a parent, she may love this baby with all of her heart, but in this reality we all live in, Heather Poe is NOT the baby's real parent. She has NO biological connection to the child whatsoever. Some man, the baby's real Daddy, is the child's other REAL parent....

While this little innocent child Samuel David Cheney deserves every fighting chance at life, the sins of two women, Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, have deliberately denied the Vice President's grandson one of the most basic human rights of all: the right to a Daddy and a Mommy.

Where to start? What is it with these people's fascination with other peoples families? Go back and read that again ""...She may act like a parent..." yes, then that makes her the parent. See, it's acting like a parent that MAKES you the parent. It is not inserting your holy semen into another person's vagina that makes you a parent. And what about adopted families everywhere? Are these people not REAL parents? They're not biologically connected to a child. Does this make them FAKE families?

And what's the "Right to a Mommy and a Daddy" bullshit? If these busybodies really believed this, they'd do everything in their power to keep other people's Mommy's and Daddy's from dying from IEDs, improperly loaded tractor trailers, poisoned foreign food, PG&E refuse in their water, etc.

Children don't have a right to a Mommy and a Daddy. They have a right to be loved. By one parent, by two, or more. By grandparents. By caregivers. By teachers. By the government. By us all.

Eejits.

Not even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs can keep track of the losses in Iraq and 9/11

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff dramatically underestimated the number of deaths of US Armed Service-members in the Iraq War. The gaffe came as General Peter Pace appeared on CBS News Monday morning to discuss Memorial Day.

"When you take a look at the life of a nation and all that's required to keep us free, we had more than 3,000 Americans murdered on 11 September, 2001. The number who have died, sacrificed themselves since that time is approaching that number," General Pace told CBS Early Show's Harry Smith. "And we should pay great respect and thanks to them for allowing us to live free."

General Pace's remarks were erroneous on several counts.

First, the website Iraq Coalition Casualty Count puts the number of US service-members killed since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003 at 3,455. The Pentagon only lists it as 3,441, with 14 deaths not yet being confirmed by the Pentagon. With either number, the total number of fatalities long passed the count of victims who died on 9/11.

Second, the General overestimated the number of deaths on 9/11. The website September 11, 2001 Victims states that 2,996 died in the attacks, rather than "more than 3,000 murdered" that Pace cites.

Finally, many of the victims who died on 9/11 were not American citizens. The aforementioned website lists 209 of the victims as foreign nationals.

Jeebus, General buy a freakin' clue. Don't you even have a handle on this basic fact that most Americans are familiar with just by virtue of listening to the news? And you with all your war credentials and security clearances can't get this right? As of today I count it 3455 in Iraq, (not counting about 900 contractors) and 2996 on 9/11 (even counting the 10% non-American citizens).

If this is the level of competence at the highest level of the military, it's no wonder we are stuck in the hellhole 4 years after Commander Codpiece strolled onto the deck of the aircraft carrier to the backdrop "Mission Accomplished." His mission (enriching war profiteers and oilmen) may have been accomplished. America's mission (to be all that she can be as laid out in the Constitution) is still a work in progress.

Link

Changing Definitions

McDonalds is using its considerable profits to throw its weight around and get the definition of words in common usage changed. How very appropriate in the Bush-Blair era that McDonalds and a group of wealthy Brits are lobbying the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to change the definition of "McJob" from "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector" to "to reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding and offers genuine opportunities for career progression."

What a joke these people are. They think money can buy everything. Even the definition of words. Orwell would have been pleased: War is Peace. Link

The thing is, I don't understand why people don't use this power of "common usage" more. I never refer to the place where the White Sox play as anything other than Comiskey Park. I refer to the place where the Seahawks play as Seahawk Stadium. Why most people feel compelled to act as unpaid advertisers for Cellular One or Qwest is beyond me. This is one place where people really do have power. Corporations can call stadiums (stadia?) whatever they want in legal and marketing materials, but if everyone else in the city would call them by their team or historical names, it wouldn't do the bloated corporate giants much good. Americans can be too unthinking about using the powers that we have in our everyday speech.

Anyway, back to the "McJob", I doubt the definition of "McJob" dissuades many from accepting what in most cases on jobs of necessity rather than jobs of "genuine opportunities for career progression." I can't imagine an applicant running home, checking the OED and calling Mickey D's back and saying "on second thought, no, I can't accept the job because of the derogatory connotations associated with its definition."

But apparently, some are under the impression the money can buy the very definition of life. What's next, is the definition of "genius" up for bid? Would Bush like to submit his version of the definition?

Would you shoot an Iraqi from the comfort of your den?

This is a a phenomenal concept. Allowing complete strangers to anonymously shoot at you just because they're mean-spirited individuals and can do so. That's what one Iraqi man is doing and the questions that his experiment begs are thought-provoking. First there's the perennial "are people fundamentally good, or fundamentally bad?" Second, is your morality what you live by only because of fear of punishment now or in the hereafter? Third, "why would someone subject themselves to being hurt even if the end was better understanding of our fellow humans?"

The Iraqi-born (Wafaa Bilaal is) 19 days into a grueling monthlong (art installation) project that sounds, at first blush, suspiciously gimmicky: until June 4, Bilal is living his entire life inside one room at Chicago's Flatfile Gallery, which anyone with a Web connection can log on to watch. Oh, and to shoot him. With "Domestic Tension" Bilal has turned his makeshift living quarters into a 24-hour-a-day war zone. Viewers can peep in on him anonymously at any time, and even chat with him online. On the installation's Web site, his audience can fight for control of the camera and pan it around the room. Since the camera is affixed to a rifle-sized paintball gun-and the Web site has a button that allows viewers to fire the gun-they also have the opportunity to shoot at him, or anything else in his room. Which they have done an astonishing 40,000 times in the project's first two and a half weeks.

Personally, I can't imagine shooting at someone - even if it is just paint balls and even if it's through the computer and even if it's totally anonymous. Would on earth would I try to increase the misery on the planet even for a second? I'd rather be one of the people who're anonymously bringing him food or wresting the rifle away just to hold it for a second and NOT shoot. I woudn't shoot at Wafaa not because of getting in trouble here (because he's set himself up so presumably couldn't press charges) and not because of some punishment in the hereafter, but just because it's not the right thing to do.

Newsweek/MSNBC

Giving women choices = Controlling Women (to lunatics that is)

Unruh is beyond insane. How can anyone take anything this haridan says seriously. Watch the other commentator just sort of roll her eyes and try to get past the inanity of calling birth control pills "pesticides". Wouldn't that be equating babies to unwanted insects? Aren't Leslie Unruh and her "pro-life" (until birth) crowd the ones who want the babies? So why call them pests? And if Leslie is so interested in babies, how does she feel about mandatory pre and post-natal healthcare paid by the government?

This crowd is ridiculous from so many angles. It figures that Fox will give them a megaphone though since only Fox's audience would be gullible enough to believe this bull-crappy.

YouTube

Morford rips the Hummer

Morford on bloat

The late Rev. Jerry Falwell? He was exactly like a Hummer H2. Oh yes he was. Bloated, arrogant, offensive to millions and deeply wrong in a thousand ways and yet blindly worshipped by a shockingly large and happily uninformed throng of devout minions for no other reason than he was, well, bloated, arrogant and wrong....

No, this minor offering of joy is for the imminent and forthcoming death of the Hummer H2 itself. Oh my yes.

See, sales of this particular model -- perhaps the most idiotic consumer vehicle ever produced in your lifetime -- are down. Way down, a full 27 percent from last year alone, which was already way down 22 percent from the year prior, with sales continuing to plummet as fast as gas prices are rising and Bush's war is raging and Americans are generally snapping awake to the fact that dumping well over 100 bucks to fill the tank of this monster abomination every other day might not be the best way to waste their kid's college fund....

Fast forward to right now. The Republican party is grumbling on the sidelines, kicked to the curb by their own impressive corruption and warmongering and excessive kowtowing to the extreme religious right. America feels slightly more wary, awake, a tad more environmentally aware, slightly more in touch with something resembling its soul. And the H2 -- essentially the emblem of all that is/was wrong with Bush's America -- the bloat, the recklessness, the false machismo and unchecked waste and bigger-is-better senselessness -- might very well end production entirely. Something, at long last, seem to be changing for the better.

A glimmer of hope in an otherwise apathetic time.

Worst Buy

Nice going Best Buy. Lure customers in with prices on the web. Then when they're in the store, say "no, those prices aren't valid anymore, see look, here's our web page." Problem is the in-store web page was not the same as the www web page. AP

Connecticut's attorney general announced a lawsuit Thursday against Best Buy Co. Inc., accusing the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer of deceiving customers with in-store computer kiosks and overcharging them.

The lawsuit accuses Best Buy of denying deals found at the company's Web site, http://www.BestBuy.com. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said store employees charged customers higher prices found on a lookalike internal Web site.

"Best Buy gave consumers the worst deal — a bait-and-switch-plus scheme luring consumers into stores with promised online discounts, only to charge higher in-store prices," Blumenthal said...

Blumenthal opened an investigation into the Richfield, Minn.-based retailer in March. About 20 customers complained to his office after a columnist for The Hartford Courant reported the experience of one Connecticut man who found a laptop computer advertised for $729.99 on BestBuy.com, then went to a Best Buy store where an employee who seemed to check the same Web site told him the price was actually $879.99.

"There may be people who are entirely unaware they may have been overcharged," Blumenthal said.

Previously, the company confirmed that store employees have access to an internal Web site that looks nearly identical to the public BestBuy.com site, but the company's policy is always to offer customers the lowest quoted price unless it's specifically identified as a deal available only to online shoppers.

Good on the Conn AG Blumenthal. Can you imagine if we actually had hordes of government officials making sure that companies didn't get away with this crap. But we mostly seem to have money for making peoples lives miserable (Dept of Defense) rather than for making them easier and more pleasant (FDA, EPA, USDA, Justice).

We don't negotiate with terrorists

...except when we do. CNN:

U.S. officials said Wednesday that a "joint campaign plan redesign team" is preparing a new diplomatic and military strategy for Iraq, which is expected to be approved by the end of the month.

The team, led by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, is laying out a new course for how to proceed in the four-year-old war, the officials told CNN.

One element of the plan is to try to identify groups of people -- including possibly Sunni extremists and militia groups -- with whom U.S. officials feel they can do business, such as negotiating power-sharing and cease-fire agreements and granting economic aid, the sources said.

But those with whom officials feel they cannot do business -- such as determined suicide bombers -- will remain targets of military forces, the sources said.

The officials cited an inability to maintain current troop levels into the summer as a reason for the changed course.

"We have been focused too long on defeating the enemy," one official said. "We need to bring them to the negotiating table."

The announcement is an acknowledgment that the traditional war-fighting stance of trying to capture or kill all insurgents is failing, that the country may have devolved into a civil war, and that the only way to proceed is to use military force sparingly and attempt to bring many insurgents into the fold.

Well, I'm glad the boys are finally waking up to that girly notion of "diplomacy". I guess the "kill 'em all" strategy doesn't work so well when "'em" can make more of themselves quicker than we can kill "'em". Btw, I think this is the same "'em" as in "Bring 'em on"

I like how the diplomacy however is couched in terms of who we can "do business with." Because that's what it all comes down to right? Business. Profits. Oil. Profit-sharing. Hierarchies. Those who've thought all along that the war was all about oil were on the right track. That's what we care about. That's why we secured the Oil fields and Oil Ministry but let the rest of the country go to the looters back in the early days. And now we're looking for people "to do business with."

And gas is up 50% since February. And the oil companies continue to make record profits.

You may now return to "Dancing with the Stars".

Brill-f(*#ing-iant

What else is there to say?

Link

Terrorists at Falwell's Funeral - Film NOT at 11

How come these terrorists don't warrant the same hysteria as any others? Oh, yeah, because they're young white, possibly Christian, men, so they get a pass. From ABC News

And Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car.

The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service. The devices were made of a combination of gasoline and detergent, a law enforcement official told ABC News' Pierre Thomas. They were "slow burn," according to the official, and would not have been very destructive.

"He died of an attack where his heart should be"

Quote is from Kristine about the poor misguided Jerry Falwell.

Watch this frightening movie on the take-over of American values by "Christian" values. I can't imagine Christ lobbying the Roman Senate. I don't remember Christ being against compassion (i.e., Social Security is against the Bible). I don't think Christ thought that parents "owned" their children (i.e., Child-abuse laws are against the Bible). It's so frightening in their world. Everything is about fear. But I guess that's because they're "God fearing" rather than "God loving" people.

Trivia of the Day

From Wiki:

Bradwell v. State of Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1873)[2], was a United States Supreme Court case that solidified the narrow reading of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and determined that the right to practice a profession was not among these privileges.

Myra Bradwell applied for membership in the Illinois state bar in accordance with a state statute that permitted any adult of good character and with sufficient training to be admitted. Because she was a woman, however, the Illinois State Bar denied her admission, noting that the "strife" of the bar would surely destroy femininity. Bradwell appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that her right to practice law was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.
[edit]The Court's decision

The Supreme Court disagreed with Bradwell. In an 8-1 ruling, it upheld the decision of the Illinois court, ruling that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not include the right to practice a profession. Justice Bradley's opinion concurring in the Court's judgment is notable for positing that it was the "paramount destiny" of a woman to "fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."

I don't know which "creator" they are heeding, but my creator says it's ok for my "paramount destiny" to not be in the "benign offices" of wife and mother.

Because it's never really a problem until it happens to a Senator (or Doctor or Entertainer)

Bloomberg

``Are you kidding me?'' says Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, when asked why he's so critical of insurance companies.

Lott, 65, launches into a critique of the industry, peppering it with words such as ``arrogant'' and ``mean- spirited,'' statistics about company profits and executive pay and angry questions about why its lobbyists are fighting a clutch of bills he is pushing -- including one that would strip companies such as State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and Allstate Corp. of their 62-year-old exemption from federal antitrust laws.

The Senate's No. 2 Republican has become the industry's No. 1 critic in Congress ever since he lost a house to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While Lott recently settled with his insurer, State Farm, after a year-long court battle, he is continuing the fight in the Senate. His experience, the senator says, has convinced him that an industry he defended his entire career is in need of reform....

The industry, which between 1990 and 2006 gave almost two- thirds of its campaign donations to Republicans, might have expected increased scrutiny after Democrats won control of Congress in last year's elections. The criticism from Lott is even more surprising given his long-time alliance with insurers.

Lott traces his support back more than 35 years to when he worked for a Mississippi law firm that defended insurance companies. Since he was elected to the Senate in 1988, no industry has contributed more to his campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington that tracks political donations.

Somehow I believe that had Lott not personally been affected by Katrina, he'd be right next to the Insurance Boys stroking them and telling them how right they are and how necessary whatever legislation they claim to need really is. But since, for once, he's on the same side as the average person, he's miffed. Don't like being treated like a number, huh Trent? Don't like having profits come before compassion? Take a look at your life and voting record while I go find a very very tiny violin.

Men's minds/Women's minds

LiveScience

Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men's minds decline more than women's, according to the results of a worldwide survey.

Certain differences seem to be inherent in male and female brains: Men are better at maintaining and manipulating mental images (useful in mathematical reasoning and spatial skills), while women tend to excel at retrieving information from their brain's files (helpful with language skills and remembering the locations of objects).

Many studies have looked for a connection between gender and the amount of mental decline people experience as they age, but the results have been mixed.

Some studies found more age-related decline in men than in women, while others saw the reverse or even no relationship at all between sex and mental decline. Those results could be biased because the studies involved older people, and women live longer than men: The men tested are the survivors, "so they're the ones that may not have shown such cognitive decline," said study team leader Elizabeth Maylor of the University of Warwick in England.

The new study used data from the BBC Sex ID Internet Survey, conducted between February and May 2005. The survey had more than 250,000 respondents worldwide.

Let's put the ads right in the shows

Business Week

It's just four minutes into an Apr. 4 episode of The Martha Stewart Show, and Donna Brock from Cleveland, Tex., is on the line asking for advice on how to clean her bathroom. Simple, Stewart says: "Disposable toilet scrubbers, from Scotch-Brite." She plucks a scrubber wand from a box and goes to town on a toilet in the middle of the studio. Watching from home, Brock notes how easy the wand is to use under the bowl's rim.

A segment about a disposable toilet brush might seem a trifle déclassé for Stewart, who built her aspirational brand on meticulously crafted decorations and gourmet meals. But there's a backstory: 3M (MMM ), which owns the Scotch-Brite brand, helped develop and pay for the five-minute segment as part of a sweeping, multi-million dollar advertising deal....

But no one is pushing the envelope more energetically than Stewart. Yes, she is walking a fine line by calling herself "America's most trusted guide to stylish living" while taking money to promote products. But she is breathtakingly candid about the practice and contends this is simply business as usual nowadays. "I like to inform people about good things," she says. "And many of these products that are good things might not be known by a lot of people. So why not integrate them, and get paid for it?" As long as she sticks to promoting products she really believes in, Stewart argues, it won't dilute her brand or abuse the trust of her 1.7 million viewers...

The hook for advertisers: Buy at least $250,000 worth of 30-second spots and get the chance to help create a branded segment on the show, not to mention work your messages into Martha's other properties, such as her magazines or Sirius radio channel. Usually, such segments are free with large ad buys. When the airtime is sold out (which it has been since December for the 2006-07 season), the show will also sell branded segments à la carte. For $100,000 you get "a short verbal and visual" of the product, says Liz Koman, senior vice-president for advertising sales at the broadcast unit of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSO ) (MSLO). A two-minute-plus segment that works in an advertiser's talking points starts at $250,000.

So Martha, if you're so "candid" about the practice, why not announce to the studio and TV audience that what's about to come out of your lips is bought and paid for by a corporation? Wouldn't that be a trifle more honest than just making it seem like "your opinion" alone? Honestly, Martha, so sleazy.

Banks speed up transactions, but only those that work to their advantage

From MSN

Banks have to make money to stay in business. I was an economics major, so I get that.
What I don't get is why so many consumers do nothing as banks get bolder and bolder about picking their pockets. It's no longer nickel-and-diming -- we're losing $10, $20 and $30 a pop as banks come up with ever-more-creative ways to "fee" us to death.

The banking industry collects more than $50 billion a year in various service charges, more than twice the total of a decade ago. It's time we pushed back....

In recent years, changes in federal laws have all but eliminated "float" -- the time it takes for a check to clear from the writer's bank account. What used to take days now often takes hours or less. What hasn't been speeded up is the time it takes for deposits to clear and be available for your withdrawal.

The Fed is required by law to reduce maximum deposit hold times as check-processing gets faster, but it recently decided against requiring banks to make deposits available sooner. Essentially, regulators concluded that even though money disappears from your account a lot quicker these days, it still doesn't disappear fast enough to warrant the extra costs banks might face from crediting you with your deposits more quickly. So: Heads you lose, tails the banks win....

A poster named haberschmidt recently alerted the blogosphere to Wachovia bank's policy of charging for "potential" as well as actual overdrafts. Here's how it works: You use your debit card like a credit card at a store, signing your name to the transaction instead of entering a personal identification number (PIN). Because this is a signature-based transaction, the money is processed through the credit card payments system, which means the cash takes a few days to actually leave your account.

Wachovia doesn't wait, however. As soon as it's notified of the transaction, but long before the money actually leaves your account, the bank calculates whether your balance is enough to cover the transaction; if not, it dings you with an overdraft fee. To make it clear: There has been no overdraft, and if you transfer money into your account in time, there won't be. But Wachovia still gets its fee.

Like Mother Like Son

From the Salt Lake City Tribune:

The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called "repulsive."
The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets...

"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."

This is after Dr. Laura recently said:

After her Utah visit, Schlessinger received criticism for telling The Tribune that she didn't want to hear the complaints of military wives whose husbands are deployed. "He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching?" Schlessinger said. "You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining."

Got that? No whining unless you're actively being shot, mortared or IED'd. You silly military wives, what have you got to whine about? So you can't make ends meet while your spouse is deployed. So the entire burden of parenthood falls on your shoulders. So you're lonely, depressed, anxious, and worn-out. Buck up, baby, 'cause you ain't in the war zone. Nice compassion, huh? About what I've come to expect from the compassionate conservatives.

The anti-women tenets of religion meet the pervasiveness of the internet

Katha Pollitt writes in The Nation

The video, originally posted on [Deleted], a Kurdish website, is now plastered all over the Internet: a young girl in a red track-suit jacket and black underpants, beaten, kicked and stoned to death by a mob of excited, shouting men. It's a gruesome marriage of twenty-first-century technology and medieval barbarity. At one point, bloody and dazed, the girl tries to protect herself, whereupon a man drops a big rock or lump of concrete on her face, killing her. Her crime? As an Agence France-Presse story explains, Doaa Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old member of the Kurdish Yazidi religious minority, a non-Muslim sect, had fallen in love with a Sunni boy and possibly converted to Islam....

Far from promoting women's rights and security, "the occupation has strengthened the tribes, political Islam and reactionary bourgeois parties--all of which are anti-woman."

..as are most of the world's major religions. Women are here to serve and submit. When they don't they are "harlots" and as such, deserve no compassion, no rights, not sympathy. Stone them if they get out of line. That will remind the others to keep their place.

Why we need the EPA

LA Times:

More than 200 chemicals — many found in urban air and everyday consumer products — cause breast cancer in animal tests, according to a compilation of scientific reports published today.

Writing in a publication of the American Cancer Society, researchers concluded that reducing exposure to the compounds could prevent many women from developing the disease.

The research team from five institutions analyzed a growing body of evidence linking environmental contaminants to breast cancer, the leading killer of U.S. women in their late 30s to early 50s....

But because the disease is so common and the chemicals so widespread, "the public health impacts of reducing exposures would be profound even if the true relative risks are modest," they wrote. "If even a small percentage is due to preventable environmental factors, modifying these factors would spare thousands of women." ...

The researchers named 216 chemicals that induce breast tumors in animals. Of those, people are highly exposed to 97, including industrial solvents, pesticides, dyes, gasoline and diesel exhaust compounds, cosmetics ingredients, hormones, pharmaceuticals, radiation, and a chemical in chlorinated drinking water.

And I don't mean the Bush Admin EPA, I mean the Carter admin EPA. The EPA that puts citizens, water-drinkers and air-breathers ahead of corporate profits.

Maher nails Falwell (so to speak)

You Tube

Ed Brayton's take: "I thought the line about laundering hate through the will of God was absolutely brilliant. That's exactly what happens. Bigoted people invent bigoted gods to justify their bigotry. Barbaric people invent bigoted gods to justify their barbarism. Decent, caring people invent decent, caring gods."

Gross. Disgusting. Gross.

From the party of "Family Values" another hypocrite:

PIERRE - Former Republican Rep. Ted Klaudt could spend the rest of his life in prison after turning himself in to authorities Friday on felony charges that include eight counts of rape involving foster children and former legislative pages.

Five girls told authorities they were assaulted by Klaudt, court documents state, although charges filed Friday involve only two of the girls.

Four of the girls said they were accosted in Klaudt's hotel room in Pierre, where he stayed while serving in the South Dakota Legislature. Two of the girls were legislative pages when they were attacked, they told investigators.

He's accused of performing "ovary checks" and "breast exams" under the guise that he was helping young women donate their reproductive eggs, according to court records.

Why is it that it's always the non-religious and/or homosexuals who the fundies are worried about, but when it comes down to actual pedophilia, it's the republican legislators (and the Catholic priests) who seem to be the ones being charged?

And why is it that those with their own personal demons are the ones who are trying so hard to legislate morality for the rest of us? Klaudt's legislation included more restrictions on abortion, more "get tough" sex legislation and more "defining marriage" legislation. Klaudt and others with child sex tendancies: Get your head in order. Seek counseling. Do what you need to do to get well. Quit making the rest of us pay for your internal guilt by interfering with our legal bedroom activities.

Supporting the Troops = Less Money for Soldiers + Less Oversight for Contractors

Unbelievable that this sh#* is still going on. The administration continues to ignore and belittle the troops and their families and yet somehow they are magically the party that "supports the troops." Read more at link:

Here the Administration opposes additional benefits for surviving family members of civilian employees:

Death Gratuity for Federal Civilian Employees: The Administration strongly opposes section 1105, which would amend the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) to provide an additional $100,000 death benefit for surviving family members of civilian employees who died supporting U.S. forces in a contingency operation.

Here the Administration opposes price controls for prescription drugs under TRICARE, the military’s health care plan for military personnel and their dependents:

The Administration strongly opposes section 703, which would impose price controls on prescription drugs when they are dispensed to enrollees in TRICARE through community pharmacies. The Administration believes market competition is the most effective way to promote discounts in the community setting.

And here the Administration urges deletion of various contract accountability provisions:

Acquisition Policy: While the Administration supports the underlying interests of section 806, 821, 822, 824, and 843, the Administration urges their deletion because each of these provisions is either duplicative of recently-enacted laws and implementing regulations or would be counterproductive and not of practical help in strengthening the acquisition process.

Gonzales gets no-con vote from Harvard Law Classmates

Kos:

Dear Attorney General Gonzales:

Twenty-five years ago we, like you, graduated from Harvard Law School. While we arrived via many different paths and held many different views, we were united in our deep respect for the Constitution and the rights it guaranteed. As members of the post-Watergate generation who chose careers in law, we understood the strong connection between our liberties as Americans and the adherence of public offi cials to the law of the land. We knew that the choice to abide by the law was even more critical when public officials were tempted to take legal shortcuts. Nowhere were we taught that the ends justified the means, or that freedoms for which Americans had fought and died should be set aside when inconvenient or challenging. To the contrary: our most precious freedoms, we learned, need defending most in times of crisis.

So it has been with dismay that we have watched your cavalier handling of our freedoms time and again. When it has been important that legal boundaries hold unbridled government power in check, you have instead used pretextual rationales and strained readings to justify an ever-expanding executive authority. Witness your White House memos sweeping aside the Geneva Conventions to justify torture, endangering our own servicemen and women; witness your advice to the President effectively reading Habeas Corpus out of our constitutional protections; witness your support of presidential statements claiming inherent power to wiretap American citizens without warrants (and the Administration’s stepped-up wiretapping campaign, taking advantage of those statements, which continues on your watch to this day); and witness your dismissive explanation of the troubling firings of numerous U.S. Attorneys, and their replacement with others more "loyal" to the President’s politics, as merely "an overblown personnel matter." In these and other actions, we see a pattern. As a recent editorial put it, your approach has come to symbolize "disdain for the separation of powers, civil liberties and the rule of law."

As lawyers, and as a matter of principle, we can no longer be silent about this Administration’s consistent disdain for the liberties we hold dear. Your failure to stand for the rule of law, particularly when faced with a President who makes the aggrandized claim of being a unitary executive, takes this country down a dangerous path.

Your country and your President are in dire need of an attorney who will do the tough job of providing independent counsel, especially when the advice runs counter to political expediency. Now more than ever, our country needs a President, and an Attorney General, who remember the apt observation attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." We call on you and the President to relent from this reckless path, and begin to restore respect for the rule of law we all learned to love many years ago.

THE SIGNATORIES ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL CLASS OF 1982

Wow. Pretty ballsy. Thanks for standing up for the Constitution and against the Consiglieri.

Using the Government - Installment VIII

Cause nothing says "I care about consumer safety" like being a leading lobbyist AGAINST consumer protective regulation.

NY Times:

The nomination of Mr. Baroody, executive vice president at the association, has provoked heavy criticism from Democrats and consumer groups. He is the latest in a line of industry officials and lobbyists to be given senior jobs by Mr. Bush at federal safety agencies that oversee matters like workplace and mine safety and transportation as the administration has sought to roll back hundreds of regulations that businesses viewed as excessive.

As a major trade organization for the largest companies in the country, the National Association of Manufacturers often has issues before the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It recently prevailed on the agency, for instance, to relax the requirements for when companies must notify the agency about defective products. The White House, Mr. Baroody and the commission would not make available the letter that Mr. Baroody wrote describing the $150,000 payment. A copy was provided by a Democratic Congressional aide who found it in Mr. Baroody’s nomination file in the Senate...

Mr. Baroody “not only represented the interests of the nation’s manufacturing firms — often in direct opposition to the interest of consumers — but led efforts to weaken the C.P.S.C. and opposed numerous initiatives to protect children and the public from unsafe products,” said Dr. Jay E. Berkelhamer, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a letter opposing the nomination.

The Bush Administration continues to give Americans the middle finger and just do as it pleases as though we lived in a monarchy instead of a democratic republic. But then, if you don't care, why should they?

You have to do it OUR (Baptists') way

Pandagon:

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson says families need to be concerned that in America, 60% of college students are female. He predicts that in a few years, men will be increasingly underrepresented among "the intelligentsia" and will gradually cede leadership in many areas to women. [Heavens to Murgatroyd, we can't let that happen. Women will totally f#*$# the world up. Not like the heaven that the world is now, under male leadership]

Patterson laments that most of the women ascending to these new roles will maintain a major focus on a career, not on the family and on children.

Why is it that this group is always so afraid of "intelligence" and "intelligentsia"? When did Americans stop having respect for and a thirst for intelligence? Is it because those who think also ask questions? And that questions are pesky and bothersome and cause the questioner to question their place in the world and the "way things are?"

And why, oh why, are they so fearful of women being in leadership roles. C'mon guys, you've been in charge of the world for tens of thousands of years. How about giving us a chance for a few decades or so. I mean, really, how much more F*#($* up could it be?

Giuliani and the poor farmers

Giuliani disses "poor farmers". From the Guardian

The matter began weeks ago when the VonSpreckens got a telephone call from the Giuliani campaign asking if they would host a campaign rally at their farm on May 4. The couple, who had earlier donated to the Giuliani campaign, agreed and began arranging for the rally - clearing brush for a makeshift parking lot, bringing in hay bales for seats and making plans for portable toilets.

The Giuliani campaign called again to check on their assets and learned they raised cattle on a modest 80-acre farm.

As Deborah VonSprecken put it earlier, ``We're just poor farmers.''

Later, Giuliani staffer Tony Delgado telephoned to say the campaign event was focused on the Republican candidate's opposition to the inheritance tax. Since their estate isn't worth $1 million, it isn't subject to the inheritance tax.

Btw, it's $2 million for a single person and $4 million for a couple in order for your estate to be taxable.

Funny how everything in politics is about framing. Need to fight the estate tax? Make sure to frame your speech at the home of some "poor little rich" farmers who will "lose the farm" thanks to taxes. Problem is, most farmers fall well below the threshold and don't lose the farm. Those who do? Well, oh, to have such a problem. To be so rich as to fall within the estate tax threshold. That's a problem I would love to have.

Look, maybe the threshold should be higher. Fine, pick a higher number. $5 million? $10 million? Whatever. But to eliminate the estate tax altogether is idiotic and a sign that the rich really do want it all. If the children of the rich feel that it's too great a burden to fork some of their parents money over to the government to prevent the consolidation of wealth, well, as I said, hand some of the money over to me. I will gladly take on the estate tax burden so poor Paris Hilton doesn't have to.

Takin' a bloggin' break

See you in a few weeks.

Is this the vaunted "Power of the Market" that we're always hearing about?

MSNBC

CSI found that the number of vehicle models sold in the United States that achieve combined gas mileage of at least 40 miles per gallon actually has dropped from five in 2005 to just two in 2007 — the Honda Civic hybrid and the Toyota Prius hybrid.

Overseas, primarily in Europe, there are 113 vehicles for sale that get a combined 40 mpg, up from 86 in 2005. Combined gas mileage is the average of a vehicle’s city and highway mpg numbers.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that nearly two-thirds of the 113 highly fuel-efficient models that are unavailable to American consumers are either made by U.S.-based automobile manufacturers or by foreign manufacturers with substantial U.S. sales operations, such as Nissan and Toyota.

“These cars sold in Europe meet or exceed U.S. safety standards, so there is no reason why they shouldn’t be made available to U.S. consumers,” said CSI President Pam Solo.

You know, because the market can solve all ills if left to function as a "free" market (where nothing is free of course except the market). Regulation wouldn't help, because then the poor market would have to respond to something other than just a price signal and goodness knows, that would just be too hard. Better to let our fuel economy standards be set by the buddies of the oil companies.

The poll also found that Americans want Congress to boost fuel efficiency standards. Four out of five respondents, including 86 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of Republicans and independents, said that they would support “Congress taking the lead to achieve the highest possible fuel efficiency as quickly as possible” by raising the fuel-efficiency requirements for U.S. vehicles to achieve the goal of 40 mpg.

Oh, I guess we could try it that way if we HAVE to.

Tenet forgot to mention...

...all the money he's making from the war:

His[Tenet's] academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.

But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income...In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.

When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation....

Tenet sits on the board of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a major supplier of biometric identification software...

Tenet is also a director of Guidance Software, which makes forensic software used by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence to search computer hard drives and laptops ...

Much more at link: Salon

The reason for the season of Mothers

Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have breasts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

From Wikipedia: "The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level."

Motherhood is an awesome experience. "Fiat Lux" my ass. I say "Fiat Vita". And when that life is born and after you give it love and knowledge, the LAST thing that you want is for it to be taken for an unjust cause. Mothers of the world must find their voice and stand together against needless suffering and war whose only purpose is to allow the few to continue to dominate the many.

Teach your children well.

Comparisons of birth, death, and reproductive choices

A nice summary. Comparing death ratios amongst oral contraceptive (OC) users, women who are pregnant, death while skydiving, death by lightning, etc.

Keep it in your back pocket for those comparisons when you're presented with stats that just don't sound right.

A Well-Timed Period.

Using the Government - Installment VII

Colorado GOP in on the game. From E Pluribus Media:

As reported last night, a technology manager in the Elections Division of Colorado's Secretary of State's office was selling Colorado voter data to GOP candidates.

Daniel J. Kopelman of Aurora, CO, whose duties include oversight and maintenance of the state's master voter registration database, was offering "GOP campaign help" in the form of voter and "fresh" fundraising lists at the web site of his privately-owned company Political Live Wires...

According to [Mike] Coffman [current Sec. of State] spokesperson Dana Williams, the Secretary felt it was "inappropriate for an employee to be both overseeing and selling voter lists" and that his office "was unaware" of Kopelman's GOP campaign company.

However, last November 20, Coloradans for Coffman -- the Secretary's 2006 campaign committee -- paid $1500 to Political Live Wires for "consulting for 2006," according to a campaign finance report filed by the committee. PLW was also paid $1,810.15 for "software" on Aug. 9, 2005.[1]

In addition, on several occasions during the campaign, Coffman's committee paid Kopelman directly for "software expenses."

Kopelman's precise employment in 2006 is somewhat unclear. That year, he apparently worked as a systems analyst for Coffman, then the Colo. State Treasurer, and did political consulting and software engineering both personally and with PLW for Coffman's winning SOS campaign.

But in an odd twist, in 2006 Kopelman also found time to run for Arapahoe County treasurer.

His campaign was publicly supported by Coffman, as well as by U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) and retired U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong (R-CO).

So he's being paid by the state to manage the voter registration database. Then he's selling voter lists to the GOP.

Conflict of interest? Nah. Just GOP tactics as usual.

President Who?

Where's the love? For Bush?

Video Funny

Buying Justice

NYT:

There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Ms. Yang was not fired, as eight other prosecutors were, but she resigned under circumstances that raise serious questions, starting with whether she was pushed out to disrupt her investigation of one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress...

Ms. Yang was investigating Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Ms. Lam and most of the other purged prosecutors were fired on Dec. 7. Ms. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October.

Ms. Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Ms. Yang. He testified, according to Congressional sources, that as late as mid-September, Ms. Miers wanted to know whether Ms. Yang could be made to resign. Mr. Sampson reportedly recalled that Ms. Miers was focused on just two United States attorneys: Ms. Yang and Bud Cummins, the Arkansas prosecutor who was later fired to make room for Tim Griffin, a Republican political operative and Karl Rove protégé.

The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush’s solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation.

So first she's investigating him. Now after a $1.5MM payoff, she's part of the firm that is defending him! And no one cares? And so again I ask, what is going to get people out into the streets protesting this stink? Anyone? Hello?

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason

Wonderful Katha Pollitt takes on the birth dearth in an Alternet piece:

Getting a better deal for mothers has been at the forefront of the feminist agenda for decades, although you'd never know it from the way the women's movement is always being accused of attacking women with kids. So it's ironic that what is finally driving at least some governments to act is the desire to boost fertility rates. The aim is to breed the next generation of workers -- ethnically correct workers, too, not the troublesome immigrant kind. As Sharon Lerner noted in The New York Times Magazine ("The Motherhood Experiment," March 4), fertility rates -- the average number of children per woman -- have fallen below replacement level in ninety countries, including such Catholic stalwarts as Ireland (1.9), Spain (1.3), Italy (1.3) and Portugal (1.4). Even the much-trumpeted increasing US population is mostly a product of immigration (the actual fertility rate is 2.0). While politicians in Japan (1.3) seem fatally drawn to chastising women as recalcitrant "baby-making machines," European governments have started asking if making life easier for working mothers might do the trick. [yeah, maybe that would help]

In the modern world, the traditional ways of producing large families -- early marriage, lack of sex ed and birth control, religious propaganda, community pressure, denial of education and jobs to women -- don't work so well, especially when combined with the high cost of living that prevails in many developed countries. Even in comparatively conservative countries like Greece (1.3), young women are going to college, working and postponing marriage, as young men have been doing for years. Faced with the choice between career and kids, a lot of women seem to be voting with their wombs.

Face it, there's nothing wrong w/slowing population growth. We're already going to be at over 9 BILLION at mid-century. It was less than 4 billion during my childhood. We could stand a little slowdown. Yes, that might mean a lot less "white" people even as the "non-white" people continue to have higher fertility rates for a while. Horrors. How will the world get along with a greater percentage of "non-whites" to "whites"!?!?!? I think somehow it will manage just fine.

And as for the "hole" in the workforce based on the presumption of a smaller working population to a larger aging population (again just for a while until the demographics catch up) here's Pollitt's take:

Economically, the problem is a coming dearth of young workers to fund social security and care for an aging population. Yet while demographers fret about those unconceived second and third babies, every country on earth throws away plenty of children who are already here. Poor children, for example -- why can't they grow up to be those missing skilled, educated people and productive workers? What about the children of France's Arab immigrants who rioted two years ago to protest joblessness and social exclusion? The Gypsies of Eastern Europe, whose kids are written off at birth and who have been sterilized without their consent in Slovakia and the Czech Republic? Vladimir Putin bemoans Russia's free-falling population, but babies are still being stashed in his country's appalling orphanages. Get those kids out of there, or stop complaining! The disabled, or older people who'd like to keep their jobs past the legal retirement age -- there are a lot of would-be workers who just need a bit of accommodation. Instead of cajoling or bribing women into gestating the home-health attendants of the future, states should start treasuring the people -- all the people -- they have right now.

By all means, implement family friendly work policies. FAMILY LEAVE is a FAMILY VALUE. But don't do it to try to bribe women and men into having more workers for a presumed helpless older generation. Do it because it's the right thing to do and because America needs to stop just talking about Family Values and actually get some, But stop bemoaning the "demographic winter." There are ways of dealing with it and if we put the best and brightest minds into finding solutions they will come.

Quote of the Day

Never separate the life you live from the words you speak. -- Paul Wellstone

Can't take the heat, stay out of the Army blogs

Wired

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result...

Army Regulation 530--1: Operations Security (OPSEC) (.pdf) restricts more than just blogs, however. Previous editions of the rules asked Army personnel to "consult with their immediate supervisor" before posting a document "that might contain sensitive and/or critical information in a public forum." The new version, in contrast, requires "an OPSEC review prior to publishing" anything -- from "web log (blog) postings" to comments on internet message boards, from resumes to letters home.

Failure to do so, the document adds, could result in a court-martial, or "administrative, disciplinary, contractual, or criminal action."

Using the Government - Installment VI

AP

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether its former White House liaison used political affiliations in deciding whom to hire as entry-level prosecutors in some U.S. attorney offices around the country, The Associated Press has learned.

Such consideration would be a violation of federal law. [Ed: but this is the Bush Administration, so who gives a shit about "federal law?"]

The inquiry involving Monica Goodling, a conservative Republican [and Pat Robertson Regent Law School graduate] who recently quit as counsel and White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, raises new concerns that politics have cast a shadow over the independence of trial prosecutors who enforce U.S. laws.

Justice spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed Wednesday that the department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility have been investigating for several weeks Goodling's role in hiring career attorneys _ an unusual responsibility for her to have had.

Indeed.

Holiday

Happy Beltane.

Wasn't aware of it, but happened upon it in wiki and found out it's today.

Have a run 'round the maypole for me.