Pro-life nutjobs murder Dr George Tiller

He has fought for a woman’s right to choose for decades. He has been charged in a court of law and beat the politically-motivated case with an acquittal. They have shot him in both arms trying to end his practice of medicine. They have bombed his clinic and picketed his clinic regularly.

They finally silenced Dr. George. They murdered him this morning. On his way to church. From MSNBC:

He was acquitted in March of misdemeanor charges stemming from procedures he performed, but moments after the verdict the state’s medical board announced it was investigating allegations against him that are nearly identical to those the jury had rejected.
Prosecutors had alleged that Tiller had in 2003 gotten second opinions from a doctor who was essentially an employee of his, not independent as state law requires, but a jury took only about an hour to find him not guilty of all 19 counts.

Tiller, who could have faced a year in jail for even one conviction, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read, with one of his attorneys patting his shoulder after the decision on the final count was declared. His wife, seated across the courtroom, fought back tears and nodded. The couple declined to speak to reporters afterward.

Tiller, 67, has claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated. An attorney general who opposed abortion rights began the investigation into Tiller’s clinic more than four years ago, but both his successor, who filed the criminal charges, and the current attorney general support abortion rights.

Tiller has been a favored target of anti-abortion protesters, and he testified that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.

They had to kill him to silence him. Sick bastards who say they are pro-life killed Dr. George. May they all rot in hell.

Update from the NYT:

The shooting occurred at around 10 a.m. (Central time) at Reformation Lutheran Church on the city’s East Side, Dr. Tiller’s regular church.

Wichita police said that the shots were fired from a handgun in the church lobby during the morning service. The authorities gave few details, but said they were searching for a powder blue Taurus made in the 1990s that had been seen leaving shortly after the shooting. They said witnesses had described seeing a white man departing.

How can these hypocrites say they are pro-life? How in the hell do they rationalize this sickening bullshit?

Letting the air out of the rights rant on Sotomayor and race.

The Scotusblog lawyers have studied all 97 race-related cases of Judge Sotomayor. Here are the results, sure to piss off the extremists on the right:

Other than Ricci, Judge Sotomayor has decided 96 race-related cases while on the court of appeals.

Of the 96 cases, Judge Sotomayor and the panel rejected the claim of discrimination roughly 78 times and agreed with the claim of discrimination 10 times; the remaining 8 involved other kinds of claims or dispositions. Of the 10 cases favoring claims of discrimination, 9 were unanimous. (Many, by the way, were procedural victories rather than judgments that discrimination had occurred.) Of those 9, in 7, the unanimous panel included at least one Republican-appointed judge. In the one divided panel opinion, the dissent’s point dealt only with the technical question of whether the criminal defendant in that case had forfeited his challenge to the jury selection in his case. So Judge Sotomayor rejected discrimination-related claims by a margin of roughly 8 to 1. (emphasis mine)

Of the roughly 75 panel opinions rejecting claims of discrimination, Judge Sotomayor dissented 2 times. In Neilson v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 199 F.3d 642 (1999), she dissented from the affirmance of the district court’s order appointing a guardian for the plaintiff, an issue unrelated to race. In Gant v. Wallingford Bd. of Educ., 195 F.3d 134 (1999), she would have allowed a black kindergartner to proceed with the claim that he was discriminated against in a school transfer. A third dissent did not relate to race discrimination: In Pappas v. Giuliani, 290 F.3d 143 (2002), she dissented from the majority’s holding that the NYPD could fire a white employee for distributing racist materials.

So the nutters like Gingrich, Limpballs etc need to shut the fuck up. Of course they won't stfu, they will just keep on lying their collective asses off so that they can call her a racist. Smear tactics are what they do the best..other than lying.

Contact your congress critters!

From Public Citizen:

The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act, sponsored by fair trade champions Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), was first introduced last year and eventually gained 80 House and Senate cosponsors. This landmark legislation sets forth in concrete, detailed terms a progressive vision for good trade agreements in the future and criteria to renegotiate existing failed pacts like NAFTA and the WTO.

Watch Global Trade Watch’s Director Lori Wallach discuss our strategy for building a new trade and globalization agenda in 2009.

The form to fill out is located here on their site.

2 top legal minds join the Prop 8 case.

Irony Alert: They faced off against each other in Gore v Bush. Now, they are teaming up to fight the hatred and the Prop 8 freaks. From the MercuryNews:

Two of the nation's top litigators who opposed each other in the Bush v. Gore election challenge in 2000 have joined forces to seek federal court intervention in California's gay marriage controversy.

Theodore B. Olson and David Boies have filed a U.S. District Court lawsuit on behalf of two gay men and two gay women, arguing that the California constitutional amendment eliminating the right of gay couples to marry violates the U.S. constitutional guarantee of equal protection and due process.

Olson said today that he hopes the case will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction against California's Proposition 8 until the case is resolved.

It has to go all the way to SCOTUS. The haters and homophobes can't win this..

Sotomayor's cases show us she is what?

They show that she swings both ways, as in right and left of the center. Which means no one can really call her a liberal or conservative.

Justice David Souter was supposed to be right of the center, which is why Bush41 nominated him. He was as far from that description as you can get.

Same goes for Sandra Day O'Connor. She was moderate on some issues, left on others. Very seldom was she right of center.

The NY Law Journal and Law.com have articles up about her cases. Her one case that bothers me is her siding with Bush43 on the gag order regarding groups that support abortion and receive federal funding. Marc Ambinder from The Atlantic has this:

David Brody of Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) News breaks down Sonia Sotomayor's most notable abortion-related decision, in which she ruled in favor of the "Mexico City Policy," finding that the U.S. government is free to ban aid to foreign groups that support or perform abortions. (As The Hill notes, this decision won her praise from at least one Republican.) Brody's prediction: that since Sotomayor has never ruled directly on the legality of abortion, she will be pressed even harder on the issue during her confirmation process.

Of course, that doesn't really tell us much about her opinion regarding the legality of Roe v Wade.

I like Dahlia Lithwick's article on Sotomayor and the logic she presents on why the Rethugs haven't got a leg to stand on with regard to tarring and feathering her as a friggin liberal, activist, racist Judge:

Instead of wading into a bruising identity politics war they cannot possibly win, conservatives—even the angriest conservatives—should wade into Sotomayor's vast legal writings. There are hundreds of cases for them to read and parse and quote out of context. Let's have this confirmation battle on the merits, rather than in the sinkhole of unfounded character attacks. The real problem for Sotomayor's opponents is that anyone who has closely read her opinions won't find much to build a case on. As the indefatigable team at SCOTUSblog has chronicled here and here, on the appeals court, Judge Sotomayor has taken a fairly moderate, text-based approach to the cases before her, placing her much closer to retiring Justice David Souter than to the late Justice William Brennan on the judicial activism spectrum.

She has been overturned three times at the Supreme Court, and may well be again soon. But she was also a state* prosecutor, a corporate lawyer, and a Bush I appointee to the federal bench. As the White House points out in its talking points today, "In cases where Sotomayor and at least one judge appointed by a Republican president were on the three-judge panel, Sotomayor and the Republican appointee(s) agreed on the outcome 95% of the time."

Lithwick tackles all the bs the Rethugs will throw at her. It's a good read and I highly recommend it.

So, the bottom line for me, is this: She really isn't known to be left or right of the center all the time. My hope is that she turns out like David Souter and surprises the shit out of everyone, including Obama. Below is Jonathan Turley this evening on Countdown, discussing Judge Sotomayor's cases and rulings. Plus how does she feel about equal rights for the LGBT community?

Sotomayor-Muy Bueno!!!!

What a great way to wake up this morning..to the presser that announces Sonia Sotomayor as the next Supreme Court Justice.

As Obama stated, she will be the only Justice with trial experience. She will need it to deal with the rightwing justices.From a HuffPo article:

A Puerto Rican woman with 16 years of court experience who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor is a graduate of Yale Law and served as an editor of the Yale Law Review. Administration officials note that Sotomayor would bring more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice confirmed in the past 70 years.

Irony alert: Bush41 nominated Souter and Sotomayor for their respective positions. How can the Rethugs argue with that? HuffPo has an article up on that angle as well.

State Dept recognizes same sex partners.

From the NYT:

The State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, according to an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service officers.

Wow wee, the federal government can recognize the rights of LGBT's but the military can not? WTF? Here is what Hillary had to say about the changes in State Department policy, from the same NYT article:

“Like all families, our Foreign Service families come in different configurations; all are part of the common fabric of our post communities abroad,” Mrs. Clinton said in the memorandum, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by a member of the gay and lesbian association.

“At bottom,” she said, “the department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex partners because it is the right thing to do.”

Of course it's the right thing to do..why in the blue hell can't the rest of the federal government and the military see that?

Good on ya Hillary..thanks for making the change. Now, pressure the rest of the departments and the military minds to do the same thing.

Talkshow host Mancow waterboarded

Conservative talkshow host Erich "Mancow" Muller was waterboarded Friday. He originally had said waterboarding isn't torture.

He lasted all of six-fucking-seconds. He has changed his mind regarding waterboarding being torture.

News you probably can't use..

Roundball took the stage for me Thursday night. King James sunk his only three pointer at the final buzzer. The series is tied 1-1 and now goes to Orlando for two games. Box score here.

Rest of my sports mumbo jumbo is here. Don't want to alienate my 6 regular readers! ;)

Lebron scored the most points of any player on the court. Still, the Cav's got to step up. You hear me mutha fuckas?

As far as the Lakers/Denver series..Denver hasn't lost at home in the post season..the series heads to Denver...please beat the Lakers dudes..ok?

Ok, it's time to get back to politics..but I don't want to get back to politics..this IS the roundball playoffs for Christs sake.

Aw..the intensity..the grief, the decisions..Makes politics look like childs play sometimes.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled bitchfest. ;)

Waterboard Dick.

Or at the very least, send him packing to that undisclosed location. I am tired of being inundated with his fuckery.

Do you realize he is polling eight points higher since he started his US Tour to clear his name? Now we will never get rid of the bastard!

Lets have some real news ok media folks? Surely you jackasses can find something else to talk and/or write about than the media-created grudge match between Obama and The Big Dick Cheney™.

Sports is my saving grace..I can lose myself for a couple of hours. Baseball, Basketball...they both can calm the savage breast. My fantasy teams are another story..they suck beyond measure..which is typical for moi.

Go Cavs!

This weekend starts the travesty known as InterLeague Play for baseball. It's a travesty I tell ya! ;) I also hate the Designated Hitter (DH). Old school? Perhaps...

KO's SC on Cheney's lies at AEI today

Today's Special Comment goes to the heart of what drove me nuts this morning whilst watching The Big Dick Cheney™ wax poetic about Gitmo, Torture, the Iraq War, Saddam Hussein and all the other shit he outright lied about. See my post below for my pov on the day's speeches.

They are not above outright lying to us.

And that fact just totally pisses me the hell off. The obvious, blatant lies being spewed by The Big Dick Cheney™, Boss Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Boehner, et. al. are just incredibly disingenuous..and outright fuckery.

I missed The Big O's speechifying this morning..but my dumb ass caught TBDC in all his glory. MSNBC showed Cheney's entire speechifying at that massage parlor known as AEI. Cheney used a noun, a verb and 9/11 over twenty times this morning.

The Ball n' Chain™ asked me to find something to do...away from the house for awhile. I was that bitchy after watching Cheney lie his ass off.

So I went out and about for a while, running household errands. But when I got home..Cheney and Obama were still on my boob tube. Tweety is now proselytizing about both of them along with former CIA spook Jack Rice, Lawrence ODonnell and that fucktard Pat Buchanan.

Larry looks like he is gonna have a stroke listing all the lies that Cheney told at AEI this morning. I know that feeling too after watching TBDC this morning. It's hazardous to one's health to watch that fucker for more than 60 seconds I think.

I am just not in the mood for these guys today. I am going to find a baseball game to watch until the Lakers game starts.

Because these fearmongering fuckwits just drive me to scream and holler like a mental patient.

Human Rights groups give Obama a piece of their collective minds..

Why shouldn't they? He has flipped on several key issues lately. It was a private off the record meeting so there isn't any news to report other than a few leaks or statements from attendee's, like HuffPo's piece or CBS new's article and Michael Isikoff's appearance on Rachel Maddow's show this evening discussing the meeting:

From the HuffPo piece:

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Massimino detailed what she described as a "lively and detailed and serious" discussion on some of the days most vexing national security issues. Over the course of roughly an hour and fifteen minutes, Obama, along with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Attorney General Eric Holder, advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, foreign policy hand Dennis McDonough, and counter-terrorism chief John Brennan, held court with a group of academics, as well as officials with the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

As for whether the discussions got heated or Isikoff's statement that Obama was compared to Bush, Massamino said:

"I think that many of us were disappointed by the announcement about the military commissions and wondered what the reasoning was behind that. And to be honest, I am still wondering having been in this meeting today. I don't think that this fits the overall framework that the president had articulated about using our values to reinforce a counter terrorism strategy against al Qaeda."

Isikoff was much more negative on Maddow's show, stating Obama wasn't pleased with the Bush/Obama reference. The NYT writeup of the meeting contained this:

The discussion, in a 90-minute meeting in the Cabinet Room that included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and other top administration officials, came on the eve of a much-anticipated speech Mr. Obama is to give Thursday on a number of thorny national security matters, including his promise to close the detention center at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Human rights advocates are growing deeply uneasy with Mr. Obama’s stance on these issues, especially his recent move to block the release of photographs showing abuse of detainees, and his announcement that he is willing to try terrorism suspects in military commissions — a concept he criticized bitterly as a presidential candidate.

The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.

*snip*

“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.” (emphasis mine)

Stunning? I would say it's extremely friggin ironic..

The Obama administration and vehicle emission standards.

I am quite proud of the fact that California leads the nation in stringent laws regarding vehicle emissions. Of course we have the worst air of any state in our nation. When BushCo tried to blow off Cali’s newest set of regulations in 2007, Cali and 12 other states took it to the courts and won the right to set their own vehicle emissions standards. The EPA had always, prior to BushCo, allowed us to set our own standards, much to the chagrin of the auto manufacturing industry. The industry has a long history of fighting any changes to vehicle emission and fuel standard policies within the state of California.

Then Obama came into the oval office and immediately changed the EPA rules to make it easier for states to set their own emission levels and fuel-efficiency standards.

Yesterday, he announced a national change to ‘the rules’. From a news account of the announcement:

The standards, which still require final approval from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department, would force carmakers to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions in new cars and trucks by 30 percent and build vehicles that average 35.5 miles per gallon.

The changes would take effect in 2012 and would be fully implemented by 2016.

The length of time to get this ball rolling bothers me, but it is what it is..a start in the right direction. The changes will also jack up the cost of new vehicles by as much as $1300 but it will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil from being used by Americans according to administration officials. The changes will also lead to a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide and other emissions by 2016.

An LA Times writeup on the automakers acceptance of these changes is interesting in that it points out how hard Obama had to wrangle and fight the auto industry to go along with his plan. I feel fairly confident that part of the reason they accepted it is because of the bailout money handed over to two of the Big Three american automakers. In the end, 10 automakers accepted the changes.

Salon has a piece up about the changes and what they entail. It’s also a small historical perspective on the electric car and how the auto industry has fucked us on this front time and time again. A small blurb:

The buzz is intoxicating. Yet for 100 years the electric car has shimmered on the horizon, like a mirage, always fleetingly out of reach. Today, even with advances in battery technology, as the major automakers unveil their forthcoming models, they’re still hedging their bets that the internal combustion engine’s glory days aren’t over.

“The technology is always down the road; the better battery is always in the future,” says Michael Schiffer, an anthropology professor at the University of Arizona, and author of “Taking Charge: The Electric Automobile in America.” “People have been promising better batteries for over a century.” Indeed, in 1909, a magazine advertisement for Baker Electric Vehicles touted the revolutionary new cars as “the Aristocrats of Motordom,” which would go “100 Miles on One Charge of the Batteries.” A century later, in 2009, the Mini Cooper’s electric cousin the Mini E, now being leased in a pilot program to 450 drivers in New York, New Jersey and California, promises to go — you guessed it! — over 100 miles.

The auto industry will not go willingly into the future, take it to the bank. They might of all been standing with Obama smiling like the cat that ate the canary..but believe me..they are pissed.

But you know what? Fuck the Auto Industry. Fuck em hard. GM had a great little electric car called the EV-1. They crushed every single one of those cars into oblivion. Folks that owned an EV-1 and who now drive a Prius say the Prius is a step backward when compared to the EV-1. From the Salon article:

“It’s great to see a lot of electric cars are in the works now, but it’s hard to get excited about the Volt because G.M. had a great electric car, and they didn’t stand by it, they didn’t promote it,” says Spertus. “Why should I expect them to do anything different?” After G.M. took Spertus’ EV1 away, it charged her several thousand dollars for dents in it, despite the fact it was headed to the great auto-body shop in the sky.

Today Spertus, who is now working at Google, while taking a leave from Mills, drives a Toyota Prius, which she calls a “real step backward” from the EV1, since it’s only partially electric. “An American car company had a fantastic lead and threw it away,” she says.

That’s not only the view of one disgruntled car driver. Rick Wagoner, former CEO of G.M., fired by Obama in March, has said that his worst decision as CEO was “axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids.” Says Kirsch: “They should have taken the EV1 and turned it into the Volt 10 years ago. It’s 10 years late and $10 billion short.”

So I am happy but also not completely sold on the auto industry going along with all this ‘change’. They still have their lawsuit in the courts against Cali’s vehicle standards. They have refused to kill that suit up until now. Ford has said recently that the Obama Plan will kill them. From the LAT article:

A senior Ford executive said the company had run the numbers again and concluded it might not survive if it accepted the deal. If Ford pulled out, it would mean a major setback for two of President Obama’s signature goals — combating global warming and reducing the nation’s appetite for foreign oil.

*snip*

Yet the near-collapse of the effort was a dramatic reminder of how hard it can be to break through years of stalemate and build a consensus for action on a problem that has pitted some of the country’s most powerful interests against each other.

So you will forgive me if my happiness is tempered by the knowledge that the automakers are always full of shit and always looking out for their bottom line. I know that somewhere down the road they will balk at some if not all of these changes. History bears this out. Just look at what GM did to the EV-1 and how hard people fought to keep those great little electric cars…all to no avail..as the people lost that fight.

I just hope we don’t lose this time. I want cleaner air and better mileage. I am willing to pay for those things even though I am on a fixed income. I hope everyone gets onboard with this.

But the pessimist in me says-Don’t get excited yet woman..there is plenty of time for this to plan to fail. 2016 is way down the friggin road..way down.

Crossposted at my group rant home, Sirens Chronicles.

The smartest guys in the room? I don’t think so…

When Enron fell apart, our nation tried to make sense of it. Congress critters tried to pass laws that guaranteed nothing like that ever happened again. Enron caused, by their actions in CA to manipulate the energy industry, the death of a very good friend of mine. We had rolling blackouts almost daily that summer in San Diego. She was killed when the traffic lights went out and someone t-boned her tiny little car, killing her instantly. But this isn’t really about Enron or my dear sweet friend that died because of their cold, calculating greed.

It’s about the banks and investment houses that shared Enron’s largess..and ultimately their losses as well. Its many of the same banks and investing companies that took TARP funds and/or were responsible for our recession now. Lets call them, the Enron Nine although only eight of them took part in the subprime meltdown. From The Nation link in this paragraph, with additional links added by me to those culpable bastards that still managed to stay afloat after Enron collapsed, only to become a large part of the subprime mortgage meltdown:

The “Enron Nine” (if we may call them that) are J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch (bought by BofA for pennies on the dollar), Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers (filed largest bankruptcy in history). These financial institutions collaborated with the now-bankrupt energy company in its financial sleight of hand–the deals that enabled Enron to inflate its profits, conceal its burgeoning debts and push its stock price higher and higher. Together and individually, the banks and brokerages raised at least $6 billion for Enron through the debt or stock issues sold to unsuspecting investors from 1996 through 2001, when the Enron illusion finally expired. Another $4 billion or more was channeled into Enron’s “partnerships” like Jedi, Chewco and LJM1 and LJM2, which became the principal mechanism for hoodwinking shareholders. These deals were often hurriedly arranged at year’s end to paper over the company’s true condition and keep the fraud from collapsing.

Why then, would we bail these fuckers out? Why would our government have such a short memory on what many of these banks and investment houses did in the 1990’s? It drives me up a friggin wall to realize that these sumbitches were just as culpable now as they were in the Enron debacle. Lehman Bros, thankfully, was allowed to fail this time around. They surpassed Enron as the largest bankruptcy ever filed in American Courts. Credit Suisse was a major player in the subprime debacle as was Barclays and First Boston. They actually fueled the subprime market as major backers of the subprime lenders.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room was the title of a fantastic book written by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, which was made into a documentary by the same name. I watched the documentary again last night. That is when it hit me, that eight of the ten banks and investment houses that played dirty with Enron also contributed to the subprime mortgage meltdown and three or four took TARP funds to stay afloat this time around.

So, the assholes in the banking and investment houses certainly were not the smartest guys in the room…any room.

They were just greedy..real friggin greedy. Below is the amount of TARP monies and/or Treasury monies the two surviving banks and one investment company, which is now considered a bank, have taken so far:

Citigroup-$50 Billion

Bank Of America-$52.5 Billion

JP Morgan Chase-$25 Billion

That adds up to a helluva lot of tax dollars don’t it? It should make us all madder than a rat in a tin can. Not only did they play fuck-around with Lay, Skillings and Fastow…many of these same bastards let greed rule the day now.

Evidently they didn’t learn from the Enron debacle. Or they just didn’t give a shit…your choice.

But we had no choice in what corporations the Treasury bailed out or who got TARP funds. So the only way I can rationalize the idiocy of giving money to these same crooks is this:

Our government employees, in charge of straightening this subprime shitstorm out, evidently smoke a lot of pot and they have a real bad case of short term memory loss. Or they just don’t give a damn either.

Your choice.

Below is a trailer for Enron: The smartest guys in the room. You will be surprised at how much of the verbiage in the movie fits today's nightmare. Or maybe.. you won’t…

Group seeks disbarment for 12 BushCo lawyers

Oh please, oh please..make it happen! From RawStory:

A liberal activist group has filed disciplinary complaints in four states and the District of Columbia calling for the disbarment of twelve lawyers they say are associated with the Bush administration’s position on torture.

The complaints — running more than 500 pages — enumerate in excruciating detail the case against key Bush officials that participated in defending “torture techniques” employed by the administration against alleged al Qaeda suspects.

The complaints are posted online at disbartorturelawyers.com.

The complaints were filed against former White House Legal Counsel attorneys John Yoo, Jay Bybee (pictured above right) and Stephen Bradbury; former Attorney Generals Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft and Michael Mukasey; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney David Addington, Alice Fisher, William Haynes II, Douglas Feith and Timothy Flanigan with the state bars in the District of Columbia, New York, California, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Gonzo, Ashcroft, Addington and of course Yoo and Bybee..these folks are the cream of the torture crop! You can view all the State Bar Complaints here, along with the exhibits they included with the State Bar filings on an individual basis.

Obama's complete ND speech

It should be noted that the vast majority of protesters were not students or faculty..they were outsiders. From MSNBC:

On campus, Obama entered the arena to thunderous applause and a standing ovation from many in the crowd of 12,000. But as the president began his commencement address, at least three protesters interrupted it. One yelled, "Stop killing our children."

The graduates responded by chanting "Yes we can", the slogan that became synonymous with Obama's presidential campaign. Obama seemed unfazed, saying Americans must be able to deal with things that make them "uncomfortable."

The president ceded no ground on abortion. But he said those on each side of the debate "can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.

"So let's work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term."

The religious folks must come to terms with protecting embryo's that become children. They must protect the child that is born and make sure he or she can grow to become a viable member of our society as their job isn't finished when the child is born. They can not just scream and holler about protecting the embryo, they must continue to protect the human being. That is the biggest hypocrisy to me with regard to the anti-choice crowd.

It came from the office of the V.P.

Dick Cheney is probably the biggest bag of batshit in the Republican party, without a doubt. The former Vice President will not shut his piehole and folks inside the Rethug party are freaking out over his grandstanding bullshittery..but they are doing it silently..not publicly. A poll of GOP insiders just released by the National Journal shows that 57% of those folks are pissed the fuck off and say The Big Dick Cheney™ (TBDC) has hurt the Party Of No.
From the rightwing blogosphere comes totally different set of polling numbers on whether TBDC has fucked them without kissing them first, also from the National Journal. Seventeen rightwing bloggers were polled about what impact Cheney has had, helping or hurting the party, and its pretty friggin freaky if you ask me:
I do not 'get' how the numbers can be so opposite of one another. Both groups are party faithful and yet the stunning differences are, well, stunning.

A few quotes from the GOP insiders on how Cheney has screwed the pooch for them:

"Cheney has emerged as the GOP's most visible spokesman. And you're more likely to find WMDs in Iraq than independent voters who like the former vice president."

"As the Republicans try to move beyond the political disaster of the Bush years, Dick Cheney is a surreal public presence that is hurting Republicans very badly."

"Cheney's comments about [Colin] Powell versus [Rush] Limbaugh will drive moderate voters even further from the party. Republicans need these voters and spokesmen that will attract them."

"Cheney's disapproval rating is 60 percent: He's so unpopular that he probably couldn't get a gig on an infomercial. He's certainly not the right guy to become the face of a revived and repositioned Republican Party."

"Cheney's continued presence on the stage makes it harder for the Republicans to turn the page after Bush. And he sucks up all the oxygen in the room."

"No-brainer: The guy opens his mouth, and he creates problems for the Republicans. They so want the Bush era to slide into history."

Now, a few quotes from the rightwing bloggers on how Cheney has..lol.. helped the Party Of No:

"Dick Cheney has continued to articulate a coherent conservative vision. Those who loathe him will ignore or ridicule him regardless, but those who are neutral towards, or even like, the man, must appreciate his willingness to speak up." Bookworm, Bookworm Room

"Dick Cheney has helped the country, immaterial of politics -- just as he did as vice president. People who demonize him might just want to reflect that this is someone who could easily have retired in comfort a long time ago -- and instead chose to serve the country, something that arguably took years off his life." Robert Miller, JoshuaPundit

"Dick Cheney calls 'em as he sees 'em. The world needs more men like Dick Cheney." Doug Lambert, GraniteGrok

Seriously, these rightwing bloggers just crack me the hell up! Loyal to the core those fuckers are!

And then, there is the fucktard known as Mary Matalin. Her pov on TBDC running his yap is priceless. From a WaPo writeup on whether Cheny helps or hurt the Party of No:

"If Barack Obama had come in and done what he said he was going to do and look at the stuff and see what is working, then Cheney would have continued to do what he was doing -- working on memoirs, finishing his house," she said. "He's got a good life. He's got stuff going on. He doesn't care about being on TV. There's no more politics there. He's not settling any scores. He just wants people to understand."

Matalin needs to sit down and shut the hell up too if she truely values the GOP. Over 60% of American's dislike, if not downright hate, Cheney. She can not ignore that little tidbit of knowledge, or if she does..it's her funeral..or rather..the Rethugs funeral in 2012.

Taylor Marsh was polled by the National Journal on this question as well. He however is a lefty and I like his take on TBDC and how the bastard can politicize anything, including the issue of torture:

"Dems should be aware that Cheney has succeeded in politicizing torture. However, his real goal was drawing a line when he believes America became 'less safe,' which began under a Democratic president. It's his cynical calculation that when we are hit, he can remind people that it's Obama's fault; he's hoping for a new chapter in the right-wing 'Dems are soft on national security' talking point. Too bad you can't ignore Bush-Cheney policies, including torture, which got us where we are today."

The fact that people are taking sides on the issue of torture based on politics is scary indeed. My hope is that as long as The Big Dick Cheney™ keeps talking, the more Americans will distance themselves from the republican party and marginalize the mutha fuckas.

My final thought goes along with the next graphic, filched from The White Weasel on deviantart:
And I really want us all to remember the following line from Cheney the chickenhawk, thanks to 3rdtech also at Deviantart:

May Cheney spend eternity in hell with the rest of his disgusting friends. He can't get there soon enough for me however, because when it's all said and done...we must remember the demand to waterboard KSM came from the Office of the Vice President:

*Two U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.

*The former chief of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, in charge of interrogations, tells The Daily Beast that he considered the request reprehensible.

*Much of the information in the report of the 9/11 Commission was provided through more than 30 sessions of torture of detainees.

Where in the blue hell is that Special Prosecutor Mr Holder???? Cheney's ticker ain't gonna keep pumping forever dude...

How many military bases do we have around the world?

I was thinking about this recently and finally looked it up. From the wonderful folks at Global Research:

More than 1000 US Bases and/or Military Installations

The main sources of information on these military installations (e.g. C. Johnson, the NATO Watch Committee, the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases) reveal that the US operates and/or controls between 700 and 800 military bases Worldwide.

In this regard, Hugh d’Andrade and Bob Wing's 2002 Map 1 entitled "U.S. Military Troops and Bases around the World, The Cost of 'Permanent War'", confirms the presence of US military personnel in 156 countries.

The US Military has bases in 63 countries. Brand new military bases have been built since September 11, 2001 in seven countries.

In total, there are 255,065 US military personnel deployed Worldwide.

These facilities include a total of 845,441 different buildings and equipments. The underlying land surface is of the order of 30 million acres. According to Gelman, who examined 2005 official Pentagon data, the US is thought to own a total of 737 bases in foreign lands. Adding to the bases inside U.S. territory, the total land area occupied by US military bases domestically within the US and internationally is of the order of 2,202,735 hectares, which makes the Pentagon one of the largest landowners worldwide (Gelman, J., 2007).

The map can be seen in a larger, viewable format (pdf) here.

But..farther down the page at Global Research..there was this:

There are 6000 military bases and/ or military warehouses located in the U.S. (See Wikipedia, February 2007).

Total Military Personnel is of the order of 1,4 million of which 1,168,195 are in the U.S and US overseas territories.

Taking figures from the same source, there are 325,000 US military personnel in foreign countries:

800 in Africa,
97,000 in Asia (excluding the Middle East and Central Asia),
40,258 in South Korea,
40,045 in Japan,
491 at the Diego Garcia Base in the Indian Ocean,
100 in the Philippines, 196 in Singapore,
113 in Thailand,
200 in Australia,
and 16,601 Afloat.

In Europe, there are 116,000 US military personnel including 75,603 who are stationed in Germany.

In Central Asia about 1,000 are stationed at the Ganci (Manas) Air Base in Kyrgyzstan and 38 are located at Kritsanisi, in Georgia, with a mission to train Georgian soldiers.

In the Middle East (excludng the Iraq war theater) there are 6,000 US military personnel, 3,432 of whom are in Qatar and 1,496 in Bahrain.

In the Western Hemisphere, excluding the U.S. and US territories, there are 700 military personnel in Guantanamo, 413 in Honduras and 147 in Canada.

Map 3 provides information regarding military personnel on duty, based on a regional categorization (broad regions of the world). The total number of military personnel at home in the U.S. and/or in US Territories is 1,139,034. There are 1,825 in Europe 114, 660, 682 in Subsaharian Africa, 4, 274 in the Middle East and Southern Asia, 143 in the Ex-USSR, and 89,846 in the Pacific.

Which really set my head to spinning..then...I saw this page at Global Research. It excerpts Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic". I decided to just give it up..I was depressed enough for today. You however can check it out if you are of a very strong constitution..if you do..let me know ok?

Obama bitched today about the cost of Medicare/healthcare (video below) and the Social Security costs (cough..bullshit!) in the federal budget and after reading how much crap military-wise, we have spread around the entire friggin world..Obama can kiss my hairy ass about the cost of Medicare and Universal healthcare and his bogus argument about Social Security. Shit-can most of the military bases around the fucking world dude (keep the ones here in Amerika)..then maybe we can have single payer healthcare. It would be a start..we are NOT the worlds babysitter, we simply can not afford to do that anymore. One base per country with minimal staffing..that's it!

I know..its not reasonable to expect our government to close all those bases..but for the love of Buddha..where are our priorities? I am tired of friends dying for lack of basic healthcare..really..I am.

Philip Zelikow testifies before Congress on torture.

Mr. Zelikow is the individual that wrote the memo outlining what was wrong with the BushCo shill's logic, with regard to the torture memo's Jay Bybee and John Yoo scripted.

Mr. Zelikow appeared again exclusively on Rachel Maddow's show last night after his day on the stand in congress. That video is below.

Then watch the idiot known as Lindsey Graham badger the shit out of a witness yesterday. Sweet-friggin-jaysus-in-a-speedo, Graham is still trying to justify torture. There is never a justification for torture. Never, ever. Morally and legally there is no justification, I don't give a rat's ass what Lindsey Graham, The Big Dick Cheney™ or Jay Bybee say.

Chrysler to close 1 in 4 dealerships

42 of the dealerships are in Michigan. As if they haven't been hit hard enough, more to come for the citizens of MI. 789 total dealerships will be shuttered throughout the United States according to various news outlets.

This is where the Bankruptcy judge comes in. He will be the one to cancel the contracts between the dealerships and Chrysler. Even if you are someone that hates the bailout, surely you must have compassion for the folks that have done nothing wrong yet will bear the brunt of this carnage.

The court document outlining which dealerships are getting the axe can be read or downloaded here (pdf) courtesy of the Detroit Free Press.

These dealers will have until May 26th to file an objection..but seriously..does anyone think they have a snowball's chance in hell of saving their businesses?

The anniversary of the creation of Israel

Tomorrow is the 61st anniversary of Israel's creation in the middle east. I want Palestinian's and Jews to live in peace. American Friends Service Committee, AFSC, has a video that shows how the Palestinian land has been carved up during the various decades.

Palestinian's should be allowed to live on their homeland and be self-sustaining. Israel has taken control of prime real estate over the decades. There has to be a dialogue that offers both groups of people freedom to live in peace. There has to be....



May 15,1948 was a banner day for Jews. It was quite the opposite for Palestinians. The nightmare has never ended for Palestinians.When will peace come to this region..or is the real question...

Will peace ever come to this region?

From AFSC's site:

There are often different understandings of the history of 1948 and its ongoing significance. We believe that an honest discussion and accounting of this period is central to any lasting and just peace between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis.

61 years of war and turmoil must to come to an end..It will take the entire world to accomplish this. Please, let the conversation begin today.

The right to be cranky...and crazy as hell.

I do love Garrison Keillor. The man is a wingnut after my own heart. His latest piece over at Salon is rife with hilarity and just outright batshit craziness.

Which is why I love Garrison..he is nucking futs.

The Big Dick Cheney™ is just shooting from his tired, old, decrepit hip. He is desperate and he is cranky at the thought of being tried for selling torture. That he keeps finding idiots that give him a soapbox to stand on simply amazes the fuck outta me.

How come someone doesn't pull that damn box out from under his extremist ass? Let him land hard and possibly break that hip..then he would have something to take care of..his own self, and perhaps he would then go gently into the good night.

Or not. As long as Faux Noise is owned and operated by Murdoch the Magnificent..The Big Dick will always have a place to spew his fuckery and outrageous bullshittery. Now, a small slice of recent Keillor for your edification:

Only one out of five Americans is willing to describe himself or herself as a Republican these days, and frankly I am tempted to become one of them. For the variety, and because they need me and because when I heard former Vice President Cheney talk about the meaning of Republicanism the other day -- "We are what we are," he said -- I felt drawn to the simplicity and dignity of that. And I have never been a Republican, just as I've never been to South America, and that makes it tempting.

*snip*

I went to a party the other day and heard the word "torture" and said that I didn't think we should prosecute the Bush lawyers who wrote those torture memos, and people jumped all over me like I was an escaped Nazi, so as long as I was persona non grata, I said some more stuff -- that America would be a better country if we took the vote away from people over 65 because they are selfish and greedy and the future of America is its young. People about dropped their drinks. And then I said that cat ownership is a sign of emotional immaturity and a good predictor of a tendency toward violent crime. I saw lifelong friends turn away in disgust. And you know something? I Don't Care. It felt good.

Liquor wasn't the cause. Crankiness was. And crankiness is the birthright of Republicans.

*snip*

As Mr. Cheney said, "We are what we are. We're Republicans. We have certain things we believe in. And maintaining our loyalty and commitment to those principles is vital to our success." A good thing to say, and many a president of the Elks, the Odd Fellows, the Moose, the Knights of Pythias, and the Ancient and Mystic Order of Hoot Owls has said something similar: We will not bend our principles so as to please people we didn't like in the first place.

The real problem, as I see it, is that American's are getting their collective panties in a wad over whatever the hell The Big Dick Cheney™ spews on a weekly or semi-weekly basis. Dick is like your batshit crazy uncle at the family reunion. Everyone is sickened by what he says, but no one will tell the old bastard to shut the fuck up. Everyone just rolls their eyes at Uncle Crazy and tries hard to ignore him..as his voice gets louder and more shrill.

We, the universal we, need to ignore The Big Dick, or just make fun of him like it's a fucking contest. The media evidently has nothing important to report lately as those are the assholes that keep tossing The Big Dick and his crappola into the limelight. The responsible media, the few that are still out there, need to just let The Big Dick run his piehole in the vacuum known as Faux Noise, and let it alone. If Face the Nation can't find a fucking intelligent, sane individual for their Sunday morning...cough..news show, then they deserve to have their ratings plummet into the shithole basement of Neilsen.

Surely there is important news to feed us? Surely there is something timely and thought-provoking out there the idiots in the media can attach their broken down wagons to? If they don't have enough 'real' news to give us, then the bastards need to retire or close down the business. Dick's pov doesn't make it true, nor does it make it NEWS people in the media..you got that??

Because Garrison Keillor doesn't write enough columns to fill the void of humorous or thought-provoking OpEd's. I do love Eugene Robinson's take on the Big Dick, but there aren't enough Pulitzer Prize-winning writers out there willing to take on the tirades of our former Veep who evidently left his brain in the limo, along with his rifle and overcoat.

If you google The Big Dick under the 'news' heading..you get pretty much nothing but American Media outlets..I don't find The Guardian wasting ink or space on Cheney..just the idiots in our media.

So when the next rightwing nutjob you know whines about that 'liberal bias' in the MSM, just point to the millions of lines of tripe being spewed by the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, LAT, or any other media outlet that keeps hyping Cheney and his pov on the Obama administration and our..cough..security. Because sista, any media outlet that keeps giving Cheney space instead of telling us about the poverty and ignorance in Appalachia, the millions of humans displaced in Sudan, the legal raping of women in Muslim countries, the pollution that is coal sludge ponds or how GM's new move to dissolve hundreds of retail outlets will affect your town or burg...well, they just aren't worth the powder to blow them all to hell..along with The Big Dick Cheney™.

And we wonder why so many news organizations are closing up shop. Investigative journalism has taken a powder and in it's place..we get The Big Dick Cheney™ and his asinine musings. Cheney, after all, is the man who sold us the Iraq War people!

...and we all know how that shit has turned out, don't we?

Artwork filched from the wonderful Dark Black.
Crossposted at my group rant palace The Sirens Chronicles. Stop by and say hi..or piss off..something! ;)

Soldier that killed five on third tour in Iraq

From MSNBC:

The U.S. military has charged an American sergeant with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault after he allegedly went on a shooting spree at a counseling center at a military base in Baghdad, officials said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. David Perkins told reporters that the charges were filed against Sgt. John M. Russell of the 54th Engineering Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany. Russell was taken into custody following the Monday shooting at Camp Liberty.

Perkins said the dead included two doctors -- one from the Navy and the other from the Army. The other three dead were enlisted personnel.

He said a probe has also begun into whether the Army has enough mental health facilities in Iraq.

Separately, officials told NBC News that doctors had diagnosed Russell with some kind of stress ailment, and either the doctors or Russell's commander ordered that he be disarmed.

There was reportedly an altercation between Russell and the clinic staff and he was escorted from the area by an armed soldier. At some point, Russell seized that soldier's weapon, returned to the clinic and allegedly opened fire, killing the five victims.

If he can't plead temporary insanity or aggravated PTSD, I don't know who can.

"Those people aren't stupid, they just have no morals"

Barack Obama is a Constitutional Law Scholar.

Jonathan Turley is a Constitutional Law Professor.

Dick Cheney and George Bush are not Constitutional Law Anythings.

When Professor Turley says Bush, Cheney, et al have no morals and they aren't stupid when it comes to using torture and justifying it, the man knows wtf he is talking about.

If we, as Americans, allow Bush, Cheney et al, to actually make a case for allowing others to torture people, we toss the rule of law into the crapper folks. There is never any logical or rational reason to allow or consent to the torture of human beings and thereby ignore the rule of law.

There is nothing fucking honorable about torturing anyone. Nothing.

Watch Turley tear the hell out of Cheney, and his band of fuckwits, on their newest defense that torture was allowable and a good thing for America.

And where in the blue hell is the AG Eric Holder and the special prosecutor to investigate the White House and all the assholes that worked there in regards to the torturing of human beings.

Marilyn French passes..

Marilyn French, 79, a writer and feminist scholar whose provocative 1977 novel, The Women's Room, captured the frustration of a generation of women fed up with society's traditional conceptions of their roles, died Saturday at a New York hospital. The cause was heart failure.

Although The Women's Room received mixed reviews, it became a feminist classic, selling more than 20 million copies in two dozen languages with a story that spoke to women seeking liberation from societal norms.

*snip*

The novel's most-quoted line - "All men are rapists, and that's all they are," spoken by the protagonist after the near-rape of her daughter - was often attributed to Ms. French herself, giving critics what they thought was proof of the author's man-hating rage.

But the author said she did not hate men. "What I am opposed to," she told the London Times a few years ago, "is the notion that men are superior to me." Although the novel was not autobiographical, there was, she said, "nothing in [it] I've not felt."

*snip*

Although her best-selling novel brought her to public attention, later books cemented her role as a leading feminist writer on gender inequality. They include Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals (1985) and The War Against Women (1992). Her last major work was a four-volume From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women, completed in 2008. She is survived by daughter Jamie and son Robert.

Entire article/obit can be read here.

US soldier guns down 4 other soldiers in Iraq

He then turned the gun on himself. From MSNBC:

NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reported the assailant took his own life after the violent outburst. The attacker was described as a "stressed out" U.S. soldier.

The military said in a statement that the shooting occurred about 2 p.m. Monday at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport.

Wonder how many tours he has done in Iraq? Bet it's more than one.

Update: The NYT has updated this incident:

The United States military said Monday that five American soldiers had been shot to death by a fellow soldier who opened fire on them at one of the biggest American bases in Baghdad, and that the suspected shooter was in custody.

CNN, citing unnamed officials, said that at least three others were wounded in the attack, which it said had taken place at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war stress.

Anyway to look at this, it's a horrible result of the war in Iraq and multiple tours.

New ad goes after Repub old guard

The new DNC ad goes after all the old farts that made the rounds of the Sunday morning shows. Is it 1996 or 2009? Hard to tell with the same ole white guys shooting off their pieholes.

Wanda Sykes at the Press Corp Dinner

Check out the zinger she gives Boss Limbaugh..hilarious!

Get em Lawrence!

I do adore Lawrence O'Donnell. The man has his shit together when he faces the opposition. He makes Pat Buchanan look like a bumbling old douchebag on a regular basis.

This video is short but sweet as O'Donnell rips the living crap out of the torture-loving, bag o batshit fool David Rivkin. H/T to Crooks and Liars. First thing he asks this dipshit..is..Have you ever served in the military? Of course he hasn't..chickenhawks don't serve, they just send others to do their deadly bidding.

Why doesn't Larry have his own fucking show?????

Saturday...

Woke up to the news that Daddy Rich, aka the NBA's Chuck Daly passed away. Did a short post on him here on my sports blog. He has gone on to the big roundball place in the sky where I am sure he will see Red Auerbach and other greats that went before him.

It's a sports extravaganza day for moi. Cav's play again today..Go King James!

Plenty of baseball on the boob toob.

Stock car racing this evening, under the lights at Darlington.

Haven't read any political fare yet this morning..so this is all I got for now.

Are you stressed about the 'stress test'?

You aren't? Well shit, the banks aren't either!

The 'too big to fail' banks know the government will give them what they need to stay afloat. After all, according to Dick Durbin they run Congress. But..what if they are wrong on that? From the NYT:

But that does not necessarily mean the banks will get that money from the government. The findings, to be released Thursday by the Obama administration, suggest that the rescue money that Congress has already approved will be enough to fill the gaps. If so, the big bailouts for the banks may be over.

All of this assumes that the economy does not take another turn for the worse, which would result in even more losses at the banks — and the need for even more money to prop them up. But hopes that the tests will be a turning point in this financial crisis electrified Wall Street on Wednesday and some overseas markets the next day. Financial shares soared, lifting the broader American stock market to its highest level in four months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 101.63, or 1.2 percent, to close at 8,512.28 Wednesday, while Japan's Nikkei index rose more than 4 percent by midday Thursday.

Now, I could give a rat's ass how the 'markets' reacted. I am really friggin tired of seeing the Dow Jones on the bottom of the screen on MSNBC all fucking day. If you have any stocks at this point in time..you can afford to wait for the upswing. It will come you know..but it might be awhile.

Did you read Timmy Geithner's OpEd? No? Oh well, just step right up and click that linky folks!

What? You don't give a shit how Timmy sells us another boatload of bullshit? Even if this time it's the stress test and his version of recent history. Ok, you are forcing me to post some of his fuckery here:

The president came into office facing a deep recession and a damaged financial system. Credit had dried up, forcing businesses to lay off workers and defer investment. Families were finding it difficult to borrow to finance a new house, buy a car or pay college tuition. Without action to restore lending, we faced the prospect of a much deeper and longer recession.

President Obama confronted these problems with dramatic action to address the housing crisis and to restart credit markets that are responsible for roughly half of all business and consumer lending. The administration also initiated a program to provide a market for legacy loans and securities to help cleanse bank balance sheets. These programs are helping to repair lending channels that do not rely on banks, and will contribute to fixing the banking system itself.

However, the banking system has also needed a more direct and forceful response. Actions by Congress and the Bush administration last fall helped bring tentative stability. But when President Obama was sworn into office in January, confidence in America’s banking system remained low.

Because of concern about future losses, and the limited transparency of bank balance sheets, banks were unable to raise equity and found it difficult to borrow without government guarantees. And they were pulling back on lending to protect themselves against the possibility of a worsening recession. As a result, the economy was deprived of credit, and this caused severe damage to confidence and slowed economic activity.

It seems to me that Timmy explains things like he is talking to a ten year old. I am not ten years old. I do not need for Timmy to tell me a 'story'.

I know what happened and when thanks to PublicIntegrity.org and ProPublica.org. I know how crappy things were when Obama took over the oval office Jan 21, 2009. I know that the Obama administration is just as good as Bush's was..when it comes to explaining how they spend our money.

Don't condescend to me buddy. It pisses me the hell off, and frankly, doesn't make you look very good either.

The news of the day-converting Muslims, voting in same sex marriage and Jeff Sessions is a racist!

First, my sports post is here. Long live King James!

Now, politics:

Maine House of Reps passes same-sex marriage bill. From Jurist:

The Maine House of Representatives voted 89-57 Tuesday in favor of a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the state. The vote follows last week's approval by the Maine Senate. The proposed legislation now faces one more vote before the Senate and the House before it goes before Governor John Baldacci, who has yet to take a public position on the issue.

Well, the people of Maine should be proud of their lawmakers that voted for this bill. They should kick out the fuckers that did not.

The Rethugs pick a conservatard to take Specter's spot on the Judiciary committee. They of course picked a racist mofo. From Jurist:

US Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was chosen Monday by Senate Republicans to replace newly-declared Democrat Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) as ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions will play a key role in questioning President Barack Obama's nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the US Supreme Court. Obama did not call Sessions Monday to discuss potential nominees for the post, but did call former ranking Republican Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who cannot be reappointed because of term limits. Sessions, a conservative senator and former US attorney, was nominated as a federal judge in 1986 by then-president Ronald Reagan, but his confirmation was blocked by the Judiciary Committee over allegedly racist remarks.

Sessions is a racist bag of shit, so it stands to reason the Rethugs would pick him..right? Clueless is the word that comes to mind for me.

Last but certainly not least..our soldiers are attempting to convert Muslims..on our dime. From Alternet:

Al Jazeera Strikes Back at Pentagon, Releases Unedited Footage of U.S. Soldiers' 'Bible Study' in Afghanistan.
Hours after Al Jazeera first broadcast a video showing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan being instructed by the military’s top chaplain in the country to “hunt people for Jesus” as they spread Christianity to the overwhelmingly Muslim population, the Pentagon shot back. It charged that Al Jazeera had “grossly misrepresent[ed] the truth.” Col. Greg Julian, told Al Jazeera: “Most of this is taken out of context … this is irresponsible and inappropriate journalism.”

Now, Al Jazeera and the man who filmed the controversial material are striking back. The network has just released unedited and unaltered footage of U.S. soldiers in ‘bible study’ in Afghanistan. Jazeera describes it as “Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a U.S. documentary maker and former member of the U.S. military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul.”

Check out the video below, released by Al Jazeera. Lets hear the Army call them liars now!