VOD's Links

i'd be fucked if i did

oh forgot
(((no. one))

please tell it to stop staring in my eyes for it shall see paradise..we dont want that to happen now do we???

http://search.playlist.com/tracks/wild%20horses%20stones

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

these FUBAR threads and the cam inaccessibility is really cutting back on the show blog people.

i remember when we had a week long blog shutdown.

we had three or four people around when it came back.

think the highest MRR "Online and Active" thread was over 600.

outdoor seating above the creek

wireless

etc...

(salsa is a little sketchy so far)

Happe Talk

Glad you enjoyed the Oreo Shake.

you should have seen the look on the gal's face at the drive thru when I picked up my order for 60 of them LOL.

;)....... Going to go lay down now - the numbness is starting to wear off.

Reality. TV. Two more reasons to read.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
---Ray Bradbury

The salsa has chunks of avocado in it..I've never seen that before at a restaurant..

above the river in Coloma. Don't exactly know where you live...in the foothills somewhere

Happe Talk

___

.♡. - .☮.

not too far I don't think...maybe that's around Sacramento? Which is about 2 hours away

En route to Orlando on his private campaign plane, the Straight Talk Express, John McCain, wearing a rumpled suit, looks braced for his task: Facing a superstar opponent more than 20 years his junior, the one-time maverick is trying to convince America that he is the fresher, better choice for president. Laying aside a book on General David Petraeus, he talks with Marie Claire about his opponent, women voters, and his inner Kiefer Sutherland.

MC: If Barack Obama has indeed challenged you to a duel, as you've put it, what is your weapon of choice?
JM: Lightsabers. [slices an imaginary lightsaber through the air]

MC: They say you've been in three plane crashes . . .
JM: Once I ejected from my airplane. Once I had a flameout. And once I was shot down. Cindy gets nervous when we fly. I tell her, "Don't worry. I'm going to die, but not in a plane."

MC: You know Obama fairly well. Do you "like" him?
JM: I admire him, and I like him. I think he has a great deal of talent. He should be applauded for his eloquence and for his ability to motivate millions.

MC: Among single women, Obama is leading in the polls. What are we missing about you?
JM: With all due respect, we're basically tied in the polls. And I'm proud of where we are in our campaign. But let me also say I'm the underdog. I understand - and I hope this does not sound in any way inappropriate - the importance of the women's vote. They are the majority of the population, and many of them are still undecided. So I have to work hard.

MC: You liken Obama to Britney in your famous ad, while portraying yourself as the more serious candidate. Which celebrity would you like to be compared to? Bob Dylan? Jack Nicholson?
JM: Kiefer Sutherland. [laughs, imitates a voice from the show 24] "It's Jack Bauer." We have a lot in common because he escapes all the time.

MC: Um, he's also a torturer.
JM: Yeah, that's right. That's where Jack and I disagree. He believes in torture, but I don't. He says, "Tell me where the weapons are." The person says, "I won't." Bam! "OK, I'll tell."

http://www.marieclaire.com/world/articles/john-mccain-interview

Happe Talk

Happe Talk

The conservative delegates in St. Paul did not chant, "All of the Above." They chanted, "Drill, Baby, Drill."

So much has coastal drilling gotten conservatives foaming at the mouth, that they're barely bothering with the pretense that they believe in a comprehensive energy policy.

While conservatives continue their extended temper tantrum, the current ban on most coastal drilling expires September 30th, putting pressure on congressional leaders.

With Congress back in session, congressional leaders are planning to put compromise packages on the floor.

...

What's the response to this attempt at compromise among some leading congressional conservatives? Shut down our entire federal government!

No, I'm not kidding.

Because conservative leaders are so deep in the pocket of Big Oil, they are vehemently against any compromise that doesn't give Big Oil everything it wants.

1.. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.
2.. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it..
3.. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them..
4.. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
5.. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
6.. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me
7.... Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
8.. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
9.. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
10... Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
11.. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.
12.. God must love stupid people; He made so many.
13.. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
14.. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
15.. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
16.. Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!
17.. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.
18. Procrastinate Now!
19.. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?
20.. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
21.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
22.. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
23..They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
24.. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
25.. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.
26.. Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.
27.. The trouble with life is there's no background music.

means to be inundated with a bunch of bad news...

27.. The trouble with life is there's no background music.

Thanks for the smile SJ...

all you have to do is look out a window for some of the best news in the world.

most times eh?

it's getting to the point where you (us) can appreciate it that's the trick.

perspective is absolutely necessary when dealing with the screaming awfuls.

give P and the fur bandits a helloo for me.

accepted the fact that a very small number of assholes would be delighted to shut down every joy and freedom that makes up America.

north, south and inbetween.

far as i can tell they're in the drivers seat and have been since they invented fractional banking and rigged elections.

being willing to kill and being able to get away with it keeps em there.

captcha sucks.
Did Sam ever post the link to the statistics he was talking about on his video today? He said he would post it after the show. I can't find the link. thanks

which stats are you looking for specifically?

i'd vote for him in a heartbeat!

John McSames...

love ya all!

Submitted by Sunshine Jim on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 5:20pm.
which stats are you looking for specifically?

He was talking about the taxes the wealthy pay, he read a bunch of stats.

The stats are linked at the top of the blog.

The Alaska paper has some question for Sarah "You're a Sexist!" Palin
John Aravosis (DC) · 9/09/2008 04:30:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It!

The Anchorage Daily News, the big paper in Alaska, has some questions for Sarah Palin, should she ever deign to come out of hiding.
There's no polite way to say it: Sarah Palin has been hiding out from hard questions. It took 10 days from when John McCain announced his pick until the McCain campaign agreed to schedule Palin an unscripted interview with a serious journalist....

• You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?

• Sen. Ted Stevens' trial is still pending; he has declined to say whether he would accept a pardon from President Bush before he leaves office Jan. Do Alaska voters deserve an answer to that question before they cast their vote for or against Stevens in November? What is your position on a president pardoning a public official before a jury has ruled on guilt or innocence?...

• Why have you reneged on your earlier pledge to cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's investigation into Troopergate?

• In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?" What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?...

• If you were a fully qualified vice-presidential candidate from the get-go, why did you wait more than 10 days to face reporters?

• McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?
Wow, asking about Vladimir Putin and presidential pardons - how sexist.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/520272.html

aye, i'd vote for that palin before i'd vote for caribou barbie

That's Not True

Begala:

ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Let's be a little gentle.
Look, every elected official in this country works under the system we
have, which is you try to get a little bit of your tax money back. You
just don't want to leave it all in Washington. The amazing thing about
Sarah Palin is when she became governor she actually stood up and said
no. And she made it -

BEGALA: That's not true.

CASTELLANOS: She took a strong stand. That is rare and that never
happened.

ROBERTS: All right.

BEGALA: That's just not true. You know, John, the facts matter.
There's lots of things that are debatable who is more qualified or
less experienced or more this or more passionate, whatever. It is a
fact that she campaigned and supported that bridge to nowhere. It is a
fact that she hired lobbyists to get earmarks. It is a fact that as
governor she lobbies for earmarks. Her state is essentially a welfare
state taking money from the federal government.

ROBERTS: We still have 56 days to talk about this back and forth.

BEGALA: This is the problem. We have this false debate when we ought
to have at least agreed upon facts.

And Castellanos isn't some campaign flunky, he's a guy that CNN pays to tell you things that aren't true. Still it would be absurd and pointless to debate whether CNN has some modest obligation to tell you things which are not false.

(ht ctblogger)

-Atrios 12:26

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0809/09/ltm.02.html

And She Keeps Lying

Obama statement:

On the same day that dozens of news organizations have exposed Governor Palin's phony Bridge to Nowhere claim as a 'naked lie,' she and John McCain continue to repeat the claim in their stump speeches. Maybe tomorrow she'll tell us she sold it on eBay," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

At this point even Republicans all know it's full of shit, but they don't care. It pisses off liberals! And that's really all they care about.

...up to 23.

-Atrios 11:24

Boom

Lehman may be the next to be buried by Big Shitpile.

-Atrios 11:21

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/lehman-goes-boo.html

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 5:59pm.
The stats are linked at the top of the blog.

Thanks.

Here's some more stats:

Oh Well

Another miserable failure.

For 2008 fiscal year (which ends at the end of the month), the CBO forecast a $407 billion deficit, or about 2.9% of GDP. The deficit should rise to $438 billion in 2009 and $431 billion in 2010.

-Atrios 11:14

LINK

If you sign in on the right hand side of the page rather than under a comment, there should not be any captcha.

Sorry if this is already posted

Factcheck fact check:

Correction: In our original story, we incorrectly said that a few of the claims we examine here were included in the e-mail by Kilkenny. Only one of the claims – about the librarian’s firing – was similar to an item in that e-mail. We regret the error.

h/t to pjsauter

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html

Hold Your Heads Up
By BOB HERBERT
Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P. get away with ridiculing all things liberal?

Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it. Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.

Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.

So there was Hillary Clinton, of all people, sponsoring legislation to ban flag-burning; and Barack Obama, who once opposed the death penalty, morphing into someone who not only supports it, but supports it in cases that don’t even involve a homicide.

Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too liberal.

“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington.”

Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.

There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land. Conservatives would never have allowed it.

Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever proud.

The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act. Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.

“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”

Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real, is insane.

When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.”

Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek, “predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.’ ”

Scary.

More here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09herbert.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=s...

Boom Lehman may be the next
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 6:13pm.

---------------

I say good ridding to them ToniD. Their wealth originated from the slave trade, and, they build prisons. Merchants of misery, they are.

Illinois News
Lehman Brothers acknowledges ties to slavery

UPDATED: 11/24/03 10:57 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO - Lehman Brothers has become the first city of Chicago contractor to acknowledge past ties to slavery.

An affidavit filed by the financial services firm says the three brothers who founded the company purchased at least one female slave and may have owned others.

Last year, the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance dictating that companies working with the city must disclose whether they ever profited from slavery.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-19496533_ITM

Digby has a great post up called: Self Correcting Conservatives. The Republicans do a great job of defining liberals and The Democratic Party lets them get away with this crap every time.

And I always felt that Democrats should have run hard against conservatism itself so that a majority of voters would reject the GOP brand no matter who was wearing it. Instead we saw airy campaigns rife with symbols of liberal progress and the promise of some new post partisan agreement that only one side had signed on to. Indeed, they have all spent way too much time for the last year extolling the other side, genuflecting to their icons and pretending that there was some national consensus that everyone wanted Democrats to stop their vicious partisanship — when they hadn’t lifted a finger. It’s been maddening to watch.

So here we are. It doesn’t mean Obama will lose, of course. He probably won’t. Their side is even fundamentally weaker now than when the campaign began. But since both sides decided to run on personality and symbols we now have an empty campaign. McCain had no choice because his party is as decrepit as he is and their ideas are even more dessicated. But Democrats didn’t have to help them hide it. If they had worked a little bit harder at discrediting conservatism itself, people wouldn’t have felt so comfortable coming back to it, which is what Nate Silver thinks may have happened. There’s much about the Obama campaign that I admire. But I have always believed it was a mistake to box themselves into a post-partisan trap…read on.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/self-correcting-conservatives-by-...

Virginia county issues “chilling” voter registration report
By: SilentPatriot @ 10:00 AM - PDT
Officials in charge of voter registration in Virginia seem to be asking for Federal investigation… According to this press release from this extremely important battleground state, students are being told that they risk losing their scholarship and tax dependency status if they register to vote in their college, as opposed to home, state. And surprise, it appears all these warnings are bogus and have one impact and one impact only: to suppress voter turnout among college-aged people, who are overwhelmingly supporting Obama this year. Memo to Virginia: that’s illegal.

InsideHigherEd:

Last week, Virginia’s Montgomery County, home to Virginia Tech, issued a press release regarding proper protocol for college students registering to vote. In interviews with Inside Higher Ed Tuesday, it was described by turns as “unsubstantiated,” “chilling,” and (more generously) as not “incredibly encouraging or friendly.” Read more…

(Read the rest of this story…)

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/09/virginia-county-issues-chilling...

Palin's closest friends won't commit to voting for her

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Good Morning America, the friends of Sarah Palin interview is burning up the blogosphere because some of them are avowedly pro-choice -- in opposition to Palin -- and three of the four won't even say they're supporting her ticket.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/abc-interviews-palins-clo_n_125...

Palin's closest friends won't commit to voting for her

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Good Morning America, the friends of Sarah Palin interview is burning up the blogosphere because some of them are avowedly pro-choice -- in opposition to Palin -- and three of the four won't even say they're supporting her ticket.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/abc-interviews-palins-clo_n_125...

British Prime Minister, in effect,
endorses Obama for President

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Brown has broken with British convention and made clear that he favors Barack Obama as the next US President. In a departure from the usual self-denying ordinance of Prime Ministers past, Brown has written an article for The Monitor magazine in which he praises Obama.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Browns_endorsement.html?show...

Latest poll: Obama leads
by five points nationally

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest IBD/TIPP Poll of registered voters shows Sen. Barack Obama running ahead of Sen. John McCain by five points, 45% to 40%.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2008/09/09/ibdtipp_obama_leads_by_five...

Palin's Alaska #1 in taxes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of the 50 states, Alaska ranks No. 1 in taxes per resident.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1839724,00.html

At least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The feigned outrage of McCain and Palin at the inaction of Congress and the influence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lobbyists is ironic considering the fact that “at least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” in recent years.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/09/mccain-lobby-fannie-freddie/

But finally some good news, and some bad news for Palin and McFeeble!

Bush backer endorses Obama, calling Palin 'scary'

A former Democratic New York mayor who backed George W. Bush for President in 2004 has now labeled Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "scary" and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

Politico asked Koch "what prompted the move."

"The designation of Palin to be vice president," he replied. "She's scary."

"Any time someone goes to the library and says, 'I want to ban books,' and the librarian says 'no,' and she threatens to fire them -- that's scary," he said.

As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin inquired about banning a slew of "controversial books," including those by Stephen King and Wiliam Faulkner. The McCain campaign says "she was just inquiring about the library's policy on banning books, with no aim of actually banning any. 'It was a rhetorical question -- nothing more,' the McCain-Palin campaign said in a memo yesterday.'"

In his endorsement statement, he termed Palin "a plucky, exciting candidate." But he added that "when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency."

Notes the LA Times: "Koch, true to his New York roots, had backed Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. But in 2004, he gained a lot of ink when he stumped for President Bush's reelection. And previously, he had supported Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg in their successful runs for mayor of the city over which he once presided. And, at the statewide level in New York, he backed former GOP Sen. Al D'Amato and former GOP Gov. George Pataki."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_backer_endorses_Obama_calling_Palin_0...

Researchers at Emory University found that humans are biologically programmed to be nice. Their study used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of women who were playing a game called the Prisoners'
Dilemma. While seeking the goal of financial gain, the women could choose between collaborative or self-aggrandizing strategies. Whenever they opted for the former, the parts of their brains correlated with reward-seeking behavior lit up.

"The longer the women engaged in a cooperative strategy, the more strongly flowed the blood to the pathways of pleasure," wrote Natalie Angier in her account in *The New York Times.*

Palin promotes general after he changes his stance on her experience
John Byrne and Mike Sheehan

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has promoted an adjutant-general in the Alaska National Guard to Lieutenant General after he reversed course on remarks that seemed to criticize the now-Republican candidate for Vice President.

Last Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell suggested to the Boston Globe that Gov. Sarah Palin's role as commander of the state's National Guard was largely ceremonial, thus blunting attempts by the McCain campaign to assert she had foreign policy experience.

"Our National Guard is basically just like any National Guard," Campbell told the paper. "You could call [Adjutant General] Joe Carter in Massachusetts and he would say he is organized the same way."

"She is very much engaged in what we are doing and she asks a lot of questions," Campbell added. "Maybe not the most engaged, but definitely engaged.

He noted that 75 percent of the Guard's budget is controlled by the National Guard Bureau in Washington, and that Alaska's anti-nuclear missile site is not under his or Palin's purview.

Later in the week, however, Campbell appeared on Fox News to tout Palin's candidacy.

"I'll tell you, in the last few days, I've been watching the press, and I've not been very pleased with what I've been seeing about the chastising of the National Guard by having it diminished by the insinuation that a commander-in-chief of the National Guard doesn't really control the military," he remarked. "The National Guard has 500,000 people in it around this great country, serving in states and overseas. National Guards are state military forces run by governors, and Sarah Palin does it great."

On Monday, he was quietly promoted. A statement -- issued by Palin's office -- asserted that the promotion signified "Governor Sarah Palin's support of the Guard and her commitment to reinforcing the cooperation between federal and state military assets."

"Palin took the opportunity to promote Campbell ahead of any pending emergency that may occur with the upcoming fall storm season," it added. "This allows Alaska to have more of a say in times of state disasters."

"This is about Alaskans serving Alaskans," Palin said in the release. "The promotion is a statement that the Alaska National Guard is the state military force responsible for responding to state issues, at the direction of the Governor. The decision to promote the Adjutant General to Lieutenant General is based on a fundamental states'-rights stance, for which Alaska has a strong historical position."

The promotion was first noted by VoteVets' Brandon Friedman.

At least one Alaskan National Guardsman has expressed outrage at the promotion. In a posting on the blog of an Alaska radio host, a man who claims to be a member of the Alaska National Guard expressed his ire.

"The Guardsmen found out about this travesty when a call went out for volunteers to fill the room for his ceremony," the Guardsman wrote. "The response was almost non-existent."

Campbell's promotion is largely ceremonial, the poster noted. Only the federal level of the national guard is able to promote individuals to the Major General rank.

"General Campbell's promotion will be a 'state' promotion," he said. "He will be a three-star general only while on State business. In a very rank-conscious environment, this distinction will not be lost on the other Flag Officers. He will look the part of a three-star general but will not be regarded as one by the very people he needs to work with and influence."

"No one can be promoted to the top ranks because of perceived leadership deficiencies but even with his obvious leadership flaws, he has no reluctance whatsoever to accept a cosmetic promotion," he added. "I believe the Governor's office will receive substantial correspondence urging her to reconsider this insult to the men and women of the Alaska National Guard."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Palin_promotes_general_after_he_changes_09...

Biologists on verge of creating life form
Team closing in on bringing non-living matter to life in Harvard laboratory.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/biologists-on-t.html?npu=1&mb...

Rep. Doolittle (R-CA) Appears In Abramoff Ally Indictment 100 Times
The indictment of Abramoff associate Kevin Ring contains over 100 mentions of a "Representative 5," aka California GOP Rep. John Doolittle.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/doolittle_prominent_in...

Sorry, I know I am posting like crazy
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 7:08pm.
But finally some good news...
-----
The good news is that the bar has been set 'way, 'way too high for toniD to post like crazy.

The bad news is that the bar has been set 'way, 'way too high for toniD to post like crazy.

Good summary of the Bridge to Nowhere fiasco but it's even worse:
From the Anchorage Daily News:

Alaska "is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone -- because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government."

The state is building a road to a bridge that doesn't even exist for $24M. Who's paying for it? You and me.

We are beyond the ridiculous here. It's utterly surreal.

http://www.adn.com/sarahpalin/story/511471.html

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 7:18pm.
Biologists on verge of creating life form
Team closing in on bringing non-living matter to life in Harvard laboratory...
------
"It's alive! It's A-LIIIIVE!"

(Sorry. I had a Colin Clive flashback.)

Reps Hoekstra And Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Hardball.

I'd like to see that kind of debate between Biden and Palin.

They were talking over each other like crazy and it didn't seem to bother Hoekstra that Debbie was a woman. She stood her ground!

Flashback: McCain Favored Abolishing Department Of Education
By Greg Sargent - September 9, 2008, 11:57AM
In Obama's ad hitting McCain on education this morning, there's this throwaway line:

"He even proposed abolishing the Department of Education."
What's the basis for this charge? It turns out that in December of 1994, McCain said: "I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well."

Here's the full context of a CNN interview on December 11, 1994 (via Nexis), when Newt-mania was gripping the land:

FRANK SESNO: Senator McCain, would you favor doing away with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Department of Energy?
Sen. JOHN McCAIN: I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well. HUD had experienced many failures under both Republican and Democrat administrations and I would certainly want to revamp it from the bottom up, because, clearly, public housing in America is almost as big a disaster as the welfare program...

We're working to determine if McCain has ever retracted this. Either way, it's an extreme position that some moderate Republicans would be reluctant to embrace these days. Even McCain probably wouldn't be willing to embrace it now, and it's probably something Obama or the Dems will use to hit McCain on education going forward, partly because it could alienate female voters.

Interestingly, the GOP's rapid response push-back on the Obama ad, which fought back against some of the spot's other charges, didn't even try to debunk the Department of Ed charge, even though it's among the more explosive ones.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/flashback_mccain...

Hillary To Raise Half A Million Dollars For Obama At Private Manhattan Dinner
By Greg Sargent - September 9, 2008, 1:30PM
Hillary is set to do what is likely to be her only high-dollar fundraiser for Obama before the election -- an intimate dinner in Manhattan where she's planning to raise at least $500,000 for the Illinois Senator's presidential run from some of the party's wealthiest donors.

The dinner will take place on September 22nd, at the Upper East Side home of her campaign's finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, who is one of the most prolific fundraisers in the Democratic Party.

"This is the only dinner that Hillary is doing in New York," Nemazee tells me in confirming the plans. "It's probably the only opportunity to have an intimate dinner with Senator Clinton on behalf of the Obama campaign."

Couples will pay $28,500 each to attend, and the cash will go to the Democratic National Committee's Victory fund to elect Obama.

Asked if he'd lined up enough commitments to achieve the dinner's goal, Nemazee said: "I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have commitments."

The effort to tap Hillary as a fundraising draw comes as Obama's finance team is stepping up the pressure on Democratic fundraisers to bring in more money as the full weight of Obama's decision to forego public financing becomes apparent.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/hillary_to_raise...

going on this afternoon

1
2

"Downright Perverse"

“It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn’t define what honor was. Now we know why,” says Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an emailed statement.

This is in response to an ad that McCain just unleashed. You can watch it here, if you want to be disgusted. the script is below the fold.

I think the gloves aren't just off at this point, I think the knives are out and the McCain campaign has smelled blood in the water, seeking to essentially hit a jugular. I suggest the Obama campaign hit back on the Rape Kits story that broke here last night...

Campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs told CBS News the legislation Obama supported provided information to children on what to watch for when with an adult they don't know, such as inappropriate advances or touching.

Script For “Education” (TV :30)
ANNCR: Education Week says Obama “hasn’t made a significant mark on education”.
That he’s “elusive” on accountability.
A “staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly”.
Obama’s one accomplishment?
Legislation to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergartners.
Learning about sex before learning to read?
Barack Obama.
Wrong on education. Wrong for your family.

Update: When I first saw the ad and response, I guess I was in a state of shock. This harsh and uncalled for ad by McCain should, SHOULD invariably produce significant blow back if our country still has a soul. To vilify a state legislator for trying to assist the youngest among us in gaining a basic understanding, so as to protect them from the pedifiles that populate our school yards, families and in some cases even churches, is not a henious situation as the McCain campaign seems to make it.

Shameless. Disgusting. Honestly, did I expect anything else from a Republican?

Being the right-wing, narcissistic steroid enhanced bike champion-just can't stand Michael Phelps, getting all of the attention.

your posts,imho,help cross feed new information and allow awareness to grow. not to mention helping to keep this blog a little more entertaining! :)
*****

Fuimus!

easier
let me go whine elsewhere like the kitchen

I also had to pull myself out of a depression from the last few days. The news today is helping a little! :)

Flash forward to January 21, 2009 . . .

In her first official act, Vice President Sarah Palin has asked for the resignation of Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

After a little distraction as Dick Cheney's staff received new business cards and stationery reflecting their transition to Palin's staff, the Vice President's Office issued the following statement this morning over Palin's signature:

"President McCain and I came to the nation's capital with a mandate for change, and I am pleased to begin that process right in the heart of Washington. When I took that oath or whatever yesterday, I looked over at the Library of Congress building and immediately had several questions.

"First, what is it with all the books? Isn't it enough to have our Declaration of Independence on display at the National Archives? Luckily the Archives have room for the upcoming Alaskan Declaration of Independence.

"Second, aren't books basically elitist? Most real Americans are too busy to read. So let's clear the books out and make use of this prime bit of real estate.

"We can begin with test bores that will quickly show whether there are natural resources beneath the Library that could be extracted for the benefit of all Americans. If that doesn't pan out, I believe that with some outside-the-Washington-box thinking we can come up with some cool adaptations for what's left of the building.

"That big room with the dome would make an ideal ice rink, and there's plenty of space elsewhere for a shooting range. Part of the building ought to be converted to a hotel, which would be a much more convenient place for my successors as mayor and governor to stay when they come to Washington to seek even more federal earmarks for Alaska. I know from experience that it can be like an Ironman race going from the hotel to K Street to the Capitol to fancy restaurants and back--and not a mooseburger in sight!

"On the way to the Inauguration Ball, I called Mr. Billington to ask that he implement these ideas. He did not agree to them. This led me to do a Google search on him. That thorough vetting process has resulted in shocking revelations about the Librarian. Among the issues:

"A year ago, he appointed Jon Scieszka the first national reading ambassador. Why not Jack London? Or Ernest Hemingway?

"Why did the Librarian write so many books about Russia? I know Russia: I've seen it from across the Bering Strait and believe me there's not much going on.

"Why has he helped bring so many 'scholars' from Russia to study here?

"What's with all these awards from foreign countries, especially the honorary doctorate from Moscow State University? What's the matter with American awards?

"He has held this job 21 years. In my book, 21 months in one position is more than enough.

"What and why is the National Book Festival? Sure it was supported by the last First Lady, but she represented an administration we Republicans are happy to have sent packing yesterday. Why not a National Snowmobile Festival?"

kick ass T!

;)

scut crew wil discover satire?

Those praying Mantis photos are like the one I have on the bricks outside of my window here.

HJC To Consider Contempt Citation for Mukasey Tomorrow
By Kate Klonick - September 9, 2008, 6:06PM
Finally! Congress is back from va-cay, and they've got lots of work to do before years end and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) is wasting no time.

Tomorrow morning, the Committee is scheduled to consider a citation for contempt for Attorney General Michael Mukasey for his failure to supply documents in accordance with the subpoena issued in late June.

The meeting is set to start at 10:15 EST. We'll be sure to keep you updated on what happens.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/hjc_to_consider_contem...

Palin Fired Aide Who Dated Wife of Todd's Friend
By Zachary Roth - September 9, 2008, 3:10PM
The Politico reported Friday that a longtime associate and former gubernatorial aide to Sarah Palin says he was asked to leave the governor's office after the Palins discovered that he was dating the soon-to-be-ex wife of a close friend of Todd Palin.

John Bitney, who grew up in Wasilla with Palin, told the paper cum website:

I wanted to stay with the governor and support the governor -- we're talking about someone who's been a friend for 30 years -- but I understood it, and I have no ax to grind over the whole thing."

Today, the Wall Street Journal added more to the story, reporting that seven weeks after publicly praising Bitney, Palin fired him for what her spokeswoman now describes as "poor job performance."

During that time, Palin had found out from Scott Richter, a friend of Todd Palin's, that Richter's wife, Debbie, was having a relationship with Bitney.

The Journal notes that Palin's office seems to have had trouble keeping its story straight on the reason for Bitney's departure.

At the time, the governor's office cited "personal reasons" for Mr. Bitney's "amicable" departure, according to contemporaneous news reports. Last week, Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the governor's office, said "John Bitney was dismissed because of his poor job performance." She declined to provide further details.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/palin_fired_aide_who_d...

machete
the gangsta's back in the country used use it in a heartbeat back in the old country when i was still a virgin

stuffed it down their pants and you would never know when it came out and the swung

my dad had one under his bed he called it a "bush knife" and used it to chop up game when ever he killed them on the road with his van

Happe Talk

Indictment: Heather Wilson's Office Tied to Abramoff
By Zachary Roth - September 9, 2008, 1:15PM
The Abramoff corruption probe has already snared one GOP Congressman, Bob Ney, and implicated a few more, most prominently Rep. John Doolittle of California. But could there be another to add to the list: Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico?

An examination by TPMmuckraker of the indictment of former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring, filed yesterday, suggests that Wilson's office was tied in to Abramoff's corruption network at a level not previously known. And John McCain's 2005 investigation into Abramoff's fleecing of Indian tribes, which McCain conducted as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, made no mention of that fact.

The Ring indictment contains the following statements from prosecutors:

On or about January 30, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed a staffer for the New Mexico tribe's U.S. Representative, "Sorry I couldn't hangout last night. I greatly appreciate your taking the time to han[g]out with the [New Mexico tribe]. It meant a lot to [K]evin and I [sic]. BTW, you should be all set for the [Los Angeles] Clippers [basketball] game."

And:

On or about February 14, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B forwarded an email from the staffer for the New Mexico tribe's U.S. Representative to defendant RING in which the staffer had written, "How did Kevin' s meetings with the [New Mexico tribe] go? If you guys lose that contract I would be disappointed."

And:

On or about March 4, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed defendant RING, "I'm going to kill [the New Mexico tribe] with [its U.S. Representative] if we don't get hired."

And:

On or about March 7, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed defendant RING, "[ The staffer for the New Mexico tribe' s U.S. Representative] is going to be in the meeting with [the New Mexico tribe] when they come to town. He's going to give the 'are you guys staying with [Firm B] this cycle? They did a great job on . . . legislation . . . and really cleared the path for you guys . . . . . yadda yadda.' He's gonna gather as much intel as possible for us."

It's clear from identifying details in the indictment -- which refers to a New Mexico Indian tribe that hired Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig around March 2002 -- that the tribe is the Sandia Pueblo Indians, who are represented in Congress by Wilson. So in other words, a staffer for Wilson was actively involved in helping Ring and Greenberg Traurig (Firm B, where Ring worked at the time), retain their contract to represent the Sandia Indians. And Ring's Greenberg partner -- most likely Abramoff himself, but certainly a member of Abramoff's team at Greenberg -- believed he had the power to affect decisions made by Rep. Wilson concerning the tribe's interests.

A spokesman for Rep. Wilson declined to comment on the information in the indictment.

We already knew that Wilson had accepted political contributions from both Abramoff himself and David Safavian, a former Abramoff crony and Bush administration official convicted for obstruction of justice as part of the Abramoff probe. But the information in the indictment suggests that her office worked with Abramoff more closely that has yet been reported.

Wilson has been a stalwart supporter and prominent surrogate for John McCain, painting him as a crusader against Washington corruption. Just last night, she appeared on MSNBC's Hardball to make the case for him, and last week she told NPR: "John McCain has chosen a reformer ... to be his running mate and I think that's a perfect complement to who he is and what he's done in his life."

Wilson may have good reason to hold the GOP nominee in high regard. In his 2005 Senate investigation, McCain had access to the Greenberg Traurig email trove, presumably including the ones cited by prosecutors in the Ring indictment highlighted above. But his final report generally avoided focusing on members of Congress, and omitted any mention of Wilson.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/heather_wilsons_office...

switch blade

they would whip it out too with a quickness

what do you use here in the USofsacredA

BOMBS!!!!!

kay kay kay
geez
just missing the ice thats it

bothering me again
i cannot open my mouth without any thing and woop there it is

here
killing fields himself

KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE PARK!

i dont get it
all this modern technology
i just learnt how to blog now "skype, aim, im"
oh lordy what is this jungle girl suppossed to do with all this kinno-wldge (sp)?

using baseball bats now
i am telling
SAM!!! talk to him please

he should get off the blog sometimes and chill at his pool
i dont have one so i am stuck here
this is my pull

it doesn't appear that 1080 KUDO, Alaska progressive radio, has much of a web presence.

http://sarahpalinexposed.com/?tag=newstalk-1080-kudo

but here's the results of the poll they're running

Poll

Is Sarah Palin Qualified To Be Vice-President?

* No (88%, 10,290 Votes)
* Yes (12%, 1,451 Votes)

Total Voters: 11,741

and:

Sarah Palin Exposed

Archive for the ‘Newstalk 1080 Kudo’ tag
Track Palin Involved in Vandalism Rampage - Real Reason for Army Enlistment

Sarah Palin has not been afraid to emphasize that her oldest son Track has joined the Army and will soon be sent to Iraq. While commentators have questioned her ethics for trying to use her son’s military service for political advantage, there are now concerns Gov. Palin may have also concealed the true reason behind her son’s hasty enlistment, something which would put him in a less than flattering light.

There are now allegations that her son Track was involved in a vandalism rampage a couple of years earlier and that his run-in with the law contributed to his decision to enlist in the Army.

On December 5, 2005, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reported that Alaska State Troopers had arrested four teenage boys for the previous week’s vandalism of school buses. The boys deflated the tires of 44 buses, broke mirrors and unplugged 110 buses from their engine-block heaters, which caused the buses not to start in subzero weather. The incident was serious enough to force the school district to close schools for a day on November 29.

One of the boys was identified as 18-year-old Deryck Harris. State troopers refused to release the names of the 3 other boys, ages 16, 17, and 17, because they were juveniles. However, the mother of one of the juvenile suspects confirmed her son David Coon was involved in the incident. Two of the boys, including Coon, attended Burchell High School. The other two were students at Wasilla High School.

The boys were each charged with third-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. In addition, the 16-year-old was also charged with fourth-degree theft and furnishing alcohol to a minor. He was alleged to have stolen a bottle of vodka from a local liquor store.

A progressive Alaska radio station (Newstalk 1080 Kudo) reported on September 2, 2008 that the 16-year-old boy in the story was actually Track Palin. The station cited an unnamed judicial source. A recording of the radio broadcast is not yet available.

However, the story has been picked up by a local Anchorage public television station.

Nellie Moore and Steve MacDonald on KAKM Channel 7, Anchorage Edition (September 5, 2008):

(VIDEO)

Sarah Palin Exposed

Archive for the ‘Newstalk 1080 Kudo’ tag
Track Palin Involved in Vandalism Rampage - Real Reason for Army Enlistment?

with 13 comments

Sarah Palin has not been afraid to emphasize that her oldest son Track has joined the Army and will soon be sent to Iraq. While commentators have questioned her ethics for trying to use her son’s military service for political advantage, there are now concerns Gov. Palin may have also concealed the true reason behind her son’s hasty enlistment, something which would put him in a less than flattering light.

There are now allegations that her son Track was involved in a vandalism rampage a couple of years earlier and that his run-in with the law contributed to his decision to enlist in the Army.

On December 5, 2005, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reported that Alaska State Troopers had arrested four teenage boys for the previous week’s vandalism of school buses. The boys deflated the tires of 44 buses, broke mirrors and unplugged 110 buses from their engine-block heaters, which caused the buses not to start in subzero weather. The incident was serious enough to force the school district to close schools for a day on November 29.

One of the boys was identified as 18-year-old Deryck Harris. State troopers refused to release the names of the 3 other boys, ages 16, 17, and 17, because they were juveniles. However, the mother of one of the juvenile suspects confirmed her son David Coon was involved in the incident. Two of the boys, including Coon, attended Burchell High School. The other two were students at Wasilla High School.

The boys were each charged with third-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass and conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. In addition, the 16-year-old was also charged with fourth-degree theft and furnishing alcohol to a minor. He was alleged to have stolen a bottle of vodka from a local liquor store.

A progressive Alaska radio station (Newstalk 1080 Kudo) reported on September 2, 2008 that the 16-year-old boy in the story was actually Track Palin. The station cited an unnamed judicial source. A recording of the radio broadcast is not yet available.

However, the story has been picked up by a local Anchorage public television station.

Nellie Moore and Steve MacDonald on KAKM Channel 7, Anchorage Edition (September 5, 2008):

MacDonald is quick to note that the local radio station may be biased given its liberal stance; however, he was not previously familiar with the story and could not comment on its authenticity. The host Nellie Moore, who is familiar with the report, did seem very much convinced.

Curiously, Track Palin spent six months of his senior year with a host family in Portage, Michigan. His mother took him out of Wasilla High School and sent him to Michigan for the 2006/2007 school year. The Kalamazoo Gazette is reporting that Track came to the Midwest hoping he would be picked up by college hockey recruiters in the area, this despite the fact that he was already a star hockey player for the competitive Alaska All-Stars team.

One has to wonder whether Sarah Palin had any hand in her son’s decision to leave Wasilla. After all, it would not be the first time that Sarah Palin took one of her troubled kids out of school. She did the same thing when she learned of her teenage daughter Bristol’s pregnancy.

Track Palin’s involvement in the vandalism incident could no doubt have influenced his later decision to enlist in the Army. There have been allegations in the past that Sarah Palin and her husband Todd push their son to enlist in the military. The latest news appear to lend more credence to those allegations.

that's what it has come down to in this effed up country, sam and marc nailed it today, they were funny and covered so much ground in one hour, information and commentary both packed so tight and wrapped with a bow, great stuff!

but what's up with the gum chew? yesterday was really furious (I am watching the vod now because yesterday i was too busy at work) today slightly more relaxed on the gumchewy, but hey, no complaints, i loved it

she's great, i am glad she's getting some attention, being pleasant-looking helps i am sure, but she knows her stuff; i must say that most of the ground was covered on the radio interview with our johnson, he gave her the most space, time, and good questions = all these tv bigshots...well i only saw keith and geraldo, and keith wasnt bad but geraldo got on ny nerves, all he wanted to know from her was "should oprah get palin on her show?" eyerolls

how you feeling
see you love fucking and fucking with "robust" (as my father used to call his daughters) girls
almost typed "grills" i would have been in deep doo doo if i did

meant to say while
ma bad

Obama Did Not Call Sarah Palin A Pig
09 Sep 2008 07:06 pm

The first McCain truthsquadding telephone call is taking place right now, and ex-MA Gov. Jane Swift is complaining about an idiom Barack Obama used today:

Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin's new "change" mantra.
"You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig."
"You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink."
"We've had enough of the same old thing."
Suddenly, common analogies are sexist?

The McCain campaign has little respect for Obama, but they don't think he is stupid. And the only way one can conclude that Obama meant to refer to Gov. Sarah Palin as a pig is to have concluded that Obama is as dumb as a doornail.

Obama is fond of this particular phrase. To wit, in 2007:

'I think that both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are capable people who have been given an impossible assignment,' Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday in a telephone interview. 'George Bush has given a mission to General Petraeus, and he has done his best to try to figure out how to put lipstick on a pig.

And so is John McCain. Speaking about Hillary Clinton....

McCain criticized Democratic contenders for offering what he called costly universal health-care proposals that require too much government regulation. While he said he had not studied Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's plan, he said it was "eerily reminiscent" of the failed plan she offered as first lady in the 1990s.

"I think they put some lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of her proposal.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/obama_did_not_call_...

GOP Officials Plotting To Rig Race For Mississippi Senate Seat?
By Eric Kleefeld - September 9, 2008, 2:48PM
This seems like a big deal: Is the GOP trying to confuse voters and rig the election against the Democratic candidate in a hotly-contested race for a plum Senate seat?

It seems that way to quite a few people in Mississippi -- because the candidates for this election have now been placed in obscurity at the very bottom of the physical ballot that voters will see on Election Day.

In a move that could very well bring on a lawsuit, the state elections board -- controlled by the GOP -- today put the special election for Senate underneath even races for county offices and school boards. This was despite the fact that state law seems to clearly require placing federal races at the top of the ballot.

Placing a race like this at the bottom of the ballot could cause many lower-information voters to overlook it. Democrats feel this decision will disproportionately affect poorer voters who tend to vote Democratic, and furthermore that this was the whole point.

A statement from Democratic candidate Ronnie Musgrove implied that a lawsuit could be on the way. "We will win this election no matter where the Secretary of State puts it on the ballot," said Musgrove's campaign manager. "But this is about the law and they don't get to make up their own laws."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/gop_officials_pl...

had a couple of very busy days at work, no time to catch my breath, tonight i have a little time to myself for the first time and it feels great

yes looks like ike deciding to go to texas/mexico, we'll see - sigh of relief here, but still waiting to see what happened to cuba, haven't had time to check the european media where you can find some more details on this

ma bad did not think so

yeah i did

...

am proud that you have "one" black techy

yay!!!!!!!!!!

ha!

voting for the one you'd rather have a fuck with
Submitted by mire on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 8:23pm.
--------
McCain attracts supporters for a lot of reasons...but Humpmeister?

I dunno...

No... I did.

Ooooo! KO doing a special comment tomorrow. :)

Happe Talk

His daughter said, today, on the Today show, that her father dated a stripper. Meridith said "A stripper? I haven't heard that one before".

http://www.owsweather.com/contrailreport.html

Alert System Discussion:

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 - 9:45pmPDT

LATEST NEWS:

September 9, 2008 -
3:00pmPDT -

WARNING: EXTREME ACTIVITY ACROSS THE ENTIRE EASTERN UNITED STATES, INCLUDING SOUTHERN FLORIDA. EXTREME ACTIVITY ACROSS THE NORTHERN STATES AS WELL WITH CANADA (MAP NOT SHOWN NOW) GETTING IT AS WELL FROM ALBERTA EASTWARD ...

>>am proud that you have "one" black techy

I heard something about them having one black teddie...

are you sure you heard right?

but from lipstick to pig is a short step, so whoever called this woman a pig, maybe it was the republicans that started it when they said lipstick lipstick! pitbull! lipstick! these are juvenile jerks

crank, the rather fuck remark was for palin not for macain, jeezes, who would ever entertain such a thought; sam and marc today talked about how these sexist rednecks are out in force saying how good looking and sexy this woman is--- gag me please because i am feeling sick

'Solution Is Democracy' in Israel/Palestine

The interview that Mike Wallace did of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 2 years ago was aired on C-Span recently, and a diligent blogger has reported on what "60 Minutes" cut out of the interview when it aired. When Wallace confronted Ahmadinejad with the "wipe Israel off the map" threats, Ahmadinejad said that "the solution is democracy" in Israel and Palestine, a suggestion that he favors a one-state solution. I agree with blogger Tom Murphy that "60"'s edits misrepresent Ahmadinejad's thrust, making him out to be far more confrontational than he is, especially after Wallace promised Ahmadinejad that he would listen to his complete answers to questions. And yes, that this amounts to "suppression of basic facts concerning Israel and the Palestinians."

Here's Murphy's data:

The text in red was edited out of the 60 Minutes broadcast:

http://stopbigmedia.com/

Rep. McDermott signs on to impeachment resolution
Nick Langewis and David Edwards

Congressman Jim McDermott, representing Washington's 7th district, stood up on the House floor to give his official support to efforts to impeach President Bush.

Video and transcript of his remarks appear below. The video was broadcast on C-SPAN on the morning of September 9, 2008.
Video here:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Rep._McDermott_signs_onto_impeach_impeachm...

her paper on Anselm's Religious Philosophy to read and comment on. It was a superb paper and I told her so. Then I told her that the assumption of existence to imply an all powerful god may be proved a fallacy after the LHC fires up tomorrow morning.

She said that she isn't talking about math.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/
Charging the state to stay at home? Three hundred twelve times? Let’s see…That’s approximately (click click click) 570 days total..into 312..round up the 7…. That’s 55% of her time as governor that she’s been getting paid by the state to stay at the ’Home Sweet Home’ hotel, and eat at the ’My Own Kitchen’ bistro.
==
http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/
TORN CLOTHES:$150 RAPE KIT: $1200 SHAME: PRICELESS

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Submitted by mire on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 8:50pm.
...crank, the rather fuck remark was for palin not for macain, jeezes, who would ever entertain such a thought...
------
Uh, a joker who delights in planting disturbing images?

the headline says: "usa and italy have never been as close as now...." , maybe not, but italy was very close to another despicable character in the thirties, this is what this type of meeting reminds of, not surprising that these two thugs might have much in common

Is Harriet still scheduled for September 11, 2008?
Did the WH produce the documents?
http://judiciary.house.gov/news/080827.html
For Immediate Release
August 27, 2008
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
Lillian German

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) sent a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding setting a September 4, 2008, deadline for the White House to comply with its obligations regarding production of documents under the July 31 Order issued by U.S. District Judge John Bates in Committee on the Judiciary v. Miers. The letter also notes that a hearing at which Harriet Miers is to appear pursuant to subpoena has been rescheduled for September 11, 2008. The letter follows yesterday’s rejection by Judge Bates of the White House’s request that the July 31 Order be stayed pending appeal, as well as a status conference before Judge Bates that was held this morning. The full text of the letter is linked here.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

They were given a stay till Monday to reply to a court implied action to deliver documents.

gitmo
yeah you

He has aged about 10 years this year. His eyes were almost swollen shut...hmmmm hangover perhaps?

Happe Talk

Lieberman increasingly expecting to lose Senate chairmanship after Obama attack
John Byrne

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) expects to lose his position as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee if Democrats pick up four or five additional seats in the Senate, according to his aides, who floated the claim in Tuesday's Politico.

According to the Connecticut senator's staff, Democrats are upset about his speech at the Republican National Convention in which he attacked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Lieberman was the Democrats' vice presidential choice in the 2000 presidential election.

"Lieberman returned to Capitol Hill Monday — his first day back since speaking at the convention — and was greeted by the resignation of his $120,000-a-year legislative director, Joe Goffman," the online political news site reports. "The 66-year-old Connecticut independent has said he hopes to stay in the Democratic fold, although people close to him say he’s increasingly pessimistic about his prospects of doing so."

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid 'had no intention' of disciplining Lieberman for merely backing John McCain, a Democrat close to the Nevadan said. But Reid became incensed, the Democrat said, by Lieberman’s attack on Barack Obama’s fitness to serve as commander in chief."

"While Reid has publicly adopted a wait-and-see attitude on his longtime friend from Connecticut, he has told associates that Lieberman will lose his post 'if we hit 55 or 56' seats, a gain of four or five freshmen in November, the person added."

Read the full story here.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13274.html

After complaints, McCain moves rally from school By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 9, 2:37 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday moved a campaign rally from a Fairfax County high school following complaints that the school was hosting a partisan political event during classroom hours.

School system policy states that "school buildings and grounds may not be used for campaign activities during school hours." However, Superintendent Jack Dale had agreed to make an exception, saying that the rally Wednesday with McCain and running mate Sarah Palin would be a good educational experience for students.

"We are not participating in a political rally," Dale had said. "We are letting our kids have new educational opportunities."

Within hours of news reports of the rally, the McCain campaign told school officials that the gym at Fairfax High School, with a capacity of 6,500, was too small, said Paul Regnier, a spokesman for Fairfax County Public Schools. The rally was moved to a park in Fairfax, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The McCain campaign did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Senior government students at Fairfax High School would have been allowed to attend the rally at the school Wednesday morning if they wished, Regnier said. The school system would have received $10,208 in rent from the McCain campaign.

Del. Kristen J. Amundson, D-Fairfax, a former school board member, had said the rally should be canceled or moved.

"This is almost unprecedented, to have a rally in a school building in the middle of the school day with kids present," Amundson told The Washington Post.

Fairfax City Mayor Robert F. Lederer, a Republican who helped plan the event, had defended the rally.

"This is something that I see has broad support for its educational component," Lederer said. "The Obama people did it this summer. I think the precedent was probably set during that period, whether it was a good decision or not."

Democratic candidate Barack Obama held a campaign event last July at Robinson High School, but school was not in session at the time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080909/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_school_visit&prin...

Palin billed state for spending Thanksgiving at college basketball game, husband's sled race

Also myriad nights spent at home
"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business," The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Among these events included a college basketball game -- and a sled race in which her husband competed.

"The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions," the paper added. "And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife."

"Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau... while her husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show."

Excerpts:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Palin_billed_state_for_Thanksgiving_day_09...

anyone wearing black for a year?
anyone at all
why the sorry?

wear black for a year out of respect for the dead
tend to forget where i am

and don't I feel safer knowing all those people who spent months living in the oaks are in jail tonight...all that to have room for more sports... weee...

Fannie, Freddie bonuses irk Dems
CEOs fail, get rewards as taxpayers prepare to foot bill; Obama weighs in.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0929070420080909?feedType=RS...

"Our goal is that Mexico City be self-sufficient when it comes to food." -- Pedro Ponce, program director

Heavy.

BBC Poll: Most Countries Want Obama Elected
A new BBC World Service poll shows that in all 22 countries surveyed, the citizens would prefer Sen. Barack Obama elected president of the United States instead of Sen. John McCain. In fact, Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view is that, if Barack Obama is elected president, America's relations with the rest of the world are likely to get better. If John McCain is elected, the most common view in 19 countries is that relations will stay about the same as they are now.

The countries polled: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

In addition, a separate poll of Americans found that 46% think an Obama presidency would improve U.S. relations with the world compared to just 30% for a McCain presidency.

LINK

this is a much better show than KO...much more "meat"

she is very strategic...Bob Barr...etc. she gets all the conservatives to do her work for her.

Happe Talk

I've been meaning to ask how your knee progress is...what's going on? Are you going to have the other knee done too?

The world's verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns forAn America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse
Jonathan Freedland The Guardian, Wednesday September 10 2008

The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: "It's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more."

In my head, I'm not as anxious for Barack Obama's chances as I was for John Kerry's in 2004 or Al Gore's in 2000. He is a better candidate than both put together, and all the empirical evidence says this year favours Democrats more than any since 1976. But still, I can't shake off the gloom.

Look at yesterday's opinion polls, which have John McCain either in a dead heat with Obama or narrowly ahead. Given the well-documented tendency of African-American candidates to perform better in polls than in elections - thanks to people who say they will vote for a black man but don't - this suggests Obama is now trailing badly. More troubling was the ABC News-Washington Post survey which found McCain ahead among white women by 53% to 41%. Two weeks ago, Obama had a 15% lead among women. There is only one explanation for that turnaround, and it was not McCain's tranquilliser of a convention speech: Obama's lead has been crushed by the Palin bounce.

So you can understand my pessimism. But it's now combined with a rising frustration. I watch as the Democrats stumble, uncertain how to take on Sarah Palin. Fight too hard, and the Republican machine, echoed by the ditto-heads in the conservative commentariat on talk radio and cable TV, will brand Democrats sexist, elitist snobs, patronising a small-town woman. Do nothing, and Palin's rise will continue unchecked, her novelty making even Obama look stale, her star power energising and motivating the Republican base.

So somehow Palin slips out of reach, no revelation - no matter how jaw-dropping or career-ending were it applied to a normal candidate - doing sufficient damage to slow her apparent march to power, dragging the charisma-deprived McCain behind her.

More

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.bara...

?

Mike Malloy is on fire!

And, I'm afraid he has a point.

He said that Obama has lost the election unless he gets off his ass and gets ANGRY!

but he has bought into the meme that an angry black man will lose.

My other knee will have to wait for spring, but it is getting worse. Thanks for asking:)

I will be starting to work soon. Shorter hours to start but I am looing forward to it.

Alice,

Yes. When I have the opportunity.

about that smarmy ad about sex ed. He needs to get pissed!

Like "so what mccain and palin are saying here is that it is wrong to protect your children from sexual predators".

Happe Talk

coming up on Rachel
==
always liked his humor.
glad she brought him along
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

And I just want to thank all those liberals who beat Hillary and Bill in the primary.

We have been tryin to do that for years.

We can beat Obama, no problem.

But God knows we didn't want to run against another Clinton.

Sarah would have never been the game changer that she is if Hillary was still around.

Thank everyone who ran The Clintons clear out of the race.

of the European view of what's happening in America today with the election and how the Europeans think America will blow it again.

"But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/10/uselections2008.bara...

--it's getting to the point where you (us) can appreciate it that's the trick.--

and it's worse when you (we) once did focus there and now don't...I s'pose I should just let me be where I am...Cycles and all.. :)

..just found a Christina Rossetti in that vein...

Happe Talk

I guess Barack is going to have to change the way he talks to those who are not Democrats. Become much more simple for the simple-minded.

this from the day before the above
http://judiciary.house.gov/news/080826.html
For Immediate Release
August 26, 2008
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
Lillian German

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, United States District Judge John Bates denied the Administration’s request for a stay of his July 31 ruling that no White House official is immune from Congressional subpoena. The effect of the denial of the stay is that Harriet Miers must appear and testify before the House Judiciary Committee regarding her role in the politicization of the Department of Justice, including the firing of U.S. Attorneys in 2006. The Judge’s July 31 order also requires the White House to produce unprivileged documents on this subject and a reasonable description of any documents being withheld on grounds of Executive Privilege. In denying the stay, the Court observed: quot;Simply calling an issue important . . . does not transform the Executive’s weak arguments into a likelihood of success" on their appeal. (Memorandum Opinion at 4.)
==
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_090911.html
no witness list yet
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

...I hope I feel that way too after our mandatory furlough in December..I'll be off for two weeks or more...then they take the money they pay us this year for that time out of next fiscal year..a couple hours, each paycheck, from May to October...

having one...

What was it like actually, compared to what you expected it might be like before you had the surgery?

just played an excerpt from a Campbell Brown interview with a McCain person, (Bounds). He outright LIED and said Obama and Biden voted for the Bridge to nowhere. Only 4 democrats voted for it and Biden and Obama weren't one of the four. But, apparently Campbell wasn't aware of the facts so she didn't challenge him on it. So, Malloy's point is that all those people that watched that interview believe that Obama and Biden voted for the bridge. How do you combat that kind of mis-information?

And, believe me there was nothing subtle about the message that the McCain sex ed ad is sending: "Be very afraid of the black man" Disgusting!

Progressive Alaska Journalist Discusses the Sarah Palin She Knows

Listen to this Program:

Download program audio (mp3, 27.13 Mbytes)

http://election411.org/article/id/3604214/progressive-alaska-journalist-...

Progressive Alaska Journalist Discusses the Sarah Palin She Knows

Shannyn Moore is one of Alaska's leading progressive radio personalities. Her blog JUST A GIRL FROM HOMER is attracting lots of attention because Moore knows Alaska Governor Sarah Palin well and has interviewed her many times. After her Air America radio station was taken over by Republican Party members, Moore stayed on the air interviewing and in some ways 'debating' Sarah Palin. In this half hour interview with Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio, she talks about Sarah Palin's style, their mutual interests in fishing, and Palin's vote against clean water despite the consequences to the precious Salmon line. She says she is a genuine person but very easily manipulated, and that her loyalties to church and politicians like Sen. Ted Stevens make her a dangerous candidate for the office of Vice President.

Shannyn Moore: "We feel like basically a money laundering operation for the rest of the United States when it comes to our resources. We've been colonized by big oil, by fisheries, by timber, you know they come in these huge global conglomerates, they come in, they buy our legislators, which we have proof of that, they are sitting in jail right now, and then they extract as many resources as they can from the state and we don't really feel protected by the national government. In fact they are right in the same pockets. You look at Ted Stevens' indictments, seven indictments, he's been working for them for a long time. You look at Don Young, he too is under heavy investigation, so there's some good reasons for people to feel bitter."

Gov. Sarah Palin said, "God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that pipeline built, so pray for that!"

Shannyn Moore's response: "The first part of that prayer to bring companies and people together, when a government official is praying for that or legislating for that, basically, that's fascism, when you as a politician are wanting to create laws or protections for companies that's the definition. -- There is a real fundamental line that she doesn't have a real clear cut on between politics and her religion. --- She has said that she stood up to big oil and in certain ways, the legislature did. They went back and revised a tax against the oil companies. The previous one, is the one that we've got people sitting in jail for selling their votes to, so doing the right thing and trying to reverse a corrupted law is not standing up to big oil. But right after that she stood up for big oil and she sued the federal government for putting Polar Bears on the endangered species list. now when George Bush's administration puts Polar Bears on the endangered species list you can bet your bottom dollar it is probably too late for the Polar Bears. And now as a state under her administration we are suing the federal government to get Polar Bears off the endangered species list? Oh because it affects drilling on the North Slope."

Alice: "What was it like actually, compared to what you expected it might be like before you had the surgery?"

toniD: "It's really hard to articulate."

*

Crank since you have a high speed connection now you can get podcasts of it for free if you want to...and then you can listen to the ones you want to...

I have like a month or more of them..and am just now listening to the interesting-sounding ones..

This one on now was from 8/24...it's about assuming too much about strangers....kinds interesting..and made me think of you and your NPR-tending self...Anyway..you might like this one...not for any particular reason...just amusing..

Hahahahahaha. Now that is funny! How many Trolls did it take to elect Bush?

I just want to congratulate you for the hatchet job on Hillary.

I didn't undercut Hillay you did!

that it's really brave to get operated on, and it's braver to go back twice knowing what it's like...

delayed till Monday on appeal. I'll link you.

Every time one conservative Republican leaves center stage, another one is ready to step up and lead the party to victory?

Well it works so long as there are no Clintons in the mix.

I had already had my hip replaced so I had an idea of what the operation would be like. The easy part is the operation,
It was painful the first few days and it's scary the first time you stand and walk, but I guess it was easier than I thought it would be.

If someone needed a knee replaced, I would reccommend it, and have. It's better than the constant pain. And being able to get up out of a chair without pushing and pulling myself out of it is great.

When the other knee is done, I'll be able to dance again!:)

New troll? so cute! McCainVoter! Wow! AND a totally creative one, at that! Well, it's nice to see you guys finally warming up to your candidate instead of pretending to love Hillary. It only took a nitwit fundie in a sexy librarian costume to bring on the manlove!

It's funny that we haven't really seen them since they were here scaring up the love in themselves for Hillary because they just HAD to run against her. Now Palin has reinflated their Viagra-soaked scrotums so much they can finally crawl out and face the legions of Obama supporters they've been hiding from since the primaries. How precious AND precocious!

and how 'bout that troll hair...

*double snark*

Let's face it, Americans want conservative Republicans as President.

Family values, Christian, Capitalist, Outdoors-men, Loyal, Patriotic.

Did I say men?

assuming you're going to put on music first..what song would you dance to now?

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Let's face it.
Submitted by McCainVoter on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:31pm.

Let's face it, Americans want conservative Republicans as President.-

Do you think we would promote Hillary just so that you would hate her even more than you do?

Oh well, none of that matters now.

Hillary is History!

While you bask in the glory of your paltry convention bump and the pathetic being-debunked-as-we-type post convention polling data. Here's some reality for you to choke on from the not-so-friendly-to-Democrats-lately Associated Press:

"Nationwide, there are about 42 million registered Democrats and about 31 million Republicans, according to statistics compiled by The Associated Press.

The Democrats have posted big gains in many competitive states, including Nevada, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado and Florida. They have also been targeting historically Republican southern states."

awwww, I know you just rediscovered your little sac and hoped to enjoy it a little bit longer...but hey, don't listen to me or the AP, feel free to run around here like a twat...somtimes the guy streaking across the field is a welcome distraction even though we know he's probably got a head full of demons.

I think maybe.....Celebrate!

Afghanistan, Pakistan thaw? - 2 hours ago
In a rare show of unity, Presidents Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari said they would jointly fight militants and wanted the number of civilian casualties inflicted by U.S.-led forces to be reduced.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/chicagotribune/news/nationworld/~3/388157...

Did you ever watch MSNBC?

No? Well very few do.

Obama had a fair chance. But that was before Sarah.

From here on in it will be All Sarah, All Of the Time.

Funny how folks get excited every time a strong conservative takes charge.

Brings the great President Reagan to mind.

Would Hillary dare to run against Sarah in 2012?

Lord, that would the fight of the century!

:)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the largest settlement in the history of U.S. securities fraud cases, Enron shareholders and investors will split more than $7.2 billion from financial institutions accused of playing a role in the energy giant's downfall.

Investors will get an average of $6.79 per share of common stock and an average of $168.50 per share of preferred stock," Newman said.

The settlement includes payments of $2.4 billion from CIBC, $2.2 billion from JPMorgan Chase and $2 billion from Citigroup, according to court documents. Smaller amounts come from Arthur Andersen, Lehman and Bank of America.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/09/enron.settlement/index.html

so, will we all disappear in a flash as it rips the time continuum apart in a split second or will we painfully get pulled into an event horizon with the nearest parts of our bodies getting stretched to an infinite length while simultaneously weighing so much that even god couldn't move us?

just askin.

wait, how about the idea that the black hole will ping pong earth punching holes in things as it gets bigger and bigger?

and here i was worried that caribou barbie would push the big red button and end everything in a bright flash of light.

(Repulican) Politician accused of watermelon theft
20 minutes ago · EDENTON, N.C., Sept. 9 (UPI) -- A man running for the Chowan County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina has been charged with stealing a $3 watermelon from a farmer's field.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/09/09/Politician_accused_of_watermelon_...

well at least it wasn't a pumpkin. that never turns out right.

I knew it! Lawl! It doesn't take long for their weak-minds and even weaker command of the language to betray them.

Okay, I'm finished with you now...

Report: North Korean leader alive but ill
38 minutes ago · SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean news report says North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is alive but ill. The Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified South Korean government

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_kim

Isn't that the song you sang for Gore and Kerry?

Do you remember how Obama over polled in the primary.

Hillary was taking him down, but thank God she ran out of time.

Obama delivers five point below the polls and now he trails.

Don't blame me... you picked him!

And for that we shall be forever in your debt.

No I don't watch that channel...I have antennae television...

But it does makes sense..Hate gets play in this country..That's like what I was saying up there..being informed today isn't like being informed in the past...there doesn't seem to be much movement in the daily political drama...

It's almost like I want to set that all aside and jump ahead to fill the few years I have left with..something besides being mad all fucking night and day...It's not like one tragedy is better or worse than any other...It's like - YES, there are tragedies. - Now what...?

I read some kick ass Bucky Fuller recently though...which must be where this is coming from in me..

WaDo!
Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:51pm.

McCainVoter. Republicans depend on the most ignorant faithful.

geez!! how rude

WaDo!
Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:51pm.

MEHLVILLE, Mo. -- Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden went for the jugular Tuesday, as he repeatedly accused the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin of waging a campaign of deception.

"We need a little bit of honesty in this campaign," Biden said, and asserted that the GOP was failing to tell American voters that they would do little to change the nation's economic policy. Instead, he said, Republicans are making false assertions about the Democratic proposals of Biden and the presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

For example, he said that McCain isn't talking about his plan to tax the health care benefits that millions of Americans get through their job.

A person earning $50,000 a year, with employer-provided health care worth $12,000 a year, would have to pay income taxes on all $62,000, Biden said. Now, no taxes are levied on their health care benefits.

McCain is highlighting his proposed $5,000 a year tax credit to offset some of that tax hike, but Biden noted that at least $7,000 would still be subject to the tax.

Biden also asserted that McCain's plan would prompt many businesses to drop health care coverage for their workers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/Biden%20questions%20honesty%20of%20...

ZOO?

Could be

♫ all night loooong ♪

WaDo!
Submitted by 60th Street on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 10:51pm.

The tiny black holes are so small the most they can do is maybe conjure particle parts, maybe the Boson but not enough to make sufficient mass that would create an event horizon.

Wouldn't it be great if Sarah picked Colin Powell to be her VP in 2012?

Obama's just not ready.

You can't expect folks to vote for a man just because he is black.

It's a damn shame the Dems picked such a weak candidate.

And in a year when they thought they had victory in the bag!

Funny how things work out for the best.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Tuesday questioned why presidential hopeful John McCain is not taking time from his campaign for Senate votes.

The Hill reported Tuesday that Reid, a Democrat, said McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, is not planning to attend the Senate's debate this week on the Department of Defense policy bill.

McCain is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation, Reid said.

"Right now the apparent head of the Republican Party is John McCain. John McCain is a member of the United States Senate. He's been absent as to his person and his leadership in the Senate," Reid said. "Does anyone ever hear Senator McCain offer an opinion on what should be done? Where is he on the defense authorization bill? Not a word have we heard from this so-called leader of the Republican Party."

Reid also criticized McCain for missing the Senate's recent energy and housing debates.

"John McCain talks about changing Washington, which is good for him, but he's done nothing to change what's happened to this country over the last eight years," Reid said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/09/Reid_chides_McCain_for_missing_vo...

like gaydar..only easier...Braa! :)

?

See if there's every been an appropriate point to just say FUCK YOU...it would be now...that the Dems would say to the Reps....all of the D's to all of the R's FUCK YOU....

That would be a funny headline....

Top Dems say FUCK YOU! to the Republican Party

People would pay to see that...make a big dent in the national debt...

Funny, that's what the conservatives they say about ya'll.

But in the end, it comes down to performance.

We had eight good years with Bush because that's what the folks wanted.

Now we have another choice.

Another choice that is really the same choice.

Do you want a strong conservative or do you want to start down the road to socialism.

That names have changed but the question is the same.

...His friends took his last performances and made it...

Another one I've been wanting to read for a while...any recommendations Alice? :)

Exactly, FiDo! All McCain needed was a good fluffer!

More war porn for the fundie zealots!

Good News, Everyone!
by Keith Olbermann
Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 03:19:41 PM PDT
My apologies for the randomness of the Futurama reference.
Rachel Maddow's MSNBC hour premiered last night to spectacular ratings. Nothing should ever be assumed (we could each get 47 viewers tonight), but this is, as they say, auspicious.

The full ratings are posted in several locales, but here are the headlines:
Rachel drew 1,543,000 viewers in total at 9 PM last night. Not only was that better (by 160,000) than Larry King, but it was the second highest number of total viewers in Primetime, not counting Fixed News.
Modesty precludes me from saying who was ahead of her on that list.
The "advertisers' number" - the number of viewers aged 25 to 54, were also outstanding. 483,000 of the so-called buyers' demo tuned in, again, beating Larry (by 100,000) and second for any primetime show not on Fox (and she even outdrew Shepard Smith's 7 PM audience over there at The Zombie Channel).
Rachel is grateful, but too busy trying to improve over last night's debut to dwell on last night, which I assume doesn't surprise any of you.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/9/181015/2799/311/592602

A wounded veteran responds to Meghan McCain's Quote.[Updated]
by Broken Skull
Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 04:02:28 PM PDT
I respect everyone's military service, and I think that most of us feel the same way. We respect our brothers and sisters in arms, whether or not we agree with them. We all respect the service of the families left behind when a service member deploys. Although this is a different type of service, it is service none the less and should be respected. Even though I disagree with Sen. McCain's policies, I respect his service. He stood up and took the oath and went to combat, he spent 5 and a half miserable years as a prisoner of war. It is important as vets and supporter of vets to respect each other's service.

Thats not the message we are getting today from the McCain family.

This morning Meghan McCain sat down for an interview as a McCain surrogate on the today show. While making her way through an answer about her father she stated: "No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period."

There are 4155 families that lost a loved one in Iraq, 584 that have lost a loved one in Afghanistan. There are tens of thousands of injured soldiers like myself, who not only deal with their injuries but have families that deal with the injuries too. Does Meghan McCain think that those 4,739 families that are grieving the loss of their loved ones don't know about war. Does she think that the tens of thousands of us wounded soldiers don't know about war. Yes, she does.

This is not a simple mistake or a gaffe, this is a freudian slip and it gives us an insight into how Sen. McCain feels about the service of those of are not him. Sen. McCain has shown us by his voting record that we don't matter.

Sen. McCain was publicly against the bi-patisan Webb/Hagel GI Bill. He tried to introduce his own watered down version because the Webb/Hagel bill was "too generous". If you did 3 tours in Iraq and want to get out and go to school...Sen. McCain thinks you don't matter.

Sen. McCain voted against the bipartisan Webb/Hagel Dwell time amendment. This amendment would have required troops to be home for the same amount of time as they are deployed. If you are going on your third tour to Iraq just 90 days after you returned from your last one...Sen. McCain thinks you don't matter. Even if that means that your propensity for PTSD is now much higher.

Sen. McCain has voted against increasing veterans and military health care 29 times. These bills would have fully staffed the va and dod hospitals, money that could have been used to clean up Walter Reed before it became a national disgrace. If you have to wait in line for an increasing amount of time because they are an increasing amount of veterans and not enough staff...Sen. McCain doesn't care.

These are just 3 examples of the myriad of times that Sen. McCain has used his vote to say "your service doesn't matter". Now we have Sen. McCain's daughter acting as an agent for the campaign saying your service doesn't matter.

This isn't the first time we have heard claims like this from the Republican side of the house. When asked about Iraq on the Today Show, Laura Bush said "no one suffers more than their President and I do."

More here and Cindy McCain Video:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/9/19014/97611/267/592654

Not bad for an obscure ABC page...

Keep the pressure on peeps! On all fronts!

Charles Gibson do your job!

is that ok?

Busted!: Gallup, CBS, USA.Today, etc. Tinkers With Party ID Again
by Excelscior1
Tue Sep 09, 2008 at 03:45:38 PM PDT

Despite the fact that democrats have a 11million vote advantage over republicans, these polls still decided to shift in the favor of Republicans, coming out of their convention, which only gives the perception of McCain really gaining steam.

Despite a raft of advantages in the electorate for Democrats, in September's first Gallup Tracking poll, an equal number of Republicans and Democrats were surveyed (including "leaners") from Sept. 3-5, compared to a 10-point Democratic identification advantage two weeks ago. That partisan makeup of the polling pool resulted in a 5-point lead for McCain in Sept. 5 tracking poll. Meanwhile, the new CBS poll features a 6-point swing in partisan composition toward Republicans, which plays some role in the poll's two-point lead for McCain. Finally, the latest USA Today poll, which claims a four-point edge for McCain, was arrived at after a 10-point swing in partisan makeup toward GOP respondents.

You see the major pollsters are still playing their tricks and depressing Obama stalwarts here on Kos (remember a month ago when Obama gained a 10 point lead with Gallup, Rassmussen mysteriously increased their GOP party ID again +2 points (1.7% to be exact). Remember that?

Are these party shifts being executed innocently (because registration files aren't loaded) or nefariously to keep the horse race going?

Some polling experts say the changing state of party affiliation in the field is slow to be reflected in polls themselves. Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg told the Huffington Post that "when it comes to registration and turnout, the polls often do a very bad job of taking those [factors] into account," because newly registered voters aren't in the voter files used by firms that survey public opinion. "You could make the argument they are under-representing new registrants," she said, which would mean that the Democrats new edge would not be taken into account.

Monday's USA Today poll had a 48-47 split between Democrats and Republicans surveyed. That represents a nearly 10 point shift in party identification toward Republicans since USA Today's July polling. When asked for comment, USA Today polling editor Jim Norman wrote that "it's possible" that their latest sample includes too many Republicans. Though he added, "it's also possible that we have too many Democrats," because "there's always the chance of an over- or under-representation" in polls.

The noted Prof. Adam Abramowitz, of Emory University, offers his salient opinions:

Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz is highly skeptical of the new Gallup, USA Today and CBS polls. About the latter, which showed a statistically insignificant two point lead for McCain, Abramowitz said: "One reason for the dramatic difference between the two recent CBS polls is that the two samples differed fairly dramatically in terms of partisan composition. The first sample was 35.2% Democratic, 26.2 percent Republicans, and 38.6 percent independent. The second sample was 34.9% Democratic, 31.1% Republican, and 34.0% independent. That's a change from a 9 point Democratic advantage to a 3.8 point Democratic advantage. That alone would probably explain about half of the difference in candidate preferences between the two [CBS] polls."

It seems the GOP and McCain fans are setting themselves up for a fall, because the party ID numbers aren't even close. Even the right-leaning Associated Press knows it:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/9/18192/04144/290/592615

welcome to the bloggie.

don't look like yer getting all that much traction so far.

i'm the token republican here, i'm ancient, cranky and way to well read to think that any of these current candidates are capable of dealing with the assholes that actually run this country.

i'm suprised you're so fervent. you seem fairly smart. i'd guess you still don't know what's really been going on for the last 150 years or so.

no biggie. hope you like full on fascism though because that's what they're setting up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e997_pa2InI&e

...

(In Windows Vista..the search function is quite ...umm..functional...I like it.)

I'd love that, thanks A.

Deep down we all knew it would come down to this.

It always does.

But so soon?

Folks are really excited.

I can't wait for the debates!

sat mean?

Al Franken wins Senate nod amid 7 state primaries By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer
27 minutes ago

Comedian Al Franken grabbed the Democratic nomination Tuesday for U.S. Senate in Minnesota, setting up a showdown with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken, who gained fame as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member, easily beat six other candidates chasing the Democratic nod. Coleman trounced his only opponent, an expatriate living in Italy.

Minnesota voters joined those in six other states and the District of Columbia in deciding general election matchups. Nominations for House, Senate and governor were on the line, along with the fate of another TV celebrity: Kevin Powell, a former cast member on MTV's "Real World," who lost his bid for Congress in New York.

Franken's celebrity has both helped and hurt him. His coast-to-coast recognition enabled him to amass an impressive bankroll for a first-time candidate, but archives full of racy material provided ammunition to Republicans and his most visible Democratic rival, attorney Priscilla Lord Faris.

Lord Faris, part of a well-regarded family in state Democratic politics, criticized Franken for "angry and offensive public behavior" and said he'd be too easy a target for Coleman and his allies.

With 33 percent of precincts reporting, Franken had 68 percent of the vote to Lord Faris' 28 percent.

"Norm Coleman has become Washington," Franken said. "He's the Washington guy and I'm going to be fighting for Minnesotans."

Coleman sought to make the race about experience in public office.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080910/ap_on_el_ge/state_primaries_16&print...

One man's fascism is another man's discipline.

night

they wanted to crash everything 20 years ago.

americans are resillient. tough as shoe leather too.

pretty ignorant and fairly arrogant but also real appreciators of "Fair".

see, the deal is this. the greedheads have been able to scam people for quite a while, and they figure if the peons get 'uppity' they can just kill the ornery ones and slave labor the wimpy ones.

so 1% thinks it can kick ass on 80% or 90%?

i'm afraid i'm gonna be at ground zero for that one, and personally i've got a bunch of other thing i'd rather be doing.

so...

I'll start over now..

...

We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.

-R. Buckminster Fuller

You know anything at all about S&M?

Psychology? Abberrant behaviour?

ever studied ol Herman Goering?

Sure did'nt work for the last

three or four civilizations

that tried it. the money

boys are the closest

thing going so far

but that only works as

long as you can fool people...

BTW, how's the weather in Branson, woofie?
That "W" sure is useful ain't it?

Hope the siding holds through the winter for ye...it's going to be a long one.

Maybe even a nucular one!

42,000,000!

for 50K a photo

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-palin-fundraiser,0,42...

Fuller’s approach was characterized by vast overarching concepts, interdisciplinary reaches and design building blocks with widespread applications. One of his greatest gifts to the future was a resistance to notions of absolute ownership of resources. On the drawing One Ocean World Town he scrawled the phrase if MATERIALISM WINS, HUMANITY IS LICKED.

It can be difficult to convey the spirit of a visionary—the end products of genius are only traces of the mind that produced them. The Whitney wisely includes personal effects and, better, footage of Fuller talking about his work, world resources and the engineering phenomenon he called a “jitterbug thump.” He was notoriously long-winded, and his speech could be difficult to understand, but his panache and enthusiasm for his subjects shine through.

In a video called Buckminster Fuller Meets the Hippies in Golden Gate Park, he sits in a field among men in long beards and women in headbands, seriously engaging their concerns about the spiritual constraints of his geometric designs. That unlikely conversation epitomizes the enthusiasm and the drive toward cross-cultural connection that made him not just a great thinker but a great ambassador for his visions.

Fuller’s prioritization of the individual and of daily experience, combined with his concern for the future of the connected and finite system we call the planet, exemplify the kind of genius needed to solve our world’s continuing problems.

old blacksmith term:

very hot : glowing

normal modern use:

exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling

.

Al Franken. :)

yer on it A.!

my guess, might be wrong...

think it's a new friend of mine. styles the same.

did a pretty good job of trackin me down too, excuse me if that's a lil self centered...

if so he's at that stage where he knows everything they're telling him,

but he's only hip to about 2o% of what's going on globally and what's researchable in english.

no biggie, at least he got enough gut's to bat it around here if so.

Although most of the lyrics are indecipherable, many people thought the song was somehow offensive. Indiana governor Matthew Welsh declared it "Pornographic" in 1964 and asked the Indiana Broadcasters Association to ban it. The FBI launched an investigation into the song's lyrics, feeling they might be subversive. After playing the song backwards and at various speeds, they found it indecipherable any way they listened to it.

http://rhizome.org/editorial/15

...
Many reports on the show have cited Fuller's prescience as a prophet of ecological sustainability, but the issue of the environment was only one factor in his truly global attempts at problem-solving -- and, in fact, Fuller was no tree-hugger; he always weighed humanity's own needs as highest priority.
...

I think..

This is going to be fun, we'll post photos if she shows, ya all are welcome to join us in "way out west"Carson City NV. on 9/13.
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=39.169574&lon=-119.754551&zoom=16

different levels

from cutesie to horrific.

Feed her some of her polluted bristol bay sockeye.

One minute your cheering for insurgents.

Next minute Bush has won the war.

One minute your counting your Obama chickens.

Next minute Sarah steals the stage.

One minute you cryin about a recession.

Next minute we have another quarter of growth.

On minute Hillary is going to be the first.

Next minute Sarah shows her where she went wrong.

There must be a God!

Athena Framework of the ATLAS experiment

ATLAS is one of two General Purpose Detectors at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC will collide 7 TeV protons together with a centre of mass energy of 14 TeV and a design luminosity of 1034cm-2s-1. The bunch crossing time will be 25ns and at full luminosity there will be approximately 22 proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing. The ATLAS Detector is situated at Point 1, directly opposite the CERN main entrance.
...
One of the principal challenges for ATLAS computing is to develop and operate a data storage and management infrastructure able to meet the demands of a yearly data volume of O(10 PB) utilized by data processing and analysis activities spread around the world.
==
ATLAS Detector image
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Newsweek Burning Up the Trooper-Gate Case

"The latest out of Trooper-gate.

If her behavior was so abusive and over-the-line before she became governor (this was in 2005), can there really be much doubt she would have used all her power of office to get him fired?"

I didn't know that...

yer concept of god is severely limited.

best concept of god i ever heard was a huge comglomeration of every concious entity in a million galaxies.

"W" is just a piss ant PR flack.

responsible for fronting for horrors you've never heard of

on a planet full of people that still have'nt got their shit together on something as simple as compassion.

he still around?

i'd love to meet him.

everything about your husbot... :)

*

Tirelessly arguing for the power of technology to improve the future of humanity, at a time when many opposed both the "dehumanizing" computerization of society and the high-tech war in Vietnam, Fuller became paradoxically both an advocate for American technocracy and an inspiration to countercultural radicals. Even before Fuller's famous 200-foot tall dome was erected at the American Pavillion of the 1967 Expo in Montreal, where it would house monumental paintings by the likes of Andy Warhol and Barnett Newman, a ramshackle cluster of utopian hippies called Drop City had already constructed their own village of Fuller-inspired domes in a rural backwater of Colorado. As chronicled in Felicity D. Scott's recent study Architecture or Techno-Utopia, "droppers" saw in Fuller's dome an externalized manifestation of a new consciousness. "With few resources but idealism and the conviction that they were 'total revolutionaries,'" Scott writes, "the droppers believed they were 'rebuilding the world' as an open, communal society one dome at a time," using the blueprints that Uncle Bucky had bequeathed them.

square...
and they don't make comics about round working spaces..just cubicles...

:/

thanks for digging it up!

what about you?

Although, I will not stay at any inn where I have to share a bathroom with others..but that's stupid because in hotels/motels you share too. The other people are just gone before you get there...

good find on Palin.

she's vindictive by nature.

i'd be willing to believe she's "W"s sister the facial resemblance is so close.

You're right, A. Context is everything.

There used to be a dymaxion car in an auto paint store in Mesa AZ

don't know if it's still there, been meaning to stop by.
==
LHC

==
thanks for the polling post tD, knew something was wrong
and
to bad frankin wasn't around to question gonzales

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

get me to tell ya some stories sometime about california, oregon, washington, and idaho in the late 60's and 70's.

i useta get around quite a bit then.

the knew me as 'Biker Jim' in those days.

i loved the communes, was disppointed in some of the people.

still admire those that stuck with it, those that pitched in and did their share.

some of the neatest houses i ever stayed in.

give us a report if you do see it again.

it's rarer than a Picasso.

yes sj I'll get pics if it's still there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

Trash you in a tickle fight? :)

Come on everyone, don't you miss the dog?

i'll be glad to dredge up some memories.

we miss you more.

Fell into tight common-interest (mostly musician) enclaves during my various life moments, and sometimes we would talk about all getting a place together and live, like, in a commune. We realized but didn't recognize that we were already in a commune.

Round dwellings: There's an outfit whose brochures and website I used to have that has plans, materials, and pricing for these. They look really cool, and there are moments when I really want to put one up and live in one. But there are enough existing edifices on the planet.

It's not so bad being the social hermit crabs that we are. Splendid when we venture out of our shells for a sec. And dance.

Hope you're all well and happy - and if not still here, back.

best to ya!

lots of the best communes were'nt that in name. just close friends living together and welcoming strangers to share.

And most of the newer ones have NO foliage or tree-age above their roof. All out in the valley down there and plus the air smells like mounds of cow crap...

I should take a pic of this place (and others) next time I drive by...they are built like mansions..some have HUGE white columns in front..out in the middle of the valley..I can't even describe how weird it looks..I'll show you someday..

SJ doesn't think that was War Dog...I just have 'folks' to go on..60th thinks it is too...It's a mystery...I guess...

*

MYSTERY: lo! betwixt the sun and moon
Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen
Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen
Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon
Of bliss whereof the heaven and earth commune:

...Astarte

I'll get back around here for more than a couple minutes, one of these days.

Been so busy, with the puppies and stuff. More than 20 dogs a day. It's fun, but a handfull.

I've been rehearsing with these new guys, it's starting to sound pretty damn good. Should have something to share by halloween, I'm thinking.

My bass player's fiancee just had her book published. I was at the book release party tonight.

http://www.amazon.com/Pages-Between-Holocaust-Legacy-Families/dp/1416558...

give her our compliments and wish her well with it.

16 in California..

P sold a one-inch-tall book of Robert Burns poetry, encased in a silver cover, on ebay tonight...Maybe I can take some photos before it leaves...

it's attitude and experience and maturity that needs to be determined.

Hey! Second wind is blowing out in a minute..

Sunshine - couldn't be more aptly named; well, maybe Moonshine would work, but maybe I (gaining sentience at 1:30am) should claim that.

Dada: Congrats - indirect through bass player (isn't that how it often works?) to the author. How come your posts seem like something I've read - or dreamt - word-for-word?

Alice: Astarte (a/k/a Ishtar) is so much of the earth that's she's been a threat to the the sky-gods, who have branded her as violent and subversive and, for the time being, obliterated her.

Don't get me started on edifices, especially near water. I've seen seen things on Oregon beaches that would bring stomach enzymes to your tonsils. My life frequently takes me past Trump's odious obscenities along the Hudson shore in Manhattan.

More sleepy tea, please.

G'night

or criterion or what-ever...

I don't know. This is what I was told to post. I asked my iPhone ouija board.

http://mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.com/

http://mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and reluctant on the water's brink,
As on the brink of parting which must be.
Each eyed the other's aspect, she and he,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,
There on the brink of life's dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: —
A sudden ripple made the faces flow
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah! were parted so.

http://users.telenet.be/gaston.d.haese/Fanny%5B1%5D.jpg

...Goodnight, Blog.. xo

actually Sunshine is my dotters name.

she's the truely sunny one and i love her dearly.

i named my lil salmon troller after her because i missed her so much.

i did'nt see her from the time she was 4 till she was a teenager.

used to wonder where she was every night.

there were so many Jims in the fleet they tagged ya with your boat name hence 'Sunshine Jim'

"How come your posts seem like something I've read - or dreamt - word-for-word?"

Oh, you know.

for 'God & Gestalt' weekly.

his posts are ALWAYS like that.

i'm out,

love ya all!

Oof!

Sunshine:

I have a daughter who didn't really recognize me (thanks to my being a brain-surgery-recovery headcase) for eight months from when she had just mastered talking (3) for eight months until she was almost 4.

Lonely indeed. For both of us I think. But I can't even start to fathom so long so absent.

Now, despite some other traumatic lifeshifts, AnnaV and I are pals again. She's in college.

The salmon troller sounds marvelous.

Yeah, I know. Prolly.

I wish you would have posted that up in the Open Mic I just put up dan. It's perfect retard meets scientist stuff.

My Internets went Boobs up yesterday so I'm out of the
old loop again..
How was the show ?
Good I'm sure..

Fernando,what time is The Black Hole suppose to hit ?
I'd like to have breakfast before it does..
There might be some travel involved with this thing..
Just a guess.. ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMR. It happened several hours ago. The beam was lit, in a few weeks they crash opposing beams.

You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave!

CERN, Switzerland (CNN) -- Scientists Wednesday applauded as one of the most ambitious experiments ever conceived got successfully underway, with protons being fired around a 27-kilometer (17-mile) tunnel deep beneath the border of France and Switzerland in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the universe.
Scientists applaud during the switch on operation of the Large Hadron Collider.

Scientists applaud during the switch on operation of the Large Hadron Collider.

The Large Hadron Collider -- a $9 billion particle accelerator designed to simulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe -- was switched on at 0732 GMT to cheers and applause from experts gathered to witness the event.

While observers were left nonplussed by the anticlimactic flashing dots on a TV screen that signalled the machine's successful test run, among teams of scientists involved around the world there were jubilant celebrations and popping champagne corks.

In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions.

Skeptics, who claim that the experiment could lead to the creation of a black hole capable of swallowing the planet, failed in a legal bid to halt the project at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Others have branded it a colossal waste of cash, draining resources from its multinational collaborators that could have been spent on scientific research with more tangible benefits to mankind.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/09/10/lhc.collider/index.html#cnnSTCText

The Coat Hanger Project

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Happe Talk

McCain's Ad Cites Articles That Rip Him Worse Than Obama

John McCain's attack ad released Tuesday evening is perhaps the most outlandish yet this election cycle -- not simply because the spot claims that Obama lacks any substantive record on education policy (he actually can claim several achievements on that front), and not because McCain charges that Obama's lone feat is "comprehensive sex education" for kindergartners (a hysterical description of efforts aimed at protecting children from predators).

What sets this ad apart is that every article save one that the McCain camp cites as being critical of Obama's education policies either has far more derogatory things to say about McCain himself or goes on to praise the Illinois Democrat.

In the spot, the McCain campaign references a June 2008 Washington Post editorial that called Obama "elusive" on school accountability. That same editorial, however, stated that McCain "has not been forthcoming with any detailed plan." Moreover, when the Post editorial board revisited the subject of education last month, it found that "Obama has given the issue more attention" than McCain, whose plan was "both late in coming and still a work in progress."

Moreover, the specific "elusive" claim is in reference to a David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times that was noted by the Post. But in that piece, Brooks was far more critical of McCain. "Obama endorses many good ideas and is more specific than the McCain campaign, which hasn't even reported for duty on education," the Times columnist wrote.

In its press release accompanying the ad, the McCain campaign also cites an Education Week article which states that, as a legislator, Obama "hasn't made a significant mark on education." The same story, however, goes on to add: "Sen. Obama may have a unique perspective among the candidates seeking the presidency in 2008. As a private citizen, he led Chicago's portion of the Annenberg Challenge school reform initiative financed by the late philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg--an experience that shaped Mr. Obama's perspective on the critical importance of principals and teachers."

Additionally, during the heat of the Republican primary, Education Week ran a withering story on the lack of McCain accomplishments in the field, titled "John McCain on Education: Where Art Thou?"

"With Republican presidential contender John McCain poised to make a strong showing--or even win--tomorrow's primary in New Hampshire, it seems appropriate to re-examine his views on education," read the story. "That's not such an easy task. Education doesn't make the Arizona senator's list of issues on his campaign website. ... McCain is a campaign-finance, foreign-relations, anti-abortion, tax-cut candidate. Education is not his thing."

Indeed, only one article referenced by the McCain campaign doesn't, in turn, rip the Republican nominee even harder than Obama. That article (which is misleadingly attributed in the ad to the Chicago Tribune) is a July 2008 op-ed by libertarian columnist Steve Chapman, who has also argued for abolishing the Department of Education.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/mccain-ad-cites-articles_n_1252...

Morning Joe has Andrea Mitchell on in place of Mika and of course Pay Buchanen and they just played some viral videos from McCain about Obama.

1. Was for Palen with Obama saying lipstick on a pig

2. Was about Obama wanting to teach sex ed in kindergarten.

Then they show the Gallup Poll with Chuck Todd that has McCain 5 points ahead.

And then we are to think that because of Olbermann and Mathews, that MSNBC is a Liberal media staion.

Makes me sick!

Turns out Barack Obama--who has taken pains to woo Jewish voters and donors--has a prominent rabbi in the family. He's Rabbi Capers Funnye, the leader of a Southwest Side Chicago synagogue, Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

Michelle Obama and Funnye are first cousins once removed. They have not been in touch since Sen. Obama has been running for president. The Forward first wrote about Funnye last week and the story was picked up in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. Michelle Obama spokesman, Katie McCormick Lelyveld confirmed to the Sun-Times that Funnye and Michelle are cousins. "They're not close," she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/09/michelle-obamas-chicago-r_n_125...

Happe Talk

Largest particle collider conducts successful test

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer
36 minutes ago

GENEVA - The world's largest particle collider successfully completed its first major test by firing a beam of protons around a 17-mile underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:36 a.m. indicating that the protons had traveled the full length of the $3.8 billion Large Hadron Collider.

"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap.

*
Now that the beam has been successfully tested in clockwise direction,CERN plans to send it counterclockwise.(Look Out Ono !)

Eventually two beams will be fired in opposite directions with the aim of recreating conditions a split second after the big bang, which scientists theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.

Con't

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

a day at a time...pray for me!

Happe Talk

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded
parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/obama-and-the-palin-effec_b_...

Lehman Sees $3.9 Billion Loss and Plans to Shed Assets
BY BEN WHITE
The investment bank Lehman Brothers, in an all-out fight for its survival, said Wednesday morning that it expected a loss of $3.9 billion, or $5.92 a share, in the third quarter after $5.6 billion in write-downs.

The investment bank also said that it would spin off the majority of its remaining commercial real estate holdings into a new public company. And it confirmed plans to sell a majority of its investment management division in a move that it expects to generate $3 billion.

The moves come after Lehman’s stock lost nearly half its value on Tuesday as investors feared it was running out of options to raise capital and shore up its ailing balance sheet. Shares in Lehman, a major underwriter of mortgage-related securities during the credit boom, are down over 90 percent since hitting their peak last year before the subprime mortgage crisis took hold.

Lehman said Wednesday that it hoped to complete the spin-off of around $32 billion in commercial mortgage assets by early next year.

Among other decisions, Lehman also said it would cut its annual dividend to 5 cents a share and that it remained committed to examining “all strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value.”

“This is an extraordinary time for our industry, and one of the toughest periods in the firm’s history,” the chief executive, Richard S. Fuld Jr., chief executive, said in a statement. “The strategic initiatives we have announced today reflect our determination to fundamentally reposition Lehman Brothers by dramatically reducing balance sheet risk, reinforcing our focus on our client-facing businesses and returning the firm to profitability.”

Lehman’s announcement came a day after the bank’s shares plunged 45 percent following reports that its efforts to secure a strategic investment from Korea Development Bank had failed. Investors also feared that the federal government would not bail out Lehman as it has mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and investment bank Bear Stearns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/business/11lehman.html?_r=1&oref=slogi...

Jeff Sharlet’s “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” examines a group of politically engaged Christians far more secretive than Robertson or Falwell. Sharlet establishes that since the end of World War II, The Family, aka The Fellowship, has exerted its influence in an impressive and frightening array of mostly dire events. Its first coup was the wholesale exoneration of minor Nazis and major Nazi collaborators after the war. The addition of under God to the Pledge of Allegiance and In God We Trust to U.S. currency were its initiatives. Its first major government operative was Sen. Frank Carlson, R-Kan., who persuaded Dwight Eisenhower to run as a Republican, purged progressive bureaucrats from his chair at the obscure Civil Service Employees Committee and lobbied for such heads of state as Haiti’s “Papa Doc” Duvalier. Other dictators abetted by The Family included Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Park Chung Hee of South Korea, Artur da Costa e Silva of Brazil, Gen. Suharto of Indonesia, Mohamed Siad Barre of Somalia and Carlos Eugenios Vides Casanova of El Salvador, which got its first infusion of special aid at the behest of Jimmy Carter, who has called Family leader Doug Coe a “very important person” in his life. Hillary Clinton has also been a Family “friend,” and not just via its major public manifestation, the relatively anodyne annual National Prayer Breakfast. The Family was instrumental in the creation of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, and of the Community Bible Study project through which George W. Bush found Jesus in 1985.

Deeply researched yet fast paced, moving easily from first person to third person and incident to overview, “The Family” is an exceptional piece of bookcraft. Its revelations are fascinating, especially with political history having propelled Christians deep into polite discourse since 1976. Yet since it came out in May, it has attracted just two major reviews, both censorious; I found out about it only when I was asked to share a panel with Sharlet in June. You could say this reflects the dismal state of book coverage in a journalistic environment where new arts cutbacks come down from on high every month. But when I try to imagine how an unbroken phalanx of individual literary editors decided not to squeeze this book into their pathetic page allotments, I keep remembering how exotic my Village Voice co-workers found my hunch that Carter was a smart, sensible, decent guy. Secular humanists know more about Christians now, but not that much more. And “The Family” doesn’t fit their template.

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20080905_robert_christgau_on_a...

Happe Talk

I can't afford to buy another TV..

The last one got "Blown Up,Sir !"(As in The Movie-Stripes)

Because,I couldn't stand Jockstrap Joe,one more second ! ;)

(Just a Joke-you guys at The NSA.. :) )

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Indictment: Heather Wilson's Office Tied to Abramoff
By Zachary Roth - September 9, 2008, 1:15PM

The Abramoff corruption probe has already snared one GOP Congressman, Bob Ney, and implicated a few more, most prominently Rep. John Doolittle of California. But could there be another to add to the list: Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico?

An examination by TPMmuckraker of the indictment of former Jack Abramoff associate Kevin Ring, filed yesterday, suggests that Wilson's office was tied in to Abramoff's corruption network at a level not previously known. And John McCain's 2005 investigation into Abramoff's fleecing of Indian tribes, which McCain conducted as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, made no mention of that fact.

The Ring indictment contains the following statements from prosecutors:

On or about January 30, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed a staffer for the New Mexico tribe's U.S. Representative, "Sorry I couldn't hangout last night. I greatly appreciate your taking the time to han[g]out with the [New Mexico tribe]. It meant a lot to [K]evin and I [sic]. BTW, you should be all set for the [Los Angeles] Clippers [basketball] game."

And:

On or about February 14, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B forwarded an email from the staffer for the New Mexico tribe's U.S. Representative to defendant RING in which the staffer had written, "How did Kevin' s meetings with the [New Mexico tribe] go? If you guys lose that contract I would be disappointed."

And:

On or about March 4, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed defendant RING, "I'm going to kill [the New Mexico tribe] with [its U.S. Representative] if we don't get hired."

And:

On or about March 7, 2003, a lobbyist at Firm B emailed defendant RING, "[ The staffer for the New Mexico tribe' s U.S. Representative] is going to be in the meeting with [the New Mexico tribe] when they come to town. He's going to give the 'are you guys staying with [Firm B] this cycle? They did a great job on . . . legislation . . . and really cleared the path for you guys . . . . . yadda yadda.' He's gonna gather as much intel as possible for us."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/heather_wilsons_office...

Happe Talk

He did an excellent analysis. I am not sure that Americans are ready to strive to show their better side.

Looks like my home town (Corpus Christi) will be hit.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—A federal judge in Connecticut has upheld a challenge to the nation's bankruptcy law, saying a provision that restricts the advice lawyers can give is unconstitutional.

Organizations representing thousands of attorneys filed the lawsuit in 2006, objecting to a requirement that they give specific advice to bankruptcy clients, including not to go deeper into debt.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Droney ruled Tuesday that the restriction was too broad because it prohibits attorneys from advising their clients to incur any debt, including debts that are legal and desirable in some cases.

"A lawyer who represents consumers contemplating bankruptcy bears the duty of zealous representation and the prohibition on giving legal advice unnecessarily interferes with this duty," Droney wrote. "If the government seeks to prevent manipulation of the bankruptcy system, a more narrowly tailored approach would be to penalize those who take on certain types of debts, rather than prohibiting legal advice about permissible courses of action."

Droney granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits enforcing that provision on the attorneys.

Droney ruled in favor of the government on other issues, including an objection to a provision of the law suggesting a person does not need an attorney to file for bankruptcy.

"The ruling in several parts is very gratifying in that it upholds the constitutional rights of attorneys and their ability to represent their clients," said Barry Feigenbaum, attorney for the plaintiffs, who include the Connecticut Bar Association and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department said they are reviewing the decision.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2008/09/09/judge_s...

Happe Talk

Extra, extra: Google expanding newspaper section of digital library to include older articles

MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP News

Sep 08, 2008 15:08 EST

Google Inc. is trying to expand the newspaper section of its online library to include billions of articles published during the past 244 years, hoping the added attraction will lure even more traffic to its leading Internet search engine.

The project announced Monday extends Google's crusade to make digital copies of content created before the Internet's advent, so the information can become more accessible and, ultimately, Google can make more money from ads shown on its Web site.

As part of the latest initiative, Google will foot the bill to copy the archives of any newspaper publisher willing to permit the stories to be shown for free on Google's Web site. The participating publishers will receive an unspecified portion of the revenue generated from the ads displayed next to the stories.

Google is touting the program as a way to give people an easier way to find a rich vein of history. The initiative also is designed to provide a financial boost to newspaper publishers as they try to offset declining revenue from print editions that are losing readers and advertisers to online news sources.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/09/google_copying_storing_more_st...

Happe Talk

'

We've saved Mire's room for you if you need it.

Sam forgot to put comments on a new thread at the top, but he did post yesterday's show.

I'm in Dallas so no threat here. My mom an brother live in Corpus but my mom is visiting in Virginia right now and my brothers family is mostly up in Connecticut for the next month. This means I'll probably have to go and see if their houses were knocked over....

What a great way to start the day! Usually it's Bill Press reluctantly at 5am~Marc and Sam and humor and intelligent commentary~~WAY better! Thanks

Q: what are you going to be talking about tomorrow?

A: Whatever the McCain campaign campaign want's us too.

==

out of context - sort of.

~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

click here dont click there lick my click man for goodness sake jeez

coz i dont know where else to click right now i am out clicked

morning yourll

yes, one-note palin...we'll see what happens with Gibson.

until next spring at the earliest.... right now at CERN they are getting the beams to circulate properly... last night (about 5 hours ago) they circulatd the first beam, and in only one direction. Now they have to send the other beam counter-clockwise, and then they hope to increase the intensity in December to about 65% of capacity...

so no worries yet....

i think i am going to take advil and go home

the lipstick on a pig comment is taking on a life of its own.

now to see if he learned anything from kerry, as in kerry losing all credibility when he apologized for a poorly framed statement.

lets hope its take no prisoners, don't look back

putting lipstick on a pig

A term used by many, generally in reference to someone who may be trying to make something or someone look appealing or attractive when it quite clearly will not work, or will only deceive the dumbest of people.

Car salesmen are generally good at "putting lipstick on a pig" because they are always selling unroadworthy buckets of shit and try and hide their shitfulness by tarting them up.
The dude in that car yard just put a body kit on that piece of shit. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig

Happe Talk

Yeah, pretty strange video to. Sammer is losing it.

Maybe was distracted by the signals he is receiving from Bowie's nipple antennae....

The ConChords are just so odd.