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June 30, 2005
House GOP Propose Own Social Security Plan
Does the GOP really think Americans are retarded or something?? Every Republican plan but one that I've seen so far has included the private accounts that no one wanted. What I really love is this House version of the plan, they take the money and invest it into the very thing it's already invested into. So why would you do this? Well they want to create the private accounts now and later they will steal the Social Security benefits from the elderly. They've decided to take the multi-stage approach to stealing the money. The Democrats just need to give the Republicans another month to get all their different versions out in the open and then introduce a real piece of legislation. These fools are completely clueless on what the American people are asking for. So far only one Republican plan involves actually increasing the life span of Social Security. One, the rest are only Trojan horse changes so they can steal the money from the elderly later. Actually I shouldn't say that there is one, there is a single Republican that has suggested that they may actually need to do something about the solvency problem. Of course he's a pariah right now for actually suggesting they do something rather than push the Trojan horse approach to stealing everyone's retirement savings. Actually it's an interesting notion decreasing benefits for the wealthy who have millions in the bank and have them actually take care of themselves while the rest of the elderly get enough to live off of. Wild notion for a Republican to suggestion the notion of rich people taking care of themselves and the government worrying about the people that actually need help. So you can see why it's caused a negative backlash among Republicans.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Yep, Another Bush Cover-Up
Given that the President and most members of the Republican party are pathological liars it really doesn't surprise me to learn that they are involved in yet another scandal. Immigration is always a major issue with the Neo-conservative set, while they will regularly "claim" to not be a racist organization immigration limitations are a hot button issue for them for "national security" concerns. Yeah it was the Mexicans that bombed the World Trade Center, THEY are the people we need to be worried about, but all the readily apparent racism aside what's worse is when the Administration tells government agencies to lie and cover-up information from the American people so that they don't know that the Republican hate ideology is not only wrong, but woefully ineffective at solving the "problem". So to appease the radical base of racists that is the Neo-conservatives in the Republican party Bush restricted legal immigration numbers and when the border patrol started reporting data showing that it was actually increasing the numbers of people crossing the border illegally the Bush Administration told them to stop reporting the numbers and repeat the standard Administration lies on the subject. Wow, that's just great government for you, the Republicans make the problem worse because of their hate ideology and then try to cover it up to please their racist base. Brilliant plan!!! This is the Republican party folks at it's finest, knee deep in corruption and scandals while they scream at us to believe that everything is going great while they are confident that you as an Americans are too stupid to put two and two together.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 3:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hi, My Name is Dianne and I'm a Person, Not a Label
Molly Ivins is an extremely intelligent lady who isn't afraid to tell it just like it is. If you've never read her book Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America
TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2005I am not "you liberals" or "you people on the left who always ..." My name is Molly Ivins, and I can speak for myself, thank you. I don't need Rush Limbaugh or Karl Rove to tell me what I believe.
Setting up a straw man, calling it liberal and then knocking it down has become a favorite form of "argument" for those on the right. Make some ridiculous claim about what "liberals" think, and then demonstrate how silly it is. Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and many other right-wing ravers never seem to get tired of this old game. If I had a nickel for every idiotic thing I've ever heard those on the right claim "liberals" believe, I'd be richer than Bill Gates.
The latest and most idiotic statement yet comes from Karl Rove, who is not, actually, an objective observer. He is George Bush's hatchet man. Last week, Rove, in an address to the Conservative Party of New York, made the following claim: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9-11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9-11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."
This seemed to the editorial writers at the San Diego Union-Tribune such a reasonable summary of the liberal position they couldn't figure out why Democrats were "hyperventilating" and getting "bent out of shape."
"What is harder to understand is how Democrats can think they can have it both ways," they wrote. "Even as they beat their chests and profess support for military action, they can't help but criticize the military and do everything they can to undermine the war effort."
What a deep mystery. Let's see if we can help the San Diego thinkers solve it. On Sept. 14, 2001, Congress approved a resolution authorizing the president to take military action. The vote in the Senate was 98 to zero; the vote in the House was 420 to one. The lone dissenter was Democrat Barbara Lee of California, who expressed qualms about an open-ended war without a clear target.
Find me the offer for therapy and understanding in that vote. Anyone remember what actually happened after 9-11? Unprecedented unity, support across the board, joint statements by Democratic and Republican political leaders. The whole world was with us. The most important newspaper in France headlined, "We Are All Americans Now," and all our allies sent troops and money to help. That is what George Bush has pissed away with his war in Iraq.
The vote on invading Iraq was 77 to 23 in the Senate and 296 to 133 in the House. By that time, some liberals did question the wisdom of invasion because: A) Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and B) it looked increasingly unlikely that Iraq actually had great stores of weapons of mass destruction, since the United Nations inspectors, who were on the ground, couldn't find any sign of them -- even though Donald Rumsfeld claimed we knew exactly where they were.
Since my name is Molly Ivins and I speak for myself, I'll tell you exactly why I opposed invading Iraq: because I thought it would be bad for this country, our country, my country. I opposed the invasion out of patriotism, and that is the reason I continue to oppose it today -- I think it is bad for us. I think it has done nothing but harm to the United States of America. I think we have created more terrorists than we faced to start with and that our good name has been sullied all over the world. I think we have alienated our allies and have killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein ever did.
I did not oppose the war because I like Saddam Hussein. I have been active in human rights work for 30 years, and I told you he was a miserable s.o.b. back in the '80s, when our government was sending him arms.
I did not oppose the war because I am soft on terrorists or didn't want to get Osama bin Laden. To the contrary, I thought it would be much more useful to get bin Laden than to invade Iraq -- which, once again, had nothing to do with 9-11. I believe the case now stands proved that this administration used 9-11 as a handy excuse to invade Iraq, which it already wanted to do for other reasons.
It is one thing for a political knife-fighter like Karl Rove to impugn the patriotism of people who disagree with him: We have seen this same crappy tactic before, just as we have seen administration officials use 9-11 for political purposes again and again. But how many times are the media going to let them get away with it?
The first furious assault on the patriotism of Democrats came right after the 9-11 commission learned President Bush had received a clear warning in August 2001 that Osama bin Laden was planning a hijacking.
Batten down the hatches: This is the beginning of an administration push to jack up public support for the war in Iraq by attacking anyone with enough sense to raise questions about how it's going.
Well said Ms. Ivins, well said. Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 1:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
My Child is Evil
3 days without a nap. In case you didn't catch that 3 DAYS WITHOUT A FREAKING NAP!!! Enough said.
Posted by Daffodil at 1:32 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Enlisting Jenna Bush???
It's an interesting notion being put forward. Recruiters were asked which they would rather have 40k bonuses for enlistment or the enlistment of Jenna Bush. They overwhelmingly picked Jenna, not because of her renowned military prowess, but the symbol she represents. I mean if the daughter of a cowardly draft dodger president is enlisting it sends the message that the war they are fighting is significant and important and that we need to have wider participation. Actually I think they pretty much have their fingers on the pulse of the problem with recruitment. There is no real risk being taken by those that have led us to war, they have no experience with war, they have no real concern for those participating, it's all a campaign agenda item to them. It's hard to get excited to give your life up for something like that. Even for money it's not worth it to poor people anymore. The other suggestions are all problematic for Republicans more women in the military and lifting the ban on gays in the military at well. I really see no problem with either of those ideas, but I'm not hemmed in by a radical ideology. The other suggestions like lowering standards and requiring military service to get green cards are both dangerous to national security. Anyway the Army is excited they met their June numbers, of course that's pretty much expected with high school is letting out and they lowered their expectations down to a realistic level to stop getting the bad press. I'm sure by the end of the day the Republicans will have whipped this into a mandate from the Lord that their God W inspired the masses to join, but the reality of that situation is something entirely different.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 11:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
As women rise in society, many married couples still don't do 'equal'
I've never understood this concept very well. If my wife makes more money that me, I'm going to kick back and relax. What is the major issue with that? I can think of easily a hundred other things that worry me A LOT more than that. As for housework, I've noticed that I sure do a lot more than the average husband and I'm not sure that is exactly fair. You lazy men should be getting off your butts and helping you wives out some. They didn't make all those dirty clothes and they sure didn't dirty up all the dishes all by themselves. But I digress, it's interesting they say the more money women make the less work that men do. Wow, that's sure not the way to get on her good side now is it? I'll never understand people still clinging to the outdated notion of man centered marriage structure. Hello, there is no I in team. ;) But seriously financial problems are a the heart of a majority of marital problems, whining about the wife making too much money is pretty ignorant concern to have on the subject. If there is enough money, who cares how it got there? Dianne and I have been working for 8 years now to get us both degreed and capable of providing for our family if we need to. I was closer to graduating was the only reason we finished my degrees first. If the shoe had been on the other foot, we would have had her finish up first. But we work as a team, interesting, I wonder if we are the next stage of martial evolution. Maybe they should study us Dianne. What do you think??
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New frog species found in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters)Sri Lankan biologists have found dozens of new species of tree frog over the last decade in the island's dwindling rainforests, but warn many known species are either extinct or on the verge of disappearing because of man.
Researchers from Sri Lanka's privately-funded Wildlife Heritage Trust found 35 new species of frog -- increasing the number of known frog species on the Indian Ocean island by a third -- but also found 19 species are now extinct.
"(They) have gone extinct largely because of the loss of their habitat... The land has now been converted to other uses like tea and rubber," biologist Rohan Pethiyagoda, whose team's research has been published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"The long-term prospect is pretty bleak," he added. "We know that 11 of these species are on the brink. They are likely to disappear in the next few years unless extensive conservation measures are taken."
Asia's tsunami offered a small silver lining for the tiny frogs, which range from iridescent green to pale blue in color and cling to foliage with bulbous, sucker-like toes.
The Sri Lankan government has banned rebuilding on a narrow strip of land along much of the island's coastline after December's disaster killed nearly 40,000 people here, and the new coastal buffer zone will offer some species sanctuary.
Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Possible lake on Saturn's moon Titan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)Could Saturn's moon Titan be a land of lakes?
A new image captured by the Cassini spacecraft indicates that it just might -- though the possible lake in question could be filled with liquid methane rather than water, NASA said on Tuesday.
The putative lake appears in a Cassini image of Titan's south polar region, a well-defined but irregularly shaped dark spot with smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike anything previously seen on this Saturn satellite.
It is about 145 miles by 45 miles (234 km by 73 km), about the size of Lake Ontario on the U.S.-Canadian border, Cassini scientists said in a statement.
Now that's just cool! Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 29, 2005
Proposal Made to Seize Souter's Property
If this was being done as a political statement it would be pretty funny and could be politely ignored, but given that the chief Republican hate monger Rush has gotten involved I'm now concerned for Souter's safety. Neo-cons have an extremely hard time controlling their negative impulses so it's bound to get out of hand. A little righteous indignation is appropriate, but actually putting someone in danger is completely unacceptable in a free society. Now the logical response, which I'm personally taking with this outrage, is to contact your state representatives to put into effect state laws to protect private property rights of citizens from Republican campaign contributors. As citizens that's what we should be doing. Right now only 8 states have laws in place to protect citizens and I'm hoping to see 50 by the end of the year with protections in place. I expect that it won't be that way, that you will see a large number of red states and hand full of blue ones without them in place. The former because they are pro-business and the latter because they are pro-government. Either way trying to bring personal harm to a Justice when the ruling can be easily overridden at the state level is completely out of line.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iraq War Takes Toll on Army Marriages
Is anyone else suspicious of these numbers? The Sociologist in me doesn't trust these numbers. What we need to make an informed decision is if the data is the average duration of those marriage and if it's the first marriage or not. These two pieces of data would allow us to draw a better picture of what is happening, because if the average duration of the marriage is less than 3 year deployment in Iraq, then you can make a safer correlation between the war and the divorce rate, but if the average is greater than 5 years then you have to assume there is something else going on instead. Also the fact that it's centralized with Army officers is also little confusing as well. That almost screams that there is a systemic issue playing itself out in the family system. If I had to bet money on the root causes I would suspect economic situations combined with the workload increases. I'd still like to see marriage duration totals as well to make sure there wasn't a massive increase in marriages before 2002.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Weather Service Radars Saving Lives
I had wondered how many lives a year that they thought the new system was saving. You always hear complaints from the dim witted during these kinds of upgrades that the improvements will never justify the costs. Of course these are the same people that usually aren't helped by it anyway, because they aren't aware of the world around them on regular basis, but for the rest of us these systems have been a godsend. I usually don't depend on local weather men these days, mostly because they are incompetent in my area, so I've gotten used to reading Doppler radar images for myself and making decisions about weather emergencies based on the data they provide. It's an amazing piece of technology to say the least. Oh yeah the numbers are reported to be 79 people a year saved from death and 1,050 injuries prevented per year prevented. I would like to double check their methodology to make sure they took into account population growth in the areas that they are covering compared the population before the technology was available. Normally that kind of stuff is always considered up front, but given that the research was done in red states and the luddite movement those with that political persuasion show, the numbers could be significantly higher, but are purposely suppressed to support a political agenda. Oh the warning time increase is great as well. One improvement I'd like to see is a move away from the county wide warning system and movement towards a zip code specific warning system. I don't mind a 10 or 20 mile wide warning area, but sometimes you've got a hundred mile county and the other side is in no danger at all, but they are getting warnings like they are actually in the storm's path.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
SEC Votes to Restore Independent Chairmen
It's about freaking time!! I know there will be a handful of rich corrupt Republican campaign contributors that will be annoyed that they can't steal money from us hardworking mutual fund owners, but who cares?? The only reason that you don't have independent people on the board is because you want to encourage corruption in the funds that are being managed. Decent companies should have already had that kind of independence in place. What I find even more disturbing is that the Republicans have already set up a replacement for the Republican that voted for the increased oversight, probably hoping to get the chance to increase the level of corruption in the industry so that their campaign contributors can steal even more money from the individual investor. It's probably supposed to have worked into their Social Security Privatization plan so they could maximize the theft process in return for kickbacks at election time. It just makes me sick how the Republican corruption mentality works at every level of this country.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Senate leaders discuss potential Supreme Court nominees
First let me be clear, I have no doubt in my mind that Bush and his Neo-Christian allies will not even entertain the notion of picking a decent candidate for the Supreme Court. They are pretty much set on the path of destruction of America so they won't consider anything that would avert that. Which brings up the suggestions from the Democrats for the as of yet confirmed opening on the court.
Senator Mel Martinez of Florida
Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio
Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
At first glance at their records they're Republicans so the notion of them serving on any decision making body is nauseating, but as I dug a little deeper beyond the hate ideology that Republicans shield themselves with they actually represent pretty much the crème of the Republican crop. DeWine and Graham are members of the moderate 14 in the Senate, which speaks volumes for their character despite their conservative views on issues. They aren't puppets of the right wing hate mongers. Martinez for all of his failures as a human being has the character to take responsibility for what is happening around him, a completely alien behavior for your average Republican these days. Crapo is a conservative with actual experience in the upper courts, which is more than a lot of the candidates that the Bush people have been kicking around have. While I wouldn't be happy with any of them, if you had to make a list of conservatives to be on the Supreme Court I could find a way to support any of these guys.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Game Show Ad
This is a hilarious ad about the standard hypocrisy that we've all come to expect from the Republican party these days. From the President regularly lying about things, to Campaign Financing Fraud, which is the norm from the Republican's in Congress, the Republican party has pretty much become the party of lies and deception. They are the party of "values" alright, just not any values you want to teach your children about. Hate, greed and ignorance are the party's battle standards. Not to mention the complete disconnection from reality on every topic from the Supreme Court to Corporate Fraud. Basically these guys come down against America on every issue. It's a rare thing to see even one of them do the right thing and question that these new "values" are really what the Republican party should stand for. Watch the ad and tell me what you think about it.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Senate GOP Scrambles to cover up votes againt VA funding
It's so amusing how these things go public and the Republicans suddenly get religion on what they support. It doesn't take much to realize the Republicans care nothing for America and definitely not brave Americans that have fought to protect our basic freedoms. Republicans hate those freedoms so much that they end up focusing that hate on our Veterans. It's ridiculous to see the completely mental disconnect between needing people to fight their "holy" crusades against Islam and the soldiers that by their sacrifices have been guaranteed by our nation the basic services to support decent life for the rest of their days. It's a pact we made with them and honorable men keep their promises to honor those promises, but Republicans don't have any notion of honor, only short term political gain and their dream of destroying America. Hopefully we can keep the worthless scum honest long enough to protect our Veterans benefits from them.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 9:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Italy Wants to Extradite 13 CIA Officials
Now isn't this just a pickle the Bush Administration has gotten us into. We attack citizens of an allied nation on their home soil because they allegedly have connections to terrorists. Then we send them off to one of those dark torture facilities the Republicans have setup around the world to "handle" people that disagree with us and he's never heard from again. Now somehow I think if Italy did the same thing to us that we might take a slightly different view of it, don't you? If Italians kidnapped Rummy off the streets on his way to do whatever it is he does (it's obvious he doesn't know anything about military topics, so I'm guessing he's just playing mine sweeper most of the day like the rest of the Republican party) we would take a slightly different view of it. Civilized nations don't kidnap people from another sovereign nation. Hell the government probably shouldn't be in the kidnapping business at all!! I know, I know, a wild notion for Republicans, that being actually acting like civilized people. Oh yea, you can't that's right, because the "terrorists" aren't civilized so you can break any law you want to "get" them, but the problem is when you break the law then how do we tell the "terrorists" from the "patriots"?? Because when you act like a terrorist and talk like a terrorist and walk like a terrorist, you're freaking terrorists you morons!! I think we should hand over these un-American bastards to the Italian authorities and call it a day.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Bush Criticized for Linking 9-11 and Iraq
We all knew it was coming and no surprise that's exactly what the Bush Administration did. Time and again there has been no link between 9-11 and Iraq made with anything approaching valid intelligence and yet every time a Republican gets up to speak there is a link made as if Osama and Sadam were just the closest friends. There wasn't a successful terrorist network in Iraq until the Republicans screwed up the invasion of Iraq. We allowed the terrorists to get a foothold, not Sadam. See under his list of atrocities against humanity is knocking off terrorists who tried to set up in his country. He hated religious fanatics and saw them as competition for his power, so they NEVER got a foothold until we invited them in with our incompetence. To say the Bush Administration is out of touch with reality is to pretend that you can get back from whatever pipe dream that their in to something that even remotely approximates reality. That Crackhead has lost it completely and before you worthless Neo-con whiners start talking about it being stupid to pull out of Iraq, I'm well aware that the dopeheads in Washington have painted us into a corner on this. We will be in Iraq when my kid's kids are graduating from college. As for the foolish notion that the war in Iraq is tying up all the terrorists in the world over there, well that's an even bigger pipe dream than Osama and Sadam having tea. The massive level of incompetence that permeates every level of this Republican government is providing less than no protection against the terrorists. It appears the only thing that is really holding them up is the fact that they are greedy for massive body counts to "prove" a point. Only a fool believes the half hearted lip service that the Republicans under Bush are giving to our security will do nothing to stop anything but Americans from living happy and productive lives, they will do nothing to stop anyone willing to die to "prove" their point.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 7:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 28, 2005
The End of the World Is Near
You know when Bob Barr is speaking reason that the end of time is near, but he actually make some sense on his thoughts about the renewal of the Patriot Act. I don't agree with much of anything he has had to say in the past and certainly don't agree with some of his actions (such as advocating millions of dollars spent to re-label National Airport as Regan National on all the DC Metro signs, when that money could be spent on more important issues in DC for one), but in this case he's on the money:
Am I the only one who remembers the Fourth Amendment? It's the one right between not being forced to house soldiers in peacetime and the one that protects your property rights.To refresh our memories here it is:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
As constitutional amendments go, it's a pretty important one. In fact, along with the First and the Second, I'd say it's the most important part of the Bill of Rights. It embodies the basic innovation of American freedom – that a government of the people and by the people can't invade the people's privacy without a pretty good reason.
Lately, however, I'm starting to think our elected officials have skipped right past the "Fourth." Maybe there was a problem at the Government Printing Office and their copies of the Constitution don't look like mine. That's the only way I can figure that anyone would actually consider adding more provisions to the Patriot Act.
First Ginghrich speaking reason recently and now Barr. What's this world coming to? I'm glad you asked because I'd be happy to tell you; the Republican party faithful are trying to take their party back from the vicious Neo-con monsters. It's about time too!
Read more of what Barr had to say here.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Roving Thoughts of a Liberal Insomniac
I was surfing the net, waiting on some email to come in related to school stuff and I came across The Huffington Post. Larry David is one of the bloggers/columnists there and let me tell you this entry he wrote about insomnia had me laughing my head off!
God talks to Bush all the time. I don’t care if you’re President, if you say God talks to you, you’re a schizophrenic and a menace to society. You should be on drugs in a mental institution, like the Son of Sam. What’s the difference between God or a dog talking to you? It’s still a voice in your head. That means you’re certifiably fucking crazy! …Look what they’re doing to me. Take a deep breath. That’s good. Listen to your breathing. That’s a meditation technique. Clears your mind. There’s a breath, that’s good. There’s another breath. I guess the science isn’t in on evolution either…No, come on, breathe. There’s a breath. Of course the planet’s only 5000 years old. Breathe, prick, breathe. What about the fucking dinosaurs?! We have the bones. They know how old the bones are! The sad thing is these nuts who founded this country fled Europe because of religious persecution. Good trade for Europe. Breathe. You have to breathe. This is what they want. I’m so thirsty. I've got to start drinking more water. It's so hard to drink, though, if you're not thirsty. You don't eat when you're not hungry. Hey, that's a good point. You actually made a good point. See, you're not stupid. "You don't eat when you're not hungry." I like that. I've gotta try to work that into a conversation. That'll raise a few eyebrows…
It's funny, but he's got some very valid points as well. Read it all here.
Posted by Daffodil at 9:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
G8 leaders' cars to use eco-fuel made from straw
I hate headlines like this one. It's just plain untrue. The cars are going to be running on 5% cellulose ethanol, that's not the same thing as using eco-fuel. It's not a bad start, but it's hardly 100% which is what we really need to be making progress on. Of course, this also exposed another interesting fun fact that I didn't know, European engines are only made to handle 5% ethanol unlike US engines that are required to handle 10%, but I know for a fact that last statement is not true universally in the US. The American automakers produce models that don't have the improvements to support any ethanol in states they can get away with it, because it saves them a couple of bucks on production costs. I believe my Dad's GM truck had that problem, it could only be sold in the South where they don't have the notion of environmental laws and it's not illegal to sell cars and trucks that don't use a 10% ethanol mix. Anyway I found it interesting the comment made CEO of the cellulose ethanol that a 5% ethanol based fuel requirement could reduce pollution at the same rate as 20% market penetration of hybrid cars. That's a bold statement, but when I do the math I would tend to think that he's not that far off really,but then if you add in the hybrid advantage on top of that you could easily amplify those numbers to a nice healthy level. Of course we see how the Republicans in Congress are trying to block ethanol production levels so we can remain hostage to OPEC till our dying days. So I'm not holding out much hope that we will get our act together anytime soon. What I found interesting is that this new technique actually is cheaper than oil to refine into a usable form. Which is a profound improvement in efficiency of production and considering that it's made with waste products that we were going to throw away anyway it's an even more exciting step forward. I'm hoping to hear more good news about progress on this technology from our Canadian friends.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 4:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Update
I just got an email from my friend Wayne and he is fine. He wasn't flying yesterday, but that doesn't change the fact that someone did lose a family member or a friend yesterday. Please say a prayer for the family and friends of those who were killed. They will be dealing with a very hard time ahead and I'm sure they would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
Posted by Daffodil at 2:32 PM
Jury Acquits Scrushy on All Counts
Well this sends the message that the Republican party wants corporate America to hear. You will not be convinced no matter how much money you steal, misplace and hide. It's amazing to me how even the most dim witted jury couldn't have convicted this criminal. No one could put together that all the criminal activities started when he arrived?? I'm sure the jury thought that was a just an unfortunate coincidence. What a load of crap! Trust me, this is going to happen over and over again now with CEO's guaranteed protection by the Republicans. We will see a growing number of businesses going bankrupt because the greedy management will drain the companies dry and then claim they knew nothing about it.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 2:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
France to host world's first nuclear fusion plant
This is great news. It's really sad that it's taken this long to decide on where they were going to build. The technology that needs to be developed isn't going to get developed by waiting around debating politics. I think Greenpeace is out of line with their comments that it's a waste of resources. This has the potential to eliminate the energy concerns of humanity pretty much for all of time. The US is a major contributor of green house gases and this project represents a minor expenditure for us. 61 million dollars a year over 10 years will hardly even make dent in our budget for environmental technology development. The existing technologies and monies to improve those technologies overseas will easily make up the differences in the other countries. Unless EU, France and Japan are going to finance the US pollution reduction efforts, which I think is a pretty low possibility, the majority of the money is being spent by people that are already doing a decent job at reducing greenhouse gases.
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
GOP Abandons Injured/Disabled Vets
I was reading Representative Louise Slaughter's blog entry on the GOP efforts to cut funding for the VA and it just made me mad. Why kind of animal makes up the Republican party? First I will happily disclose that I'm a son of a veteran, who gets his medical care covered by the VA. I think you'd be hard pressed to find even anti-War protesters that would begrudge these past generations of soldiers the access to critical medical care, but such notions are completely alien to the Neo-Conservative Republicans these days. They would rather put soldiers in body bags than to care for them after the war is over. They want a massive standing army, but they don't want to pay for the long term costs of maintaining it. It's just completely foolish to abandon these soldiers who fought bravely for their country, because you are only concerned about the wars you are fighting today. It's a plain disgrace. If you live in the districts represented by one of these brain-dead morons you should give them a call an tell them to protect our veterans.
Chairman David Dreier (CA)
Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings (WA)
Shelley Capito (WV)
Isaac Coles(VA)
Rob Bishop(UT)
Phil Gingrey(GA)
Read more here.
Posted by ManDrake at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I don't know how military families do it
It's day two without any news on Wayne. No way of knowing if it's just one of those standard times where he goes for days without sending out an email because of missions, or if the worst has happened. There is no real way to describe the sinking feeling deep down inside. The two pilots that died have been assigned number 1929 and 1930 as their casualty numbers. What's worse as you watch the Causality list, it keeps growing as you watch. It's a terrible feeling to know those are human beings like myself having their lives extinguished. The website that keeps up with all this information, says the Pentagon updates this information randomly, so there is no way of knowing if the worst has happened or when we will know. I keep hoping to get a call from Dianne that an email has come in from Wayne, but that doesn't change the fact that somewhere else in America that some other family and group of friends didn't get the an email saying, "Hey, I'm ok." It's a terrible torture that no human being should ever have to experience.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:14 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Bloggers Fighting Government Regulations
Well we all knew this was going to be coming about as quickly as the Republicans could put it together. Anything they can do to stifle free speech they will do. It's just so annoying that they are trying to go about it using this route. They are hoping to cut the internet as a source of information for people, to force them back into the propaganda media outlets that they control. It's impossible to tell what the FEC will do on this one. The Republicans are pretty desperate because the blogsphere is becoming too organized to ignore at this point. What's funny is that it's the Republicans that organized us all by trying to bring harm to America. They didn't even realize it. I've debated joining the blogpac from time to time since I heard about it, but at that point we actually become a political entity, which as of now I feel we really aren't. I'm going to review the notion again after Dianne graduates and we will make a decision then to join or not.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Psychiatrists: Cruise comments 'irresponsible'
Hello??? It's Tom Cruise! You don't have to have a statement from APA to confirm that he's wrong. It's beneath the APA to even do anything other than recommend serious anti-psychotic drugs for him. While I will acknowledge a certain level of quackery in Psychology, especially things like talk therapy, I've seen no evidence to suggest that chemical imbalances don't exist. There is a tendency to over prescribe drugs without a clear understanding of the problems involved, but that's just a side effect of working with something as complex as the human brain. That's hardly any reason to dismiss everything related to the science. And it's a science for sure, nothing that boring can't be a science, trust me!! But I think that the APA did the entire world a disservice by going to the trouble to tell people that he's an idiot. It gives him more creditability than he gets or would be given.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Clinton rides on elder Bush's boat
I'm sure not clear why the media is so surprised this turn of events. Before the Republican party was taken over by the violent Neo-con faction the disagreements between Republicans and Democrats weren't that dramatic. The only major difference between the two parties was who to give more welfare to, corporations or people. Beyond that the real differences between the parties were mainly superficial. Republicans worried more about the military, because it fit into their corporate welfare agenda, while the Democrats worried more about domestic development because it fit into their welfare agenda. They actually balanced each other out pretty well and we had a fairly decent system of government. There were bad years and good years, but all in all you didn't really worry about the future of the country. Now it's absolutely different. Republicans only focus is dismantling the government and plunging humanity into chaos, but that doesn't mean that the people that aren't in the Neo-con hate monger camp don't get along. In the time when there were still statesmen they realized that they had an important role to play being above politics. They are like our version of the royals; they transcend politics. I doubt Crackhead Bush will ever be able to take his place among them, he just doesn't have the mentality or ability to pull it off. His father on the other hand seems to understand how it works.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Disapproval of Bush at high point
Not surprising, but once again nothing about how Bush has changed fundamentally. He's still the same fool he's always been. He still hates America as much as he always has and he still is giving away money to rich buddies at the same rates. So what has changed folks?? Personally I think a bunch of people started paying attention for some reason. I don't know if it's the war in Iraq, the Neo-Christian agenda items that the Republicans rammed through Congress, or just the standard anti-America rhetoric that is the norm of the Republican party, but for some reason a lot of people suddenly realized Bush and the Republican party are a bunch of brain-dead idiots like most sane people have been saying for years. It's sort of bitter sweet for those of us who've been trying for a long time to wake people up to this reality. If people had been listening in November they could have avoided a lot of these issues. Instead people voted for hate and rhetoric and didn't listen to the better angels of their natures. Now we will all suffer equally together as these fools try to destroy this country. Anyway when you disciples of Bush are listening to him tonight, remember he's just telling you to shut up and do as you're told. You can be as displeased as you want with them, but they are going to do what they came to do, which is to destroy the United States of America.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
AMD Files Antitrust Suit Against Intel
It's about freaking time. AMD has been crushing Intel for years now with their technological advancements, but they haven't been able to get into the normal PC market. AMD is almost considered a must if you're developing a high end system these days. Intel is so far behind the curve at this point that it's hard to believe that they are still in business. I personally don't deal with companies that doesn't use AMD chips and I don't buy Intel chips willingly if I can avoid it. What's really bad is the way that Intel forces companies to leave their top of line stuff AMD free. Like we wanted to buy a 17 inch laptop for Dianne, but evidently HP had made a deal with Intel to only have their chips on the 17 inch models. So we bought the 15 inch AMD instead. Even for the better screen it just isn't worth it to have a crappy Intel chip on the board. The loss in quality from that chip just makes the rest of the system suck. Given the current political environment in the country right now I doubt that it will be successful here, but overseas I expect to see some results. And since most corporations are multinational these days, it could lead to positive changes in the US as well.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Process to Beatify John Paul II Opens
Ok, I had to look it up too. Beatify??? The first image that popped into my head was that they were going to beat John Paul's body for some reason. Seemed a little out there to me, but it turns out that's the name for getting someone Sainthood. Which is a lot less dramatic than what I thought it was. I've always found this an interesting process, not because anything spiritual and creative going on, but for the assignment of a priest to play the Devil's Advocate. The irony of that is just amazing and amusing to me. You'd think they would bring in some atheist or scientist to play that role, but instead they assign a priest. I wonder if they do a good job if they are looked down on for the rest of their life for being in league with the Devil to keep someone from Sainthood?
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:08 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
June 27, 2005
Clinton Honors Graham at Final Revival
"Graham called the Clintons "wonderful friends" and "a great couple," quipping that the former president should become an evangelist and allow "his wife to run the country."
Now that would be interesting. Bill Clinton has all the makings of a good evangelist and Hillary would be great at running the country. I wonder how that would play in the heartland in the 2008 election? Bill could make jokes during his sermons about not telling people who to vote for like all the Neo-Christian ministers do in all their sermons. He could run voter registration projects in the different states. I mean the Evangelicals have proven that the serious money is in religion and there is nothing the Neo-Christians like more than a bad boy turned good story. So he's got no problem there. If he could manage to cry on queue then that would be the complete package!! I think Graham may be onto something with his quip. As for Graham except for a few lapses, he appears to be a great man and good Christian. I wish him and his wife a happy and healthy retirement.
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Posted by ManDrake at 1:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Karl Rove on Maple Street
Keith Olbermann made an interesting point on his blog that I've been thinking, but wasn't prepared to say:
"I suggested here yesterday that if you start talking about the other party the way politicians did just before the Civil War, you're out."
On one level it's interesting the parallels that have formed between now and the Civil War. We've basically had a flip-flop of the political parties, but the arguments are almost exactly the same. The irrational banter is being dialed up each and every day by both sides in response to the reaction of the other from the previous days. For example, we have Karl Rove saying liberals are a bunch of cowards. And when people tell the White House that it's wrong and he needs to apologize for it, the official response was exactly "I think Karl was very specific, very accurate..". Excuse me? This is how you start wars. Because I can promise you dollars to donuts that we allegedly cowardly liberals can spill conservative blood as effectively as you can spill ours. If you have to pick your enemies it's probably best not to pick people that want to live a peaceful existence because once we are forced abandon that way of life we are going to hold a grudge. I will remind everyone politely that the last time the Neo-con leaning states got out of line a million Americans died to tell you were wrong, not to mention there was almost no infrastructure left of any useable form in the places where you live. Given the technological advances in the modern age, the Civil War would look like a joke today. So we are all better off not going down that road again. And that's the second level, it won't matter who wins if we start down that path. I know Neo-cons don't care if there isn't a country left, but I've grown rather partial to it. Which is why they think that we will just give in and let them run the country into the ground. After a certain point there will be no other choice left but to resist by force the Neo-con hate ideology. I think Obermann's point that the terrorists have already won because they've become the rallying point to tear our nation apart. What they couldn't do with their attacks the Republicans are doing for them by using the attacks. This is the most shameful state of affairs in American history.
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Posted by ManDrake at 1:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ex-Klansman's Request for New Trial Denied
I know most of you Neo-cons will take this as a slap in the face to your way of life, but this is great news for America. I'm hoping that the appeal bond is rejected as well, but I have a feeling that the Republican party will step in and "lose" the case after he's out on bond and he'll live out the rest of his life happily at home. This will guarantee the Republican's reelection in the South with their focus on "Southern" values. I hope there are people in Mississippi that keep them honest and put this animal away no matter that he has an ideology parity with the Republican party.
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Posted by ManDrake at 1:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Supreme Court rules on government Ten Commandments displays
There have been few more blatant efforts by the Neo-Christian movement than the Ten Commandment fight. It's a thinly veiled effort to Christianize the legal system in hopes to move us away from a nation of laws to a nation at the whim of religious leaders. Honestly if any of us wanted that we would move to the Middle East. The Separation of Church and State is what has made America great and allowed us to become the model for the rest of the world. The increasing or decreasing of church participation is a reflection of a failure in the Neo-Christians not in the nation that people live. If your sales techniques aren't working then maybe you need to update your message. If you can't update your message then you have to live with the fact that you're not going to reach the audience you want. The government's job isn't to force people to ascribe to your violent hate ideology. The Corporate Welfare you guys demand is already costing us an arm and leg, adding in Religious Welfare is just a step too far. And yet I see the new Republican budget has a lot of Religious Welfare handouts in it. It's so amusing to me that Republicans claim to be anti-Welfare, but my now they dole it out at rates that would make Democrats blush. Hypocrisy abounds.
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Posted by ManDrake at 1:46 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Portfolio Update
Well the Republican Oil Crisis is sure doing a number on the markets. They are bouncing all over the place. I still haven't moved the savings money into bonds yet because they've been keeping in a pretty tight range. Someone recommended that I look at something called Bollinger Bands. It's an interesting way to view a fund, but the bands move too much for my taste. They are useful for telling you what you should have done, but not so useful for telling what you should do. At least they show some sort of pattern more than the price itself. I'm definitely considering decreasing my stock exposure before long. There isn't going to be any solution to the oil problem until the Republicans are driven from power, so it's only an exposure to extreme losses.
This Weeks Actual Percentage: +5.123%
Last Weeks Actual Percentage: +6.073%
Best weekly percentage: +7.437%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity for This Week: 9.7%
Personal Rate of Return according to Fidelity Last Week: 10.7%
Current Asset Allocation:
54.65% Stock
43.18% Bond
02.17% Savings
Posted by ManDrake at 1:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
2 U.S. Fliers Die in Iraq Helicopter Crash
For those you that don't know, the gentlemen that started posting a few days ago under the name of Wayne is an Apache Pilot serving north of Baghdad. Dianne and Wayne went to high school together and we have been following the story anxiously since it broke this morning that we've lost one of our Apache's with two pilots aboard North of Baghdad. We have not heard anything yet from him so we are keeping him and his family in our hearts and prayers. If you could please join us in extending our prayers for those that have died.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
U.S. to resume plutonium 238 production
All the toxic waste issues aside (50,000 barrels), what exactly are the Republicans up to? 330 pounds seems like a large amount over the next 30 years. What exactly are we going to be needing nuclear batteries for?? And especially with "experts" saying we are going to need them for here on Earth? This is usually a spacecraft related material and we have no useable space program left in this country. Are the Republicans planning to run their SUV's off of them? Stuff like this is very disturbing, especially when it doesn't make any sense like most Republican plans tend to do.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Young Labeled 'Entitlement Generation'
I don't get what the boomers are complaining about. I've heard this argument from them before, you should take crumbs from the table while the executives and management steal as much money as they can find. It sure seems to me that realizing that companies are only out to take as much as they can from you and then throw you out into the street is essential. There isn't a notion in corporate America that honest hard working people should come out ahead. They just don't work that way. I think it's a good thing that kids have figured out what their parents failed to comprehend and as their parents are getting thrown out in to the street and their retirements looted by big business this message is just spread even louder. A healthy dose of cynicism is just what the doctor ordered. I tell every kid that is about to go into the job market to always ask for more than they need because they need to get it now before they have a chance to steal it from you later.
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Posted by ManDrake at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Web Site Makes Goverment Reports Available
Hey Dianne great news now that you won't be needing those reports again for school. :) Isn't it amazing how they always reinvent the wheel right after you've gone through the hard way for years? Of course the notion that there is a single tax-payer funded document that isn't made available via the internet the instant that it's complete is an offensive state of affairs. I understand the Republican concerns that people might actually read the reports that they are doctoring to justify their insane anti-American doctrine. Well this is a start, but we need to start expanding it immediately. Everything about our government should be online. There shouldn't be a single document that can't be filled out and updated online. It's the information age folks!!! Get over your out of date paper form worldviews!! The link in the attached article is broken as of the time I'm writing this, so here's a working link to the site.
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Toyota Planning New Plant in Canada
More great news from Toyota. It's amazing to me that they are so effective at producing cars even while working within the "restrictive" environment of the US and Canadian worker regulations. While the American automakers have shifted a majority of their production offshore and can't seem to make any money at it??? It's stories like this that makes me wonder if the problems that the US corporations are having isn't labor related, but actually management related. Mostly that their management is overpaid, unmotivated and short sighted. Toyota saw the vision for embracing the hybrid technology until the hydrogen revolution came about. While American automakers happily decided to ignore it and kept on selling the same crappy cars with the same problems they had always had. Congratulations to Toyota and the people of Canada for their new job opportunities.
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
U.S. Met With Iraq Insurgents
I'm always amused by the way Neo-cons work. "Americans do not negotiate with terrorists!" they scream from on high. I mean if anyone suggests finding out why the hell the terrorists are attacking us they would gladly have them lynched. It's just the kind of people they are. And yet time and again when things aren't going their way, they run, not walk to negotiate with these same terrorists. Throughout the last 40 years of Republican history they have worked with pretty much every major terrorist organization, third world dictator and criminal they could find to fund and build their dream of an empire. And where does that end us up?? Well they trained Osama, gave Sadam all those chemical weapons he used up to kill his people, paid the Iranians to keep Americans hostages until after the 1980 elections and don't even get me started on the Republican funded death squads in South America. Time and again these scumbags have united with the worst the world has to offer without consideration of the long term consequences for the United States and it's gone beyond sickening. Either we don't deal with terrorists or we do. This is an all or none proposition. It's not only the Republicans that can deal with terrorists. Of course it doesn't surprise me that the Neo-cons would gladly deal with terrorists, they seem to have so much more in common with them than your average American anyway.
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
World Leaders Mark U.N. Anniversary
I got busy and forgot to send out a happy birthday to the UN which turned 60 yesterday. Despite what the Neo-cons think about the organization, they've done a fair job of the mission they were assigned. Organizing the efforts of 191 self-interested member states with no authority or control is a miracle. And of course you have the never ending Monday morning quarterbacking of the Neo-cons and every other radical organization on the planet. So you kids keep up the good work!
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Organic Farmers Concerned About New Rules
I'm divided on this one, the new rules seem perfectly reasonable to me. Dianne and I give Alexis nothing but organic milk, so I want the standards to be extremely high, but at the same time I'd like to see more supply because the stores can't keep it in stock. Ultimately I guess my safety concerns will always win out so I'll support the decision. The organic market is a loop that is slowly growing stronger. The farmer was complaining about having to buy more expensive feed, but the reality is that the more people buying it the more people will start growing it and then the prices should come down for everyone. This is just one of the negative side effects of having a corporate controlled food supply. They don't care about the people eating the food, so they don't care what they put in it. Their only concern is the dollars they get put in the bank. To break that control over our food supply we are just going to have to do it the hard way and pay higher prices for products until we are all free of these brain-dead animals.
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Growing Numbers Question Media's Fairness
Really??? Well Duh!!! With the right wing take over the media most sane people are having to abandon the traditional sources of media coverage if for nothing else then to actually find out what's really going on. I really think it's so funny how Republicans "believe" that there is a negative slant to the media any time someone questions their methods or ideology. Yet 60% of Americans expect the media to do that. So the question is who's disconnected from reality?? Well we already knew that as well. It's the Republicans who demand that their news only come in the form of sound bite propaganda segments. It's tragic that they don't even realize they are ultimately destroying their own future. It takes a healthy dose of doubt to be a good citizen. The only non-internet source of news I come into contact with is NPR and the Republicans are trying to shut them down as well. Hopefully we will be able to undo all the damage these fools have done quickly when they are run out of Washington on a rail.
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Posted by ManDrake at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 26, 2005
Fox News Admits Bias!
"Sound the klaxons! Corporate Message breakdown at Fox News! This is not a drill. Repeat: This is not a drill. Assume battle stations! Fire in the hole! A-woo-ga! A-woo-ga!"
I saw this on Slate.com and they had me rolling on the floor laughing. Pretty much everyone with half a brain knows that there is nothing on Fox that even approaches reality, it's the unreality network for the ditto heads and Neo-con hate mongers that make up the Republican party. They basically spend 24/7 spinning the news so that the Republicans appear to have some sort of justification for their brain-dead policies and ideas. While the public admittance of guilt for being the Republican's equivalent of a propaganda outlet is a good thing, I don't see it really changing anything. Republicans are just way too disconnected from reality at this point to actually get tapped into reality all at once. Most of them would have a meltdown if they realized what kind of mess their incompetence and ignorance has put America in. That's if you could convince them that they should care.
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Posted by ManDrake at 2:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
'Tough conference' ahead for energy bill
It just seems so foolish to me to attack a problem by ignoring it?? The problem is that we are consuming too much oil thus risking our national security. So how is the solution to ignore the fact that we are over consuming???? Instead the Republican answer is to improve supply. There is no significant supply available in the control of the United States. We can't even supply a double digit percentage of our own demand. So let's review folks, what are you accomplishing with this crappy legislation? Oh industry kickbacks!!! Corporate welfare, the bread and butter of Republican politics. Don't solve any problems, just find a way to give your billionaire buddies in the industry more money so they can bring more harm to United States. It's a BRILLIANT plan!! I can't get why the Republicans hate America so much they can't even consider trying to protect her future. It's disgraceful.
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Posted by ManDrake at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Neo-Nazis outnumbered at historic site
"About a mile away, a second counter demonstration was held. Organizers called it a "tolerance rally." Those participants said shouting at the Neo-Nazis only helps fuel the fire of Neo-Nazi hatred."
See this is thedebate you have anytime you deal with Neo-Nazis, Neo-Christians, or Neo-Conservatives. Actually it's the same problem you have with anyone that bases their entire belief system on hate. How do you reach these people? They've already abandoned reason or any serious consideration of anything resembling fact. So what do you do with them? Two camps quickly form, challenge them and educate them. I've seen absolutely no evidence to support that either is effective at all. I've personally tried both with no luck at all. The SPLC tries to counter them by educating their chi