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October 28, 2006 ---
Tasteless Ad Part Duh!
Rove Protégé Behind Racy Tennessee Ad
According to CBS News that ad which was offensive to Canadians, for calling us lazy chickens and
non-KKK Americans for its racist under and overtones was the work of one of Karl Rove's students. No one
should be surprised as old " Pork Rinds Walking" and his cohorts have been on a mission from god to
discover the absolute bottom of political discourse. There is no sewer too deep or lie too large for these guys.
The ad, in which a white woman with blonde hair and bare shoulders looks into the camera and whispers, "Harold, call me," and then winks, was produced by Scott Howell, the former political director for Rove's consulting firm in Texas.Of course these are the same guys that could question the patriotism of Max Cleland who only left three limbs in Vietnam, while campaigning for a guy who couldn't be bothered to show up for his stateside hole he managed to find to avoid Vietnam.The RNC ad doesn't mention that "Harold" is black, but the NAACP and others have complained the commercial makes an implicit appeal to deep-seated racial fears about black men and white women.
Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs (and an arm-rhk) in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
So Called Justice in Murca!
Yesterday's fancy bird liner in the Big Apple had this story, which seemed to promptly disappear and generate little or no interest. Reprimand for a Justice Who Met With Inmates in the NYT concerned this decision in Washington State.A special panel of the Washington Supreme Court made up of nine substitute judges reprimanded one of the court’s justices yesterday for visiting a facility that holds sexually violent predators.Oh yeah, perhaps I should let you know this as well.The panel ruled that the justice, Richard B. Sanders, had “created an appearance of partiality” by questioning inmates and accepting documents from them at the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center on a visit there in January 2003. The center holds sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences but who the courts have found are likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence.
A case concerning the constitutionality of the state law under which the inmates were committed was before the court at the time.
Justice Sanders, who ultimately disqualified himself from the pending case, said nothing he had learned could have affected the decision.I hope this helps clarify the issues around judges and actual or percieved bias on the part of the judge. It is confusing though, like why is it all right for Antonin Scalia to go duck huntin' with his buddy Deadeye Dick Cheney (Scalia does show courage here, ask the lawyer in Texas - duck pellets are bigger too) and even ride on the private jet of the President of Vice and then sit on the Supreme Court that was deciding if Deadeye could keep secret how he and all his oil buddies divided up the Oil Reserves of Iraq, long before they decided (cough, cough) to invade that poor now destroyed country.
Justice Sanders was visiting the prison to personally check out the conditions there, which one would think would be relevant to someone trying to decide if the situation was appropriate. It wasn't like he was hanging with his jailhouse buddies.
Hopefully jailhouse buddies will be the only ones that Deadeye will be able to hang with soon. Did somebody mention the word - "hang?"
October 26, 2006
Canada the Free(loader)
In the Republicans' desperation (assuming they haven't all ready counted the votes) "Rove says - "I'm entitled to 'the' math," the Senate candidate in Tennessee adds slagging Canada to his campaign arsenal. You know the same Canada that is losing fine young people regularly as they try to clean up the mess the baby in the White House left behind in Afghanistan. Canoe has an article covering the foo-foo-ra over this recent Canada bashing in the name of the Repugnant Party. Here's a taste:OTTAWA (CP) - The Canadian government has lodged a complaint with the Bush administration over a Republican election ad that belittles Canada as a global freeloader.With a talent only the Repugnant Party can seem to display they manage to squeeze in amongst the racist implications of this particular ad (the dem candidate happens to be an African-American and they imply that he violates white women) accusations that Canada is a freeloader nation with:Canada's ambassador to Washington registered his displeasure over a Senate election ad from Tennessee that implied Canada doesn't pull its weight in international matters. Michael Wilson expressed Canada's concerns in a phone call Wednesday to a White House official, said a Canadian government source.
One man in the ad says: "Canada can take care of North Korea. They're not busy."Liberal MP Omar Alghabra asks: "
Is this what Canadians should be expecting as the outcome of cozying up to Mr. Bush by the prime minister and his Conservatives?""I have a question for the prime minister. Will he call his mentor, President Bush, and demand this insulting ad be pulled from the airwaves immediately, and stand up for Canada, but for real this time?
"
The Greedy Bits
With this post I am starting a new recurring feature, hell, it might have to be a whole web page or even a whole web site. But I have been forced to conclude that simple greed is the root of many, if not all, of the world's pressing problems. Greed for Oil in the Mideast or where ever it lies under innocent women and children who are bombed to get control of the oil is obviously a source of much suffering and death. The greed inspired encouragement of our society to consume, and collect more stuff, that puts even more demands on a planet already challenged to support the people here with a reasonable chance to go to sleep at night without hunger, could be happily dispensed with for starters. So anyway I will start with three little items that illustrate greed in everyday life, or maybe the life of the elite, who of course seem to this observer to be the greediest of all.Chins Anyone?
The CEO of our friends, Exxon-Mobil, has reason to smile, unlike his customers when they go to buy gas. I know gas is cheap (compared to last fall) right now - just wait till the electoral pretense is done with down in the 4th Reich
in a couple weeks, or say next spring.
I guess his biggest problem is
deciding if he wants to buy more chins or have a couple removed. Whatever - since his little company turned a profit of
10.49 billion this QUARTER and is on stream to register a $40+ billion profit for the year, what's a few chins. Hey I
only got one over here, could you buy an extra for me?
the company (is) on track for the highest annual profit ever by a U.S. company. Exxon Mobil holds that record with a 2005 profit of $36.1 billion.Ah, it must be tough, kinda like Wayne Gretzky in the latter years of his career, with no one's records but his own left to shatter.
Kelowna Real Estate Heats Up!
CBC radio had an item early this morning (since disappeared and not available on the web at present) about house prices in Kelowna B.C. It seems that Kelowna has leapfrogged over Calgary and Victoria to take second place in average home value in Canada at slightly under 1/2 million dollars for a single detached home. They were describing an example home of 7,000 square feet with a SEVENTEEN bay garage. As the commentator said, maybe Jay Leno would find this attractive. Hmmmmm, I wonder what a person will use a 17 bay garage for and how they will heat 7,000 square feet when energy prices are pegged to the $200 barrel of oil. Wait a minute, the heating will be no problem, global warming will take care of that. By the way the house so perfect for Jay Leno is selling for MUCH more than the average chump change - half mil.
Poor Gary Sheffield
According to the highest class bird cage liner manufacturer in the whole USA, the New York Times:Gary Sheffield was told Wednesday that the New York Yankees will pick up his $13 million option for next season, according to a newspaper report.Now if someone told me that yeah, they had decided to keep me on for "just" 13 million for the next year, I would most likely be kinda......well......happy!
But not Gary here's what he had to say:
"This will not work, this will not work at all,'' Sheffield told the newspaper. ''I don't want to play first base a year for them. I will not do that.''The world is so cruel to people like poor suffering Gary! I know Gary hit, .298 this year and even batted in the odd run and hit SIX dingers. But come on .298 ain't exactly Ted Williams or Al Kaline and Gary you played in THIRTY NINE games this year. So if you made anything like the same salary this year you are getting paid what? The way I learned math tells me thats about 333, 000 dollars per day that you showed up, unless them mean old Yankees (I hate 'em too) made you play double headers ---- jeeeeez unpaid overtime, the nerve.
Sorry there Gary, life's tough!
October 23, 2006--
(Should Be) No Contest!
According to the Economist
In the House, Dennis Hastert is the Republican speaker, Nancy Pelosi the leader of the Democratic
minority. Mr Hastert, a hulking former wrestling coach, is a fairly straightforward conservative: he is
against abortion, gay marriage, the Kyoto protocol; for the invasion of Iraq, the death penalty. Ms Pelosi, a
tiny bird-like woman, is an unabashed, card-carrying liberal.
Notice that the conservative values Mr. Hastert supports are all negative - against abortion, against gays, against Kyoto
and even the pros are pretty against, actually comprised of killing Iraqis and criminals. Then the Economist goes on
to sum up Ms. Pelosi basically as a liberal - as if - as if liberal is bad enough, without needing to go there.
Let's look at family values, Ms. Pelosi grew up in a family of six and has five children (and grandchildren) of her own. Mr. Hastert's family values apparently made him leave coaching to enter politics because of accusations some of his wrestling holds he was showing to the boys weren't exactly ..............conventional? Now that he is Speaker of the house his concern for the page boys seems to be more about a concern that Republican predators seeking sexual contact with them not be exposed - that could cost the party a seat in the house. There are priorities, and party apparently sits somewhere much higher than the freedom from sexual harassment of teenage boys entrusted to his Congress by parents all over America. Every since Ms. Pelosi became Speaker of the House in waiting, the ReThugs have gone on full demonization mode - they seem to think that just the threat of her as Speaker of the House should scare all Americans into voting Republican yet again - assuming how Americans vote matters.... I know, it's questionable.
An awful lot of Dems have been showing up on the TeeVee lately and not just to be smeared. It's almost enough to make one wonder if the networks are starting to think they might have to deal with them soon. I can smell the RePugnant Party fear from here in the backwoods of British Columbia. Sixty Minutes had a very illuminating profile/interview with Nancy Pelosi last night. It was extremely refreshing to hear her speak for herself and to hear her name not coming out of the mouth of Bush, Cheney or Rove with the requisite sneer attached.
Right from the start Lesley Stahl calls Nancy on her pledge to restore civility to the House.
"I mean, you're one of the reasons we have to restore civility in the first place," Stahl remarks.
"Well actually, when I called them those names, I was being gentle," Pelosi says.
"There are much worse things I could've said about them."
Pelosi says. "This isn't personal."
"It sounds personal," Stahl remarks.
"This isn't personal," Pelosi says.
"He's "incompetent", he's…," Stahl continues.
"Well, I think he is," Pelosi states.
"Well, that's personal," Stahl points out.
"Well, I'm sorry, that's his problem," Pelosi replies.
.........we're in a political debate here. We didn't come here to have a tea party together, and
toss a coin to see who would win on an issue,"
"Does that not open you up then to that charge of cutting and running? This is just what they're saying," Stahl asks.
"The issue is them. The issue is the war they got us into,"
Pelosi replies. "If the president wants to say the war in Iraq is part of the war on terror, he's not right."
"Do you not think that the war in Iraq now, today, is the war on terror?" Stahl asks.
"No. The war on terror is the war in Afghanistan," Pelosi says.
"But you don't think that the terrorists have moved into Iraq now?" Stahl continues.
"They have," Pelosi agrees. "The jihadists in Iraq. But that doesn't mean we stay there.
They'll stay there as long as we're there."
Pelosi has called her Republican colleagues “immoral" and "corrupt, and has
said they're running a criminal enterprise.
Lesley just can't seem to differentiate between calling people names and simply telling it like it is, so
continues to try to make Nancy accept the blame for the lack of civility inside the Beltway. Nancy
is having none of it though.
"You know, we're professionals. We're professionals. You could go through a long list of things
his surrogates have said about me. I know they have to do what they have to do,..........
On the war:
One issue that she is fighting about here is Iraq. She opposed the war from
the start and now, like her, most Democrats support a phased withdrawal of troops beginning later this year.
I'll admit that I was a bit concerned my self when I read that Nancy Pelosi had indicated that if the Dems
took over Congress, impeachment wasn't on the table. There is something to be said though, not for taking the
high ground, but for not being complete idiots and spending the whole two years wasting the time of Congress like
the ReThugs did in their never ending crusade to somehow evict the elected president from the White House.
Getting Clinton out before his term was up, unsuccessful in the end of course, was even four times more important
than getting to the bottom of what happened on September 11, 2001 if monies spent on investigations are any kind
of measure.
"Wouldn't they just love it, if we came in and our record as Democrats coming forth in 12 years, is to
talk about George Bush and Dick Cheney? This election is about them. This is a referendum on them," Pelosi
says. "Making them lame ducks is good enough for me."
I consider it well in the realm of possibility that a little, very little, actual investigation (with subpeona power and with
out the rubber stamp enabler RePug committee chairs) into the smorgasbord of illegal activities undertaken
by the Bush/Cheney Crime Cabal would be legally required by a justice department not led by Alberto Gonzalez.
This could quickly force them to resign and move to either Guantanamo or the Bush
family's new holdings in that Fascist Fav - Paraquay. They should feel at home surrounded by their kind - those few
surviving war criminals from Nazi Germany.
By the way, the title of the piece on 60 Minutes was "Two Heartbeats Away." This means that if Ms. Pelosi does become Speaker of the House and somehow (just sayin') both the First Fool and his boss Dick "other priorities" Cheney should cease to be among the living - it would be Madame President Pelosi to you and me.
I'd be cool with that! I could stifle my sorrow over those guys.
Don't Count Your Chickens
.....maybe they've already counted the votes!
Minority Leader is pretty good Nancy, maybe that will have to do.
Barron's has spoken and that darn Repunant Party is going to
maintain their hold over that black hole that used to be part of government - the Congress. In Survivor!
The GOP Victory Barron's pricks our ballon by pointing out that:
Our analysis -- based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data -- suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber's 435. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party's loss could be as large as 14 seats, leaving a one-seat majority. But that is still a far cry from the 20-seat loss some are predicting. In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with 52, down threeMaybe it's really true, it isn't about the votes anymore - it's all about the money. Well I must admit, it certainly does tend to look that way. On the other hand, maybe this is just part of the project to get everyone prepared for yet another stolen election. It's only Americans after all, it's not like this election is in Mexico or somewhere where some people actually you know.........care! Maybe a commenter at RAW Story had it right with this:
Who tipped THIS guy to the election results ? This was supposed to be a secret. Unbelievable. Meeting at 4. TODAY.
Diebold | 10.23.06 - 12:16 pm | #
October 12, 2006--
Bubba Did It, Don't ya Know?
The slime that passes for the Repugnant administration in that rogue nation, the USA, has had control of Congress since Newt and his minions took over the house in the midterms of 1994. For the last six years of American sponsored terror on the whole planet they have controlled all three branches of government. In the rare instance that the Rubber Stamp Congress voices any reservations about the downward spiral into Fascism, the Idiot in Chief has made it clear that laws, or judicial interpretation of laws don't actually apply to him. Yet everyday we hear that Clinton is responsible for just about anything you care to mention, other than perhaps the tax cuts. Of course when the tax cuts for the rich prove to have been not that good of a policy, considering the jaw dropping deficits, trade imbalances and inability to deal with crises at home or abroad, it will probably turn out that they were his fault as well. Let's see..........
The preznit's clone in North Korea tests a nuke - Clinton's Fault.
Osama, relative of the folks Dubya likes to hold hands with during strolls in the Rose Garden is still alive - once again, it's the fault of the Big Dog.
Hell, we'll probably find out soon that it was Clinton who convinced Foley to go after page boys, so he (Clinton) could have a free rein with the female interns.
Why don't the Shrub just go back to Crawford and the Dick to Wyoming and let Bill and Al move back into the White House, it must be inconvenient for them running things from outside the Beltway.
Fair and Balanced, My Ass
This is a strange way to achieve balance. If a typical Repugnant hypocrite should get caught embarrassing Denny "I like to wrestle with boys" Hastert and the rest of the morally and ethically lacking ReThug leadership, it only seems fair to label the offender as a Democrat, just to maintain some balance you know.
Our own propaganda conglomerate (Global/Canwest) was trying to spin North Korea as the 8th member of the nuke club, but they must have gotten too many phone calls and later in the day broke down and admitted that there already were eight. They were just forgetting to count Israel for awhile there. That would be the same Israel that was making regular incursions into Lebanon before this summer's war and even today as stated by Lebanese PM Siniora continues to violate Lebanese airspace in violation of the ceasefire. Olmert the Macho is probably convinced that it won't really matter because he is sure his insane cohorts in Washington DC will be bombing Iran anyday now.
The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.
From a Washington Post Interview with Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon:
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 12, 2006;
BEIRUT, Oct. 11 -- Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora warned Wednesday that Israeli military flights over his country's territory were endangering a nearly two-month-old truce that ended this summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.Siniora, speaking in an interview, said the overflights were occurring daily. The United Nations, which considers them a violation of the Aug. 14 truce, said it recorded 10 overflights of warplanes and surveillance drones from Oct. 3 to midnight Oct. 9.
for rest of article
Late Bulletin
In reponse to questions today regarding Ignatieff's comments re: Israel bombing of Qana this summer our excuse for a Prime Minister accused all candidates for the Liberal leadership of being anti-Israel. I would like to remind Mr. Harper and Mr. Rae, Mr Dion and the rest that they are all trying to be or remain Prime Minister of Canada. Erhud Olmert (the Macho) is PM of Israel, for the moment at least (until he is either jailed or run from office) and only the United States is a client country of Israel where the Israeli agenda is more important than the domestic agenda. Or is this just another part of the Harp that walks like a human's ongoing attempt to turn Canada into an appendage of the USA and thus an Israeli lackey.I am extremely tired of Israel's (or the Zionist lobby's) assumption that it is above criticism, though it has been very successful at virtually criminalizing any criticism of it's ongoing violations of human rights, UN accords, and other treaties under the catchall umbrella of Anti-Semitism. Just because a person thinks that taking peoples' land by force (like we did with the Aboriginals), harboring a nuclear arsenal yet crying wolf over any neighbor who might want to defend itself, or unleashing it's US supplied weaponry on civilians is questionable doesn't mean that person hates Jews. It isn't illegal to criticize abuses committed by other countries, why should Israel be exempt from any negative judgements of their policies? I hope they figure out a way to live with their neighbors before they become a hole in a very large gravel pit stretching from the eastern shore of the Mediteranean to the sub-continent of India.
Remember Stephen, Stephane, Bob, Gerard and all you others, you all want to be Prime Minister of Canada. That's
Somebody once said that nations don't have friends, they have interests. The leaders of any country should put their country first, without exploiting or otherwise interfering with other countries except in a mutually beneficial manner.