J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Outrage’ Category

The correct medical term is bi-polar, but it used to be called manic-depression.

I have come to the conclusion our Congress and Obama are in a manic-depressive state and they are both at the same time.

Usually, a bi-polar person goes from deep depression to euphoric highs. While on these highs they spend like mad and do other things people who do not have this disease don’t do.

We have a Congress that is manic in its spending, not paying attention to how or if we’ll ever be able to pay the bills they are creating as long as they stay in power and continue to get their annual self-voted pay raises and perks.

Barack Obama shares this manic state with them but is also in a depressive state as he continues to tell us how terrible everything is and that it’s not his fault because he inherited this mess.

He’s been talking down the economy since he was a candidate for the presidency. This became a self-fulfilling prophecy and now there seems to be no bottom to the markets, which are the very companies that have kept this country going for decades.

Every time Obama or his economic team go before the cameras the market shows its concern by dropping 300 points. He goes before the cameras a lot and on Monday the Dow closed below 7000 points for the first time in twelve years. It has steadily gone down since his election was assured. Under these circumstances I would have to say he is the real cause of the economic situation we now are experiencing, since the market has lost a thousand or two points since his election. Business leaders, the people who hire people for jobs, have no confidence in him or his lock-step Democrat Congress.

Congress deliberately held off the omnibus spending bill last year for this fiscal year because they wanted to do what Obama wanted and not what Bush had promised as far as pork-barrel spending. Bush was prepared to veto the bill if it had too much pork in it.

Now, even John McCain, who was ever the quiet gentleman in the campaign, is angry with Obama over the omnibus spending bill now before the Senate. Why it took McCain this long to get angry is beyond me except for the fact he apparently didn’t want to be elected president after all.

Long delayed but not shrunken with time, a nearly $410 billion omnibus spending bill is fast becoming a great bone in the throat for Democrats and the White House, just when each hoped to put the past behind them and move onto President Barack Obama’s new 2010 budget.

Minutes after hitting the Senate floor Monday, the bill touched off a fierce, emotional attack from the president’s old rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who lectured Obama for failing to do more to stand up against the thousands of spending earmarks in the 1,132 pages.

At the same time, Democrats admitted privately that the White House itself has hurt their cause by frightening off Republicans, who negotiated the bill in December but are now in “sticker shock” after seeing the full cost of the new president’s agenda. [...]

[...]Monday’s floor speech was the most personal attack yet by the Arizona Republican in what has already become a surprisingly strained, often hostile approach to the new president.

“If it seems like I’m angry, it’s because I am,” McCain said, taking the White House to task for treating the bill as leftover business — and not subject to the full measure of earmark reform promised by candidate Obama.

“Last year’s business?” McCain asked, incredulous. “The president will sign this appropriations bill into law. It is the president’s business. It is the president of the United States’ business. It is the president of the United States’ business to do what he said — stated — when we were in debate seeking the support of the American people — where he said he would work to eliminate earmarks.”

“We need earmark reform and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely,” McCain said, reading back Obama’s words at a debate last fall. “That’s the quote, the promise of the president of the United States made to the American people in a debate with me in Oxford, Miss. So what is brought to the floor today — 9,000 earmarks.…So much for change.” (emphasis mine-Admin)

The House approved the same omnibus measure Wednesday on a 245-178 vote, and Democrats had hoped to quickly move it through the Senate — without change — and send the bill onto the White House by Friday. (Was there ever any doubt the House would pass it? – Admin)

Friday is when a stop-gap spending resolution, which has kept much of the government operating since last fall, is due to expire; the Appropriations leadership’s goal has been to put the omnibus in place by then to avoid any disruption. (It seems to be the habit of this administration and this Congress to wait until the last minute on everything and then declare it an “emergency” and therefore not subject to the usual legislative checks and balances. -Admin) [...]

[...]McCain is now pressing for a simple extension of the stop-gap resolution through the remainder of this fiscal year Sept. 30 as an alternative to the Democratic bill.

That would save perhaps $19 billion on an annual basis and kill many of the earmarks he opposes. But the idea faces substantial bipartisan opposition, and Democrats are more likely to tough it out or accept some level of spending cuts to win over reluctant Republicans.

You still have the Maine twins Collins and Snowe and Arlen Specter from PA you can count on going along. Democrat Robert Menendez from New Jersey is expected to vote against the bill due to its Cuban-related provisions, but then he’ll be offset by Republican Thad Cochran from Mississippi who is the ranking member on the Appropriations committee, for reasons only he knows.

Lithium used to be the drug of choice to treat bi-polar disease. I don’t know if there’s a more powerful drug used now or not, but I think while Congress is deciding we should all get universal health care that will put the older citizens out of the system because, hey, they’re gonna die soon anyway, a truckload of whatever the new and best drug is for bi-polar disease should be shipped to each of the spenders and the the spender in chief, who hopes to be emperor for life, Barack Obama so they can come down off their high and maybe Obama can have his seratonin levels even out for once in his political life.

I used to say Obama’s an empty suit. Now I just say the emperor has no clothes. I wonder if any of his voters have discovered that yet.

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Over 3,000 Americans brutally killed on 9-11. 17 Sailors murdered on the USS Cole. Only 40 families of the departed met with Barack Obama today at the White House.

I wonder if other invitees felt much as this mother does:

There is no conceivable way I can feel the pain of Mrs. McDaniels, but as a fellow American first allow me to offer my condolences to the family and further, it is my opinion that she is 100% correct.

(Update): The family of another USS Cole Sailor who lost his life in the terrorist attack:

The trials of our son’s killers have become a heated political debate, and a political weapon that the liberals are using to get back at the past Bush administration, and the republican party. While the victims murders go unanswered, and the feelings of their families are taken on a emotional roller coaster ride.

While my family, myself and a good majority of Americans are wondering how can the Military Commissions Tribunals which were approved by congress can be overturned a by a President who does not agree with them. That’s not a democracy. That’s more like how President Saleh in Yemen acted after our son’s killers were tried in their courts. Saleh intervened for the killers and Al-Qaeda and then reduced their sentences, and pardoned others. And had the other Cole Bombers tried on unrelated charges, and then freed. As victims we had hoped that our own government would show us a little more respect. Wrong!

HT:Ace Of Spades

This is a very long, detailed piece but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing. Those who believe these folks garnered any more respect from former President Clinton than they are from the new administration..well you really need to check this out.

If a president, any president, cannot show respect for those who would lay down their lives for this country then how to you expect them to show respect for the balance of the population?

Further, following what was dubbed an emotional meeting, Mr. and Mrs. Obama proceeded with what is now “date night” at the White House:

It’s Friday, and that means one thing around the Obama White House: date night.

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Mind boggling..nah.

This has become run of the mill politics and there is no end in sight.

Does anyone really believe that either party in Washington will revamp the system if they feel it will hamper their chances of maintaining or gaining power?

If you do I would really like to hear your thoughts.

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — The bill for the 2008 U.S. elections has been paid, and it comes out to a record $4.1 billion — almost $20 per registered voter.

That’s 37 percent more than the $3 billion spent on the 2004 campaigns by the political parties and their candidates for the White House and Congress, the latest figures from the Federal Election Commission show. The figures don’t include the millions spent by labor unions, advocacy groups and independent political organizations on behalf of candidates.

Those barrier-breaking numbers may give ammunition to those pressing President-elect Barack Obama to overhaul the way federal races are funded.

“It’s hard to eliminate the temptations of corruption that Obama has promised to change without tackling campaign finance,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey.

[emphasis-mine]

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Here is video from a video camera taken yesterday after Pelosi closed down the House, including the lights, microphones and C-Span.

The Republicans responded by video taping the action on the floor. Listen to the response from the gallery.

If you think Pelosi is playing fair and allowing debate on serious issues, then you should vote for your Democratic congressman this year.

If you think she is acting like a two-bit Russian dictator in order to not listen to the will of the people of the United States of America then vote Republican for your Congressman and stop the Gestapo tactics of Ms. Pelosi.

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The New York Times has refused to publish an op-ed piece by Sen. John McCain which rebuts an op-ed piece written by Barack Obama and published in the Times the previous week.

ABC’s Rick Klein and Sara Just report: This is not the easiest week for John McCain to get equal time in the media – not with so many journalists in the Middle East to report on Barack Obama’s trip there. And the New York Times op-ed page isn’t making it any easier.

As first reported by The Drudge Report, Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, submitted an opinion piece to the New York Times last week and the paper has rejected it.

A week earlier, the paper published an op-ed by Obama, about the Democrat’s plans for troop draw-down in Iraq. A few days later, the McCain campaign submitted a column rebutting the Obama piece.

According to McCain campaign staffers, the Times rejected the McCain piece and asked for a rewrite to respond directly to some of the claims in the Obama piece, and include an outline of the Republican’s timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq and conditions for withdrawal.

According to McCain campaign staffers, the rejection came Friday night from New York Times oped editorial page editor David Shipley via email:

“I’d be very eager to publish the Senator on the oped page. However I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written,” Shipley writes, according to a copy of the message provided to ABC News.

“It would be terrific to have an article from Sen. McCain that mirrors Sen. Obama’s piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms how Sen. McCain defines victory in Iraq. It would also have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory — with troop levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate.”

The McCain campaign has refused to rewrite the piece, saying that the Times’ suggestions are tantamount to insisting that he change his position in order to get his opinions published.

“John McCain believes that victory in Iraq must be based on conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables. Unlike Barack Obama, that position will not change based on politics or the demands of the New York Times.” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

The New York Times has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Drudge has published McCain’s piece and I am posting it here:

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation “hard” but not “hopeless.” Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there,” he said on January 10, 2007. “In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that “our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence.” But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama’s determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his “plan for Iraq” in advance of his first “fact finding” trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.

To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.

Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military’s readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.

No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five “surge” brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his “plan for Iraq.” Perhaps that’s because he doesn’t want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be “very dangerous.”

The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the “Mission Accomplished” banner prematurely.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war—only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

Fairness in the media? When all three major network anchors follow Obama on his foreign campaign trip and treat it as though he were already president? Then McCain can’t even publish his thoughts on the Iraq war? Fairness? What is fairness? Only the media know for sure.

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The teacher should be fired and the administration fired also for not doing anything about it. The teacher didn’t think she did anything wrong? Where did she get her teaching certificate? From the JC Penney catalog?

I hope the mother does sue and the teacher and administrators are the ones required to pay for any psychological damage done to any of the children–especially Alex and his friend who was forced to vote him out of the class.

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By now most of us have heard the story of the Saudi woman who was in a car with a man not in her family when their car was stopped, they were kidnapped and she was brutally raped twice by seven different men.

Oh, the rapists got jail terms alright. Terms ranging from two to nine years.

Originally the victim was sentenced to 90 lashes for being with a man not in her family. Since her attorney appealed and the press was told her sentence was increased to 200 lashes and six months in jail.

Her testimony with Human Rights Watch is compelling and sickens your stomach.

Here are her words about the entire crime:

“I [was] 19 years old. I had a relationship with someone on the phone. We were both 16. I had never seen him before. I just knew his voice. He started to threaten me, and I got afraid. He threatened to tell my family about the relationship. Because of the threats and fear, I agreed to give him a photo of myself,” she recounted.

“A few months [later], I asked him for the photo back but he refused. I had gotten married to another man. He said, ‘I’ll give you the photo on the condition that you come out with me in my car.’ I told him we could meet at a souk [market[ near my neighborhood city plaza in Qatif.

"He started to drive me home. …We were 15 minutes from my house. I told him that I was afraid and that he should speed up. We were about to turn the corner to my house when they [another car] stopped right in front of our car. Two people got out of their car and stood on either side of our car. They man on my side had a knife. They tried to open our door. I told the individual with me not to open the door, but he did. He let them come in. I screamed.

“One of the men brought a knife to my throat. They told me not to speak. They pushed us to the back of the car and started driving. We drove a lot, but I didn’t see anything since my head was forced down.”

“They took us to an area … with lots of palm trees. No one was there. If you kill someone there, no one would know about it. They took out the man with me, and I stayed in the car. I was so afraid. They forced me out of the car. They pushed me really hard … took me to a dark place. Then two men came in. They said, ‘What are you going to do? Take off your abaya.’ They forced my clothes off. The first man with the knife raped me. I was destroyed. If I tried to escape, I don’t even know where I would go. I tried to force them off but I couldn’t. [Another] man … came in and did the same thing to me. I didn’t even feel anything after that.

“I spent two hours begging them to take me home. I told them that it was late and that my family would be asking about me. Then I saw a third man come into the room. There was a lot of violence. After the third man came in, a fourth came. He slapped me and tried to choke me.

“The fifth and sixth ones were the most abusive. After the seventh one, I couldn’t feel my body anymore. I didn’t know what to do. Then a very fat man came on top of me and I could no longer breathe.

“Then all seven came back and raped me again. Then they took me home. … When I got out of the car, I couldn’t even walk. I rang the doorbell and my mother opened the door. She said you look tired.’ I didn’t eat for one week after that, just water. I didn’t tell anyone. I went to the hospital the next day.

“The criminals started talking about it [the rape] in my neighborhood. They thought my husband would divorce me. They wanted to ruin my reputation. Slowly my husband started to know what had happened. Four months later, we started a case. My family heard about the case. My brother hit me and tried to kill me.”

Her lawyer has also been punished by the Saudi court.

As a woman who was acquainted with a lady who had been raped by several men while she was working behind a hotel desk, I can tell you I can think of no more horrifying experience. The woman I knew said all she could do was beg her rapists not to kill her.

Your body is being violated repeatedly against your will until you can no longer feel anything. That’s bad enough, but then the court that should be protecting you sentences you to 200 lashes and six months in prison for being with a man who is not a relative.

This girl was trapped by 8 different men on the same night. Once by the ex-boyfriend and 14 times by the seven rapists.

Her only hope at this stage is a pardon from the king or the provincial governor. Now the Justice Ministry says her sentence will be reviewed again. I pity her as the sentences just get worse. Maybe she’ll be the next beheading victim in this country we dare not speak against or we won’t have enough oil.

How much are we willing to watch and ignore because of almighty oil?

May God have pity on this girl and release her from her sentence and may she be able to get out of that country and someplace that is free and treats women the way they should be treated.

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The remarks made today by Representatative Stark on the floor of the House are reprehensible.
To accuse a sitting President of amusing himself with the death of our troops goes well beyond behavior which should ever be condoned by any of our elected officials.

These words were uttered during the debate to override the President’s veto of the expansion of the S-CHIP program. The leadership in the House should demand an apology from Rep. Stark but I certainly will not hold my breath. Republicans need to make clear that remarks such as these if made by their side of the aisle would receive calls for at the least an apology if not censure. It is outrageous that this should stand on any level without serious challenge.

At this time it appears the House has not succeeded
in their attempt to override.

12:16 – House fails to override, 273-156. The Democrats picked up 8 votes, and I believe the Republicans gained 11. This means that Congress will have to act quickly to maintain S-CHIP benefits to current qualifiers — and that means some horse trading with the White House.

*Update: Senator Reid is in no mood for compromise with the White House:

The bill is bipartisan, and the Senate has shown it could override a veto. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has replied with an emphatic “no” when asked if he would seek a compromise with the administration.

I would like to say I’m surprised but this House vote was a stinging defeat for the Majority Leader. He may find in order to save this program he will have to deal with a President who continues to thwart many of his efforts [HT: AJ Strata] not ony on this program but also attempts to threaten our national security.

So much for that lame duck President we heard so much about.

*Update 2:Republican Leader in the House issues a statement:

WASHINGTON, D.C. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement regarding remarks made on the House floor by Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) during the debate on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP):

“Our troops in Iraq are fighting against al-Qaeda and other radical jihadists hellbent on killing the people we are sent here to represent. Congressman Stark’s statement dishonors not only the Commander-in-Chief, but the thousands of courageous men and women of America’s armed forces who believe in their mission and are putting their lives on the line for our freedom and security. Congressman Stark should retract his statement and apologize to the House, our Commander-in-Chief, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas.”

During debate on the SCHIP children’s health care legislation today, Rep. Stark stated: “You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.”

The above is a Drudge Report flash. I will update accordingly if there are changes.

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I can’t believe this is actually happening in the state where I was born and raised.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.

The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

I have a sixth-grade granddaughter, and I can tell you (if you don’t already know) she is by no means capable of understanding what sex is all about and is nowhere near ready for sex.

A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it’s not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can’t discuss things with their parents.

Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health center.

About one-fourth of student health centers that serve at least one grade of adolescents 11 and older dispense some form of contraception, said Mohan, whose Washington-based organization represents more than 1,700 school-based centers nationwide.

At King Middle School, birth control prescriptions will be given after a student undergoes a physical exam by a physician or nurse practitioner, said Lisa Belanger, who oversees Portland’s student health centers.

Students treated at the centers must first get written parental permission, but under state law such treatment is confidential, and students decide for themselves whether to tell their parents about the services they receive.

I’m sure because if they told their parents they wouldn’t get the pill.

Then again Maine has become a liberal bastion and is not the same state it was when I was a child and young adult.

I blame a lot of this on the people from surrounding states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut who have moved to Maine and taken over the politics there.

At least I hope there are still some native Mainers with common sense. I’m not so sure anymore.

They keep electing a democrat governor and legislature that is taxing them out of their homes practically, so what do I know?

I do know this is wrong and is something the parents should handle at home.

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Why would any adult, regardless of color, put a noose around a small child’s neck to show why nooses are important to their history and because some stupid rednecks put up nooses in Jena?

GRAMBLING, La. — Officials at Grambling State University were meeting Monday after the school newspaper ran photographs of adults at a campus-run elementary school putting a noose around at least one child’s neck.

Kindergarten and first-grade students at Alma J. Brown Elementary School were being taught why nooses are a symbol of racism, an article from the historically black university’s student newspaper said.

The article said the children also were being taught about the “Jena Six” — black high-school students who are accused of beating a white schoolmate. Court proceedings brought about 20,000 to 25,000 people to Jena, about 70 miles from Grambling, for a civil rights march in September.

A press release posted on the Gramblinite’s Web site said three photographs from the event were removed after a staff conference call. Ten others were re-posted to the site Monday after the university’s president ordered the removal of all the photos and the story over the weekend, according to the Gramblinite press release.

I can understand teaching children about racism, but this doesn’t help us to fulfill Martin Luther King’s dream of everyone working and playing together regardless of the color of their skin.

This is an outrage! What do the parents think of their child being put into a noose?

How much fear did they put into this little girl, all to prove a senseless point that could have been discussed and shown in drawings for illustration purposes?
Shame on the lot of them! The whites who did what they did with nooses and the African-Americans who did what they did to this little girl and how many others?

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From Patterico’s Pontifications is the following quote from a returning Marine chaplain:

“As we came in for the final approach to Oakland a Lieutenant who served in Afghanistan with the same unit in 2006 mentioned how when they landed in Oakland they were not allowed in the terminal. He said, “they made us get out by the FED EX building and we had to sit out there for 3 hours”. He also indicated he was almost arrested by the TSA for getting belligerent about them not letting the Marines into the terminal.

Well the same thing happened again. This time we did not park by the FED EX building, instead we were offloaded near the grass that separates the active runway from the taxi ramp, about 400 yards from the terminal. When we inquired why they wouldn’t allow us in the airport they gave us some lame excuse that we hadn’t been screened by TSA. While true, the screening which we did have was much more thorough than any TSA search and was done by US Customs. Additionally, JFK didn’t seem to have a problem with our entering their terminal, nor did security in Germany.

It felt like being spit on. Every Marine and soldier felt the message loud and clear, “YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN OAKLAND!”

Add to that the fact I read an article the other day that stated the US Marine silent drill team was not allowed to film on the streets of San Francisco because of traffic concerns when the traffic officer in charge of filming movies said it has never been a problem before. The Marines were allowed to film on the streets of New York City during rush hour.

These Marines have served their country and most didn’t ask to go to Iraq. We are treating today’s military the very same way some treated our military returning from Viet Nam and it is wrong!

These guys would lay down their lives to save yours or mine and we treat them like we’re ashamed of them. I’m proud of every single one of our military who has or is serving with honor.

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When a University of Florida student asked John Kerry if he was a member of the Skull and Bones as is President Bush, the university police moved in to grab him for arrest.

He resisted, asking what he had done to be arrested, was wrestled to the ground and told he would be tased, begged not to be tased, all while John Kerry tried to answer his question.

My questions are these: First, why didn’t John Kerry tell the police to let him alone to ask his questions? Second, why didn’t John Kerry stop talking over the melee and insist they let the student go as he had done nothing shown on the film that was illegal except resist an arrest that shouldn’t have taken place. Third, why did the campus police use a taser on the student?

Have we become Mother Russia, where no one is free to question any politician in a public forum?

Here’s even more disturbing video of the incident. The police said he was inciting a riot. He seemed to me to be asking a question .

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When a supposedly talented “comedian” who has declared herself to be an atheist says, “Suck it, Jesus” and people laugh at it, is that acceptable?

The discussion that takes place on this video makes it sound as though it’s a statement made against the Catholic church. The last time I checked Jesus had no religion, but is the Savior of the world.

This is an attack by Kathy Griffin (whoever she is) on Christianity and not on any specific branch of Christianity.

And we wonder why our country is in the shape it is. It’s a wonder it’s not a lot worse with people like this feeling free to say what she said in public.

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Maybe we should call for a complete investigation of the UN and their practices for storing WMD.

At the very least the weapons inspectors should be asked to explain the presence of an extremely dangerous chemical stored in the building in New York.

According to Reuters:

United Nations officials found vials of dangerous chemicals, which had been removed from Iraq a decade ago, in a U.N. building in New York, but U.N. officials said on Thursday there was no danger.

The FBI was called in to help remove the substances.

The material was phosgene, a chemical warfare agent, U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told a news conference.

Why on earth were these vials stored in any office at the UN? Was this just sloppy work or will we find other WMD weapons inspectors managed to store improperly or not dispose of?

Just one more reason to distrust one of the most corrupt organizations allowed to house themselves on American soil.

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Many recalls later, Mattel has decided they need to get down to business and become serious about quality control. Given the magnitude of these defective products, manufactured mainly for children, I would say the time should have been many yesterday’s ago.

Now Mattel, which appears to have stumbled in part because it had become overconfident about its ability to operate in China without major problems, is in crisis mode. Toys for the coming holiday shopping season are already shipping across the Pacific, and Mattel wants to catch any other problems that may have slipped through — before those toys land on store shelves and cause even greater damage to its reputation.

A big problem was that some of Mattel’s trusted vendors had turned to cheaper paint suppliers outside the company’s approved list. Mattel is now racing to increase its supply and product testing, no longer giving local contractors several months at a time to do the tests themselves.

This appears to be a case of some of the sloppiest, laziest management one could imagine. Where were all the executives from Mattel all this time? Why were they not insisting that products sold under their brand were safe for our children and grandchildren?

Mattel makes its best-known toys, like Barbie dolls, in its own 12 factories. But even as it has increased the share of toys it makes itself to about half, it still relies on roughly 30 to 40 vendors to make the other half. Mattel now realizes it was not watching those companies closely enough, executives here said.

Mattel vetted the contractors, but it did not fully understand the extent to which some had in turn subcontracted to other companies — which in turn had subcontracted to even more. Mattel required its vendors to list subcontractors, so Mattel could visit them, but Mattel is investigating whether that procedure has been followed. A number of companies whose factories Mattel had never visited may have had a hand in making the toys that were shipped around the world.

“Mattel now realizes it was not watching those companies closely enough,” now that is an understatement. Maybe those on the Board of this company should be scrutinizing their executives closely. Perhaps a complete overhaul of management would be a first step towards rebuilding their credibility.

The complete story at the NYT is laden with more details than I have read before on this issue.

While I can appreciate that contractors in China may have played a role in manufacturing these unsafe toys, it will remain my opinion that Mattel should be held responsible for their lack of oversight. This is an absolute disgrace.

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This is so outrageous that I can’t find the words to describe my anger.

father said he asked his son to give up dogfighting, or to at least put property used in the venture in the names of others to avoid being implicated, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Also Thursday night, a report on ESPN.com cited an unidentified ESPN source saying Vick will not admit to killing dogs or gambling on dogfights when he enters a guilty plea in a Richmond, Va., federal court Monday.

The source told ESPN that Vick’s defense team met with federal attorneys Thursday afternoon to determine the “summary of facts” to which Vick will plead. But the source says Vick maintains he never killed dogs and never gambled on a dog fight. The source said the Atlanta Falcons quarterback will plead guilty to the charge of interstate commerce for the purpose of dogfighting.

On Monday, Vick agreed to plead guilty Monday in the federal dogfighting case in Richmond. He faces up to five years in prison and the possible end of his football career. Three co-defendants already pleaded guilty and were expected to testify against Vick if the case went to trial. In addition, a Virginia prosecutor is considering bringing state charges against Vick.

In The Journal-Constitution report posted on the newspaper’s Web site Thursday night, Michael Boddie, who is estranged from Vick and the quarterback’s mother, also said some time around 2001 his son staged dogfights in the garage of the family home in Newport News, Va.

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This guy was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A CIA inquiry has accused the agency’s ex-chief George Tenet and his aides of failing to prepare for al-Qaeda threats before the 9/11 attacks on the US.
“The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner,” the CIA inspector general wrote in a scathing report.

The document was completed in June 2005 and kept classified until now. Its release was ordered by Congress.

Mr Tenet, former CIA director, said the inspector general was “flat wrong”.

But some former CIA employees have told the BBC that the criticisms are justified.

Mr Tenet, who enjoyed strong support from President George W Bush, resigned in 2004 citing “personal reasons”.

The review team led by Inspector General John Helgerson found no “single point of failure” that would have stopped the attacks on 11 September 2001.

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I love football and I can never wait for the preseason to start in August. If anything will turn me against the NFL it will be if they let Vick play again.

An NAACP leader said Michael Vick should be allowed to return to the NFL, preferably the Atlanta Falcons, after serving his sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation.
“As a society, we should aid in his rehabilitation and welcome a new Michael Vick back into the community without a permanent loss of his career in football,” said R.L. White, president of the NAACP’s Atlanta chapter. “We further ask the NFL, Falcons, and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country.”

White said the Falcons quarterback made a mistake and should be allowed to prove he has learned from that mistake.

On Monday, Vick said through a lawyer that he will plead guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and conspiracy to sponsor a dog in an animal fighting venture.

Three Vick associates have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and say Vick provided nearly all the gambling and operating funds for the “Bad Newz Kennels” dogfighting enterprise. Two of them also said Vick participated in executing at least eight underperforming dogs, raising the possibility of the animal cruelty charges.

Last month, state and local leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged the public not to rush to judgment in the Vick case. The civil rights organization said animal rights groups, talk radio and the news media were vilifying the embattled athlete, and that his team and corporate sponsors were prematurely punishing Vick.

White said the Atlanta chapter supports Vick’s decision to accept a plea bargain if it’s in his best interest, but he questioned the credibility of Vick’s co-defendants, saying an admission of guilt might be more about cutting losses than the truth.

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If this is true and he did change the plans then he needs to be punished.

Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.
But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray’s assertion, and show that Murray’s company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers – thick walls of coal that run on
both sides of the main tunnels and help hold up the mine.
That stands in stark contrast to statements Murray made Monday asserting that his company’s mine plan, and that of the previous owner, were one and the same.
“Some have incorrectly reported that after I bought the mine I changed the mining plan. That is not correct,” Murray said. He said the mining plan was developed by its previous owners, Andalex Resources, in conjunction with the Colorado mining engineering consultant Agapito Associates and approved by MSHA.
Documents on file with the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining show Andalex had previously decided not to mine those barriers, determining it posed a risk to worker safety.

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I’ve got a simple solution. Put the so-called people that are doing this in a ring and force them to fight for their lives. At least by doing this, we could cut the amount of dirt bags in half.
If I sound a little extreme it’s because this really ticks me off.

It’s a disturbing narrative, the 19-page indictment of football star Michael Vick and three of his friends. Perhaps the details shocked people unfamiliar with the secretive world of illegal dogfighting: the breeding and training of pit bulls for savage, high-stakes combat and the brutal executions of dogs that fail to measure up.

Dogs shot, hanged, drowned, beaten, electrocuted. An awful story.

Yet to animal-welfare workers, the ugly particulars were far from surprising. They said the dogfighting subculture is deeply entrenched in the United States. And in that shadowy realm, they said, the sort of business allegedly conducted on property owned by Vick in rural Surry County, Va., has been going on for generations, especially in the rural South.

“For us, the Vick case has had tremendous value,” said Jeff Dorson, a Louisiana Humane Society official. “We’ve been trying to tell the public how typical this is, how widespread it is, the horrors the animals go through. . . . It’s opened the curtain so everyone can see what’s going on.”

Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons and a former Virginia Tech all-American, is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to dogfighting-related offenses, with federal guidelines calling for a prison term in the range of 12 to 18 months, according to his attorneys and sources familiar with the case. His co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

The blood sport goes on.

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If ever I wanted someone to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, this was it.

We’ve had a few days to grow accustomed to the notion of Michael Vick going to jail, but it’s nonetheless a stunner to hear the actual admission of guilt in the form of a plea bargain. We’re now into the meat of one of the most sordid episodes in recent sports history and it’s clear that Vick, barring something completely unforeseen, is going to jail. Athletes have run afoul of the law since the turn of the previous century, but it’s not often we see the career of someone with Vick’s talent, profile and degree interrupted in its prime by a jail sentence. It’s possible his career will even be ended by this jail sentence, an NFL suspension and by the contempt with which he’ll be held for years after his release.

It’s the newest cautionary American tale: Football icon flips American dream on its head. It’s so totally overwhelming and wildly extreme it’s difficult to know where to begin. Vick is alleged to have not just run a dogfighting ring, which by itself is illegal and heinous, but to have tortured and killed dogs with his bare hands, lied to the man who’s paying him $105 million about his involvement and lied to the NFL commissioner’s face about his involvement. You wonder what Vick was thinking as the federal government knocked him out in what amounts to less than one round. Could the feds have had a more solid case against him? The dog-killing is such a showstopper, most folks don’t even realize the feds could have nailed him for gambling as well.

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I was hoping he would go to trial and get what he really deserves.

A lawyer for Michael Vick said Monday the NFL star will plead guilty to federal dogfighting conspiracy charges, putting the Atlanta Falcons quarterback’s career in jeopardy and leaving him subject to a possible prison term.

The offense is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, although federal sentencing guidelines likely would call for less.

“After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him,” lead defense attorney Billy Martin of Washington, D.C., said in a statement.
“Mr. Vick has agreed to enter a plea of guilty to those charges and to accept full responsibility for his actions and the mistakes he has made. Michael wishes to apologize again to everyone who has been hurt by this matter.”

Surry County Commonwealth’s attorney Gerald G. Poindexter said, “I didn’t see many options for him,” when he heard Vick planned to plead guilty to the dogfighting conspiracy charge.

He also said local charges are likely, but he didn’t say against whom.

“Crimes have been committed, and the people of Surry County and the Commonwealth Virginia have a right to be vindicated,” Poindexter said. “I don’t see any overlapping between what has been pled to in the federal system and what happend here in the county.”

He said he’s not sure what charges he would pursue. All the physical evidence is in the hands of the federal prosecutors, he said.

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While I admit that I am conflicted when it come to the death penalty, there are times when I feel it is completely appropriate.

When three college students were gunned down in cold blood in Newark, New Jersey, my hope was that their killers would be apprehended and brought to justice. It seems as though law enforcement has completed the first step of that process.

A 24-year-old man believed to be the ringleader in the startling, execution-style killings of three college students in Newark will be arraigned today in Prince George’s County District Court.

Rodolfo Godinez was arrested early Saturday in Oxon Hill after a fervent and extensive search by Newark and federal authorities that led to the arrest of his 16-year-old half brother later that day in Woodbridge. Early yesterday, Newark police arrested an 18-year-old man in Elizabeth, N.J.

Here is just a glimpse of this horrendous crime.

On Aug. 4, siblings Natasha Aeriel, 19, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, and friends Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower, both 20, were forced to kneel against a wall behind an elementary school and shot in the head. Natasha Aeriel survived. She, her brother and Harvey were students at Delaware State University, and Hightower planned to enroll there this fall.

For any person who shows such disregard for the life of another or the life of agony facing the families of these young individuals, I have absolutely no compassion.

Hopefully justice will be swift and if proven guilty I pray the punishment will fit the crime.

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With millions of people world-wide going hungry and being malnourished, it’s hard to get my arms around the reasoning CARE is using to decline $45 million a year in federal financing.

They say it hurts the people it’s supposed to help because the farmers can’t sell their products when competing with subsidized U.S. farm products. HUH?

CARE’s decision is focused on the practice of selling tons of often heavily subsidized American farm products in African countries that in some cases, it says, compete with the crops of struggling local farmers.

The charity says it will phase out its use of the practice by 2009. But it has already deeply divided the world of food aid and has spurred growing criticism of the practice as Congress considers a new farm bill.

“If someone wants to help you, they shouldn’t do it by destroying the very thing that they’re trying to promote,” said George Odo, a CARE official who grew disillusioned with the practice while supervising the sale of American wheat and vegetable oil in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

Under the system, the United States government buys the goods from American agribusinesses, ships them overseas, mostly on American-flagged carriers, and then donates them to the aid groups as an indirect form of financing. The groups sell the products on the market in poor countries and use the money to finance their antipoverty programs. It amounts to about $180 million a year.

But then we read this in the article:

The Christian charity World Vision and 14 other groups, which call themselves the Alliance for Food Aid, say that CARE is mistaken; they say the system works because it keeps hard currency in poor countries, can help prevent food price spikes in those countries and does not hurt their farmers. Not least, they argue, it also pays for their antipoverty programs.

And then this example of how CARE has helped people:

The experiences of Walter Otieno, a grizzled Kenyan farmer in mud-stained pants, illustrate the paradoxes of paying for rural development through sales of American farm goods.

Over the years, he had watched 4 of his 12 children die of measles, which is more often fatal for the malnourished. He has had difficulty growing enough to feed his family. “My children were skinny, and their skin was dull,” he said.

Then last year he began growing a small patch of sunflowers on a hill sloping down to Lake Victoria in the village of Malela, with help from a program that CARE finances through the sale of American farm goods here.

A CARE extension worker, Rosemary Ogala, taught him and dozens of farmers in his group where to buy sunflower seed, when to plant it, how to space the rows and when to harvest.

CARE has also connected them to a ready market: the Kenyan company Bidco Oil Refineries, whose managers say they could more than quintuple the amount of sunflower seed they buy from Kenyan farmers to process into vegetable oil.

The profit Mr. Otieno earned from the crop rescued his family from dire poverty. Now, with his new earnings, he is able to play with his sons and daughters, who are plump on eggs and milk, at the family’s general store, a tiny shack stocked with goods financed by the sunflower sales.

It appears the well-fed and well-nourished people overseeing CARE don’t see the forest for the trees and are hurting the very people they are supposed to be trying to help.

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Very interesting.

For the second time in as many weeks, a senior House Republican may have divulged classified information in the media.

In an opinion article published in the New York Post Thursday, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., reported the top-secret budget for human spying had decreased — the type of detail normally kept under wraps for national security reasons.

“The 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill cut human-intelligence programs,” Hoekstra wrote in the piece, in which he also criticized “leaks to the news media.”

Formerly the chairman of the intelligence committee, Hoekstra is now its highest ranking Republican. In its recent budget authorizations, that committee kept from public view all figures and most discussion of spending on such classified items as human spying. Hoekstra’s apparent slip was first noted on the liberal Web site, Raw Story.

If Mr. Hoekstra wants to break ranks and disclose that information, that’s fine with me,” said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert who has long pushed to declassify overall spending on intelligence. “But it is the sort of thing he has harshly criticized in the past.”

Indeed, Hoekstra’s penchant for openness appears to be selective. He has aggressively attacked unnamed opponents guilty of such leaking, accusing them of “recklessly and illegally” disclosing secrets “for political or other motives” in reports published by his committee.

He’s even exacted punishment for suspected transgressions. Last October, Hoekstra stripped the credentials of a Democratic committee aide he believed may have leaked a then-classified document to The New York Times. A month later, he quietly reinstated the aide’s access.

Hoekstra spokesman Jamal Ware said his boss’ op-ed discussed the spending without disclosing the underlying classified information.

““This is a partisan push being made by Democrats and their surrogates…there’s nothing there,” he said. Ware added that he himself had used similar language in a May press release, which stated the intelligence spending bill “cuts human intelligence programs.”

Secrets are apparently hard to keep these days. On July 31, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, allegedly disclosed a secret court ruling during a television interview with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto.

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You talk about saying and doing anything to get elected. This is a typical politician who doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he can save his own nasty butt.

An audiotape reveals new details about the arrest of a state lawmaker in the men’s room of a public park. Investigators say State Representative Bob Allen offered an undercover officer 20 dollars, if he could perform oral sex on him. The Merritt Island Republican says its all a big misunderstanding.

In an audiotaped interview with Titusville Police, Allen says he was intimidated after a man offered a sex act for money. He says he went along with the conversation, because he was afraid of becoming another crime statistic.

On the audiotape, Allen said, “Listen. A public park. I got my name on the damn building. I’m not gonna do that. You know, maybe I said it in the wrong order, but this was a pretty stocky black guy, and there were a lot of other black guys around in the park, and, you know…”

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I have heard of many dirty tactics and tricks used by Congress on both sides of the aisle but to remove the record of a legitimate vote goes well beyond the pale.

Via Captains Quarters:

The bitter partisanship in Congress will apparently get a lot worse after some shenanigans by Democratic leadership in the House last night. According to the Politico, the Democrats have not only attempted a revote after an embarrassing loss on an agriculture bill, but they’ve changed the records to expunge any mention of the vote they lost:

Follow the links at Ed Morrisey’s to read and hear more.

This is an absolute disgrace and those in the House who engaged in this behavior should be ashamed of themselves.

Again, the Captain:

The rules exist for a reason — to make sure that the House functions regardless of the rancor between its members. Once a vote has been gaveled closed, it becomes part of the record and should become official. Votes should not be changed after that point, nor should the entire record of the vote get expunged.

Also blogging this issue with links to articles and c-span video is Sister Toldjah.

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A conservative talk show host that has completely gone off the edge. There will never be civility in this country as long as people like this are around. I’ll bet that there is a lot of people out there who are more than happy to associate themselves with the likes of Michael Savage or the Turks on air american.

On the July 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage reacted to news that Chief Justice John Roberts had suffered a seizure that day by raising the possibility that “his health was in some way tampered with by the Democrats.” Savage said, “Something’s wrong with this picture,” after noting that Roberts’ seizure occurred just three days after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he would seek in general to reject any future Supreme Court nomination made by President Bush. Schumer told the American Constitution Society (ACS) in a July 27 speech: “I will recommend to my colleagues that we should not confirm any Bush nominee to the Supreme Court except in extraordinary circumstances.” Schumer said that, since the confirmation of Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, the court had come to represent “what a diminishing clique of conservative ideologues wish for.”

Savage asked, “Am I to believe there’s no connection between Charles Schumer on Friday saying he would never appoint, or never, excuse me, approve another Bush appointment to the court, to any court? And then the chief justice suffers a so-called seizure two days later? You’re telling me there’s no possibility of a conspiracy by the Democrats to have caused this seizure in some manner?” He added: “Tell me it’s not possible, and I’ll tell you you’re a liar.”

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Can you believe this? . These are the last people in the world, except for Congress, who deserve a raise .

Before paying $48,823 in cash bonuses to its chief of regulatory affairs in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration asked her to sign a simple declaration: “If I am unable to receive a retention allowance, I am likely to leave the federal government for a higher paying position in the private sector,” wrote Margaret O’K. Glavin.

Glavin’s statement did not detail a specific job offer, but that did not impede the payment. Over the past 4 1/2 years, she has collected more than $178,000 in cash bonuses — on top of her $159,840 annual salary.

FDA officials justified Glavin’s bonuses by saying her pay should be close to the salaries of those employed by companies she regulates, namely Washington lobbyists. The private-sector comparison has prompted large cash bonuses for top agency officials to quadruple since 2002, to $13.6 million in 2005, according to FDA officials and salary information provided to Congress.

The bonuses were paid during a rough patch at the FDA, encompassing a shortage of flu vaccine and embarrassing recalls of the pain-relieving drug Vioxx and malfunctioning heart defibrillators. Throughout, the agency repeatedly insisted that it lacked the resources to conduct adequate food and drug inspections.

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Here’s the story and below is the video.

And we wonder what’s gone wrong in Washington.

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