Leopards CAN Changer Their Spots/ Bab West's Biden interview

Local Orlando health reporter and "news anchor" Barbara West's interview with Joe Biden had her quoting Marx and using other RNC talking points to the point where Joe asked, "Are you joking?

Buried at the bottom of a story on the interview in the Orlando Sentinel we find out that the inquisitioner had married Wade West, a Republikkkan media consultant: "Several readers questioned how objective West could be because her husband, Wade West, was a Republican strategist, who contributed $2,250 to Republican candidates from 2000 to 2006. Barbara West said he was no longer a strategist and instead runs America Fundraising Auctions, which stages charity auctions."

Earlier in the piece, the Sentinel TV critic, Hal Bodeker, did quote from person at the independen Poynter Institute on journalim: [Jill Geisler, who teaches ethics and management at the Poynter Institute journalism school, said West has a right to ask any question she wants. "Depending on where you sit, you may say, 'Somebody finally asked the question I had,'. " Geisler said. "Others would say it's loaded language."

Geisler found some of West's language hyperbolic and described the anchor as coming from a point of view similar to talk radio hosts Sean Hannity's or Rush Limbaugh's.

"I can ask you 'Have you stopped beating your wife?' and say it's just a question, but there's an assumption embedded in it," Geisler said. "There was a world view in those questions."][emphasis added]

Limbaugh and Hannity, journalists who call it right down te middle. She went on O'Reilly first to defend herself, kind of says it all there.

Later today I'm going to sprout wings and fly AND change my spots.

Down Ballot Effect Pushing Obama Up in Central Florida?

For those unfamiliar with the cesspool of central FL politics, we have 2 real Repukkklican cretis in Ric Keller, FL US Rep. district 8, and Tom Feeney, FL-24, the latter named one of the most as ethically challenged four years in a row, both from slightly republikkkan districts.

Feeney has come in for great ridcule from FL columnists, including Mike Thomas of the Orlando Sentinel and Dave Senior of the Examiner papers.

This pissed people off so badly the cretin had to open tv ads with an apology.

Golfing with Abramoff, MasterCard.
Apolgizing in campaign ads, Priceless!

People usually start at top of the ballot but, possibly planning on pitching out these crooks, could this possiblyy influence the top of the ballot?

Pray it does.

peace.

"Back in the Saddle Again"

Well not exsctly, but did return homw from hospital healthy as usual--3 squares a day I didn't have to cook or clean after, which minor miracle occurred with me with no medical insurance, must have had to do with me passing out in apartment parking lot with impossibly high blood pressure-- to find door locked with deadbolt but 'puter and peripherals gone.

Stupid thieves, had taken out hard drive prior to sending to HP so they got door stop and printer and flat screen.

At my church using SMALL monitor and really miss my flat screen but Galveston got hammered while I have rest of my stuff.

Blessings abound for all.

Drug Treatment or 31 Car Police Chase?

Local tv news reports featured the father of the suspect and his tearful reports of trying to get his junky son invluntarily committed or into drug treatment.
http://www.wftv.com/news/17521782/detail.html

Looking for video.
http://www.wftv.com/news/17526766/detail.html

Check out the vid; OJ got nuthin' on JM.

Which makes more sense or costs less $, treatment or pursuit and incarceration?

"[Jason] Morse was arrested in April in connection with two thefts of OxyContin in Seminole County."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-chase2108sep21,0,1678850.story

I blog therefore I am

Going cold turkey hurts.

Without a 'puter, could not read newslinks and fave FL newspapers or int'l ones.

Newslink.org, a project of American Journalism Reveiew, has links to newspapers from all over the world, save for the London Independent with the esteemed Robert Fisk reporting on Mideast affairs.

Sheesh, hard to start my day with coffee but no Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, or St Petersburg Times (the one in FL). It did renew my appreciction of the printed paper, however, so nice to hold it in your hands and jot notes down rather than bookmarking articles that disappear into the ether in a week.

Missed those bloggers I've come to know as friends, 1 sided admiration surely as titans of blogs barely notice my humble little empire of dirt, but reading people daily lets me know something of the individual bloggers: Atrios, Field Negro, Suburban Guerilla, and America Blog. Even have had a few emails from the last 3, honoring me greatly.

Yet, I started this blog for me, not as narcissism but to publish thoughts in my head before it exploded from the crushing craziness of the Cheney administration.

Pres. Skippy even had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to say on camera after Russia invaded Georgia that violence and intimidation has no place in international affairs in the 21st century.

By the goddess, how could he dare say that? Give me some of the drugs he gets, Prozac probably.

You see, that happens when US invades a country for no reason save oil and hubris; any fleabag country with a flag and a few tanks feels it can invade when it wants to.

If it weren't so absolutely absurd, I'd cry.

Peace out, y'all.

Pop Goes the Compaq Presario Power Supply

Honestly, while sitting on my couch 18 August with the computer turned off, heard a pop from area where it sat. No lightning, computer off, and thing blew.

Still under warranty so it lies in hands of tevh gods to get it back to me.

Spoke with customer service, and nice lady told me their ofc located in Argentina: nice weather, no hutticanes, hopefully that fascist stuff has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

Hurricane supplies: "food, water, whiskey"

While having their priorities out of order--you always have to get more booze and beer than you think 'cause with power out what else can you do but get hammered?--nevertheless these folk got it covered:

[Willie Dykes, 58, and friend Essy Pastrana, 48, live on a sailboat in Key West, and said they weren't going anywhere. The pair was filling up gas cans Monday morning and buying supplies like food, water and whiskey.

"We're gonna ride it out," Dykes said, his fluffy white beard blowing sideways in the wind. "We're not worried about it. We've seen this movie before."]

Woodstock ended 39 years ago today; peace and love; I miss Nixon

Woodstock may mark the height of the counterculture and rock and roll of the 60's.



Sure the US had a "No good lying SOB"--Truman's words in Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman--as President who won with a secret plan to end the Second Indochinese War.

Surprise, Surprise, secret plan escalated conflict with thousands more American troops dead and wounded, illegal exspansion of war into Cambodia and Laos, tens of thousands more Vietnamese civilians dead and maimed, US troops and civilians still poisoned over 40 years later by dioxin, some vets now homeless, and Nixon still got the same terms to get out 3 years later: "peace with honor."

Extra side of surge with your escalation anyone? Depleted Uranium for dessert?

"There is nothing new under the sun," wrote the preacher in Ecclesiastes. Then, US supported a small Catholic military minority in a mostly Buddhist country. Now our troops sit amidst a religious civil war, sparked anew by President Cheney, of longer duration than the 100 years war.

At least then we had a media that questioned rather than caved and legislators like Senator Sam Ervin who defended the Constitution rather than cravenly crush it to fight a "global war on terror."

Now we have a presidential candidate who preaches "victory" in the Iraqi war but can't define it,

Peace with honor indeed.

What a fascist, cowardly crock! Like Vidal wrote, "You can't declare war on a noun."

May the Lord have mercy on my soul. I actually miss Nixon!

Lest you think this frivolous ar nostalgic, read a contemporary account by NY Times reporter quoted at Wikipeda saying: ""Every major Times editor up to and including executive editor James Reston insisted that the tenor of the story must be a social catastrophe in the making. It was difficult to persuade them that the relative lack of serious mischief and the fascinating cooperation, caring and politeness among so many people was the significant point. I had to resort to refusing to write the story unless it reflected to a great extent my on-the-scene conviction that 'peace' and 'love' was the actual emphasis, not the preconceived opinions of Manhattan-bound editors. After many acrimonious telephone exchanges, the editors agreed to publish the story as I saw it, and although the nuts-and-bolts matters of gridlock and minor lawbreaking were put close to the lead of the stories, the real flavor of the gathering was permitted to get across. After the first day's Times story appeared on page 1, the event was widely recognized for the amazing and beautiful accident it was."

Woodstock: Country Joe and the Fish (Language Warning)

Hendrix at Woodstock: "Purple Haze"

"By the Time We Got to Woodstock, We Were Half a Million Strong"

Senator Nelson Hates Democratic Congress of Today

Just watched tv campaign commercial for US Rep Fl Distict 08 Dem candidate Charlie Stuart and former FL senator Bob Graham says he's "very dissappointed in today's Congress."

Since this comes in a US House primary campaign, one presumes he means the US House of Representatives rather than "Congress" denoting both legislative branches.

So alleged Dem Stuart runs for US Rep by running against the Democrat controlled House.

Last cycle, he ran a tv ad where he literally wrapped himself in an American flag.

Why do I get the feeling he would vote with Blue Dog Democrats, apostates who've enabled much of the Cheney adminstration legislation?

Oh kill me now: Charles Samuel Stewart wants a new politics based on seeing things through the eyes of a child.

WTF?

Of course, he wants to end the "old" politics such as "Protecting partisan positions over sensible compromise," endorsing the pathetic impotence of the spineless Democratic majority in the House.

If it barks like a blue dog, grandma sez pobably 'tis.

Makes me wish I cared enough to go to 1 of the primary debates.

At least 1 of his opponents, Alan Grayson has run a tv ad decrying corrupt Iraq contractors costing the US 100's of billions of dollars.

Golly, Charlie, do you think the Republikkkns will run this ad against you?

George Bush Tour of Destruction of US

Found at America Blog, because a great nation needs a great blog.

NASA Outsourcing Space Travel to Russia

"Dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track." Replacement not so much.

Unfortunately with a clueles Cheney administration, NASA has no replacement ready and needs a waiver to law to buy Russian launch vehicles, [A little-known law intended to prevent the sale of nuclear technology to Iran would also bar NASA from buying Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011..."

"It takes 36 months to fulfill an order," said Yevgeny Khorishko, the Russian Embassy spokesman in Washington. "So if U.S. Congress does not grant a waiver by the end of September, it means your astronauts in 2012 will be preparing for their missions on the ground and will not be flying."](emphasis added)

So after 50 years of NASA exploring space and making Americans proud, Pres. Cheney has reduced the US to paying Russia for reaching orbit.

One can argue the US space shuttle program has become broken beyond repair and requires replacing, basically because it got built for unrealistic aims: building a totally reuseable spacecraft.

So what does NASA do to replace the shuttle? Retire it before any US made alternative becomes ready and try to privatize US space travel.

This administration tried privatizing US space travel..

So while jobs at NASA and contractors get cut, taxpayers pay millions of $ to private companies to try to develop spacecraft, including 1 company, SpaceX that built a rocket that "fizzled" on the third test rather than reach orbit.

At least that company, Space X, launched and failed. Planet Space hasn't actually built a damn thing.

Let's lay it out: Tried to privatize US space flight.

Failed.

(For irony, SpaceX launches from U.S. Army's Reagan Test Site in the central Pacific Ocean.}

Americans get laid off and the US has to pay Russia to fly to space

For those too young too remember, the space race with Russia became one of the dominant themes in the 60's and 70's, not just for the US but the civilized world.

Now we gotta pay the godless commies to fly. Despicable

[In April, NASA said more than 8,000 space contractor jobs -- including 1,300 at Michoud and 6,400 at KSC -- could be eliminated after the shuttle is retired to make way for the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars.

But whereas the Constellation program is encountering technical problems and some schedule delays, the dismantling of the shuttle program is right on track.]http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/08/a-taste-of-thin.html

[(Former astronaut and senator John)Glenn used the hearing as chance to lash out at the Bush administration for failing to provide leadership on space, and failing to request adequate funding for his Vision for Space Exploration. He accused the administration of “cannibalizing” research on the international space station to pay for NASA’s next generation moon program, called Constellation.

Glenn, who has expressed his anger before at various events, said he was deeply upset by the administration permitting a gap between the end of the shuttle program in 2010 and the first launch of the Constellation program, now scheduled for 2015 at the earliest. He said the decision made America dependent on the Russians to get American astronauts to the space station until Constellation was ready. He said he never thought “we’d have to pay for a ticket to fly on a Russian vehicle.”]emphasis added
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_space_thewritestuff/2008/07/glenn-bush-moon.html

Cheney Administration and War with Iran

Despite President Cheney allowing a senior US diplomat to attend talks with Iran and subsequent drop in oil and gas prices, US officials have "not abandoned all possibility of a military attack on Iran," reported the LA Times.

[WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials reassured Israel's defense minister this week that the United States has not abandoned all possibility of a military attack on Iran, despite widespread Israeli concern that Washington has begun softening its position toward Tehran.

In meetings Monday and Tuesday, administration officials told Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the option of attacking Iran over its nuclear program remains on the table, though U.S. officials are primarily seeking a diplomatic solution.]

While reasonable people pray the Cheney administration to pursue negotiations rather than war which would drive gas prices astronomically high, why should they start using reason now with just over 172 days left before inauguration day 2009?

"In recent months, several major developments have strengthened the case for dealing with Iran diplomatically rather than militarily. The U.S. military is more overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan than ever. The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan has required a significant increase in the number of U.S. and NATO troops during the past year. Iranian proxies in Iraq and Afghanistan could easily target U.S. bases with Katyusha rockets in retaliation for any U.S. strike on the nuclear research facilities at Natanz near Isfahan," wrote professor Juan Cole in Salon (Last para page 1).

Even professional military men like chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff Admiral Mullen, "Mullen seemed to warn hawks in the U.S. and Israel against a strike on Iran of the sort Cheney had earlier envisaged, saying that in light of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, "opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us." Mullen admitted when pressed that the Iranians "have capabilities which could certainly hazard the Strait of Hormuz," though he was confident that the U.S. could reopen it. Despite that confidence, Mullen said that he was worried about instability in the Middle East, and about anything that might contribute to it."

"Both the U.S. and its European allies know that the negative fallout from a war could be immense. Its effect on the world oil supply would be catastrophic. Iran's perennial threats to close the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf in the event that it is attacked have to be taken especially seriously when oil supplies are as tight as they are now. Some 40 percent of the world's petroleum flows through that choke point, and any significant interruption of supply under today's conditions could send prices skyrocketing so far as to threaten the world with another Great Depression. In short, Iran is far more powerful when petroleum is $127 a barrel than when it is $25 a barrel, and that power makes it more prudent to negotiate with it than to rattle sabers. The opening to Iran was not a victory of the realists, but of realism."

Let's all hope professor Cole wrote rightly about return to realism.

Nevertheless if Obama does win the election, let's expect an attack on Iran.

"You can depend on the worst always happening/You need a busload of fatih to get by."
Lou Reed

Florida Follies: Fixed Elections '08

"They did it once/they can do it again."

The Orlando Sentinel reported optically scanned ballots used in elections by all Florida counties give a "paper trail to nowhere," because by law only under and over votes get recounted by hand.

[When legislators passed the new law, they made no provision for a full hand recount, rendering the paper trail of optical-scan systems virtually useless. The law requires that only ballots with too many or too few marks -- so-called overvotes and undervotes -- be reviewed by hand. The rest won't be checked.

"By law, humans can't look at that paper record," said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho. "The system is sort of bass-ackwards..."

The state moved to optical-scan systems less than a year later -- but without any provision for a full hand recount of the paper ballots.

Instead, state law requires that any race decided by less than half a percentage point be subject to a machine recount. That means all the optical-scan ballots -- on which voters fill in a bubble or connect a broken arrow -- are run back through scanners to verify the totals.

If the margin then drops to one-quarter of a percent, a hand recount is ordered -- but only for ballots showing undervotes or overvotes.

The rest of the ballots can't be reviewed unless a candidate sues. And activists say that's a huge hole.]

Since the NY Times already identified at least 3 elections botched beyond belief or certainty as to identity of the individual who actually got the most votes, audit trails of paper ballots must become a priority in all states.

In the 2002 election for governor of Alabama, [Mr. Siegelman went to sleep on election night thinking he had won. But overnight, Republican Baldwin County reported that a glitch had given Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, about 6,000 extra votes. When they were subtracted, Republican Rob Riley won by roughly 3,000 votes.

James Gundlach, a professor at Auburn University, crunched the numbers and concluded that Mr. Siegelman lost because of “electronic ballot stuffing,” possibly by an operative who accessed the computers and “edited” the results, though others dispute his analysis.

Baldwin County used paper ballots that were then read by an optical scan machine. Mr. Siegelman says local officials gave him permission to count the paper ballots by hand, but the attorney general threatened to arrest anyone who did. No count was done.

Lesson: Paper ballots alone are not enough. There must be strong audit laws that mandate comprehensive hand recounts when an election is close.]
emphasis added.





http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31observer.html?ref=opinionileand]d

Wall Street Journal: "Is John McCain Stupid?"

The title of this post quotes the headline of Journal article.

The first line reads, "Is John McCain losing it?"

Perhaps only the bastion of conservative journalism could run a column questioning McCain's faculties that goes further than most progressive bloggers. While apparent to anyone watching extended interviews with the senator or keeping track of his day to day statements, the So Called Liberal Media fails to report McCain--at the very least--expresses himself poorly in phrasing and content.

With a link to the Journal article at the Tribune Washington bureau blog that notes, "McCain said things that were contradictory, that seemed illogical or not helpful to his party's chances," part of national media notes his rhetorical irrationality.

So far, the the online outlets of the Trib's national papers in LA and Chicago have failed to carry this story.

When a candidate for the highest office in the U$A jokes on CNN by singing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," it should give rise to serious competency questions as to judgement that should resound over the airwaves and in newspapers.

First, it ain't funny to joke 'bout killing thousands of human beings.

Next as a matter of diplomacy, threatening destruction to a country before beginning negotiations can lead leaders of that country to reject any talks and to take steps for self preservation--oh say like building nuclear weapons or conducting missile tests.

Plus as a matter of practicality on gas pricing, speculation in the oil market leads to higher prices based on possible war with Iran.

Even military leaders question McCain's temper:

[It is not difficult in Washington to find high-level military officials who have had close encounters with John McCain's temper, and who find it worrisome. Politicians sometimes scream for effect, but the concern is that McCain has, at times, come across as out of control. It is difficult to find current or former officers willing to describe those encounters in detail on the record. That's because, by and large, those officers admire McCain. But that doesn't mean they want his finger on the proverbial button, and they are supporting Clinton or Obama instead.

"I like McCain. I respect McCain. But I am a little worried by his knee-jerk response factor," said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004 and is now campaigning for Clinton. "I think it is a little scary. I think this guy's first reactions are not necessarily the best reactions. I believe that he acts on impulse."]



From the Journal article: [On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't."

This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation...

What I'm asking is, does John McCain have the mental focus, the intellectual discipline, to avoid being out-slicked by Barack Obama, if he isn't abandoned by his own voters?...

...It's not just taxes. Recently the subject came up of Al Gore's assertion that the U.S. could get its energy solely from renewables in 10 years. Sen. McCain said: "If the vice president says it's doable, I believe it's doable." What!!?? In a later interview, Mr. McCain said he hadn't read "all the specifics" of the Gore plan and now, "I don't think it's doable without nuclear power." It just sounds loopy...

...Then this week in San Francisco, in an interview with the Chronicle, Sen. McCain called Nancy Pelosi an "inspiration to millions of Americans." Notwithstanding his promises to "work with the other side," this is a politically obtuse thing to say in the middle of a campaign. Would Bill Clinton, running for president in 1996 after losing control of the House, have called Newt Gingrich an "inspiration"? House Minority Leader John Boehner, facing a 10-to-20 seat loss in November, must be gagging...]


{video of McCain using same insane joke while campaigning; found at link at state 29)

President Barbie: Available in African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Versions.

2004 Barbie for President Doll

US Dept. of Justice Scandal: Breaking News

From the Swamp, Tribune Co Wahington bureau: Goodling and Sampson of the US Attorney General's office broke federal law.

Link to report: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/plus/index.htm

Link to summary: http://blogs.trb.com/news/politics/blog/Goodling.doc

There's gambling at Rick's Cafe American? Shocked! Shocked I tell you.

Sure, we progressives have known and blogged 'bout this, but maybe this will provide the tipping point for public perception of the Cheney aministration, a corrupt group of bastards as ever occupied office.

Quote from the summary: [During our investigation, we {investigators from Office of Professional Responsibility and Department of Justice Inspector General} reviewed thousands of documents, interviewed more than 85 individuals, examined relevant e-mails of numerous current and former Department employees, and searched the computer hard drives of several former Department employees.  Goodling declined our request to be interviewed. 

Based on our investigation, we concluded that Goodling violated federal law and Department policy, and committed misconduct, by improperly considering political or ideological affiliations in screening candidates for certain career positions at the Department.]

FL found funds for folks

Mildly amusing and maybe some have sums of $ with FL Bureau of Unclaimed Property. Several for empireofdirt77's but, alas, none at addresses where I've lived.

Let me know, please, if any find any $.

Scott Maxwell's Sentinel column on misssing money.