Thanks, Michael.

KA OPEN THREAD!! NOW TROLL FREE FOR 8 HOURS! WOO HOO!

No Trolls Allowed!

Impeach the Chimp. Honk for Impeachment!

Honk, Honk!

Marijuana: Four Initiatives Make November Ballot In Idaho Town
Printer Friendly Version Email this Articlefrom Drug War Chronicle, Issue #503, 9/28/07
A central Idaho marijuana legalization advocate's three-year struggle to get marijuana initiatives on the ballot in the town of Hailey will come to fruition in November. City officials announced last Friday that a package of marijuana initiatives proposed by Ryan Davidson will be on the November 6 ballot.

Selkirk mountains, northern IdahoDavidson sought in 2004 to file initiative petitions seeking the legalization of marijuana with the communities of Sun Valley, Hailey, and Ketchum, but local officials in all three locales balked. Sun Valley officials refused to process the initiatives, claiming they were unconstitutional. Davidson and his group, the Liberty Lobby of Idaho, took the municipality all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court, which issued a decision in Davidson's favor last year.

Davidson won a second court victory last month, when a US District Court issued a preliminary injunction barring the city of Hailey from requiring that initiative initiators be residents of the city.

Now, Davidson has four different marijuana initiatives on the November ballot. The first would mandate the city to revise its ordinances to regulate and tax marijuana sales and require it to advocate for the reform of marijuana laws at the state and national level. If approved by voters, city officials would have up to a year to implement the new ordinance. A second initiative would legalize the medical use of marijuana. The third initiative would make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest law enforcement priority, while the fourth initiative would allow for the use of industrial hemp.

Local officials are resigned to letting the voters decide. "The only way this is going to go away is to let the people vote on it," said Hailey City Council President Rick Davis at a Monday council meeting.

"The voters have to vote on this; the Supreme Court was very clear," said Hailey city attorney Ned Williamson.

Voters in Hailey will get their chance in November. But Ketchum and Sun Valley could be next. Davidson told the Idaho Mountain Express he hoped to have initiatives on the ballot in those two cities for next May's local elections.

Florida's Democrats just keep on. They are now referring to themselves as the "gang who can't shoot straight."

Gang who can't shoot straight, plus a hilarious cartoon from Miami Herald.

Story of my life - I post and up pops a new thread. Repost:

Good evening, Dems! Does anyone have a link to the text of the Senate SCHIP bill or know if e-prescribing is a part of the bill? From what I heard, it is part of the House bill, but not sure if the Senate changed it.

And, did you hear about John Hall's bill? Lizzy has a keeper!

U.S. Representative John Hall (D-NY19) introduced legislation today that would prevent increases in the number of private security contractors operating in Iraq.

Hall's bill, The Freeze Private Contractors in Iraq Act, would prohibit federal agencies from entering into contracts that would increase the number of private security contractors in Iraq above the number present in Iraq on September 1, 2007.

"It is past the time for us to reduce our involvement in Iraq," said Hall. "As the President is forced to reduce troop levels in Iraq due to a lack of replacement troops, our presence must actually decrease, not be supplemented by an increase in security contractors who operate with little to zero accountability."

Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the use of private security contractors has multiplied exponentially. The number of armed contractors operating in the battle zone is unprecedented in the history of U.S. military engagements. News reports estimate that the number ranges from 20,000 to 50,000 or higher. According to federal spending data, since 2004 federal agencies have paid almost $1 billion to the contractor agency Blackwater USA alone.

Security contractors in Iraq operate outside both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Iraqi law. During the first year of the American occupation, the American Administrator issued a decree that exempted security companies and their employees from accountability under Iraqi law for deaths and injuries caused in the execution of their duties.

"These private security contractors operate in a virtual no-man's-land when it comes to the law," said Hall. "These guys are running around Iraq accountable to no one, using lethal force against civilians and increasing the animosity Iraqis feel towards Americans, thereby making the situation less safe for American troops in the field."

Hall is a co-sponsor of two bills, H.R. 2740 and H.R. 369, that would establish legal accountability for private security contractors operating in a war zone. H.R. 369, The Transparency and Accountability in Security Contracting Act, would clarify that all private security workers operating under contract (or subcontract) by a government agency in the war zone are subject to the Military Extraterritorial Justice Act (MEJA), which is to be enforced by the Department of Justice. H.R. 2740, would ensure that all contractors working for a U.S. government agency would be covered by federal criminal codes. H.R. 2740 would also establish F.B.I. investigative units in the war zone charged with investigating allegations of misconduct.

BILL, PLEASE, PLEASE LET HILARY BE HILARY SO SHE CAN WIN!

BILL. PLEASE LEAVE HILARY ALONE SO SHE CAN BECOME PRESIDENT....It was that scumbag in your campaign who wonted to out-Rove Rove that insisted that to win in 2006 the Dems must look like the "Truman of the Middle East." He got to lead the Democratic Leadership Council who nobody cares about but "entrepreneurs" who think the Dems will give them more doe than Bush did. In 2006 he stayed in his closet and the Dems wom both houses of Congress pushing for an end to the Iraq War. Now I read in the press that you are advising Hilary to snuggle up to the neocons asking her for a date because they will bring back to her Jewish money....BUT JEWS THINK THESE GUYS ARE FASCISTS. So please, remember what a mess you made of the Middle East trying to get one side to buy Congress for you (AIPAC) and the other (Saudis) to build your library.

Don't get me wrong Bill, I'm a Republican turned Democrat on principle and committed to Hilary's victory because I think she has the brain of a man and the smarts of a woman. But you wrecked her life and embarrassed her enough as President. Don't soil her campaign with your brand of amoral politics. YES, NEXT TO NIXON, I THINK YOU ARE THE MOST INTELLIGENT PRESIDENT THIS COUNTRY EVER HAD....But Americans don't want brains only, they want dependable morals. By that I don't mean what you do in your private life but how morally dependable you are in your political life....Millions of us Republicans became Democrats because we want politics, at the very least, to be moral...no more using the moral goals of your policies as excuse for totally immoral (if not illegal) means to get there. Your background is not the same as Hilary's and it is she that is running for President, not you. So let her be free from the moral stains you leave everywhere you sit.

As an ex-President you are a real honey. Your speech at the National Governors' Conference on health costs and diabetes was the most brilliant speech I ever heard. It focused in the nicest way possible on how we are condemning our kids to diabetes by feeding them junk food. Since I heard your speech I abandoned my retirement and am back fighting diabetes, both scientifically and clinically, at no pay, just for the love of it and-- of course FOR THE LOVE OF BILL....But when you were President, though you were an excellent President, you were such an amoral scumbag in your politics that I supported Bush in 2000 in reaction. God forbid we get a low-life like Giuliani instead of Hilary. SO PLEASE, BILL, LET HER DO IT HER WAY SO SHE CAN WIN...LET HER DUMB YOUR VERSION OF A DEM-ROVE, THAT DUMB WOLFSON, AND LET HER TELL US WHY IT'S TIME FOR HER TO BECOME AMERICA'S MOM.

Hilary is shy and, no matter how feminist she really feels she wants to be, she will surrender to your pressure./...proof of that is that she has not yet divorced you after you've been such a louse...I know what it's like because we males are all abusive heels who take our wives' great abilities for granted.

HILARY CAN'T TALK FOR HERSELF...BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN SHE CAN'T THINK FOR HERSELF!

Please, Bill, since I write to you out of real love and respect and deep regret for having underestimated you in my years as a Republican, I want to give you a neuroscience explanation for why it's so hard for Hilary to show how brilliant she is. I had a lady professor of neuroanatomy at UC Berkeley in the 60s who, together with a colleague in NY, proved that, while all the cognitive regions of the male cerebral cortex run through the speech center-- thus slowing processing to actual "thinking" internal speech-- the brains of women do not. So their brains process information and solve problems fast because it is not through speech "thinking." IN THIS WAY THEY EXPLAINED ***WOMEN'S INTUITION*** NEUROANATONOMICALLY!

So let Hilary have her way because-- even though she might not be able to express it as well as you-- she certainly can problems solve FASTER than you and, given her background as opposed to yours, in a more sophisticated morally acceptable way.

You believe so much in yourself that you think you can have your cake and eat it too...you think: why have to make a choice, there must be a way of getting it both ways. Nice trick, but it sure got you into personal and political problems. Hilary is not like that. She's more contemplative (much faster because it is not verbally thought out) but it is intellectually and factually first rate. SHE KNOWS THAT THINGS ARE EITHER OR, NOT HAVING IT BOTH WAYS. And if you try to push her into your tricks, she will lose to a Republican shyster.

It's bad enough to see the fear on Hilary's face every time she has to face a debate with guys that have nothing to lose unless they verbally slat her. But to see her tripped up by trying to ply YOUR tricks because they go against her straight forward nature is devastating.

Bill, were both old guys now wishing we had back all the time we spent trying to pull thousands of women to our beds-- we could get four or five3 PhDs in that wasted time. But for Hillary it is the first time in American history that a woman gets to prove that God made them the bearers and breeders of children because they have that ability to respond to: "Mommy, I'm sick and it hurts" in the middle of the night. Thanks to imbecile, insolent fraud and egomaniac GW Bush, America is today like a sick child in the middle of the night,in pain, crying: I WANT MY MOMMY....Just ask your daughter if Hilary is not the ideal mommy for an America in pain and scared in the middle of one of its worst nights.

Let Hilary be Hilary. Let her cry, let her stumble and let her show her heart....She will win and you can't be so jealous as to try to vicariously relive the presidential election and the presidency through her by having her do everything your way.

BILL, YOU ARE A GREAT GUY AND YOU ARE A PUBLIC GUY WHO IS HUMBLE ENOUGH TO ACCEPT CRITICISM EVEN IF IN PUBLIC. That's why I use this venue to reach you-- old man to old man. You can take it, that's what makes you such a great guy. So please, please think about it because we both want Hilary to be President for the next eight years so she can ease and cure our country's booboos, the way only a mommy can.

dANIEL e. tEODORU

Ahh, Daniel - it's spelled Hillary.

Sadly, it appears you are a product of Bush's non-funding of No Child Left Behind. But, chin up, Sparky! The Dems are going to win this election AND the majority in congress, so you'll get a second chance! Good luck!

and Daniel, I hate to break it to you, but Bill Clinton does NOT read here. sorry.

Oh, shoot, Pam! You mean it? I thought Bill was posting under the name gregg. ;-)

Just another american terrorist, Rush !

By now you may know that during the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called members of the military who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq "phony soldiers."

If you've not yet heard Limbaugh's remarks for yourself, be sure to check them out by visiting the following link:

http://www.mediamatters.org/items/200709270010

I've included in this email a press release that was just sent to members of the media regarding Limbaugh's response to the controversy on today's program -- be sure to visit our website in the hours and days ahead as developments unfold:

Cyn, he's been here for a while, posting from Eastern Europe from a former Soviet Sattelite State. I wouldn't sweat the spelling errors, look at how some of our trolls who scream for vouchers spell. And English is their first language.

Oh, shoot, Pam! You mean it? I thought Bill was posting under the name gregg. ;-)
Posted by Cyn_NY on September 28, 2007 at 07:10 PM

well, I've met gregg, Cyn, and he is much cuter than Bill! I covet that head of curly hair of his! :)

Now I think that Clinton might be rjsnj. He posts under so many names according to the trolls, it could only be someone savvy as Bill.:)

...and, of course once I read it (after hitting "post") I mis-spelled SATELLITE! HAHAHAHAAA!

Evenin all.

I have to run tonight. I just wanted to post this:

Resolution Condemning Limbaugh to be Introduced on Monday Hotlist
by Trapper John
Fri Sep 28, 2007 at 03:26:42 PM PDT

It appears that Representative (and Senate candidate) Mark Udall will be introducing a resolution on Monday which would seek to condemn Rush Limbaugh's obscene attack on the integrity and patriotism of American service members.

I wouldn't expect this resolution to pass, as I don't expect many -- if any -- Republicans to vote for it. But from my perspective, the point of this resolution isn't to receive a majority vote, or even really to condemn Limbaugh. After all, a great number of us in the Democratic Party don't believe that the United States Congress should be in the business of "condemning" the speech of American citizens. As I see it, the point of this exercise is: 1) to highlight the hypocrisy of those Republicans who would vote to condemn the speech of MoveOn, but not that of America's Favorite Chickenhawk -- even as he smeared rank-and-file service members -- and 2) to make sure that those Democrats who saw fit to publicly condemn their ally on the floor of Congress are willing to do the same to a man who despises them and the Democratic Party.

In light of those goals, I hope that all of us in the netroots will honor and respect the decision of those Democrats who choose to vote against both the MoveOn and Limbaugh resolutions. They're taking a responsible, ethical, and consistent position. As for Democrats who voted for the MoveOn resolution, but vote against the Limbaugh resolution? Well, let's just hope that there aren't any.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/28/18441/3779

=================================================

Yes! A resolution against the GOE thugs would be
nice as well. But Druggy Limbaugh needs to shut
his yap.

Impeach Bush
Impeach Cheney
Impeach all the Pug Uglies

HONKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

DPD, well that's progress for you!

We now can read Global posts from repug empathizing wacko's. With all that he has to deal with from Putin, I wonder why he is picking on Bill. Or, is he just trying to hide his identity?

No offense, but GO YANKEES!

It appears that Representative (and Senate candidate) Mark Udall will be introducing a resolution on Monday which would seek to condemn Rush Limbaugh's obscene attack on the integrity and patriotism of American service members.

Resolution Condemning Limbaugh to be Introduced on Monday

I don't expect much Pug support on this one. They will start screaming about wasting time.

Pam, that head of hair standing straight up in the air in bb's little convertible is a memory I will never forget and is just as good as gregg's HUGE head of hair.

Speaking of wackos, my husband is trying out his new wood stove. Need I mention it's 60 degrees outside? I'm off to sweat it out in the living room. Wish me luck.

Have a great evening, all.

If you missed Michael Moore on Oprah discussing Health Insurance mess in this country, this is a Must see.

When you think this is supposed to be the best country in the world, you look at things like this and understand it is not. One of the highest infant mortality rates in the world??? 47,000,000 uninsured? WTF is wrong with us?

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Oprah_hosts_Michael_Moore_versus_healthcare_0928.html

Good evening, all.

I'm on my way to the high school football game.

But I wanted to drop by and say how infuriated I am with our Deomcratic Senators for giving Bush authorization to attack Iran. They're either cowards for not standing up to this fraud (and IAPEC) or just plain stupid.

Anybody who voted for the Lieberman/Kyl amendment doesn't have the brains to end this occupation or deserves to be our standard bearer.

Fools.

C'mon, Cyn. Wouldn't you love to see a Cubs / Boston World Series?

:) I know, Yankees / Philly, right?

hi folks. nice and cool here tonight. we could use some rain though.

the mets are making me crazy, they are my backup team if the yankees tank in the playoffs like they did last year so with the mets crashing its nail biting time.

Sandy,

Ed Schultz had a Democratic Congressman on today who said that they took out two paragraphs before it was passed. The two paragraphs taken out were the ones threatening miltitary action.

Cyn, some of my fondest memories are riding in Bob's little sports car, top down , going to NYC for the Peace March and to the meetup in MA, hair blowing straight up or not! :)

dpd what would be wrong with a cubs-yankees series?

God Bless you, Dennis! Let me know what I can do to help!!!!!!

Kucinich 'seriously thinking' about forcing vote on Cheney impeachment

Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he is so concerned about what he sees as the Bush administration's push for a war with Iran that he is considering using a parliamentary measure to force the House of Representatives to vote on impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney.

"We're preparing for another war, and they're going to destroy America," the Ohio Democrat said Thursday on the Ed Schultz show. "We have a government in place right now that has to be challenged. I'm seriously thinking about calling a privileged resolution on impeachment of the vice president and forcing a vote on the floor of the House."

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Kucinich_seriously_thinking_about_forcing_vote_0928.html

Evening gregg,

It's 81 here and partly cloudy. Is your addition done yet?

I wonder what part of "Nobody sent you any money so it means nobody wants you" did Newtie miss?

I hope the old douche bag wants decides to run! What a laugh.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will open a website by Monday in an effort to round up the $30 million in pledges that he says would be his ticket to entering the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

A longtime adviser, J. Randolph Evans of McKenna Long & Aldridge, will hold a press briefing at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Atlanta to describe plans for what Gingrich aides are calling a “feasibility assessment.”

Aides say Gingrich will announce his intentions by Oct. 21, ahead of a Michigan filing deadline.

During a recent breakfast with a Politico reporter and other journalists, Gingrich made it clear he has given a great deal of thought to how he would run, starting with a national television ad that would be heavy on his policy ideas.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6077.html

Rudy's endorsement a bit off-message

Endorsing Rudy today, former L.A. mayor/California gubernatorial hopeful Richard Riordan apparently didn't get his talking points.

He said Giuliani was "too liberal" to appeal to the party's conservative base.

"On the primary, you get this solid, super right-wing group of people who are going to have litmus tests on everything from gun control to abortion to other things," Riordan observed. "He's going to be hurt there."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0907/Thanks_Dick.html

Evening folks,I see I have some fellow New Yorkers here.I need your assistance.We're trying to get a progressive democratic civil rights attorney into the position of district attorney of Ulster County,N.Y. Our demographics here are at a tipping point,and for the first time in like 100 years we have the chance of putting a democrat in that position.Jon Sennett has won the nomination,however,the loser in the nomination process has flipped to the conservative party and is running as a spoiler candidate against Sennett.This throws our race into jeopardy.I need progressives to come out in force and could use any help that you guys could give.If you could call any friends or relatives that live in this county and let them know what's happening,I would really appreciate it.This is very important to me as well as our democratic residents that we secure this position.If any of you can convey to your representatives and urge them to support Mr. Sennett,it would be helpful.His website is www.sennettforda.com Thanks

For Dawnie:

Factcheck.org
[Presidental Debate with Russert]

We also caught moderator Russert giving an unfair characterization of Kucinich’s record as mayor of Cleveland. Russert said he “let Cleveland go into bankruptcy, the first time that happened since the Depression. The voters of Cleveland rewarded you by throwing you out of office and electing a Republican.” Cleveland didn't go bankrupt in the late '70s during Kucinich's tenure as mayor; it went into default on loans from city banks. He was subsequently voted out of office in favor of Republican George Voinovich. But the story doesn't end there.

The city went into default when Kucinich refused to sell the publicly owned electric utility to its private competitor as demanded by a bank holding the city’s credit line. But in the 1990s, Kucinich was vindicated. In 1998, the city passed a resolution that said the “City Council hereby extends its deep appreciation to Dennis J. Kucinich for having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system." A 1993 Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial estimated that Kucinich’s action would eventually help save the city’s families $200 a year, and it pointed out that the bankers who pressured Kucinich to sell to a private energy company had a stake in that same company.

Oh....I see, your trying to see who can make the dopey post of the week.

That old dopey CT Troll, PamB is going to make it hard for any of you to beat.

2013....over five more years to go, so much for cut and run...

...a cubs-yankees series?

Posted by gregg on September 28, 2007 at 07:38 PM

Ummmmmmm.........

THE YANKEES??????????????

Do you think Hilary is in it for the oil?

New trolls I see,has anybody got a new list of their major malfunctions?

;) gregg

O.K., supporter of the Evil Empire, I'll just be happy for the Chubbies to make it to the playoffs. I'm not a pie in the sky Neo-Con who thinks that the entire world will cower at the mere sight of some alcoholic cocaine abusing child molesting rapist who had his Daddy procure an abortion 2 years before Roe V. Wade, and then go on to a life of Military desertion and drunken bankruptcy propped up by the bin Laden family and the Saudi Royal family, only to piss off both money trains...

But I'm STILL a Cubs fan. Sue me!

(Cubbies won't do squat. It's in the stars. They are CURSED. But Hey...Any team can have a bad Century!

Evening Everyone!

A little O'Lielly piece for your amusement.

Bill O'Reilly ventures into another culture

Ever walked into a Middle Eastern restaurant fearing being drafted into some sort of jihad? Gone out for dim sum and dreaded being challenged to an algebraic throwdown by a master mathlete? No? Then you couldn't possibly relate to Bill O'Reilly.

Posted by Warren-G-Oatmeal on September 28, 2007 at 09:19 PM

Movwon.org has become cat crap and they are trying to cover it anyway they can.

Wow,what insights.Right-wingers don't like move-on,the heros of the mentally deficient are above reproach?Has this blog become typing practice for the clinicly insane?Good study if you haven't read it by Prof. Amodio at NYU.Mri scans of conservative brains show inactivity in the region responsible for the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.Previous studies showed that this region was responsible for foresight.So a social conservative is just a born pathological liar with no control over the consequences of his own actions.Can we use MRI's to cull these misfits from society yet?

The Iraq War
Senator Gravel advocates an immediate and orderly withdrawal of all U.S. troops. His current plan, if enacted, would have all U.S. soldiers home by Christmas 2007.
http://www.gravel2008.us/issues.php

There has been so many, its hard to keep track.

Rudy Giuliani cites 9/11
in explaining cell phone gaffe
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13042.html

Blackwater Blamed for Guard Deaths
By Richard Lardner and Mike Baker
The Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092807L.shtml

Blackwater Guards Killed 16 as US Touted Progress
By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20047.html

Rudy Giuliani
A Betrayal of Trust
Watch the ad:

http://pol.moveon.org/giuliani/index.html

Losers or just one little kid pretending to be two?

Has frosty become schizophrenic?He had more useful comments when he was one.

Has frosty become schizophrenic?He had more useful comments when he was one.

It's sally* with 2 open browsers. The other troll isn't on now. Just wait.

Cubs win!! Brewski's are losing!!

FU troll.

DKA,

Why is chimp protecting blackwater? He is interfering in an investigation. Interfering in an investigation is a crime.

IMPEACH THE NAZI BASTARD!

IMPEACH THE OTHER NAZI BASTARD FIRST!

HONK HONK HONK!

yankees really folded hard tonight dpd. could be a short visit to the playoffs for them.

john, because the religious right nuts and the neocon nuts and the ayn rand greed worshiping nuts all come together at the blackwater trough.

hey dpd wdst is real good tonight.

Mike Gravel responds to the question: What is your plan to get us out of Iraq, an excerpt from the forum at Johns Hopkins University
Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJqyHCP284

MIKE GRAVEL for PRESIDENT!!!
IRAQ WAR TRUTH! Time to Get Out
MIKE GRAVEL, Presidential candidate for 2008, describes what NEEDS to be done regarding the IRAQ WAR. Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pevpArn9Ny0

clarence is out of the closet with a book deal for the story of his life. apparently this is how he "responds" to anita hill's accusations of sexual harassment and general boorish behavior:

"Thomas writes that he did not watch Hill's televised testimony against him at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and so he does not respond in detail to her charges except to call them lies."

so there we have old stone face's response...hahahaha

Newt has already got his $30 million or he wouldn't be talking about not running if he doesn't get it. Newt will announce that he is running for President on Oct 21.

Posted by Warren-G-Oatmeal on September 28, 2007 at 11:33 PM

******
Oh Yeah Newt, a real scumbag. What an example of values, his wife was passing away from cancer and he leaves her and carries on with another another woman. Newt Gingrich left his wife who was dying of cancer for another woman. How does that promote the sanctity of marriage?
Gingrich is trash!

MARIETTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told supporters on Thursday that if they pledge at least $30 million to his campaign over a three-week period starting Monday, he will compete for the GOP 2008 presidential nomination.

The speaker went on to say that if they pledge at least $20 million he will marry the next person Rudy Guiliani divorces, if they pledge $10 million he will let The First Lady ride him pony style around Georgetown and if they only cough up a lousy million he will get Rush Limbaugh to show off his anal cyst scar on the Bill O'Liely show.

i pray for a newt candidacy. the universe should be so kind to us.

see you all in the morning.

i take that back. i pray for a delay ticket. i would gladly settle for newt though.

As long as he didn't play footsie with another man in a mens room he is fine with me.

Posted by Warren-G-Oatmeal on September 29, 2007 at 12:07 AM

*****
So nice of you to make fun of a woman who was dying of cancer and Gingrich's disgusting behavior from hell. Goes to show you what GOP values are these days.

Report: Bomb strikes police bus in Afghanistan
A large bomb ripped through a crowded police bus in Kabul early Saturday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and an Afghan police officer said. Full Story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21040669/

Presidental Hopeful Mike Gravel gives some real answers about ending the Iraq war.
Watch the video:

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=0c49efbf-6c7e-475f-9304-dcaedd3a6907

Besides, what good is a woman who is dying of cancer. I am sure he didn't tell his wife about the new babe. It was time for him to move on.

Posted by Warren-G-Oatmeal on September 29, 2007 at 12:13 AM

*******

You're a real piece of work to defend Gingrich's behavior. The devil must be having a field day laughing at you, Gingrich, and anyone else that defends this kind of disgusting behavior. Gingrich is a disgrace! I had no idea Republicans now endorse adultery and make up excuses for it at the expense of a dying person. You certainly won't get this kind of hypocrisy from the Christian left. To tell you the truth no matter who you are, Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever, no person should defend this kind of immoral behavior, especially if you claim to have any kind of Christian values, it only makes Christians look bad but then again the far right Republicans are doing a lot of that these days!!!

Enough talking to you Oatmeal troll. I'm signing off. I cannot teach a fool.

Danielet:

Bill Clinton is not the only DLC member, Hillary is also in management of the DLC, which is the NDN & NDC, following Al From's leadership. The 70% MAJORITY POPULATION must not vote in any DLC MEMBER, which means the only available DEMOCRAT candidates for the 70% MAJORITY that are NOT DLC REPUBLICAN DEMOCRATS is Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich:

DLC:
http://www.ndol.org

DLC's NDN:
http://www.ndn.org

DLC's NDC:
http://www.house.gov/tauscher/ndc/membership.shtml

RIGHT WING WEB CONSPIRACY:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1463

Brewski's lost. CUBS are in the PLAYOFFS!

Click on the old timey radio on the bottom of the page, and listen while you read along.

Good GOD, man. All you have is old Chimp jokes, and you change the name to Clinton? You are a sad, pathetic fool.

FROM 2005

This isn't the first time you have pulled this stunt.

84, 300 sites listed for that joke, and they ALL are about Chimpy. Until a few months ago, when THIS E-MAIL went around.

Pugs have been scientifically proven to be mentally inferior to Democrats, ergo, their lack of humor. After all, it takes a quick wit and a sharp mind to process and create jokes. All Pugs can do is repeat jokes and change the names. That Half Hour News Hour was a real laugh riot, and Dennis Miller is running out of obscure esoteric references to bedazzle the befuddled.

What site has been discredited? The fact that the SAME joke was posted in 2005 means that you didn't rip it off and change the name 2 years later?

You are obviously on LSD, dude. How can a cached post from 2 years ago PREDICT the latest 2007 joke and still be "discredited"?

Admit it, you are just posting crapola e-mails, and are too lazy or stupid to check out the source.

It's an OLD Chimpy "joke" and the name was changed. I remember the original version. Idiot troll obviously is too stupid or too lazy to Google "Weenie in Hot Water".

Try me. NONE of what I link to are considered left wing sites. When I link to something like Think Progress or TPM, I ALWAYS state "make sure to click on the internal links" because they do all the research so I don't have to.

THEIR links go to U.S. Government documents, or REPUTABLE news organizations, and peer reviewed scientific papers.

YOUR links go Man Coldsore, NewsMax, Freeperville, or this "Unhinged" lunatic.

To prove that he's a LAZY troll. That's even worse than being a regular troll, like copying personal blog posts and pasting them here, thinking nobody would be shocked and awed by the stunningly pedestrian prose that would earn a High Schooler a big ol' "SEE ME" scrawled across the front page of an essay. Over use of Roget is a dead give away for a lazy mind.

Pugs have been scientifically proven to be stupid, dogmatic rigid and narrow thinking. Trolls who C & P "jokes" and change a few words or names are just LAZY, kind of like what YOU do when you C&P somebody else's post in order to "rebut" it. YOU change words and user IDs.

BUT...Nobody has ever accused a Pug of being smart since Everett Dirksen died.

B.S., sally*. You have NEVER posted a scientific PEER REVIEWED article about Global Climate Change in your life. You pull some crapola thing from a New Zealand magazine and selectively edit it to suit your argument. I know, you claim to have gotten it from that bastion of truth FreeRepublic, but just Googling the author lays to waste your claim of even knowing what you are talking about.

You pull out that old chestnut about "scientists were predicting a new Ice Age in the 70's" crap fest all the time and I link to SEVERAL articles that debunked that magazine story within 2 weeks, (and, BTW the author/editor was fired because he didn't actually read the scientific paper he based the cover story on he just took 3 sentences that sounded good out of context, and cashed his check).

Newt /DeLay! Go for it!

(P.S., "smart" and "brilliant" are 2 different things.)

Sorry, turd.

THE LATEST ANALYSIS

UCLA/NYU Study: "Conservative" and "Liberal" Brains May Simply Function Differently

Study: Liberal And Conservative Brains Process Information Differently

There's more if you want it, turd.

Well, turd, I'm sure that my degrees are somewhat more recognized than sally's. (Although my football team seems to suck this year, but, hey...I don't play for them.)

For crying out loud. Haven't you ever heard Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"?

It goes "..Believe half of what you SEE, and NONE of what you HEAR..."

Tina Turner also did it, but people shouldn't do others' songs unless they can do them better; and Tina DIDN'T.

Thus proving the limited range of the Pug mind.

the right wing is already tired of thompson and with him looking like he's a hundred years old when he is in his early sixties they are pushing him out of the lifeboat. the new great hope will be newt which is fantastic for us. newt will still be loading his vast personal and political baggage onto the campaign bus when the voters will give whoever the democratic candidate is a sixty percent victory. i am just not sure the wing nuts can overcome the head start big love and saint rudy of the marriages have on newt....but for this i will pray....and this ranting about how brilliant he is, is quite hysterical!

but the really big news this week was not newt but the fact that the swift boat asshole from texas and his buddies had to fold up their tents in california and give up on their idea of trying to get a proposition on the ballot there that would have apportioned the state's electoral votes based on congressional district outcomes. this would have meant that the democrats usual hold on california's electoral package would have been over....but the effort flopped, the office to promote it closed and the initiators slithered away...hahahahahaha

and from the "hall of greed" which has grown so much during the last seven years we have this gem:

Countrywide CEO sold big as stock dropped
Jamie Rector / Bloomberg News
Countrywide Financial’s Angelo Mozilo became one of the highest-paid executives in America.
Quick changes in Mozilo's trading plan raise red flags, experts say. The mortgage firm says the sales were in line with company policy.
By Kathy M. Kristof, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 29, 2007
As the mortgage industry swooned in late 2006 and 2007, Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo cashed in stock options valued at $138 million -- vastly expanding his wealth even as his shareholders watched their stock shrink in value.

...on another note it was funny to watch bush try to assume a "new" position on global warming this week and still stay true to his ayn randish world view. so basically what the idiot came up with is that global warming is a pressing and critical problem for the world's people ( sorry sally ) but there can be no collective action taken to fix it and everyone is on their own and good luck and the-the-the-the thats all folks!

from scietific american online:

Bush Administration Pushes Climate Change Action into the Future
The president says cutting greenhouse gas pollution should be a "long term goal"—but offers no hint of what that goal might be
By David Biello

President Bush this week called on the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases warming the world to set a "long-term goal" for reducing such pollution, but was vague on how to complete the task.

"By setting this goal, we acknowledge there is a problem," President Bush told representatives of 17 nations attending the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change held in Washington, D.C., this week. "We must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people." The nations represented at the conference emit more than 80 percent of the globe's greenhouse gases.

Bush proposed that a conference be held by the summer to formally establish such a goal and pave the way for a "global consensus at the U.N. in 2009."

Strategies to meet the goal would vary by country and largely rely on advanced technology such as capturing the carbon dioxide spewed by coal-burning power plants; the Bush vision also foresees gasoline alternatives, nuclear power and an international clean technology fund to promote research into carbon-free energy sources. "The United States will do our part," Bush said. "We take this issue seriously."

Environmentalists hailed Bush's acknowledgement that climate change is a fact and largely man-made. But they say the proposal does not go nearly far enough. "He let the moment go by without making any change in his dogged refusal to put real limits on America's global warming pollution," says David Doniger, climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental group. "His opposition to capping and reducing our global warming pollution is the single biggest obstacle to making progress either here at home or with other countries."

Doniger notes that Bush has refused to sign on to a plan that calls for a 50 percent cut in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2050 or to an effort to hold average temperatures from rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, as have been proposed by other countries. "Real limits on pollution … would push private capital into clean energy projects," he says. "Instead, what he's proposing is an international government fund, with no money proposed—Treasury secretary Hank Paulson to pass the hat later. No matter what that comes up with, it will be smaller than what could be mobilized under carbon markets," where the right to emit greenhouse gases is traded among various sources.

Bush also came under fire from U.S. lawmakers, who slammed him for failing to propose or support any concrete plan for action. "The president is opposed to mandatory caps on greenhouse gases, opposing a mandatory 10- [mile-per-gallon] increase in cars and trucks, opposing a national renewable electricity standard, opposing state efforts to cut emissions from cars, and pushing for new sources of dangerous pollution from liquid coal," said Rep. Ed Markey (D–Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, in a statement released after the speech. "For now, he still seems satisfied to reuse rhetoric and run out the clock on his administration without taking any measurable action to save the planet."

Markey's committee was created earlier this year by the Democratic-controlled House leadership to craft legislation to combat climate change. "At a certain point we will have a proposal," says committee spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder. But he says no timeline has been set. Meanwhile, a number of individual members of Congress have proposed their own potential laws.

The next international effort to come up with a global treaty to limit greenhouse gases is set to begin in Bali, Indonesia, on December 3. "Undoubtedly, there is a need for much deeper emission reductions from industrialized countries," said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the U.N. climate summit earlier this week. "Economic and social development cannot be sustainable unless we deal decisively with [climate change]."

one more outrage:

Congressman: State Dept. official threatened investigators
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Friday, September 28, 2007

WASHINGTON — Aides to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard threatened two investigators with retaliation this week if they cooperate with a congressional probe into Krongard's office, the chairman of a House of Representatives panel and other U.S. officials said Friday.

The allegations are the latest in a growing uproar surrounding Krongard. Current and former officials in his office charge that he impeded investigations into alleged arms smuggling by employees of the private security firm Blackwater and into faulty construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Krongard has denied the charges and is due to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month.

In a statement e-mailed to reporters Friday, his office said it was cooperating with investigators.

"The Office of the Inspector General has cooperated with and will continue to cooperate with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's investigation," the statement said. "Furthermore, the OIG will continue to make any OIG employee available to speak with the committee, if they choose."

Officials at the State Department and other agencies said support for Krongard appeared to be slipping and that it remained uncertain whether he could keep his job. They spoke on condition of anonymity, because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hasn't made a final decision in the matter.

The probe into Krongard's office is being led by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House oversight committee.

The two investigators said they were threatened with retaliation — perhaps including losing their jobs — if they cooperated, Waxman said in a letter to Krongard.

According to the letter, Krongard's congressional liaison told one of the two, Special Agent Ronald A. Militana, "Howard can fire you. It would affect your ability to get another job."

In a telephone interview, Militana confirmed that he's filed a complaint with Waxman's panel and said the congressman's letter quoted him accurately. He declined to comment further.

Militana and the other investigator, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brian Rubendall, were among those pressing for an investigation into whether employees of Blackwater were illegally shipping automatic weapons and other military goods to Iraq without a license. Rubendall couldn't be reached for comment.

McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that two Blackwater employees have pleaded guilty in Greenville, N.C., to weapons charges and are cooperating with federal officials.

Blackwater, which has received roughly $835 million in State Department contracts, mostly to guard U.S. civilians in Iraq, is under intense scrutiny after a series of violent incidents involving its contractors. In the most recent, Blackwater teams were involved in a shooting at a busy Baghdad traffic circle Sept.16 that killed 11 Iraqis.

According to an e-mail obtained by Waxman's committee, Krongard intervened when federal prosecutors asked for help from his office in investigating the Blackwater arms-smuggling allegations.

The investigations division of the inspector general's office "is directed to stop IMMEDIATELY any work on these contracts until I receive a briefing from the (assistant U.S. attorney) regarding the details of this investigation. SA Militana, ASAIC Rubendall and any others involved are to be directed by you not to proceed in any manner until the briefing takes place," Krongard wrote to a subordinate July 11.

Krongard denied those allegations on Sept. 18 and said he'd made "one of my best investigators" available to help the Justice Department.

That investigator, Waxman wrote Friday, was Militana.

Several current and former State Department officials have sought whistleblower protection after complaining about Krongard conducted the inspector general's office, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity.

In a related development, members of a panel that Rice set up to review State Department security operations in Iraq are due to depart for Baghdad this weekend.

The department announced that the panel, led by Patrick Kennedy, State's director of management policy, will be composed of retired Army Gen. George Joulwan, who served as NATO's supreme allied commander, Europe; former Ambassador to China Stapleton Roy; and retired Ambassador Eric Boswell, who served as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security.

time for more sleep.

bushwar:

Iraq: Sectarian Violence Kills 18

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 29, 2007

Filed at 7:03 a.m. ET

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian violence across Iraq Saturday, even as the country's leaders denounced a U.S. Senate proposal to split the country into ethnic or religious-based regions.

Six people were killed and 17 wounded after a bomber in a pickup truck detonated his explosives as Iraqi forces chased the speeding vehicle near Mosul, an army officer said.

Acting on a tip, a team of Iraqi soldiers tried to intercept the suicide driver as he was heading west from Mazra village toward Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver detonated his explosive payload, according to the officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Also Saturday, drive-by gunmen killed a Sunni sheik near his home in Mosul's Mithaq neighborhood, said police spokesman Abdul Karim al-Jbouri. Sheik Ghanim Qassim was a mosque preacher and member of Mosul's edict commission, a religious rule-making body.

Al-Jbouri also said a 50-year-old journalist visiting his brother in the Bab al-Baidh neighborhood in central Mosul was killed about 9:30 a.m. when he was caught in a mortar attack. Abdul-Khaliq Nasir, who worked for Um al-Rabyain, a local newspaper, until it ceased operations about six months ago because of security concerns, was married and had three children.

In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire at an Iraqi checkpoint, killing one civilian and wounding four others, police said.

Late Friday, the U.S. military handed over nine decomposing bodies to a hospital in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, according to a police official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The young men were insurgents killed by U.S. forces, he said, adding that U.S. military officials told the hospital to expect at least 15 more bodies in the coming days.

The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier Friday, Iraq's prime minister told The Associated Press that a U.S. Senate proposal to split the country into regions according to religious or ethnic divisions would be a ''catastrophe.''

The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually independent country within Iraq, while nominally maintaining relations with Baghdad. They support a formal division. But both Sunni and Shiite Muslims have reacted with extreme opposition to the U.S. Senate proposal.

The majority Shiites, who would retain control of major oil revenues under a division of the country, oppose the measure because it would diminish the territorial integrity of Iraq, which they now control. Sunnis would control an area with few if any oil resources. Kurds have major oil reserves in their territory.

The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions under control of the three communities in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Biden was a prime sponsor of the measure.

''It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis,'' Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told the AP Friday on a return flight to Baghdad from New York, where he appeared at the U.N. General Assembly. ''Iraqis are eager for Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would be a catastrophe.''

The comments were al-Maliki's first since the measure passed the Senate on Wednesday.

Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers.

Nevertheless, ethnic and sectarian turmoil have snarled hopes of negotiating such measures, especially given deep divisions on sharing the country's vast oil resources. Oil reserves and existing fields would fall mainly into the hands of Kurds and Shiites if such a division were to occur.

So far there has been no agreement on a broader sharing of those revenues, one of the several U.S.-mandated benchmarks the government has failed to push through parliament.

krugman nails it:

Hired Gun Fetish

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 28, 2007

Sometimes it seems that the only way to make sense of the Bush administration is to imagine that it’s a vast experiment concocted by mad political scientists who want to see what happens if a nation systematically ignores everything we’ve learned over the past few centuries about how to make a modern government work.
Skip to next paragraph

Paul Krugman.
Go to Columnist Page »

Thus, the administration has abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service, stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified cronies. Tax farming — giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in return for a share of the take — went out with the French Revolution; now the tax farmers are back.

And so are mercenaries, whom Machiavelli described as “useless and dangerous” more than four centuries ago.

As far as I can tell, America has never fought a war in which mercenaries made up a large part of the armed force. But in Iraq, they are so central to the effort that, as Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution points out in a new report, “the private military industry has suffered more losses in Iraq than the rest of the coalition of allied nations combined.”

And, yes, the so-called private security contractors are mercenaries. They’re heavily armed. They carry out military missions, but they’re private employees who don’t answer to military discipline. On the other hand, they don’t seem to be accountable to Iraqi or U.S. law, either. And they behave accordingly.

We may never know what really happened in a crowded Baghdad square two weeks ago. Employees of Blackwater USA claim that they were attacked by gunmen. Iraqi police and witnesses say that the contractors began firing randomly at a car that didn’t get out of their way.

What we do know is that more than 20 civilians were killed, including the couple and child in the car. And the Iraqi version of events is entirely consistent with many other documented incidents involving security contractors.

For example, Mr. Singer reminds us that in 2005 “armed contractors from the Zapata firm were detained by U.S. forces, who claimed they saw the private soldiers indiscriminately firing not only at Iraqi civilians, but also U.S. Marines.” The contractors were not charged. In 2006, employees of Aegis, another security firm, posted a “trophy video” on the Internet that showed them shooting civilians, and employees of Triple Canopy, yet another contractor, were fired after alleging that a supervisor engaged in “joy-ride shooting” of Iraqi civilians.

Yet even among the contractors, Blackwater has the worst reputation. On Christmas Eve 2006, a drunken Blackwater employee reportedly shot and killed a guard of the Iraqi vice president. (The employee was flown out of the country, and has not been charged.) In May 2007, Blackwater employees reportedly shot an employee of Iraq’s Interior Ministry, leading to an armed standoff between the firm and Iraqi police.

Iraqis aren’t the only victims of this behavior. Of the nearly 4,000 American service members who have died in Iraq, scores if not hundreds would surely still be alive if it weren’t for the hatred such incidents engender.

Which raises the question, why are Blackwater and other mercenary outfits still playing such a big role in Iraq?

Don’t tell me that they are irreplaceable. The Iraq war has now gone on for four and a half years — longer than American participation in World War II. There has been plenty of time for the Bush administration to find a way to do without mercenaries, if it wanted to.

And the danger out-of-control military contractors pose to American forces has been obvious at least since March 2004, when four armed Blackwater employees blundered into Fallujah in the middle of a delicate military operation, getting themselves killed and precipitating a crisis that probably ended any chance of an acceptable outcome in Iraq.

Yet Blackwater is still there. In fact, last year the State Department gave Blackwater the lead role in diplomatic security in Iraq.

Mr. Singer argues that reliance on private military contractors has let the administration avoid making hard political choices, such as admitting that it didn’t send enough troops in the first place. Contractors, he writes, “offered the potential backstop of additional forces, but with no one having to lose any political capital.” That’s undoubtedly part of the story.

But it’s also worth noting that the Bush administration has tried to privatize every aspect of the U.S. government it can, using taxpayers’ money to give lucrative contracts to its friends — people like Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, who has strong Republican connections. You might think that national security would take precedence over the fetish for privatization — but remember, President Bush tried to keep airport security in private hands, even after 9/11.

So the privatization of war — no matter how badly it works — is just part of the pattern.

Good morning fellow Democrats.

morning bob.

With global warming, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, Syria, healthcare, jobs, and a plethra of other problems facing this nation, here comes yet another.

PHOENIX (AP) - It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases - three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

In Arizona, David Evans said nobody knew his son, Aaron, was infected with the amoeba until after the 14-year-old died on Sept. 17. At first, the teen seemed to be suffering from nothing more than a headache.

"We didn't know," Evans said. "And here I am: I come home and I'm burying him."...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070928/D8RUL1D00.html

Morning gregg,

tsk, tsk. and they continue to commit crimes in bush's name. It seems that the crimes are becoming more and more heinous. Before we know it the blackwater brownshirts will patrol every city in the US beating up citizens who disagree with cheney and bush, throwing frozen water bottles through windows, murdering women and children, all in bush's fine name. Then when cheney declares marshall law and appoints bush dictator they can start the genocide of blacks, hispanics and other "foreigners", athiests, gays, chinese, North Koreans, Iranians, and American Indians.

Morning Bob,

The terror here in America never ends does it?

Oh, I forgot Syrians.

CBS) OAK PARK, Ill. Schools just say no to bullying and fighting, but hugging? CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports that a local middle school wants the embracing to stop.

"Last year we would see maybe as many as 10 students on one side (of the hallway), 10 on the other and then, going in opposite directions, would sort of have a hug line going on and you could see where that would be a problem," said Victoria Sharts, principal of Oak Park's Percy Julian Middle School.

So this year Sharts decided to draw the line on hug lines by banning all hugging among students within the building.

Sharts said, "Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls."

When teachers started enforcing the new policy last month all hallways and classrooms in the 860-student school became hug-free zones.

When our cameras rolling during passing period today there was no hugging to be seen.

Sixth grader Isabella Miller disagrees with the crackdown. "I don't think that that's right"

Her father agrees with her.

"It seems like a crazy idea to me," Mark Miller said.

The principal says the rampant hugging is creating bottle necks in the hallway and making kids late for class. Furthermore she says although hugs are supposed to be handshakes from the heart some times they don't seem so innocent.

"Too long, too close, and usually between boys and girls," Sharts said.

After school, while safely outside the building, the students seemed determined to show what they think of the policy, one hug at a time.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Guns, low test scores, racial tension and this guy is worried about hugging? This is yet another example of why the Dept. of Education needs to supercede these local yocal school boards.

Didn't KKKarl's father build the ovens for the German death camps? Maybe he resigned so he could spend full time building ovens for cheney in his death camps.

Posted by Johnedwrd on September 29, 2007 at 08:38 AM

It'll end, John, on 20JAN09.

IMPEACH CHENEY NOW!

Take back all the money he ripped off from the American taxpayer. Prosecute him for crimes against humanity in his drive to war in Iraq and Iran. Prosecute haliburton, blackwater, and other corporations who have been ripping off the American taxpayer and get our money back. Send them all to jail for life in Guantanamo or Abu Graib or better yet a Taliban prison in Pakistan.

Bob,

bush has even screwed up our school system hasn't he? I thought laura was a teacher. She must be a loser like loser husband.

There was a big scandal with one of bush's charter schools in Southern California recently. It seems the appointed head of the school was embezzling all the money in true repuke fashion. I am NOT sold on these stupid charter schools. Aren't they a repuke brainstorm.
These charter schools smack too much like elite private schools where the school administrators can pick anc choose who they want to attend. Am I wrong?

bbl. Walking the dogs.

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a plan to build fencing along parts of the Mexico border a "terrible idea" that overlooks local communities.
Pelosi made the comments during her trip to the Rio Grande Valley for the annual Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology Week conference at the University of Texas-Pan American.

"I have been against the fence, I thought it's a bad idea even when it was just a matter of discussion," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "These are communities where you have a border going through them, they are not communities where you have a fence splitting them."

Last year, President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act requiring the construction of fencing along the 2,000-mile border. The plans call for about 370 miles of fence and 200 miles of vehicle barriers, including concrete barriers, by the end of 2008.

Pelosi also touted legislation known as the DREAM Act that would make it easier for some illegal immigrants to receive higher education benefits. She spoke at a conference that drew more than 5,000 students for activities designed to inspire careers in science and technology...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-09-28-pelosi-fence_N.htm#uslPageReturn

Madame Speaker, with all due respect, I disagree. In the dangerous world of the 21st century, made much more dangerous by the gross incompetence of Sec. Rice's State Department, to not secure our borders is tantamount to a dereliction of duty. Your oath includes the protection of American citizens, not illegal aliens. There is a set procedure for foreigners who want to apply for citizenship. If that procedure needs to changed, Madame Speaker, you're in the position to effectively propose that.

Furthermore, this DREAM act to allow for the higher education of illegal aliens is an insult to all Americans. I propose we spend that money, state and federal, on American children, not illegals.

Posted by Johnedwrd on September 29, 2007 at 08:59 AM

You are not wrong, John. Charter schools do indeed smack of elitism in its worse form. That money should be spent on improving the public school system.

What people fail to realize is that at any given point in time, half of the nation's children are below average and the laws of statistics will not change that. However, when a district is not preforming well on a consistent basis, instead of taking money from said districts to start a charter school, we should simply fire the incompetent teachers. We are the most wealthy nation on the planet. We should have the best school system on the planet as well yet we constantly rank in the teens or twenties of industrialized nations when it comes to measuring the intelligence of our children. Stupid kids make stupid adults hence the 59 million people, or so, who voted for President Bush in 2004.

An now for a little fun. This link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21019797/ will take you to a sample test for U.S. Citizenship. I got all 25 correct but then again, I'm a big, honkin' nerd. How well did y'all do?

And now for a little fun. This link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21019797/ will take you to a sample test for U.S. Citizenship. I got all 25 correct but then again, I'm a big, honkin' nerd. How well did y'all do?

By Joel Seidman
Producer
NBC News
Updated: 10:05 p.m. ET Sept 28, 2007

U.S. Rep. William J. Jefferson was apparently quite astonished during an interview in August 2005 at his New Orleans home when asked by FBI Special Agent Timothy Thibault what he had done with "my $100,000."

Just days earlier, the FBI arranged a videotaped money swap with the Louisiana Democrat, who has since been indicted, outside a hotel in northern Virginia. During the interview with two agents, a very surprised Jefferson, after reviewing a DVD of his alleged acceptance of bribe money from a telecommunications businessman working for the FBI, "sunk back onto the couch and, with total dejection, remarked, 'what a waste,'" according to prosecutors in a new government filing.

Agent Thibault informed the congressman that the money came from the FBI. Jefferson responded, "I think I should stop talking with you boys."...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21039998/

If the FBI account is accurate, then the time has come for Rep. Jefferson (D-LA) to resign. However, what bothers me the worst is that I had to qualify that first statement with, "If the FBI account is accurate". Not in my lifetime, a shade over forty years, have I seen such a profund distrust of establishment and government. I was in the fourth grade when President Nixon resigned therefore, I was not in the best position to guage the mood of the country then but, I can't imagine that then was worse than now all things considered. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistkaes.

Gingrich takes step toward '08 run

By: Mike Allen
Sep 28, 2007 02:35 PM EST

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will open a website by Monday in an effort to round up the $30 million in pledges that he says would be his ticket to entering the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

A longtime adviser, J. Randolph Evans of McKenna Long & Aldridge, will hold a press briefing at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Atlanta to describe plans for what Gingrich aides are calling a “feasibility assessment.”

Aides say Gingrich will announce his intentions by Oct. 21, ahead of a Michigan filing deadline...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6077.html

I'd pay $30 million for the former Speaker to win the GOP nomination. We Democrats would win by twenty points come Election Day 2008. Run, Newt, run... Bwwwwwhahahahahaha...

Evangelicals turn on Thompson

By: Jonathan Martin
Sep 26, 2007 04:26 PM EST

Fred Thompson is failing to meet expectations that he would rally widespread support from Christian conservatives, and he almost certainly will not receive a joint endorsement from the loose coalition of "pro-family" organizations, according to leaders of the movement.

Many religious conservatives, faced with a Republican primary top tier that lacked a true kindred spirit, initially looked to Thompson as a savior. But the former Tennessee senator has disappointed or just not sufficiently impressed the faith community since his formal campaign launch earlier this month.

While Christian conservatives once seemed willing to readily give Thompson the benefit of the doubt earlier this summer, when questions were raised about his lobbying for a pro-abortion-rights group, they are not willing to turn the other cheek anymore.

Even some on the religious right who remain sympathetic to Thompson are unhappy about his refusal to back a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and were unpleasantly surprised by his confession that he doesn’t belong to or attend any church and won’t talk about his faith...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0907/6029.html

So, the fundies have turned on former Sen. Thompson (R-TN) because he won't support a ban on gay marriage and he has a trophy wife. Excuse me for a moment...

OK, I'm back. On a serious note, it's about time that the GOP recognizes that the fundies are their base, for better or worse. Please feel free to PO them at your leisure. We Democrats appreciate it.

And now for some more shameless campaigning.

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), the senior senator from Delaware, is running for President. He does not get quite as much press time as do the leading candidates however, he has, IMHO, a much more clear and concise plan for Iraq, Afghanistan, and other crucial hot spots around the planet. Having researched the candidates positions on a wide variety of topics, I have concluded that Sen. Biden is the best choice for President in 2008. Sen. Biden's plan for Iraq can be found here: http://www.joebiden.com/issues/?id=0009. By clicking on my handle in this post, you will be redirected to Sen. Biden's election home page. If you want a serious, intelligent, thoughtful, and electable candidate, vote for Joe Biden on your respective Primary dates. Joe Biden is the person to get America pointed back on the right track in the 21st century.

BREAKING NEWS

Updated: 11 minutes ago
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A bomb exploded at the entrance to a recreation park in the Maldives, wounding at least 12 foreign tourists Saturday, a government official said.

The homemade bomb exploded outside Sultan Park in the capital, Male, leaving 12 people, including two Britons, six Chinese and two Japanese, with burn injuries, government spokesman Mohamed Shareef said.

Shareef did not immediately know the nationalities of the other two wounded.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21046811/

Good morning, Bob.

That "little" Village (Oak Park) has been a model of race relations going back to the 1960's. They made a concerted effort to be all inclusive when most other suburbs were enacting pro-discrimination laws. Now, of course it's expensive as all get out, and the taxes are a killer.

I go to their art fair every year, which is held in the High School. As you walk in the main door they have that usual "famous graduates" wall of "fame".

What a bunch of losers. Percy Julian, Governor Thompson, Ernest Hemingway (who called Oak Park "the Village of broad lawns and narrow minds") the guy who does the voice Homer Simpson, etc. They must have 100 famous names and pictures on that damn wall.

What a dweeb factory.

Posted by DPD on September 29, 2007 at 11:13 AM

Good morning DPD. I was getting kind of lonely here. You'll have to guard against the troll menace for now. I've got to get to work. BBL...

Carry on, son. I'm not going anywhere soon; I just took my meds and can't wander too far for a while. I already went to the farmers market, so my day is half over. Another art fair and a trip to the hardware store later in the day and that's it for the weekend.

The is a new Open Thread.

I've been over there talking to myself while apparently Bob was doing the same thing here. I left for awhile and Dawn wandered in and left.

I think I'm going to take DPD's advise (not take drugs) but get out and enjoy the day. later.

Forget our leaving Iraq. Not gonna happen. Instead, we're going to do it again. Yep, get ready for a war with Iran before Bush leaves office. The complicit media is back to its pre-Iraq ways of amping up the old hypnotic message -- Iran is out to nuke us. And Americans good hearted but dumb as hell, will go along forgetting all the painful lessons we supposedly learned from Iraq-gate. Topping it off, the outcome if you can believe it, will be FAR worse than what’s going now happening in Iraq. Sadly the Democrats in congress are lacking spine will as usual concede fearful of Right Wing criticisms. Neocon groups like Freedom Watch composed of hard line Zionists and billionares are working hard to promote more wars throghout the mideast bolstered by slanted information (sound familiar) etched out by ‘their’ own appointed terror experts. But will the average person know that? No. Unfortunately such a war could create MORE terrorism here in the USA as Iranians who may have previously been open minded and sympathetic towards the West choose to side with fundamentilists seeking revenge against us for our having obliterated their families. Write the papers. Call your congressman. Tell them NO war in Iran -- Period! And good luck.