Morning Open Thread
Chat away...
Comments (45) «
Posted by PamB on June 18, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Come on. This isn't the new politics we are supposed to be entering; and need so badly.
There are many more reasons that Obama should be President than McCain shouldn't be. Bush is a lame duck. Name calling trolls is old business and doesn't really inspire hope. You have great posts on topics that matter to this country.
Be an example. Keep the faith.
Its "Yes We Can!"
Not "No they can't!" even though that may be true.
"Illegitimi non carborundum." (Yeah, its not real Latin but I still like the concept!)
sorry keith, usually I am able to skip by and ignore the ignorants, but sometimes their blindness gets to me. There still are 28% mis- informed out there who need waking up!
I don't let them get me down. I hope they will wake up.
Well, we have convinced one of the trolls in MN to not vote for whistle ass Mcbush!
Good morning fellow Democrats.
Obama \ Clinton 2008
By John Whitesides, Political CorrespondentWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a narrow 5-point lead on Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, but holds a big early edge with the crucial swing voting blocs of independents and women, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Two weeks after clinching the Democratic nomination and kicking off the general election campaign, Obama leads McCain by 47 percent to 42 percent. That is down slightly from Obama's 8-point advantage on McCain in May, before Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York left the Democratic race.
But Obama holds a big 52 percent to 30 percent edge among independents and 51 percent to 36 percent among women -- two critical voting blocs that could help determine the winner in November's presidential election.
"Obama's significant lead among independents puts him over the top, and that's a problem for McCain," pollster John Zogby said. "McCain is going to have to appeal to independents in some way to win, and right now he has a lot of work to do."...
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1736113820080618
And we still have four and a half months to build on this lead. We're going to be just fine with a little hard work and a smart message.
Obama Leads McCain in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Poll ShowsBy Mark Drajem
June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Democrat Barack Obama is leading Republican John McCain in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, the first time he's had an advantage in all three electoral battleground states, a Quinnipiac University poll found.
Obama got a boost in support after securing the Democratic nomination in the final round of primaries June 3 and following the departure of Senator Hillary Clinton from the race, said Peter A. Brown, assistant director for the Hamden, Connecticut, university's polling institute.
``Obama is certainly not out of the woods, but these results are a good indication that he enters the summer slightly ahead in the race to be the next president,'' Brown said in a statement.
Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio together have 68 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency and have swung between both parties in recent presidential elections. No candidate has won the presidency since 1960 without taking at least two of the three.
Obama is ahead of McCain by a statistically significant margin in each state. He leads 47 percent to 43 percent in Florida; 48 to 42 percent in Ohio and 52 to 40 percent in Pennsylvania, the poll found.
Both candidates are making appeals to independent voters in their campaigns. Obama, an Illinois senator, is ahead of McCain among self-identified independents in Florida and Pennsylvania and runs 2 percentage points behind the Arizona senator among independents in Ohio...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a8AmbV6i4kKY
More polling data from Bloomberg here. FL may yet redeem itself however, I doubt it.
(AFP) - China has begun an anti-monopoly investigation into US giant Microsoft and several other global software firms, the country's intellectual property watchdog said Wednesday. The development comes with Microsoft already embroiled in a standoff with the top antitrust watchdog in Europe, where officials have long accused the software titan of abusing its dominant market power."Our departments are carrying out the investigation," a spokeswoman with China's State Intellectual Property Office, who only disclosed her surname, Sun, told AFP. "We will release the findings later."
Her comments confirmed earlier media reports that the anti-monopoly probes had begun. The reports also said that lawsuits by local companies could follow, but the spokeswoman declined to comment on that or provide more details.
The official Shanghai Securities News reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources, that firms would be organised to file lawsuits against the software companies after China's debut anti-monopoly law comes into effect on August 1.
The probe by Chinese regulators focuses on operating systems and other software developed by international companies that cost much more in China than in the US, one source was quoted by the Shanghai Securities News as saying...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080618133730.bsj1ewfm&show_article=1
Well, ain't this the pot calling the kettle black! The home of software piracy, lead-tainted toys, and, oh yeah, Communism, is all bent out of shape over Microsoft. I say screw 'em. If they don't like Microsoft, tell 'em to go buy a Mac.
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) - Exclusive video obtained by Action News 5 shows a Memphis police officer beating a suspect at 201 Poplar in an apparent case of police brutality.The video, recorded February 12th, shows Duanna Johnson in the booking area at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center after an arrest for prostitution. The tape clearly shows a Memphis police officer walk over to Johnson - a transsexual - and hit her in the face several times.
"Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn't my name - that my mother didn't name me a 'faggot' or a 'he-she,' so he got upset and approached me. And that's when it started," Johnson said.
Johnson said the officer was attempting to call her over to be fingerprinted. She said she chose not respond to the derogatory name the officer called her.
"He said, 'I'm telling you, I'm giving you one more chance to get up.' So I'm looking at him, and he started putting his gloves on, and seen him take out a pair of handcuffs," Johnson said.
The officer hit Johnson several times with the handcuffs wrapped around his knuckles. In the video, you can see the flash of the metal. The tape shows another officer holding Johnson's shoulders as she tries to protect herself.
After taking several blows, Johnson stands up and swings back.
"I was afraid. I had had enough. Like I said, I thought the other officers that were witnessing this would at least try to stop him," Johnson said. "I mean, he hit me so hard. Like the third time he hit me, it split my skull and I had blood coming out. So I jumped up," Johnson said.
But then she sat back down, and the officer her in the face again. Then he maced her. On the tape, other people in the room are seen turning away and fanning their hands because of the smell...
http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=8515744
Well, I see they still hate the GLBT Community in TN. Some would say a picture is worth a thousand words. Then, I guess, a video is worth a million which is about the right amount this person should get paid for being beaten up for being different and refusing to take crap for it.
Anyone have any suggestions? St. Louis is next along with Cairo, Memphis and Paducah.
Posted by Butte on June 18, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Thanks for the info. I'd try the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and KSDK:
Officials Warn Residents: Levee May Not Hold in West Alton 10 hrs ago
By Jasmine Huda
KSDK -- A small community in St. Charles County is fearing the worst. The town of West Alton told its residents the area's levee may not hold.
With the river rising at its current pace, flooding could happen, officials said.
"It isn't predicted to get as high as 1993 but it is predicted to get high enough to be a great threat to our current levy," said Jane Neustadt, an Alderwoman and the town's flood plain administrator.
Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday evening to learn about Mississippi river levels. Neustadt said the levy can hold about 34 feet of water. Anything more than that, she said, and West Alton could be in danger.
"In the middle of the night, a levy that hasn't breached can blow out," she said.
She is paying close attention to river levels in other affected areas, including St. Louis, Grafton, and Clarksville. Those readings would affect the readings in West Alton.
West Alton officials asked residents to be prepared in the event they need to evacuate. The city will not issue a mandatory evacuation. But she and other city officials stressed that residents should be proactive.
Many residents saw the meeting as a wake-up call. Mary Elder lived in West Alton in 1993.
"We lost everything," she said. "The whole town was devastated. We don't want that to happen again." -KSDK
Towns in Flood Zones Face New Threats on Wednesday 2 hrs ago
The town of Clarksville is dealing with a major challenge...water seeping through the levee. National Guard troops continue to pump water back over the 8 feet levee and are building new walls of sandbags. City officials are asking anyone with a dump truck to come in and help transport sand. John Boats may soon be needed to get sandbags where they're needed.
Water is already topping the levees in some towns in Lincoln County. The levees are holding up in places like Winfield, but there's a voluntary evacuation order in place.
The National Guard has also set up a checkpoint along Highway 79 to keep spectators out. Officials say they need room for many emergency crews and National Guard workers. Anyone who wants to help with sandbagging efforts can report to Winfield High School.
In Hamburg, Ill, four homes are underwater and others are in danger. The mayor is pleading for help. The mayor says if a sandbag wall is not finished by late Wednesday, the entire town could go under. A voluntary evacuation is also in place for Hamburg's 150 residents. At least 50 homes are in danger.
I'll bet that some National Guard units are in Iraq, and can't respond with full force because of deployed Guard and machinery. Katrina was the same way. I still can't believe we have THE GUARD in Iraq. That was reeeal smart.
"The President's most important duty is to protect the American people." -a village idiot
iyadh set to test its power to move market
By Andrew England and Carola Hoyos
Published: June 17 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 17 2008 03:00
Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has had only four energy ministers in its modern history and not many more shifts in its oil policy. The previous changes - every decade or so - had massive repercussions on the oil price and the world economy.
Riyadh is this week likely to attempt to make its mark again but, as yet, it is unclear whether the kingdom has the power to make as much of a difference as in years past.
In calling the world's most powerful countries and the chief executives of some of the biggest international energy groups to a meeting in Jeddah on Sunday, Saudi Arabia has acknowledged that oil prices have risen to un-reasonable levels.
**********
But the meeting also indicates a shift in attitude. For months Saudi Arabia has argued that the market is well supplied and that it was speculators and refinery capacity shortages that were pushing prices to record highs of nearly $140 a barrel. Although analysts agree the world needs more refining capacity, they also blame Saudi Arabia's recent policy of cutting supplies to drain world crude oil inventories.
From March 2006 until April 2007 the Saudis reduced production from 9.56m barrels a day to 8.53m b/d, leading to six consecutive quarters of inventory reductions and a 2007 drop in global inventories of about 930,000 b/d.
Although the kingdom has since reopened its spigots, the damage has been done, says Leo Drollas, deputy executive director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies, the think-tank created in 1990 by Sheikh Yamani, Saudi Arabia's energy minister from 1962 to 1986.
Mr Drollas says: "The high oil price is worrying people about the future and causing them to change their habits. Once you sell your Hummer to buy a hybrid, you are not going to come back [to driving a sports-utility vehicle] quickly."
The potential for permanent demand destruction is worrying Riyadh, which - together withdiplomatic prodding by the US and other members of the Group of Eight industrialised nations - has prompted King Abdullah to shift the kingdom's focus. In April, the Saudi leader said: "I keep no secret from you that when there were some new finds, I told them: 'No, leave it in the ground, with grace from God. Our children need it.'"
But with the risk that future generations could face a world where consumers have turned away from oil to alternative energies and more efficient use of hydrocarbons, the monarch has changed his tune, on Sunday telling Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, that he was willing to do what he could to bring the oil price to a reasonable -level.
------------
Hey, that's our future earnings being directed to the King's heirs.
Were we directed into a war of choice by some confluence of interests?
84% of Americans think America is on the wrong track. HAHAHA! This shows half the Republicans and ALL independents think Bush is failing.
How stupid or greedy is the 16% who think we are on the right track? I suppose this includes the anti-choice fundamentalists who care more for the unborn than the troops.
Well, here we are trying to blame the poor, set-upon, oil companies and the innocent futures speculators when in reality the real villains are fat people and travelers with too much luggage and that congress that won't drill the coasts for more oil. Bush explained it all this morning. I'm glad I know now whose really to blame for the high price of gasoline.
That doesn't make a "windfall profits" tax any less stupid. Now Obama and McCain are pushing it. I guess my old commie friends were right after all--our elections are between Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee. I've said it before and I'll say it again: It is impossible to tax corporate profits until they are distributed to the shareholders as dividends. You may then safely tax the individuals who have recieved them. If you try to tax corporate profits before they are distrubuted, the coporate "person," fully endowed with all of the Constitutional rights of any citizen, will raise their prices by the amount of the tax and pass the taxation on to their customers. It's a political scam, designed to pacify the ignorant, and changes nothing. Shame on Obama for associating himself with the Republican status quo. Besides, It's obesity and heavy luggage that are really to blame for these outrageous prices. Don't forget--stay active!
Well, just heard someone on NPR say, "If the surge is such a huge sucess, we are doing so great there, then WHY NOT start drawing down our troops??????"
did you watch Bush on TV yesterday, talking about the flooding? Acting like he really gave a shit if Americans live or die or lose everything. Trying to make up for a week before he even thought about Katrina and their losses! If he hadn't cut the corp of engineers suggestions on levees and dikes maintenance and replacement, NO might still be the way it used to be!
Second try...
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group.
The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan.
The detainees were never charged with crimes.
"We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering," said Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for the study.
THE TRUTH. KNOW IT AND SPEAK IT.
Yet no one can prove that the Chinese are drilling anywhere off Cuba's shoreline. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida who opposes drilling off the coast of his state but who backs exploration in ANWR.
"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.
Posted by Michigan_Dave on June 18, 2008 at 11:24 AM
The extra bonus to that article is where the republican exposes his NIMBY.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans blocked legislation Tuesday that would have given an extra three months of jobless benefits for all unemployed Americans, but congressional Democrats plan to bring the bill back by attaching it to an Iraq war funding measure.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1153/06-17-2008/20080617113503_25.html
NEW YORK (AP) - When Theodor Gervais was 14, he took a summer job selling cell phone covers in Brooklyn for $100 a month, sitting at a table outside a phone store in what he describes as "somewhat of a bad area." His cousin worked inside and, worried for Theodor's safety, checked on him all day.
Now 16, Theodor hoped this summer would be safer and more profitable. He applied for a summer job through a city-sponsored program in his neighborhood and found he was one of 3,200 applicants - for fewer than 1,200 jobs.
Across the country, poor teens face similarly long odds.
As summer arrives, the job market for teens is suffering along with the rest of the economy. And those jobs will be harder to find this year for the poorer kids who need them the most as laid-off adults compete for work at the lowest rung.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/other/1110/06-17-2008/20080617123505_16.html
for those a-holes who think Ahmadinejad is SOOOO bad, look at what the world thinks of Bush!
Bush, Musharraf, Ahmadinejad Least Trusted Leaders
http://www.truthout.org/article/bush-musharraf-ahmadinejad-least-trusted-leaders
Number 9, number 9, number 9...
What happens if you play the blog backwards?
Posted by BobVADemHawk-Obama08 on June 18, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Hmmmmmmm...?? Wonder where they are going to build X-boxes and the new Zune software now??
Hey, what's the death total from lead poisoning?? Was it a significant total? It was more than the tomatoes right?
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Microsoft Corp., a colossus built on software, is making a new push in hardware manufacturing by building a factory in China to produce its Zune media player.
Reindorp said Microsoft (MSFT:Microsoft Corporation will be working with a manufacturing partner at the new factory, though it is not naming the firm. But the factory is located in the same city as another plant operated by Flextronics International
FLEX 10.40, -0.25, -2.3%) , which produces Microsoft's Xbox video game console.
Posted by Big_Yellow_Dog on June 18, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Thanks Dog; I've got them bookmarked.
I noticed that KSDK has an item about the Red Cross being tapped out, too. I saw it in the Des Moines Register yesterday.
Still haven't seen much about FEMA though.
They lost a couple more levees in Illinois last night. More of the corn crop gone.
The BBC, this morning, had photos of the flood. The big white civic center in Burlington Iowa was in one of the pictures, standing out in the water.
The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops.
The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations.
Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. “They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn’t justify,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/17/the-consequences-of-questioning-dubious-halliburton-contracts/
Posted by BlueinIdaho on June 18, 2008 at 11:27 AM
I don't think they have Nimby's. And if they do, they have to have a sniffer dog find it for them.
Chinese oil rigs in Cuba and within sight of West Palm Beach??
Cheney believes they are there so they must be.
Right??
Posted by Harpo_has_decided_that_you_are_all_idiots on June 18, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Good morning, Harpo. You know, this is what PO's me the most about President Bush. He we are supposed to be fighting terror and injustice all over the world and yet we're financing a Communist regime with virtually no respect for civil rights.
I'll be glad when the GOP gets back to being a bunch of miserly old men, 'er people, who are good at keeping the nation's books and ain't afraid of bi*ch slapping a dictator no matter how much money and goods they exchange with us. Y'all need to find another Eisenhower.
What a bitch. We invade and occupy a soverign country with oil bubbling out of the sand. It cost us billions of dollars and killed a lot of people. We now pay over $4.00 a gallon.
China didn't invade anyone. They have cheaper gas and are sucking up our surplus inventory of Hummers and Escalades.
Where is the justice in that?
Shit...forgot. Wall Street Speculators are making a killing on Oil futures. That should trickle down to us.
Right??
Gasoline in the U.S. now sells for around $4 per gallon, but it sells for $2.49 per gallon in China. Beijing last raised domestic gasoline prices in November 2007, by 9%, and that was the first and only hike since January 2007, when crude was $87 per barrel. A recent rumor that China was about to lift its gasoline-price controls was quickly dismissed by Beijing.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/27/gas-inflation-china-oped-cx_dhs_0528oilchina.html
When the day comes, that you must HIDE your "detainees" (not called prisoners, that means they are guilty), and you have to use harsh treatment on them, that is the day you should stop and take a real good look at yourself. (Now watch the little men call me anti-American, because I DARE to expose this kind of information that has only made the US into an evil empire)
Documents Confirm US Hid Detainees From Red Cross
Tuesday 17 June 2008
Washington - The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.
http://www.truthout.org/article/documents-confirm-us-hid-detainees-from-red-cross
If you ever need to see just how twisted Dubya's mind is, read this transcript:
BOULTON: And yet there are those who would say, look, let's take Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and rendition and all those things, and to them that is the, you know, the complete opposite of freedom.
THE PRESIDENT: Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way. But you go down -- what you need to do -- I think I suggested you do this at a press conference -- if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated -- and they're working it through our court systems. We are a land of law.
BOULTON: But the Supreme Court have just said that -- you know, ruled against what you've been doing down there.
THE PRESIDENT: But the district court didn't. And the appellate court didn't.
BOULTON: The Supreme Court is supreme, isn't it?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91211-1319126,00.html?f=rss
THE PRESIDENT: But the district court didn't. And the appellate court didn't.
...and I asked Barney and Laura what they thought and they said..."What did God say?"
Posted by PamB on June 18, 2008 at 11:58 AM
All paths lead back to Rumsfield.
And yes, we did torture and we are in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Should we ever find ourselves invading another country...god help any of our POW's. We just lowered the benchmark and have pissed in our own bed.
Sometimes the "refresh" button brings up the new comments and sometimes you have to do a new post.
Posted by BobVADemHawk-Obama08 on June 18, 2008 at 11:56 AM
...Then you would also be pleased with America's number one POW and current republican candidates plea to the government of Cuba to release approximately 1.2 million political prisoners.
If they take him up on the offer, that will ensure a Florida victory for him. He would have to hussle to get them on the voter role down there but he would get a lot of help from his party.
Maybe they wouldn't need to come here to vote. Maybe he could get them to vote from prison (they are in prison aren't they) on an absentee ballot.
That's legal right?
If it's not...they could get a municipal court or a circuit court or a district court or an appellate court to get them a favorable ruling.
Works for Dumbya.
Leave it to the republicans to convince Americans that torture is "an American value". What they have done to our name and our Constitution is much like NOLA after Katrina. It is going to take a long, long time to clean up and recover.
Ooooopps...I might have screwed up. Maybe McFreethem was talking about these political prisoners. There's bound to be a dozen votes there!!
President Bush has assured the world repeatedly that he will not heed the many calls to lift the Cuban trade embargo unless Fidel Castro releases what Washington calls "political prisoners". Bush tells us this while ten Cubans sit in US prisons, guilty essentially of not being the kind of Cubans George W. loves. If a political prisoner can be defined as one kept in custody who, if not for his or her political beliefs and/or associations would be a free person, then the ten Cubans can be regarded as political prisoners.
Here's another one, where I shall be called anti-semitic, because I expose that Israel has taken it's American-given power to it's head!
Gaza Journalists Demand Israel Answer Over Killing
by: Reuters
Fadel Shana's car was clearly marked as a Reuters Press vehicle.
(Photo: Reuters)
Gaza - Journalists in the Gaza Strip held a symbolic work stoppage on Monday as part of a protest to demand that Israel explain why its troops killed a Reuters cameraman in the Palestinian enclave two months ago to the day.
The demonstration, during which journalists laid down their cameras, came on a day when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will unveil a memorial dedicated to journalists killed while reporting on wars around the world.
http://www.truthout.org/article/gaza-journalists-demand-israel-answer-over-killing
Posted by BlueinIdaho on June 18, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Gotta go....
Maybe if we gave up our efforts to prove what a wonderful frickin' thing democracy is and stopped shitting on other forms of government and religions...our autrocities as a nation would be overlooked.
Good luck with that effort :)
Later.
Did Harpo just say that he John McCain should be horsewhipped??? I'm shocked.
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