The anti-Mormon backlash after California voters overturned gay marriage last fall is similar to the intimidation of Southern blacks during the civil rights movement, a high-ranking Mormon says in a speech to be delivered Tuesday.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13552589
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The Fatah Party document accuses the U.S. of backing off from its demands that Israel freeze settlement construction and failing to set a clear agenda for new Mideast peace talks.
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Tax dodgers get the "change they can believe in" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/tax-dodger-crackdown-shel_n_318841.html
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Oh my.
Judge Clay Land was not messing around when he issued the Order to Show Cause to Birther Queen, lunatic, and alleged bar member Orly Taitz. Today Judge Land issued an order fining Taitz $20,000 for violating Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for filing a frivolous lawsuit and otherwise wasting the Court's time, doubling the amount of the penalty from that previously threatened by the Court. [That Eric Holder claim probably helped with that.]
Best line so far in the opinion: "[h]er response to the Court's show cause order is breathtaking in its arrogance and borders on delusional."
The Judge seemed unamused at being called a traitor. Go figure.
Update: Taitz says she has no intention of paying the fine.
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Sticking it to America
Looks to me like we've got a new King:
Asked by radio host Don Imus today what aspects of the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill he supported, Lieberman struck a negative tone, saying, "I'm concerned that there's a danger that we're trying to do too much":
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/sticking-it-to-america-by-digby-looks.html
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Jesus' General: Take out your dead.
And another one from the General:
I saw cotton and I saw black; tall white mansions and little shacks
Robert Stacy McCain
Oppressed Confederate-American
Dear Mr. McCain,
You're right. When libislamunistofascists hear about a son of the Confederacy like Pat Lanzo, they immediately attack him by flinging charges of racism. They look at the signs he places at his roadhouse and condemn him without even trying to understand the heavy burden he carries as a Confederate-American. They fail to understand that phrases like "Obama's plan for health-care: Nigger rig it," "A Monkey, Obama. Is there a difference?," "Damn Yankees May Have Taken Our Niggers But Not Our Guns," and "Obama A Vision of a dream - James Earl Ray" are simply examples of policy disagreements made by what you describe as a beat-down Southerner who finally "surrender[ed] to the stereotype."
You know how Lanzo feels--no doubt you too have been tempted to surrender to the stereotype. Your ties to such white pride sites as VDARE and organizations like American Renaissance are often cited as evidence that you are a racist. The same holds true for how libislmunistofascists interpret your opposition to mixed-race marriages, defense of slavery, and fondness for the Confederate cause.
It's amazing you haven't given into temptation and begun flinging the word "nigger" around (at least not in public, anyway). Maybe you should. It might feel liberating to someone like you.
Heterosexually yours,
Gen. JC Christian, patriot
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Wow. What a shocker.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Whatayahoo has vowed not to allow any Israelis to stand trial for war crimes even if demanded by the United Nations or world court. It is a position that defies the entire basis of international legal process created by the Nuremberg Tribunals since no country has a right to determine its own innocence.
Keep reading: http://jonathanturley.org/2009/10/12/netanyahu-vows-to-block-any-war-crimes-trial-of-israeli-official/#more-16009
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Matt Taibbi thinks Michael Moore does a yeoman's service for us all in his latest documentary.
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Alan Grayson on what it means to be a Democrat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF0PbD0GgV4&feature=player_embedded
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Least surprising news of the day: Bush administration covered up global warming finding then deliberately kept it from Democrats.
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The debris of an Occupation
Well, it's a start — U.S. troops may not be flowing steadily out of Iraq yet, but a lot of our stuff is. From the New York Times on Friday:
There is no more visible sign that America is putting the Iraq war behind it than the colossal operation to get its stuff out: 20,000 soldiers, nearly a sixth of the force here, assigned to a logistical effort aimed at dismantling some 300 bases and shipping out 1.5 million pieces of equipment, from tanks to coffee makers.
It is the largest movement of soldiers and matériel in more than four decades, the military said.
. . . just as the buildup in the Kuwaiti desert before the 2003 invasion made it plain that the United States was almost certain to go to war, the preparations for withdrawal just as clearly point to the end of the American military role here. Reversing the process, even if Iraq's relative stability deteriorates into violence, becomes harder every day.
A lot of what the U.S. spent our money to build will be left behind:
Congress has limited the total value of equipment — like computers and furniture — that the military can leave to the Iraqis to roughly $15 million per base, but that amount does not include items considered part of the infrastructure, like buildings, sewerage and power facilities.
. . . Commanders say it is often simply more economical to turn over more equipment to the Iraqis because the cost of moving it is prohibitive. Last month, the military announced the end of its detention operations at Camp Bucca on the Kuwaiti border and said that $50 million worth of infrastructure and equipment would be given to the Iraqis.
But the sad truth is that not all of the items are coming home:
The military has largely identified which materials are not essential anymore and has begun to move them out of the country, in some cases to Afghanistan. For instance, lumber, ammunition and barriers used to defend against car bombs are all desperately needed in Afghanistan, and as bases are taken apart here, those are among the items sent to the fight there, commanders said.
Just goes to show that a Nobel Peace Prize winner's work is never done, I guess. . . .
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The top commanding officer in Afghanistan has revealed a belief that "rampant government corruption" has given the Taliban and al-Qaeda an edge in the war. The conclusion came in a recent secret document put together by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, U.S. officials told the AP. Though the document requests more troops, it warns that more troops may not prevent the Taliban from taking back Afghanistan.
Corruption in Afghanistan became public knowledge after the presidential election in Afghanistan was revealed as rigged by independent election observers. Fraud investigations discovered that 1.1 million 'questionable votes' were given to President Hamid Karzai, and that the subtraction of these votes was enough to push Karzai below 50 percent.
Though McChrystal states that fewer troops will bring less risks, he believes that any new deployment has a high risk of failure. The report outlines three deployment options, the largest hypothetical deployment being one of 80,000 new soldiers. There are now 67,000 American troops in Afghanistan, with 1,000 more coming in December. McChrystal prefers the 'compromise' option of a 40,000 troop increase.
http://rawstory.com/2009/10/rampant-corruption-in-afghanistan-is-key-issue-top-general/
Meanwhile, the Pentagon denies troop hike as 13,000 more head to Afghanistan.
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Too funny! No one saw this coming!
The Hill reports that Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is risking a chance at becoming the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, which is opening up due to the resignation of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), if she were to back the Democrats on health care. "A vote for healthcare would be something that would weigh on our minds when it came time to vote," said an unnamed Republican on the committee.
Wow! Way to get your panties in a bunch, dudes. Take a lesson from the Democrats, why don't you? We even let Lieberman play with us and he's stabbed us in the back so many times we look like Swiss Cheese. And its working! We have a majority and we get everything we want...not.
As you know, Snowe did vote for the bill. Here's Red State's reaction:
That is right, folks. To show unhappy they are, they are going to ask you to buy rock salt through their amazon store and mail it to Olympia Snowe. They don't call them the Red State Strike Farce for nothing.
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We have no health care reform. George W. Bush's wars are still going. There's no climate legislation. Waste is up, the bailout money hasn't brought economic recovery outside of the walls of corporations.
Oh, but Congress is on the job, passing H.Res 650, a resolution that recognizes the "tremendous contribution to American life and culture" from country music.
Thanks for the help, Capitol Hill.
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Offshore drilling disaster continues
In just one week and one day now, the Montara rig oil spill in the Timor Sea will have been going for two months, crude oil gushing out into the water without any abatement. Big oil which promised it had safe, controllable oil drilling technology, hasn't been able to do a thing to stop the disaster.
The drilling company, PTTEP, was only able to even try to fix the spill for the second time yesterday. For the second time, it completely failed.
In other oil spill news, it turns out that the Black Rose a leaking sunken tanker off the coast of the state of Orissa in India was operating under forged documents when it went down. Indian government officials are still attempting to deny that there is a serious spill coming from the ship. However, local fishermen are reporting diminished catches, as well as the discovery of dead fish, crabs and dolphins.
American exceptionalism: a big fat sacred cow
Neal Gabler has an excellent column at the Boston Globe called "One Nation, Under Delusion." He writes that the myth of American exceptionalism is going to be our downfall.
One of his arguments is that we've often had government that is better than the people. That's kind of a tenuous point, I think. Basically, he's saying that at times outstanding leaders have come forward who inspired America to do the right thing or make progressive change, even when politically unpopular. One could quibble those were exceptions rather than rules, but on the whole Gabler makes some good points.
The conclusion:
The Greeks understood that the gods punished mortals for their hubris – for feeling that they were godlike. They knew that overweening pride preceded a fall. One suspects that nations are no more immune to punishment than individuals. A nation that brooks no criticism, a nation that feels it is always better than any other, a nation that has to be endlessly flattered and won't face the truth, a nation whose people think they possess some special moral exemption and wisdom, a nation without humility is a nation spoiling for calamity.
We've been living in a fool's paradise. The result may be a government that is as good as the American people, which is something that should concern everyone.
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No surprises in health insurance stats
From the New York Times, "The Divided States of Health Care"
"Those who lack health insurance now are far more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican — the states whose senators and representatives are least likely to support a law to extend coverage."
"The figures show that residents of blue states are far more likely to have health insurance than are residents of red states, with residents of purple states in the middle."
"Children in Texas, the state with the least health insurance, are more than eight times as likely not to have it than children in Massachusetts, the state with the broadest coverage."
"Another way of looking at the figures is to imagine two Senates — one chosen by the 25 states where residents are more likely to have health insurance, and the other chosen by the 25 states where there is less insurance.
"The Senate from the states with less insurance would have 30 Republicans and 20 Democrats. But the one from the states with more health insurance would have a 40-to-10 Democratic majority."
Within "red" states, the districts with the least insured people tend to be minority districts that vote Democratic. However, many of the red states still have worse numbers for health insurance even with those districts excluded.
Tells you something.
Oh, and BTW, the Senate Finance Committee passes the Baucus bill.
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Even greedier than we imagined
Robert Reich on how the insurance industry tipped its hand yesterday, by saying they'll have to increase the price of everyone's insurance plans if health care reform is passed.
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Too Big to Fail: http://blog.badtux.net/2009/10/too-big-to-fail.html
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The Supreme Court will consider throwing out the convictions of former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling for his role in the collapse of the one-time energy giant.
The court said Tuesday it will hear Skilling's appeal of lower court rulings that upheld all 19 of his 2006 convictions of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors involving the 2001 collapse of Enron.
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With respect, I submit that you're unclear on the concept
A father of a slain Marine is criticizing the rules of engagement that were implemented to reduce civilian casualties:
http://eb-misfit.blogspot.com/2009/10/with-respect-i-submit-that-youre.html
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Massive fail for the morans
NBC Boston — spotted on a golf course in Boston
Remember last year when that young wingnut carved a "B" on her face and claimed it was some thugs from the Carebear's campaign, but it turned out it was backwards, like, she did it in a mirror? Yes, the Swastika is backwards.
Guess Wingnuttia didn't learn.
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Harry the hapless
There are 51 Senators who will vote for a public option, something 77% of the country wants. It would win a majority in a floor vote. We were told that we needed 60 votes in the Caucus so we'd have a filibuster-proof majority — so that the GOP would never block a bill from getting to the floor. The only reason not to put the HELP Committee public option in the Senate bill is because Joe Lieberman and other "ConservaDems" are conducting a silent filibuster — they won't say it publicly but they'll say privately that they will vote with the GOP to filibuster the bill.
That means the Democratic caucus will now filibuster itself.
[...] Either you're going to enforce caucus discipline or you don't have a party. You have instead a collection of self-interested narcissists, each one with the ability to derail any legislation they don't like. Every Senator who derives their political power from membership in the caucus is thereby granted the power to torpedo any piece of legislation from coming to a vote, with no consequences. It's an outrage.
[...] So if Reid won't enforce caucus discipline, if as Majority Leader he now says it's acceptable to use the "60 vote" threshold to water down the bill, he has to wear it. No matter how he votes personally. No matter how much the White House makes a fetish of bipartisanship and courts Olympia Snowe. No matter what cover anyone else tries to give him.
[...] I don't care if we have to recruit a Democratic primary challenger. Maybe someone from the Culinary Workers? I don't care it we have to blitz the Nevada airwaves with ads about Reid's coziness with DC lobbyists, or maybe how his son — who is running for Governor — just sits back while his father adds $2000 a year to Nevada health insurance premiums at their behest. And I sure don't fucking care if Danny Tarkanian becomes the next Senator from Nevada, because at that point 60 votes don't mean anything anyway.
I can't think of any reason to disagree with her. Can you?
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Back then, the Democrats were the proud parents of the $700 billion bank bailout. Now, they've begun to realize they were played like a fiddle by the plutonomists on Wall Street.
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Major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees a record-high $140 billion this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. "This year, employees at the companies will earn an estimated $143,400 on average, up almost $2,000 from 2007 levels."
Nice to see the bailout money is being put to good use.
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Oops. GOP hasn't had any accomplishments since 2004 according to their new website.
Only since 2004?
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The unlucky lucky ones: employers slashing pay and hours for those with jobs.
And if you happen to have health insurance at one of those jobs, expect to pay a lot more in 2010.
