Idaho lawyer and repuglican Blake Hall loses his job after he stalked and lobbed used condoms at an ex-girlfriend's house.
Blake Hall, a leader in Idaho GOP and national politics for almost 25 years, was fired Monday as deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho. He also resigned from the Republican National Committee.
"When he gets out of the hoosegow a couple weeks from now, he joins Ex-Senator Larry Craig in the unemployment line. And the Idaho Hall of Shame."
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h/t Biggi & Cheryl: Fax action page - Any Health Care Reform That Isn't Medicare For All Is Just A Fraud On The American People
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1020.php
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Footage shows Taliban handling US weapons, ammo - US has no idea where Taliban got them.
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Major Hasan and The Legacy of George W Bush - Thom Hartmann
One of the first lessons aspiring novelists and screenwriters learn is that the goodness of a hero is defined by a single quality - the evil of his opponent. From Superman's Lex Luthor to Batman's Joker to Indiana Jones' Nazis to Luke Skywalker's Darth Vader, for a hero to be perceived as larger than life, he must have a larger than life enemy.
If Frodo in "Lord of the Rings," for example, hadn't been forced to do battle with the supernatural powers of the Ring and its minions, his story would have merely been a boring travelogue. But with an army of supernaturally brilliant, evil, and powerful opponents, Frodo had the opportunity to display his extraordinary inner courage and resourcefulness, qualities he didn't even realize he had until they were called forth by the peril of an awesome evil.
Keep reading: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/11
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Glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com wins in trademark challenge against Glenn Beck.
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Reuters has an interesting report today from diplomats at the IAEA in Vienna.
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Veterans, abortion and right wing hypocrisy
The right wingers are pro life until the baby is born but then it and it's family is on their own when it comes to medical care or proper diet or living conditions that would allow a life worth living - hypocrisy!
The same can be said for the right wing support the troops meme. They support the troops by sending them off to illegal and unnecessary wars then once they have served they are on their own - hypocrisy! An excellent article in the NYT brings this front a center today.
http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2009/11/veterans-abortion-and-right-wing-hypocrisy.html
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We have a military based on christian-based principles?
This is a charming local story for Veteran's day. The American Legion post in Bloomington has been doing a little ceremony at the public schools for 40 years, and has also been giving scholarships to students. Last year, they surprised the school by adding a public prayer to their ritual; this year, the school asked them not to do that. Guess what their reply was?
To announce in a snit that they wouldn't do the ceremony at all if they couldn't make it religious, and that they'd also take their scholarships away.
Nice.
They have every right to do that, of course. I would have thought that they gave out the scholarships because they cared about students and wanted to help them get a good education, but I guess I was mistaken: it was really a bribe to force them to listen to Christian propaganda.
"We are not trying to push anything on kids or convert them, but we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles," said Selle, who was an Army medic in Vietnam. "My opinion is that this is another example of America going downhill."
Well, gosh, then…I guess Mr Selle ought to make his patriotism conditional, too, and yank away his support for America if everyone doesn't say his Christian prayer with him. And they definitely are trying to push religion on kids, using their scholarships as a stick to compel them to obey.
I do wonder about this "military based on Christian-based principles" — do they turn the other cheek? Or are these those other Christian principles, the crusading ones that "did not come to bring peace, but a sword"?
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Eickenberry dissents on troop increase in Afghanistan
...... But Karzai''s corruption is not the only thing keeping the Taliban in business, according to an explosive new story by reporter Aram Roston for The Nation, which alleges that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military funds are making their way to Afghan insurgents, including the Taliban. Roston reports that the U.S. is paying off insurgents to persuade them from attacking U.S. supply lines.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/11/karl-eikenberry-dissents_n_354657.html
Update: President Obama will not accept any of the options given to him by Gen. Stanley McChrystal on the future of U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan war. Obama "believes the U.S. needs to make clear to the Afghan government that America's commitment to the country isn't open ended," an official said in a statement.
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A comment regarding this excerpt from yesterday:
"The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes. You see it in the way they treat women, you see it in the way they treat minorities, you see it in the way they treat homosexuals, you see it in the way they treat anyone who is not a white Christian, and you see it in the way they treat anyone who disagrees with them slightly about anything. They just have no respect for anyone, and it shows."
Dick T: So OK, if they're somehow different from the Taliban, please explain.
Good point.
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Paul Bachmuth's 9-year-old daughter, Rebecca, began pulling out strands of her hair over the summer. His older child, Hannah, 12, has become noticeably angrier, more prone to throwing tantrums.
Initially, Mr. Bachmuth, 45, did not think his children were terribly affected when he lost his job nearly a year ago. But now he cannot ignore the mounting evidence.
(You don't have to ask anyone from the GOP to know what their answer is: "Cut taxes for the rich and let the free market fix it.")
After the Soviets surprised us with Sputnik, there were educational reforms to concentrate more on math and science education for children. There was a move to beef up phys-ed for children, in many school districts, phys-ed was required from kindergarten through high school.
Maybe it's time we start again.
Celebrated chief birther and dentist-lawyer Orly Taitz held a protest outside the Fox News building in New York City today, for publicity. Supposedly Bill O'Reilly called the birthers crazy, and this was very offensive to Orly Taitz. Approximately four people showed up for the protest! Here's Orly talking to a nice fellow from Africa. CAPTION CONTEST. Gawker
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Two disasterous people get into fight: Joe Klein and Jamie "Marty Peretz's Slave" Kirchick appear to have gotten into a fight, at a Jew conference! "A heated debate between Time magazine's Joe Klein and the New Republic's Jamie Kirchick spilled off the dais Tuesday into a hallway confrontation where Klein called the younger pundit a "dishonest [expletive]" and a "[expletiving] propagandist." Oh boy! WP/Reliable Source
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American Adviser to Kurds (in 2005) Stands to Reap Oil Profits (in Iraq - perhaps $100 million)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/middleeast/12galbraith.html
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Rupert Murdoch flipflops on his previous assertion that that terrists-fist-bumping socialist commie Hitler-loving Obama hates whitey.
Rupert Murdoch has been forced to deny he believes Barack Obama is a racist, afterappearing to backbacking knuckledragging loon Glenn Beck's comments about the US president.
The chairman and chief executive ofNews Corporationthe Repuke Propaganda Nutwork said in an interview this week that Obama had made "a very racist comment" and that Beck's views were "right".
"He does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist," a spokesman now says, crossing his fingers.
