Thursday, March 24, 2011

Headlines - Thursday March

 
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War continues to be hell long after you leave the lines and come home. We were all moved by the photo of the young medic dashing across the battlefield with the small Iraqi boy in his arms, running to get the child to safety after his family had been caught in the crossfire between American forces and Iraqis who would later be called "insurgents." Like so many others, the NYC native enlisted after 9/11, only to get shipped to Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. But even after Joe Dwyer came home, he was still haunted by the things he had seen, and when relief didn't come from traditional treatments, he started self medicating, yet all the while advocating for better PTSD treatments and resources. On Monday, he lost the battle and he died of an accidental overdose of pills and inhalants. He was 31. May he rest in peace, and may George Bush and all the other architects of that dirty fucking war never know another minute of peace in this life or the next, if indeed there is another act to this play.
 
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In Texas they're cool with it if you bash a homo's head in - the fag deserved it - but don't you dare try to tell a fundie creationist they can't be a science professor. THAT would be discrimination, you see"Unlike many other states, Texas does not ban workplace discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status. But don't be alarmed; the Lone Star State is working on that whole civil liberties thing. Last week, Republican State Rep. Bill Zedler introduced HB 2454, a bill that would establish new workplace protections for proponents of intelligent design. Here's the key part: An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms." 
 
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"Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives.."- Editorial Page, Portland Oregonian
 
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How do you say this shit with a straight face?
 
 
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George Takia: "Former SNL star Victoria Jackson rants that Glee is turning boys gay. I think Victoria Jackson is more to blame for that."
 
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Vatican: Obama's Pro-Gay UN Resolution Attacks Our Right To Be Hateful Bigots

"People are being attacked for taking positions that do not support sexual behaviour between people of the same sex. When they express their moral beliefs or beliefs about human nature ... they are stigmatised, and worse -- they are vilified, and prosecuted. These attacks are violations of fundamental human rights and cannot be justified under any circumstances. States can and must regulate behaviours, including various sexual behaviours. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviour must be forbidden by law. Paedophilia and incest are two examples." - Vatican spokesbigot Archbishop Silvano Tomas.

Yup, the Vatican wants your existence to be "forbidden by law."

He has really big hands. And pedophelia is, like, totally cool.
 
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House Speaker John Boehner says he is very troubled by U.S. involvement in Libya without a clear definition of the mission, even though the UN resolution, the president's words, and even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has made it very clear.

(Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner wrote to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to say he is "troubled" that U.S. military resources were committed to Libya without clearly defining the mission there.

In the letter, a copy of which was released to the media by Boehner's aides, the Republican speaker asked Obama, a Democrat, to provide a clear assessment of the mission in Libya to both "the American people and Congress."

Boehner said that the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention in Libya "does not substitute for a U.S. political and military strategy."

Of course the president has already presented a clear assessment multiple times. And just how often were the American people presented with a "clear assessment" of the mission during the Iraq War which John Boehner was a clear supporter of? I seem to recall that mission changing on a quarterly basis.


 
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Fraudulent video producer Jimmy O'Keefe has apparently run up a bit of a tab while creatively editing his smear videos and he is now requesting a bailout from his supporters.

Wait, this guy has supporters?

Conservative activist and filmmaker James O'Keefe has racked up about $50,000 in credit card debt and now he wants you to help him pay it off.

O'Keefe recently sent an email to supporters claiming that his deceptive ACORN and NPR stings had put him deep in debt. [...]

"It cost us about $50,000 when all is said and done to produce the NPR video," O'Keefe said. "If you help us raise over $50,000, it will go toward our next video -- after we pay off our credits cards, of course."

"And if by some chance, we raise $1,000,000 -- we could expose 20 disturbing cases of government abuse and corruption. But, all I'm worried about is $50,000 right now," he added.

Translation: "If you bail us out, we can make more fraudulent, deceptive videos to smear innocent people who actually work for a living. Otherwise, we may have to go into hiding or leave the country to avoid being arrested."

By the way, there is no way it cost $50,000 dollars to produce the phony NPR video unless they stayed at the Ritz and are including the price of the hookers, drugs, and booze they purchased while on the trip to make the video. You could produce that video for the price of a cellphone camera.

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Mark your brackets with a victory for education in New Jersey:

Gov. Chris Christie's deep cuts to state school aid last year left New Jersey's schools unable to provide a 'thorough and efficient' education to the state's nearly 1.4 million school children, a Superior Court judge found today.

Fortunately there are some officials who don't think it's a good idea to make kids dumber in order to finance tax cuts for corporations.


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Recent poll says people like a continuation of all Bush policies! 4 more years!
 
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Hearts and Minds :-)

The guilty plea was expected as it was in return for testifying against the co-defendants. Seymour Hersh, who has been writing about similar war crimes since My Lai, had an interesting article this week about the trend of committing such acts and photographing them.

This surely
won't be the last 'kill team' by the US or any other country.
 
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A handy list of Koch Industries products. 
 
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Eventually ...
The Republicans might get to the issue they ran on:

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But in the three months since taking over the House and expanding their voices in the Senate, Republicans have yet to pass a jobs-focused bill, instead prioritizing numerous social and cultural issues that are unrelated to job creation -- and have little or no chance of becoming policy.

Here are six such legislative goals they've been hard at work on.

...

You know, regardless of their ideology, a buncha people voted for them (right or wrong) on the promise they'd put Americans back to work. What the Republicans, on every level of government all across the country, are doing amounts to legislative malpractice.

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Morford: Glenn Beck is a message from God
 
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If you wish to sell a war to a liberal, don't call it a 'war'. Call it a 'humanitarian intervention'.
 
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Civil War Expert Newt Gingrich Keeps Switching Sides On Libya
 
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Sen. Ron Johnson says that Obamacare is the greatest assault on freedom in his lifetime, which is true because McCarthyism and Jim Crow were just for laughs. [WSJ]

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The military-industrial complex has no time for existential questions

Obama confirms there is no point to our Libya war

Has anyone ever asked Pokemon WHY they fight?

President Obama is spending these crucial first days of the War in Libya tending to his flocks of alpacas in the mountains of South America, so it's understandable that it's taken him days to notify Congress he is blowing up that African nation and to tell the rest of us why. So now, at long last, here's the reason why: There isn't one. The White House apparently made a big boo-boo yesterday in issuing a statement that said our goal in Libya is "installing a democratic system," words they later had to retract, because we would never want anyone to think the United States of America supports democracy. Yes, Gaddafi may coincidentally fall from us spending millions of dollars a day bombing him, but we really don't care if does or not! Officially, Obama says, we are there to "protect civilians," but considering this is a civil war consisting of two sides of tribes who are both shooting each other and taking prisoners and asserting their authority, it's hard to tell which one is supposed to be "civilian." So, yeah, there's no official point to all of this. READ MORE »