Blue Girl, Red State

Stop being ridiculous!

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:47:00 +0000

The Sheriff of Richland County, South Carolina is vowing that if his investigation determines that Michael Phelps was smoking pot, then he will bring charges against him.

Um...Isn't that the DA's call, and not his? I am neither a lawyer nor a criminal so I have no special knowledge of due process, but I was paying attention in civics class. The way I understand it, the Sheriff investigates at the DAs behest, and if sufficient evidence is collected to bring charges, then the DA has to get a warrant from a judge and/or an indictment from a grand jury.

It ain't up to Roscoe P. Coltrain.

And even if a warrant was issued, unless he can test that picture for residue and prove beyond all doubt that it was marijuana in that bong at that very moment, then any second-year law student could get the case tossed.

What is he? Envious that everyone knows Joe Arpaio's name and he wants you to know his, too? Even tho the only reason he is known at all outside Arizona is because he is a douchebag?

Fine. This douchebag has a name, too. It is Leon Lott. Spread the word. In a mocking tone.

And for fucks sake...lighten up on marijuana. It's a freakin' weed that grows wild every damned where. Not only that, it is a utilitarian weed, one that can be cultivated and every part of the plant used. Just for starters: the seeds can be pressed for oil, the leaves and buds can be smoked or tinctured and used medicinally, the fibers of the stalks can be used for paper and extremely durable fabric...and the list goes on.

Out here in the real world, where real people live their lives and stuff, we want you idiots to knock it off and stop wasting our money on wrecking the lives of people who are just doing what people have done since time immemorial...copping a buzz. If you have ever smoked a joint, you know it's no big deal. If you haven't, why don't you give it a whirl, see what all the fuss is about, and then get back to me.

In other words, get over this prohibition lunacy and make a buck off it already.

Ten million college students can't be wrong.

Rest in Peace, J.R.

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:35:00 +0000

For the first time in my life, or at least since Kindergarten, Jimmy Ray isn’t out there somewhere.

Yesterday I got the weekly newspaper that comes out of the county seat that carries the news from our little town of under 400 - who had a birthday, who had a baby, who took a trip, who had visitors from out of town, who came home on leave - and as per usual the last paragraph was the reminder to keep the friends and families of the following people who have passed away in the last week in our thoughts and prayers, and his name was listed. My husband read the paper first and broke the news to me.

Jimmy Ray and I grew up together. It was a small town, so small we didn’t even have a football team, and there were never enough boys to choose up teams for anything. Sandlot sports were, of necessity, coed. I could throw a tight spiral, hit a baseball, saddle a horse, and swish a basketball from anywhere around the top of the key. In that little town, I was an honorary guy, at least until I started filling out.

He was the first boy to realize that was not the case at all, and I will never forget that he was my first real kiss.

It was over 30 years ago, about this time of year, after the Christmas break and before the end-of-season tournaments started. We were sitting in the back of the pep bus, headed back home after a Friday night basketball game. This was the 70s - there were no walkmans, or even boom boxes. We weren’t interested in sitting up front and sucking up to the coaches and cheerleading sponsor, so we headed for the back of the bus. Somewhere along a stretch of north Missouri two lane blacktop between Gilman City and home, after all the other people on the bus around us had fallen asleep, he put his arm around me. That was the moment I felt that tingle behind my bellybutton that I would soon recognize as signaling imminent sexual arousal for the very first time.

I inhaled sharply, and for a second, I panicked and tensed up. Then I felt him tense up, and start to move his arm. Before he pulled back, I laid my head on his shoulder and put my hand on his chest. For probably five minutes, he played with my hair, we both started to relax a little bit and I just laid there against him and enjoyed the intimate closeness of a male for the first time in my young life. I felt him lean forward and kiss the top of my head, and I turned my face toward him. It was awkward for a second, looking into one another’s eyes in a whole new way after a lifetime of being friends, compatriots and partners in crime. Then he put a hand against my cheek, leaned in, and for the first time, our lips met. It was stiff and awkward and exciting and scary and wonderful, and within two miles, we had taken to our newly discovered pastime like a couple of ducks to water.

But in the end, even though we took a side-trip into intimacy and sexual exploration, we ended up being friends and offering a stamp of approval for one another’s future dating endeavors. When we took the ASVAB the end of our junior year, I kicked the shit out of it and had all branches recruiting me. Ultimately, I decided to enlist in the Army because he couldn’t get into the Air Force or the Navy with his scores, and we wanted to go in under the Buddy System. I figured if we were together I could get him through tech school like I got him through algebra, geometry, biology and chemistry.

It wasn’t long after that, tho, that we started drifting apart. Before the oaths were taken, he discovered drugs. Not the pot we had been pretending to smoke since 9th grade, but real drugs, and they pretty much wrecked his life. He didn’t go to the military at all, and I ended up in a Colonel’s office on a university campus getting that same feeling behind my bellybutton when a scholarship offer was put in front of me for my signature.

Eventually, my husband - who dated Jimmy Ray’s older sister for over a year when they were in high school together - I keep telling you this is a really, really small town - would physically throw him out of our house when we caught him shooting up in our bathroom a few hours after he turned up unannounced on our doorstep years later. That was the last time I ever saw him, although I heard the occasional status report and always made it a point to stop and see his mother whenever we were back home, and one of those times we went to visit her, she told us how she had prayed that her kids would wise up and make us a part of her family, “But you two were obviously made for each other, so that would have eventually been a hell of a mess and it would have probably come to a head at Christmas dinner.” (When my husband and I got together, she had a heart-to-heart with both of us, individually, threatening our lives if we blew it.)

I never kissed Jimmy Ray again after we graduated from high school, but I never forgot him, either. I frequently thought about him, and regularly sent good thoughts out into the universe on his behalf, hoping against hope that he had managed to get his shit together, wishing him the best and being glad he was out there somewhere.

And now, for the first time in my life, I know definitively that he isn’t, and that fills me with an overwhelming sadness.

Colonel Steve Danner will be the next Adjutant General of the MO National Guard

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:46:00 +0000

PrimeBuzz reported late this morning that Governor-Elect Jay Nixon has tapped Missouri National Guard Colonel Steve Danner to be Adjutant General of the Missouri National Guard.

A Colonel in the MO Guard and an attorney, Danner joined the military in 1972 as a combat engineer, and he has served with distinction in various roles ever since, including as the Command Judge Advocate with the 35th Area Support Group in Balad, Iraq from 2005 to 2007. He has been a JAG Officer since 1981.

The Adjutant General oversees the state's Army and Air National Guard Units. Danner will inherit a force that has not been spared the abuses that have been heaped on the Guard and Reserves in pursuit of Bush's folly in Iraq. The Missouri National Guard faces the same problems with force strength, retention, recruiting, equipment shortages and repeated deployments that are pervasive in Guard contingents all over the country.

In addition to those problems faced by virtually every Guard unit in the country after seven years of war, Danner will inherit a National Guard with a whole other set of problems, too. The current Adjutant General has been accused of discriminating against black and female Guardsmen. Two federal complaints have been filed, and thirteen black soldiers have publicly signed a letter to the NAACP alleging that the outgoing AG, Major General King Sidwell, and his chief of staff, Col. Glenn Hagler, have "fostered a climate of institutional discrimination" in the ranks of the Missouri National Guard and discriminated against blacks and females when it came to awarding promotions.

Don't be surprised if the wingnut chorus treats us to a couple of barbershop numbers over the appointment. They won't question his credentials or qualifications - they are impeccable and beyond reproach. But they might have a problem with his politics. He donates heavily to Democratic candidates, including Jay Nixon, to whose gubernatorial campaign Danner donated $3000 between 2006 and 2008.

Danner has a solid Democratic pedigree. He has been involved in the Missouri Democratic Party practically his whole life. He and Nixon go back to 1990 when they were freshmen Democratic state senators together. He was legal counsel to the Missouri House speaker back when Democrats held the majority, and was a top aide in the Lt. Governor's office under Mel Carnahan. His mother is Pat Danner, who held the Missouri 06 for four terms, winning an upset over an incumbent republican in 1992, and even surviving the 'republican revolution' of 1994 to win reelection as a freshman Democrat in that climate. She withdrew from the reelection race in 2000 after being diagnosed with breast cancer, and Steve stepped in to defend the seat, narrowly losing to Sam Graves, who was just elected to a fifth term.

My advice? If anyone wails about the political side of Danner with regard to this appointment just look at them and sigh and explain how the military works (wingnuts rarely actually know anything about the military that isn't conveyed in "Red Dawn") "Of course he's a politician! He's a Colonel, and Colonels who aren't politicians...are Captains. The only difference with Danner is we know up front what his politics are."

Missouri Senate Bill 40 turns 30

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:53:00 +0000

[Crossposted from Show Me Progress]

Ronald Reagan was wrong.

Government isn’t the problem. In fact, good government can be the solution by doing things that are responsive to the needs of the citizens it exists to serve, and in so doing have a positive impact and make lives better. Missouri Senate Bill 40 is an example of what good government can do, without a lot of fanfare.

Most people, unless they have a family member with a developmental disability or they are employed in the education field, get to go through their lives without giving a first thought to SB 40, let alone a second…but for those it has served, it is a blessing.

Missouri SB 40 was passed law in 1978 and, as per tradition, became law the start of the next year, and in spite of all the good it has done, it would likely not even make it out of committee in today’s republican-controlled legislature, because it levies a tax to provide funding for residential, vocational and other programs and services that serve special needs persons and their families throughout the state.

I was in high school in one of this states poorest and most rural communities when the law was passed, and so I am old enough to remember life before PL 94-142 and SB 40. I remember a handful of families with special needs kids my age and older who never went to school a day in their lives, never developed even the most rudimentary of social skills, but instead lived their lives sequestered and hidden, seldom seen. Other babies never came home from the hospital, but were instead institutionalized at birth, and only discussed in hushed, tragic tones. I don’t fault the families - they were told that was what was best for the children, because the services to meet their needs didn’t exist at the community level.

One thing I can say with certainty. In virtually no instance were those children well served.

And it took acts of legislation to get us, as a society, to do the right thing. I am all for self-reliance, at least in my own life. But some problems require community efforts. And SB 40 is a community effort done right. May it last another thirty years.

Relief workers in Gaza take casualties

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:16:00 +0000

A United Nations relief worker died today after Israeli troops attacked a relief convoy clearly marked and carrying the UN flag as it moved toward the Erez border crossing to pick up humanitarian aid to be distributed to the people trapped in Gaza. The convoy was moving during the agreed to three-hour lull in the fighting that has been set aside for relief efforts to be carried out, and the movement had been coordinated with and green lighted by Israeli liaison officers.

A second equally coordinated and marked medical convoy that was dispatched to retrieve the body of a UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) worker killed in an earlier attack came under small-arms fire as they attempted to retrieve the body of their fallen compatriot in Gaza City.

"This is heartbreaking... a very, very difficult decision for us to take," UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza John Ging told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, speaking by video link from Gaza. "The population here are in a dreadful state and really need our help at this point but we have also a responsibility to our staff, and eager as they are, and believe me they are, we cannot fly in the face of the security situation."
While UNRWA is perfectly prepared for reasonable risks in a conflict zone, "added to those is the fact that we cannot rely on firm commitments given by the Israeli side, carefully coordinated with them, green lights given to move... specifics provided, carefully coordinated throughout, and to have the Israeli forces on the ground firing at and now hitting aid workers."
He said the movement of all staff would be suspended until UNRWA could be assured of their safety, and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told the same news conference: "We are seeking those assurances... We're talking very urgently about how we can make better arrangements, more reliable arrangements to avoid these incidents on the ground which we simply cannot see repeated. Otherwise we simply won't be able to do our job."
Mr. Ging said Israel was investigating the Erez incident, which came two days after Israeli shelling near an UNRWA school killed 40 people and injured more than 100. Israel said it was returning fire from the area of the school. UN officials stressed there were no Hamas or other militants inside the school.
On today's second incident, which occurred during Israel's stated daily three-hour lull in fighting, Mr. Ging said he had received no credible explanation from Israel as to how "the green light turned into three rounds" of light arms fire. Asked how he could be sure that Israel was responsible for the incidents, he said the Israelis had not so far disputed the cases.
"The headlines are that we desperately need a full and immediate ceasefire in Gaza to enable the civilian population to be protected and helped and that need is becoming more desperate by the hour," Mr. Holmes said, stressing that most of the Strip was without power, although some fuel was getting through, and 20,000 people were in UN shelters.
He added that the Israeli lull, which the UN has called totally insufficient, allowed residents to get food supplies, access medical services, get to the dead and wounded in buildings, bury the dead and dig out more bodies from the rubble. Meanwhile rocket fire into Israel continued. He cited credible Palestinian reports that the death toll had now reached 758, of whom 257 were children and 56 women, with 3,100 wounded of whom 1,080 are children and 452 women.
He referred to "absolutely horrifying" accounts that the International Red Cross had reached bombed houses in Zaitoun, finding 12 dead people and four children alive next to their dead mother on mattresses in one, and 15 wounded in another, noting that what was particularly shocking was that a nearby Israeli team must have been aware of the wounded, yet did nothing.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned the incidents and called for an immediate cease fire. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, he noted that four United Nations relief workers have been killed in the two week old conflict. Think about that. The United Nations and their relief agencies have taken casualties that rival those of Israel.

I have a plan...

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:24:00 +0000

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. --Mark Twain

It also applies to the SoapBlox blogging platform, where I moved in August to start TheyGaveUsaRepublic.com and take this blogging thing to the next level after I got home from Netroots Nation.

A whole hell of a lot of work went into building that site, and I am quite pleased with it. It looks like, at least for now, that the format will live on, so moving everything isn't necessary - at least not yet.

But I sure did get a lot of positive response yesterday when the rss feed for this site suddenly came back to life. I gotta tell you that it made me smile getting emails that told me how much this humble little blogspot meant to so many people. I'm gobsmacked, frankly. I had no idea...Thank you all so much!

I have been thinking about this off and on since yesterday and looking at the facts at hand:

I have a kick-ass professionally done site that I am extremely proud of on a hosted domain and I want to keep it.
It is on a platform that is not exactly built on the solidest rock, if you know what I mean.
Quite a few people were happy to see the old girl come out of dry dock.

Okey dokey.

With minimal brow furrowing, where to proceed became pretty obvious.

This place is a perfect archive for my work on the two professional sites, so at the end of the day, I will crosspost my content from the two SoapBlox sites, They Gave Us A Republic and Show Me Progress to this blog. Around midnight central, your RSS feed should come alive and deliver what I produced that day, along with the occasional killer piece from the archives, to your inbox. And if SoapBlox does go away, I will not be caught flat-footed and I won't have lost my body of work.

Now...can I figure out how to get the damned comments to come back up, the salon will be fully operational.

Everything old is new again

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Last summer I migrated to a hosted domain on SoapBlox.

Almost immediately I regretted it.

Now SoapBlox is going away and we are back over here.

Oy.

Remembering the Anthrax Vaccine Controversy

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:37:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

I remember the controvery over having to receive shots of the Anthrax vaccine--no one knew if it was causing serious health problems and members of the military were refusing to get the shots:

Military personnel, under the threat of court-martial, were refusing inoculations of an anthrax vaccine. The vaccine’s sole manufacturing plant was ordered to shut down. Researchers were turning up evidence possibly linking the vaccine to illnesses of soldiers during the Persian Gulf war of 1991.

It was hardly the thank you that Dr. Bruce E. Ivins expected for his years of labor to produce a vaccine that would protect military personnel from an anthrax attack by the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein or some other adversary.

The criticism, which reached its peak in 2000 and early 2001, was clearly starting to get on Dr. Ivins’s nerves. “I think the **** is about to hit the fan ... big time,” he wrote in a July 2000 e-mail message about the inoculation program, according to a government affidavit. “It’s just a fine mess.”

This turmoil has now been cited by federal investigators as a key part of the reason they believe that Dr. Ivins sent out anthrax-laced letters in the fall of 2001 — as such an attack would, in a single stroke, have eliminated the skepticism and second guessing about the need for an anthrax vaccine.

They ran out before I was supposed to receive the shots--a series of several painful shots over an extended period of time--and I never got it. My wife received the shots, and told me she experienced a great deal of pain in her arm.

But it is true--there was turmoil. A handful of people were refusing to get it, touching off controversy. Well, not controversy. Mostly, disgust that there were people refusing to follow orders.

This was a fight the military wasn't going to lose, of course, and many were forced to get the shots (until they ran out, of course).

I don't know why they're continuing to use all of these different issues to pound Dr. Bruce Ivins, but this is essentially what was going on:

This turmoil has now been cited by federal investigators as a key part of the reason they believe that Dr. Ivins sent out anthrax-laced letters in the fall of 2001 — as such an attack would, in a single stroke, have eliminated the skepticism and second guessing about the need for an anthrax vaccine.

The investigators suggest that Dr. Ivins had been struggling with psychological problems, and was on medication and undergoing counseling after being overcome by what he described as paranoid, delusional thoughts. The trouble with the vaccine, they argue, may have been enough to set him off.

At that stage of his career, was he ready to risk everything and do something that just seems stupid--and that is, use weaponized Anthrax to prove what he was working on was vital and necessary? You have to assume he was willing to take steps that are unimaginable for someone working on a way to keep people safe from being killed by Anthrax. You have to be willing to suspend a lot of disbelief for that theory to work.

Dr. Ivins’s former colleagues reject that two-part theory, saying it is just one of many flaws in the evidence presented by the government in an unconvincing case.

There was a real threat, the former colleagues acknowledged, that the anthrax vaccine Dr. Ivins had worked on during that period, known as Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed or AVA, might be pulled from the market

Most troubling were problems at the Michigan manufacturing plant, which had been shut down in 1998 after the Food and Drug Administration uncovered serious flaws.

Dr. Ivins and other researchers, however, had been working on a more advanced alternative vaccine — considered safer and more effective — so there was no reason for such a rash act, his former colleagues say.

“There was a lot of consternation, a lot of pressure to rescue this thing,” said Jeffrey Adamovicz, one of Dr. Ivins’s fellow researchers at the time. “But if AVA failed, he had his next vaccine candidate. It was well on its way to what looked to be a very bright future.”

The vaccine controversy erupted in the late 1990s, after the Defense Department ordered the inoculation of all 2.4 million active duty and reserve troops, starting with those most likely to confront biological attacks in war zones, partly because Iraq had confirmed that it once had a large stockpile of anthrax that was destroyed after the first Persian Gulf war.

By 2000, more than 570,000 military personnel had complied with the order, and hundreds had filed an “adverse event report” after receiving the shots, citing reactions that included fatigue, dizziness and muscle pain, and more serious conditions like thyroid disorders and rhabdomyolysis, a muscle ailment.

It was scary, but there was nothing you could do about it. Once you join the military, be prepared to follow every stupid order. That's just how it is.

What the Justice Department has not produced is evidence documenting that Dr. Ivins’s frustrations motivated him to retaliate with the anthrax letters.

Gerard P. Andrews, another of Dr. Ivins’s former colleagues, said he knew that Dr. Ivins was frustrated, but that he doubted that Dr. Ivins would consider such a step.

Well, we lived with the controversy, and I've never regretted the fact that they ran out of the vaccine before I had to get it.
Remember to update your blogrolls and bookmarks with our new domain name, They gave us a republic...

Russian Jets Pound Targets in Georgia

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:36:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

The violence in the region is escalating...

Russian jets have carried out strikes on military targets in the central Georgian town of Gori, close to the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Most of the targets seem to have been military bases, but Georgian officials said a number of civilians had been killed in residential buildings.

Russia said it had "liberated" the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

Earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country was seeking "to force the Georgian side to peace".

The comments came after Russian commanders announced they were sending more troops into South Ossetia to support peacekeeping operations.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed two of its jets had been shot down over Georgia, although it did not say where.

In a live televised address, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said he would ask parliament to approve the introduction of martial law.

After days of exchanging heavy fire with the Russian-backed separatists, Georgian forces launched a surprise attack on Thursday night to regain control of the region, which has had de facto independence since a war in 1992.

Georgian troops in the city of Gori (NY Times)

A small contingent of US troops is in Georgia, and since Russian forces are attacking Georgian military installations, it is not known if they are in imminent danger:

About 130 U.S. military and civilian personnel are currently located in Georgia, where they are training Georgian troops for deployment to Iraq as part of the multinational force there. U.S. military officials in Baghdad said they had gotten no official word about statements from Tblisi that half of Georgia's 2,000-troop contingent was being called home.

It isn't something that is front and center in the reporting, since attacks on civilians are the real story here. But when you start to think about why the sides are fighting, it really does come down to energy revenues:

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Gori heard loud explosions and saw large plumes of smoke rising into the sky; soldiers and civilians were seen running through the streets.

One missile hit a military base, from which most of the soldiers appeared to have managed to escape beforehand, he says.

The Georgian military said residential buildings had also been struck, leaving a number of civilians dead. Our correspondent says injured civilians were being pulled from the buildings, which were on fire.

The Georgian foreign ministry said the Black Sea port of Poti, which is the site of a major oil shipment facility, had also been "devastated" by a Russian aerial bombardment.

Georgian troops riding to the front (NY Times)

The US and the United Nations seem ineffectual, unable to get past the Russian veto on the Security Council:

International Red Cross (ICRC) spokeswoman Anna Nelson said the ICRC had received reports that hospitals in the city were "overflowing" with casualties.

The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says diplomatic initiatives to end the fighting have so far proved fruitless.

On Friday evening, the UN Security Council failed to agree on the wording of a statement calling for a ceasefire.

Russia holds a permanent place on the Council, and has the power of veto over any official statements that it regards as unfair or inaccurate.

Permanent members Britain, the US and France, are pinpointing what they say is Russia's aggression as the key factor in the slide towards war, while Moscow insists Georgia is to blame.

In other developments:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia to pull its troops out of Georgia and respect its territorial integrity
Georgia's president said his country was withdrawing its contingent of 2,000 troops from Iraq to help deal with the crisis
The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting in South Ossetia could escalate into a full-scale war
The US and the EU were reported to be sending a joint delegation to the region to seek a ceasefire and Nato said it was seriously concerned.

She needs to go to Moscow and/or the region immediately. Not some envoy, not some flunky--she's the expert on Russia, and her area of expertise has so far proven to be an area of foreign policy in which she's about as effective as everywhere else she tries her hand--and that's not very damned much.

Remember to update your blogrolls and bookmarks with our new domain name, They gave us a republic...

The Nightowl Newswrap

noreply@blogger.com (The Nightowl) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:44:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,
They gave us a republic...

Yeah, don't be scamming on Medicare: For people with osteoporosis, a painful bone disease, a simple medical device can help. Doctors use it to inject bone filler and repair tiny fractures. The procedure, called kyphoplasty, can be done in about an hour without putting the patient to sleep. But Kyphon, the company that made the device, stood to make a lot more money if patients were admitted to the hospital for expensive overnight stays...As an outpatient procedure, Medicare would pay about $1,000 for kyphoplasty. But as an inpatient procedure, Medicare paid up to $10,000 -- your tax dollars.

But will they disarm? Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen to disarm but said Friday he will maintain elite fighting units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is not established. Also Friday, Iraqi police say at least 16 people have been killed and 20 wounded when a car bomb struck a market in the northern city of Tal Afar. A senior police official in the nearby city of Mosul says the car was parked when it exploded by the market, crowded with shoppers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The bombing is the latest in a series of deadly attacks by suspected insurgents seeking to chip away at recent security gains. Al-Sadr's statement - read to worshippers during Friday prayers in Baghdad's former militia stronghold of Sadr City - is in line with details revealed earlier this week and appears to be an extension of plans he announced in June aimed at asserting more control over the militia.

It used to be called "shy" before it was called "stalking" but oh well: A microbiologist claims she was stalked for decades by Bruce Ivins, the suspect in the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001 who, according to court documents, was obsessed with the sorority she joined in college. Nancy L. Haigwood and her former husband, Carl J. Scandella, also think Ivins may have wanted to get close to her when he moved in down the street from the couple in the suburbs of Washington in the early 1980s. Ivins, an Army scientist, committed suicide last week as federal authorities prepared to charge him with killing five people by sending anthrax spores in the mail. The letters were dropped in a mailbox near a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority office in Princeton, New Jersey, and prosecutors have suggested Ivins chose that location because of its proximity to the office. Well, case closed!

Did they figure out if he actually wrote the plays, though? The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said. The possible foundations of what is known as simply, The Theatre, were unearthed by builders excavating the site - a vacant garage - for another structure. Museum archaeologists were called to the location to make sure nothing was destroyed, and had a eureka moment. "We were there, scratching our heads, looking into the trenches, thinking, 'this could be it,"' Jo Lyon, a senior museum archaeologist, said Wednesday. "So we did some more research, and then we found the angled walls. And we all went, 'Oh my gosh, this should be it.' " Other theaters of similar vintage also have angled walls, so the discovery was significant. Archaeologists also had known for a long time there was a high probability for The Theatre to be on this particular site. But there are no maps that show its location, no images to show what it might have looked like, and only a vague description of it. "It's in the right place, it's at the right angle to be a polygonal shape," Lyon said. "It's a pretty high possibility."

This probably bodes ill for republicans this fall For the first time since 1966, an incumbent congressman in Tennessee has lost a primary. Freshman republican Representative David Davis lost to the mayor of a small city in the heavily republican TN 01. Challenger Phil Roe defeated the one-term congressman by linking him to big oil. In the final days of the campaign, Roe took to the airwaves with a commercial that accused Davis of selling out to Big Oil by taking money from oil industry PACs and backing legislation favored by oil companies that would allow expanded off-shore drilling. Lets make sure we are clear on this – Tennessee republicans turned out an incumbent with oil ties while the republican minority is engaged in a hyperbolic circle jerk in a closed chamber, insisting on an emergency session to do the bidding of Big Oil. During the final weeks of the campaign, gas prices in the TN 01 hit a record high of $3.94.

Speaking of that hyperbolic circle jerk on the part of the republican minority John Boehner managed to rip himself away from the golf course to return to the floor of the closed House chamber late this morning. He spent Monday through Thursday blustering that the Congress needed to be called back for a special session to do the bidding of Exxon-Mobile…from the golf course. At least one of his tee-times was for a republican fundraiser.

Cheney will address the party faithful on the first night of the republican nominating convention. There is no love lost between Cheney and McCain - in fact, the two men can't stand one another, and association with either of the executives is toxic, so they are both speaking the first night, before McSame even arrives.

As with most addictions, there is a smoking gene Most people react to tobacco (or opiates, or alcohol) in an adverse manner the first time they experience it, but a few people feel waves of pleasure and even euphoria. The people in that group have a genetic predisposition and addiction can happen with the very first cigarette.

Nuptuals by the numbers All over Asia couples were married on 08/08/08 in hasty, individual ceremonies and mass weddings. In Chinese the word for "eight" sounds like the word for "prosperity," and in any language the number has a pleasing symmetry: two circles interlocked like a pair of wedding rings. It also looks like an infinity symbol turned upright, suggesting that the marriage will last forever.

The first gold medal of the Beijing games has been earned by Katrina Emmons of the Czech republic in the 10 meter air rifle competition. She shot a perfect 400 in qualifying and set an Olympic record in the event with 503.5 points. Lioubov Galkina of Russia won the silver. Snjezana Pejcic of Croatia took the bronze.

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Thanks, John. I really appreciate you being just another politician...

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Serves me right, I guess.

John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

I really don't care if he had an affair--I still think Americans need to grow up about this shit. But it makes me much less inclined to defend the next person who is being smeared, I will admit.

Nothing after the jump, and nothing for Edwards after this. I'm thinking it's time to sink into obscurity, there, Senator.

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Russia "declares war" on Georgia

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:09:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Russian Jets Attack Georgia. 'They Have Declared War On Us,' Georgian Official Says

WASHINGTON, August 8 -

Russian jets bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday, a senior Georgian security official told Reuters. "No one was wounded but some buildings have been destroyed," said Kakha Lamaia. The airbase is some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Tbilisi. "They have declared war against us," said Lamaia.

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Russian Troops Are On the March

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:56:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...
UPDATE I / WS

Screenshots from video, courtesy of the BBC:

These would appear to be Russia's main battle tanks, the T-90s:

Russian self-propelled artillery guns (the 2s3 152mm?):

Russian troops in BMP armored personnel carriers:

The Associated Press is reporting that:

Russian television says Russian troops are moving into South Ossetia.

And the region is in turmoil.

Russian authorities said several of its peacekeepers died in a Georgian attack in South Ossetia, which borders Russia and has strong ties to its vast northern neighbor, and they vowed not to leave Russian citizens in the territory unprotected.

"The Georgian leadership has launched a dirty adventure," a statement from Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday. "We will not leave our peacekeepers and Russian citizens unprotected."

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Georgia started the fighting and warned that Russia would respond to their actions.

"Heavy weapons and artillery have been sent there, and tanks have been added. Deaths and injuries have been reported, including among Russian peacekeepers," Putin said in comments carried Friday by Russia's Interfax news agency.

"It's all very sad and alarming. And, of course, there will be a response."

Earlier Friday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in a televised statement that Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.

We will watch what happens through the day and the weekend--this could end up being the biggest story of the month, Olympics notwithstanding.

Americans shouldn't worry--Secretary of State Rice was just there last month and straightened everything out:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Georgia amid an escalating row between Russia, Georgia and the United States.

Russia accused Georgia of bringing the South Caucasus to the brink of armed conflict - comments which both Ms Rice and Nato condemned as "unhelpful".

See? She said it was "unhelpful." And that took care of the problem.

On August 2nd, Secretary Rice appeared at the Aspen Music Festival. I'm glad she has had the opportunity to take time out of her busy schedule and attend to important things.

Here's yesterday's full mention of the issue in South Ossetia from the US State Department during its daily press briefing:

QUESTION: Gonzo, do you have anything about Ossetia?

MR. [Gonzalo R.] GALLEGOS: South Ossetia?

QUESTION: Yes.

MR. GALLEGOS: I think so.

QUESTION: President Saakashvili -- you know, there were some victims, some fighting last night. And President Saakashvili said that the – he’s – he called several world leaders asking them for their help in maintaining peace. I wanted to know if he called Secretary Rice.

MR. GALLEGOS: Well, we’re – I don’t believe – I don’t have any further information. I don’t have it that he spoke to Secretary Rice. But we’re in close contact with senior Russian and Georgian officials. We’re urging Moscow to press South Ossetia’s de facto leaders to stop firing. We’re urging Tbilisi to maintain restraint. We’re very concerned about the situation. We call for an immediate end to the violence and for direct talks between the parties.

QUESTION: Do you think the South Ossetian people started the fighting, or who do you think is responsible?

MR. GALLEGOS: We think it’s important that both sides stop firing, that they sit down and they discuss this in a peaceful manner.

As you can see, "Gonzo" is on top of it. Your State Department at work, as fighting breaks out in a region where the warning signs were fairly evident earlier this year.

Russian military heavy equipment rolling into the region:

Update/Noon Central/BG

This situation is developing fast and the United States is in danger of getting sucked into it. Over at the most excellent and essential Newshoggers, I learned that the Georgians are recalling all forces in their control, including the combat brigade that is currently serving in Iraq as part of the Coalition forces.

They are asking for rapid response assistance and could ask the U.S. to airlift the brigade back to Georgia in USAF C-17s through the Tallil Airbase. That would put the U.S. on a hostile footing with yet another oil-producing nation - and this one has military prowess and battle-hardened troops, that make up a force that hasn't been decimated in the desert.

The Duck of Minerva has more.

Priorities:

The BBC, Fox News, and CBS news - three screenshots:

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The Nightowl Newswrap

noreply@blogger.com (The Nightowl) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:16:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,
They gave us a republic...

Yes, hearings are definitely in order Congressman Gene Green of Houston is mad as hell over recruiters lying, bullying and threatening a high-school student that he could be charged as a deserter - because he changed his mind about enlisting in the Army before he signed the contract and took the oath of service. "That's not what our country's about," Rep. Gene Green told KHOU. "There's a problem with the system in the Army." Green has written a letter to the Pentagon and also intends to ask the House Armed Services Committee to investigate or hold hearings.

Chinese Uighurs issue terrorism threat for Olympics The Turkistan Islamic Party has warned Muslims to avoid being on trains, plains and buses with Chinese citizens during the Olympics. The videotaped warning was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks independence for China's western Xinjiang region, according to an organization that monitors militant grouporganizations. The militants are believed to be based in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al-Qaida.

Schumer wants Obama to hit McCain harder when he gets personal in his attacks. "I would not be afraid to attack back," he said in an interview with Politico. "When they say, 'He's not one of us,' you don't say, 'Here's our plan on health care.'" (No shit.)

Florida man in custody for threatening Senator Obama A 22 year old wanna-be bail-bondsman is in custody and being held without bond (we are diggin' on the irony here) after threatening the life of the presumptive Democratic nominee. He compounded his woes by telling a Secret Service agent how he would go about it.

McCain campaign reviewing "bundled" donations from Harry Sargeant III, a prominent Florida businessman and finance chair of the Florida GOP. The review comes on the heels of the disclosure that his business partner, a Jordanian national, also may have engaged in fundraising. It is illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to US political campaigns. (We wonder if they will review the donations that probably illegally originated with Hess Oil next?)

Score one for the First Amendment AS Federal Judge in Rhode Island has struck down a law that gave police chiefs the authority to decide which candidates for public office could display their signs on public property. Judge William E. Smith ruled that the law unconstitutionally infringed on the freedom of speech by letting police chiefs decide who can post signs, but not listing criteria chiefs should use in making that decision.

Detroit's mayor is cooling his heels in jail tonight after having his bond revoked. He violated the terms of his conditional release by leaving the country for an official visit to nearby Windsor, Ontario last month without the permission of the court.

Nikki Tinker deserved to lose, and should be mocked mercilessly if she ever attempts to run for any public office ever again the rest of her life. In a crowded primary field, she launched a vile, anti-semitic personal attack against Steve Cohen, the winner of todays primary. The ad drew condemnation from Barack Obama and scorn from all quarters. (Maybe someone should remind Ms. Tinker of the prominent role Jewish Americans played in the civil rights movement the next time she derides someone for participating in a worship service in "our churches" and by the way, since when is the Lord's house anyones exclusive providence? And since I'm on a roll, I wonder if the names Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner mean anything to her hateful ass?)

Conyers again demands RNC documents in probe of Justice Department The national party had provided email accounts for members of the administration to assist them in evading the law and engaging in political activities from the White House. Remember, the GOP is, at its very core, a crime syndicate.

McCain trolls will find no bridge here We didn't see the scoop potential a month ago when we noticed the McSame campaign was giving away campaign swag for blog posts and comments, and we started quietly deleting such comments so they couldn't be confirmed. But today both Kevin and Steve posted about it, so we guess it merits mentioning. Anyway trolls, you aren't getting any points to earn a lame t-shirt by spamming our blog.

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This is a case that is not going to go away

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:35:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

The family of a man who was strangled in police custody after being arrested and accused of killing a police officer is asking for an autopsy. Yes, this case is still ongoing, and is being investigated by the Maryland State Police. And, no, it's not going to go away.

The family of a Prince George's County police officer slaying suspect who died in his jail cell wants to know why it's taking so long to learn the results of his autopsy.

Ronnie White, who was accused of running over a police officer with a stolen truck, was found dead in his cell more than five weeks ago. His death is being investigated by Maryland State Police.

White may have been an unsympathetic and unsavory character, but he was supposed to have his day in court. That's how our system works.

Controversy surrounds the case:

The preliminary report from the state medical examiner's office said White died of asphyxiation and had two broken bones in his neck, indicating that he had been strangled. The investigation became a homicide investigation, but no charges or suspects have been announced.

The medical examiner's office said the final autopsy report would be released in 30 days, but that deadline has passed, and there is no indication when the official determination of the cause and manner of death will be made public.

"The problem here with taking so long with this investigation: It is a disservice to the White family, it is a disservice to the Prince George's County community, it is a disservice to our state, because there are a lot of people who deserve an answer in this particular situation," said Bobby Henry, the lawyer representing White's family.

This issue generated a lot of discussion, most of which was based on the belief that the killer always gets away unless a vigilante who is brave and knows the system is corrupt can deliver "justice." Sound like any movies or TV shows you've seen? Sadly, that's what informs the public.

Over at the old site, if you click over and read the comment threads, there seems to have been a belief that he got what he deserved, the rule of law be damned.

Why do we continue to accept the violence and not fight back? This isn't a black, white, red, or any other problem. It is a humanity problem. It is a hateful world where everyone is entitled to do anything they want without any repercussion. So we'll continue down the road of the law where it matters to you and I. We'll continue letting the criminals thumb their nose to our societal rules. You're right, let's leave our rose colored glasses on and feel good about our law. That will make everything better.

That one part of the comment crystalizes the immature mind's inability to think of the rule of law. I don't think we accept the violence. I think we realize that, but for the grace of God go I. As in, if it was you in that cell, and if you were accused of a crime, you'd certainly prefer having a chance to prove your innocent rather than be strangled until you were dead by a vigilante.

How does that honor the fallen policeman? He deserves to be honored and remembered, and his killer does need to be brought to justice. How we go about that is how we determine whether we're living in a just society.

Here's a case, right here in the news and from the same website, that illustrates what can happen and why we need to remember that our criminal justice system is flawed.

A man convicted of first-degree murder in 1990 was freed from prison this week after his attorneys uncovered new evidence disproving witness testimony, according to the firm Venable LLP and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project at American University Washington College of Law.

Aaron Michael Howard was released Tuesday night. In 1990, he was convicted in the 1988 death of Bobby Parker.

"While I was not responsible for his death, I can only imagine how much pain it caused his family," Howard said in a statement released Thursday. "I extend my deepest sympathies to them."

Had Howard been strangled in his cell in 1990, would we have ever found out the truth? It's bad enough he has spent 18 years in prison. Should he have died as well? And don't get me started on what DNA testing has unraveled. As in, quite a few "airtight" cases.

See, this case isn't really about whether the guy was guilty. It's about letting someone be a vigilante.

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Utility Shut-offs Rising

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

When was the last time anyone talking about the fact that unemployment is the highest that it has been in four years? It's now at 5.7%. When was the last time you heard anyone talking about the impact of bankruptcy shutdowns for large retailers. And another one-time stimulus payout isn't the solution:

Utility shut-offs for customers behind on their energy bills are increasing around the country, reaching 50% or more in some hard-hit areas, as the effects of rising prices and a sagging economy are beginning to drag down more vulnerable consumers.

Agencies that provide financial assistance for energy costs report long waiting lists and significant jumps in first-time applicants. With the prospect of much more serious trouble this winter, when bills traditionally are higher, Congress is exploring a significant increase in federal energy assistance as part of a second economic stimulus plan scheduled for consideration next month.

Why doesn't the Congress look into fully funding those agencies? How about we try that for a change? The last stimulus check giveaway sure was good for the porn industry, wasn't it? Hopefully, they'll find a way to do something smarter with the money this time.

Many of the customers that are shut-off are, likely, people who have had their homes taken away in foreclosure:

In Michigan, which had the nation's highest unemployment rate in June -- 8.5% -- Detroit-based DTE Energy reported a 56% increase in utility shut-offs for nonpayment of bills for the first five months of this year compared with the same period a year ago.

Southern California Edison Co. reported that service was shut off to about 165,000 of its 4.8 million customer accounts from January through May this year, a 14% increase from the same period in 2007.

In Orange County, "people are coming to our office in record numbers with very high utility bills," said Kathy Kifaya, director of energy and environmental services for the Community Action Partnership of Orange County, which provides financial aid for energy costs to low-income families.

In Illinois, Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, which serve Chicago and its northern suburbs, reported a 33% increase in disconnections through July of this year, compared with the same period last year. Across the Mississippi River in Iowa, a record number of residential accounts were past due in June, said Jerry McKim, chief of the state's energy assistance program, and more would have been shut off if not for floods that prevented utility workers from reaching homes.

"It's pretty pathetic when the only thing saving someone from disconnection is being flooded out," he said.

California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., reported that service had been shut off to 163,700 customers for nonpayment through July of this year, up 6.1% from the same period a year ago. Southern California Gas Co. said that notices of late payments were up 17% from January through May compared with the same period last year, and disconnections were up 10%.

Awful. Just awful. Fall is just around the corner, and I wonder if this is the winter when we'll hear more stories about people freezing to death or starving because they cannot make ends meet in this wonderful economy of ours.

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Thursday morning quick hits

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:20:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,
They gave us a republic...

The flip-flop that pissed off his base The republican base and the loonies at the "Club for Growth" are pissed off at McCain after he initially said he would oppose all tax increases, then hinted that he might be open to raising the limit on Social Security payroll taxes. The payroll tax totals 12.4 percent - half is deducted from employee wages up to $102,000, and half paid by employers. All earnings above $102,000 are currently exempted, meaning those most able to pay...don't. Let's put this in perspective - Carly Fiorina made millions and millions of dollars running Hewlett-Packard into the ground, and only paid the Social Security earnings tax only on the first $102,000 of her income - while the employees who were most harmed by her inept and incompetent leadership of that company paid the tax on every penny they earned. A little closer to home - the people who work in Cindy McCain's beer distributorship pay on all their earnings, while Mrs. half-a-million-on-the-AmEx-card-last-month...doesn't.

Lake Chad is drying up Lake Chad used to cover an area the size of New Jersey. Now it would barely cover an area the size of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The lake is drying up, driven by climate change and population increases that has fueled increases in water usage. And the disappearing lake threatens wildlife in the area. Fish stocks are depleted, and a diverse ecosystem that thrived despite the harsh environment — including birds such as the European white stork, which stop here on their annual trans-Sahara migration — is deeply imperiled.

Without a trace of shame or irony, Bush criticized China and Myanmar on human rights in a speech in Thailand on his way to Beijing for the Olympics. In his speech, which criticized China and did not mention the Olympics, he said “America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.”

And China told him to STFU, mind his own business and stay out of Chinese internal affairs.

Nine dead in California helicopter crash A helicopter with a crew of two crashed while transporting eleven firefighters to a blaze in northern California. Nine perished and four were severely burned and are clinging to life in hospitals. Three have been transported to the burn unit at the UC - Davis Medical Center. Our thoughts are with them and their families.

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Fighting Terrorism in Trans Sahara Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:13:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...
In 2004, the US Government realized that it needed to do something about the spread of terrorism in Trans-Saharan Africa:

U.S. Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of the European Central Command, has been warning Congress and the Pentagon for months that al Qaeda-affiliated groups are active in Mauritania, Mali, Chad and Niger. The trade in diamonds used by terrorist groups, begun under the protection of former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, continues despite international efforts to curb it. "The terrorist activity in this area is not going to go away," Wald warned recently. "This could affect your kids and your grandchildren in a huge way. If we don't do something about it, we are going to have a real problem on our hands."

Unfortunately, the efforts since then have mostly failed, due to a lack of cooperation between the State Department and the Department of Defense.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report that shows that the US State Department, the Department of Defense, and the USAID Agency are having key issues with regards to stopping the spread of terrorism throughout Trans-Sahara Africa. The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP)was set up to coordinate efforts to stop the spread of terrorism into the region.

First, the agencies lack a comprehensive, integrated strategy for their TSCTP activities, and the documents used in planning the activities do not prioritize proposed activities or identify milestones needed to measure progress or make improvements.

Second, disagreements about whether State should have authority over DOD personnel temporarily assigned to conduct TSCTP activities in partner countries have led to DOD's suspending some activities, for example, in Niger.

Third, fluctuation in State's and USAID's distribution of funds for TSCTP resulted in suspension of a peace-building program in Mali.

Fourth, although the agencies measure activities' outputs, such as the number of foreign military personnel trained, they do not measure their activities' outcomes in combating terrorism--for instance, any decrease in extremism in the targeted countries.

This region is familiar to anyone who understands that the spread of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Trans-Sahara region is of great concern to our European allies.

Simply implementing programs and activities that would help these countries better fight the spread of terrorism has run into the usual challenges--State and DoD can't collaborate on anything, and this goes back to the way Don Rumsfeld operated, which, in most cases, was often in contradiction to the efforts of the State Department:

Several factors have hampered the key agencies’ ability to collaboratively implement TSCTP activities, in some cases limiting their ability to achieve or assess progress in combating terrorism and inhibiting the spread of extremist ideology.

First, no comprehensive, integrated strategy has been developed to guide the agencies’ activities, and documents used in planning program activities have not included some elements that we have identified as needed in an interagency counterterrorism program’s strategic plan.

Second, despite some collaboration at the headquarters level, disagreement between State and DOD about whether State should have authority over DOD personnel temporarily assigned to conduct TSCTP activities in the partner countries has contributed to the suspension of some of these activities.

Third, fluctuation in the distribution of obligations for TSCTP in Mali resulted in the suspension of some program activities.

Fourth, although the agencies have indicators to measure activities’ direct results, the agencies have not yet developed the capability to measure and report on overall progress toward program goals.

Take a close look at this distribution of funds:

These are relatively small amounts of assistance and aid, but of note should be the assistance given to Mauritania, which just underwent another coup that saw the President and the Prime Minister arrested. Instability in countries like Mauritania are one reason why terrorists might locate there and take advantage of the political situation.

Most of our assistance is going to Niger, in hopes of slowing the spread of terrorism there. Overall, though, it doesn't matter who gets what because the GAO has uncovered a decidedly common lack of focus on the part of the US State Department:

To enhance U.S. agencies’ ability to collaborate in strengthening country and regional counterterrorism capabilities and inhibiting the spread of extremist ideology in northwest Africa, we recommend that the Secretary of State work through the Director of Foreign Assistance, who serves concurrently as USAID Administrator, to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership in conjunction with the Secretaries of Defense and the Treasury, the U.S. Attorney General, and the heads of any other partner agencies. The strategy should include clear goals, objectives, and milestones, including output and outcome indicators, and identify resources needed to achieve the program’s goals.

We also recommend that the Secretaries of State and Defense develop and issue joint guidance with regard to DOD personnel temporarily assigned to conduct TSCTP activities in the partner countries.

No one could reasonably expect Secretary Rice to be fired before the end of the Bush Administration, but this is one more issue that will land in the lap of the next Secretary of State, thanks to the neglect and the lack of interest in fighting the actual spread of terrorism in the world. The US military now has a command dedicated to Africa--AFRICOM--but will it focus on stopping terrorism or on keeping the flow of oil moving out of Nigeria?

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Hoover as a continuing metaphor for what's wrong with today's Republican Party

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:42:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Republicans have one subject they hate to have thrown in their face--Herbert Hoover. And, with good reason. The President who was woefully out of touch and ineffectual at the onset of the Great Depression was replaced by Franklin Roosevelt and the dominance of the Democratic Party.

Michael Cohen at TPM Cafe rounds up some great reading material:

As Todd Gitlin noted, Herbert Hoover's "tribute to rugged individualism" was a product of a specific moment in history - the calm before the storm of the Great Depression. As the famed historian Richard Hofstadter said of our 29th President, "The things Hoover believed in - efficiency, enterprise, opportunity, individualism, substantial laissez-faire, personal success, material welfare - were all in the dominant American tradition. The ideas he represented - ideas that to so many people made him seem hateful or ridiculous after 1929 - were precisely the same ideas that in the remotest past of the nineteenth century and the more immediate past of the New Era had had an almost irresistible lure for the majority of Americans."

Of course, as we all know, by 1932 Hoover was hopelessly out of touch; practically an overnight anachronism, unable and unwilling to shift course. Instead it was FDR's call for bold, persistent experimentation and his pledge of a New Deal for the American people that resonated. Nonetheless, it's worth noting that even in 1932, as the country was mired in economic depression, Roosevelt did not run for President on a liberal agenda. He even attacked Hoover for increasing government spending and not balancing the budget.

Gitlin says:

I don't think I've ever read a Hoover speech before. You know, this one, a week before he beat Al Smith, isn't half bad. Of course, a tribute to rugged individualism sounded better on October 23, 1928 than it would have on July 2, 1932, when Roosevelt gave his great "New Deal" speech. But for all its stuffiness, it hangs together. It addresses the voters as grown-ups. It makes an argument. It And--bonus!--it even embraces liberalism as "a force truly of the spirit." This liberalism, Hoover insists, "is no system of laissez faire." (French yet!)

But the difference between Hoover's speech and Roosevelt's is not just four years of crash, unemployment and social misery. It's also the difference between an uninspired speech and an inspired one. Roosevelt makes an argument, of course, but he's witty, too: Trickle-down theory "belongs to the party of Toryism, and I had hoped that most of the Tories left this country in 1776." He's clear about who the adversaries are: not the "Republican Party" but the "Republican leadership" (Barack Obama, are you listening?). He's sparing with metaphor but trenchant when he indulges: "During the past ten years a Nation of 120,000,000 people has been led by the Republican leaders to erect an impregnable barbed wire entanglement around its borders through the instrumentality of tariffs which has isolated us from all the other human beings in all the rest of the round world."

He addresses his listeners directly: "Go into the home of the business man. He knows what the tariff has done for him. Go into the home of the factory worker...." He's blunt about values: "My program, of which I can only touch on these points, is based upon this simple moral principle: the welfare and the soundness of a Nation depend first upon what the great mass of the people wish and need; and second, whether or not they are getting it."

And those are great words to remember. The contrast between the party of Hoover and the party of Roosevelt is apropo today--McCain is out of touch, lazy, and doesn't bother with details. Obama commands the details and the rhetoric, and seems to inspire people beyond the grasp of the media.

For all of his shortcomings, you'd think Obama would draw middling crowds. Instead, the media downplays the fact that Obama events are raucous and filled to the rafters.

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FEMA scrambles to avoid being sued for poisoning people

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Congress needs to ensure that FEMA's negligence in providing people with trailers with high levels of formaldehyde in them is not excused.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency last week asked for immunity from lawsuits over the high formaldehyde levels in the trailers it used to house Hurricane Katrina victims. FEMA says it did not build the trailers, merely bought them, so the manufacturers should be held solely responsible.

A U.S. attorney argued before a federal judge on July 23 that FEMA's response to the natural disaster is legally protected since the agency was exercising governmental discretion. Only Congress, he said, has the authority to address the agency's possible negligence. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the Eastern District of Louisiana is taking the request under advisement. Attorneys for the plaintiffs expect a ruling in the next two or three weeks.

Congressional hearings have revealed that FEMA knew about the formaldehyde problem in its trailers and failed to take action for almost two years. FEMA's lawyers advised the agency not to test for toxicity in order to avoid liability -- but that advice may have left FEMA vulnerable to even greater liability. Those familiar with this gray legal area say the government agency could be held liable for several reasons.

Of course, FEMA is trying to pass the buck and direct the lawsuits towards the companies that manufactured the trailers. In some ways, yes, I can agree with proceeding against the manufacturers. But for FEMA to provide the trailers and do nothing for two years is unacceptable.

The reasons for the shoddy work are problematic for FEMA. Their employees were present--and set the specifications for--the trailers as they were being manufactured. Cheap materials and low-cost procedures were used (I have visions of half-assed trailer components being slapped together with cheap glue by people who didn't give a shit, don't you?). It's hard to escape liability when the people who manufactured the trailers were under your nose and doing what you told them to do. I think the manufacturers should have cried foul and refused to build with formaldehyde. The problem is, whistle-blowers are often driven out of business or punished for exposing government corruption. Until we reform the government whistle-blower laws and protect the rights of people who speak out, we are going to have debacles like this.

Sadly, the government's terrible response to Hurricane Katrina continues to this day. Alabama football boosters have great condos to use now, but the actual people flooded out and driven from their neighborhoods are still living in trailers manufactured with poisonous materials inside:

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, many people are still living in the FEMA-issued trailers. The trailers were never intended for long-term housing -- they were meant for short-term, emergency use only.

This has only exacerbated the effects of the building specifications set by FEMA, which fall below federal safety standards.

"The fact that people are still in those trailers," said [David] Super of the Univ. of Maryland, "is a failure on FEMA's part."

Yes it is, and that failure should not be excused away with immunity
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The Nightowl Newswrap

noreply@blogger.com (The Nightowl) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:45:00 +0000

Why is that warmongering idiot John Bolton still getting airtime? On Faux Noise today he was at it again, declaring that "diplomacy is finished" (when was it tried???) and declaring that there were two options - targeted military strikes and "regime change" - because that has worked so well in Iraq, you know. We have explained the vast differences between the two countries in the past. Anyone who thinks regime change in Iran is even possible should read this.

21% That is the percentage of those polled who approve of bu$h's handling of the economy, and his overall approval rating is 25% - which begs the question - who are these people in that 25% who will admit, without a trace of shame, to approving of this moron?

Another murder by police Tasered, handcuffed, then brutalized to death by cops who kicked and beat him after he was unconscious. I guess when torture is official national policy that pathology trickles down to the cops on the street, and brutality becomes the norm.

Keep after the lying old creep, Barack! After McCain grudgingly admitted that keeping our tires inflated and our engines tuned up really would save energy, and produce results immediately, not seven years in the future, it was Obama's turn to pounce. “In the coming days it’s going to be interesting watching this debate between John McCain and John McCain” he told an audience in Elkhart, Indiana.

Pawlenty tries a positive tack and praises Obama Potential running mate Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, praised Barack Obama, "Say what you will about Barack Obama," he told a group of conservatives, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say." That will play well with the average American, but it will make the wingnuts froth and twitch and need seizure medication.

A PUMA ate my unity pony Hillary has accepted the fact that Barack Obama is going to be the nominee. Why can't these jackasses? And don't give me that "popular vote" line of crap, either - the "popular vote" that they cling desperately to doesn't mean a damned thing, any more than it does in the general election, and everyone with a lick of sense knows it. Grow up already.

That's GOP leadership for you While House republicans carry on their idiotic grandstanding circle-jerk in a closed chamber, minority leader John "crybaby" Boehner was back in his district and hitting the links.

Mitt isn't going to be in the number 2 slot with answers like this Asked to name one single legislative accomplishment of John McCain on the energy front, Romney answered "I'm not a historian."

This sounds like a threat Mike Gravel was caught on tape last week encouraging a crowd to harass a federal prosecutor who helped bring criminal contempt charges against a Palestinian activist, Sami Al-Arian. It's one thing to picket a public figures office, but it crosses a very bright line when you encourage people to find out where that persons children go to school.

Austin Bay is a giant colostomy bag You know you are in for 30% extra wingnutty goodness when a column starts with "Victory in war is tough to define" so you shouldn't be surprised when it goes on for 750 words performing editorial fellatio of David Petraeus.

More specious campaign donations to the McCain campaign Members of the Abdullah family maxed out and even exceeded the maximum contribution limit, and many were apparently pressured and lied to by the family patriarch. Some were surprised to learn that the contributions were not tax deductible, and another who initially denied the donation said “He’s like a worse copy than Bush,” and asserted that he certainly wasn't going to vote for him.

Happy Blogiversary One year ago today, Show Me Progress rolled out, and has been making waves in Missouri Democratic circles ever since.

GAO: Iraq rakes in billions in oil profits while the United States pays for reconstruction

BlueGirl.RedState@gmail.com (--Blue Girl) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

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The dramatic increase in oil prices has positioned Iraq, which sits atop the third largest oil reserve in the world, to begin to bear some of the burden of reconstruction of that war-torn country, decimated by more than two decades of war and sanctions.

In a GAO report released yesterday, the government watchdog was deliberate in avoiding assignation of who-should-pay-for-what and thus the politics of the matter. Instead, they did what they do best and stuck to facts and figures - but in so doing, the report leaves little doubt that Iraq can afford to pony over a bit more dough for its own reconstruction. Iraq took in just under $33 Billion in oil revenues in the first six months of 2008, and is on pace to rake in between $67 and $79 Billion this year, meaning Iraq could see a budget surplus of between $38.2 billion and $50.3 billion this year alone. The GAO estimates that this years oil revenues will be double the average annual oil revenues that were realized from 2005 through 2007. The GAO based their projections for the second half of the year on actual sales through the first half, and assumed an average export price from $96.88 to $125.29 per barrel and oil export volumes of 1.89 to 2.01 million barrels per day.

As oil prices settle down at around $125 per barrel, after exceeding $140 just a few weeks ago, Iraq could post a budget surplus of between $33 billion and $50 billion this year. This windfall comes in spite of the fact that Iraq has yet to approach pre-invasion oil-production levels.

Between 2005 and 2007, the government of Iraq spent approximately $67 billion on government operations and investments in the greater society. About 90% was spent on operations, and 10% was invested in structures and durable goods. A mere one percent was spent on maintaining the country. Instead the United States has been footing that bill. Buildings, infrastructure for the delivery of water and electricity, and weapons for the countries police and security forces.

Even as total expenditures grew from 2005 through 2007, the country was unable to spend all of the budgeted funds. For example - last year, 2007, Iraq spent 80% of ths $28 billion operating budget and 28% of its investment budget. GAO estimates that in 2008, Iraq will spend less than $40 billion of its nearly $50 billion budget.

At the end of 2007, the Iraqi government had financial deposits of $29.4 billion, held in the Development Fund for Iraq and other deposits made in the name of the central government in the Central Bank of Iraq and Iraq’s commercial banks. This balance is due to budget surpluses of about $29 billion between 2005 and 2007.

And then there are the American numbers.

Since FY 2003, when the U.S. appropriated approximately $48 billion for stabilization and reconstruction efforts of post-invasion Iraq. As of June 2008, about $42 billion of that amount had been obligated. Of that $42 billion, the United States has spent more than $23 billion on security and critical infrastructure, such as water, electricity and oil. Compare that expenditure with the $3.9 billion spent in these sectors by Iraq between 2005 and April of this year.

Now there are multiple reasons why the Iraqi government has been unable to invest more of its money on capital improvements, and some of those shortcomings were created by the United States and our coalition allies when civil servants were summarily fired by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and barred from public service for being members of the Bath Party (a requirement for government employment) under the Saddam Hussein regime. When the people who know how to work the levers are not allowed to touch the machine, it doesn't work.

De-bathification was a factor in several areas of shortfall, from operations to procurement and budgeting. De-bathification coupled with sectarian violence and the "brain drain" that resulted from the middle class fleeing the country made government operations in Iraq ineffectual at best. These factors converged and conspired to make it necessary for the United States to fund activities of key ministries to even get the country on a footing where it could begin to execute it's own budget priorities.

Now let me be clear that it is not my intent to debate who should be paying for the reconstruction. If I had my druthers we would be able to unring the bell, unselect George Bush, uninvade Iraq and unhang Saddam Hussein. But as none of that is possible, we have to look at the situation at hand and make realistic assessments. And reality dictates that the United States can not keep up the level of spending we have been engaged in in Iraq. Certainly not with all the problems we face at home.

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They gave us a republic...

House Republican Whines About Being Thrown Under the Bus

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:03:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...
Consider this latest twist a reward for the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't stop FISA legislation or put impeachment back on the table.

What other explanation could there be for the decision by the White House to cut the Republicans in the House off at the knees over offshore drilling?

A House Republican leader is lambasting President Bush on his decision not to call Congress back into session to deal with the energy crisis.

In a legislative update sent to GOP members and staff on Tuesday, Republican House Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.) accused "Beijing George" Bush of throwing House Republicans "under the bone-dry bus" on his way to the Olympics in China.

I would not be surprised to see scores of House Republicans break loose and begin to abandon the White House wherever possible, just to deliver a little payback. They are clearly divorced now in spirit--whether that means they finalize it through some legal proceeding is debatable. Everyone is going to focus on their own needs and their own re-election. And while House Republicans posture and whine, it means fewer of them are traveling to their districts to campaign.

With fewer of them campaigning at home, it reminds all of us why we need to throw as many of them out as possible while always looking for better Democrats. These up-or-down votes could be critical next year:

House GOP leaders last week called on Bush to convene an emergency session ofCongress, but the White House said such a move would not make a difference because Democrats would not call for an up-or-down vote on offshore drilling legislation.

How bad is it? I don't think this Congressman is going to be the only one looking for payback:

McCotter, known for his frank and sometimes unusual political opinions, was not pleased with that decision. His memo stated, "Today, in his final term, the wildly unpopular President George W. Bush boarded Air Force One bound for the Beijing Olympics and a meeting with his chum Hu Jintao, the dapper ruler of a nuclear armed, communist dictatorship. ... Perhaps our Compassionate Conservative-in-Chief will bring our absent Democrat Congress some 'Made in (communist) China' souvenir t-shirts: 'Bush went to Beijing and all I got was this lousy five week, paid vacation.' "

You've gotta love to see a Republican throwing the word "communist" in the face of the leader of his party like a drink at a party...Remember to update your blogrolls and bookmarks with our new domain name, They gave us a republic...

Phill Kline Crashes

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Street) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:38:00 +0000

Crossposted from our new home blog,They gave us a republic...

Let's hope that this puts an end to the insanity of Phill Kline:
For the second time in two years, voters in Kansas have handed a stinging defeat to Phill Kline, an anti-abortion crusader who's reputation was made attempting to prosecute the state's abortion providers, first as state attorney general, and then, after he lost re-election to that post, as a district attorney in suburban Kansas City.

With all of the vote counted, Steve Howe trounced Kline by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent in unofficial returns to select the Republican candidate for district attorney in Johnson County, Kan., a well-off suburb of Kansas City. Howe garnered 33,260 votes to Kline’s 22,188, according to final unofficial returns.

Howe will face Democrat Rick Guinn in the Nov. 4 general election.

Abortion played a key role in the race because Kline is the first prosecutor since Roe v. Wade to file criminal charges against a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Abortion opponents from outside Kansas are thought to have spent more than $100,000 to keep Kline's candidacy alive.

At a gathering at the Sheraton Hotel with his wife and children at his side, Howe thanked his supporters and called on Republicans to come together for the November election.

I'm sure Blue Girl will have more when she awakens this morning...

--WS

Remember to update your blogrolls and bookmarks with our new domain name, They gave us a republic...

The Nightowl Newswrap

noreply@blogger.com (The Nightowl) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:45:00 +0000

Um...they do take pride in being ignorant The republicans in their current incarnation are the "Know Nothing's" of the 21st century. For four days the McCain campaign and the howler monkeys that desperately back his feeble run for the oval have been gleefully - and ignorantly - mocking Obama's suggestion that we all check our tire pressure to save a bit of energy. Even though the Energy department, auto manufacturers, NASCAR and all sorts of other experts on such matters point out that Obama's suggestion is spot on. "They're lying about what my energy plan is," said Obama. "They're making fun of a step that every expert says would reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." Way to grasp the obvious there, Barack.

The dumbassery of David Brooks is rivaled only by his banality Someone tell that mo-ron that watching the national polls is a mugs game, since the popular vote doesn't determine the presidency. If you look at the state polls, you will find your landslide. Dumbass.

Memo to Faux Noise...there is no KFC in Fallujah. Wonder if Doocy will retract his assertion?

First he calls her a c*nt, then tries to turn her out topless at a biker rally? Yesterday in a campaign stop at the Sturgis biker rally, McCain offered up Cindy for the Miss Buffalo Chip contest. Something tells me neither of them are quite sure what that particular event entails...Click the link. Josh has all the details. Personally, she's a bit high maintenance for a wet t-shirt contest. Bedhead Barbie is more the catfight kind.

Stealing someone's identity gets more brazen every year: The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had charged 11 people in connection with the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. It is believed to be the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. The charges include conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and identity theft. Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens, while the others are from places such as Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus and China. "So far as we know, this is the single largest and most complex identity theft case ever charged in this country," said Attorney General Michael Mukasey. "It highlights the efforts of the Justice Department to fight this pernicious crime and shows that, with the cooperation of our law enforcement partners around the world, we can identify, charge and apprehend even the most sophisticated international computer hackers."

Another Sunni leader killed along with two US troops: A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Monday, the first deadly attack against American troops in the capital in nearly a month, and gunmen killed one of the senior leaders of a U.S.-allied Sunni group fighting militants south of the capital. The U.S. military said another American soldier was wounded when the blast struck a U.S. patrol at about 9:30 a.m. in eastern Baghdad. The area was the site of fierce clashes and frequent roadside bombings blamed on Shiite militiamen before a cease-fire by anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The soldiers were the first to be killed in Baghdad since July 8, when a roadside bomb killed Spc. William McMillan III, a 22-year-old Army medic from Lexington, Ky., and wounded five other soldiers in the western neighborhood of Amariyah, a Sunni area. As of Monday, Aug. 4, 2008, at least 4,131 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Tragedy on K2: Limping through ice on frostbitten feet, the last survivor of the mountaineering disaster that killed 11 climbers on K2 reached base camp Tuesday as cloud and snow prevented a helicopter rescue. "Now I really realize that everyone here has died," said Marco Confortola, who was stranded on the world's second highest peak after an ice fall nearly four days ago. "I am happy to be alive," the Italian climber told the Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, during a phone call from base camp. K2, which straddles Pakistan and China in the Karakoram range, is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. K2's knife-edged ridges and icy slopes are steeper and prone to both avalanches and sudden and severe storms.

Iraq asks for doctors to return: The Health Ministry has appealed to Iraqi physicians who fled the country due to violence to return to their jobs because security has improved, an official said Sunday. Dr. Essam Namiq, a deputy minister of health, said more than 165 Iraqi doctors have responded and resumed their work over the past 20 days, and he expected more than 90 percent to return this year. The violence of the past five years, much of which targeted professionals, "had forced the majority of the Iraqi doctors to abandon their hospitals and clinics" Namiq told a press conference in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

Yes, but could they close the gulf long enough to cause a major world oil shock? Pentagon said Tuesday that any move by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz would be "self-defeating" because its weak economy is so heavily dependent on oil revenues. "Shutting down the Strait, closing down the Persian Gulf, would be sort of a self-defeating exercise," said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary. "That doesn't say anything about whether we tolerate such a thing to happen." Morrell's comments came in response to a warning by the new head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that Iran could easily close the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil passes. General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced Monday that Iran has successfully tested an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometers (180 miles.) "And given the equipment our armed forces have, an indefinite blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be very easy," Jafari said on state television.

Russians warned on South Ossetia: Washington Tuesday urged Moscow to avoid provocation in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, after a diplomat said Russia was prepared to defend its citizens living there in case of conflict. "We don't believe that now is the time for any parties to be acting in a provocative way," said US State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. "We believe that the violence should stop and all parties should begin a discussion so that they can move forward towards settling the situation," he added. Gallegos' statement followed a comment by Moscow's negotiator on South Ossetia, ambassador-at-large Yury Popov, that Russia would intervene in the separatist region if its citizens were in danger. "If events develop in the worst possible way, with the use of force, Russia will not be able to stand by seeing as Russian citizens live in South Ossetia," Popov was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency. South Ossetia has evacuated hundreds of women and children to Russia over the past few days after six people were killed on Friday by sniper and mortar fire from Georgian positions, the rebel province's government said. Georgia has denied readying for war and said there is no major evacuation. One reason for hope--Secretary Rice appears to not be part of these negotiations, at least, so far...

Is the era of the big commute over? It sure seems like it should be: The "end of the exurbs" trend narrative story has hit the Washington Post front page, with a very good article by Eric ("War on Drivers") Weiss. As we well know, families just aren't moving out to the fringe of the metropolitan area for cheap housing yet grueling commutes; "the days of building giant houses on former soybean fields on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas are over." Weiss not only identifies the trend but delves into the causes, and gets them right: Since the end of World War II, government policy has funded and encouraged the suburban lifestyle, subsidizing highways while starving mass transit... Federal spending is about 4 to 1 in favor of highways over transit. Today, more than 99 percent of the trips taken by U.S. residents are in cars or some other non-transit vehicle, largely as a result of decades of such unbalanced spending. I would never have guessed the number to be as high as 99 percent--that's an outrage.

Finally, from the just plain shut the fuck up and quit being a hypocrite files: John McCain on the recently recessed Congress: Earlier in the day, McCain told a biker rally, “Tell em’ to come back and get to work. When I’m president of the United States, I’m not going to let them go on vacation.” This strikes me as amusing for two reasons: the hypocrisy and the misplaced priorities. On the latter point, McCain hasn’t been “willing” to leave the campaign trail for anything, but all of a sudden, he’s ready to head back to his day job to tackle a coastal drilling bill that wouldn’t do any good anyway. Brad Johnson noted a handful of the bills McCain could have come back to the Hill to vote on, but decided he couldn’t be bothered.

– 4/26/07: Iraq War funding (passed 51-46)
– 6/7/07: Immigration reform (filibustered 34-61)
– 6/11/07: Condemning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (filibustered 53-38)
– 7/26/07: Homeland Security (passed 85-8)
– 8/3/07: Wiretapping (FISA) authorization (passed 60-28)
– 9/27/07: Children’s health insurance (passed 69-30; vetoed)
– 2/6/08: Stimulus package with support for renewable energy (filibustered by one vote)
– 4/23/08: Fair Pay Act (filibustered 56-42)
– 5/22/08: The 21st-Century GI Bill (passed 75-22)
– 6/6/08: Global warming legislation (filibustered 48-36)

McCain wouldn’t leave the campaign trail for any of these votes, but he is willing to head back for a pointless debate on a pointless drilling initiative. It helps highlight just how serious McCain is about governing — or in this case, not. As always, Steve Benen chronicles the follies.