"Belched into the right-wing echo-chamber"

In law, this would create a mistrial.
Greta Van Susteren
No, it would get the lawyer fired.
Keith Olbermann

The right-wing noise machine is in full bluster mode because they "just learned" that Vice Presidential moderator Gwen Ifill is writing a book titled titled Breakthough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama News of the book appeared in print as early as July 23, weeks before the debate moderators were even chosen and agreed upon by both campaigns.

But I digress. Here is Keith Olbermann telling us what he really thinks about Ifill's so-call conflict of interest, among other things....

"If the McCain campaign, which could have found out about it at any time over the last two months and nine days by simply googling her name, if that campaign really didn't know anything about this book until Greta Van Susteren emailed them last night...

They're morons!"

The Soup covers Kathy Hilton's response to McCain

Now I'm not a political analyst, but when your candidate for president is wrong and Kathy Hilton is right....
Joel McHale

I wish I'd found this when the McCain's Britney/Paris add was still running, but this clip still cracks me up...

Bad gas holiday

This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s an idea designed to get them through an election.
Barack Obama

It turns out that economists think the so-called gas tax holiday is a really bad idea.

I think it's crap. It's the kind of shameless pandering I expect from McCain, and now Clinton gave me one more reason to be glad I voted for Obama. Regarding the gas tax holiday, Obama had this to say:

It would last for three months and it would save you on average half a tank of gas, $25 to $30. That’s what Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are proposing to deal with the gas crisis. This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s an idea designed to get them through an election.

Spot on, as usual.

Better yet, many economists don't think we'll even see that half-tank of gas. Suspending the gas tax won't have any effect on the gasoline supply. However, demand will increase and with it, the price at the pump. We will end up spending just as much money on gasoline, except now more of that money goes to oil producers.

As Paul Krugman said on this issue, "It’s Econ 101: the tax cut really goes to the oil companies."

The old McCain, he ain't what he used to be.

My friends, this is a defining issue...
John McCain
...until you get the nomination.
Keith Olbermann

Gone is the John McCain of 2000, that's for damn sure.

This is what I was thinking as I read this Washington Post story about McCain's recent tax policy reversals. It is not really surprising. He became a cheerleader for Bush's failed foreign policy, so why not do the same with fiscal policies?

It is just one more sign of his last-chance, stop-at-nothing bid for the presidency. Clearly he wants it badly, and he'll do whatever he thinks it takes. Hell, he has even welcomed the masterminds of the 2000 smear campaign against him.

None of this surprises me, not anymore. I knew McCain had no shame whatsoever since February. That's when he voted against a bill that would require American interrogators (including those in the CIA) to follow the Amry Field Manual. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow discussed this at the time:

As late as November 2007 McCain argued that torture is a "defining issue" for America and that the Army Field Manual should be standard. So much for that.

McCain has abandoned so many "defining issues" that one wonders if anything is sacred. I seems like the maverick image is nothing more than a convenient facade, cast aside once it outlived its usefulness.

Which way is the trend really going?

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.

Thomas Jefferson
Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

Governor Mike Huckabee
Michigan campaign speech, January 14, 2008

A popular theme of the radical right is the so-call secularization of America. The standard argument is that left-wing atheists are systematically removing God from its traditional and historical place in the laws and governance United States. So let us examine the historical trend, shall we?

• 1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted. It includes mention of the "laws of Nature," "Nature's God," and a "Creator" that is the source of our unalienable rights.
• 1782 - The motto E pluribus unum (from many, one) is adopted the motto written on the scroll held by the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States. This is the original motto used on U.S. coinage, beginning in 1795.
• 1787 - The U.S. Constitution is ratified. Drafters rejected religious language and any religious qualification to hold office, and as ratified it contained no mention of a deity whatsoever.
• 1791 - The First Amendment becomes law when Virginia becomes the 10th state to ratify the Bill of Rights. It guarantees the free practice or religion and forbid laws that favor or forbid specific religious beliefs.
• 1796 - Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli states that the "government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...."
• 1802 - Jefferson's writes the now famous letter to the Danbury Baptists describing the separation of church and state as guaranteed by the First Amendment
• 1861 - Rev. M. R. Watkinson petitions then Secretary of the Treasury Samuel P. Chase for "recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins." The motto "In God We Trust" is ultimately chosen and begins appearing on U.S. currency in 1864.
• 1863 - Several protestant Christian organizations, most notably the National Reform Association, begin attempts to amend to U.S. Constitution. The goal is to re-word the preamble to say, "We, the People of the United States [recognizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as the paramount rule, and Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord of all], in order to form a more perfect union...."
• 1892 - The original pledge of allegiance is written by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. It is undergoes slight modifications until the 1925. None of these versions mention God at all. The final version in 1925 was as follows: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."
• 1954 - Congress votes to add the phrase "under God" to the pledge, in part as a response to the threat of atheistic Communism. The family of Fancis Bellamy lobbied Congress against the change. The same year, Congress also moves to officially include the motto "In God we Trust" on all U.S. currency.
• 2001 - The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is established by executive order by George W. Bush. By 2004 religious organizations are receiving billions of federal dollars without a strict separation between their religious activities and social service programs, and despite discriminatory hiring on religious grounds.
• 2008 - Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee speaks in favor of amending the Constitution to reflect "God's standards."

As adopted, the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution was completely secular. Yet since that time, there has been a slow march toward adding religious, and in particular Christian, language to our laws. That's the real trend, and it definitely concerns me.

New Jersey to Abolish the Death Penalty

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.
Gandalf the Grey
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

I have just begun reading The Lord of the Rings with my oldest. In a coincidence of timing, I read aloud these words a day after the State Senate voted to abolish the death penalty and a day before the Assembly followed suit. This is the most eloquent yet succinct argument against the death penalty I can think of.

One to talk

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Luke 6:41 (NIV)

Today President Bush declared of baseball that "steroids have sullied the game." Honestly! He's one to one to talk! As a former baseball owner, he was a direct involved. Does he expect us to believe that the use of performance enhancing drugs began when he was no longer owner of the Texas Rangers? Now, in imitation of Captain Renault, he tells us he is shocked, shocked to learn there is steroid use in baseball. Please.

What's more, he has the gall to make such statements amid a flurry of scandals wherein his administration used lies, deception, and worse to further their personal and political agendas. What steroids has done to the reputation of baseball is nothing to what he has done to the reputation of the United States.

Lies and really big fonts

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Mark Twain

I got one of those e-mails today. You know the ones. The text of the message indented several levels due to incessant forwarding. "FW:" prefaces the subject which, in this instance, is "9/11." You can tell where this is going immediately. It starts out subtly:

It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.

There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning.

DUN DUUNN!! Prepare to awestruck! I'm surprised it didn't say "There was poor Ollie...," but score points for getting "Got and country" in their early. It's important to set the tone. I am reproducing most of the original format of centered italics, but I'll skip the 18 pt. Arial. I think they showed admirable restraint in avoiding bold and underlined. It continues:

He was being drilled by a senator; "Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?"

Ollie replied, "Yes, I did, Sir."

The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, "Isn't that just a little excessive?"

"No, sir," continued Ollie.

"No? And why not?" the senator asked.

"Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir."

"Threatened? By whom?" the senator questioned.

"By a terrorist, sir" Ollie answered.

"Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?"

Chuckle. What terrorist, indeed? Okay, you know what the answer is going to be. Hung's trained monkey knows what the answer is going to be. The sender, however, wants to make sure you understand that this is big revelation, so they pull out all the stops and reveal in 27 pt.:

"His name is Osama bin Laden, sir" Ollie replied.

Oh. My. God. Are you dumbstruck? Well wait, there's more. After such an earth shattering revelation, you need a little comic relief:

At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn't pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn't. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?" the senator asked.

"Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of", Ollie answered.

Hehe. That dumb senator couldn't even pronounce the name. Funny stuff. Heck, most people couldn't pronounce it back then. It's such a tongue twister. Say it three times fast. See how hard that is? But now, the tone becomes grave again. In an interesting stylistic departure, the author chooses this moment to switch Comic Sans MS, but those trusty italics are not abandoned.

"And what do you recommend we do about him?" asked the senator.

"Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."

The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.

Okay, did you get that? Oliver North wanted to assassinate Osama bin Laden in 1987, and was ridiculed for it by the senator questioning him at the time. Hmmm. I wonder if the senator was a democrat or republican.... Well, have no fear, that question will be answered:

By the way, that senator was Al Gore!

Al Gore, ladies and gentlemen! To drive this point home, the color changes to maroon. (I use maroon Comic Sans MS for e-mail - don't know that says about me.) For good measure, Al Gore's name is in 27 pt. I guess that's because it's also hard to pronounce. So there it is: Gore laughed away the threat of bin Laden back in 1987.

I probably don't have to tell you that this is all a load of crap, and Snopes explains in detail how completely false it is. Still, one fabrication just isn't enough for our sender. Hot on the heals of the Al Gore bombshell, we get more:

Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called "political prisoners."

However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their
hands. The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, "insisted" that all prisoners be released.

Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center.

Here we go. More centered italics. More 18 and 27 pt. fonts. More democrats turning a blind eye to terrorists. I like the little, "Thus..." part at the end. Almost biblical. One would wonder why such a bombshell would go unnoticed. Don't you worry. All the answers are right here:

This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.

It was censored in the US from all later reports.

If you agree that the American public should be made aware of this fact, pass this on.

There it is. The cover-up. The conspiracy. The information you were not meant to know. It's 27 pt. It's maroon. It's italicised. It's bold. It's underlined.

And it's still bullshit. No matter which font you use.

Why the big post? It's not like this is the first e-mail like this I've seen. It's clearly fake, and Snopes is full of similar fabrications. Yet as laughable as it is to me, it wasn't forwarded as a joke. It was forwarded by someone who thinks it's true and sought to tell others. It's bad enough when someone cooks up this garbage, but it's even worse when people receive it with no critical scrutiny whatsoever.

And there's one more thing. Besides scaling down the fonts, I left off the pictures. We've all seen photos of the planes striking and the towers collapsing. I didn't need them here. But I will include this one, from the end of the message:

There's the final insult. The memory of those lost with symbols of peace and love invoked in service of some little jerk's political slimefest.

Senate caves to Bush. Again.

One thing I have learned in my time in politics is that if one of the parties is shameless, the other party cannot afford to be spineless.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg*

What the hell? Recent Senate hearings sought to determine whether the Bush administration strong-armed then Attorney General Ashcroft into authorizing illegal domestic surveilance. One would think they didn't like Bush/Cheney spying on Americans.

So, when Bush demands they vote to expand his powers before going on vacation, what do they do? They give him exactly what he demanded. Wow. That's showing them. You really dealt a decisive blow with that one. Geez!

* Because the vote was last night, it looks like we won't know the roll-call until Monday. I've heard that Lautenberg and Menendez both voted against, but nothing official.
UPDATE: Lautenberg and Menendez both voted Nay.

More lies

Your tongue should be embarrassed, you're a threat to mankind.
L.L. Cool J
"That's A Lie"

Six days after receiving a report that FBI agents obtained personal information they were not entitled to have, Alberto Gonzales assured the Senate intelligence committee that the FBI had not abused its Patriot act powers. It wasn't the first report either - it was one of maybe half a dozen such he received in the three months preceding his testimony. I predict neither shock nor outrage at this revelation because no one will be the least bit surprised.

Check out the full story.

Net radio in danger

Lights out guerilla Radio
Turn that shit up
It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now
Rage Against the Machine

I've started listenning to YRock on XPN at work. Whenever you first launch the stream, you get a message encouraging you to visit SaveNetRadio.org. Here's the deal: the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden by 300 to 1200. Most Internet radio stations won't be able to afford this and will either go offline, or be forced into deals with record companies giving them control of programming content. Particularly unfair is that Internet radio royalties are already twice that of sattelite radio.

I have to admit, I was totally oblivious to this issue until now. I even missed the day of silence when all Internet radio stations went intentionally dark. *Rob did put up a post about this issue as it pertains to podsafe music. Check it out.

Also, check out SaveNetRadio to learn more.

Shivved

We enveloped our President in 2001. And those who did not believe he should have been elected—indeed those who did not believe he had been elected—willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.
Keith Olbermann

Sharon and Rob both posted this. Still, I wanted to highlight this quote that so accurately and succinctly illustrates what this administration has done to the American people.

Gotta post something...

Before this is over the Vice President may start going door to door asking if anyone wants to hear his story.
Keith Olbermann

Okay, if I want to stay out of Rob's crypt, I better post something. You can't go wrong with Olmermann's Worst Person in the World, and yesterday's was no exception, with runner-up Dick Cheney still, still beating the Iraq - al-Qaida link.

And yes, I got the 8 thinge meme going around, and yes, I'll get to it at some point.

Priorities

A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.
Theodore Roosevelt

When I look at some people's priorities, I really start to wonder if we're not all just doomed.

The Center of NJ Life reported today on the abysmal turnout for school budget elections yesterday. Unfortunately, this is par for the course. As for the results, where do I start?

In 2005 I voiced my support of every person who votes, regardless of how they voted. I still hold to that sentiment. I applaud everyone who voted, really I do, but, they're not making it easy.

Yesterday voters in Hightstown and East Windsor voted down a budget item that would have hired some additional teachers for educational programs that would go beyond the core curriculum mandated by law. However, they voted to keep funding courtesy transportation - busing that goes beyond what is mandated by law.

More transportation. Less education. That's our priority.

Thirty-two days later

I can have a complete conversation on my own, and you know to stay out of it. You're in your own anyway....
Sharon

It has been a long conversation with myself. Here are a few of the things I would have blogged if I wasn't totally lame:

• 7 November: C'mon baby! C'mon! Daddy needs a new goverment! C'mon!
• 8 November: Woo-hoo!
• 9 November: Now what?
• Details of converting old Christmas tapes to digital format because the cars don't have tape players anymore.
• A post about a new contractor hired for a project I'm leading at work, and the... um... spirited debates we've been having about how stuff should be built.
• Several fun podcasts, including "How to Succedd in Evil."
• A paragraph dancing around the ugly fact that our cats have destroyed the floor in our office. A paragraph describing the 2-3 day project of replacing floor boards and cleaning the carpet. A paragraph (or two) on how I had to replace the door, and the frame, and the sub-floor. A paragraph cursing my home's previous owner and the fact they didn't use caulk.
• How I put the Pythagorean Theorem to practical use.

That's all I can come up with for a synopsis. I'm a little foggy right now from all the carpet cleaning chemicals. I will endeavor to post something more substantial soon, perhaps elaborating on the Pythagorean Theorem bit.

P.S. I'm listenning George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? and I'm wondering if the funniest part is the title. I'm a little dissappointed there.

"Big Fat Idiot" Ain't the Half of It!

You absolute horror of a human being.
Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear)
As Good as It Gets

Rush Limbaugh sought new depths to sink to yesterday when he accused Michael J. Fox of faking Parkinson's disease. The Washington Post story by reporter David Montgomery begins this way:

Possibly worse than making fun of someone's disability is saying that it's imaginary. That is not to mock someone's body, but to challenge a person's guts, integrity, sanity.

That showed some pretty impressive restraint. I guess, "Could Limbaugh be any more of an asshole?" wouldn't have made it past the editor.

Update: My hero Keith Olbermann voted Rush Monday's Worst Person in the World.

Goodbye, Habeas Corpus

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.
Keith Olbermann

I have two things for your consideration now that the Military Commissions Act is law:

First, from WBEZ in Chicago, This American Life episode 310: Habeas Schmaebeas. It is a detailed account of how our government has denied Habeas at Guantanamo Bay and the gross injustice that has resulted. To listen, Click Here.

Next Keith Olbermann expresses the outrage we should all feel in this week's Special Comment:

Text Version

More lies: Bush and so-called Faith-Based Initiatives

There are... there are... there are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives.
President George W. Bush
Baby, you ain't kidding.
Bill (David Carradine) in Kill Bill: Volume 2

Keith Olbermann's open war on Bush is his report Tempting Faith, the new book from David Kuo, second-in-command of the Office of Faith-Based Intiatives. It is a detailed account of how the office is merely a tool to sucker evangelical Christians out of their votes.

I'm scooping Rob S. on this one. Here's the video:

The Scotty approach to deficit reduction

Kirk: Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?
Scotty: How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek fans accross America had to be pleased yesterday with Bush's homage to Commander Montgomery Scott. The AP article does not quite capture the absurdity the way NPR's David Greene did in this Morning Edition segment.

Eastern Organic update: time running out.

Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you
Lynyrd Skynyrd

I missed this story when it came out in June.

The DEP if piling up the fines against Eastern Organic Resources because of run-off and the stench from their Woodhue Composting Center in Burlington County. The latest fines total $955K with another $81K penalty for generating income while breaking the law. I've been watching this one deteriorate (or perhaps decompose) for months.

Even in the latest article, the concept sounds like a great idea:

Eastern Organic Resources takes in tons of rotting fruits and vegetables, stale bread, grass, leaves and other perishable organic materials and mixes them with dirt to produce a nutrient-rich compost and topsoil. The company then sells the product to golf courses, garden centers, nurseries and builders.

Sometimes a great idea isn't enough. It would seem they just cannot make it work in a way that protects the water in local streams and the nostrils on local residents. It's a shame.

For their part, Eastern Organic Resources continues to assert that they could fix the problem by enclosing the composting center, but the state won't let them implement this solution. I have a feeling it's not that simple. At least I hope it's not.

Meanwhile, everyone is awaiting the outcome of formal proceedings to shut the operation down entirely. Things look pretty grim at this point.