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Selected News For May 9 – May 15

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items we might otherwise miss.

If you do post an article, please follow these guidelines as much as possible:

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Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines are susceptible to being edited or deleted.

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

93 Responses to “Selected News For May 9 – May 15”

  1. BillK
    May 9, 2009 at 1:39 am

    Your tax dollars at work, from Fox News:

    U.S. Government Funds $400,000 Study on Gay Sex in Argentina Bars

    Government researchers are spending more than $400,000 in taxpayer money to hit the bars in Argentina.

    The National Institutes of Health are paying researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior while drunk — and just what can be done about it.

    Doctors and specialists from the New York Psychiatric Institute are using the generous grant from NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to help tailor HIV prevention programs to work at bars and clubs.

    Though public health officials say that HIV/AIDS rates are higher in Washington, D.C., than in some parts of West Africa, U.S. government funds are going to help curb dangerous liaisons in Argentina’s capital.

    The study began in September 2008, according to an online abstract, and has already cost taxpayers $198,776, NIH documents show.

    Targeting public venues in Buenos Aires where men meet, alcohol is consumed and sexual behavior occurs,” the project’s overview explains, “the goal of this 2-year exploratory study is to understand the various factors that contribute to the creation of a high risk sexual space.”

    That means NIH researchers will have as many as 730 nights on the town for careful observation and interaction.

    “To that end, the study seeks to describe the relative contribution of physical characteristics of the place” — social scientists call this the “vibe” — and other factors like “patron characteristics” and “social dynamics” that can lead to risky behavior when mixed with a few parts alcohol.

    NIH officials say the study is doing valuable work to address high HIV infection rates among homosexual men in Argentina, and that plans developed there could be translated for use in the United States and elsewhere. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....tina-bars/

    You can’t make this stuff up.

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      May 9, 2009 at 6:33 pm

      Why are we throwing away our money to study the sexual habits in another country? I didn’t think one had to be an Einstein to figure out that since the beginning of time such behaviors of alcohol and sex go hand in hand. You don’t go to a church, synagogue, etc. looking for some strange. You go to a bar where the liquor flows and where the inhibitions are low because of the alcohol. Human sexual nature has a proven track record that most sexual activity will be initiated at a bar or club.

    • caligirl9
      May 9, 2009 at 6:33 pm

      Don’t we have plenty of gay bars here in San Francisco?
      Yeah TOTUS you go and cut the budget … it’s crap like this that needs to be cut, not defense!

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      May 9, 2009 at 6:36 pm

      caligirl9, why are you surprised by the location of the study? If everything else is being outsourced from our country then why not this?

    • caligirl9
      May 9, 2009 at 6:44 pm

      Thanks 12 Guage, I choked on my late lunch. Good point—our own gays aren’t good enough to study, the quality of the product is poor and it costs too much money.

      All in the name of science.

      Now excuse me while I Heimlich myself on the back of a chair! Sandwich down the trachea can really mess a person up!

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      May 9, 2009 at 7:29 pm

      caligirl9, Sorry about that. My oldest daughter often tells me that I make the most humorous remarks when she’s about to take a sip or a bite to eat. I’d promise to carefully choose my words but I guess it’s my cynical, smart @ss nature against liberalism that forbids me to do so.

    • caligirl9
      May 9, 2009 at 7:46 pm

      I just need to stop eating/snacking/drinking whenever I read this board!

      Never choose your words carefully, 12 Gauge. They are right on. Pun intended.

    • BatK
      May 13, 2009 at 9:48 am

      So we can’t fund our own defense of this country or reward the men and women who have fought to defend it, but we can blow $400,000 on some SEX study in another country? And what kills me is that more people are passionate about who’s getting kicked off American Idol or Dancing with the Stars instead of the fact we have socialists doing everything they can to corrupt this country from without and within.

  2. BillK
    May 9, 2009 at 1:44 am

    The attack on Miss California USA continues.

    From Fox News:

    Carrie Prejean Encouraged to Surrender Sash, Declines Offer to Appear in ‘Diversity’ PSA

    By Hollie McKay

    In the midst of the mounting mayhem surrounding Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, the pageant’s state directors Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler rallied together a bevy of beauty queens (including the reigning Miss Teen USA Chelsea Gilligan as well as former pageant princesses Miss Universe 1997 Brook Lee, Miss USA 2003 Susie Castillo, Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey, Miss Teen USA 2006 Katie Blair, former Miss Californias Raquel Beezley and Tamiko Nash and even Miss USA 2009 judge Claudia Jordan) to film a PSA entitled “I Believe … The Beauty of California.”

    The gorgeous girls gathered together at a studio in Santa Monica on Thursday to record the message (expected to hit the web next week) which is aimed at promoting the diversity of California and includes such lines as “I believe when I express my opinion I have a responsibility to do it in a way that respects others who may not agree … I believe in love … I believe when two people with opposite views communicate with love and respect both points of view can be heard … I believe no one should be silenced if they are speaking from their heart with respect … I believe in the beauty of California.”

    “This (PSA) has been in the works forever, but it got pushed to the front burner as we started to realize there was a vacuum sucking the life out of us. We were starting to feel that people might not be seeing our vision clearly right now,” Miss California Co-Director Keith Lewis told Tarts at the shoot. “We gathered these amazing women; these are the empowered spokespeople of our organization that are constantly in the front lines as the shining example of what this organization does. For us in state of California, its all about diversity, beauty, landscape and tourism. These are the women that are committed to that platform.”

    However their current controversial crown-holder, Carrie Prejean, was notably absent from the shoot.

    “We reached out; we tried to get her to be here. Unfortunately her schedule wasn’t permitting with her new outreach programs she was involved with today with some PR stuff she was doing,” Lewis said. “We miss her, we wish she was here. We would definitely like to get her home and get her working on the business at hand.”

    According to a rep for Prejean, she had a “prior personal commitment otherwise she would have been glad to participate.”

    And at least for the time being, the 21-year-old has not had her tiara taken from her despite the release of a second lingerie snapshot (which she claimed was electronically-altered) on Thursday. A pageant insider also said that they were warned somebody was planning to post far more graphic photos of the blonde beauty in coming days (her rep shot down rumors that any more undoctored snaps even exist) thus the final dethroning decision is still being deliberated upon by Miss California officials and the Miss Universe Organization. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519468,00.html

    If you haven’t seen the “second” photo, it’s essentially the first photo, flipped in Photoshop.

    Nothing to see here, but that won’t stop the news from running with it.

    • Anonymoose
      May 10, 2009 at 7:38 am

      ….as we started to realize there was a vacuum sucking the life out of us…..

      That vacuum would be political correctness, and standing up on a stage repeating it’s mantra isn’t going to make things any better.

  3. BillK
    May 9, 2009 at 1:50 am

    The next step on the road to a fully socialized banking system, from the AP:

    AP Sources: Obama wants Fed to be finance supercop

    By Anne Flaherty

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House told industry officials on Friday that it is leaning toward recommending that the Federal Reserve become the supercop for “too big to fail” companies capable of causing another financial meltdown.

    According to officials who attended a private one-hour meeting between President Barack Obama’s economic advisers and representatives from about a dozen banks, hedge funds and other financial groups, the administration made it clear it was not inclined to divide the job among various regulators as has been suggested by industry and some federal regulators.

    “The idea of having a council of regulators was pretty much vetoed,” said one participant.

    Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who briefly attended the meeting but did not identify the Fed specifically as his top choice, told the group that one organization needs to be held responsible for monitoring systemwide risk. He said such a regulator should be given better visibility into all institutions that pose a risk to the financial system, regardless of what business they are in.

    “Committees don’t make decisions,” Geithner told the group, according to another participant.

    Officials from the Treasury Department and National Economic Council, which hosted the meeting, told participants that the Fed was considered the most likely candidate for the job, according to several officials who attended or were briefed on the discussions.

    The administration officials said a legislative proposal would likely be sent to Capitol Hill in June with the expectation that the House Financial Services Committee, led by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would consider the measure before the July 4th recess. …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....N_SUPERCOP

    With the Government as sole determiner of which businesses are “too big to fail,” this in essence gives the Fed carte blanche to investigate any financial institution’s books or business practices for any reason the Fed feels like.

    Nice.

  4. BillK
    May 9, 2009 at 3:37 am

    News you’ll never see in the MSM.

    From the Alaska State Governor’s web site:

    Another Ethics Complaint Dismissed

    Governor Sarah Palin Cleared of Accusations

    May 8, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin has been cleared of accusations that she violated the state ethics act in forming a political action committee and in traveling to Indiana near the end of the legislative session to make a speech to a right-to-life group.

    The investigator for the State Personnel Board dismissed the ethics complaint filed by Sondra Tompkins on the basis of the law only, requiring no need for further evidence or a hearing.

    The governor’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, noted that of 14 ethics complaints filed against the governor or her staff, nine have now been resolved without any finding that the law was broken. Another five complaints are still pending.

    “This one was so clear-cut that all the investigator had to do was read the complaint and compare it to the ethics statute,” Van Flein said. “Ms. Tompkins simply did not allege any facts that constituted a violation of the law.

    “Moreover, the investigator states that the governor has a First Amendment right to speak out on issues.” …

    http://www.gov.state.ak.us/news.php?id=1828

    Go, Sarah.

  5. BillK
    May 9, 2009 at 4:44 am

    The tolerant left at work.

    From the San Francisco Chronicle:

    Documentary purports to rip GOP’s closet doors

    By Carla Marinucci

    California GOP Rep. David Dreier and a number of other politicians are the unwilling stars of a controversial new documentary with an explosive premise – it’s time to blow open the closet door on prominent politicians who have hidden their homosexuality while actively working against gay causes.

    The film “Outrage,” which opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco, presents interviews and documentation charging that a number of prominent legislators – including Dreier, the U.S. representative from San Dimas (Los Angeles County), GOPFlorida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Democratic New York Mayor Ed Koch – have remained closeted while publicly opposing legislation on issues such as same-sex marriage, HIV/AIDS funding, and gays in the military.

    Kirby Dick, the film’s director, told The Chronicle on Thursday that “it’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the responsibility of journalists and filmmakers to report on hypocrisy wherever they see it.

    “And just because it involves gay sexuality does not mean it should be off-limits.”

    The passage of Prop. 8 – the anti-same-sex-marriage initiative approved by voters in November, he said, has also fueled “a new urgency … a wake-up call” on gay civil rights issues.

    None of the lawmakers named in the film has publicly responded to the film’s charges. But Dreir has in the past strongly dismissed such accusations as smear tactics.

    Although the film notes Dreier has had just a 17 percent positive record on gay civil rights issues, the director says that even in the gay community, “there’s a great deal of respect for him as a legislator.”

    Still, the purported outings that take center stage in “Outrage” have sparked a firestorm of controversy about the fairness and appropriateness of the tactic – and whether it signals a willingness of increasingly militant activists to make private lives fair game for political strategy.

    “I don’t see it as outing, I see it as equalizing,” said Geoff Kors of Equality California, a gay civil rights organization that unveiled two new ads and a statewide grassroots mobilization campaign to support marriage equality this week. “When a member of Congress goes on vacation and is on the beach holding hands with his partner, they’re out in public.

    “And if they want to get married, we’d love them to be a part of our campaign,” he said. …

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....17GI6S.DTL

    So essentially, you can deny it or not, but we know you’re gay.

    Yeah, that works.

    • canary
      May 10, 2009 at 6:01 am

      Well, either way it makes a statement. Just because I’ve worked with gay people, known gay people I respect, doesn’t mean I am for gay marriage. To say that gay’s aren’t allowed civil rights. Well, we aren’t going to let other abnormal marriages either. Incestual marriage shouldn’t be legalized even if it’s hetro. Adults and children should not be allowed marriage even if it’s hetro. Dog’s and Cat’s should not be allowed to marry. If gay couples can explain to their children anything goes when it comes to sex, than I’m sure the institution of marriage is not that important.

      I think we should be able to claim pets as dependents for taxes.

    • Anonymoose
      May 10, 2009 at 8:25 am

      Isn’t anyone whom they don’t like accused of being gay? It’s the “accuse others of what we do” mantra carried to an extreme since they seem to actually believe it.

  6. beautyofreason
    May 9, 2009 at 7:54 am

    More green hell for the little people. The left is now linking carbon taxation to job creation.

    From Bloomberg:

    White House’s Emanuel, Browner Talk Climate With CEOs

    “May 8 (Bloomberg) — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and top climate adviser Carol Browner met today with executives from companies including Duke Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips and Caterpillar Inc. who are pushing for business-friendly rules to cap greenhouse gases, officials said.

    Representatives from the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, or USCAP, a coalition of companies and environmental groups that seek limits on carbon-dioxide emissions, stressed the need to get a so-called cap-and-trade program approved by Congress this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Lawmakers are beginning to weigh the thorny specifics of a bill that would create a market for trading permits to release carbon-dioxide pollution. Obama, top congressional Democrats, some Republicans, members of USCAP and many other companies support a cap-and-trade system to help combat global warming and shift to a “clean” energy economy…

    Some cap-and-trade corporate allies, including Duke CEO Jim Rogers, and lawmakers from both parties have said the plan would amount to a tax increase falling most heavily on consumers whose power comes from coal, the most polluting power source.

    Still, support for the broad outlines of a cap-and-trade program has been increasing over the last several years. Proponents, including GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, say it will help the struggling U.S. economy revive while also cutting global warming pollution, reducing the risk of dangerous climate shifts.

    “It’s a jobs plan,” said Julia Bovey, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resource Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group and member of USCAP. “Having a clean energy sector that leads the rest of the world is the best shot we have of not having jobs shipped overseas.”

    Immelt and other business leaders say they want a government-mandated limit on carbon emissions so they know how to proceed with future business investments and also can profit from the transition to a new “clean” energy economy.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/a5cq9r21j_q4

    Yes, we not only want to destroy the planet but to stop Americans from having jobs. Taxing carbon in the private sector will make businesses more prosperous…according to the dear leader and “environmental advocates.”

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 9, 2009 at 10:20 am

      Sort of related–Watching PBS, I like their presentations on space exploration but the other stuff is too biased–I noted one of their “pre-show” commercials that they have where a representative from Exxon/Mobil states quite clearly they have invested 100 million dollars for a plant that removes excess CO2 from their products.

      I’m sitting there, blinking my eyes and wondering “Why in THE Hell….???”

      It’s as ludicrous as it is mystifying.

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      May 10, 2009 at 8:57 am

      Rusty,

      I’ve seen that ad also and it left me scratching my head too. Granted I’m no chemist but how do you remove CO2 from a hydrocarbon? Or I guess more accurately, why?

  7. caligirl9
    May 9, 2009 at 9:30 am

    So much wrong and scary in this … from today’s LA Times (online)

    Obama chooses Egypt for address to Muslims

    President Obama will deliver his promised address to Muslims worldwide from Egypt, a nation the White House considers key to improving relations in the Middle East…

    The speech will be June 4 during a trip that will also take Obama to Germany and France. Relations between Egypt and the United States have been tense at times, with the Bush administration calling on President Hosni Mubarak to make a commitment to democratic reforms and ease the repression of political dissidents…

    The choice calls to mind the address that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave in Cairo in 2005, in which she called for democracy in the Middle East and criticized Egypt for its intolerance of dissent.

    Obama is trying to start anew with Mubarak, who will be visiting the White House this month.

    The day after his address, Obama is expected to travel to the former Buchenwald concentration camp in Dresden, Germany. His great-uncle, Charles Payne, whom Obama often mentioned in his campaign speeches, took part in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a satellite labor camp of Buchenwald during World War II. Payne was a private first class in the 89th Infantry Division.

    On June 6, the president will take part in activities commemorating the 65th anniversary of D-day, the beginning of the Allied invasion of Europe.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....7402.story

    Concern #1: The Bush admin asked for Mubarak to make a commitment to democratic reforms, etc? What’s wrong with that? Ah, easing the repression of political dissidents—isn’t that something that could be TOTUS’ next step with all of us “right wing extremists?” So the subliminal message is “repression of political dissidents is good, as long as they are political dissidents expressing a view opposite of the current rulers in charge?”

    One step closer to socialism … dear leader knows what’s best.

    Concern #2: So TOTUS’ great-uncle is where the messiah learned about the military and is the reason he is qualified to be commander-in-chief (no caps on purpose). No wonder it took nearly a week for the U.S. to take care of that teenage pirate problem! (By the way, how is our little pirate doing here in the U.S., getting three meals a day?)

    What a travesty that a non-veteran socialist will be representing the U.S. at such a historical event (D-day)!

  8. caligirl9
    May 9, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    Steve, if this doesn’t fit S&L, please be merciful on me!

    This is from a series of investigative articles about how difficult it is to fire bad (or lawbreaking) teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

    In a nutshell, the union has the schools by the … well … you know. This whole thing is disgusting—the teachers’ union is preventing school administrators (and parents, at least those that care) from protecting their kids. It is the law to send your kids to school … and in some districts it’s a crapshoot if you kid gets a good caring competent teacher.

    From the LA Times, with links to previous articles.

    Accused of sexual abuse, but back in the classroom
    he 13-year-old on the witness stand looked to be an ordinary adolescent, her diffident smile unveiling a set of braces. Her attorney began gently, with questions about her favorite band and trips to the mall.

    Then he brought up “Mr. Ricardo” and second grade. The girl buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

    When her mother took the stand, she testified that the girl had not been the same since the day the teacher’s aide put his hands on her. “I just believe this whole thing changed her life,” the mother said. “I don’t see her so confident around people. . . . I believe she has no interests.”

    A jury late last year ordered the Los Angeles Unified School District to pay nearly $1.6 million to the families of three girls molested by Ricardo Guevara, who is now serving 15 years in prison for lewd acts with a child.

    But there was something the jury — and the public — was never told: This was the third set of accusations that Guevara had molested students. Twice before, when law enforcement officials had decided they lacked the evidence to win a criminal conviction, L.A. Unified officials had quietly put him back in the classroom.

    Guevara’s case fits a pattern, a Times investigation shows: Repeatedly, the district failed to follow up on sexual misconduct complaints against employees once police or prosecutors dropped criminal actions. Some ended up at new schools. In at least one instance — involving Guevara — the new principal had no idea of his history…

    http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....0273.story

    Times Investigation: Failure Gets a Pass

    http://www.latimes.com/news/lo......htmlstory

    I blame liberal judges, slimebag defense attorneys, and the teachers’ unions for this whole thing. Oversimplifying? Probably. No wonder our kids are failing in schools—they are busy dodging child molesters, learning liberal pablum from incompetent teachers who forget the kids are there to learn and not be indoctrinated.

    • proreason
      May 9, 2009 at 6:16 pm

      O’Reilly reported on a similar occurence in NYC last night.

      His point…..the Unions serve the tenured teachers, not students, not education, not the public, not the greater good. Hence, you get outrageous abuses, and worse and worse education for the children.

  9. Rusty Shackleford
    May 10, 2009 at 9:41 am

    Steroids and Pro Baseball

    A pretty good piece by the Philadelphia Inquirer

    http://www.philly.com/inquirer.....juice.html

    “By all indications, Manny Ramirez had no interest in helping clean up his sport. We know that now. We also know that baseball will go after any drug offender, no matter how big the name. The game’s policy against performance-enhancers is not perfect, but it’s working.”

    What really got me was his head coach’s comments at the last game when he spoke of Ramirez as a poor guy who “needed time to think about some things in order to deal with the embarrassment and humiliation”.

    After all, we wouldn’t want to hurt his widdle feelings, would we?

  10. Confucius
    May 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    Some inspiration from Forbes.com:

    Hedge Fund Chief Hits Back At Obama

    Liz Moyer, 05.05.09, 5:55 PM ET

    AQR Capital founder Clifford S. Asness is “aghast” at President Barack Obama’s comments criticizing the hedge funds that are battling the government’s proposed reorganization of Chrysler. He calls the comments “backwards” and “libelous.”

    The $20 billion Greenwich hedge fund group isn’t involved in the Chrysler situation, but in a two-and-a-half page letter sent Sunday night, Asness throws support behind the dissident hedge funds that are calling themselves Chrysler’s non-TARP creditors.

    The group, which argued Tuesday that its members be kept anonymous to all but the bankruptcy court judge in New York, were told they had to identify themselves by mid-morning Wednesday. Lawyers for the hedge funds say the group’s members have been vilified on message boards and called greedy speculators, criminals and vultures. Obama said last week he “does not stand with them.” They have received death threats.

    Critics of the government’s plan to reorganize Chrysler say it rewards junior debt holders at the expense of senior secured creditors, some of which have agreed to take 30 cents on the dollar for their investment. Senior creditors that have agreed to the plan include the big banks JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, all recipients of tens of billions of dollars from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. In other words, the government already has its hooks in them.

    The non-TARP creditors wanted 60 cents on the dollar. They have been criticized as greedy holdouts, with the Obama administration insinuating they are acting less than patriotically.

    Asness of AQR Capital (who says he is speaking for himself and not his company) says the hedge funds are acting as they should act. “It is the job and obligation of all investment managers, including hedge fund managers, to get their clients the most return they can. They are allowed to be charitable with their own money–and many are spectacularly so–but if they give away their clients’ money to share in the “sacrifice,” they are stealing,” he says in the letter.

    Obama’s plan, Asness contends, is essentially taking money from bondholders and transferring it to the United Auto Workers. Under the sale plan for Chrysler, a UAW health-care trust will receive a 55% stake in the bankrupt automaker (though no voting role on the board), while Italy’s Fiat will take control with a 20% stake. Labor unions supported Obama. “Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power,” he says. …

    Asness ends the letter by acknowledging the personal risks he takes by speaking out. “I am ready for my ‘personalized’ tax rate now.”

    http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/.....sness.html

    Is this great or what?

  11. Confucius
    May 11, 2009 at 9:14 am

    From the Associated Press:

    Black colleges will fight cut to federal program

    By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer
    Sun May 10, 7:06 pm ET

    Leaders of historically black colleges say they’ll fight a reduction in a federal program they call a financial lifeline at a time of economic distress for the schools and their students.

    President Barack Obama’s education budget, unveiled Thursday, included major spending increases in many areas — but didn’t include an extra $85 million that black institutions have received annually for the past two years thanks to a 2007 change to the student loan laws.

    That two-year-old program provided direct funds to federally recognized HBCUs — historically black colleges and universities. …

    A program supporting Native American tribal colleges would also see decreased funding, while one for institutions serving large numbers of Hispanic students would see an increase from $93 million to $98 million. …

    The historically black colleges and universities have been hit particularly hard by the recession, and HBCU leaders said this is no time to cut back on programs offering direct support to institutions that play an outsized role educating the neediest students.

    The 105 federally recognized HBCUs make up just 3 percent of U.S. colleges but account for nearly 20 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded to blacks, according to UNCF, the United Negro College Fund. However, some have struggled with low graduation rates. An AP analysis earlier this year found that, overall, black students at four-year HBCUs have lower graduation rates than black students at other schools. …

    Education Department officials said the additional $85 million the HBCU program enjoyed the last two years was temporary and that HBCUs shouldn’t have counted on it continuing.

    Lezli Baskerville, president and CEO the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, a group representing predominantly black colleges, said giving money directly to the colleges is justified considering “the nation’s sorry history of support for HBCUs.” She noted government provided more support favoring other kinds of institutions, like research universities.

    Ultimately, higher education officials believe Congress won’t let the funding decline. Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, said HBCUs have strong support in both parties and both houses of Congress.

    Even the administration sounded like it expected Congress to step in. …

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....k_colleges

    How typical.

    –Bush helps the minorities, and he is called a racist. Obama slaps the minorities, and he is called hope.
    –Government programs never end. Even the dysfunctional ones.
    –Racism is the fastest and most reliable way to get government money.
    –When it comes to needy minorities, it’s always the blacks and Hispanics.

  12. BillK
    May 11, 2009 at 9:33 am

    The “Freedom of the Press” folks at Gannett try to get someone else fired all while pretending he “deserves another chance.”

    From USA Today:

    CBS golf reporter Feherty’s comments join long line of gaffes

    By Michael Hiestand

    CBS golf reporter David Feherty now sits atop what might be TV sports’ oddest gaffe.

    Which, given the rich history of tasteless and usually job-ending flubs from sportscasters, is really saying something.

    Historic gaffes range from the ugly — think Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder’s breeding nonsense in 1988 — to the inane — Ben Wright on women’s anatomy and golf swings in 1995 — to the insensitive — like Golf Channel’s KellyTilghman last year suggesting Tiger Woods’ rivals “lynch” him in a “back alley” to slow him down.

    But unlike the usual gaffe — which can be defended by saying you just blurted something into a camera or, if it happened off-camera, just deny ever saying it — Feherty served up what might be the end of his on-air career in writing.

    Think pinning a target to your back and asking the firing squad if you’re close enough. In an article on former President George W. Bush moving to Dallas in D Magazine, he wrote: “If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with (U.S. House speaker) Nancy Pelosi, (U.S. Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.”

    Any U.S. soldier? What’s amazing: Having grown up in Northern Ireland, you’d think Feherty would be especially unlikely see political-motivated murders as comedic fodder.

    Sunday, CBS’ LeslieAnne Wade said nothing beyond CBS statements that Feherty made “an unacceptable attempt on humor” that CBS hadn’t “in any way condoned.” The PGA Tour, in a statement, said he’d gone “over the line” with “clearly inappropriate” comments.

    Feherty, in an e-mail Sunday, declined comment. In a statement released by his agent, Barry Terjesen, he said “the passage was a metaphor meant to describe how American troops felt about our 43rd president. In retrospect, it was inappropriate and unacceptable, and has clearly insulted Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, and for that, I apologize.” …

    http://www.usatoday.com/sports.....erty_N.htm

    I guess any is too broad a brush.

    Perhaps “any soldier that doesn’t already hate America the way Pelosi and Reid do” is more appropriate.

    Note these same news agencies felt that conservatives were overreacting by being offended at “comic” Sandra Bernhard’s remarks that were she to visit New York Bernhard would make sure she would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers.”

    The article also, of course, goes on to rehash Rush’s comments on ESPN back in 2003:

    That happened in 2003, when ESPN rookie Rush Limbaugh theorized that the media have been “very desirous that a black quarterback do well” on an NFL studio show where the comment went unchallenged and drew little publicity for a couple days.

    But when it did gain media attention — even presidential candidates weighed in — ESPN backed Limbaugh. Then-ESPN programmer Mark Shapiro defended him — “we brought Rush in for no-holds-barred opinion. Early on, he has delivered” — until the story just kept getting bigger. Then, ESPN quickly dumped Limbaugh.

    Funny how Limbaugh voluntarily resigning from a position becomes “being dumped” in the liberal mind.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 10:09 am

      This is the sort of Orwellian “thinkspeak” that goes back quite a ways. I remember Cosell’s “look at that monkey run” remark and honestly, it nevered even occurred to me that it was an kind of a racist remark, as Howard called lots of people monkeys and he revered good athletic talent, and I personally don’t believe Cosell had a racist bone in his body. That is, until they MADE IT SO.

      If you constantly go around looking for wrong, or what you think is wrong….you will always find it. Sadly, more the imagined than the real.

      In the past 100+days, not much has been made of “gaffes” made by Pelosi, BIDEN….BIDEN….and obama. They stick their feet in their mouths regularly but the adoring MSM and white apologists never seem to pick up on it.

      If I had a gun, with only two bullets and I got in an elevator with Brian Williams and Catie Couric. I would beat them bloody senseless with the gun and save the bullets for when Pelosi got on.

  13. BillK
    May 11, 2009 at 9:46 am

    God bless Dick Cheney – he continues to speak the truth.

    From the Washington Times:

    Limbaugh More Loyal to GOP Than Powell, Says Cheney

    By Sean Lengell

    Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday took a shot at former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell by accusing him of turning his back on Republicans, adding that conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh is a more loyal party member than the retired Army general.

    “If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh,” said Mr. Cheney on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

    Mr. Powell recently said that Republicans need to move to the center politically and said that Mr. Limbaugh’s conservative rhetoric is polarizing and hurts the party’s image. The radio talk-show host fired back by accusing Mr. Powell of being “just another liberal” and said he should become a Democrat.

    Mr. Cheney agreed that, in light of Mr. Powell’s endorsement of Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential bid last year, that he no longer can be considered a Republican.

    “I assumed that that is some indication of his loyalty and his interest,” Mr. Cheney said, adding that Mr. Powell’s recent comments had convinced him that “Colin had already left the party.”

    “I didn’t know he was still a Republican,” he said.

    Mr. Cheney on Sunday also continued his attack on Mr. Obama’s national-security policies, saying the country has been more vulnerable to a terrorist attack since the Obama administration took power.

    Mr. Cheney said the administration’s dismantling of many Bush-era policies and protections – including the planned closing of the detention facility for terrorism suspects at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Cuba and the suspension of controversial interrogation techniques – have made the country more vulnerable to future attacks.

    “That’s my belief,” he said. “I think to the extent that those [Bush-era] policies were responsible for saving lives, that the administration is now trying to cancel those policies … means in the future we’re not going to have the same safeguards we’ve had for the last eight years.” …

    http://www.newsmax.com/insidec.....12956.html

    Everyone of course knows that when the next attack occurs, it will be blamed on Bush’s “exacerbation of radical Muslim hate against the US,” not on Obama’s systematic dismantling of our ability to detect such attacks in their planning phases.

    • Barbie
      May 11, 2009 at 11:00 am

      “Mr. Powell recently said that Republicans need to move to the center politically…”

      The Repubs just did that in 2008, Powell you sad, broken down, angry old man, and we were saddled with the wimpy John McCain (one could barely delineate his policies from Obama’s because they were so similar) who could barely muster enough interest in the position to actually fight for it. And we lost the election because of McCain’s refusal to take any position and because no one wanted to vote for McCain (although many, such as myself, did vote for Palin). So shut up, Powell, we tried it ‘your way’ and wound up losing to dictator Obama. p.s. to the libs who talk about the Dem’s ‘big tent’. It might be a big tent – but it’s full of small minds.

      Repubs need to ‘tune out’ those Dems who want to advise them how to win the next election. How comical and farcical(sp?). That’s like asking the fox for input on building plans and security for the soon-to-be-built henhouse.

      And VP Cheney, please keep speaking up. We need you. In a country full of easily fooled and willfully blind libs, we need you to continue speaking the truth.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 11:09 am

      Actually Barbie, that “big tent” is full of circus clowns.

      (with apologies to actual clowns)

    • proreason
      May 11, 2009 at 11:09 am

      I know everybody has been extremely respectful of Colin Powell for decades, but looking back, other than being awarded the role of Joint Chief of Staff for accomplishments unknown, and filling a seat as Secretary of State for a few years where he accomplished nothing, what exactly has he done?

      His other 2 notable accomplishments are talking Bush Sr out of fininshing the job in Iraq I and supporting Iraq II against his own conscience, or so we are to believe.

      I supported him for years, but really knew little about him other than he was minority who made a choice NOT to be Jesse Jackson.

      But now, he appears to be just another example of Affirmative Action…..another empty suit who acted like an adult until he couldn’t hold the angry little boy in any longer.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 11:23 am

      Pro, you nailed it yet again.

      So far in my experience, there has been but ONE black man who doesn’t have significant anger under the thin veneer of being a “fine upstandingcitizen”. That being Bill Cosby. That is to say…that maybe it is there, but he has dealt with it in a productive, mature fashion.

      Every black officer I ever served with had that anger in huge quantities. But, the military being a bastion of strictly enforced equal opportunity (which, admittedly, works in some positive ways)the thought controllers are never very far away in the form of the “social actions” office on every US military installation in the world. If a person feels they have been discriminated against they can go around their chain of command and get satisfaction. No appointment necessary, no need to tell anyone where you’re going.

      And you cannot be denied a visit to the office, either.

      So, you can say that from their inception, the military members live under a constant shroud of fear of reprisal. Thus, you never say anything against a person of color, or even get into an argument with them. I saw it happen over and over and over. Just the hassle of going and having to explain your statements is reason enough to just follow the path of least resistance and choose not to engage them in any way unless duty requires it.

      Yes, their authority extends to what happens off duty, in social situations, etc.

      They have done more to destroy otherwise magnificent careers than any enemy marksman ever could. If for any reason than to make a statement. I watched a 25 year chief get brought down and destroyed for an insensitive remark. We were all shocked and when we found out who went running to social actions with it…we were very angry.

      So, don’t think that Colin Powell was simply a stellar officer. Most likely, he was the most promising candidate out of many who happened to be black and who, at the time, seemed to fit the need in the Bush administration in order to placate the lib-tards in government.

      So, yeah, the Bush administration shot itself in the foot by trying to adopt a more “centered” approach.

      Aside from that, with Powell, well, it’s his life and I can’t tell him how to live it. But such a huge flip-flop is, as you say, very revealing. But for me, I knew it was always there.

    • Liberals Demise
      May 11, 2009 at 11:32 am

      Obviously Rusty ……. you was never a Marine in the 60s or the 70s because that would never have walked back then. Can’t really say about now………I’ll check it out with some veteran bros at the VFW later!
      I love this site…….always something I can learn from!!

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 11:49 am

      LD,

      I think that in the 60’s and 70’s, we were actually making great progress in equal rights and much of the animosity was starting to dwindle and in some places, genuine friendships arose and flourished. I enlisted in 1979 with the social actions office already deeply entrenched in military life and a whole generation of angry young black men with a score to settle.

      I’m thinking perhaps that they listened to their older relatives speak of discrimination in a casual, unmeasured and biased manner, as people are wont to do when venting but that they took that info and somehow mis-processed it into an ongoing thing and that if they were to be subjected to such treatment they wouldn’t stand for it. As well they shouldn’t.

      But that treatment became imaginary and then…as we see today, we have the “black justice machine” running at full steam and creating more problems than actually exist.

      Somehow, the progress that was being made got sidetracked by those who refused to want a peaceful, harmonious co-existence either due to their own anger or that they are just attention-grabbers and/or profiteers.

      So instead of segregation, we have constant mistrust. Instead of lynchings, we have Sharpton screaming at us. Instead of unfair pay, we have trumped up racism.

      Perhaps, the pendulum will find a center. I was all for it as a child but entering adulthood, I grew ever more unhappy with the way it’s been going and right now, it has kind of exploded into a “Uh-HUH….WE’RE in charge now…and you gonna take it” even though those people who are the most angry have never suffered a racial injustice, let alone even been called a bad word.

      Obama is living proof of that. Coddled, lifted up, given everything and yet…he’s an angry black man? WHY?

      Powell, same thing. I read his military record and I respect and admire his two tours in Vietnam. But it seems to me that the military version of affirmative action is what got him into the general ranks. He doesn’t really have a very outstanding record…in fact, he got one “Do not promote” on his fitness report as a senior officer. Most people don’t survive that. Somehow..there’s a back story to it that we will never know.

      Was it a case of racism?

      Was it that he really did suck at his job but his superiors were afraid to say so? And so when someone really did, he went to the wall and hung that superior out to dry?

      What?

      I never knew him or saw anything more of him than on TV or newspapers but I never liked the guy. Not in the 80’s…not now. But again, nobody listened to me. They all laughed.

    • Liberals Demise
      May 11, 2009 at 12:08 pm

      Rusty …. I was more or less talking about , “if you had a bitch or something about being hassled or you thought you was being harranged…..you could just up and go to some office w/o telling anyone where you was going. No appointment necessary!!”
      Unheard of in the Corps!!

    • pdsand
      May 11, 2009 at 12:25 pm

      I heard an excellent discussion with Karl Rove the other day on Fox, they basically said, ‘what is the ‘Powell doctrine’? Aside from the fact that Colin Powell is awesome and deserves to be listened to, what else does he stand for?

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 1:39 pm

      LD, I see. I misunderstood. The “up and go, no appointment necessary” applied to situations where racial or sex discrimination was thought to occur. And, yes, misunderstandings on the part of the “abused” occurred regularly and the system itself got abused.

      Of course, all military members in the USAF got an indoctrination course that lasted most of the week and annually thereafter, to make sure we could identify discrimination.

      Being as the military is pretty much a socialist society, such doctrine and dogma were easily implemented. I took umbrage to a lot of it but like everyone else, had to go along to get along.

      Being a white anglo male, I never had cause, nor would anyone listen to me if I was subjected to, racial or sex discrimination…but when I had black supervisors, it would happen and when the commander was a female, it happened.

      But I didn’t particularly care. I did my job, kept my tongue in my mouth and just put up with it.

      Granted, also, the military has to have a “follow orders” mentality. Not being a Marine, I dealt with the more “corporate structured” Air Force and it came with a TON of traps. In our PME we got subjected to things you cannot say, do or talk about. Behavior control in its purest form.

      This is the part though, where minorities were able to play the system and get their way. However, it backfired for one servicemember who worked under me one day. He liked to game the racial system and he tried to be insubordinate to me and well, after I let him have it, and then went to the almost obligatory meeting with social actions, he never tried it again and asked to be transferred. Very humorously, my commander above me disapproved it.

      So, as you well know, there can be two sides to any game. But to get back on topic, I think Powell got promoted on the basis of being a black officer at a time when there still not many of them and he was ….(get this) articulate and well-mannered. To the racially cocooned higher-ups, this met their requirements for being told to sponsor more black officers.

      Now, to be fair…I would not denigrate his service, loyalty to the US or anything. However, being a general, means by definition (to me, at least) being a politician. So he has that gene.

      When the one officer above him said he shouldn’t be promoted, his friends in Washington saved him.

      So you could say affirmative action was in every fiber of our society. But also to be fair, he may have been treated unfairly by that general above him and it may have just been petty politics.

      But as for social actions…even in the Marines, I would guess that that Marine would have to think long and hard about whether he wanted to open a can of worms over a suspected racial slur. But also, the “work requirements” are a little different from one branch to the next. I can’t say that racism was rampant in the USAF but I will say the black guys always sat by themselves, playing cards and talking quietly, as if for no one else to hear. White guys got picked to do details far more often than blacks because the supervisors just didn’t want to deal with the hassle and whining.

      From about 1978, I think the progress that had been made in race relations started going back downhill in the sense that they wanted it to be a divisive thing. I never did. But I’ll be damned if I want to be part of the apologist nature or feel sorry for any of them when the numbers alone and the attitudes I’ve experienced speak for themselves.

    • Liberals Demise
      May 11, 2009 at 2:11 pm

      You are well versed, Rusty. You ….. like many others here think before committing to comment or verse. I like that……..
      The Marine Corps didn’t tolerates any crap like that in the ranks. There is only one color in the Marines…….O.D. Green (in my day).
      If I remember correctly, when you first signed on to this thread you said you was a F-4 jock…..were you the stickman or WSO (pronounced wizo)?
      I humped a crypto voice garble G/A radio. I talked to air packages (Navy & AF) flying near my A/O in Nam ‘72. (I shook their little world)

      “Thank You” for your service to our still great Nation.
      God Bless America!!

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 3:06 pm

      Actually, I enlisted in 1979, was a weapons mech on F-4’s and later, A-10’s. I then earned my commission later. Did a total of 10.5 and I had enough. I didn’t get to fly as I had once hoped and decided to pursue that in civilian form.

      As a side note, I saw enough petty politics and questionable behavior to make it quite an education. As a child and later on through that, I learned and re-learned that I had to hold true to what I believed. Met many a supervisor and commander totally unworthy of the role.

      With that in mind, I used that information to help me figure out both who I was and how I would deal with things. I came away with the knowledge that there is good and bad in almost everything but that I should never dismiss either as a possibility.

      It has helped me remain sane.

      Thanks for the compliments, they mean a lot and right back at ya. I happen to know that a having a Marine for a friend means having a friend for life. I really don’t know what the US would do without the likes of the Marines who go into situations and make the impossible, possible.

      Keep the faith, LD….maybe we’ll get through this administration and can laugh about it as a “learning experience”.

  14. Liberals Demise
    May 11, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Colin Powell has gulped the kool-aid from the 5 gal. cooler and is now a butt kissing “O”bot with a zombie stare!! Powell is a race baiter and a hate monger for the social manifesto ala Barry the Blow Hole!

  15. Rusty Shackleford
    May 11, 2009 at 10:37 am

    100 million “saved” in federal spending, explained.

    http://reason.tv/roughcut/show/772.html

    Very interesting and very revealing.

    • Liberals Demise
      May 11, 2009 at 10:49 am

      After seeing that……we really aren’t talking about “ANY” money saved.

      BIG DEAL, BARRY!!
      Keep it big so you can bamboozle your zombots!

  16. BillK
    May 11, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    The attack continues.

    From Fox News:

    Miss California Team Names Possible Replacement for Carrie Prejean

    The Miss California organization took the self-described “bold step” of appointing a possible replacement for current titleholder Carrie Prejean, pending Donald Trump’s decision as to whether or not the outspoken beauty queen will retain her crown.

    Regardless of Trump’s decision, Miss California first runner up Tami Ferrell will serve as “an ambassador” for the state’s organization, appearing at events in Prejean’s absence or in situations where it would be “unwise” to send her, pageant co-directors Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler said at a Beverly Hills press conference Monday.

    A San Diego native, Prejean, 21, was named first runner-up in the April 19 Miss USA pageant during which she responded to a judge’s question by saying she favored limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

    Since then, the state pageant has been investigating whether the 21-year-old violated her contestant contract by making public appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage and by failing to reveal that she had posed in her underwear as a teenager.

    While the photos of Prejean are racy — with the beauty queen appearing to be topless with her back turned to the camera — Lewis said that it was not the content of the picture that was a problem, but her failure to disclose its existence.

    According to Lewis, Prejean’s actions have caused the Miss California title to be “hijacked,” preventing them from doing the necessary “work at hand.”

    “Her contract outlines that she must be available to make appearances,” Lewis said, before adding that they have been unable to communicate directly with Prejean. “It is a huge conflict of interest.”

    Lewis added that Prejean’s appearances with the National Organization for Marriage and other anti-gay marriage groups have created “confusion in the marketplace” because it is difficult to separate Prejean’s personal convictions from those of the Miss California organization. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519836,00.html

    Cool, can we also start naming new Presidents, “pending Mr. Obama’s defeat in 2012?”

    Can we name Supreme Court justices “pending Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s retirement?”

    The lesson here is the same as it was for “Joe the Plumber”: express conservative views and the MSM will destroy you.

    Meanwhile HuffPo is trying to generate controversy because she’s seen in photos with (gasp!) Michael Phelps and has dared to appear on Focus on the Family:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....01687.html

    Naturally the MSM has no problem citing a far-left blog like HuffPo as a “news source.”

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 9:12 pm

      The left has pretty much thrown down the glove and I think the conservatives ought to just play by the same rules, only better. Billboards, magazine ads, TV commericals, etc. For example…a simple highway billboard of Nancy with the exclamation LIAR in bold red print. Even if she claims defamation of character and it winds up in court, it would be a good thing. That is, all the evidence by conservative representatives would come out and the facts would be the facts. No matter what the MSM said, the facts would remain…as they did with Bill-Jeffer over his Oral office hummer.

      A full-page newspaper ad that shows what the stocks are REALLY doing. Or, the actual details of how GM got taken over, and explained so that the average pedestrian can understand it.

      In other words, our own propaganda machine, but based on total facts. Even perhaps a description of what waterboarding really is, because in “streetwalking” fashion where Leno demonstrates the overwhelming ignorance of the general public…if you asked them what it was, they would have no idea.

      So, I submit that a war of information to counter their DISinformation and outright lying ought to ensue.

      Rush is a good start, as is Ann Coulter but they are more or less voluntary. The libs get into our subconscious by having a Pixar writer put a bit in there about “equality” as they see it and so the message goes in before the name goes on.

      But if the average shmoe is out there and sees a gaint billboard, or a magazine ad that describes things in sound-bite fashion with more in depth if they want it, once intrigued to turn the page, then that could work.

      I’m not saying it’ll be immediately effective but stop and think about the crap that the liberals have subjected us to in sitcoms, movies, magazines and how it’s propagated throughout all things media.

      If a conservative can be found to front such efforts, or even if they can’t. If money is spent for a billboard, providing it falls within the letter of the laws of decency, then it cannot, by law be taken down or covered over.

      Either way, it’ll get attention.

  17. BillK
    May 11, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    More “celebrities” spew.

    From Fox News:

    Cybill Shepherd Blames the Mormons & Catholics for the Passing of Proposition 8

    By Hollie McKay

    Tennessee-born beauty Cybill Shepherd definitely isn’t one to waste words — and had she no qualms in speaking out about who she thought was to blame for the passing of Proposition 8 in California’s last election, which led to gay and lesbian marriage rights being overturned.

    “The Mormons and Catholics,” she told Tarts at the recent L.A Gay & Lesbian Center’s “An Evening With Women” celebration in Beverly Hills. “Most of the money came from Utah, it’s very unfortunate.”

    However Shepherd does feel that President Obama is doing enough for the cause.

    “I think he is working hard at it, I really do. I am just so encouraged by Iowa and Vermont. We have a tough road ahead in California, but we’ll be hittin’ within a year,” she added with confidence.

    The 59-year-old’s passion to pursue the fight for Gay & Lesbian rights actually stemmed from Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968.

    “He was killed in my hometown of Memphis, three and a half miles from my high school and I’m a product of the segregated south and I got to see that hatred up close, live that hatred, colored only, whites only, and when he was killed I was stricken with guilt and shame,” Shepherd added. “I felt as though I hadn’t done enough to help the civil rights cause and as I gradually began to understand, what is the most recent excuse to deny people rights under the law? To treat them as less than human and once you get that kind of right thinking you realize how important it is to stand up for the gay and lesbian kids who are at greater risk because they don’t have community support and sometimes their parents kick them out. Particularly in L.A we have more runaways then anywhere in the world.”

    So when it comes to Shepherd’s own faith, she’s developed quite the hybrid of religious convictions.

    “I’m a Christian Pagan Buddhist Goddess worshiper, but I’m also a feminist. I think the ultimate glass ceiling is God, in another words, if we think God is a man, then we make man a God, and I studied and learned that there is a whole other history of the worshiping of the great mother,” she explained. “I really think that probably God is a woman, that helped me to break through that celestial glass ceiling.”

    But going back to who Hollywood blames for Prop 8, while Shepherd said the Mormons and Catholics, Sharon Osbourne said it’s all to do with our former President.

    “Bush, blame everything on Bush,” she said. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519777,00.html

    Cybill Shepherd and Sharon Osbourne.

    What wonderful examples for the world…

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 11, 2009 at 8:59 pm

      “and when he was killed I was stricken with guilt and shame.”

      Guilt AND shame.

      So there you have it, America. The admission by a libtard for the motivation for pretty much everything they do.

      “I’m a Christian Pagan Buddhist Goddess worshiper, but I’m also a feminist.

      Wow, Halloween must be a real hoot at your house.

    • Anonymoose
      May 14, 2009 at 7:47 am

      I’m sure her part on the “L Word” had nothing to do with her opinions and is just coincidence…….

  18. BillK
    May 12, 2009 at 11:38 am

    From Fox News:

    ageant Double Standard? Steamy Photos of Miss Rhode Island Won’t Threaten Her Crown

    While racy photos of Miss California Carrie Prejean could cost the outspoken first runner up in the Miss USA pageant her crown, pageant officials don’t seem to care about even steamier photos of Miss Rhode Island that appeared in a men’s magazine.

    So is Prejean being targeted simply for her beliefs?

    As Prejean has kept busy making appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage, officials at the Miss California USA organization have been investigating whether she violated her contract by failing to reveal that she had posed in her underwear as a teenager.

    Meanwhile 2009 Miss Rhode Island Alysha Castonguay has also posed in revealing photo shoots, but is apparently not in danger of losing her crown.

    Castonguay posed topless for a Maxim magazine shoot and a few swimsuit calendars before competing in the pageant, but reportedly revealed the pictures to Miss USA officials, who approved them. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519813,00.html

    Miss Rhode Island had better watch her back, though as she’s apparently supporting Miss California’s right to, you know, exercise that First Amendment thing the left is always saying the right wants to take away:

    “I personally believe this situation is stemming from the controversy over her opinion and not a photo,” Castonguay said.

  19. BillK
    May 12, 2009 at 11:44 am

    Rush said this was coming, and people laughed.

    Funny how his prescience isn’t quite so funny anymore.

    From the Wall Street Journal:

    Soda Tax Weighed to Pay for Health Care

    By Janet Adamy

    Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks to help pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system.

    The taxes would pay for only a fraction of the cost to expand health-insurance coverage to all Americans and would face strong opposition from the beverage industry. They also could spark a backlash from consumers who would have to pay several cents more for a soft drink.

    On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee is set to hear proposals from about a dozen experts about how to pay for the comprehensive health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama wants to enact this year. Early estimates put the cost of the plan at around $1.2 trillion. The administration has so far only earmarked funds for about half of that amount.

    The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based watchdog group that pressures food companies to make healthier products, plans to propose a federal excise tax on soda, certain fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and ready-to-drink teas. It would not include most diet beverages. Excise taxes are levied on goods and manufacturers typically pass them on to consumers.

    Senior staff members for some Democratic senators at the center of the effort to craft health-care legislation are weighing the idea behind closed doors, Senate aides said.

    The Congressional Budget Office, which is providing lawmakers with cost estimates for each potential change in the health overhaul, included the option in a broad report on health-system financing in December. The office estimated that adding a tax of three cents per 12-ounce serving to these types of sweetened drinks would generate $24 billion over the next four years. So far, lawmakers have not indicated how big a tax they are considering.

    Proponents of the tax cite research showing that consuming sugar-sweetened drinks can lead to obesity, diabetes and other ailments. They say the tax would lower consumption, reduce health problems and save medical costs. At least a dozen states already have some type of taxes on sugary beverages, said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

    “Soda is clearly one of the most harmful products in the food supply, and it’s something government should discourage the consumption of,” Mr. Jacobson said. …

    http://online.wsj.com/article/.....08647.html

    If you don’t recall, these are the anti-coconut oil yahoos who make a periodic “statement” to the press that is somehow then reported as news.

    Rush’s “fat tax” is almost certainly next.

    Just think what the Government will explicitly outlaw once they’re paying for health care…

    • proreason
      May 12, 2009 at 12:04 pm

      but, but, but…..

      He said he wouldn’t tax anyone except the top 95%.

      Oh wait, this must mean that only the rich drink soda. Goldarn it, he is SO much smarter than anybody else. I would never have realized that unless he had pointed it out in this nuanced way.

      Sorry for the confusion.

    • 12 Gauge Rage
      May 12, 2009 at 4:29 pm

      Next on the list is a federal tax on all people with a conservative mindset because hell, we just won’t voluntarily give up our money to support asinine liberal causes. Oh wait, our money is already being taken out of our pay against our will. How stupid of me.

  20. BillK
    May 12, 2009 at 11:47 am

    Breaking News: Trump has common sense.

    From Fox News:

    Carrie Prejean Keeps Her Miss California Crown

    Carrie Prejean will remain Miss California, Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss Universe organization said at a press conference Tuesday.

    The controversial beauty queen was named first runner-up in the April 19 Miss USA pageant, during which she cause a firestorm by responding to a judge’s question by saying she favored limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

    Since then, the state pageant has been investigating whether the 21-year-old violated her contestant contract by making public appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage and by failing to reveal that she had posed in her underwear as a teenager.

    But Trump praised Prejean for her “honest answer” when she was asked a “very tough question,” noting that it was the same answer that President Obama has given.

    Additional topless photos of Prejean were released by TMZ Tuesday morning. The photos show Prejean, 21, wearing an open top and underwear on a beach.

    Ultimately however, Trump said that after careful review, the pictures taken were “fine,” and that while some were indeed risque, many were in fact “quite lovely.”

    As for Prejean’s miscommunications with the Miss California organization, Trump said that after hours of meeting in his office Tuesday morning, she was getting along “very well” with co-directors Shanna Moakler and Keith Lewis.

    That statement was a sharp contrast from Moakler and Lewis’ comments Monday, when Lewis slammed Prejean’s actions — including appearances with several anti-gay marriage groups — which he claimed caused the Miss California title to be “hijacked,” preventing them from doing the necessary “work at hand.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519931,00.html

    Now will Trump be telling any of the Miss California pageant organizers who yesterday all but promised Prejean was all but gone “you’re fired?”

  21. Dangerous
    May 12, 2009 at 2:55 pm

    From the AP, via the San Francisco Chronicle:

    Irish student hoaxes world’s media with fake quote

    When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

    His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

    …A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets in an e-mail and the corrections began.

    …If anything, Fitzgerald said, he expected newspapers to avoid his quote because it had no link to a source — and even might trigger alarms as “too good to be true.” But many blogs and several newspapers used the quotes at the start or finish of their obituaries.

    Wikipedia spokesman Jay Walsh said he appreciated the Dublin student’s point, and said he agreed it was “distressing so see how quickly journalists would descend on that information without double-checking it.”

    …He said the Guardian was the only publication to respond to him in detail and with remorse at its own editorial failing. Others, he said, treated him as a vandal…

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....&tsp=1

    Not that I expect this surprises any regular readers here, but it’s nice to see the media live down to our expectations even when they’re not doing politically motivated propaganda pieces.

    • proreason
      May 12, 2009 at 3:21 pm

      Good post Dangerous.

      I suspect that what upsets the msm a lot more than getting caught with its pants down is the Irish kid revealing to the world the technique the msm itself has been using for years to distort the truth by writing lies in Wikipedia.

      Soros, for example, has a team of interns who do just that as a full-time job.

  22. BigOil
    May 12, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    Some journalism from Jake Tapper of ABC News:

    In Inter-agency Memo, “Bush Holdover” Warns of Harm to Economy if Greenhouse Gases Regulated through Clean Air Act

    Criticism in an interagency memo of potential government regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act (CAA) — saying it will hurt the economy, and questioning whether such a “precautionary” move would too expansively open up the door for government regulation — was written by a holdover from the Bush administration, an Obama administration official said today.

    “Making the decision to regulate CO2 under the CAA for the first time is likely to have serious economic consequences for regulated entities throughout the U.S. economy, including small businesses and small communities,” states one comment in the memo, which were collected and officially sent by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “Should EPA later extend this finding to stationary sources, small businesses and institutions would be subject to costly regulatory programs such as New Source Review.”

    The comments drew attention from the media (including this blog) when they were posted in an Obama administration interagency review responding to the Environmental Protection Agency finding on greenhouse gases.

    An administration official says the comments were written by a Bush holdover in the Office of Advocacy in the Small Business Administration, but did not identify the individual.

    A spokesman for the Office of Advocacy said he did not know who would have contributed the comments, but noted that Shawne C. McGibbon, the Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy in the Small Business Administration, wrote about greenhouse gases last November, writing that the expansion of the the scope of the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases “could make hundreds of thousands of small entities that have not previously had to deal with the Clean Air Act potentially subject to extensive new clean air requirements. …The compliance burdens associated with these requirements would devastate small entities throughout the economy…”

    McGibbon, however, is not a “Bush holdover,” having been with SBA since 1994.

    …The comments in the memo will no doubt be seized upon by business lobbyists who oppose Jackson’s move, who last month wrote to her warning that an “endangerment finding will set the stage for an economic train wreck and a constitutional crisis.”

    http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....nis-2.html

    A little sanity from inside the governement, however, it will be ignored. There is way to much control over our lives at stake from the sham of global warming.

    I especially like the quote from the boy wonder Peter Orszag at the end of the piece – that EPA’s “proposed finding is carefully rooted in both law and science.” This twirp must have difficulties meeting with Obama since their combined egos would barely fit into a single room.

  23. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 1:46 am

    From an approving AP:

    Chicago Family’s ‘Buy Black’ Experiment Becoming a Nationwide Movement

    ATLANTA — It’s been two months since 2-year-old Cori pulled the gold stud from her left earlobe, and the piercing is threatening to close as her mother, Maggie Anderson, hunts for a replacement.

    It’s not that the earring was all that rare — but finding the right store has become a quest of Quixotic proportions.

    Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago vowed four months ago that for one year, they would try to patronize only black-owned businesses. The “Empowerment Experiment” is the reason John had to suffer for hours with a stomach ache and Maggie no longer gets that brand-name lather when she washes her hair. A grocery trip is a 14-mile odyssey.

    “We kind of enjoy the sacrifice because we get to make the point … but I am going without stuff and I am frustrated on a daily basis,” Maggie Anderson said. “It’s like, my people have been here 400 years and we don’t even have a Walgreens to show for it.”

    So far, the Andersons have spent hundreds of dollars with black businesses from grocery stores to dry cleaners. But the couple still hasn’t found a mortgage lender, home security system vendor or toy store. Nonetheless, they’re hoping to expand the endeavor beyond their Chicago home.

    Plans are under way to track spending among supporters nationwide and build a national database of quality black businesses. The first affiliate chapter has been launched in Atlanta, and the couple has established a foundation to raise funds for black businesses and an annual convention.

    “We have the real power to do something, to use the money we spend every day to solve our problems,” Maggie Anderson said recently at a meet-and-greet in Atlanta. “We have to believe that black businesses are just as good as everybody else’s.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519965,00.html

    No, the point here is that black businesses are apparently better than any other businesses.

    You’ve read what the left thinks of Christians who only patronize Christian businesses, but this is A-OK – even if they have to drive “14 miles away” to shop for groceries.

    I’ll leave it to the reader to decide what would be said if any other racial group – notably whites – decided only to shop at businesses owned by their own racial group.

    • Anonymoose
      May 14, 2009 at 7:59 am

      The comments where this “story” has been posted in the MSM are mostly negative. If she’s able to do things like give her two year old a gold earring and buy brand name lather, then I’d say she’s doing pretty well. I guess it also missed her attention about BET, the NAACP, the UNCF, and so on.

      Also, how can this really help things? It’ll only make the businesses and customers more insular. What about all of this being in this together and not judging or choosing just by race?

  24. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 1:51 am

    We knew this was coming – from the Wall Street Journal:

    U.S. Eyes Bank Pay Overhaul

    By Deborah Solomon and Damian Paletta

    WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun serious talks about how it can change compensation practices across the financial-services industry, including at companies that did not receive federal bailout money, according to people familiar with the matter.

    The initiative, which is in its early stages, is part of an ambitious and likely controversial effort to broadly address the way financial companies pay employees and executives, including an attempt to more closely align pay with long-term performance.

    Administration and regulatory officials are looking at various options, including using the Federal Reserve’s supervisory powers, the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission and moral suasion. Officials are also looking at what could be done legislatively.

    Among ideas being discussed are Fed rules that would curb banks’ ability to pay employees in a way that would threaten the “safety and soundness” of the bank — such as paying loan officers for the volume of business they do, not the quality. The administration is also discussing issuing “best practices” to guide firms in structuring pay.

    At the same time, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) is working on legislation that could strengthen the government’s ability both to monitor compensation and to curb incentives that threaten a company’s viability or pose a systemic risk to the economy. …

    http://online.wsj.com/article/.....11987.html

    As defined by Barney Frank of course.

    “Private” businesses?

    Nope.

  25. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 3:06 am

    From Advertising Age:

    Obama Halves Chrysler’s Planned Marketing Budget

    By Jean Halliday

    DETROIT (AdAge.com) — Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it’s expected to be in bankruptcy — the U.S. Treasury’s auto-industry task force gave it half that.

    So if GM, which is wrestling with the possibility of a Chapter 11 filing itself, is wondering how much influence the task force will have over marketing, the answer is: plenty. However, transcripts from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Southern District of New York, where the Chrysler case is being heard, proved for the first time that the task force at least understands that advertising is a necessary expense — even if it doesn’t think Chrysler needs $134 million for nine weeks of car ads.

    Robert Manzo, executive director of Capstone Advisory Group and a consultant to Chrysler, testified at a May 4 hearing that the task force “believed that it was not feasible to not spend anything on marketing and advertising for fear of eroding the image of the brand,” during the company’s planned nine weeks in bankruptcy. However, Mr. Manzo also testified that this “hotly discussed” matter resulted in the task force basically slashing in half the amount Chrysler wanted for advertising in the period.

    U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez then asked the witness: “Idle plants, why market?” referring to Chrysler’s shutdown of its factories for nine weeks. “The belief on all sides was that it was essential for Chrysler not to lose its brand image in the marketplace,” Mr. Manzo testified. “Advertising and marketing dollars are critical to make sure the right message is out there about Chrysler, what’s happening to Chrysler during this interim period and why Chrysler will be a brand going forward that is one that a consumer should continue to look at as one of their purchase opportunities.” …

    http://adage.com/article?article_id=136552

    So Obama’s not nationalizing, but of course all spending must be routed through the Feds.

    Nice.

  26. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 9:21 am

    Proving yet again the press doesn’t know what the press is doing:

    From a confused AP:

    Retail sales fall again in April, denting recovery hopes

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Retail sales fell for a second straight month in April, a disappointing performance that raised doubts about whether consumers were regaining their desire to shop. A rebound in consumer demand is a necessary ingredient for ending the recession.

    The Commerce Department said Wednesday that retail sales fell 0.4% last month, much worse than the flat reading economists expected. The April weakness followed a 1.3% drop in March that was worse than first estimated.

    Retail sales had posted gains in January and February after falling for six straight months, raising hopes that the all-important consumer sector of the economy might be stabilizing. But the setbacks in March and April could darken some forecasts because consumer spending accounts for about 70% of economic activity.

    The hope had been that consumers were starting to feel better about spending, helped by the start of tax breaks included in the $787 billion stimulus bill. Households had spent the fall hunkered down in the face of thousands of job layoffs and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

    The worse-than-expected April retail sales reading came despite a 0.2% increase in auto sales, which fell 2% in March. Excluding autos, the drop in retail sales would have been 0.5%, much worse than the 0.2% gain economists expected.

    Sales outside of autos showed widespread weakness. Demand at department stores and general merchandise stores fell 0.1% and sales at specialty clothing stores dropped 0.5%.

    Sales also fell at furniture stores, electronic and appliance stores, food and beverage stores and gasoline stations. …

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....ales_N.htm

    I thought the press had spent the last six months telling us how frugality was “in” and the new way to be “fashionable” was not to spend.

    You know, don’t buy if the old one still works.

    Buy clothes second-hand.

    Don’t get the latest gadget.

    Then they’re shocked – shocked! – when retail sales are down when the MSM has been beating the “stop shopping!” drum for months now.

    Of course that would presume that anyone in the MSM (or the White House) knows the first thing about economics – their policies of course showing very clearly that they don’t.

  27. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 9:25 am

    How dare the MSM report this!

    The NEA is going to have some choice words for USA Today:

    More black lawmakers open to school vouchers

    By Greg Toppo

    WASHINGTON — Back when he was on the city council for the District of Columbia, attorney Kevin Chavous would occasionally run into fellow Democrats concerned about the state of the USA’s urban schools.

    They were open to a lot of ideas, but most Democrats have historically rejected taxpayer-supported private-school vouchers, saying they drain precious cash from needy public schools. Chavous, who served from 1992 to 2005, openly supported vouchers. He would ask others why they didn’t.

    “Several of them would whisper to me, ‘I’m with you, but I can’t come out in front,’ ” Chavous says.

    That was then.

    While vouchers will likely never be the clarion call of Democrats, they’re beginning to make inroads among a group of young black lawmakers, mayors and school officials who have split with party and teachers union orthodoxy on school reform. The group includes Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Newark Mayor Cory Booker and former Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony Williams.

    “You can no longer dismiss this as Catholic or right-wing,” says Jeanne Allen of the Center on Education Reform, a Washington think tank.

    Allen has pushed for vouchers and charter schools for decades. She originally thought the shift was generational. “But I actually think it has more to do with more-principled people who understand and have seen how badly the existing system has hurt minority kids.”

    While Chavous and others say vouchers are far from the perfect solution, they’re worth offering to students in the nation’s bleakest public schools. Urban Democrats, he says, “see that what’s happening to our kids in these schools just is unacceptable — we need to look at all options.” …

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/e.....hers_N.htm

    Pity that in dismissing vouchers as “right wing” those coming around now have missed the point that Republicans have wanted to help the kids all along, and it’s the teacher’s unions that have cared about nothing but protecting their Government-funded oligopoly.

  28. BillK
    May 13, 2009 at 9:34 am

    How better to pay for the Federal Government’s health care fiasco by making health plans too expensive for employers to offer?

    From USA Today:

    Senators weigh tax hikes to pay for health care for uninsured

    By John Pritze

    WASHINGTON — After weeks of discussing ways to provide health care to the uninsured, Congress is beginning the difficult task of finding a way to pay for it.

    Lawmakers are considering a broad range of ideas — including a federal tax on sugary sodas — but a key Senate committee focused Tuesday on a proposal to tax health insurance that millions of workers get through their employers.

    “I don’t think you can avoid taking that on,” Gail Wilensky, senior fellow at the health education foundation Project HOPE, told the Senate Finance Committee, which is helping to craft an overhaul of the health care system.

    Nearly 164 million people, or 62% of the nation’s non-elderly population, receive health insurance through work, according to a joint congressional committee on taxation. Money spent on insurance provided by employers is excluded from an employee’s taxable income. If the exemption was lifted entirely, it could have raised about $226 billion in 2008, the joint committee reports.

    During the campaign last year, President Obama opposed taxing employer-based health care benefits, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated that opposition Tuesday.

    Even so, Senate Democrats are taking a closer look at the idea of at least limiting the tax break. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said the exemption helps the well-off more than the poor, who are less likely to receive health care through work. “The current tax exclusion is not perfect,” Baucus said. “We should look at ways to modify the current tax exclusion so that it provides the right incentives.”

    Baucus said the idea of repealing the break entirely is “just not going to happen,” but said Congress could cap the amount of benefit made available tax-free. He also said lawmakers may set an income limit so the exemption would not apply to high-paid employees. …

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/w.....osts_N.htm

    So, screw over people making a decent wage again, and make sure that employers can’t afford to offer their employees health benefits.

    Funny how one of the people working to “overhaul” the health care system has come up with a way to guarantee that socialized medicine is the future.

    Who would oppose a Government program when employer-provided health care benefits disappear?

    It’s truly amazing that Americans are so completely clueless they can’t see how Machiavellian this all is.

    Even the labor unions realize how bad this is:

    Gerald Shea of the AFL-CIO said limiting the tax break is “a step in the wrong direction” because it could punish employees who negotiated for better health care coverage rather than higher wages. Also, some employees pay more for health care insurance because of factors outside of their control, including the size of their company, he said.

    Needless to say, the professional protesters are out in force in support:

    For the second time in a week, the committee was interrupted by protesters who want a government-run health insurance system. Five protesters yelled out their objections at Baucus and were led out of the committee room by police.

    But in the end, we truly get the leaders and policies we deserve. :-(

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 14, 2009 at 8:34 pm

      “Nearly 164 million people, or 62% of the nation’s non-elderly population, receive health insurance through work, according to a joint congressional committee on taxation.”

      Yup, and you’d better leave it alone, you morons.

  29. caligirl9
    May 13, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    It’s a start … from the LA Times Inmates booked into three Southern California counties will have their immigration status checked—but it appears they won’t necessarily be deported just for being illegal…

    3 California counties will check immigration status as inmates enter jail

    os Angeles, Ventura and San Diego will become the first counties in California to begin checking the immigration status of all inmates booked into jail as part of a national effort to identify and deport more illegal immigrants with criminal records.

    Law enforcement officials in the three counties will begin running inmates’ fingerprints through federal databases this month to see if they have had any contact with the immigration system. Immigration officials will place holds on those believed to be in the country illegally. Once the inmates have finished serving their sentences, they will be transferred to immigration custody for possible deportation.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier launched the program — dubbed Secure Communities — in 48 counties in seven states and plans to expand it to all jails and prisons by the end of 2012. Congress has allocated $350 million for the program in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. President Obama asked Congress last week for a 30% increase in federal funds for next year…

    Law enforcement officers already had access to the immigration databases, but the computer screening will now automatically take place as part of the booking process.

    Not everybody identified, convicted and transferred to federal custody will be deported right away, however. Venturella said the federal government will prioritize illegal immigrants who pose a threat to public safety, including those convicted of murder, rape, robbery or kidnapping…

    More than 40 police agencies throughout Los Angeles County will participate in the new program, enabling law enforcement to screen every inmate booked at any local facility, immigration officials said.

    In some cases, immigration agents may arrest an inmate who has been released — on bail or after an acquittal, for example — if the person is an illegal immigrant and has a prior criminal record.

    It’s a start … baby steps. HOWEVER, without a secure border, this is an exercise in futility. Has anyone read anything about increased enforcement at the border, or a fence, moat, cliff, etc.?

    Deportation is just a game—how fast can you get back into the U.S.?

  30. BillK
    May 14, 2009 at 1:23 am

    So was she “fired?”

    From Fox News:

    Shanna Moakler Resigns From Post as Miss California Pageant Director

    Just one day after learning that Carrie Prejean will keep her Miss California crown, state pageant director Shanna Moakler resigned.

    According to a report in Us magazine, the co-pageant director and former Miss USA said it was “in her best interest to resign.”

    “I cannot with a clear conscious move forward supporting and promoting the Miss Universe Organization when I no longer believe in it, or the contracts I signed committing myself as a youth,” she said. “I want to be a role model for young [women] with high hopes of pageantry, but now feel it more important to be a role model for my children. I am sorry and hope I have not let any young supporters down but wish them the best of luck in fulfilling their dreams.”

    Prejean was named first runner-up at the April 19 pageant, during which she cause a firestorm by responding to a judge’s question by saying she favored limiting marriage to a man and a woman.

    Shortly afterward, Moakler and her co-director Keith Lewis criticized the beauty queen for appearing in advertisements for groups opposed to same-sex marriage and for failing to reveal that she had posed in racy photos.

    Lewis slammed Prejean Monday, saying her actions caused the Miss California title to be “hijacked,” preventing them from doing the necessary “work at hand.”

    Moakler and Lewis appointed Prejean’s runner up in the state pageant to be a “Beauty of California Ambassador” to fulfill any duties that Prejean could not. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520081,00.html

    In case there was any doubt where Moakler stands:

    Moakler has appeared in her own ad supporting gay rights, shooting a print ad on April 28 that slammed Proposition 8, the initiative that banned gay marriage in California.

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      May 14, 2009 at 4:02 am

      “I am sorry and hope I have not let any young supporters down but wish them the best of luck in fulfilling their dreams.”

      Yes Shanna, I’m certain that your virtually uncountable throng of supporters are simply crushed. Has anyone actually ever heard of you before now?

    • Gila Monster
      May 14, 2009 at 11:12 am

      Moakler is behaving like the typical spoiled little brat on the playground, “Waah-waah, I don’t like what you said so I’m taking my toys and leaving”.
      For all who recognize them, a prevalent liberal guilt complex at work.

  31. BillK
    May 14, 2009 at 1:26 am

    Who better to slam Bush’s approach to the war on terror than the man who did nothing while al Qaeda grew in power?

    From Fox News:

    Bill Clinton Takes ‘Aim’ at Cheney’s Criticisms of Obama’s Foreign Policy

    Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday that he disagrees with former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion that President Obama’s foreign policies have made the nation less safe.

    Talking with reporters after at a campaign event for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, Clinton said he believes the country’s foreign policy is better off in the hands of his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is a holdover from the Bush administration.

    “I like this new approach. I think it will serve us well,” he said, referring to the administration’s diplomatic outreach to countries that were isolated by Bush officials. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....gn-policy/

    Nice how he worked his wife in there – trouble at home again?

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 14, 2009 at 8:43 pm

      Hitlery has been the unwitting dupe of a “Chicago Shut Out” where she’s sent on fool’s errands and is left out of the real decision-making. Her consolation prize, which was obvious to even the most casual observer in the room, has become an empty chair while foreign policy is made by people who are not Hillary. He doesn’t like her, never did (remember “the finger”?) and her warped female-Klingon-power views fly in the face of Mr Super-ego’s views and thus, he has to keep her mucking stalls while the horses are out in the pasture.

      Nothing new here. Oddly, lib-o-crats are not whining about it. I guess they are still busy spit-shining massuh’s shoes.

      Neat thing is to watch it happen because the she-thing cannot control Barry as she did Bill-Jeff. She can’t affront him with a blistering tirade while the secret service listens in. She can’t hold him captive to get what she wants.

      She is a useless entity to him and that suits me fine. I only hope they start playing little power games and one or the other ends up torpedoing themselves.

  32. BillK
    May 14, 2009 at 1:29 am

    From a horrified AP:

    ‘Old South’ Fraternity Targeted Over Confederate Event

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A white fraternity that traces its roots to the Civil War and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is again facing complaints over its antebellum-themed events.

    This time, University of Alabama alumnae are upset after Kappa Alpha Order members wearing Confederate uniforms and carrying battle flags paraded past a historically black sorority as the women celebrated the group’s 35th anniversary.

    The fraternity has been forced to halt its “Old South” festivities on some campuses because of claims of racial insensitivity, and Alabama members have apologized for pausing in front of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s sorority house during this year’s parade.

    Alpha Kappa Alpha members said there was no confrontation or taunting, but they were shocked to see fraternity members in rebel uniforms and white women from another sorority in hoop skirts.

    “I don’t believe these young folks were in any way trying to be racist,” said Joyce Stallworth, an Alpha Kappa Alpha alumna who saw the April 29 parade in Tuscaloosa and is an associate education dean at Alabama. “But they were being insensitive. I don’t think they understood the broader implications of what they were doing.”

    While 71 alumnae sent a petition to Alabama President Robert Witt complaining about the use of Confederate flags and uniforms on campus, administrators haven’t taken any formal action against the fraternity.

    Some sorority members said the only solution is to stop the Old South event.

    “The only acceptable apology would come with a promise to discontinue this event and recognizing that such an activity is hurtful and divisive,” said Willie Mae Worthey, an Alabama native who graduated in 1995 and now lives in Nevada. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520116,00.html

    A white fraternity?

    I’m sorry, is that enforced? Or are they open to all?

    No racism there…

    In fact, the entire history of the South should apparently just be scrubbed from the history books.

    • Colonel1961
      May 14, 2009 at 11:14 pm

      The fraternities and sororities at the University of Alabama are, indeed, segregated by race. They are not open to all. They have Jewish-only houses, as well. The only folks truly bent out of shape about it are the race-baiters and the victim-mongers. Everyone else lives and lets live…

      The KA’s at Alabama have toned it down quite a bit over the last thirty years in which I’ve been aware of (or been drunk at) their Old South parties. They used to have a Navy jack (what most folks call the Confederate Flag) that spanned their entire portico – at least 30 x 45 feet – on display during that entire week. They used to also have little black kids march in the parade with them. I always thought that was awkward.

  33. canary
    May 14, 2009 at 2:28 am

    Update on Las Vegas ACORN investigation. Turns out that ACORN
    hires former prisoners charged with “identity theft”. Worker was on news saying that only prisoners would work for such low pay. Don’t forget, that Obama’s Trinity Church specifically ministered for day care, and caring for former sex offenders. Acorn hiring identity theft convicts, great for fraud voting. Affidate investigating ACORN.

    http://media.lasvegassun.com/m.....idavit.pdf

  34. canary
    May 14, 2009 at 5:59 am

    The New York Times: Obama Tries to Block Release of Detainee Photos
    By Jeff Zeleny/Ozier Muhammad May 13, 2009, 3:47 pm

    Mr. Obama briefly explained his abrupt reversal on releasing the photographs. He said the pictures, which he has reviewed, “are not particularly sensational, but the conduct did not conform with the Army manual.”
    He did not take questions from reporters, but said disclosing the photos would have “a chilling effect” on future attempts to investigate detainee abuse.
    …, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates indicated that the White House might appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

    The A.C.L.U. .. In a statement,..
    “It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one….. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration’s complicity in covering them up. ..

    … the Second Circuit, in upholding a lower court ruling, said the public interest involved in release of the pictures outweighed a vague, speculative fear of danger to the American military or violation of the detainees’ privacy.
    Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker contributed to this post.

    Tricky Obama and ACLU already got the court to make the desision they asked. Obama’s a sleazy attorney. He knows changing his mind, holds no weight in a court decision already made that he fought for. His last statement endangers the soldiers anyways. Oh, so chillling, and violated our rules. How about saying, I made a mistake, and realized the photo’s “were not in violation”. Any recourse for Obama’s latest damaging statement will be blood on his hands.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 14, 2009 at 8:16 pm

      Wall Street Journal: Obama Considers Detaining Terror Suspects Indefinitely

      By EVAN PEREZ

      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil — indefinitely and without trial — as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

      full article:

      http://online.wsj.com/article/.....15765.html

      Okie Dokie, then. This is perhaps a flip-flop I can live with. But, wasn’t this the Bush/Hitler plan all along that Barry railed against during his “hope and change” campaign?

  35. BillK
    May 14, 2009 at 9:57 am

    Add Massachusetts to the “Apparently food is only fattening when it comes from chains with 20 or more restaurants” list.

    From Nation’s Restaurant News:

    Massachusetts adopts menu-labeling regulations

    By Elissa Elan

    BOSTON (May 13, 2009) The Massachusetts Public Health Council Wednesday approved new statewide regulations requiring restaurant chains with 20 or more in-state stores to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards, including those stationed at the chains’ drive-thru areas.

    The new regulations will go into effect Nov. 1, 2010, and will affect approximately 50 restaurant chains, or a total of 5,800 units, according to the Boston Herald.

    More than 30 states, cities or countries have enacted or are considering menu-labeling legislation. Among the states are California, Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida, Oregon, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, New York and South Carolina. Maryland lawmakers decided to abandon their push for a statewide bill in late March, and Tennessee lawmakers decided last week that the issue needed more study before any action could be taken. …

    http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=366854

    Of course the big bad Feds are coming with Obama’s usual threats to coerce businesses into doing what they want:

    Federal lawmakers also are considering the Labeling Education and Nutrition Act, or LEAN Act, a measure that would mandate the posting of nutritional information at chain restaurants with 20 or more outlets. It would also provide liability protection to restaurants that comply with the law.

    Awww, a pithy cutesy name like the “LEAN” Act and a (not so) veiled threat that if restaurants don’t comply, they may be sued in the future for selling those nasty, unhealthy foods, especially by a Federal Government looking for a way to pay for ever-spiraling medical costs once they of course are the only payer in the system.

    No pressure there…

  36. nuthingbettertodo
    May 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    This is nice!

    Canadian scientist arrested for smuggling vials for Ebola research into U.S.
    By Philip Ling, Canwest News ServiceMay 14, 2009 10:43 AM

    Konan Michel Yao is faces U.S. criminal charges for smuggling 22 viles used in Ebola research stolen from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab. The viles were stolen in January, but Canada’s public health agency didn’t know the vials were missing until the Canadian scientist was stopped at the U.S. border last week.
    Photograph by: Karoly Arvai, ReutersOTTAWA — A Canadian scientist was stopped at the U.S. border last week after authorities found 22 vials used in Ebola research from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in his possession, officials said Wednesday.

    The incident has sparked controversy and serious questions about security protocols at the Winnipeg lab that contains some of the world’s most deadliest pathogens.

    Konan Michel Yao, 42, was apprehended by U.S. officials as he attempted to enter the United States at the Pembina, N.D., border crossing from Manitoba on May 5.

    Yao faces U.S. criminal charges for smuggling and is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals service.

    Yao was carrying unidentified biological materials in vials wrapped in aluminum foil inside a glove, wrapped in a plastic bag in the trunk of his car, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Mike Milne told the Reuters news agency.

    Dr. Frank Plummer, scientific director general of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, said the vials did not contain any infectious pathogens.

    “At no time was the health of citizens of Canada or the U.S. at risk, as the seized materials are known to be non-infectious,” he said.

    FBI special agent E.K. Wilson said federal officials were initially called in to investigate whether the man smuggled the vials for bio-terrorism.

    Documents allege the researcher said he knew he needed special clearance to transport the materials into the U.S., but did not have a permit.

    Plummer said Yao was working at the agency’s special pathogens laboratory on an Ebola vaccine project when his research term ended in January.

    “There was a small amount of genetic material from the Ebola virus in the material that he took off with, but it posed no risk of infection and no risk to the health of the public,” he said.

    “It’s basically genetic material, some of which had an Ebola gene in it. It’s just a gene. It’s not infectious. The only thing he could’ve done with it was make an Ebola vaccine.”

    Yao never had access to Level 3 and 4 pathogens, such as the swine flu virus, HIV and Ebola virus, Plummer said. He had access to a Level 2 laboratory and “only worked with non-infectious materials.”

    Yao said in an affidavit obtained by Reuters that he took the vials with him when he left the lab at the end of his contract on Jan. 21, to help him get a head start on his research at his new job at a U.S. disease research lab.

    Canada’s public health agency did not know the vials were missing until it was contacted by the RCMP, which had been alerted by U.S. border services, Plummer said.

    The agency doesn’t search employees or former employees when they leave, Plummer said, adding that he “is satisfied” that no one else in the lab was aware of Yao’s actions.

    “The individual was instructed about the rules regarding taking government property, including materials he had been working on as part of his research project, off site,” he said. “At some point you have to rely on trust of the individuals and the integrity of the individuals that work in the building.”

    The laboratory also “does not do rigorous, regular inventory” of Level 1 and 2 non-infectious materials, such as the vials that were allegedly taken, Plummer said. It has no plans to implement such a database.

    “We have tens of thousands of these vials in refrigerators and freezers in the laboratory,” he said. “We would never try to have an inventory of every little vial in our laboratory. It’s absolutely impossible.”

    The lab will review its security protocols in the wake of the controversy, but Plummer stressed that a similar incident “would not happen to our live pathogens” because the agency has “very strict controls” over Level 3 and 4 pathogens.

    He said U.S. counterparts at the Centers for Disease Control have very similar protocols.

    The stolen vials are still at the Centers for Disease Control, where they have been tested and shown to be non-infectious.

    “This is not a common event. We’ve never had experienced anything like this before,” Plummer said.

    Yao is charged informally on a complaint of attempted smuggling, which is based on his failure to disclose what he was taking across the border, not the type of materials he had, U.S. prosecutor Lynn Jordheim said.

    The next step is for a U.S. grand jury to consider the evidence to decide whether to lay formal charges. He will remain in custody pending the grand jury decision, Reuters reported.

    The matter has also been referred to the Winnipeg Police Service, which has not yet decided whether to lay charges.

    http://tinyurl.com/oncgbq

    With files from the Winnipeg Free Press

    © Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

  37. spiffyw
    May 14, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    Would-Be Gunman Foiled By Weapon Jam
    Man Attempts To Fix Gun Multiple Times During Shootout

    http://tinyurl.com/rdrwlo

    This is unbelivable the gunman keeps going back in the store to unjam his gun …good thing the cops were late

  38. DW
    May 14, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    Some pure propaganda from the AP:

    Charge your iPod, kill a polar bear?

    By GREG KELLER – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    PARIS (AP) — The choice might not be quite that stark, but an energy watchdog is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the soaring electricity needs of gadgets like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs.

    Full article:
    http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/En.....16-ap.html

    You can read the whole lengthy article and find absolutely nothing else about polar bears. Other than the attached picture -which is yet another cute shot of something that would kill and eat you just out of general principles. And which is thriving -according to those who have to live and work around the damned things.

    So why post this? This is a perfect example of editors choosing titles for articles (which is the case, so I’m told). Not that the people calling the shots in the MSM are biased or anything…

    So picture Joe or Jane Q. Public, flipping through the paper (or scrolling down the computer) and glancing at the headlines on their way to the sports page or to whatever their main interest is.
    All they pick up on, is the headline.
    Marvelous tactic.
    Pure bullsh*t. But very effective.

    Nope. No bias there…

    • Rusty Shackleford
      May 14, 2009 at 9:05 pm

      DW,

      This capitalizes on the point I, and many others make, about our “sound-bite” society. After all, is it really surprising that Budweiser sales skyrocketed all because of some stupid talking frogs which, admittedly, were pretty funny?

      In music, it’s called a “hook” as it is in advertising. You can see the obvious reasoning behind the name.

      But over the years, they, the sound bites, have gotten much shorter and smaller, perhaps due to the dumbing down of society. 1955: “See the USA, in your Chevrolet” has dumbed down to “Like A Rock”. Is that any surprise?

    • DW
      May 14, 2009 at 9:20 pm

      Actually, Rusty, I thought Budweiser sales skyrocketed because I switched to that particular brand.
      Your point however, is taken, Sir.

  39. canary
    May 15, 2009 at 2:06 am

    Report: Aid Told Pelosi of Waterboarding/Fox News 05/13/09

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly was told in February 2003 by her intelligence aide, Michael Sheehy, that waterboarding was used on CIA terror detainee Abu Zubaydah…

    According to a report, Sheehy attended a briefing with Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., in February 2003 and discussed the CIA’s use of waterboarding.

    A CIA document made public last week shows that Pelosi received a briefing in September 2002 on the tactics used on Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda leader and one of three prisoners subjected to waterboarding. Pelosi said she was told the agency was discussing its legal right to use the tactic in the future.

    “We were not — I repeat — were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.

    Pelosi was briefed in 2002 while on the House Intelligence Committee.

    However, the CIA has blocked Republican efforts to stir the controversy. Late Tuesday, the spy agency turned down the request of Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, for the CIA to declassify the “notes to file” from the CIA officers who briefed members of Congress on the enhanced interrogation program.

    “This decision is unbelievable — that, even with all the exposure this program has gotten, these documents would not be released,” Hoekstra, R-Mich., said.

    FOX News’ Jim Angle contributed to this report.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....rrogation/

  40. canary
    May 15, 2009 at 2:24 am

    FOX News: CIA Denies Cheney’s Request to DeClassify Interrogation Memos
    By Wendell Goler May, 14th, 2009

    The CIA has turned down former Vice President Cheney’s request to release memos he says would show waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” produced valuable information that saved lives.
    Cheney’s office told FOX News that the former vice president is preparing his appeal to the denial.

    President Obama could overrule the agency, as he did a month ago when he cited “exceptional circumstances” and declassified four memos that detailed waterboarding and other interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists.

    Cheney and others objected to that release, saying it would tell terrorists what to prepare for. A Senate report concluded days later that the harsh techniques were not just used at the CIA’s “secret prisons,” but also in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    During an interview on FOX News last month, Cheney criticized the release of the memos and said he was disturbed that “they didn’t put out the memos that showed the success of the effort.”

    Obama has said the memos Cheney wants released do not prove the harsh techniques are effective.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ion-memos/

    Amazing how Obama’s new CIA works.

  41. canary
    May 15, 2009 at 4:35 am

    TIMES ONLINE James Hider in Jerusalem 5/15/09
    Leon Panetta’s Mission to Stop Isreal Bombing Iranian Nuclear Plant

    America’s spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration.

    As Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, prepares to visit Washington, it emerged yesterday that Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, went to Israel two weeks ago. He sought assurances…, that their hawkish new Government would not attack Iran without alerting Washington.

    Concerns have been rising that Mr Netanyahu could launch a strike on Tehran’s atomic programme, in the same way that Israel hit Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in 1981. The country’s leaders reportedly told Mr Panetta that they did not “intend to surprise the US on Iran”.

    Mr Netanyahu will leave for Washington this weekend. He will… try to convince of the need for tougher action against Iran. Mr Obama favours trying to engage Tehran, but his efforts have been received coolly by President Ahmadinejad.
    Iran opens first nuclear fuel production facility
    Iran ready to strike at Israel’s nuclear heart

    Mr Netanyahu has held meetings with Arab leaders this week, including President Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. Both Sunni leaders share Israel’s fears of a resurgent Shia Iran.

    Mr Netanyahu raised the issue of Iran during a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in Nazareth yesterday. “I asked him as a moral figure to make his voice heard loud and continuously against the declarations coming from Iran of their intention to destroy Israel,” ..
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....289593.ece

    • canary
      May 15, 2009 at 4:58 am

      Once again the Obama’s new CIA. This is absolutely hypocrisy with Obama and Clinton’s ragging pre-election that Iran is the most dangerous force. Now they endanger Isreal by making them a target.

      Obama cleaerly wrote he is anti-Isreal. The Pope has followed in his recent visit siding with Palenstine. Guess like his right hand bishop, and Iran, they don’t believe in the Holocaust. We should support Isreal when Iran for years threatens to wipe Isreal off the face of the earth, yet alone because of Iran’s nuke threats against America and other countries. Isreal is the only civilized country surrounded by a growing axis of evil and enemies.

  42. BillK
    May 15, 2009 at 7:05 am

    From an ever-hopeful AP:

    AP source: Rove to be questioned on U.S. attorneys

    WASHINGTON (AP) – Former top Bush White House aide Karl Rove is scheduled to be interviewed Friday as part of a criminal investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys, according to a lawyer familiar with the investigation.

    Rove has said he will cooperate with the investigation being conducted by a special prosecutor into whether Bush administration officials or congressional Republicans should face criminal charges in the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

    An attorney told The Associated Press on Thursday that Rove will be questioned by the special prosecutor, Nora Dannehy. The attorney, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to talk to the media.

    Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin declined to comment on the timing of the interview, first reported by The Washington Post.

    Rove and other Republican officials refused to be interviewed in an earlier Justice Department inquiry, which concluded that despite Bush administration denials, political considerations played a part in the firings of as many as four of the prosecutors.

    U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president, but cannot be fired for improper reasons. Bush administration officials at first claimed the attorneys were let go because of poor performance. …

    http://www.9news.com/news/worl.....yid=115730

    Someone remind me again what the “proper reason” was Janet Reno used to fire them all?!?!

    • Gila Monster
      May 15, 2009 at 11:15 am

      “U.S. attorneys are political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president,…”

      You’re right BillK. what is it about this policy that libtards and BDS sufferers don’t understand? An “appointee”, especially a political one, serves at the discretion of the “appoint-er”, in this case, the POTUS. I don’t recall an “improper reason” clause in the Constitution so it seems obvious, to me at least, he can dismiss them at any time he or she so chooses, a “reason” not requisite.

  43. BillK
    May 15, 2009 at 7:09 am

    See, it’s all so simple!

    From the socialists at the AP:

    Proposal would require all to have health coverage

    WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats are crafting a plan that would require all Americans to carry health insurance and would help families making less than $88,000 pay the premiums. Employers, too, would have to help foot the bill.

    It’s the latest development in President Barack Obama’s push to fix the ailing U.S. health care system by getting the government more deeply involved.

    Obama has said the final legislation must rein in costs, guarantee choice of health plans and medical providers, and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable coverage. But he’s leaving it to Congress to work out the details.

    Responding to a question at a town hall-style meeting in New Mexico on Thursday, Obama said he expects a plan from Congress that will be a “vast improvement” over the current system.

    A document obtained by The Associated Press provides an early look at where Democratic leaders in the House are heading as they try to meet an ambitious July 31 deadline for passing their version of the legislation. The Senate is working on a similar plan, with some key differences, on the same timetable.

    The plan by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would build on the current system in which employers, government and individuals share responsibility for health insurance.

    It would make major changes: Individuals and employers would face new obligations to help pay for coverage. Insurers would operate under stricter consumer protections. And the government would take added responsibilities for setting insurance rules and providing financial help to low- and middle-income families.

    “It’s a sensible, mainstream proposal,” said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a member of the fiscally conservative group of Democrats known as the Blue Dogs. “If we do something along those lines we will be in the right ball park.”

    Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) questioned the proposed requirements that individuals get coverage and employers help pay. “Clearly the individual and employer mandates will come at great cost, and part of what we want to do is create an affordable plan for everybody,” said Camp. …

    http://www.9news.com/news/worl.....yid=115731

    No matter how you slice it, the Government will control care and of course will pick up the tab for most people, guaranteeing a payout which can never, ever be ended.

    The House plan would set up an insurance purchasing pool called an “exchange” to help make private coverage more affordable for individuals and small businesses. Initially only employers with fewer than 10 workers would be able to buy coverage through the pool, but bigger companies would be able to join over time.

    Health insurance plans that participate in the exchange would have to follow new consumer protection rules. They would not be able to deny coverage to the sick, or charge them exorbitant rates.

    So if you’re a smoker or a heavy drinker – hey, come on in! We can’t charge you more!

    That’ll work as well as “requring” credit card issuers to not charge higher risk customers more and will have the same result – a reduction of the services in question in the marketplace.

    • proreason
      May 15, 2009 at 11:39 am

      Millions of people will die before their time because of this.

      Of all of the insanities floating around, with the exception of “nuclear proliferation will make us safer”, this is the most dangerous by far.

      And that doesn’t even get into the certain astonomically decrease in wealth and freedom for every person in the country.

      But the .0005% who run the country will feel even more powerful, won’t they?

      And after all, feeding their egos is the important thing, isn’t it?

  44. BillK
    May 15, 2009 at 7:24 am

    The will of the people goes to the Gods judges again, this time in Wisconsin.

    From an excited AP:

    Wis. high court to review 2006 gay marriage ban

    By Ryan J. Foley

    MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the state’s 2006 ban on gay marriage was properly put to voters.

    The court will review a challenge by political science instructor William McConkey, who claims the referendum on the constitutional amendment illegally put two questions to voters: whether to ban gay marriage and whether to outlaw civil unions. The state constitution limits referendums to a single subject.

    A Dane County judge upheld the referendum last year, and the Baileys Harbor man appealed that ruling. Last month, the Madison-based District 4 Court of Appeals asked the high court to take the case immediately because of its statewide significance.

    Justices announced Thursday they decided to take the case and gave lawyers 30 days to file initial briefs. Oral arguments are not yet scheduled but are expected this fall, with a decision potentially before the end of the year.

    Fair Wisconsin, the state’s largest gay rights group, praised the court’s decision to take the case.

    “The constitutional amendment is definitely something we see as a stain on the constitution. It sort of enshrines discrimination,” said its legislative director, Katie Belanger. “We are really looking forward to the Supreme Court making a fair decision about whether or not the amendment was put to the people in the legal and constitutional way.”

    A spokesman for Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen pledged a vigorous legal defense of the amendment, which was approved by nearly 60 percent of voters.

    “We have defended the voter’s choice, and we will continue to do so,” Bill Cosh said. …

    http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....IAGE_WIOL-

    So where does McConkey work?

    Why the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, of course!

    So yes, Wisconsin voters, you’re paying the salary of the man who wants to overturn your wishes.

    It doesn’t get any better than that.

  45. BillK
    May 15, 2009 at 10:28 am

    From Broadcasting and Cable, the “Big Government is Good” brainwashing continues, this time from the FCC:

    Copps Urges Media Reform, Bemoans Years of “Mindless Deregulation”

    By John Eggerton

    Progressive reformer and acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps was basking in his element Thursday as he preached the gospel of media reform. He suggested that traditional media may be going the way of the VCR and analog TV sets, but also raised the issue of regulating media’s presumptive new king: the Internet.

    Billed as Free Press’ “Bono and Brangelina,” Copps took the dais at a packed media reform forum. He has addressed the gathering before–last year in Minnesota–but always as a minority commissioner rather than the more bully pulpit of acting FCC chairman.

    While saying he was still teeing up big decisions for the incoming chairman, Julius Genachowski, Copps urged haste in capitalizing on a new wind of reform he said was blowing through the Capital and across the nation.

    Winding the stem on a speech that resonated again and again with the overflow crowd at the Newseum in Washington, Copps said that so long as his audience did not come to Washington simply to harvest the fruits of its labors, there could be an era of reform to match the New Deal.

    “I don’t think we’ll be circling the wagons any time soon-but if we’re not quick about it and smart about it and thorough about it, the winds of change could blow themselves out before our job is done. We must seize the opportunity when we have it. Us. Now….When it comes to public policy, eight years of shallows and misery was enough for me,” he said. “I don’t even want to think about any more such years!”

    Copps bemoaned what he called “two decades of mindless deregulation” with a brief interruption before a “veritable tsunami of consolidation.” The result? “Infotainment, sensationalism, cable news mud-wrestling, and homogenized playlists.”

    “We’re not only losing journalists,” he said, “we may be losing journalism.” He said the problem started before the Internet, with consolidation and “mindless deregulation.” “When TV and radio stations are no longer required to serve their local communities, when stations or newspapers are loaded down with crushing debt or owned by huge corporations preoccupied with cutting costs through economies of scale, it should come as no surprise that some things precious get lost.”

    He also explained part of his urgency for change. “There are those who argue that’s all over now. Consolidation and conglomeration are yesterday’s news. I don’t buy it. As soon as the economy begins to turn the corner, I predict we’ll see another urge to merge-to buy, leverage, and find those elusive economies of scale. More news rooms closed. More journalists fired. More private equity, less public dialogue.”

    Saying he did not want to paint with too broad a brush, the acting chairman did give a shout out to broadcasters who were trying to serve the public interest, but said Wall Street expectations were forcing them in directions they did now want to go. “Whatever we do should help those stations that are trying to do the right thing and nurture the democratic dialogue.” …

    http://www.broadcastingcable.c.....ation_.php

    Gee, why do I think Mr. Copps meant that “democratic” with a capital D?

    We need more regulation of what we see and hear.

    We can’t let newspapers go under (read: those newspaper bailouts had best be coming soon!).

    We can’t have newspapers or news networks owned by private equity. No, private is bad, evil even.

    But more importantly:

    Copps said that so long as his audience did not come to Washington simply to harvest the fruits of its labors, there could be an era of reform to match the New Deal.

    Which is, of course, what every one of us has been doing anything we can to not see happen again, as a new “New Deal” is something from which the country may not recover from for decades… if ever.

    Want more? He’s not done throwing laws around:

    Looking farther down the road, Copps raised the possibility of Internet regulation. Historically, government regulation has been based on some sort of licensing relationship or statutory directive. But how does that apply to the online world, where websites not only are not licensed, but they may not even be in the United States? And what if the new media fail to provide the things we care about-the things we need?”

    He didn’t have the answer, but Copps said it was time to have a “serious national discussion.”

    Free Speech?

    Only if it’s speech the Democrats have approved for public dissemination, of course.

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