Posts from — October 2006

CBS News-New York Times poll:

Seventy-nine percent of those polled — including 61 percent of Republicans — say GOP leaders were more concerned with politics than the well-being of the teenage pages.

You can fool all of the people some of the time…

According to Robert at Interstate 4 Jamming, recent Saddam Hussein Award winner, the disHonorable Thomas M. Reynolds (R-Cowardice Clarence), didn’t show up for a scheduled talk show appearance. He sent Howdy Doody in his place.

Cue up the Dixie Chicks.

I agree with Swopa that everything that has been done by these Repulsivecans falls under the heading of a Betrayal of Trust.

Keith Olbermann, in another stellar performance, nails the Shrubbery on his lying. He has been doing yeoman service, but where is the rest of the media.

While Glenn Greenwald wonders if the Foley crimes prove the existence of G-d, I would think that it is a strange god indeed that permits the victimization of teenage boys.

Publius espouses the The White Blood Cells Theory as creating the scope of the disaster, and I can’t fault his reasoning.

Karen also looks at the corruption and sees it as sociopathic.

If you want to know about the Shrubbery read Elmer Gantry. Sinclair Lewis was in touch with the America that all of the Repusivecans claim to love. Learn what it was all about.

I’ve mentioned in a couple of places that because the pages are minors, Congress is acting in loco parentis. Congress didn’t just fail as politicians; they failed as parents. By ignoring the threat that Foley presented, they legally and morally are guilty of allowing “Uncle Mark” to molest “their children.”

I would hope voters realize that it is time to “divorce” these people as there are obviously irreconcilable differences between America and the current Republican Party.

The test of the prophet is the accuracy of the prophecy. A true prophet cannot produce a false prophecy.

From the Gospel of Luke chapter 6, verses 43 and 44:

For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

The ends cannot justify the means, because a “corrupt tree” cannot bring forth “good fruit.” This actually made its way into legalese as an extention of the exclusionary rule, there is the Fruit of the poisonous tree or derivative evidence rule, which says that evidence gathered by illegal means, or discovered as a result of illegal conduct cannot be used. [Another reason for the courts to reject the recent Stalinist GULag Act.]

The Amish are good example of how Christians are supposed to act. As Jill notes they don’t just talk about being Christians, they act like Christians.

You don’t have to go that far to be a Christian. One of my favorite Christians is Billy Don Moyers, an ordained minister who lectured on Christian ethics at Baylor University [you can’t get more Baptist than Baylor] for a short time and then pursued his other calling, journalism. Of course, he’s generally known as just Bill Moyers, but he demonstrates the concern for the poor and downtrodden that is central to Christian belief.

At this point you might think that I was going to write something about Republicans in Washington, but I don’t see any link between them and Christianity.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

My production will definitely suffer and commenting will be reduced as I have managed to sprain a finger on my right hand. I wish I could say it was due to wrestling an alligator or evicting a bear from a pre-school, but I have no idea how I did it.

The necessity of keeping the hand on ice, limits my ability to type, but, at least I’m mobile, unlike poor Elayne, who sprained an ankle and lives on an upper floor.

This too will pass.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the war we should have won and could have won.

The Taliban are resurgent; the poppy production is huge; and Osama is still at large.

The incompetence shown by the conduct of the war in Afghanistan has emboldened all of those who hate the US.

Swopa of Needlenose found The Iraq war, summed up in 144 words.

A gross of words that explain a gross mistake.

The predictable Friday news dump has CNN et al. reporting:

A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday in the wake of a congressional report that listed hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.

Susan Ralston, special assistant to President Bush, submitted a resignation letter to him less than five weeks before congressional elections in which corruption and scandal are emerging as key issues for voters.

“She did not want to be a distraction to the White House at such an important time and so we have accepted her resignation,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

She worked for Abramoff and then was hired by Rove, but the White House couldn’t remember “having relations with that man.”

Nearly everyone has been in a building with red boxes in the hallways that said “In Case of Fire Pull Alarm.” When a building is occupied this is a very efficient system for notifying the people in the building, and usually the local fire department, that there is a problem.

About the only thing that prevents the system from working is if someone sees a fire and decides that rather than using the fire alarm they will see if they can handle the problem themselves.

Using the Pull boxes is part of the “standard operating procedure” [SOP] for that building. That is what people are taught to do.

After the 1983 scandal, Congress made a number of changes designed to prevent this from happening again. The pages were put in a dormitory and required to sign in and out. An oversight group, the Page Board, was created to deal with the program. Procedures were established to provide Congress with the low-cost labor of pages and the pages with a good resume item for later life while providing the oversight needed for a group of 16-year-old high school juniors.

The one weakness in the system is the need for the people in charge to be willing to follow the procedures and “Pull the Handle.”

[Read more →]

Ringo Does DeNiro

You talking to me?

[Editor: Ringo kept tensing then relaxing as a moth had entered the house. She finally leapt and eliminated the moth, while sparing the lamp…this time.]

Friday Ark

According to the Blight¹, Hastert isn’t being sandbagged, he’s being hit with a sachet².

See Billmon.

1. Bloggers on the Right.

2. Yes, it’s cheap stereotyping, but I’m an old guy and we get to make tasteless jokes.

If you are a resident of Florida, time is running out to register to vote in the November election. You can’t put it off or you will be turned away at the polls.

If you haven’t voted in recent elections you should check to ensure you are still on the rolls; people who don’t vote get removed and have to re-register.

I don’t care what party you support. I want you registered, and I want you to vote, so I can harass the hell out of you if I think you voted for the wrong people and policies. Even if you think everything is running beautifully, you have to register and vote, because someone is always trying to make changes.

Don’t think about, do it.

So much has gone on recently, that I thought I would highlight a few of the performances by the governing class:

	The ‘Joliet’ Jake Blues Award for Insincere Apologies goes to the disHonorable Mark Foley who just doesn’t want to admit he is a sick puppy who needs to be isolated from anyone who can’t legally drink.
	The Saddam Hussein Award for Using Children as Shields goes to Congresscreep Thomas M. Reynolds who surrounded himself with small children to avoid answering question from the press about enabling Mark Foley.
	The Captain Louis Renault Award for Manufactured Outrage [First Class – note dress uniform] goes to the Shrubbery, not only for manufacturing outrage but for actually using the word “shocked” in regards to the disHonorable Mark Foley.
	Vizzini Award for Language Abuse [Second Class] to Condoleezza Rice for her use of “incomprehensible”, attempting to divert attention from her failure to take any actions after being informed of a likely terrorist threat by the CIA.  She was a contender earlier for the statement: “no one could have imagined hijacked planes being used as weapons,” but it was felt that the award had to be limited to single words. The First Class requires the direct abuse of “inconceivable”.
	The Hippo of Hypocrisy is awarded to Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, who between them have more divorces that some nations and yet feel qualified to have meaningful opinions about morality in sexual relations.
	The Stalin Prize for Government Control is awarded to the Republican leaders in Congress whose Military Commissions Act embodies all of the worst elements of the Soviet government under Josef Stalin.

Let’s have a hand, or other appropriate digital display, for the winners.