Separation of church and state

In the United States, separation of church and state is often identified with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The phrase "building a wall of separation between church and state" was written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. Many Christians, in this country, lie about the Separation as they try to impose their theocratic views, that we may not agree with, on others.

I don't know if it's arrogance or ignorance that brings them to the table, but we have this separation for good reason. Although the Puritans were victims of religious persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the European theory that sanctioned it: the need for uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England, the Puritans sought uniformity through religious dominance, to be achieved by persecution. The "business" of the first settlers, a Puritan minister recalled in 1681 "was not Toleration, but [they] were professed enemies of it." Indeed, the Puritans of whom he spoke had routinely expelled dissenters from their colony, and those that defied them by returning risked death with four Quakers executed by the Puritans between 1659 and 1661, including Mary Dyer.

Participating in this religious intolerance, Thomas Jefferson, among other founding fathers, was unwilling to concede "moral superiority" to the Puritans. As such, Virginia enacted anti-Quaker laws, including the death penalty for refractory Quakers. Jefferson wrote: "if no capital execution took place here, as did in New England, it was not owing to the moderation of the church, or the spirit of the legislature."

Over time, Jefferson came to see the error of his ways and the tyranny of Religion upon those who differ from the professed State beliefs. In 1786 he wrote, and got enacted, the Virginia Bill of Religious Freedom, which said:

No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And such was the thinking that went into the Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791). So, why bring this dusty old subject up?

Because religious differences lead to social conflict. Like it or not, we're not so superior in this country that we couldn't turn into another Belfast or Baghdad. And, in fact, we've done it in the past, starting with the Bible Riots of Philadelphia in 1844, sparked by Protestant persecution of Catholics, and continued on until the Civil War captured the attention of the United States and the Knownothing Party died. Still, it wasn't until 1871 with the massacre of 51 Catholics by the New York militia, did the religious-based rioting stop. We've also had, in the United States, the persecution of the Mormons, Jews, Seventh Day Adventists and many others at various times.

But that was in the past you say. Fair enough. But the past is one mistake away from becoming the future. And with people like these leading large religious blocks here in America, that mistake could lead to trouble. The infamous Catholic Bashing Evangelical Preacher Hagee just endorsed McCain:

...Hagee’s not too fond of the Catholic church either. From his book Jerusalem Countdown:…:

Adolf Hilter attended a Catholic school as a child and heard all the fiery anti-Semitic rantings from Chrysostom to Martin Luther. When Hitler became a global demonic monster, the Catholic Church and Pope Pius XII never, ever slightly criticized him. Pope Pius XII, called by historians ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ joined Hitler in the infamous Concordat of Collaboration, which turned the youth of Germany over to Nazism, and the churches became the stage background for the bloodthirsty cry, ‘Pereat Judea’…. In all of his [Hitler’s] years of absolute brutality, he was never denounced or even scolded by Pope Pius XII or any Catholic leader in the world. To those Christians who
believe that Jewish hearts will be warmed by the sight of the cross, please be informed—to them it’s an electric chair.

To which the rabid and vile William Donohue freaks out:

The Catholic League demanded that McCain repudiate Hagee and his endorsement, just as Barack Obama did earlier this week with Louis Farrakhan (despite the fact that Obama, unlike McCain with Hagee, never sought out or accepted Farrakhan’s endorsement) In the interview, Donohue made some extraordinary statements. He compared Hagee both to Louis Farrakhan and Bob Jones, but noted: “Hagee is far more powerful than Farrakhan is today. . . . Hagee is a major player. There’s no end to his money. He has an empire down there.” Regarding the intense 2000 media controversy when then-Gov. George Bush spoke at Bob Jones University, Donohue said: Why were they so exercised about Bob Jones? This is worse. . . . If someone said to me: who is the biggest anti-Catholic bigot in the evangelical community, I would say: hands down, John Hagee.

When Christians talk about a biblical America, I ask them whose? Because I come from a family who were persecuted (Mennonites) by the Bapists while in America. And while I'm not a Mennonite, I don't forget the family history of having to flee from Rye, New York (part of New York City) to the Midwest to escape the persecution during and after the Revolutionary War. And I think about the Mormons who were driven across this county and were persecuted heavily until 1890. And even how people didn't believe Kennedy could be elected President in 1960 because he was a Catholic.

The Superdelegate Shuffle...

Momentum continues to shift:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has made a substantial cut into Sen. Hillary Clinton's advantage with Democratic elected superdelegates, a report said.Obama increased his support among superdelegates after winning 11 consecutive nominating contests against Clinton, The New YorkTimes reported.

"The momentum doesn't hurt. So yeah, I think he's going to unify the upcoming primaries, and I think he's going to win them," said vice chairwoman of the Maine Democratic Party Marianne T. Stevens, who will vote as a superdelegate for Obama.

The stream of success for Obama led Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis to change sides and motivated other undecided superdelegates to give Obama their support. Nine superdelegates have announced their support for Obama this week, the report said.

The report said the superdelegates' votes are extremely influential because neither candidate is expected to get the 2,025 delegates needed to assure a nomination at the Democratic Convention in August.

No word if the whiners at Daily Kos and AmericaBlog have undergone a John Kerry-like "I loathed them before I loved them" transformation for the Superdelegates. I wouldn't be surprised to see Edwards endorse Obama soon.

The Key to Life...

...Before Its Origin On Earth May Have Been Discovered

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — An important discovery has been made with respect to the mystery of "handedness" in biomolecules. Researchers led by
Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor at Arizona State University, found that some of the possible abiotic precursors to the origin of life on Earth have been shown to carry "handedness" in a larger number than previously thought.

Scientists have long known that most compounds in living things exist in mirror-image forms. The two forms are like hands; one is a mirror reflection of the other. They are different, cannot be superimposed, yet identical in their parts.

When scientists synthesize these molecules in the laboratory, half of a sample turns out to be "left-handed" and the other half "right-handed." But amino acids, which are the building blocks of terrestrial proteins, are all "left-handed," while the sugars of DNA and RNA are "right-handed." The mystery as to why this is the case, "parallels in many of its queries those that surround the origin of life," said Pizzarello.

But apparently not in space. Giving some possible implication that life may not have started on earth, but in space. Nothing new for Sci-fi buffs (for example - Heart of the Comet). But seriously "cool."

The article is here.

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

Lewis Carroll on acid, hell of a way to write a song.

Love the clothes, though. Too bad they never really caught on.

"Proud Liberal Conservative Republican..".

Well, McCain just stepped into it with the right-wing nutcase crowd. For the rest of us, was this a Freudian slip? Or just another case of political foot-in-mouth disease?

Snake Oil Cures

The snake oil peddler is a stock character in American folk-lore. Based on the historic peddlers who sold all types of patent medicines, most of which were ineffective-to-deadly, while pretending to be a travelling "doctors" (with dubious credentials). Typically an accomplice in the crowd would attest to the miraculous healing powers of the tonic to increase sales. The "doctor" would prudently leave town before his customers realized that they had been cheated and would repeat the cycle, sometimes after being tarred-and-feathered if caught by the irate dupes, in another town. It became so iconic the character became part of Hollywood Westerns for decades.

Today, the practice of selling dubious remedies for real ailments still occurs today, albeit with some updated marketing techniques. Enzyte, selling "Natural Male Enhancement." After tens of millions in sales, much of which was fraudulently collected, the President of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals (the makers of Enzyte), Steven Warshak, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering for his role in this ineffective "medicine."

Sadly, dubious and irresponsible claims of cures for chronic diseases for which there are only symptomatic treatments available from mainstream medicine, are especially common. Unlike penis enhancement pills, some of these crank cures can have terrible consequences, beyond the well-earned embarrassment to the marks who bought them. Diabetes sufferers, for which there is no cure, and is a disease which, if not properly treated, can be fatal, are prime targets:

FDA Announces Permanent Injunction against Food Companies, Executives
Claim products cure various health conditions

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that Brownwood Acres Foods Inc., Cherry Capital Services Inc. (doing business as Flavonoid Sciences) and two of their top executives have signed a consent decree that effectively prohibits the companies and their executives from manufacturing and distributing any products with claims in the label or labeling to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent diseases.

The consent decree of permanent injunction is a result of the companies and their executives making unapproved drug claims and unauthorized health claims about their products, such as "Chemicals found in Cherries may help fight diabetes." The companies are prevented from making these claims until the products are approved by the FDA as new drugs, exempt from approval as investigational new drugs, or until the claims on the products' label and labeling comply with the law.

Under the terms of the consent decree, the companies have agreed to remove drug and unauthorized health claims from their labels, brochures, and Web sites, as well as references to other Web sites that contain such claims. They have also agreed to hire an independent expert to review the claims they make for their products and to certify that they have omitted all violative claims.

"The FDA will not tolerate unsubstantiated health claims that may mislead consumers," said Margaret O’K. Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "The FDA will pursue necessary legal action to make sure companies and their executives manufacture and distribute safe, truthfully labeled products to consumers."

Brownwood Acres Foods Inc. and Cherry Capital Services Inc. manufacture and distribute various products including juice concentrates, soft fruit gel capsules, fruit bars, dried fruits, liquid glucosamine, and salmon oil capsules.

The companies have a history of promoting unapproved claims on their product labels, brochures, and Web sites, stating that the products cure, treat, mitigate, or prevent various diseases. Most recently, the companies' Web sites referred customers to an apparently independent Web site, which was actually controlled by Brownwood Acres' president and contained similar unproven statements claiming benefits for their products.

The FDA can order the companies to stop manufacturing and distributing any product if they fail to comply with any provision of the consent decree, the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act or FDA regulations. The companies are also required to pay $1,000 per violation per day in the event they fail to comply with the consent decree.

The decree was signed by Judge Paul Maloney on Feb. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

So, the next time some Libertarian or Free-Market-bot tells you all about the wonders of the free market. Just remember, this freedom they talk about is not freedom for you to buy what you want. You can pretty much do that already.

It's freedom for big business to exploit you without consequences. Such as selling you these phony "de-tox" pads: Kinoki foot pads

Finntroll Trollhammeren

Finnish metal sextet Finntroll describe their music as trollish hoedown metal, which is to say that it combines the extreme elements of death metal with traditional Finnish folk melodies.

Great stuff!

Bush's War...

Highlights from a great article. And people wondered why I was opposed to the war. Never mind it was obviously being ginned up when it came to the WMDs, it also brings out the worst in humans, tending to turn them into brutal savages and always costs more than you think it will. Often to the point of bankrupting a country. Selections from a great article on:

The true cost of war

In 2005, a Nobel prize-winning economist began the painstaking process of calculating the true cost of the Iraq war. In his new book, he reveals how short-sighted budget decisions, cover-ups and a war fought in bad faith will affect us all for decades to come.

Appetites whetted, Stiglitz and Bilmes dug deeper, and what they have discovered, after months of chasing often deliberately obscured accounts, is that in fact Bush's Iraqi adventure will cost America - just America - a conservatively estimated $3 trillion. The rest of the world, including Britain, will probably account for about the same amount again.

...

The Department of Veterans Affairs, responsible for caring for these wounded, was operating, for the first few years of the war, on prewar budgets, and is ruinously overstretched; it is still clearing a backlog of claims from the Vietnam war. Many veterans have been forced to look for private care; even when the government pays for treatment and benefits, the burden of proof for eligibility is on the soldier, not on the government. The figure of $3 trillion includes what it will cost to pay death benefits, and to care for some of the worst-injured soldiers that army surgeons have ever seen, for the next 50 years.

...

By way of context, Stiglitz and Bilmes list what even one of these trillions could have paid for: 8 million housing units, or 15 million public school teachers, or healthcare for 530 million children for a year, or scholarships to university for 43 million students. Three trillion could have fixed America's social security problem for half a century. America, says Stiglitz, is currently spending $5bn a year in Africa, and worrying about being outflanked by China there: "Five billion is roughly 10 days' fighting, so you get a new metric of thinking about everything."

...

Then there was the discovery that sign-up bonuses come with conditions: a soldier injured in the first month, for example, has to pay it back. Or the fact that "the troops, for understandable reasons, are made responsible for their equipment. You lose your helmet, you have to pay. If you get blown up and you lose your helmet, they still bill you." One soldier was sued for $12,000 even though he had suffered massive brain damage. Some families have had to buy their children body armour, saving the government costs in the short term; those too poor to afford it sustain injuries that the government then has to pay for. Then there's the fact that it was not until 2006, when Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defence, that the DOD agreed to replace Humvees with mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) armoured vehicles, which are much more able to repel roadside bombs; until that time, IEDs killed 1,500 Americans. "This kind of penny-wise, pound-poor behaviour was just unbelievable."

...

"There were actually so many things - some of it we suspected, but there were a few things I couldn't believe." The fact that a contractor working as a security guard gets about $400,000 a year, for example, as opposed to a soldier, who might get about $40,000. That there is a discrepancy we might have guessed - but not its sheer scale, or the fact that, because it is so hard to get insurance for working in Iraq, the government pays the premiums; or the fact that, if these contractors are injured or killed, the government pays both death and injury benefits on top. Understandably, this has forced a rise in sign-up bonuses (as has the fact that the army is so desperate for recruits that it is signing up convicted felons). "So we create a competition for ourselves. Nobody in their right mind would have done that. The Bush administration did that ... that I couldn't believe. And that's not included in the cost the government talks about."

It's an amazing article. It makes me sick.

Lead Toys, Dangerous Drugs

Day-after-day, year-after-year I wonder why Libertarians seem to think they've found the Holy Grail of governance. From the free-rider problem of Public Television, the rising-tide of government works to the despair and death of Gilded Age capitalism, surely they could weigh the evidence and see their theories are nonsensical.

I guess, unlike them, I paid attention during 8th grade history and I learned how big businesses act when not regulated. Specificially the Gilded Age, a laissez-faire economy that was a horror-fest of poverty, exploitation and early death for the working-class people stuck in servitude to the Company Store and Factory Landlord. Practices that took fifty-years to reign in, much of which to be credited to trust busting of Roosevelt and Taft after we, as a country, got incensed to the dangers to which the Robber Barons exposed, and in the poverty they kept, us in their pursuit of profit.

Which is why I am not surprised the problem with heparin seems (though not proven yet) to be coming from China. Today, once again, the benefits of a strong regulatory presence over business is demonstrated. Not by the successes we take for granted, and thus never notice, but because of the costs of the failures we don't otherwise see:

RUGAO, China — With reports of more than 400 patients in the United States suffering serious complications after receiving the blood-thinner heparin, American investigators are trying to determine whether the raw material for the drug, made from pig intestines, became contaminated on the journey that begins in the slaughterhouses of China.

If you need this drug, you need this drug because your life is on the line. The last thing you need is to deal with the additional problems of a contaminated medicine attacking your weakened body.

The Chinese heparin market has become increasingly unsettled over the last year, as pig disease has swept through the country, depleting stocks, leading some farmers to sell sick pigs into the market and forcing heparin producers to scramble for new sources of raw material. Traders and industry experts say even big companies have been turning more often to the small village workshops, which are unregulated and often unsanitary.

In the gilded age, profit was everything. And we had to force big business to be safe. Now, in the laissez-faire, gilded-age business environment in China we have the same conditions. Women and children in horrible, working-poverty conditions while being exploited by profiteering industrial barons who are an insignificant portion of the population who make their money by squeezing the life out of others who have few honest choices in the matter. This, also, would include the drug companies who are so busy cutting costs to keep their incredible profit margins inflated beyond reason.

The authorities have not determined that problems with the heparin supply chain led to the deaths and adverse reactions, first reported last month in Missouri. Nor have investigators determined that heparin from China was the culprit. Baxter also gets some of its ingredients from a plant in Wisconsin. Neither S.P.L. nor Baxter has been accused of doing anything wrong.

Even so, the problems involving heparin have again focused attention on the quality of products from China and the gaps in regulation by both the Chinese and United States governments. S.P.L.’s plant in Changzhou was certified by American officials to export to the United States even though neither government had inspected it. The plant has been exporting heparin to Baxter since 2004.

Thank you Reagan, Bush and the anti-government lunatics that have done their best to destroy our county in their delusional hatred of all things government. Once again, a strong government is the only thing that stands between most of America and back-breaking, spirit-crushing poverty we see in the second and third world countries around the globe.

Army Official: Waterboarding Breaks Law, Is

This is exactly what we used to be, before Bush and the Neocons destroyed our moral fabric. And when people did it to us, they got a fair trial then hung.

Frodo Lives!

Lord of the Rings technology used to monitor fast bowler

The technology behind the Lord of the Rings is now being used to unlock the secrets of Australian fast bowler Brett Lee.

Special sensors have been monitoring his moves for possible future use in movies as well as to train other cricketers.

Why not slow motion video? It seems like a huge expense and bit of trouble to go through when cheaper and easier technology is available. But, well, let's face it, the geek squad's going to win this every time on the cool factor.

The video is here. Ring not included...

Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl

Enjoy.

Florida - Be All the Misanthrope You Can Be!

Florida's new license plate. Apparently, nothing is so vile that a vanity plate can't be made:

Sometimes I wonder what is in the water in Florida? This isn't about heritage. This is about dog-whistle racism. Despite the phony pretensions, it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to see examples of this, so-called, "Confederate Heritage, and what it really means:"


Notice the KKK symbols on the robes? Here it is on a KKK-Confederate Flag:


Or how about this Minutemen (militia) Rally, they don't mince about "heritage." They tell you up front - this is our symbol, this is what we believe, you can see what it means:


What I'd like is a little Truth in Advertising from Florida:

Because that's what I see. And that's based on 150 years of vileness. Not phony apologists denying the very real history of the Confederate Battle Flag.

I'm glad I'm not the only person to notice...

You'd figure at least the people on the left would have figured it out by now. But, apparently, it's impossible for the majority of the indoctrinated to over-come their programming. Pseudo-anonymous poster Hank Fox on "liberals" touting the Drudge Report as an "accurate media blog" vis the report the Clinton campaign released a picture of Barak Obama in some half-baked "native dress:"

After something like 10 years of the pedal-to-the-metal GOP hate machine, I'm suspicious of anything reported about Clinton.

I probably won't vote for her, but that doesn't mean I don't notice that she can't win no matter what she does. If Hillary Clinton ran into the street to save a baby from an out-of-control bus, the hate machine would spin it as a transparent campaign trick, and lambaste her for putting a baby at risk for her own filthy political aspirations. The news media would parrot that interpretation for the next five years, and too many of us would suck it down like gravy and biscuits.

Attacking Hillary at this point requires almost no independent thought or analytical ability.

I invite the lot of you Clinton-haters to grow the hell up. I'm really sick of your shit.

Posted by: Hank Fox February 27, 2008 4:04 AM

Props to Hank Fox. Shame on the hateful people who ran with this without thinking. You'd think after 16-years of unabated lying about the Clinton's and their motives by the Right-Wing-Noise-Machine, you'd clue in by now...

The Doughy Pantload Strikes

I see my favorite yellow stain is beating the drums of his partisan ignorance:

What fascinates me, though, is how light the baggage is when one travels from violent radicalism to liberalism. A local Chicago activist told Politico's reporter that Ayers "is one of my heroes in life."

Right. A local activist. Beyond seeming rather made up, it's one person. Finding one person who believes in something, or someone, horrible isn't a hard task to accomplish. I can do it before the end of this paragraph: Jonah Goldberg believes horrible things, just read his craven and intellectually-vacuous rantings and ravings sometime. Especially when it comes to torturing people in his B-movie "ticking time bomb" scenarios.

If we're going to play the game of association, like Goldberg does in his column, or in his widely ridiculed and discredited book Liberal Fascism, let's play the "who is worse" association game all the way. For the left, we have Ayers and the Weathermen.

The Weathermen were, frankly, pretty lame as "radical terrorists" go. Unlike McViegh, hero of many in the militias, the Weathermen would plant their bombs, then call in a bomb threat to get the building evacuated. Clearly, their activities were illegal and should not be condoned, yet in the conduct of their illegal activities, they did their best to limit their actions to property damage, not carnage. In all the bombings that happened in during their years of operation, not including the time a group of them blew themselves up, as far as I know, only one casualty is credited to the Weathermen and that's not a bomb for which they claim credit. The bombs used by the Weathermen were generally small devices made out a dozen, or more, sticks of dynamite and were man portable.

For the Right, we have Militia Hero Timothy McVeigh. By any objective standard, his conduct was far, far worse than anything done by Ayers, the former leader of the Weather Underground. Yet finding a "local activist," to support a horrible person like Norm Olson of the Northern Michigan Regional Militia (defunct), who considered Timothy McViegh a "hero" takes just a few seconds with the google. McVeigh killed 168 and left another 800 injured, many of whom were crippled for life and destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with a 5,000lb bomb.

I guess the right-wing wins by a wide margin. So much for the stupid game of association.

Why is it only conservative 'cranks' who think it's relevant that Obama's campaign headquarters in Houston had a Che Guevara-emblazoned Cuban flag hanging on the wall?"

Because it's not his campaign headquarters. And if we're going to play this association game, do we drag the militias, the KKK and the Nazi's to the Republicans? Because I know, for a fact, there are many people in those groups that vote for and/or financially support Republicans.

But why go for association. Why not run around and look for Confederate or Nazi paraphernalia in the offices of Republicans? Let's just look at former Senator Allen's office in Virginia. Or who gives speeches to KKK related organizations, like Trent Lott. Or militias, like Ron Paul. So, really, if we're going to worry about associations, the Republicans have a lot more to hide than the Democrats.

The Clinton Rules and Misogyny - The Bow-tie Edition

From the February 25 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

CARLSON: Well, [New York Times columnist] Frank Rich makes the point that if we were that biased against Hillary Clinton, we'd be asking to see her tax returns, and we'd be asking about who donates to her husband's foundation. And I personally believe we'd be asking a lot more questions about a Newsday piece today, about her behavior as a young lawyer representing someone accused of rape. The man was accused by a 12-year-old girl, and Hillary Clinton gave -- from my reading -- this child an awfully hard time in the courtroom, suggesting she was making it up and she had a history of doing things like that. Now their defense is, "Well, that's what lawyers are supposed to do." In other words, it's legal, therefore it's allowed. I guess my response would be, it's still repulsive and immoral. And yet, I bet you not one person will ask Hillary Clinton about that.

So, Carlson, a recipient of Wing-Nut Welfare (his granduncle was the famous segregationist Senator William Fulbright) and college drop-out, is lecturing Hillary Clinton on professional ethics. Something of which he has not the wit, basis or eduction to understand.

Making it more painfully ironic, Tucker had been accused of rape in 2003, and discussed this in his autobiography Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News. Apparently the self-described "traumatic experience" that, allegedly, strengthened his belief in the presumption of innocence, particularly on allegations of a sexual nature only applies if you're white, male and konservative.

But if you're a woman defending an indigent man of those charges as his court-appointed attorney, you're a bitch who deserves nothing but contempt. Even if your refusal could lead to severe penalties. I think John Stewart was right when he said to Carlson:

"You know what's interesting though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show."

I concur.

Obama Anointed by Chris Dodd

The ever-so-full-of-charisma Obama has been anointed by another "big Democrat," this time Chris Dodd. With more and more big names moving toward Obama and abandoning Hillary, it's likely there is little chance Hillary Clinton can muster the necessary enthusiasm in the undecided and marginal-Clinton electorate to win the nomination.

Human nature, being what it is, says "we love us a winner." And when even her long-time political allies and 'friends' have abandoned her, Hillary is getting the stench of "loser."

At this point in time, I think it's probably fair to say the Democratic Race is within shouting distance of "over." For the "competency over charisma" crowd it's time to acknowledge the obvious, decades-in-the-making, truth:

The Anti-Clinton Press Corps and their enablers have won.

After all, the polls are clear the Obama Express has, not only the momentum, but the lead with Democratic voters and is continuing to pull away from Clinton. Further, it seems to be clear that he will likely carry enough of Ohio and (win?) Texas to increase, or maintain, his delegate lead and thus further marginalize Clinton in the eyes of many Democrats who have become "win at all cost, regardless of qualifications because we're afraid to lose" at this point in time :

Dodd boards the Obama train

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) rejected entreaties from the Clintons and will endorse Sen. Barack Obama. (D-Ill.) for president at a Cleveland press conference this morning, Democratic officials tell Politico.

Dodd, who has some of the world’s wealthiest constituents and is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, can provide Obama with red-carpet access to Wall Street.

Dodd’s nod is the first from the major runners-up for the Democratic nomination. John Edwards, Sen. Joseph Biden and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson are still being eagerly courted by Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

I think being President will get Obama red-carpet access to quite a few dog-and-pony shows, at Wall Street or wherever. Even Presidents of 4th World Countries can get that access. I don't see that as important in running an effective government.

What Dodd will need to do is get Obama accepted into the halls of power that is the Washington belt-way "Insiders and Old Boys" club. The real power brokers who are like the "Mean Girls," only meaner. Something in which the Clintons and Jimmy Carter repeatedly failed, much to their political detriment.

A former Dodd campaign official said the senator has been impressed by Obama’s “growth.”

“He had the opportunity to watch Obama at very close range for many, many months, and he was just enormously impressed by Obama’s growth, his intellectual heft, strength, and his vision and leadership,” the former official said. “He’s absolutely convinced of Obama’s capacity to run this country’s foreign and military affairs.”

But does he have a backbone? It's obvious that Obama can talk the talk. It's obvious that Obama is smart. Some even say that the blind are healed by touching the hem of His trousers and that He can walk on water. But not so obvious is his jelly-like backbone and how he's rolled over for the Republicans every time. That lack of fortitude is where my concerns lay. So far "Mr. End the War" has done nothing to end the war, being completely buffaloed, along with the Quisling Congress, into voting to fund the war time-and-time again.

Never mind his other Neville Chamberlain qualities.

I guess, though, as a "competency over charisma" voter it's time for me to join the rest of the Vichy Democrats and get on the Obama Express. And, of course, it won't be all sour grapes, I'll have some fond memories of being on the Obama Express. I'll have been part of anhistoric moment. The first viable black Presidential Candidate in US History. So after everything goes to hell because the Republicans stonewall him into uselessness and then use this a proof of his incompetency they can jump back in and take over the government once again...

We'll still have Obama in Paris... We'll be able to talk about Obama, just like we talk about Jimmy Carter who was every bit the Obama of his generation - personally popular and very smart. Like Obama today, Carter was an intellectually-gifted and moral man who gained the Presidency after a Republican (Nixon/Ford) disaster; yet Carter, unfortunately, despite more political and leadership experience than Obama, ultimately proved to be, an outsider who was incapable of weathering the storm.

Just wondering though... Obama doesn't have brother named Billy, does he? Because I don't think I can suffer through another Billy Carter.

Lipitor Ads Pulled

Whoops! Another false and misleading advertisement from Big Pharma gets pulled:

The ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny from a U.S. House of Representative committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines.

Democratic lawmakers had voiced concern that Jarvik's qualifications were misrepresented in widely seen TV commercials touting the blockbuster drug. They said Jarvik seemed to be dispensing medical advice even though he is not a practicing physician.

It's worse than this, showing you, once again, the shoddy work product of the craven and corporate-beholden media. He's not even a licensed physician. It's not that he's just inactive, which seems to be implied by the Reuters article, he's not a doctor. At all. Just as someone who has a degree in law and never passed the bar is not an attorney.

He's really an engineer (Masters Degree in Medical Engineering - NYU) who went to medical school (University of Utah) so he could better design prosthetics. But never completed an internship or residency and has never been licensed.

Pfizer, of course, does the usual face-saving tap-dance when they're caught breaking the law:

"The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately, led to misimpressions and distractions from our primary goal of encouraging patient and physician dialogue on the leading cause of death in the world -- cardiovascular disease. We regret this," Ian Read, Pfizer's president of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, said in a statement.

"It's just a mistake, we had no intent, whatsoever, to give you the impression that Jarvik was a real Doctor giving you real medical advice..." Even though it was absolutely clear from the commercial that it was the intent.

UPDATE: Making it even funnier - "According to the committee investigating Jarvik, he used a body double, to make himself look more athletic and healthy than he actually is."

Little (Fairy) Penguin

Great Fact Sheet on the Little Penguin at the Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria. For example, I learned something I did not know about their breeding cycle:

The breeding season of the Little Penguin is between July and March and varies annually. Egg laying starts in July and generally two eggs are laid in a burrow. The eggs are incubated for around seven weeks, with the parents taking shifts of up to 10 days at a time while their partner feeds at sea. A Little Penguin may raise two clutches of young in a season. The newborn chick is covered in fluffy grey down and parents take it in turns to stand guard or catch food for it. Once the chick is a little older both parents feed at sea during the day and leave the chick to fend for itself until they return. The young take to the sea at about eight weeks old.

Must Watch TV - The Follow Up

Following up yesterday's "Must Watch TV" post,"Scott Horton at Harper's Magazine does a great job in following up on the continuing and expanding allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Siegelman case. It's a sad day when I find I can't believe the Department of Justice on a matter because they look and sound so absolutely lame and guilty in defending themselves.

If you missed the segment, Mr. Horton's article with the embedded segment is here: Harper's Magazine.

Finntroll - Nedgång

Enjoy.

Must Watch TV

Prior to Karl Rove and the Neocons who took over our government, it was reasonable to have faith in Government institutions, such as the Department of Justice. After years of Alberto Gonzales torturing the law, and defendants, much of America has lost faith in the Department of Justice. Faith that has not been restored by Michael "Waterboarding isn't torture unless done to me" Mukasey was appointed in replacement.

In another example of why faith in, and fact of, an independent Department of Justice matters, we have the possible political prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Now, I'll be honest, I don't know that he's innocent of the charges that were brought against him. I do believe, however, this was a political prosecution, one that appears to have been run by Karl Rove, despite his denials:

Report: Rove wanted dirt on Alabama gov.
By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A former Republican campaign worker claims that President Bush's former top political adviser, Karl Rove, asked her to find evidence that the Democratic governor of Alabama at the time was cheating on his wife, according to an upcoming broadcast of "60 Minutes." [Tonight.]

Jill Simpson, who has long alleged that Rove may have influenced the corruption prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman, makes the claim against Rove in a broadcast scheduled to be aired Sunday, according to a statement from CBS.

Simpson testified to congressional investigators last year that she overheard conversations among Republicans in 2002 indicating that Rove was involved in the Justice Department's prosecution of Siegelman. She has never before said that Rove pressed her for evidence of marital infidelity in spite of testifying to congressional lawyers last year, submitting a sworn affidavit and speaking extensively with reporters. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, denied the allegation.

"Mr. Rove never made such a request to her or anyone else," Luskin said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Had '60 Minutes' taken the trouble to contact Mr. Rove before circulating this falsehood, he would have told them the same thing."

In its statement, CBS said Rove declined to speak with "60 Minutes."

Making it difficult to ascertain the facts of this potentially tawdry issue is how compliant, sloppy and incompetent our modern press, evidenced above, has become. Fortunately, not all are as sloppy and careless. Scott Horton at Harper's Magazine calls out Evans for his sloppy reporting on this issue:

There is a big inaccuracy in this reporting. First Ben Evans writes: “She has never before said that Rove pressed her for evidence of marital infidelity in spite of testifying to congressional lawyers last year, submitting a sworn affidavit and speaking extensively with reporters.” Evans is dead wrong on this. If he had written "It has not previously been reported that she said that Rove…" he would be fine. I interviewed Simpson in July and she recounted this to me; and I believe she recounted it to two other reporters as well, one with another major national publication, but I’ll let them speak for themselves.

And:

And the CBS statement is true only in the way that a butler announces to an unwanted caller that “Madam is not at home” is true: it’s a formulation that covers a different set of facts which those in the news business understand. In fact, Rove was contacted by CBS and did speak with CBS about the allegations. Rove insisted that his comments could not be used in any way without his prior permission.

I have no idea what Rove said in that discussion, but I do know that the discussion occurred.

So, tonight we'll get to see the story. And wonder if it will confirm the truth of this supposition:

"I haven’t seen a case with this many red flags on it that pointed towards a real injustice being done," Grant Woods, the former Republican attorney general of Arizona and one of those who petitioned Congress, tells Pelley. "I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square."

Siegelman was the only politician in Alabama history to be elected to all four of the state’s highest offices of secretary of state, attorney general, lieutenant governor and governor, and he did it as a Democrat in the heavily Republican state.

But whatever happens, it won't make me feel better about the Department of Justice. Not until after a massive house-cleaning. And some accountability.

ACLU Defends Craig - Where is the Conservative Outrage?!?

Larry Craig's appeal was heard yesterday. Notable in the otherwise pedestrian Republican Bathroom Sex Scandal was the ACLU filing a friend of the Court brief on Craig's behalf:

They also rejected claims by Craig's attorneys that even if he had used hand signals to communicate a desire for sex, such actions would be constitutionally protected free speech.

And the prosecutors disputed claims made in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said that even if Craig did seek to have sex in the bathroom, he had a legal expectation of privacy. The ACLU said his alleged actions weren't illegal. The prosecutors countered that Craig's alleged actions all took place in a public place.

You know if Captain Wide-Stance was a Democrat, it'd be all over Faux News. And there would be Outrage! Outrage, I tell you! And I'm not seeing from the "talking heads." Where is their sense of outrage as the ACLU defends Craig. We should be seeing Hannity's mug screaming his outrage! Outrage, I tell you! Outrage! Because, as they tell us all the time, the 'damned ACLU is nothing but a bunch of liberal, godless faggots trying destroy Amerika! And here is the proof!'

Only, no outrage. I wonder why...

Anti-FOX Rant During Live FOX Broadcast

Ah, now this is funny!

Nader Announces New Run for President

Please, make it stop:

WASHINGTON February 24, 2008, 10:27 am ET · Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will "shift the power from the few to the many."

It will do nothing. If I'm going to protest vote, like I did in 2000, it'll be with the Green Party. Or maybe the Socialists. Or the Libertarians. Or my mother's cat.

But. It. Won't. Be. You.

Oh those wacky fundamentalists...

We are not amused:

February 24, 2008 - 9:32AM

Amnesty International said today it was "shocked" by a three-year jail term handed down by a Moroccan court to a man who registered a false internet Facebook profile as King Mohammed VI's brother.

The court in Casablanca sentenced 27-year-old computer engineer Fouad Mourtada yesterday and fined him 10,000 dinar ($A1400) for "the use of false information and usurping the identity of the prince".

"We are shocked by such a heavy verdict," said Benedicte Goderiaux, a member of an Amnesty group examining human rights issues in Morocco and Western Sahara who attended the trial.

"The sentence is disproportionate to the offence," she said.

Shocked? Shocked? Why would we be shocked? Like most of the Islamic-Arab countries, they've partially-fossilized at the 11th Century. I would be shocked if it didn't happen.

And ,of course, the sentence is disproportionate. It's characteristic of virtually all religion-influenced judicial systems, Islam, like Christianity and Judaism has some tremendously brutal legal and moral codes more fitting for the unenlightened beliefs of bronze-age peoples than our modern times. Look at child rearing:

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the
rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his
soul from hell.

Are we kidding ourselves? First of all, children do die from beatings. It happens all the time. The only thing you teach your child is to fear you and that abuse is the way to control others. But respect for the law and individuals rights... Not so much.

Or adultery. There's a laugher seeing as 75% of all men and 50% of all women, last I read, will commit adultery sometime in their marriage. The punishment for this, in all the Abrahamic religions, as we are all aware, is death. We see the punishment in Genesis 20:3, 7, 17; 26:11; Leviticus 20:10-12; 2 Samuel 12; Proverbs 2:16-19, 7:5-27 and Romans 1:29, 32. If we stoned everyone who committed adultery, we'd run out of rocks long before the bigots could get to the gays.

Goderiaux also expressed "concern over the trial's fairness", saying that the prosecutor and the judge each reproached Mourtada repeatedly for having "undermined the sacred integrity of the realm as represented by the prince".

If that was the basis of the verdict, Amnesty would consider him "a prisoner of opinion", she added.

You mean like our penal system? Or lack thereof? With it's disproportional sentencing and treatment of prisoners based draconian statutes enacted by the legislatures and draconian punishments handed down by clearly biased and prejudiced judges. Or how judges, for no reason but their own opinion, ruin people's lives, like the famous Rachel Bevilacqua case. Continuing on:

According to Goderiaux, the accused and his lawyers said Mourtada had signed his statement under duress during interrogation.

"In these circumstances, this document cannot be entered into a fair trial," she stated.

Ah, no doubt the he-manly tough-law and torture-advocates would say they'd never do such a thing. Even though most of them don't have the guts to join-up and fight their war and would, undoubtedly, like most people, break quickly under the same conditions and confess to anything. Just ask Gary Gauger.

European Space Agency - Mars in 3D

Some of the yummy photos from the Mars Express project:

This is a Martian canyon. Forgot to get the location.

Candor Chasma

Noctis Labyrinthus

And, of course, Cydonia!

You can read about the mission here.

How Science Works - Mars Edition

I really love science. Real science. Where people are looking to find an answer to a problem or explain an event they are seeing rather than support a pre-ordained political, theological or economic ideology. For example, we take picture of Mars and we see this:


And many people project their religious/cranky beliefs onto a blurry, low-resolution image. Some say it's the face of Christ, or God or aliens. Even though it's a classic case of pareidolia, which:

...describes a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hidden messages on records played in reverse.

So we go from God's face, or whom or what ever, to just some mountains on a plateau:


Well, in the NY Times we have a classic scientific dilemma, with competing theories for this geological phenomena regarding some clear run-off terracing:

Research Explains Formation of Unique Martian Fans

To figure out an odd landscape feature on Mars, play in a big sandbox.

Enlist some high school students, too.

That’s what some scientists at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands did, and they believe they now know how sediment deposits spilling out of the mouth of some water channels on Mars were shaped in a series of terraces that look like terraced rice paddies.

...

Some scientists suggested the terraced fans were the result of repeated shore erosion as a lake in the basin dried up. Others thought repeated landslides might have formed the steps.

The sandbox experiment, reported in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, supports a third notion. The terraces form by the interaction of the sediment flow with the water’s edge, which is rising as the basin fills.

And, free of artifacts, delusions and agendas we get to see how the "marketplace of ideas" works in science. A clear, pure example of competing theories over a rather pedestrian phenomenon lacking any social significance and thus, uncorrupted by an agenda; doesn't end up suffering from being deliberately corrupted with "tobacco science" denialism.

Instead, competing theories, free of special interest money and agendas, working toward understanding how the universe works with the best theory having the most explanatory power. Maybe this theory wins. It's got powerful support due to the support of the experimental evidence. Maybe a better theory comes along and wins the day.

Because that's how real, uncorrupted, science works.

Global Cooling and the Denial Industry

Science wins, ignorant punditry loses. Will anyone but scientists notice? Do the mouth-breathing-pundits even care?

The supposed "global cooling" consensus among scientists in the 1970s — frequently offered by global-warming skeptics as proof that climatologists can't make up their minds — is a myth, according to a survey of the scientific literature of the era.

The '70s was an unusually cold decade. Newsweek, Time, The New York Times and National Geographic published articles at the time speculating on the causes of the unusual cold and about the possibility of a new ice age.

But Thomas Peterson of the National Climatic Data Center surveyed dozens of peer-reviewed scientific articles from 1965 to 1979 and found that only seven supported global cooling, while 44 predicted warming. Peterson says 20 others were neutral in their assessments of climate trends.

That was classic science in action. Scientists have their theories, based on their facts, and the papers are published. Science engages in a debate, often raucous, and the winner is crowned through a consensus because they have the best theory. When a better theory comes along, it wins. There are no free passes and one critical mistake can doom a theory and even ruin a career.

Of course, none of this will stop the Right-Wing-Noise-Machine. They don't understand that science is about trial and error and consensus, further, the myth of "scientists got global cooling wrong" is just too handy a tool to put aside. George Will does it. Gregg Easterbrook (who gets pretty much everything science and economics wrong) does it. Michael Crichton, as famous for getting science wrong as in popularizing it, does it. As well as less mainstream denialists, like the guys at Lew Rockwell.

Where did they get these ideas? First, they have a well funded denial machine. Second, by-and-large, they're in love with their political ideology that, frankly, causes them to reject science when it is in conflict. I'm also sure that some, more of the fringe, copy-cat players got these ideas from the likes of National Geographic or Popular Mechanics where these myths were disbursed due to their sensationalism.

But wherever it was, it's not likely it was from an actual survey of the literature:

"A review of the literature suggests that, to the contrary, greenhouse warming even then dominated scientists' thinking about the most important forces shaping Earth's climate on human time scales."

"I was surprised that global warming was so dominant in the peer-reviewed literature of the time," says Peterson, who was also a contributor to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report.

Ah, peer-reviewed literature, where we see the product of real science, not Popular Mechanics or "Tobacco science." But that's just not going to do the trick, because obfuscation and denial, for some, is everything:

Some have doubts about the new survey. "The paper does not place the late '70s in its climatic context," says Pat Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.

"The temperature records we had at the time showed a very sharp cooling from the mid-'40s to the mid-'70s," Michaels says. "And scientists attempted to explain that as a consequence of the pollution that was preventing solar radiation from reaching the surface.

"At the time, scientists thought the cooling effect of pollution was greater than the warming effect of carbon dioxide," Michaels adds. "They were attempting to explain the dramatic cooling of the '70s."

Yes, "some" scientists thought the cooling-effect of pollution would out-weigh the warming-effect of pollution. Which is why they were writing papers. Discussing the idea among themselves. And why they, eventually, came to a scientific consensus - global warming is a fact.

Real scientists doing science. What a concept.

The Top 10 Intelligent Designs (or Creation Myths)

If we're going to teach creation myths as science (a.k.a. Intelligent Design) why do we have to teach just the Abrahamic Creation Myths? Besides the feelings and beliefs that are derived from being born and indoctrinated into one of the many variations of the Abrahamic faith, there's nothing particularly "special" about any of them. Heck, you can't even get the majority of the practitioners to agree on a relatively-uniform doctrine.

Plus the Abrahamic faiths don't even have the best stories. In the market place of ideas, Christianity and it's brothers are cringe-worthy-dull compared to the Norse faiths. In fact, I found Norse mythology so much more interesting that when I was in third grade I decided to worship Thor because of a story I read in some compendium of mythology.

And why not? Thor was manly, solved problems by either smiting or out-thinking his enemies and had to deal with the annoying Loki, who was always causing mischief, and reminded me of my little brother. Plus, anytime someone tried to bully him, it was lightning-bolt time!

It didn't last long, because like every other mythology in which I participated, I came to the conclusion that it was just a story, no matter how much I wished to be not a story. But it was fun, much more fun that the boring Christianity in which I was being raised. Let's face it, to a 9-year-old boy, Thor with his magic hammer was much more interesting than a god that looked and acted like my grandfather: a dusty-smell, brusque ninety-old-man sitting in a chair.

So, I'm thinking, if we're going to push "academic freedom" in the "market place of ideas," and we're going to teach Creation Myths as Science to get "both sides of the story," why not teach this:

With its bounty of brawny, barrel-chested gods and buxom goddesses, the ancient Norse religion of the Scandinavian and Germanic countries is truly the creation myth for fans of both pro wrestling and heavy metal music. According to Norse lore, before there was Earth (Midgard), there was Muspell, a fiery land guarded by the fire sword-wielding Surt; Ginnungagap, a great void, and Niflheim, a frozen ice-covered land. When the cold of Niflheim touched the fires of Muspell, the giant Ymir and a behemothic cow, Auehumla, emerged from the thaw. Then, the cow licked the god Bor and his wife into being. The couple gave birth to Buri, who fathered three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve. The sons rose up and killed Ymir and from his corpse created from his flesh, the Earth; the mountains from his bones, trees with his hair and rivers, and the seas and lakes with his blood. Within Ymires hollowed-out skull, the gods created the starry heavens.

The other nine are here. And I'll be happy to teach this class. Pro bono. Just cover my expenses.

Obamaphilia - Getting Creepier all the Time:

Baltimore Sun Reports:

Even blowing his nose, Obama gets applause
by John McCormick

DALLAS – It's probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose.

Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama has a head cold.

And about a half-hour into a speech here, the Illinois Democrat announced that he had to take a quick break. "Gotta blow my nose here for a second," Obama said.

Out came a Kleenex (or perhaps it was a hankie), and he wiped his nose.

The near-capacity audience at the Reunion Arena, which his campaign said totaled 17,000, broke out in a slightly awkward applause.

Despite the cold, Obama's voice seems as strong as ever. He has a light schedule today and some time to rest up before his debate Thursday evening with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York.

This is getting ridiculous, what's next? A standing ovation if he scratches his naughty-bits?

Political Odds & Sods:

Hmmm... Maybe they didn't teach Mr. MBA-CEO candidate about "sunk costs" and concept of "throwing good money after bad" when he was in college:

Romney spent $42M of his own money

WASHINGTON — A campaign fundraising report shows Republican presidential dropout Mitt Romney lent himself $7 million last month. That means Romney spent more than $42 million of his personal fortune on his failed campaign.

The former venture capitalist and Massachusetts governor finished January with nearly $9 million in the bank. But more than $3 million of those funds must be returned to donors because they were earmarked for the general election.

The report was filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.

Romney dropped out after Super Tuesday, and later endorsed Sen. John McCain. The Arizona senator is now assured the nomination.

Overall, Romney spent $98 million since beginning his campaign a year ago, including $10 million in January.

Well, after the last MBA-CEO-Hyper-Christian President, I definitely didn't want another spoiled-scion, religious nut, frothing-at-the-mouth successor so that was a good thing... Although, unlike Bush, Romney didn't manage to completely screw everything up before his daddy's connected friends put him in the political machine and crowned him President.

In other news, we've got our Republican Attack Dog points being set up for the General Election:

Geraghty argued in the Tuesday post that Obama is highly vulnerable to a set of criticisms that can only be made by Republicans, and that once they are deployed, they will reverberate with voters around the country and end the idea that Obama is untouchable.

John McCain can point out that Obama wanted to make it a felony if your gun is stolen from your residence and used in a crime, if the government determines you did not “securely store” the weapon. Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out how Obama opposes a ban on partial birth abortion ban, and who voted against a bill that would require medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. Hillary Clinton can’t.

John McCain can point out how Obama was the only state senator to oppose a law that prohibited early prison release for sex offenders. For some reason, Hillary Clinton hasn’t.

John McCain can point out that Barack Obama has been rated the most liberal lawmaker in the U.S. Senate by National Journal. Hillary Clinton can’t.

As Geraghty goes on to explain, "In other words, the only information most Americans have encountered regarding Obama so far has been gushing press coverage, and ineffective attacks on him from Hillary from the left. Conservatives have not, by and large, focused their ire on Obama… mostly because he ain’t her."

The gun law and the sex-offender thing... Even though I don't believe in the "ideal candidate" and know they're going to have flaws, two of those really bother me.

While I'm not into this big law and order lock them away forever kind of thing. Crimes against the person are, to me, much worse than "victimless" or "property" crimes.

With sex-offenders, as long as they're given a fair and proper trial (a whole different issue), proper appeal-rights, proper safeguards that if evidence that points to their innocence is later found they're released and compensated, then my belief is that these individuals are just not safe and have forfeited their right to remain in a civilized society and should be incarcerated for their full (on average 8-year) sentence. They serve, on average, just three and one-half years. They have recidivism issues and about one-in-five rapists will rape again.

So early release? I don't think so. I've got daughters. I don't want them exposed to these men who've shown they're not civilized. So, keep them there for their sentences. Give them therapy, who knows, it may work for some of them. But keep them there, instead of letting them go like Mike Huckabee.

And the gun thing? Excuse me, but relying on police judgement is going to lead to tremendous abuses of discretion. I think we've all seen, way too many times, the police trying to rail-road people, not because they committed a crime, but because the police could rail-road them. No way, today, tomorrow or ever am I ever going to trust the discretionary judgement of a police officer. The grade-school fantasy of "helpful people" was ripped away nearly thirty-years ago and it's been constantly reinforced. And reinforced. And reinforced. And reinforced.

Yes We Can!

Now I remember where I've heard that Obama line:




And the man wants to be President...

Dude, if you're going to steal material, don't steal from Bob the Builder. Really. Don't. I've paid my dues. No Bob. No Teletubbies. No Elmo Guitar.

Just policy, mkay? No platitudes. No catch phrases lifted from the 4-year-old crowd. Just convince me that you can do the job.

Worst President Ever.

Bush fiddles while America burns. Again. This is why only the Republicans like him now...

Concerns over Economy Push George W. Bush's Overall Job Approval to New Low

George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to a new low in American Research Group polling as 78% of Americans say that the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.

Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 18% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 78% disapprove. When it comes to the way Bush is handling the economy, 15% of registered voters approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 79% disapprove.

A total of 78% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse and 47% say the national economy is in a recession. A total of 42% of Americans, however, say they believe the national economy will be better a year from now, which is the highest level for this question in the past year. This optimism does not spread to improvements in household financial situations as 17% of Americans say they expect their household financial situations to be better a year from now, which is the lowest for this question in the past year.

The results presented here are based on 1,100 completed telephone interviews conducted among a nationwide random sample of adults 18 years and older. The interviews were completed February 16 through 19, 2008. The theoretical margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split.

Overall, 19% of Americans say that they approve of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president, 77% disapprove, and 4% are undecided.

Among Republicans (29% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 45% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 50% disapprove. Among Democrats (43% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 1% approve and 99% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among independents (28% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.

What I don't understand is how he gets any approval. At all. By anyone. You've got to be delusional to think he's doing a good job. The level of incompetency and illegality in this administration is as bad as Hoover and Grant put together.

"Superdelegate" by Roy Zimmerman

Roy's back with his latest. Not his best, but relevant.

Fidel to step down... Now I'm hungry.

Well, the big bogey-man is stepping down after 49 years of thumbing his nose at America. And while I don't much care for Castro, I do admire the plucky underdog standing up to the self-righteous bully:

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down on Tuesday 49 years after taking power in an armed revolution, closing the book on a Cold War career that turned him into a leftist icon and a tyrant to his foes.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba's armed forces when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

His retirement raised expectations for change on the communist island, but Cuba experts said limited economic reforms were more likely than swift political change.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief," Castro said in a statement published in the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

Strangly, linked in my mind, since a very young child, with Fidel Castro is this dish...:

Fideos with Mussels
(Can substitute clams)

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
10 oz fideos (or capellini)
1 1/3 cups chopped onion (1 large)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 (14- to 15-oz) cans diced tomatoes in juice
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped chorizo
1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf
1 cup dry white wine
5 cups white fish stock
3 lb mussels, scrubbed and beards removed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a wide 6-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat until hot but not smoking, then add fideos and cook, stirring frequently and turning over, until golden brown (nests will break up), 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer pasta with a slotted spoon to a bowl.

Add 2/3 cup onion and 1 teaspoon garlic to oil remaining in pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes, then stir in tomatoes with juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and sugar. Increase heat to moderately high and simmer, stirring frequently, until tomatoes have broken down into a very thick paste, about 25 minutes.

While sofrito simmers, cook chorizo, bay leaf, and remaining 2/3 cup onion and 1 teaspoon garlic in remaining 2 tablespoons oil in an 8-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add wine and bring to a boil, then boil 5 minutes. Add stock and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and return to a boil, then add mussels. Cook, tightly covered, over moderate heat, until mussels open wide, 3 to 6 minutes. (Discard any mussels that remain unopened after 6 minutes.) Transfer mussels with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Discard bay leaf.

Add mussel-cooking liquid and browned fideos to sofrito and boil, uncovered, stirring frequently, until pasta is tender and has absorbed most of liquid, 12 to 15 minutes. Add mussels and 1 tablespoon parsley and cook, tossing, until mussels are heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with remaining tablespoon parsley.

You can add about 1 tsp of saffron threads to the dish (if you really like saffron). You can substitute clams for mussels. Don't over-boil the pasta/sofrito mixture or it will get starchy. In fact, best to boil the noodles separately for about five minutes then transfer them without the pasta water and cook them off the rest of the way.

I don't like it, btw. It doesn't suck. In fact, it's actually a solid recipe that shellfish lovers tend to like. I just don't care for mussels and clams that much. But every time Fidel's name comes up, I think of this dish.

Kenmure Pipe Band

The sound of heaven... Enjoy.

Little Penguins

Meet your Penguin Overlords:


Little Penguins are the smallest of the species at just 16 inches tall and about 2 lbs in weight. This photo, taken in poor lighting conditions, doesn't do their indigo coloring justice. The photo below, from the Melbourne Zoo, shows their coloring much better:


If you want to pay proper homage to your Little Penguin Overlords, at Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne, Australia, a viewing area has been set up to allow tourists to view the nightly "penguin parade". Lights and concrete stands have been erected to allow visitors to see but not photograph the birds interacting in their colony, who are not bothered by their spectators. The birds, which many tourists find irresistibly cute, attract half a million people a year. Tourists to Perth in Western Australia can also make the short trip to Penguin Island to see the penguins and observe their normal behaviour. The Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony is the New Zealand equivalent to Phillip Island's penguin parade.

John Boehner, Republican Ass..

From yesterday's Townhall, the festering sore on the buttocks of right-wing political hackery:

Democrats’ Inaction on FISA Harms America’s National Security
By John Boehner
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Earlier this month, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle came together to pass an economic growth package to help get our economy moving again. I hoped this same spirit of bipartisanship would extend to other critical issues, with our national security our first and foremost priority. Sadly, this was not to be.

On Thursday, House Democratic leaders left Washington for a 12-day break after failing to pass critical legislation designed to ensure that our intelligence officials are able to monitor foreign communications of suspected terrorists overseas, such as Osama Bin Laden and other key al-Qaeda leaders, while also adding critical liability protections for third parties who helped us defend our country. This measure had received strong bipartisan support in the Senate, and was on the verge of passing by a wide bipartisan margin in the House until Democratic leaders blocked it from coming to the floor for a vote.

Oh boy, it's that time again. Just like in 2006 with this: with this:

Speaking of Democrats, Boehner told reporters, "I wonder if they're more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people.

And this:

The Democrats’ Dangerous Record of Undermining America’s Intelligence Community
By John Boehner
Friday, October 20, 2006

The illegal leaks of classified information dealing with ongoing operations and intelligence sources and methods put our American men and women in the military and intelligence community in danger. These leaks also cause immediate harm to our relationships with our allies in the war on terror, some of whom are asking whether the work we do together can be kept a secret.

This week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) suspended a Democrat staff member of the Committee over concerns he may have illegally leaked the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to The New York Times last month. The Democrat staffer requested the NIE from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before a September 23 story by the Times on its conclusions.

The truth is, FISA still works. It hasn't stopped working. It's been in place for decades. You can listen for three days before you have to get a warrant. If you've got anything reasonable, you can get a warrant.

Somebody To Love/White Rabbit Jefferson Airplane

As shown in 1969 on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Oceanic Dead Zones Off West Coast are the 'New Normal'

This link redirects:

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted): Oceanic Dead Zones Off West Coast are the 'New Normal'

500 Million Hamburgers

Ah, yes, once again we see those wonderful self-regulating markets full of altruistic individuals looking out for the common man from the goodness of their hearts while pursing the holy grail of profit. Why, the markets are a regular libertarian paradise of goodwill and bonhomie where no capitalist would dare engage in shoddy or dangerous practices because the market would "self-regulate;" therefore, no rational businessman would take those risks as they'd be run out of business.

Or maybe not:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs.

Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats. No illnesses have been linked to the newly recalled meat, and officials said the health threat was likely small.

The recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the federal agency said.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

"Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall," Schafer said in a statement.

The danger that sparked the recall, in this particular case, were cattle called "downers." These cattle were so sick, they could not walk into the slaughterhouse.

One of the cardinal rules in preventing outbreaks of disease is to not slaughter and process sick animals who may pass on dangerous diseases, like E. Coli, Mad Cow Disease and Salmonella. Of course, this isn't the first time someone in the meat industry has slaughtered sick animals for consumption.

We've been fighting these corrupt food practices since late 19th Century. A weak meat inspection law passed Congress in 1890, largely at the behest of meat packers themselves, whose products were mostly banned by those "socialist leaning" governments in Europe on the grounds of safety.

In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle. Written to awaken the consciousness of America to the plight of immigrant workers, the horrific and dangerous conditions in Chicago's slaughterhouses were exposed, causing the public to worry about its own health. After monumental political wrangling, between free-marketers and regulatory-leaning legislators, the different various bills and amendments were finally reconciled, and the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 became law.

Over-time, and in response to death and tragedy, the role and power of the FDA increased. Until the 1980's when a process of deliberate underfunding, starting with Reagan and furthered by every President since, has left the FDA in crisis:

FDA's ability to protect public called into question
by Robert Cohen/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday January 29, 2008, 5:28 PM

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration's ability to protect the public from unsafe drugs, medical devices, foods and other products has radically deteriorated, placing Americans in jeopardy, a host of expert witness told a congressional committee today.

'It is readily apparent that the FDA suffers from serious scientific deficiencies and is not able to meet its current or emerging regulatory responsibilities," said Gail Cassell, an Eli Lilly vice president and head of an internal FDA scientific advisory board that studied problems at the agency.

'We have concluded that American lives are at risk," Cassell told the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee. "Without urgent action, injury and death are certain."

Until the fantasy of a government elected by corporate money, and thus beholden to their interests, is addressed, this is our future. And it's not a bright one.