But think about it. Where else would you expect Republicans to keep their homosexuality? Should they keep it in the dining room breakfront right next to their wedding china? The answer is no, because obviously there is no room for homosexuality in there amongst the 16 gravy boats that nobody ever uses. And it is a well known fact among interior decorators that china and homosexuality don't match and should never be placed side by side.
By now you are probably wondering about the garage. It is true that the garage has certain advantages over a closet. For one thing, it is usually large enough so they can practice their tap-dancing moves, which are catchy little toe taps that some homosexuals use when they take their homosexuality out of the closet for exercise. Unfortunately, tap dancing requires so much concentration that the homosexual is in danger of getting run over by a car entering the garage, especially if the car is driven by the homosexual's spouse when the 11 PM news happens to catch their homosexual husband exercising his hang-ups.
The living room is out because that's where Republicans keep their family and moral values. They like to drape them all over the couches and chairs in the living room so they can better protect them from lefty intruders with their 2nd Amendment guns. Of course, because homosexuals tend to practice their homosexuality more than their target practicing, they usually end up shooting the neighbor's dog or their own foot first. It should also be noted that there is no recorded, or unrecorded, case of lefty assaults on family and moral values except in the unconscious minds and blogs of Republicans.
So why are the closeted homosexuals only in the Republican party? Sociologists and certain members of the lefty blogging community have puzzled over this conundrum ever since the birth of Zeusandra the Queer in 9000 B.C. The only thing I can figure is that Democrats don't have hang-ups in the closet. They just throw their stuff all over the bedroom or where ever and leave it out in the open for all to see and someone else to pick up. But you are free to form your own opinion on that subject.
]]>jdl51 had asked, But what about the republican argument that government run healthcare won't work, long waits for treatment, crappy service, etc.?
I go back and forth between a large metro area, Atlanta, and a medium metro area, Palm Beach County.
In both areas, trying to get appointments with most Doctors requires a 1-2 month wait, and that's when you're already a patient. It's much longer if you're not.
I called my mother's neuro doc today cause she's been having vague symptoms. Not enough for an emergency, but enough to want an appointment sooner than her regularly scheduled one on April 24. Turns out, April 24 was better than anything they could offer, which was the end of May, although she did make the list if someone cancels. Not at the top, but she's on the list.
She has 4 docs she sees for various body parts and each one has the same waiting times. I've heard that the waits are (much?) shorter in Canada and Britain.
Republicans must live in a one horse, 10 doctor town if they think we'll be worse off, that's all I can say. What is it like in the rest of the country where you all live? Waiting minds get curious!
]]>After $550 billion had been electronically drawn out of money market accounts and $105 billion had been poured back into the system with no effect, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury made the decision to shut down the money market accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account.
Rep. Kanjorski:If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.
It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it. [via Magnifico at Daily Kos]
Again via Magnifico, The Motley Fool adds some background as well as a possible connection to martial law in The One Jaw Dropping Video that Every Fool Must See. Both Sen. Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif claim that Paulson brought up the possibility of a declaration of martial law.
The same article also revealed that a November 2008 Army War College Report discusses the possible use of the US military in the event of a domestic economic collapse.
Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security. Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse... are all paths to disruptive domestic shock. [p.32]Support for Kanjorski's claims can be found in archives from that time period:
...as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first. Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill...
Rushing to save money-market funds, CNN Money, Sept. 19, 2008
By Friday, federal officials worried that the strain on money-market funds had become too great and threatened the world's financial system.
As an aside, if all of this happened on Thursday, Sept. 18, why in the world did McCain wait until the last minute on the 24th to cancel his interview with David Letterman?
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 07:57 PMAfter the last 8 years of listening to these people, I can't help but smirk every now and then. I'm losing track of how many members of their tribe, the intellectuals, the former high officials and just the average Not-Joe-Not-a-Plumber types that they have lost to the Obama side recently. Kathleen Parker, George Will, David Brooks, Ken Adelman, Colin Powell, The Chicago Tribune and many more that aren't on the top of my head at the moment.
Barry Goldwater's granddaughter voted early in Fulton County on Tuesday -- for Barack Obama.
This isn't a surprise to those who follow Arizona politics. Here's a piece from May of this year posted on Democratic Underground.
Alison Goldwater Ross, 45, waited about an hour and a half to cast her vote at the Fulton County government center in Atlanta, for the Democratic presidential candidate.
"I'm avoiding the crowds on Election Day," Goldwater Ross told my AJC colleague, Mary Lou Pickel.
Barry Goldwater, recognized as the founder of modern Republican conservatism and the 1964 GOP candidate for president, served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. He died in 1998, at age 89.
The Goldwaters and the McCains have a history of antagonism.
"Coming from a political family, I had insight into a lot of things," Goldwater Ross said. Of McCain, she said, "I don't have respect for him."
Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, we have an agreement with your State to assist in verifying newly-registered voters. Consistent with this statute, part of this agreement requires us to verify the last 4 digits of the Social Security numbers of individuals who do not have an acceptable State-issued identification, such as a valid driver's license.
Since October 1, 2007, however, we have received nearly two million requests for verification from your State. Such a volume appears to be much greater than one would expect, given that States of comparable or larger populations have a significantly lower number of verification requests.
I ask that you look into this matter to ensure that your election officials are verifying only those newly-registered voters who do not have suitable State-issued identification. If your State's election officials are requesting verifications not covered by the verification agreement, we ask that you bring your procedures into conformance with your legal obligations.
...revisions to voter registration applications; a process of attempting to verify voter registration information against databases maintained by both the Georgia Department of Driver's Services and the federal Social Security Administration (SSA); generating and distributing reports of the results of those checks to county registrars for further action; and issuing a series of guidance memoranda from the Office of the Secretary of State to the counties concerning a number of aspects of the identity verification/voter registration processes.
SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. [LA Times.]Mark Jacoby's firm, Young Political Majors (YPM) was hired by the California Republican Party to register voters. The only requirement to perform this job is a California law that says the signature gatherers must be eligible to vote in California. Apparently, Mr. Jacoby does not live in California, so he used an address where he used to live -- as a child.
Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters.YPM received $7-$12 per head if the person registered as a Republican.
Yes I can name a nation state in which the disrespect for life has led to the erosion of civil freedoms less fundamental than life. Russia:
Mike, my response to this is below, but first I need to clear up a couple of issues leftover from previous posts of yours.Abortion became legal in the 1950's but when health planners recognized the problem and tried to distribute contraceptives widely, the poor quality and erratic supplies meant abortion remained the preferred method of family planning.WHY ABORTION BECAME THE PREFERRED METHOD OF FERTILITY REGULATION IN RUSSIA
Two influences have worked to keep Russian abortion rates high. First, Soviet ideology hindered the development and spread of effective contraception. Soviet ideology held that declining fertility rates were not typical of socialism and that socialist economic improvement would yield higher birth rates and lower abortion rates. Such views resulted in little effort to develop or distribute modern contraceptives. They also led the Stalin government, which equated power with population size, to prohibit abortion and to restrict contraception for nearly 20 years in an effort to fuel population growth.
Who Are You Gonna Believe? Rove or Powell?
During an interview Sunday morning at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival, Karl Rove was asked about the enemy in Iraq. In response, Rove put the enemy into three categories:
First, he said that 80 to 90 percent of the bombs that are killing U.S. soldiers are from al-Qaida of Iraq. That differed from the opinion of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said in Aspen on Thursday that al-Qaida was only 10 percent of the problem in Iraq.Second, Rove said that Sunni insurgents were fighting the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government, although he pointed out that in some areas, Sunnis were now working closely with American forces to rid certain cities of foreign al-Qaida fighters.
Third, Rove said that "criminal elements" were playing a large role, and he included the Shiite militias in Iraq in this category.
Not a single mention of the Iranians that are supposedly killing coalition soldiers. Does this mean we don't have to attack Iran now?
The Weight of Gitmo
Although it holds bad "...people who threatened the United States of America," Rove said the President would like to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. Compared to prisoners in detention camps in other wars...
"Our principle health problem down there is gain of weight, we feed 'em so well."
No wonder GOP congressional members are heading for the other side of the aisle. The White House sees the Gitmo problem in terms of fat prisoners.
]]>This is what he should have said:
“You have attacked my honor and integrity,” ... “I think it’s time to teach you a few old-fashioned lessons about character. When I enlisted to fight in the Vietnam War, you were talkin’ real tough about Vietnam. But when you got the call, you called your daddy and begged him to pull some strings so you wouldn’t have to go to war. So instead of defending your country with honor, you put some poor Texas millworker’s kid on the front line in your place to get shot at. Where I come from, we call that a coward.“When I was working hard, raising my family, you were busy drinking yourself and your family into the ground. Why don’t you tell us how many times you got behind the wheel of a car with a few drinks under your belt? Where I come from, we call that a drunk.
“When I was serving in the U.S. Senate, your own father’s government had to investigate you on the charge that you’d swindled a bunch of old people out of their life savings by using insider knowledge to sell off stocks you knew were about to drop. Where I come from, we call that crooked. So governor, don’t you ever lecture me about character. And don’t you ever talk to me that way again in front of my family or my fellow citizens.”
For all that the electorate decries negative campaigning, a new book called the Partisan Brain details how it wins elections, while appeals to reason go unheard.
Deanie Mills gave us an excellent summary and provided much more analysis on Drew Westen's work several days ago in her blog entry, Checkmate for '08, Beating the Republicans With Their Own Game. The blog rolled off the front page quickly, but it really needs to be read and will help to understand 'What Al Gore Should Have Said'.
I could have used Deanie's word expertise when I was trying to explain the impact of Hillary's Sopranos video in the comment section of another post.
]]>So I was a little surprised to read Pepe Escobar's off the cuff (off the keffiah?) and unattributed reference to the ambush in Part 1 of his new series, Baghdad Up Close and Personal.
We are unembedded, non-Hummer convoy-transported, non-Kevlar protected, and not surrounded by 100 soldiers and circled overhead by three Black Hawks and two Apaches, like US presidential candidate John MacCain in his recent visit ("Hello, habibi!") to Shorja market (the next day 21 merchants and workers at the market were ambushed and murdered).
Has anyone else seen this story reported from any source other than the Times of London?
The article is well worth reading, anyway. It gives you the flavor of Baghdad when it is not the backdrop for a Presidential wannabe photo-op.
But even by 5pm the streets are already deserted. Cultural life is non-existent. The artisans in the souk al-Rashid are gone. The booksellers on al-Mutanabi are gone. The windows in countless buildings remain smashed. The al-Rashid telephone exchange, or the Ministry of Finance, or the Ministry of Planning by the Green Zone, remain post-modern cement deconstructions, Swiss cheese-style.
Until recently, a gruesome ritual was being performed in Yarmouk - the showing off of the cadavers of the day at noon, or guerrillas telling families to look for their relatives as if they were in Bala, a well-known second-hand market ("you look inside the bags, and you can match an arm with another, or a leg with a foot").
McCain didn't mention visiting the Bala style market. Blood apparently ruins a good backdrop...and $5.00 Persian rugs.
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