Ablogination

Another series of stories that require more thought than comment…

1) How’s that offshore drilling thing workin’ out?:

Well, now we have an oil slick about 600 miles around and about 20 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Just wondering what it’s going to take for the fucking idiots who support this type of oil mining in our waters to see the light….

So, now we can set fire to it and hope the smoke goes away from land.
Isn’t that a little too much like what Saddam did?

Riiiiight.

2) Crossing the Desert:

Some people got upset because a war memorial placed in the Mojave Desert came in the form of a Latin Cross.
The separation of church and state is critical to the integrity of both institutions. But I agree with the decision in this case.

Not because I’m a Christian. I have been a strong proponent of separation my entire life. But I find that many of these more obscure challenges to religious symbolism are not brought forth out of concern for freedom or fairness, but are often placed by small minded people who simply hate anything faith based. They do this for their personal gratification, not for the betterment of country or the security of church/state separation.

Most of the new age religion haters have no clue what it is they’re opposed to. They just jump on whatever bandwagon their peers are on at the time. Most of them would have never known this memorial existed if they didn’t seek it out.

There is no threat to constitutional integrity in a cross in the desert placed out of respect to the fallen men and women of the armed forces. Who, ironically, are the reason the religion-haters have the right to protest as they see fit.

The court said that the Constitution “does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm.”
That is true and I agree. What would be next?
Expelled from school for a Wicken symbol? Arrested for wearing a cross in a National Park? Executed for wearing a Star of David at the federal court house?

Where does the eradication of beliefs and their symbolisms end?

3) Crist pulls a Lieberman?:

Could be, and in this case I don’t blame him.
Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist is losing/has lost Republican support, in Florida’s Senate race, to some clown from Miami named Rubio…something….
Crist will run as an Independent.
Crist is a jerk, but about as moderate as a Republican gets. The great congressman, Kendrick Meek, has the Democratic nomination locked up.

This Rubio goof is the Teabagger fringe candidate that was pushed into the picture by losers who are mad at Crist for not hating Obama. Rubio’s endorsements are all the info one needs to clearly see what a piece of shit he really is. Dick Cheney (former VP and single most prolific traitor and war criminal in America), Rudy Googliani (Former Mayor of NYC, failed presidential candidate and cross-dressing incestuous pervert) and Mitt “The Shitt” Romney (Former Gov. of Massachusetts, failed presidential candidate and the guy who got punked on a plane in front of his wife by some Rapper type squirrel).

With friends like that who needs enemas?

4) Aliens 15 - The Hawking:

World renown scientist and certifiable nut job, Steven Hawking, insists that the little green men from Mars are going to kill us if they find us.

THIS ARTICLE is either of two things….
2 - Testimony to just how badly in need of attention Hawking is

or

1 - Just how goofy and intellectually sterile the Huffington Post has become.

Probably both.

5) Kure Beach, NC Asscapades:

Heh,
There’s a town in North Carolina called Kure Beach. They have imposed a fine of $25 on anyone caught wearing a thong on the beach.

Clearly there’s plenty of revenue to be made at the Mayor’s office and City Council, because there’s far more Ass in those offices than there is on the beach.
Then again, if you’ve ever seen Mayor Dean Lambeth in a thong, it might just begin to make sense.

6) Back in the New York Groove:

A homeless hero who defended a woman from a knife wielding attacker died of his stab wounds as dozens of people simply walked by and didn’t even call for help….

A heroic homeless man, stabbed after saving a Queens woman from a knife-wielding attacker, lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him, a shocking surveillance video obtained by The Post reveals.

Some of the passers-by paused to stare at Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax last Sunday morning and others leaned down to look at his face.

He had jumped to the aid of a woman attacked on 144th Street at 88th Road in Jamaica at 5:40 a.m., was stabbed several times in the chest and collapsed as he chased his assailant.

Way to go, NY’ers. No wonder you’re the last fucking city on earth I’d ever want to visit again. You love to demean and degrade the Southern States, but it looks like you get to be the “inbreds” today.

The Obama’s have been visiting the Progressive paradise of Ashville, NC recently. Yes, it’s a fine model for the rest of the country, Mr. President.

Like Venice Beach in the mountains…with a few less kooks.

Breaking News:

An armed man who was not from The South was found lurking near the airport President Obama was departing from.

From the WAPO:

Armed man arrested at NC airport as Obama departs

The Associated Press
Sunday, April 25, 2010; 9:34 PM

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – An Ohio man has been charged after authorities spotted him with a gun in a North Carolina airport parking lot as Air Force One was departing Sunday afternoon.

Joseph McVey, 23, is charged going armed in terror of the public, a misdemeanor, said Asheville Regional Airport Police Capt. Kevan Smith. Airport police saw McVey get out of a car about 2 p.m. in the rental car return lot and he had a gun, Smith said. He was taken into custody immediately and was being held at the Buncombe County jail.

Sorry, but something has to be done about this problem, and a major league problem it is. This is Drama, and Drama is the result of a problem that was not dealt with in an efficient and timely fashion.

For eight long, miserable years George Bush failed to stem the tide of illegal immigration into this country. Even after 9/11 the Bush Company did nothing to control our southern border.
No telling who creeped over it during those years.
The reason for this monumental failure? Republican businesses salivating over cheap, exploitable labor which has contributed to a great deal of the job loss (for actual citizens) this country has experienced over the last two decades. NAFTA…wide open borders…we’re fucked.

Though in it’s fledgling state, the Obama administration had not even addressed this critical issue until yesterday, when the State of Arizona passed controversial legislation that basically allows law enforcement excessively broad powers to stop and check the documentation of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally (darker than thou).
In light of the fact that a vast majority of the illegals in AZ are Mexican, the issue becomes that much more precarious.

Everyone has failed. From administrations past to that of today to the Mexican gov’t, which is little more than a corrupt joke, to the Department of Homeland Insecurity and back again. All have failed.

I hate Republican politicians. Every last, diseased, depraved, disgusting one of them. But I cannot condemn this legislation. I can’t condemn it because it became necessary due to the inaction of Republicans, who want that exploitable labor, and Democrats courting Hispanic voters.
Both parties have abused the issue and there are real, flesh and blood people caught in the middle.

I am no advocate for Illegal Immigrants. Immigration in America has a long, proud history of hope-filled, honest people waiting years and studying hard to earn the privilege of being an American citizen. They respected this country and wanted to be a part of what it’s supposed to stand for.
Those who haven’t the respect that legal immigrants do have NO right to waltz into this country and anonymously take what others have worked hard to earn.
Being an American citizen is only a right for those born on our soil, it is a privilege to all others and should be appreciated as such.

Being that my socialist credentials are unquestionable, I have to say I understand where Arizona is coming from. I’ve lived in AZ, and TX. People in non-border states, like the one I live in now, just don’t understand the seriousness of this issue. The crime in places like Tuscon and El Paso is out of control. You can’t own anything without the constant fear that when you return home from work you’ll find your house ransacked.

That certainly doesn’t reflect on the Mexican community, but it does reflect on the Illegal Immigrant community because legal, American citizens (averages) are far less likely to rob you blind.
Our resources are being drained and that simply cannot be tolerated. Though Legal Immigrants are screened for communicable diseases the same is not done for Illegal Immigrants, obviously. We can’t just have an open border, we can’t afford a society anonymous.
People who don’t have the respect for this country to go through the proper channels like my Irish ancestors and many others did do not care what harm they cause. They are here as scavengers. We can’t and shouldn’t put up with it.

Many cry “racism” when it comes to immigration control. Mostly those from Mexico. I have news for you, Mexican is not a race, it’s a nationality. Don’t be stupid.
There are Mexicans who did it right and walked the path to citizenship just like everyone else. It’s not right to minimize their accomplishment by just allowing anyone to stake a claim.
It doesn’t matter what country the illegal immigrant hails from. All illegals are a drain on resources meant for those who are proud to be a part of this culture. Even illegals from Ireland where my people come from.
Either respect this country and feel privileged to earn citizenship in the traditional fashion or go home.
I don’t care what “raza” you are.

Amnesty:

Absolutely. Limited, but absolutely.
Any child that is born in this country is an American citizen. Should that child have parents who are illegal immigrants, they should be given amnesty without fail.

Illegal Immigrants who are arrested for being in the country should be offered the opportunity to go through the process and become legal, but must remain in custody (not necessarily jail) until citizenship is granted.

A solution should have been found long ago. But with the nation’s most exploited labor and voter source to slap around, why would anyone in Washington want to steady that boat?
Surely expert legislators can come up with better ideas than what we got from Arizona. But right now that’s the only idea there is, and if your the only idea, you’re the best one.
Somebody in DC had better do something because the papers I roll joints with are thicker than the line between Arizona’s legislation and pure Fascism.

We need Immigration reform and control on a national level YESTERDAY.

HAPPY 420

This year it means a lot. Not that it meant less before, just that so many significant victories were won in the last 12 months.
The state of California is introducing legislation to fully legalize this November and THAT LEGISLATION WILL PASS.

Eric Holder, US Attorney General declared the Drug War over and that is victory. We have won this long, miserable war that has claimed and ruined more American lives than any war in our history.
The Obama administration is the first since Nixon to not wage war against the American people.

There is still much to be done, law enforcement in some states and areas are still playing cut-and-run. But we have won.

All ur base are belong to us!

Celebrate, people. Celebrate the conquest of ignorance and the demise of Right Wing efforts to label us as criminals. Light up, celebrate.
You’ve earned it.

Now…
I do have to take this opportunity to express some dismay and a great deal of disappointment in my fellow Tennessee “Liberal” bloggers. Many (not all) of them have failed miserably to support compassion and fiscal responsibility. Though some of us have written in support of the Tennessee Medical Marijuana Act, far too many who fancy themselves “Liberal” or “Progressive” in this state have failed miserably to show support for the measure and the fine members of our General Assembly who introduced it.
There are only four or five legislators in Tennessee who have the brains and guts to stand tall on this defining Progressive issue. We owe them more than our silence.
Sen. Beverly Marrero and Rep. Jeanne Richardson are back again this year with bills that would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to seriously ill Tennesseans. In 2009, similar bills stalled in their respective committees, but advocates are hopeful this year will be different.

SB 2511 and HB2562 — the Safe Access to “Medical Cannabis Act” — would allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana with their doctor’s permission. Under the bill, approved patients would be issued Safe Access Program ID cards that would allow them to purchase medical marijuana from participating distribution outlets, and would protect them from arrest for the medical use of marijuana.

If you believe in compassion, as a Tennessean you have no choice but to speak out in support of this legislation. If you have the power of Blog, you have no excuse.

It’s a busy week in la la land…

1) Edumacated Teabaggers:

It seems a recent poll (not a scientific study mind you) has determined without a doubt that Teabaggers, contrary to previous belief, are actually educated, wealthy, successful and well intentioned business people etc…

Yeah, we always knew you weren’t the “average American citizens” you once claimed to be.

Lying Big Corporate asshats….

How’s that Scott Brown, “41st vote to kill health reform” workin’ out for ya?

2) Goldman-Sucks charged with fraud:

..Sachs…whatever…

Goldman-Sachs, the global banking and securities firm that has become famous for failure and known for executive comedic ventures like showing up to testify before congress about the loss of TARP funds on separate private jets and paying 1 Million dollar bonuses to executives from taxpayer money, has been charged with committing fraud by the SEC.

One thing about the hopelessly greedy that never changes, give them enough rope to hang themselves and they surely will.

3) Taxing Time:

Paid out 150 dollars LESS in income taxes in spite of having made more than last year. How?! Why….it’s those damn Socialists in Washington of course. The nerve of those Marxists, making me pay less taxes. IT’S UNAMERICAN I TELLS YA!

Teabaggers, of course, are hard at work protesting taxes that they didn’t have to pay.

4) Peeping Tom Teachers Revisited:

We wrote previously about faculty of a Pennsylvania school district using spywear in assigned student laptops to spy on students in their bedrooms. That situation has become even more disturbing. Parents are filing suit and the truth is coming out…

From Philly.com:

More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins’ school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied.

5) Catholic Church Playing Musical Pedos:

Great idea! A Priest is found guilty of raping a child, so what does the Catholic Church do? They send him to another country to rape their kids.

But naturally this is simply another case of us mean people attacking the church.

From the AP:

RIO DE JANEIRO – There he was, five decades later, the priest who had raped Joe Callander in Massachusetts. The photo in the Roman Catholic newsletter showed him with a smile across his wrinkled face, near-naked Amazon Indian children in his arms and at his feet.

The Rev. Mario Pezzotti was working with children and supervising other priests in Brazil.

It’s not an isolated example.

In an investigation spanning 21 countries across six continents, The Associated Press found 30 cases of priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad. Some escaped police investigations. Many had access to children in another country, and some abused again.

6) Got a Problem with Confederate history do ya?:

I got news for you, this doesn’t happen in Bristol Tennessee…
Pull yer heads out of yer butts and realize that while we’re whining about yesterday, today is taking a bite out of our ass.

From L.A. NOW:

White supremacist rally ends with five arrests and two assaults, police say [Updated]
April 17, 2010 | 4:34 pm

March

A white supremacist rally on the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall ended with a handful of arrests Saturday afternoon as counter-protesters showered police and white supremacists with rocks, bottles and other debris.

[Update, 4:50 p.m.: All five people arrested were counter-protesters, police say.]

A rally by 40 members of a group calling itself the National Socialist Movement drew hundreds of counter-protesters from throughout the region. In the hours leading up to the rally, where members called for the removal of all nonwhites from America’s southwest, counter-protesters scuffled with people perceived to be sympathizing with the white supremacists’ message.

One man, who sported Nazi tattoos, was severely beaten near City Hall while another man, who carried a confusing sign about religion with a scribbled swastika, was pummeled by a mob of people on Spring Street between 1st and 2nd.
The Los Angeles Police Department went on tactical alert during the event and took responsibility for escorting the white supremacists to and from the demonstration site. Earlier in the week the group had obtained a permit for the demonstration.

Like we showed you before, West and North… Though racism is actually a universal problem, those of you who are so quick to point the finger and indulge in revisionist history need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and while you’re at it, give yourselves a good enema too. Because full of shit you are for sure. Yes, you are.

Southern California Asshat Convention

Outstanding, now make it stick.

It is indeed good news to see someone at least attempting to forge justice where it’s usually not found. Erik Prince’s Blackwater Security, the infamous corporate mercenary army that raped, plundered and pillaged the people of Iraq under the Bush administration, has managed to escape recompense for many of their crimes including the cold blooded murder of Iraqi civilians.

It is unlikely that they will ever pay for any of their crimes. But at least we have a gov’t that sees fit to try and perhaps this time, heads will roll.

From the AP:

By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. – The former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former officials at the embattled security firm were indicted Friday on federal weapons charges, partially the result of a raid two years ago by agents that rounded up 22 weapons, including AK-47s.

The indictment issued Friday charges Gary Jackson, who left the company last year in a management shakeup, along with four other former workers. The charges against Jackson include a conspiracy to violate firearms laws, false statements and possession of an unregistered firearm.

Also indicted were former general counsel Andrew Howell, former executive vice president Bill Mathews, Ana Bundy, who at one point had oversight of the firm’s armory, and Ronald Slezak, who was hired to oversee documents related to the company’s status as a firearms dealer.

The charges open a new front of the government’s oversight of the sullied security company. Several of the company’s contractors have previously been charged with federal crimes for their actions in war zones, but the company’s executives have so far weathered a range of investigations.

Around the time that Jackson left the company, Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services.

The company has been trying to rehabilitate its image since a 2007 shooting in Baghdad left 17 people dead, outraged the Iraqi government and led to a federal charges against several Blackwater guards — accusations later thrown out of court after a judge found prosecutors mishandled evidence.

LOL!

Well, it was a good job of investigative reporting. No one can deny that.

The Herald Courier has been around a long time. Founded in 1865, the BHC serves areas of both SW Virginia and NE Tennessee, the twin cities of Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA in particular.
My grandfather, Robert Loving, was a member of their team for many years.

Having been doomed to being a Right Wing tabloid under the leadership of Steve Kaylor, now editor, Todd Foster, has picked the paper up and brought it back to the middle where it belongs. No longer afraid to piss conservatives off with truth, the BHC has earned it’s self some respect and obviously, some recognition as well.

Congratulations, Todd. Keep up the good work.

From the Kingsport Times News:
NEW YORK — The Bristol Herald Courier beat out journalism’s powerhouses to win the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for uncovering a scandal in which Virginia landowners were deprived of millions in natural gas royalties.

The seven-reporter daily was honored for what many regard as an endangered form of journalism in this age of wrenching newspaper cutbacks — aggressive reporting on local issues.

The constant babble about it being “1994″ again is cute and maybe fulfilling soothsaying to the Right Wing fringe, but the stark realities of these times, if considered, will simply extinguish this thought of a repeat of the past.

In 1994, Democrats reeling from the failed attempt to pass Health Reform Legislation, Republicans won 50+ House seats and almost 10 Senate seats.
Overwhelmingly Americans saw the “country going in the wrong direction” and the same anti-incumbent attitudes we see today existed then.
I’ll admit that some similarities do exist between now and then, but the more you examine the facts the less similar it seems.

A few factors that may shed some light on the false hopes of the hopelessly gullible…

1) The Republican rise to power in ‘94 would eventually lead to the worst economic disaster that this country has been forced to endure. Obviously no one expected Republicans to be as inept as they proved to be. But today, in the age of information, it is more than clear to millions more Americans that Republican leadership is doomed to failure by default.

We have always known that most Democrats aren’t worth the suits on their backs, but now we know they look like shining stars compared to any Republican. Voting for Dems can be hard, voting against Republicans is easy.

2) Health whatever Reform passed this time. Getting that done guaranteed Barack Obama and the Democrats my votes in the upcoming elections. If they can pull off the impossible, and they did, they can and will do more.

3) The economy is picking up steam fast. We are steady and rising. All economic indicators attest and my personal experience as a businessman in recent months proves it to me conclusively. I’m putting up record numbers. People are no longer afraid to spend.
Barack Obama and the Democratic majority have fixed the Republican’s mess. That is an absolute fact.

4) This Gov’t, under the post-Bush leadership, is making gains against Terrorism that the previous administration claimed to make, but with severely flawed methods, could not produce.
Obama simply out-polls Cheney/Bush as far as combating terrorism is concerned.

Health Care, Economy, Terrorism….Republicans are proven failures.

5) Thank God for Scary Sara Palin and the Teabagger/Hatriots. Just when you thought no one could make Republicans look more foolish and evil than George Bush and Dick Cheney did, up jumps the Queen of Quitters and her legions of racist, Taliban-like carbon-based lifeforms known as Tea Party.
This emergence of loopy miscreants has shoved the Conservative GOP to the back of the bus and placed yet another unwashable stain on the panties of Republican politics.

Even Sen. Scott (how’s that 41st vote workin’ out for ya?) Brown snubbed Palin and the Tea Party in a pretty heavy showing of justifiable disdain.

6) We are now a world leader once again. Countries that scoffed at us under BushCo now welcome us as the pillar of hope we’re supposed to be. That makes us safer, stronger and pro-functional.
Any reasonable person knows this is a very good thing.

No, it’s not 1994 nor will it be. This is 2010 and the fact that Democrats govern better than Republicans do is well known from house to house and street to street.
Republicans will win seats, but those seats primarily will be ones in Republican territory that happen to belong to Conservanoid Democraps who the majority of Democratic voters won’t turn out for anyway.

By and large, Democrats, Moderates and true Liberals will turn out and vote Democratic in these upcoming elections. In the interests of self preservation if nothing else. You see, we haven’t forgotten the dark years. We have crystal clear recollection of the loss of rights, the numbers of innocent people slaughtered in Iraq, the economic crises, the treason, the Global humiliation that goes along with Republican leaders…

We remember. And will never forget.

In fact, the only thing that will remain the same from 1994 to 2010 is that the Detroit Lions still suck.