Is it just me or have the Patriots ruined this years NFL season. Yeah, they are fun to watch, and you can speculate how many records Tom Brady will break by the end of this year; but at this point the suspense is over, barring injury the only thing that may stop the Patriots from winning the superbowl are the Colts. One of my friends suggested that the Colts should move to the NFC to insure a good superbowl, mostly I think he is making the suggestion because he fears no one will show up at his superbowl party and he might be right. I am sure many advertising execs share my friends fear, this predicamnet got me thinking that maybe, maybe one or two of the Democratic candidates for president should switch parties.
At this point the Republicans don’t have a serious candidate and after the Democratic convention no one will be talking about issues. It would be great to see the Democratic nominee, maybe John Edwards, arguing the with the Republican nominee, someone like Hillary Clinton about the need to get Pharmacutical money out of the political process and the best way to provide healthcare for everyone. Or maybe Barrack Obama as the Democratic nominee could argue against the much more conservative Hillary Clinton that the time to leave Iraq is now.
All of the Democratic candidates should have more appeal to the “values voters” as all of them are on their first marriage and seem pretty good at wearing their faith on their sleeves after all nothing leads better than example. It is time for one of the Democratic candidates to switch parties, if for no other reason than to save the Republican party from the confederacy of dunces they have to choose from at the moment.
Posted by John Rove as Words at 2:13 PM MDT
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Ever had a review at work? Check this out:
Posted by Al Swearengen as Comedy, Video at 10:55 PM MDT
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This is too funny to pass up:
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - A man was arrested after a government agent allegedly found him in an office building restroom lying next to an inflatable, anatomically correct doll with his pants down.
Craig S. McCullough, 47, was charged Wednesday with indecent exposure, a misdemeanor.
See the whole story here
Posted by John Rove as Words at 8:10 PM MDT
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Intellectual dishonesty in politics is a parasite in search of an ambitious host. The transformation that takes place inside the body of an infected politician, especially one hanging onto someone else’s coattails for dear life, is embarrassing to witness first hand. Their allegiance to this other person and what they can provide is a phenomenon that is automatically given a pass within the beltway. The pundits seem oblivious when a most celebrated mind devolves into a shadowy Frankenstein’s monster right in front of them. Unnoticed, so the smart puppeteers wrongly believe, this change is the type of thing that forever alters a plebe’s impression of such a politician. We can see it quite clearly. In General Wesley Clark’s case it has been gut wrenching. He’s is clearly a lightweight when it comes to telling lies, and that, along with being on a panel with Andrew Sullivan, is what doomed him last Friday on Real Time w/ Bill Maher.
Here is how it happens. The word comes down that a cabinet slot could be yours in two years - heck, it’s yours now, of course it would be presumptuous to announce such a thing at this point, but consider yourself part of the “inner circle”. Isn’t it nice in here? We’re glad you like it…so what we need you to do is go out and argue in favor of these votes and positions Senator Clinton has already committed to. Of course, we’re in campaign mode right now, which is entirely different from how the administration will be run once she’s elected President. Right now your input will not be as helpful as what you can do for us working the talk shows. Once the election is over, you can count on having a significant role in policymaking, but for now, review these talking points we’ve put together for defending Hillary’s vote in favor of branding Iran’s military as a terrorist organization.
That was an idea the White House had, and since it was proposed in the senate by Joe Lieberman, you just know it’s brilliant. So say all those Jews and Christians who merged at a conference organized around the idea of dropping bombs on Iran. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics at 3:17 AM MDT
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One of the biggest problems with american health care is the “overtreatment” of certain conditions, and Edwards might have a plan to improve the situation.
“The excessive costs of prescription drugs are straining family budgets and contributing to runaway health care costs,” Edwards said at the start of a seven-day campaign tour of the early-voting states of New Hampshire and Iowa.
“With such aggressive and often misleading drug company marketing, it’s too easy for advertising — instead of doctors or proven results — to influence families’ health decisions,” Edwards’ campaign quoted him as saying.
Drug advertising revenues had quadrupled to over $4 billion a year in the 10 years since rules were relaxed to allow firms to advertise medicines directly to consumers, he said. But the FDA had reviewed only a fraction of the ads, Edwards added.
The Edwards plan would institute a two-year delay on consumer advertising of all new drugs, and require FDA approval before drug companies launch major ad campaigns.
Firms would also be required to disclose more information about side effects and comparisons of drugs against placebos and alternatives.
It is good to see some presidential candidates are looking at real issues and real solutions and not just talking about Jack Bauer.
The entire article can be seen here
Posted by John Rove as Words at 1:24 AM MDT
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Check this out. In 8 minutes, Dodd runs through just about everything. No meandering. This man needs to be the senate majority leader. What I saw and heard here had ‘Profiles in Courage’ potential.
Posted by Al Swearengen as Video, Politics, History at 1:56 AM MDT
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He was a Spainard who made the voyage to North America in the 1500s. The following work is a portion of his ‘Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies’, published in 1542. The first reading of this a while back was shocking, but the reason it came to mind recently was the “phony soldiers” episode. Casas had written this and sent it back to Spain for the kingdom’s own purposes, but it was leaked, translated and used by other countries to point out his country’s sins in America. Especially Protestant nations like England and The Netherlands, whose Spanish adversaries were Catholic (along those lines, if anyone hasn’t studied The Hundred Years War, you’re missing out). So Casas was accused of treason and heresy for telling the truth. Patriotism warranted such charges, as those who subscribe to the “phony soldiers” mantra today believe also. You’ve got to read below the fold to get even a taste of what Casas exposed:
“The Indies were discovered in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. In the following year a great many Spaniards went there with the intention of settling the land. Thus, forty-nine years have passed since the first settlers penetrated the land, the first so claimed being the large and most happy isle called Hispaniola, which is six hundred leagues in circumference. Around it in all directions are many other islands, some very big, others very small, and all of them were, as we saw with our own eyes, densely populated with native peoples called Indians. This large island was perhaps the most densely populated place in the world. There must be close to two hundred leagues of land on this island, and the seacoast has been explored for more than ten thousand leagues, and each day more of it is being explored. And all the land so far discovered is a beehive of people; it is as though God had crowded into these lands the great majority of mankind.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Al Swearengen, Politics, History, Religion at 11:56 PM MDT
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By Robin Fox, from an essay in the September/October issue of Society. Fox is a professor of social theory at Rutgers and the author, most recently, of Participant Observer: Memoir of a Transatlantic Life. His “Human Nature and Human Rights” appeared in the April 2001 issue of Harper’s Magazine.
Since Laocoon’s warning to his fellow Trojans went so tragically unheeded, the course of history has been strewn with the corpses of ungrateful nations which, despite the misery that stemmed from their inability to govern their own affairs, bitterly resented and actively resisted the firm and forceful help of others. The stranger’s gift of peace, order, and prosperity is lesswelcome to us than the death, chaos, and poverty that are our own doing. For in the end they are our own, and that is what matters to us. Like truculent adolescents, we do not want to be told how to do things or have them done for us; we want to make our own, even fatal, mistakes. We will take what we can use from what is offered, but we want, at last, to do it ourselves: to manage our own lives, however badly. The main thing about the stranger, after all, is that he is strange. He is not like us; he will never understand us. Our greatest fear, perhaps because the possibility is often so seductive, is that we will become like him and lose our selves. The stranger’s gift never comes without strings, and we do not want to be tied.
We of the post-Enlightenment Anglophone West are among the most earnest of the givers. We are not, like our medieval Catholic ancestors, really proponents of the Crusade and the holy war against the heathen. Weare at heart Protestant missionaries: We want to bring the good news and the benefits of civilization to the benighted of the earth. And if they don’t want it, then like Protestant parents, and entirely for their own good of course, we must sternly make them accept it. Certainly, we hoped to make profits and attain political power in the process, but these were small prices the benighted had to pay for the incomparable gifts we had to offer. Critics of colonialism miss the point if all they see is the profits and the power. Our civilizing mission was, and still is, as dear to us as the jihad is to Muslims. Even when it is not Protestantism per se that we are offering, it is the children of the Protestant Ethic that we know as democracy, liberty, equality, and the free market. Our learned men tell us we are the foreordained bearers of a truth so fundamental that with its triumph history will come to an end, there being nothing left for mankind to achieve. If this is so, how can the benighted so stubbornly, and even violently, refuse our gift of a free leg up onto the stage of world history? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Al Swearengen as Politics, History at 2:00 PM MDT
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As people argue as to whether or not global warming is a good thing, the UN is starting to figure it out. The real problem is too many people.
Climate change, the rate of extinction of species and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, the UN Environment Program said in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997.
“The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns,” Achim Steiner, the executive director of the program, said in a telephone interview. Efficient use of resources and reducing waste now are “among the greatest challenges at the beginning of 21st century,” he said.
Maybe this will give rise a to a market for child free credits in much the same way low emission industries can sell their carbon credits, childless people should be able to sell baby-credits to prolific breeders.
The enire article is here
Posted by John Rove as Words at 1:06 AM MDT
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1998-11-07 Chicago, IL
Posted by Al Swearengen as Music at 1:59 AM MDT
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Source
Posted by Al Swearengen as Politics at 1:31 AM MDT
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In Boston there was a rally 9,500 strong, and Governor Patrick introduced Barak Obama:
“I’m in love with Massachusetts
And the neon when it’s cold outside
And the highway when it’s late at night
Got the radio on
I’m like the roadrunner
I’m in love with modern moonlight
128 when it’s dark outside
I’m in love with Massachusetts
I’m in love with the radio on”
-The Modern Lovers, “Roadrunner”
Posted by Al Swearengen as Video, Politics at 1:31 PM MDT
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I. (TPMmuckraker - Iraq Revokes All Contractor Immunity - Spencer Ackerman) “The metaphorical statue of L. Paul Bremer III has come crashing down. Today the Iraqi government formally revoked one of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s enduring vestiges — a decree of immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts for U.S. security contractors.“
II. (Think Progress) “In California, half of the equipment the National Guard needs is not in the state, either because it is deployed in Iraq or other parts of the world or because it hasn’t been funded, according to Lt. Col. John Siepmann. While the Guard is in good shape to handle small-scale incidents, “our concern is a catastrophic event,” he said. “You would see a less effective response (to a major incident),” he said.
At a press conference five months ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) echoed these concerns, stating, “A lot of equipment has gone to Iraq, and it doesn’t come back when the troops come back.” The Chronicle reported that the California National Guard was missing about $1 billion worth of equipment. Now, as 14 major wildfires rage across the state, those earlier warnings are materializing. While California currently has approximately 1,500 Guardsmen serving in Iraq, the strains on the disaster response teams are compounded by the missing personnel and equipment.“
III. (CNN - Turkish Planes Bomb Kurdish Rebels) “Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships have been bombing Kurdish separatist positions in Turkey along the Iraqi-Turkish frontier amid continuing diplomatic efforts to avert a major cross-border incursion by Turkish military forces.“
Posted by Al Swearengen as Justice, Politics, Military, Words at 11:48 AM MDT
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Larry Himmel in front of his destroyed home
Posted by Al Swearengen as Video at 11:33 PM MDT
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“…oh, you noticed.” Carl
Posted by Al Swearengen as Comedy, Video at 1:44 AM MDT
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