Pro-Abortion, Serial Divorcee Drag Queen
embraces Religious Fundamentalist Nutbar
June 2007
Monthly Archive
June 27, 2007
June 27, 2007
Okay, a word about Steven Griles. He was a Bush appointee, serving as deputy-secretary, Department of the Interior from 2000-2004. What environmental credentials did Griles bring to the job? Well, he had been a highly-paid lobbyist for coal, oil and gas interests.
Never one to let conflicts of interest get in his way, Griles’ record was called an “ethical quagmire” by an inspector-general.
Today Steve’s karma came crashing down as he was sentenced to 10-months imprisonment on a felony conviction for lying to senate investigators about his dealings with Jailbird Jack Abramoff, former leader of the infamous K Street Gang.
The prosecution had asked for 5-months but the judge doubled it, saying, “Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct.”
Oh well, these days a criminal record is almost a badge of honour for a Bush Republican.
June 26, 2007
Crazier Than a Cut Cat?
Ouch, that’s gotta hurt! Ouch, ouch, ouch.
Jim Hightower weighed in on Bill O’Reilly today over the loudmouth’s foaming outburst at a criticism of Fox News:
“What set him off was a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It found that O’Reilly’s network, Fox News, has been devoting twice as much time as other cable networks to the Anna Nicole Smith celebrity story, while spending much less time than other networks on Iraq, a story of real importance.
“This caused O’Reilly to have a double-barreled brain jerk. First, he blasted the other networks for covering the violence in Iraq, saying that they’re only doing it to embarrass the Bushites. ‘All their reporting consists of is here’s another explosion,’ O’Reilly declared. ‘Bang. Here’s more people dead. Bang.’
“He then went loopy, asserting ‘CNN and MSNBC are actually helping the terrorists by reporting useless explosions. Do you care if another bomb went off in Tikrit? Does it mean anything? No. It doesn’t mean anything.’
“Well, actually, Bill, I don’t think terrorists are setting off bombs just to get on CNN. I think they’re setting off bombs to kill people, including U.S. troops. That’s what we call “news.” It certainly does mean something to the families of the dead, to the soldiers who served with the dead, and to the progress (or lack thereof) of Bush’s war policy. It means something every freaking time it happens.”
Isn’t it fun being a witness to broadcast stupidity writ really, really large?
June 26, 2007
Enviro-website Grist.org has published what it considers the 15 most important “green politicians” in the world. Here’s what they said about Stephane Dion, ranked number 10:
“Canada’s other Dion, the recently elected leader of the Liberal Party, has pledged to unite the quest for a better environment, social justice, and economic growth into a holistic vision of sustainability. Called by one blogger “the environmental candidate for the non-environmentalist”, Dion will be in the running to become prime minister of Canada when the nation holds its next election, expected sometime this year. He has proposed tax credits for energy efficiency and pledged to make a concerted effort to meet Kyoto Protocol goals; in fact, he loves Kyoto so much, he named his dog after it. No, really!”
See the whole list at http://www.grist.org/
June 26, 2007
The former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Christie Todd Whitman, appeared before a congressional hearing yesterday where she had to face accusations that she misled New Yorkers about the dangers of air pollution resulting from the 9/11 attacks. Caught red-handed, here’s how she tried to duck and weave:
“There are indeed people to blame. They are the terrorists who attacked the United States, not the men and women at all levels of government who worked heroically to protect and defend this country.”
“Was it wrong to try get the city back on its feet as quickly as possible in the safest way possible? Absolutely not… We weren’t going to let the terrorists win.”
June 26, 2007
Problem, what problem?
The deputy commander of both US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Joseph Votel, says there’s no need for any new procedures to cut down on civilian casualties.
He told Voice of America, “”No, there’s no particularly new procedures that we are using right now. We think the procedures we have in place are good. They work. They help us minimize the effects on this.”
Votel, naturally, blames the spate of civilian deaths not on his own side’s excessive reliance on air strikes and artillery barrages against residential areas but on the Taliban.
John Sifton of Human Rights Watch says both sides are crossing the line. “The Taleban is committing violations of the Laws of War in almost everything they do,” he said. “NATO and the United States, by contrast, is not setting out to violate the Laws of War across the board. However, they’re failing to take precautions in a lot of cases, and may occasionally cross the line and violate the Laws of War themselves.”
June 26, 2007
Foreign Policy magazine has published an interesting memo on how Iraq will end based on an actual memo prepared for the US government during the Vietnam war. The only changes are substitutions: Iraq in place of Vietnam; insurgents in place of communists; and Iran in place of the Soviet Union. It makes a chilling read:
June 26, 2007
Social mobility is worse in today’s Britain than it was even in the 1950’s.
A study by Britain’s Sutton Trust finds that young people from poor homes are being condemned to a life of poverty as they are unable to get into a university or well-paid employment. The report follows on the heels of another report that found “white working class boys were becoming an unemployable underclass as they performed worse at school than any other racial group.”
“Sir Peter Lampl, the chairman of the Sutton Trust, said that, despite 10 years of Labour government, the best schools remained “socially selective”, with only middle-class children able to gain a place.
“He called for grammar schools to admit more children from deprived backgrounds and the return of a scheme – scrapped by Labour – to give poor pupils subsidised places at private schools.”
June 26, 2007
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They’re called “chimeras,” human-animal hybrid embryos created in a laboratory. Britain will soon introduce a law allowing the creation of chimera with certain safeguards. One is a requirement that they be destroyed within two weeks of creation. Another is a prohibition on implanting chimera into a woman’s body.
Britain’s Roman Catholic Bishops are crying foul (or “fowl” perhaps) and have filed a submission arguing that the genetic mothers (egg donors) of chimera should have the right to raise them if they wish.
Chimera are created by injecting animal DNA into human embryos or vice versa. One purpose for the research is to determine if such creatures could be used to grow human tissue, perhaps even organs.
In their submission to the committee, they said: “At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly.
“In particular, it should not be a crime to transfer them, or other human embryos, to the body of the woman providing the ovum, in cases where a human ovum has been used to create them.
“Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so.”
June 26, 2007
In an editorial in today’s far right Washington Times, Newt Gingrich says what America needs now is not less Bush but more, much more.
“…the lessons of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, New Jersey, the JFK plot, the Algerian bombings, the Iranian nuclear program, the conflict in Lebanon and now the defeat in Gaza all point to the need for a war policy that is substantially bigger and more robust than Mr. Bush.
“As the forces of modernity are being ground up by terrorism, our political process is not producing a Churchill or Roosevelt to rally the democracies but instead embracing advocates of surrender withdrawal and defeat. As women are being oppressed, we remain silent. Faced with the weakness, vacillation and inarticulateness of the leaders of Israel and America, the people see the violence as senseless, the bloodshed as repugnant and the current strategies as too flawed to continue to invest in them.”
Newt, predictably, has the solution. He begins by claiming that Hamas and Hezbollah must be utterly destroyed but notes that America will need a new strategy, doctrine and “techniques” to do it.
Second, he says, “… the indirect strategies of propping up corrupt dictatorships have to give way to direct people-to-people help, securing private-property rights and direct financial assistance so we can improve their families’ lives and they can be empowered to defend their neighborhoods from evil men.”
Next, Gingrich proposes scrapping the United Nations, “…the U.N. camp system of socialism with unearned anti-humanitarian charity has to be replaced with a totally new system of earned income and earned property rights to restore dignity and hope to every Palestinian.”
Gingrich goes on to call for completely new schools for Palestinian children “dedicated to genuine education and to teaching human rights rather than jihad and hatred,” and a general cleansing of mosques, along the lines of the de-Nazification programme in Germany in 1945. “The haters have to be defeated, disarmed and detained if the forces of peace and freedom are to win.”
Newt warns that these steps are “only the beginning” but doesn’t explain what would follow in the Gingrichian World Order. First, however, he’d better start tracking down those folks who don’t find “bloodshed repugnant.”
In case you’re tempted to dismiss Newt Gingrich as yesterday’s news, understand that he’s waiting on the sidelines and watching to see if he should seek the Republican presidential nomination. This guy is serious.
The Mound of Sound 