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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
No on 98, Yes on 99
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While election day is June 3, voters will begin receiving their absentee ballots and will begin voting on Proposition 98 - the Landlords’ Scheme – and Prop. 99 – the Homeowners Protection Act this week. Because of the deceptive nature of Prop. 98, it is unlikely your friends and family will understand Prop. 98’s devastating impacts to seniors, renters, the environment and our communities unless you tell them early and often through June 3rd. Start today by sending an e-mail to everyone you know! 
Donna Matthews, 83, lives in Plantation on the Lake mobile home park in Calimesa, Riverside County and is facing an eviction threat over a disputed trash bill. Under protest Donna paid the fee, but her landlord is still trying to evict her through the court process. Right now, Donna is protected by strong mobile home tenant protection laws which protect against unfair evictions. But if Prop. 98 passes, those protections are threatened, and the landlord will likely try to evict Donna again so he can raise the rent. Donna refuses to be intimidated by her landlord. She is working to inform the mobile home park residents of Calimesa to vote No on Prop. 98 in June. Sphere: Related Content
43,000 deployed (to Iraq) unfit for combat
By Bob Kendall
That was the shocking headline in USA Today on May 8.
Gregg Zaroya wrote the story from Washington, D.C. It read:
"More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the week before their scheduled deployment to Iraq as Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show."
Zaroya continued, "The reliance of troops found medically non-deployable is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemen to the war zones."
Bobby Muller, Veterans for America President, has declared, "They are repeatedly exposed to high intensity combat with insufficient time at home to rest and heal before redeploying."
From start to finish, thus far the Iraq War was based on a series of lies.
To plunge U.S. service personnel into the thousands of years old Middle East religious conflict is unforgivable. The difference in the Middle East cause for fighting with such tremendously intensity, must be stated simply and bluntly. The Middle East religions are fighting to maintain their thousands of year's old, historical religious convictions.
These fighters are fighting for their belief in their view of God and their desire to maintain this historic life style. Not even the great Roman Empire, which lasted 600 years, could conquer Baghdad. The Romans tried, but failed and raced back to Rome, defeated in their grand designs.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread! The U.S. has a vice president who had suffered multiple heart attacks. Dick Cheney had worked for oil companies. Cheney still is receiving payments on his long term deals made before becoming vice president. Is this a conflict of interest?
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Sphere: Related Contentbest buddy film ever
In 2004, in a marketing/advertising campaign made exclusive for the web, American Express orchestrated the best buddy film ever. Directed by Barry Levinson, Jerry Seinfeld and Superman teamed up to discuss costumes and hindsight, talk about nothing, and show off the benefits of Amex’s theft and damage, 90-day warranty and roadside assistance.
Stop the Towers Hootenanny
SAVE THE DATE
FOR THE CALIFORNIA DESERT COALITION'S BENEFIT EVENT
Stop the Towers Hootenanny
The California Desert Coalition (CDC) will be holding a benefit dinner and silent auction at historic
Pappy & Harriets Palace in Pioneertown on
June 14, 2008, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Stop the Towers Hootenanny will feature a buffet dinner, great music, no host bar and the opportunity to bid on silent auction items. This festive evening of fun and camaraderie promises to be a real "hoot" and will offer us all the opportunity to hear about the latest progress being made to stop the proposed 500kV power corridor through the Morongo Basin and surrounding communities, including Pioneertown within sight of Pappy & Harriets Palace .
Valuable items from local businesses, artists and individuals have been pledged, and more are needed for the auction. Any items big or small are very welcome and all tax-deductible donations will be acknowledged at the party. Please call Fundraising Committee member Pam Anderson (760-228-9676) if you have a service, object or artwork to contribute to the event and this important cause or if you would like more information about the event.
Bev Doolittle, famous native Californian artist and local resident, has pledged an original piece to help raise monies to increase the education and legal fund, so you can expect to see almost anything up for auction at the Stop the Towers Hootenanny.
Volunteers Needed to Help With This Fundraiser
See the below positions, and please call Judy Ruggles at 760-364-4839 or 714-797-4807 to volunteer your help.
Greeters/Check-In Table
Duties : Greeting arriving guests; checking names on reservation sheets; directing guests to party area.
Skills: Happy personalities; ability to maintain poise under pressure; ability to find names on sheets quickly and check in. 5 volunteers needed
Silent Auction Hosts
Duties: Maintain presence near silent auction tables; help generate excitement as bidding processes get underway; ensure auction items are picked up by winning bidders at close of auction.
Skills: Ability to stand for extended periods of time; ability to socialize; assertive enough to request that guests not handle items, if need be. 6-8 volunteers needed
Cashiers
Duties: Process monies paid by winning bidders.
Skills: Ability to process checks, cash and credit cards quickly & accurately; ability to total out banks and report totals to Cash Manager. 5 volunteers needed
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Sphere: Related ContentHow to Get Universal Health Care
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say they believe in giving Americans universal health care. I don't believe them. Anyone who takes the time to understand universal health care should conclude that only a simple single payer system will reform the current outrageous system that benefits the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
The contorted plans from Clinton and Obama are not sufficient reforms. And what John McCain has proposed is sheer nonsense and by itself should cause any conscious American to avoid voting for him.
Fights for health care system reform are centered in Congress, as if legislators will do what they have never done before: achieve true, major and systemic reforms that only serve the public interest, not lobbyists and campaign contributors from business sectors.
Both Clinton and Obama believe that Americans have a moral right to universal health care. If this is correct and if this is what you believe, then achieving universal health care that covers absolutely everyone by making health care affordable to absolutely everyone, as it is in many other nations, requires a different kind of government action. What exactly?
We must expand the Bill of Rights as embodied in the US Constitution to include the right to affordable universal health care. The time has come for the public to conclude that the right to universal health care is as important and necessary as the right to free speech and all the other beloved constitutional rights. Common sense says that health care is a right, not a privilege.
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Sphere: Related ContentVoter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship
By IAN URBINA
Lillie Lewis, 78, with a letter from Mississippi saying it had no record of her birth. "That's downright wrong," she said.
The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.
The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.
Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.
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Sphere: Related ContentFlame Warriors
Xenophobe is usually a long-term discussion forum participant and he thinks of the forum as his private compound. Xenophobe regards new forum arrivals as mentally deficient and perhaps even having criminal tendencies, and they are invariably approached with suspicion and condescension. Xenophobe will mount a furious attack if a Newbie has the temerity to make critical observations about the forum's social dynamics, or questions its prevailing opinions.
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These Are the Good Old Days
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Sphere: Related ContentMy Mother
by Brad Taylor Negron
"They used to break bottles on a fence and follow me home. Look where they got me." Mom's story of her scars terrified me.
"They?" Who were "they"--and could they find us here at my grandmother's bungalow in Echo Park? (Which was often filled with people who had been exiled from many places--Socialists and Communists, violin soloists, and lesbians who had fled Castro's Cuba.)
I tell people that my family absorbed lesbians during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those lesbians were a big part of my childhood, arriving midday wearing military gear and sporting masculine pompadour haircuts. They'd show up with hot bread in thin bags and produce sticks of sweet guava paste while my grandmother poured strong coffee.
Then, the merengue music would begin, and the lesbians would start to dance like Desi Arnaz, taking turns whirling mom around. She would giggle, the flan would jiggle, and for a Proustian moment all was right in the world.
When I remind my mother about this, she laments, "Why don't you remember the skiing and the leather jacket we got you? It's always the lesbians with you!"
Mom was not a butchie; she was boy crazy. During World War II, she worked in a factory that manufactured medals of honor for soldiers. She sat for twelve hours a day attaching the medals to gold braids and ribbons. Then she would place them in blue velvet boxes to be sent overseas. What no one in the factory or the federal government knew was that my mother was writing her name and address on pieces of paper and sticking them into every box. I asked her if she ever met anyone that way, to which she sheepishly replied, "Yes." The topic was dropped.
Our family business was operating batting cages. The pitching machine spit out the balls at lightning speed. Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax. Whitey Ford. 50 cents for 12 pitches. Of course my mother ran the place, and I was her slave: selling candy, hosing down the street, and the most dreaded of all jobs, feeding the pitching machine with balls. I call it my black and blue period.
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The Oil Nonbubble
By PAUL KRUGMAN
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Ten months later, oil was selling for $70 a barrel. "It's a huge bubble," declared Steve Forbes, the publisher, who warned that the coming crash in oil prices would make the popping of the technology bubble "look like a picnic."
All through oil's five-year price surge, which has taken it from $25 a barrel to last week's close above $125, there have been many voices declaring that it's all a bubble, unsupported by the fundamentals of supply and demand.
So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices? And if they aren't, why have so many commentators insisted, year after year, that there's an oil bubble?
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Sphere: Related ContentThings younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention “war hero”?) John McCain
Oil is younger than John McCain.
(Thanks to Michelle, Hana, Kenneth, Colleen, Eliot, and others for the tip!)
The Chocolate Chip Cookie.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie is younger than John McCain.
OK, this is an odd one. Apparently, the chocolate chip cookie has not been around since the dawn of time. It did not evolve from anything, nor was it hanging down from the forbidden tree (or whatever it's called) in the Garden of Eden. It was, in fact, invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield of Whitman, Massachusetts, who ran the Toll House Restaurant.
So this classic staple and friend of milk lovers everywhere is actually younger than John McCain.
(Thanks to Sean J. for the tip!)
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Sphere: Related ContentUS Terrorism Report: Selective Data, Wrong Lessons
By Ramzy Baroud
The data provided in the US State Department's annual terrorism report for 2007 points to some interesting if puzzling conclusions. The much publicised document, made available 30 April via the State Department's website, makes no secret of the fact that Al-Qaeda is back, strong as ever. It also suggests that violence worldwide is nowhere near subsiding, despite President Bush's repeated assurances regarding the success of his "war on terror".
Will the report inspire serious reflection on the
Let's look at some of the data. To start with, take
Then there's
There have also been many other violent incidents around the world, including but not limited to North Africa, the terrorist bombings in
But this is barely half the story -- or 40 per cent of it, if we want to be as specific as the terrorism report.
Considering the fact that the horrifying violence currently witnessed in
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Sphere: Related ContentOh my
by Brad
Jonah, are you sure you want to ask this?
The Bush Legacy [Jonah Goldberg]
About a month ago, I called Ramesh in a panic because I'd forgotten that I was slated to do a Close-Up Foundation interview on the Bush legacy and I hadn't thought too much about it. Fortunately, not only did Ramesh have some great thoughts, but I was wrong about the date — by a month (I'd entered it into my PDA wrong). Anyway, I'm doing the interview this Thursday and while I have my thoughts far better organized, I thought it'd be interesting to know what NRO readers think Bush's legacy will be. Please send thoughts — hopefully constructive — to JonahResearch@AOL.com.
(Via.)
I highly encourage you all to send Jonah your thoughts on this matter, be they constructive or otherwise.
For my part, I think pictures speak more than a trillion-kabillion words, so I'll let them speak for me. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bush Legacy:
To sum up: Bush has been a smarmy, destructive asshole for the past eight years and he has left the next president with an extremely large pile of shit to deal with. And you, Jonah, dutifully enabled the stupid SOB for years until you realized that he was starting to cost the GOP votes. Lest we forget:
From tax cuts (and deficits, alas), to his personal conviction on abortion, to aligning America with the historical tide of liberty in the world, George W. Bush has proved that he's a Reaganite, not a "Bushie." He may not be a natural heir to Reagan, but that's the point. The party is all Reaganite now. What better sign that this is now truly and totally the Gipper's Party than the obvious conversion of George Bush's own son?
Why should anybody ask for your opinion on anything, dude? You have less credibility than a 9/11 Truther. Because say what you will about the Truthers, but at least they don't abandon their crazy and insane delusions just because they suddenly become politically inconvenient.
What a pathetic fraud.
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Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions
As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts.
WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans being secretly wiretapped or having their financial and other records reviewed by the government has continued to increase as officials aggressively use powers approved after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of terrorism prosecutions ending up in court -- one measure of the effectiveness of such sleuthing -- has continued to decline, in some cases precipitously.
The trends, visible in new government data and a private analysis of Justice Department records, are worrisome to civil liberties groups and some legal scholars. They say it is further evidence that the government has compromised the privacy rights of ordinary citizens without much to show for it.
The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.
The Senate Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the bureau was far behind in making internal changes to keep the nation safe from terrorist threats. Lawmakers urged that the FBI set specific benchmarks to measure its progress and make more regular reports to Congress.
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Sphere: Related ContentRon Paul's forces quietly plot GOP convention revolt against McCain
by Andrew Malcolm
Virtually all the nation's political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.
But in the m
Paul's presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.
But what's been largely overlooked is Paul's candidacy as a reflection of a powerful lingering dissatisfaction with the Arizona senator among the party's most conservative conservatives. As anticipated in late March in The Ticket, that situation could be exacerbated by today's expected announcement from former Republican Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia for the Libertarian Party's presidential nod, a slot held by Paul in 1988.
Never mind Ralph Nader, Republican and Democratic parties both face potentially damaging internal splits that could cripple their chances for victory in a narrow vote on Nov. 4.
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Sphere: Related ContentWar dead cremated at facility for pets
The facility, in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David Bose said Friday night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added.
Pentagon officials said they do not think any humans were cremated in the pet crematory. "We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said late Friday.
Despite Bose's estimate, officials said they do not know the number of service members cremated at the Kent County facility, identified on a billboard as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service.
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