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	<title>The Velvet StraitJacket &#187; Barack Obama</title>
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		<title>Pink Slime..? WTF?</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/pink-slime-wtf</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/pink-slime-wtf#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:26:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democrats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health care crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Michels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Meat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michelle Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pink Slime]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[proper gander a skewed view]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rick Perry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rick Sheehy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terry Branstad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=1303</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If there was one issue you&#8217;d think we&#8217;d all&#8230; communists,socialist,fascists,Marxist&#8230; more commonly referred to as, Republicans and Democrats, be with one on it would be pink slime. What the hell is pink slime? Oh no, you really don&#8217;t want to know, but I guess you probably need to in order to see just how out-of-fucking-whack [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If there was one issue you&#8217;d think we&#8217;d all&#8230; communists,socialist,fascists,Marxist&#8230; more commonly referred to as, Republicans and Democrats, be with one on it would be pink slime. What the hell is pink slime? Oh no, you really don&#8217;t want to know, but I guess you probably need to in order to see just how out-of-fucking-whack our political climate has gotten since a black man was voted into the office of the President..</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wshlnRWnf30" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>mmm&#8230;mmm&#8230; goood! Just like mom used to make.</p>
<p>Look, I know it&#8217;s supposed to be &#8220;safe&#8221; for us but does that mean it&#8217;s &#8216;good&#8217; for us?</p>
<ul>
<li>We&#8217;re the <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity">fattest country.</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We&#8217;re have more people on <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/50-u-s-health-care-statistics-that-will-absolutely-astonish-you">pharmaceuticals </a>than any other country.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We have the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States">highest incarceration </a>rate.</li>
</ul>
<p>We have more <a href="http://www.criminaljusticeuniversity.net/blog/2009/10-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/">rapes</a>,more <a href="http://www.criminaljusticeuniversity.net/blog/2009/10-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/">crimes</a>,more<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/01/health/webmd/main4222322.shtml"> illegal drug</a> use..Why? Is there something <a href="http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking" target="_blank">in the water</a>? Something <a href="http://www.organicconsumers.org/irradlink.cfm" target="_blank">in the food</a>? I really don&#8217;t know, I don&#8217;t think anyone knows but with the shit that&#8217;s being put into our food and water? Is it any surprise?No. The surprise is,  that we can&#8217;t even agree on what we should or shouldn&#8217;t be eating. Michelle Obama started a &#8216;get fit&#8217; program called <a href="http://www.letsmove.gov/" target="_blank">&#8220;Let&#8217;s Move&#8221;</a> to help lessen childhood obesity.With that in mind, a school in Pennsylvania stopped serving  so much sweet crap to their student and instead of thinking &#8220;Hey ,what a good idea&#8221;, Sarah Palin responded by going there, insulting the program by labeling it a &#8216;Nanny-State&#8217; and<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/cookie-protest-sarah-palin-calls-pennsylvania-nanny-state/story?id=12104862#.T5Q-odn0mik" target="_blank"> served sugar cookies</a> to the kids in the audience&#8230;. really? I mean.. REALLY? Is she that partisan? So partisan that when the Obama&#8217;s want to teach kids to eat healthy,get fit, and become less obese the &#8220;Right&#8217;s&#8221; answer is to call it a Nanny State and served &#8216;dozens and dozens&#8217; of sugar cookies?</p>
<p>Insanity.. pure and simple.</p>
<p>Which brings us around to pink slime&#8230; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime" target="_blank"><em>what </em>the hell is it</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p><em><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.guitar-in-a-nutshell.com/images/open-quote.gif" alt="" width="30" height="30" />a <a title="Beef" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef">beef</a>-based <a title="Food additive" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_additive">food additive</a> that may be added to <a title="Ground beef" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_beef">ground beef</a> and beef-based <a title="Meat" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat#Methods_of_preparation">processed meats</a> as an inexpensive filler.<sup id="cite_ref-petfood_3-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-petfood-3">[4]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-isit_4-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-isit-4">[5]</a></sup> It consists of finely ground beef scraps, <a title="Sinew" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinew">sinew</a>, fat, and <a title="Connective tissue" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connective_tissue">connective tissue</a> which have been <a title="Mechanically separated meat" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_separated_meat">mechanically removed</a> in a heated centrifuge at 100°F (38°C)<sup id="cite_ref-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-5">[6]</a></sup> from the <a title="Animal fat" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_fat">fat</a> into liquid fat and a protein paste.<sup id="cite_ref-connective_6-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-connective-6">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-reluctant_7-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-reluctant-7">[8]</a></sup> The recovered material is then processed, heated, and treated with <a title="Ammonia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia">ammonia</a> gas<sup id="cite_ref-post_0-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-post-0">[1]</a></sup> or <a title="Citric acid" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid">citric acid</a> to kill <em><a title="E. coli" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._coli">E. coli</a></em>, <em><a title="Salmonella" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella">salmonella</a></em>, and other <a title="Bacteria" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria">bacteria</a>. It is finely ground, compressed into blocks and <a title="Flash freezing" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_freezing">flash frozen</a> for use as an additive to beef products<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-940" title="QUOTE" src="http://thevsj.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/QUOTE.gif" alt="QUOTE" width="24" height="20" /></em></p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s the next part that&#8217;s so shocking  I think.</p>
<blockquote><p><em><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.guitar-in-a-nutshell.com/images/open-quote.gif" alt="" width="30" height="30" />In the United States,<span style="color: #800080;"> <strong>the additive itself cannot legally be sold  directly to consumers</strong></span>, but can constitute up to 15% of ground beef  without additional labeling,<sup id="cite_ref-ABCNews-CompaniesStop_8-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-ABCNews-CompaniesStop-8">[9]</a></sup> and can also be added to other <a title="Meat" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat">meat</a> products such as beef-based processed meats.<sup id="cite_ref-ABCNews-CompaniesStop_8-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-ABCNews-CompaniesStop-8">[9]</a></sup> <span style="color: #800080;"><strong>Prior to the invention of the <a title="Disinfectant" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinfectant">disinfection</a> process, beef scraps could only be sold as <span style="color: #800080;"><a title="Pet food" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_food">pet food</a> </span></strong></span>or as an ingredient for <a title="Cooking oil" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil">cooking oil</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-petfood_3-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime#cite_note-petfood-3">[4]<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-940" title="QUOTE" src="http://thevsj.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/QUOTE.gif" alt="QUOTE" width="25" height="21" /></a></sup></em></p></blockquote>
<p>Who wants a burger?</p>
<p>These guys sure do&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p><em><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.guitar-in-a-nutshell.com/images/open-quote.gif" alt="" width="30" height="30" />Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Brownback, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Nebraska Lt.  Gov. Rick Sheehy and South Dakota Lt. Gov. Matt Michels— all agree with  the industry view that the beef has been unfairly maligned and  mislabeled and issued a joint statement earlier saying the product is  safe.</em></p>
<p id="yui_3_4_0_24_1335116055926_348"><em>Afterward,<strong> Perry, Branstad and others ate burgers made from the plant&#8217;s meat at a news conference.</strong></em></p>
<p id="yui_3_4_0_24_1335116055926_360"><em>&#8220;It&#8217;s lean. It&#8217;s good. It&#8217;s nutritious,&#8221; Branstad said as he polished off a patty, sans bun.<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-940" title="QUOTE" src="http://thevsj.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/QUOTE.gif" alt="QUOTE" width="25" height="21" /></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, why did they do this? Shouldn&#8217;t we all agree that something that was, up until recently, fed only to dogs but is now being fed to Americans should probably be reconsidered? Naah, we don&#8217;t need no stinking regulations and food safety people telling us what to eat and we damn sure <a href="http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/03/processing-aids-labeling-and-pink-slime/" target="_blank">don&#8217;t want the beef industry to label</a> their ingredients on their food so we can chose for ourselves what we want to eat. That&#8217;s just simple communism there folks. We don&#8217;t make big business practice fair trade here in this country. We just keep shoveling the shit they give us into our bodies and ask for more and if anyone tries to warn of us of the dangers of things like pink slime or childhood obesity, a growing, dangerous epidemic in the only civilized country without a national health insurance by the way, we&#8217;ll fly to their town and serve them sugar cookies and eat their pink slime..</p>
<blockquote><p><em><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.guitar-in-a-nutshell.com/images/open-quote.gif" alt="" width="30" height="30" />&#8220;Why are we here today defending a company that has a rather sterling  record dealing with making a food product that is very much needed in  this country in a very safe manner? Why are we here today?&#8221; Perry said.<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-940" title="QUOTE" src="http://thevsj.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/QUOTE.gif" alt="QUOTE" width="25" height="21" /></em></p></blockquote>
<p>Because <em>that&#8217;s</em> whats needed in this country my friends..</p>
<p>My God, we&#8217;re so screwed&#8230;</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.bilerico.com/2012/03/omg_wtf_is_pink_slime.php" target="_blank">OMG! WTF Is &#8216;Pink Slime?&#8217;</a> (bilerico.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blisstree.com/eat/stephen-colbert-addresses-pink-slime-smear-campaign-879/" target="_blank">Stephen Colbert Addresses Pink Slime &#8216;Smear Campaign&#8217;</a> (blisstree.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://drugstoresource.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/some-pink-slime-with-your-burger-boston-com/" target="_blank">Some pink slime with your burger? &#8211; Boston.com</a> (drugstoresource.wordpress.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/national/pink-slime-found-in-70-of-ground-beef-in-supermarkets-20120309" target="_blank">&#8220;Pink slime&#8221; found in 70% of ground beef</a> (myfoxboston.com)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Can we get a refund?</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/can-we-get-a-refund</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/can-we-get-a-refund#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:51:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bush tax cuts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corporate Profits Hit New Record]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DADT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Don't Ask Don't Tell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Huffington Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Barton What's in Store for the Obama Administration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch McConnell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obamacare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public option]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republican]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Russian arms race]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[START treaty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax cut]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Washington Post's Al Kamen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vladimir Putin START resistance "dummy"]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=1248</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[That&#8217;s it, I&#8217;m done. I&#8217;ve used this product for almost 2 years now and have found it to be lacking each and every time I&#8217;ve counted on it. When I saw the advertisements for it I thought to myself &#8220;Well, that sounds pretty good, I think I&#8217;ll try it&#8221; then whipped out my credit card [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>That&#8217;s it, I&#8217;m done. I&#8217;ve used this product for almost 2 years now and have found it to be lacking each and every time I&#8217;ve counted on it. When I saw the advertisements for it I thought to myself &#8220;Well, that sounds pretty good, I think I&#8217;ll try it&#8221; then whipped out my credit card and paid for it. I know I know, I should have remembered the old adage &#8220;If it&#8217;s too good to be true&#8230;blah-blah-blah&#8221; but it was just so damn appealing! I couldn&#8217;t help it and neither, it seems, could<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008"> 69 million</a> other people!</p>
<p>So what product did we all buy into that has turned out to be a dud?</p>
<p>Barack Obama!</p>
<p>Now listen, I&#8217;m not saying John McCain would have been any better. In fact the more I see of him and his confused,mentally incompetent and <em>extremely</em> angry running mate the more sure I am of that simple fact. But that doesn&#8217;t mean Barack Obama is the God-send  he was supposed to be. To be honest, one thing that would have been a nice change if McCain and Palin had won would that we could actually see something getting done instead of a President selling his own ideas, his party&#8217;s idea&#8217;s and his and his party leaders nuts to the lowest bidder. Say what you want about George Bush (and I have), but he sure as hell got stuff done&#8230; just not the stuff any rational person <em>wanted</em> done. But now, instead of being stuck with a President that rolls over anyone in his way, we have a President who rolls over <em>for</em> anyone in his way.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t like his health care, it&#8217;s ok he&#8217;ll drop <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/22/obama-health-care-plan-dr_n_471320.html">the most important part of it.</a></p>
<p>Don&#8217;t like his stimulus plan? No problem, he&#8217;ll give you the tax breaks you want, ask for less money than he needs and he&#8217;ll let you call it all &#8220;Obama&#8217;s Radical Socialist Agenda&#8221; while you secretly take the funds from him anyway because you know that your state couldn&#8217;t survive without those funds.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t believe in science or climate change? Well that&#8217;s ok, he does believe in it but to make you happy he&#8217;ll end all hopes of anything &#8216;Green&#8217; coming from this liberal white  house.</p>
<p>Over and over, again and again, this president hasn&#8217;t proved he wants bipartisanship legislation , he&#8217;s proved he want Conservative Republican <em>only</em> legislation! With a 60 vote majority in the Congress, overwhelming public support on his side, some of the largest &#8216;political capitol&#8217; for an incoming president in a generation  and he&#8217;s done nothing more than give up on every promise he ever made. Next on the auction block are the Bush Tax cuts, that will kill this country if we  reauthorize them for every level of income and   repeal of Don&#8217;t ask, Don&#8217;t tell.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-29/durbin-says-u-s-debate-to-go-beyond-bush-tax-cuts.html" target="_blank">$5 trillion is what extending those tax cuts</a> to include the richest 1% of this country will cost<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40443016/dis..." target="_blank">. For 10 years that segment saw an average of $100,000 in tax relief while the average American family  saw $500</a>. No jobs were created, the deficit exploded, we borrowed money from every crazy uncle we could find in the family&#8230; but hey, let&#8217;s do it again because this President can&#8217;t seem to say no to the Republican party as well as he can say no to his own party.</p>
<p>Military leaders say DADT is antiquated and they want it changed, the majority of American say they want it changed, when polled, an overwhelming majority of currently enlisted service men and women say they&#8217;re ok with it changing so of course when one Republican balks at the idea because of his own bigoted agenda, Barack Obama caves in and shelves repealing one of the most ridiculous laws to ever come out of Congress.</p>
<p>Nukes! Nukes and the non- proliferation of them is something we can agree on right? We can all, Republican and Democrat agree that if we could have an agreement with Russia over nuclear weapons, well  that would be a good thing. I mean, seriously who wants the Russians<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/01/world/main7105909.shtml" target="_blank"> to have a run on nuclear weapons like they have promised,</a> if we can prevent it?</p>
<p>Enter &#8220;No Comprise&#8221; Republicans and &#8220;Give them what they want&#8221; Obama! and before long we&#8217;ll be hearing <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-28/politics/senate.start.treaty_1_new-nuclear-arms-treaty-start-treaty-treaty-ratification?_s=PM:POLITICS" target="_blank">&#8220;Treaty? What Treaty?&#8221;</a></p>
<p>But, Vladimir Putin did call anyone who wouldn&#8217;t ratify this START treaty &#8220;dumb&#8221; and what kind of bipartisan president would Obama be if he allowed a foreign leader to say that about his favorite party?</p>
<p>Yesterday, after meeting with the incoming Republican leadership President Obama said</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113006782_2.html" target="_blank"><em>&#8220;The president acknowledged he needed to do better,&#8221; Gibbs said.</em></a></p></blockquote>
<p><em><br />
</em><br />
Umm.. better at what?</p>
<blockquote><p><em><br />
</em></p>
<p><em><strong>Obama told the lawmakers that he needed to do more to reduce the  partisan tone in Washington</strong>, press secretary Robert Gibbs said later.  The president said he plans to hold additional talks in Washington and  at Camp David with lawmakers of both parties.</em></p>
<p><em><br />
</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Yes, well.. of course. He needs to do better at reducing the partisan tone. Rep. Joe Barton on the other hand, well he can say</p>
<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Speaker Boehner is our Dwight Eisenhower in the battle against the  Obama Administration. Majority Leader Cantor is our Omar Bradley. I want  to be George Patton &#8211; put anything in my scope and I will shoot it.&#8221;</em><em> </em></p></blockquote>
<p>Implying of course, as the<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112904500.html" target="_blank"> <em>The Washington Post</em>&#8217;s Al Kamen says </a></p>
<blockquote><p><em>If the Obama administration was hoping to see hints of bipartisanship  from the Hill, it might want to skip over the House Energy and Commerce  Committee</em></p></blockquote>
<p><em><br />
</em></p>
<p><em><br />
</em><br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/senate-republican-filibuster_n_790303.html">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter </a>to Harry Reid<em> this</em> morning letting him know that 100% of the Senate Republicans have decided to block any and all Democrat legislation until they get what they want.</p>
<p>Yes, yes I see where <em>Obama</em> needs to do more to end all this silly partisan stuff.</p>
<p>I want a refund damn it! I&#8217;m tired of fighting for a President who will not fight for himself and who will actually throw <em>me</em> under the bus if it gets him a vocal promise of support, even when he knows that when it comes down to it, that vocal promise doesn&#8217;t mean shit. I&#8217;m tired of watching the policies my party believes in being shelved or butchered beyond recognition  before there is even a chance to see where the other, <em>minority</em> side will compromise on. We were promised a fighter and we gave him a 60 vote majority to help him! We were standing there behind him,telling him what we wanted, what we expected&#8230;<em> WE were </em>the people <em>we have</em> been waiting for, but you Mr. President are not <em>the President</em> we have been waiting for!</p>
<h6 class="zemanta-related-title" style="font-size: 1em;">Related articles</h6>
<ul class="zemanta-article-ul">
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/30/national/w105234S08.DTL">Obama, GOP promise to work on differences on taxes</a> (sfgate.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.americablog.com/2010/11/obama-to-gop-leaders-i-need-to-be.html">Obama to GOP leaders: I need to be better at bipartisanship</a> (americablog.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/131295-obama-makes-nice-with-ascendant-republicans">Obama makes nice with ascendant Republicans</a> (thehill.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&amp;fd=R&amp;usg=AFQjCNFaNKgbK2PoFitIF_2VwQQz8ng8rg&amp;url=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSfwHpwdzIXbYFlnB4BOoPMRUgaA?docId%253Df5b55bc7d1a443cab7ffd54504a08a10">Lawmakers stand firm on taxes as talks start &#8211; The Associated Press</a> (news.google.com)</li>
</ul>
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		<title>Drudge&#8217;s best headline so far..</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/drudges-best-headline-so-far</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/drudges-best-headline-so-far#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:26:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Y]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dog poops in store]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drudge Report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Humor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Matt Drudge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recreation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=1148</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I rag Drudge as much as the next liberal blogger. His head lines and &#8217;scary Obama&#8217; stories are stuff of legends, but today he gets a reprieve. Today, the best headline I&#8217;ve ever read is right there on Drudge&#8217;s page..
Disabled veteran 'banned' after service dog poops in aisles...


God I wish he had used the lights [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I rag <a href="http://www.drudgereport.com/">Drudge </a>as much as the next liberal blogger. His head lines and &#8217;scary Obama&#8217; stories are stuff of legends, but today he gets a reprieve. Today, the best headline I&#8217;ve ever read is right there on Drudge&#8217;s page..</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><tt><strong><a href="http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/08/02/news/metro/doc4c563cf9ad476360379790.txt">Disabled veteran 'banned' after service dog poops in aisles...</a></strong></tt></p>
<p><strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">God I wish he had used the lights and sirens for it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.boingboing.net/2009/08/28/drudge-siren.gif" alt="" width="70" height="71" /></p>
<p><span><br />
</span><br />
<span><br />
</span><br />
Thank You Matt Drudge, for putting &#8216;poop&#8217; in a headline on your site!</p>
<p>By the way, <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/08/02/news/metro/doc4c563cf9ad476360379790.txt" target="_blank">the story is pretty funny as well</a>. Ok, take away the disable veteran part and it&#8217;s pretty funny. Especially this part</p>
<blockquote><p><em>D’Amour-Daley disputes Mucha’s version of the story, saying Ivy was not  anywhere near her owner, was not on a leash and defecated on the floor  several times, including once in an area near where Big Y employees were  making sandwiches for customers.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>I imagine being at my grocer, having one of their delicious subs made fresh for me&#8230; looking over, seeing a dog and watching that dog crap in the aisle.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t care who you are, that visual is hilarious.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>comment watch..</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/comment-watch</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/comment-watch#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 16:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Berwick rationing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Berwick recess appointment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bush CMS Scully You could nominate Gandhi to be head of CMS and that would be controversial right now."]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CMS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[death panel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Donald Berwick]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Expert on Rationing Donald Berwick]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fox News GOP Republican propaganda machine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Glen Beck we own civil righst movement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health care rationing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[now I feel the pain of racism.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palin Oscars swag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palin takes oil money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palin tweets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President Obama to Make Recess Appointment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rand Paul against Americans with Disabilities Act ADA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rand Paul against civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republican Rep. Paul Ryan "Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it?"]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rush and Reparations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rush Limbaugh Obama Created Recession As 'Payback' For Racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rush Limbaugh White Guilt President Obama and Oprah]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin idiot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tan tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=1038</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I mentioned yesterday that I had become a reader of the comments sections on pretty much all news stories. Well that&#8217;s not exactly true, it&#8217;s become more like an addiction. The &#8216;hate&#8217; in these comments is so overwhelming that each day when I think it can&#8217;t get any worse, I am rewarded the next day [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I mentioned yesterday that I had become a reader of the comments sections on pretty much all news stories. Well that&#8217;s not exactly true, it&#8217;s become more like an addiction. The &#8216;hate&#8217; in these comments is so overwhelming that each day when I think it can&#8217;t get any worse, I am rewarded the next day with something even better.</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s &#8216;comment watch&#8217; is from a story on<a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/07/president-obama-to-make-recess-appointment-of-cms-administrator-republicans-attacking-as-expert-on-r.html" target="_blank"> ABC.com</a></p>
<blockquote>
<h4><em>President Obama to Make Recess Appointment of CMS Administrator  Republicans Attacking as &#8216;Expert on Rationing&#8217;</em></h4>
<p><em>With Congress officially on recess, President Obama will on Wednesday  use his ability to make recess appointments to name one of his more  controversial nominees: Donald Berwick, nominee to be Administrator of  the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS).</em></p></blockquote>
<p><em><br />
</em><br />
First, no he isn&#8217;t an expert on &#8216;rationed&#8217; care and everyone knows it.</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/21/2034153/nomination-of-medicare-and-medicaid.html" target="_blank"><em>“I think anyone who is close to this understands this debate is really  not about Don Berwick but the opportunity to relitigate the underlying  health care reforms,&#8221;</em></a><em>John Rother, executive vice president for policy and strategy at the AARP. <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/21/2034153/nomination-of-medicare-and-medicaid.html" target="_blank">“In ordinary times, the nomination of somebody with Don’s record and standing in the field would not be controversial.”</a></em></p></blockquote>
<p>even the man Bush appointed to this positions tells us this is just bullshit hyperbole..</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20009850-503544.html" target="_blank"><em>&#8220;He&#8217;s universally regarded and a thoughtful guy who is not partisan. I  think it&#8217;s more about &#8230; the health care bill,&#8221; Scully said of Berwick.  &#8220;You could nominate Gandhi to be head of CMS and that would be  controversial right now.&#8221;</em></a></p></blockquote>
<p>Even GOP darling Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has uttered the same &#8216;rationing&#8217; observation, but when he said it he was cheered as being some kind of visionary.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it?&#8221;</em></p></blockquote>
<p><em><br />
</em>But OH MY, let that &#8216;R&#8217; word pass through the lips of an Obamite and the world shuts down<a href="http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/17920039734" target="_blank"> while twittering idiots spew</a> forth worms of wisdom that burrow into the minds of the paranoid and eat away what&#8217;s left of their sanity.</p>
<p>Donald Berwick has spent his life advocating Patient-care as a way to reduce health-costs. He has worked <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/21/2034153/nomination-of-medicare-and-medicaid.html" target="_blank">&#8220;to find ways to lower costs through better patient care and safety. One  of his particular causes has been reducing medical errors.</a>&#8221; When even an appointee of  George W Bush  tells you this is all simple political grandstanding meant to instill fear into an already scared populous, when even Gandhi himself would be shunned as some kind of elderly-killer, and you are still following the 149 character uttering of an unemployed commentator, something is seriously wrong with you; and if you had any doubts about that characterization just take a gander at some random comments on this news story&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p><em><span>-Sure sounds like we are going to experience a re  run of Germany in the 1930s. Either we get rid of the Democrats in  November, otherwise you might want to find a different country to live  in!</span></em></p>
<p><em><span>-Simple if you are determined to be unqualified  for treatment or meds and end of life counseling is advised. Do your  country a great service and try to take at least ten of the criminals  whom sponsored and supported this foul legislation with you.</span></em></p>
<p><em><span>-The death panels are here. My parents worked 50  years, always paid their taxes, never accepted a penny of public  assistance. Since Obamacare they have been denied medical care. I read  the government form letter. This is genocide and we are all accomplices  standing idly by as people are allowed to perish. We are no better than  the Germans who allowed so many to be erased from this world. It is that  serious. When we awake it will be from the guilt and shame we all share</span></em></p>
<p><em><br />
<span>-&#8221;You Lie!&#8221; hussein is really the gift that keeps  on giving to Repubs. All they need do is run and re-run and re-run  videos of the outrageous, incendiary, insane comments of this lunatic  healthcare RATIONING, ABORTION and DEATH PANEL czar during the campaign.  That will ensure that the d-crat socialists have the biggest losses in  American history in that election. And if that isn&#8217;t enough, run videos  of hussein/holder slamming Arizona&#8217;s immigration reform efforts.  Hopefully, the d-crat socialists will be put out of power for the next  century, or more.</span></em></p>
<div><em><span>-When will the idiots that fell and voted  for Obama realize that he hates our country and is trying to ruin it?He&#8217;s ruined the best health care system in the world, he&#8217;s fired the  head of GM to show &#8220;he won&#8221; and has no business being president. This  man has done nothing good for this country, it&#8217;s clear he hates the USA.Do you all rememeber Mrs. O&#8217;s comments that this was the first time  she was proud of her country? Let them both go to China, a communist  country that he&#8217;d like.</p>
<p><em>-</em><span><em>Sarah Palin was right.  The Death Panel is being  assembled, and Dr. Death has just been appointed.  Berwick will  literally decide who lives and who dies, based on what medical treatment  he allows them to receive.  My guess is that he will try to wipe out  all conservatives first and foremost</em>.</span></p>
<p></span></em></div>
</blockquote>
<p>Aww damnitman! They found us out! The secret plan to &#8216;<em><span><span><em>to wipe out  all conservatives first and foremost</em>.&#8221;</span></span></em> has been breached! Wait.. maybe the plan can still be salvaged in some way</p>
<p><em><span> </span></em></p>
<blockquote><p><em>-President Bush, a White House official said,  &#8220;was not facing the same level of obstruction.  Twenty-eight of  President Obama’s nominees have been held on the Senate floor for more  than three months. At this point in the Bush administration, only six of  his nominees had been waiting that long.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><em>This proves that Bush nominated centrist-based persons since the  senate was almost balanced between the number of democrats versus the  number of republicans.  Obama had a FILLIBUSTER PROOF super majority  (i.e. 60 demcrats and Independents/Socialists &#8211; who vote with democrats &#8211;  in the senate) and still could not get his nominees confirmed.  Common  sense leads one to conclude that either (1) the senate was too busy  working on other issues to bring Obama&#8217;s nominees to the floor or (2)  Obama&#8217;s nominees were so far left that even the FILIBUSTER PROOF super  maority of democrats could not support his choices.  Given Dr. Death&#8217;s  (Donald Berwick) credentials, my common sense leads me to conclude that  the latter is likely the reason the 28 nominees have not been confirmed.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Whew, that was close! I was afraid that there was some kind of intelligence backing these wads. I see now that I was mistaken, there isn&#8217;t any intelligence in them at all. Bush appointed &#8216;centrist&#8217;? By the way,when did this idea of a party needs to have 60 votes to do anything come into place? Oh yeah, it was the same day the negro was sworn into office. But ya know the Judge flubbed the oath that Obama was sworn into office with,<a href="http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/after-roberts-oath-flub-wallace-wonde" target="_blank"> so he might not really be our President! True Story.</a></p>
<p>Oh wait! They did it again the next day, Damnit!</p>
<p>Look, no one could spend enough time or energy dispelling all the hyperbolic rhetoric being spewed out there in the interworld. It&#8217;s hard enough trying to dispel it when it&#8217;s  from the GOP and their news channel. But when you add in the fact that <a href="http://www.populistdaily.com/politics/the-disturbing-nonsense-of-the-powerful-right-wing-media.html" target="_blank">91% of all radio talk programming or commentary  is identified as  conservative talk radio</a> and the fact that all those<a href="http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/05/gop-takes-over-tubes" target="_blank"> out of  power Republicans took to the internet </a>because it&#8217;s easier to get your propaganda out there if you never have to actually prove your claims and it becomes clear that one would have to spend more hours than there is in any given day just refuting it all and then where would there be time to &#8216;jam through&#8217; those death panels?</p>
<p>But for the sake of sanity, for just a quick minute&#8230; let&#8217;s try and play fair for a minute.</p>
<p>Republican darlings admit there is rationing going on today and even submitted a <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/02/rep_paul_ryans_daring_budget_p.html" target="_blank">proposal that is based on rationing</a>. So when a Democrat appointee utters the &#8220;R&#8221; word, treat it as the same wisdom you treated it as when you heard it from the Republicans mouth.</p>
<p>Never before has a President be forced to govern by a 60 vote majority. This is a new play-time tactic that the GOP will not appreciate when they are in office. Ok, never mind liberals are not &#8216;borg&#8217; they actually think for themselves instead of following the hive but still, <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2007/07/20/18218/senate-tied-in-knots-by-filibusters.html" target="_blank">the GOP congress has filibustered more times than any other congress session</a>. So for the love of God, quit thinking this 60 vote super-majority is how it&#8217;s supposed to work. It&#8217;s not!</p>
<p>This President has <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/27/AR2010032703085.html" target="_blank">appointees that have waited +200 days</a>, not because he&#8217;s appointing socialists czars that even the Liberal&#8217;s don&#8217;t like,  it&#8217;s because it only takes one Republican to stop the appointment and <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_02/022275.php" target="_blank">they have been caught stopping appointments until they get paid to lift their objection.</a> Sen. Richard Shelby (R) used a blanket hold on 70 nominations until he got <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">the money</span> pork he was asking for. Where oh where were the faux deficit hawks then?</p>
<p>But most of all, you people are following the lead of a &#8220;leader&#8221; who lost an election and when on to <em>quit</em> her job. Then went on to become a one of those Hollywood-types and wrote a book then <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/03/04/2010-03-04_sarah_palin_and_entourage_descend_like_locusts_on_oscar_swag_suite.html" target="_blank">helped herself  and her entire entourage to Hollywood swag(gift) bags at the Oscars. </a>Whose shining star in her governing was <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/27/palin-shares-wealth/" target="_blank">to redistribute the wealth of the oil companies and hand it out to everyone in her state</a>! Her exact words were &#8220;<strong>So <em>we share in the wealth</em> when the development of these  resources occurs.&#8221; </strong>Her idea of &#8216;gotcha media&#8217; is being asked<em> &#8220;what kind of newspapers do you read?&#8221; </em>You&#8217;re not following a staunch small government,conservative you&#8217;re following a Paris Hilton wannabe! Whose only claim to fame at this point is being unemployed and still wealthy. I don&#8217;t know if Paris can see Russia from her house, but I do know that even if she did it wouldn&#8217;t make her any better a candidate than it did Sarah Palin.</p>
<p>No matter what your radio head tells you, this President did not somehow convince George Bush to start  tanking the economy so that when <em>he</em> was elected President, he could (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/07/rush-limbaugh-obama-creat_n_637716.html" target="_blank">on purpose) tank it even farther</a> because he wanted <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/rush-and-reparations" target="_blank">reparations for 200 years of racial discrimination!</a></p>
<p>The<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/24/news/economy/tanning_tax/" target="_blank"> tan-tax is</a> <em>not</em> a form a racism and  you cannot say you <a href="http://wonkette.com/414537/glenn-beck-sub-feels-racism-from-tanning-tax" target="_blank">now know what the pain of racism feels like</a> because you have to pay that tax. We pay an extra tax on cigarettes, not because we&#8217;re white and we&#8217;re certainly not feeling racism for the 1st time because of it. We pay it  because it&#8217;s a nasty habit that causes health problems whose cost shouldn&#8217;t be put unto people who don&#8217;t smoke!</p>
<p>Fox New does distort the truth in favor of the GOP! Plain and simple, it really is an arm of the party and will make shit up as they feel it&#8217;s necessary to do so.. This isn&#8217;t my point of view,<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3109.html" target="_blank"> it&#8217;s the conservative leaning media&#8217;s point of view</a>.</p>
<p>Ah, the wasted breath could go on and on, but why bother.. it will not change a single mind that was made up November 5 2008 when they woke up and realized who their new President was and started demanding their country back! Back from what at that point? I don&#8217;t know, the only thing that had changed was the color of the Presidents skin.. but they&#8217;ll tell you that had nothing to do with it. Of course they&#8217;ll also tell you President Obama is destroying the country on purpose nd that<a href="http://hiphopwired.com/2010/07/07/keith-olbermann-begs-oprah-to-crush-%E2%80%9Cracist-schmuck%E2%80%9D-rush-limbaugh-video/" target="_blank"> white&#8217;s allowed Obama to be elected because they felt guilty over slavery</a>. They&#8217;ll also tell you that &#8220;We&#8221; ya know, whites, <a href="http://glennbeckreport.com/2010/07/beck-civil-right/" target="_blank">own the civil rights movement because hell, we allowed  it in the first place. </a>Not that they all<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/rand-paul-on-civil-rights_b_582674.html" target="_blank"> agree with allowing blacks a chance to eat with the white folk, </a> but hey, race has nothing to do with this so at this point why bother?</p>
<p>Well because I&#8217;m an addict and the comments sections enthrall me that&#8217;s why. So until tomorrow (or hell, it could be an hour from now since the hate infests every section of the web) I bid you adieu.</p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>free only the speech they agree with.. ban the rest</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/free-only-the-speech-they-agree-with-ban-the-rest</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/free-only-the-speech-they-agree-with-ban-the-rest#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1st amendment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservatism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Constitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dave weigel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Donkeygate! Bush Officials Banned the Democrat Mascot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drudge Report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Free Speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freedom of speech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[helen thomas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[including cartoon violence     * Gaming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McChrystal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[no-knock search and seizure law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[rand paul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rand Paul against Americans with Disabilities Act ADA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rand Paul against civil liberties]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[redention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rolling stones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TSA blocks websites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TSA memo blocks     *  Chat/messaging     * Controversial opinion     * Criminal activity     * Extreme violence and gruesome content]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[warrantless wiretaps]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=1020</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just want to make sure I have this right. When a veteran opinion writer is accosted in her private life and asked an opinion, she is forced to retired because that opinion doesn&#8217;t conform with conservative ideology and no 1st amendment right  is afforded to her.
When a conservative blogger speaks his mind in private [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="color: #000000;">I just want to make sure I have this right. When a <a href="http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/07/helen-thomas-speaks-her-mind-and-loses-her-job/" target="_blank">veteran opinion writer</a> is accosted in her private life and asked an opinion, she is forced to retired because that opinion doesn&#8217;t conform with conservative ideology and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2010/jun/08/freedom-of-speech-usa" target="_blank">no 1st amendment right  is afforded to her.</a></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/who-screwed-dave-weigel/" target="_blank">When a conservative blogger speaks his mind in private emails</a> and those private letters are then released by his employer and he is forced to resigned for his private opinions,  no 1st amendment right is afforded to him.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">A President <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/8857_donkeygatebushofficialsbarreddemocratmascotaccordingtorandalllanesthezeroes;_ylt=AjXca.8GSmim_KJ4sc79Eqys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTVzZ2F1Z3AwBGFzc2V0A2RhaWx5YmVhc3QvMjAxMDA3MDYvODg1N19kb25rZXlnYXRlYnVzaG9mZmljaWFsc2JhcnJlZGRlbW9jcmF0bWFzY290YWNjb3JkaW5ndG9yYW5kYWxsbGFuZXN0aGV6ZXJvZXMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM0BHBvcwMxBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDZG9ua2V5Z2F0ZWJ1" target="_blank">banning the the rival  party&#8217;s mascot</a> because he didn&#8217;t  want the world to see them in a positive light? totally within the parameters of &#8220;OK&#8221;.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">When a military leader and his circle of aides, all still on active duty <a href="http://standardspeaker.com/the-reality-behind-the-mcchrystal-inverview-fallout-1.872139" target="_blank">thus having no rights to free  speech,</a> makes disparaging comments against his commanders and is forced to retire HE should be afforded all privacy and rights of speech because his views bolster conservative ideology.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">When a governmental agency restricts web surfing and tells it&#8217;s employees they will no longer be able to access certain websites while at work, websites like</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"> Chat/messaging</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"> Controversial opinion</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"> Criminal activity</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"> Extreme violence and gruesome content, including cartoon  violence</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #000000;"> Gaming</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">the outrages is palpable because even though this is an employer&#8217;s internet and the people being &#8216;censored&#8217; are being paid by the government to work and not &#8216;game&#8217;,  waste and inefficiency is trying to be weeded out by the current administration to make government work better and cheaper&#8230; these people are having their 1st amendment and privacy rights infringed upon and we need to stop the totalitarian &#8216;thing&#8217; that was elected to office? Are you insane, incompetent or have your brains finally imploded from having all that resentment build up from not being able to say &#8220;Well, he&#8217;s black for one&#8221; in polite company when voicing concerns about the current President ?</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The predictable and  insanely large font on the Drudge report yesterday  leads<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20009642-10391695.html" target="_blank"> you to a story </a>on how the TSA sent a letter out informing employees that instead of standing around playing online all day while they are supposed to be working, certain website will now be restricted.  The comments on this piece should be shocking but I have become a reader of all comments sections these days because the stupidity that has taken over the &#8216;tubes&#8217; is growing exponentially and I am as unable to turn away from them as I would be any horrific scene being played out in front of me.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote><p><em>-This is how it starts.</em><br />
<em>It&#8217;s as if Hitler himself was in charge.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>-Does Janet Napolitano fit either, or both of the following?</em></p>
<p><em>1.  The worst dregs of society gather around the tyrant &#8211; they are people of  weak character who trade servility for unearned wealth.<br />
2.  Accomplices can profit greatly from their positions in the hierarchy.</em></p>
<p><em>Fear  government.</em></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><em>-Sounds like China&#8230;.</em></p>
<p><em>-It&#8217;s amazing how useless the first amendment is to these people now that  they are in charge. Its how the left operates when in charge they  ignore the constitution and when they are out of power they manipulate  it to the other extreme and use its freedoms to harm, stiffle and  dismantle progress. Absence of opposition is the sole intent of this  administration like all dictators they must have no interruption of  their propaganda. Truth is the worst enemy of chronic liers.</em></p>
<p><em>-China does tha same thing and they are a dick-tator-ship. What are we? I  wonder if McCrystal is intrested in heading up a revolution, a military  takeover. It works for some countries. Now my computer will blow up in  my face, I will commit suicide (shot in the back of the head with a  riflea) or I will be sent to a concentration camp for speaking against  the King of America</em></p></blockquote>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">What the hell is wrong with these people! It is NOT a free speech violation when an employer tells you that you can&#8217;t surf the web gaming and chatting while you are at work on their computers! Calling for a military take over because a Governmental agency head dared to stop employees from tweeting? These are the same neanderthals whose hair spontaneously combusted when they heard a private opinion and read private emails because  those of course are not issues of privacy or free speech to them, but we should overthrow the government because TSA said &#8220;no&#8221; to Instant Messaging?</div>
<p><P></p>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">It&#8217;s clear the small government these people beg for isn&#8217;t really small, it&#8217;s just conservative. It&#8217;s clear the spending they want curbed is spending for &#8216;those&#8217; people and not their own socialistic or ideological programs.  It&#8217;s clear that the privacy they want only belongs to them while everyone&#8217;s life in and out of the bedroom or doctors office should be fully exposed, and the freedom of speech they advocate is only for speech against this administration, not  the last one mind you, only against this one.</div>
<p></P><br />
<P></p>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">Wiretaps on your phone without a judge signing off on it?</div>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">Searching your house while you&#8217;re not home and without a warrant?</div>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">Holding you in an undisclosed location without benefit of the law, a lawyer or even your family knowing where you are?</div>
<p></P><br />
<P></p>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">None of that is police state,tyrannical,dictatorship.. But preventing employees from playing &#8220;World of Warcraft&#8221; while on the clock is where the military should step in and take over?</div>
<p></P><br />
<P></p>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">God help us if these people get their politicians elected.</div>
<h3 style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"></P><br />
<P><br />
<span style="color: #993300;"><strong>**update**</strong></span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">TSA <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20009804-10391695.html" target="_blank">backs off and caves into</a> right-wing extremism..</span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="color: #000000;"><em>The <a href="http://www.tsa.gov/">Transportation Security Administration  (TSA)</a> reversed itself today, announcing that it will no longer block  TSA employees, using work computers, from accessing websites that  contain a &#8220;controversial opinion.&#8221;</em></span></p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p><span style="color: #000000;"><em><br />
</em></span></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Well there you go&#8230; the Right cried and now tax-payers get to foot the bill for government employees to access sites that could pose security risks to the country.. It&#8217;s a weird logic that says <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/rand-paul-on-civil-rights_b_582674.html" target="_blank">employers shouldn&#8217;t be forced to serve blacks</a> or <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/17/rand-paul-ada/" target="_blank">give access to the handicapped</a> , but they should be forced to let their employees have internet even if it poses a national security risk to the country, not too mention the Right advocates letting people browse online sources while we&#8217;re paying them to work.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Ok, it&#8217;s not weird logic, it&#8217;s reactionary and more proof of the small minds that responds to each individual issue as being separate from the other, never seeing the whole picture because their world would crumble if they did. Let&#8217;s have a tax revolt, my taxes are really fair.  Say NO to socialism but stay away from my medicare and social security. Get out of our bedrooms, but ban homosexuality. Health options are between doctors and patients not government panels, but stop abortion.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">I don&#8217;t think we need a voting ballot as much as we need a map to keep up with all the twists and turns this bizarre party hopes  to lead us on.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"></div>
</blockquote>
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		<title>He didn&#8217;t slam you or bump you. He rubbed you. Rubbing is racing.</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/he-didnt-slam-you-or-bump-you-he-rubbed-you-rubbing-is-racing</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/he-didnt-slam-you-or-bump-you-he-rubbed-you-rubbing-is-racing#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:48:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["Bite me"]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["Clown"]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["YOU LIE"]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Hussein Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bridge to nowhere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[but no thanks!”]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[campaign rhetoric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chuck grassley]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[FoxNews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gen. McChrystal]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Joe Wilson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John McCain I admire Senator Obama  and his accomplishments  and I will respect him]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John McCain presidential campaign  2008]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Liz Cheney]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[President of the United States]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=999</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thank you Rush, Glen, Sarah.  Thank you Fox news,Drudge and Liz Cheney. Thank you Joe Wilson,Chuck Grassley, and Michelle Bachman. Most of all, thank you John McCain.  Because of the sum total of your greed, bias,paranoia and political agenda, one of the highest ranking officers and his inner circle felt it was OK to make [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thank you Rush, Glen, Sarah.  Thank you Fox news,Drudge and Liz Cheney. Thank you Joe Wilson,Chuck Grassley, and Michelle Bachman. Most of all, thank you <a class="zem_slink" title="Election 2008" rel="wikinvest" href="http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Election_2008">John McCain</a>.  Because of the sum total of your greed, bias,paranoia and political agenda, one of the highest ranking officers and his inner circle felt it was OK to make fun of and de- legitimize this President, Vice President and those this administration assigned the task of keeping this country safe and winning a unwinnable war.  If <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236" target="_blank">Gen. McChrystal felt safe enough to speak </a>about his superiors the way he did in front of a stranger, a civilian outsider&#8230; a reporter for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236" target="_blank">a liberal magazine</a>, just how free were they in front of other officers,military personal and soldiers at the front with their disdain?</p>
<p>We know now that John McCain would sell the &#8220;maverick&#8221; off his back to win an election, but in the summer of 2008 that wasn&#8217;t as apparent.  Sure, we knew he wanted to win the election that year, what we didn&#8217;t know was just how far he was willing to go, not until he tapped Sarah Palin.  Sarah was a no body in the world of <a class="zem_slink" title="Politics" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics">politics</a>, she was a hot Governor who had a certain backwoods charm about her, but she was unschooled,unconventional and as it turned out unpredictable. She was also willing to go after her opponent in any &#8220;<a class="zem_slink" title="Dick Cheney" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney">Dick Cheney</a>&#8221; way she was told to.</p>
<div class="zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged" style="margin: 1em; display: block;">
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><a href="http://www.daylife.com/image/02G435C5qB9Sc?utm_source=zemanta&amp;utm_medium=p&amp;utm_content=02G435C5qB9Sc&amp;utm_campaign=z1"><img title="NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 25:  Republican vice-pres..." src="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/02G435C5qB9Sc/150x101.jpg" alt="NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 25:  Republican vice-pres..." width="150" height="101" /></a></dt>
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<p>As with any other Vice <a class="zem_slink" title="President of the United States" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States">Presidential candidate</a> she was tasked with the job of being the attack-dog of the <a class="zem_slink" title="John McCain presidential campaign, 2008" rel="homepage" href="http://www.johnmccain.com/">campaign</a>. The  Presidential candidate cannot be the one to blatantly attack his rival, its  unbecoming of the image he is trying to put forth. A gentlemen, a statesmen, a leader can not be seen as petty and whiny, it makes him look weak and unfitting of the title President of the <a class="zem_slink" title="United States" rel="geolocation" href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667%20%28United%20States%29&amp;t=h">United States</a>, so the Vice Presidential candidate has traditionally been tasked with the job of being the &#8216;pit bull&#8217; who attacks his foe.</p>
<p>Enter Sarah.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t blame Sarah too much for the type of <a class="zem_slink" title="Politician" rel="wikipedia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician">politician</a> she&#8217;s turned out to be because she sadly never had a chance. She was a small town girl thrust into the biggest arena on the planet. One night she was an unknown and the next minute she was historic. Every eye in this country (and a vast number outside this country) was looking at this newcomer and wondering &#8220;who was she&#8221;, &#8220;what can she offer&#8221;,  and more than anything else &#8220;What the fuck?&#8221;</p>
<p>Over the next few days it turned out that it wasn&#8217;t just the rest of us who didn&#8217;t know a thing about her, but the campaign that tapped her was clueless also. But by that time who cared, she was hot! Her wink, her smile, her red-bloodedness. The <a class="zem_slink" title="Republican Party (United States)" rel="homepage" href="http://www.gop.com/">GOP</a> salivated at the possibilities&#8230; could she deliver ? That answer was a straight up, resounding.. You Betcha!</p>
<p>From pal&#8217;ing around with terrorists, to &#8220;Thanks, but no thanks!&#8221; they loved her.   There was a visceral reaction to the <a class="zem_slink" title="Democratic Party (United States)" rel="homepage" href="http://www.democrats.org/">Democrat</a> candidate,  his name and his color struck a deep chord in people. I&#8217;m not going to argue that, those who know it, know it. Those who ignore it, ignore it.Those who don&#8217;t see it it, never will. But it was there and Sarah tapped into that. She outright lied about her &#8220;No Thanks&#8221; to the bridge to no where and what was the reaction? &#8220;Who cares! Leave the woman alone and stop attacking her! Did you see her wink?&#8221; Very early on the campaign learned that this woman could say what she wanted and it didn&#8217;t matter. People loved her and would accept her word as gospel and then defend her against anyone or anything that tried to correct her. She very quickly became untouchable.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">“We want to fight, </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">and I will fight, </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">but we will be  respectful. </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">I admire <span id="IL_AD2">Senator Obama</span> </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">and his accomplishments </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">and I will respect him,”</span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;"> McCain said at a  Minnesota rally.</span></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I&#8217;m not going to rehash her campaign rhetoric, we know what her  job was and how well she did it. She was the attack dog who started the process of  de- legitimizing the President and forever tainting him as a Muslim, a friend of the terrorist, a Socialist. Like any child who is given praise for doing something well that an adult rehearsed with them, she learned to take it farther and farther. It was never meant to go as far as it did, but she&#8217;s just so damn cute when she does it so why would we stop her?</p>
<p>Even though Sarah Palin took on big oil and the result was a redistribution of their wealth to the pockets of every Alaskan, it was  <a class="zem_slink" title="Barack Obama" rel="homepage" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/">Barack Hussein Obama</a> who was the enemy of democracy. At one point, it looked like John McCain might have actually come to his senses and realized what he was allowing was the same thing that had been done to him by George W Bush and &#8216;illegitimate black child&#8217; attack he waged against McCain during his first run at office.All of a sudden, it was like he stepped up and once again became the Maverick we could be proud of when he corrected a<a href="http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=2194" target="_blank"> woman in his audience who was afraid of that &#8220;Arab&#8221;</a>. But shortly after that, he once again threw the maverick off his back, never to don that title again.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">“I want everyone to be respectful </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">and let’s make sure we are, </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">because  that is the way that politics </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">should be conducted in </span></em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span style="color: #666699;">America.”-John McCain</span></em></p>
<p>And so it went.. the socialist, the Nazi, the racist, the Muslim Arab who was not even born in this country was elected. But the process of taking him down didn&#8217;t stop there, it only intensified. For a brief moment there, after the flubbing at the swearing in process.. there was actually hope that he could be ignored as the voice of authority in this county because he didn&#8217;t say the oath of office properly. Yes! We&#8217;re saved! He didn&#8217;t swear the oath, he is not the real president, we do not have to listen to him! But, like everything else.. this was taken from Obama&#8217;s opponents when he re-took the oath the next day.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s interesting to look back on now, it seems on that night in November a section of the population looked around and said.. Oh God, what have we done! Since then everything that can be done, has been done to take away any power this president had.  We watched as a lowly congressman was cheered when he heckled the president at an address before Congress. We&#8217;ve watched our most popular conservative voices call him a racist, and speak of his &#8216;regime&#8217; and then rewarded them for it. We&#8217;ve seen everything from his ears, his use of a teleprompter to his impressive education as reasons for contempt for him. In 2004 &#8220;Flip-Flop&#8221; was a political death sentence. Since the rise of Sarah Palin though, the practice of being one both sides of an issue(sometimes at the same time on different networks) has become a staple in this country.Extremism and Conspiracy were words used to belittle and negate liberals now they are mainstream and visionary.   Who cares if you agree that there are Death Panels and plugs to pull on grandma, who cares if you want to criminalize the census  while pounding away at Washington to follow the Constitution because the census is taking concentration camp RSVP&#8217;s, who cares if you scream YOU LIE at the leader of the country when it&#8217;s really you who are lying.  Who cares! Leave them alone, stop it with the &#8220;Gotcha media&#8221;.. we don&#8217;t care if they are lying this guy is an Arab who pals around with terrorists for God&#8217;s sake!</p>
<p>This long and winding road we&#8217;ve been on has a new victim. Stanley Allen McChrystal, one of the most disciplined men in uniform. The man who sleeps for just 4 hours a night, jogs 8 miles a day rain or shine and eats only one meal&#8230; This career officer, who graduated from West Point, who spent his entire adult life in the military, was the son of a career military father was  so confident in his position, and the stability of the &#8220;who cares, it&#8217;s the gotcha media who is at fault for not investigation the birth certificate of this ineligible presidency&#8221;crowd that he went on record and trashed his superior officers in a civilian liberal magazine.   Either that, or he just didn&#8217;t know what he was saying was wrong and didn&#8217;t understand the person in the room with him was writing it all down.</p>
<p>No, I just don&#8217;t believe he didn&#8217;t know. I believe that he&#8217;s watched  how over the last 18+ months, this President from his speech patterns to his birth place has been  reduced to a either a powerless,naive, community organizer who is dangerously incapable of leadership or he is a tyrant,destroying the very fabric of this country and should thus be revolted against. I believe the General felt he would be insulated the same way he was insulated <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301502.html" target="_blank">when he covered up the fratricidal death of Pat Tillman</a> and protected the same way he was protected when <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002920.html" target="_blank">he extorted 30,000 troops from the President.</a> He was given carte blanche by the people who didn&#8217;t care how outrageous the attack was, as long as it made into  the Foxnews channel and conservative talk shows conversation. He  was emboldened by all those before him and while he should be hanging in head in shame for the dismissal of the president and his advisers in a time of war, on the eve  of a &#8216;make or break&#8217; offensive he is instead exalted as the newly crowned Prince of the Right.  McChrystal/Palin 2012 prayers are already out on the blogsophere.  You don&#8217;t have to scroll through but a very few comments on any article dealing with this issue before you see the  ignorant ramblings of the &#8216;we don&#8217;t care, he&#8217;s an Arab!&#8221; crowd.</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><em>it&#8217;s funny when some 1 supposed to be [sic]cammander  and chief knows nothing about military are anything else and has to be told what to say and do by his advisers can hold a position as he does? all he&#8217;s good at is flapping his mouth. i&#8217;m glad this general spoke his mind. so what his in the military he still has a voice and opinion. this &#8217;so call&#8217; code come on.</em></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>Big, big mistake. Obama&#8217;s inability to accept criticism demonstrates the fragility of his leadership abilities. This move suggests that Obama and his team will not tolerate opposing viewpoints on matters that are crucial to our national security. At least the man will be a &#8220;one-termer.&#8221;</em></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><em>Obama looks like the tiny, petulant dictator that many of us have  suspected he is all along. His theatrical bombast about General  McChrystal just proves that Obama&#8217;s a tiny, incompetent fool.</em></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><em>McChrystal gets the last laugh, because so many of us see what he and so  many of our military see&#8211;that their &#8220;commander in chief&#8221; commands  absolutely nothing,</em></li>
</ul>
<p><em><br />
</em></p></blockquote>
<p>The same people who are screaming about tyranny and the dictator that is this president are saluting and celebrating the military general who belittled his civilian commanders in magazine article. The words <em>&#8220;Forgive them Father, they know not what they do&#8221;</em> ring through air and are ironically missed by the ones who devote their life to speaker of those words.</p>
<p>General McChrystal is another victim of the &#8220;Gotcha Media&#8221;. The Hannity&#8217;s out there are more upset with him for giving an interview to someone other than themselves than they are in what he said. They&#8217;ve skipped over the subtle implications of what was said and absolute destruction of the moral of the soldier fighting in this war. They can&#8217;t see how the words &#8220;clown and intimidated&#8221; when spoken by the military leader about the civilian authority can pit one soldier against the other and give fodder to our enemy to use to their advantage. They can&#8217;t see it because they just don&#8217;t care. They want this Muslim, Marxists out of power because Sarah told them how Barack <em>Hussein</em>,  pal&#8217;ed around with terrorists.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not saying that I think Sarah Palin made Gen. McChrystal give that interview. I&#8217;m saying that people were starting to wake up around the end of 2006 and look around and get pretty unhappy with what they were seeing. Coming awake &#8216;07-&#8217;08 during a continuous campaign season like they had been Rip Van Winkle for 10 years and finding their lives were going to shit, their jobs were non-existent, the houses they were told they could re-mortgage into a better loan were defaulting.  Banks were giving their CEO&#8217;s millions of dollars in bonus&#8217; while their secretaries   and janitors were applying for welfare. They didn&#8217;t trust anyone anymore.  All that was needed was something to light the fuse that had been laying there waiting to be lit. Sarah Palin was it, in her they saw what they thought they wanted from their leaders and they were willing to ignore every lie she told and believe like it was gospel every exaggeration she spewed forth with because they want<em> so badly</em> for her to be genuine. Palin was just as much of a victim as they were. She was told that it was her job to become the pit bull, only no one told her that didn&#8217;t mean she was to be the pit-bull rabies and a thorn in it&#8217;s foot. She was a n00b to the Big Show and was just never able to learn the rules of the game, the only rule she knew was simply &#8216;Rubbin is racing&#8217;.  With her though, came an era where politicians are belittled and lied about, that part is not new but it has been amplified to the point were even the military feels they are no longer subservient to their civilian commanders. The scariest part of all of this is that these same people will break the rules that this country was founded on for anyone who they feel agrees with them, hears them, listens and will help them. They are babes waiting to be exploited.  The next generation will either be the last or the greatest of this country.  We will either break every rule,code and constitutional freedom we&#8217;ve fought long and hard for in the hopes of creating the unattainable Utopia  we had when we were children and someone else took of things for us, or we&#8217;ll shake out it and come together; putting the mistrust,the cynicism and the anger away and somehow become greater than we&#8217;ve ever dreamed of. Rome attained greatness and withered away, England did the same&#8230;the question we have to answer is, will we?</p>
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		<item>
		<title>I&#8217;ve seen it all&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/ive-seen-it-all</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/ive-seen-it-all#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:20:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP oil spill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Language Monitor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gulf oil spill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama speech on 10th grade level]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama speech too 'professorial' for his target audience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama talks smart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama talks to 10th graders]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama uses too many big words]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil spill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oval office]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[President of the United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teleprompter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=993</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[and  it&#8217;s all going to be down hill from here.
I&#8217;ve seen this president mocked and belittled for his ears.. not altogether unfair or unheard of (no pun intended) to mock the physical characteristics of a person.
I&#8217;ve seen him de-legitimized for his teleprompter usage&#8230; strange, considering most every other speech giver also uses a teleprompter, unless [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>and  it&#8217;s all going to be down hill from here.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve seen this president mocked and belittled for his ears.. not altogether unfair or unheard of (no pun intended) to mock the physical characteristics of a person.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve seen him de-legitimized for his teleprompter usage&#8230; strange, considering most every other speech giver also uses a teleprompter, unless it&#8217;s Sarah Palin, she just uses her hand because she&#8217; so environmentally  friendly.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve seen every criticism there is thrown at this man, some deserved, some over the top and some just plain stupid, hateful, bigoted and biased.  Until today, I thought I&#8217;d seen it all.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/16/obama.speech.analysis/index.html?iref=NS1" target="_blank"><em>Language guru: Obama speech too &#8216;professorial&#8217; for his target  audience</em></a></h4>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>(CNN)</strong> &#8212; President Obama&#8217;s speech on the gulf oil disaster may  have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an  analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Tuesday night&#8217;s speech from the Oval Office of the White House was  written to a 9.8 grade level, said Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global  Language Monitor. The Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and  catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on  culture.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Though the president used slightly less than four sentences per  paragraph, his 19.8 words per sentence &#8220;added some difficulty for his  target audience,&#8221; Payack said.</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>Well, there you have it folks.. the guy is aloof,uncaring, not up to par, unemotional and disconnected because he talked to the country like 10th graders.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s just impeach the guy and get it over it with. Seriously people, if we&#8217;re going to take our criticism of the man to the point of  &#8220;he talked smart to people&#8221; what the hell is there left to criticize him for?</p>
<p>What a sad, fucked up society we are when it comes down to finding fault with our leader, not because he can, but because <em>he did</em> have an educated and adult conversation with us. It&#8217;s no wonder so many in this country love the Sarah Palin&#8217;s of the world&#8230;  It isn&#8217;t that we think she should talk like an idiot because we find it charming, it&#8217;s because we are idiots and want everything spoon-fed to us by mommy.  If we have to think for ourselves.. well that&#8217;s just too much work! Gimme the guy who I can drink a beer with instead of the guy who can not only spell the word &#8216;Brewery&#8217;, but use it in a 19.8 word sentence.</p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>to err is human, to err in favor of profit is BP?</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/to-err-is-human-to-err-in-favor-of-profit-is-bp</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/to-err-is-human-to-err-in-favor-of-profit-is-bp#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2010 21:20:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["'No. We have some changes to that.']]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["BP is not the equal of the United States government. This president needs to tell BP 'I'm your daddy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["BP is not the equal of the United States government. This president needs to tell BP 'I'm your daddy I'm in charge you're going to do what we say]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA["The US is a big and important market for BP and BP is also a big and important company for the US.....So the position goes both ways."]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[$75 million cap on oil damges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA['skirmish' between the BP 'company man']]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[and BP is also a big and important company for the US.....So the position goes both ways."]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP continues to believe that Corexit was the best and most appropriate choice at the time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP does not wish this thing well. They have been negligent. They need to whip out their checkbook and start moving into action and the president needs to push them."]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP has promised to pay for any and all damages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP has proved it can't be trusted.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP ignores EPA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP practices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BP’s chief executive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cap on BP damages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carl-Henric Svanberg]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CNN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corexit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corexit banned in BP's country]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corexit toxic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corexit was 54.7 percent  effective at breaking down  crude oil from the Gulf]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Corexit was 54.7 percent  effective at breaking down  crude oil from the Gulf and Dispersit was 100 percent  effective.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Doug Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental disaster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EPA bans Corexit BP still uses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EPA Corexit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EPA gave BP 72 hours to switch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exxon Valdez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal government of the United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government scientists said Thursday that the undersea gusher was spewing oil at a rate of 12]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[government scientists said Thursday that the undersea gusher was spewing oil at a rate of 12000 to 19000 barrels a day more than twice the 5000-barrel estimate given by BP.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[He urged the US Government to pursue a policy of “absolute co-operation” with BP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Huffington Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I guess that's what we have those pinchers  for."]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Carville]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law May Limit BP's Oil-Spill Liability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lt.Gen Russel Honoré]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MMS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MMS was allowing oil companies to do their own inspections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[more than twice the 5]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mr Hayward [BP’s chief executive] reiterated a promise that BP “will honour all legitimate claims for business interruption”.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Natural Resources Damage Assessment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new oil spill estimates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil spill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[one of 115 rig workers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[said]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[so  the MMS could trace over the written record in ink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[That would mean 260]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the chairman of BP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The last and only time this BOP was inspected was just before it was installed in 2005]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The No 1 rule when dealing with disaster is to figure out which rules you need to break]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[This is America — come on. We’re going to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all know that.”]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[time]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[timesonline]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tony Hayward]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[We need to call it what it is the BP oil spill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[why did the BOP fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[written in pencil]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=911</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Mr Hayward [BP’s chief executive] reiterated a promise that BP “will honour all legitimate  claims for  business interruption”. Asked for examples of illegitimate claims, he  said:  “I could give you lots of examples. This is America — come on. We’re  going  to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p><em><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116260.ece" target="_blank">Mr Hayward</a></em><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116260.ece" target="_blank"> [</a><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116260.ece" target="_blank">BP’s chief executive]</a><em><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7116260.ece" target="_blank"> reiterated</a> a promise that BP “will honour all legitimate  claims for  business interruption”. Asked for examples of illegitimate claims, he  said:  “I could give you lots of examples. This is America — come on. We’re  going  to have lots of illegitimate claims. We all know that.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p><em><br />
</em></p>
<p>Yes, and you are an oil executive who is responsible for one of the worst oil spills in US history so you are going to make illegitimate claims of safety&#8230; come on-we all know that.</p>
<p>What a smug reply from a person who should be on bent knee with head bowed in every interview he gives at the moment. Yes, this is America and your oil rig has just destroyed a large swath of it, so is this really the right time to start insulting it&#8217;s inhabitants?  It would seem that not only is this the right time to insult the country their product just destroyed, but it&#8217;s also the time to threaten the president with the oh-so-subtle yet ballsy statement..</p>
<blockquote><p><em>He urged the US Government to pursue a policy of “absolute co-operation” with BP. “We will only succeed if we work together,” he said — a day after President Obama’s press secretary promised that the White House would “keep a boot to the throat of BP” to ensure that it fulfilled its responsibilities. </em></p></blockquote>
<p>Is that right? How about BP pledges <em>“absolute co-operation” </em>with the US Government. Wow, it&#8217;s the US Government who should cooperate with the ones whose oil is destroying our coastline.</p>
<p>Ok, well.. or what?</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank"><img class="alignnone" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.walletpop.com/media/2008/07/quotes1.jpg" alt="" width="32" height="31" />Corexit  was 54.7 percent </a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank">effective  at breaking down </a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank">crude  oil from the  Gulf,</a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank"> and  Dispersit was 100 percent </a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank">effective.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gulf-dispersants/" target="_blank"><br />
</a></p>
<p>What am I saying? Or what&#8230; HA! Or nothing.<a href="http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/0897f55bc6d9a3ba852577290067f67f!OpenDocument" target="_blank"> BP was ordered by the EPA </a>to start using less of dispersant called Corexit 9500 because of it&#8217;s toxicity and to start using a more environmentally friendly one. There are quite a few others out there and besides, Corexit is <a href="http://theglobalrealm.com/2010/05/24/the-social-and-economic-impact-of-the-gulf-oil-spill/" target="_blank">banned in BP&#8217;s own country</a>. It&#8217;s not just that this stuff is toxic to the oceans, workers at the Exxon Valdez clean-up reported &#8220;respiratory, nervous system, liver, kidney and blood disorders,  that were  linked to an earlier version of the Corexit dispersant.&#8221; So the EPA gave BP 72 hours to switch to a less toxic product.  BP said, <em>&#8216;Umm.. no&#8217;</em> and still continues to use the highly toxic dispersant over a more effective and ecologically friendly  one.</p>
<p>No, really. After being ordered by the US Government to stop using a chemical known to be less effective than the product recommended by the EPA and more toxic to ocean and humans&#8230; BP<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/22/gulf.oil.spill/index.html" target="_blank"> issued a statement</a> saying in essence, &#8220;Up yours&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p><em><strong>“Based on the information that is available today, BP continues to believe that Corexit was the best and most appropriate choice at the time when the incident occurred, and that Corexit remains the best option for subsea application.</strong></em></p></blockquote>
<p><em><strong><br />
</strong></em></p>
<p>Well hey, they believe they are right.. so why should they follow an order from the US government? Like Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, said, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/bp-is-big-and-important-b_n_589675.html" target="_blank">&#8220;The US is a big and important market for BP, and BP is also a big and  important company for the US&#8230;..So the position goes both ways.&#8221; </a></p>
<p>See, the position of importance between BP and the United States goes both ways. I am really glad it was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/james-carville-to-obama-t_n_591416.html" target="_blank">James Carville to respond  to that delusion of grandeur.</a></p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em><strong>Carville:</strong> &#8220;BP is not the equal of the United States  government. This president needs to tell BP &#8216;I&#8217;m your daddy, I&#8217;m in  charge, you&#8217;re going to do what we say. You&#8217;re a multinational company  that is greedy and you may be guilty of criminal activity.&#8217; It&#8217;s time  that we understand, BP does not wish this thing well. They have been  negligent. They need to whip out their checkbook and start moving into  action and the president needs to push them.&#8221;</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><br />
</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p>I understand that &#8220;stuff just happens&#8221; and when it&#8217;s oil or nuclear power plants  that &#8220;stuff&#8221; is  going to be ugly.. very ugly. The problem here is this is looking less and less like an accident and more and <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/05/congress_oil_spill_probe_finds.html" target="_blank">more like a criminal act</a>. Each new day<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490509n&amp;tag=mg;mostpopvideo" target="_blank"> brings another startling revelation about some of BP&#8217;s questionable  practices</a> add that in with their feelings of superiority and this is getting really ugly.</p>
<p>Yesterday we learned that in the hours before the explosion, there was  &#8217;skirmish&#8217; between the BP &#8216;company man&#8217; and the rig operators. Bp was ready to shut down that well because they were done with, but they were still paying $500,000 a day rental fees. When told of the process they had to go through to shut down the well, things got heated. Part of the process  involved<a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/05/skirmish_on_bpoil_rig_before_e.html" target="_blank"> &#8220;removing the mud from the drill pipe. That mud is used to keep  pressure down on any gas that might come out of the pipe. The question  was how quickly you remove that mud safely to do that&#8221;</a>. Time was money, the BP &#8220;company man&#8221; was interested in getting the process done a little faster than the rig operators wanted.  This is not to say either, at that time, was more right than the other. As a lessor who is paying by the minute.. when you&#8217;re done, you&#8217;re done and you want your tab closed out as soon as possible, but when you&#8217;re <a href="http://www.allwords.com/word-leasee.html" target="_blank">the leasee,</a> getting paid by the minute, you want that time to drag out. What we did know at that time was the BP man stood up, after hearing the procedures,  and said <em>&#8220;&#8216;No. We have some changes to that.&#8217; </em>Going by the superiority complex we see  today, this comment doesn&#8217;t surprise me. What does surprise me is that the oil rig acquiesced  to BP&#8217;s demand. The excuse could be as simple as they knew <a href="http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_rigs_blowout_prevente.html" target="_blank">where their paychecks and the helicopter ride home were coming from</a>.</p>
<p>After the skirmish,  Doug Brown, one of 115 rig workers, &#8220;recalled top Transocean man Jimmy Harrell saying,&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>&#8220;Well, I guess that&#8217;s what we have  those pinchers  for.&#8221;</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_rigs_blowout_prevente.html" target="_blank">&#8220;Brown said he assumed Harrell was talking about</a> the shear rams on the  blowout preventer, the devices that are supposed to slice through a  drill pipe in a last-ditch effort to close off the well in case of an  emergency. The implication was that the Transocean employees expected  they might have to take emergency action because of BP&#8217;s push to remove  the drilling mud.&#8221; </em></p>
<p>Looks like we needed more than those &#8216;<em><strong><strong><em> </em></strong></strong></em>pinchers.&#8217; Which leads us to look at the the blowout preventer or, BOP. The<a href="http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_rigs_blowout_prevente.html" target="_blank"> last and only time this BOP was inspected</a> was just before it was installed in 2005. At the same time it was inspected, we&#8217;ve learned that the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1992165,00.html" target="_blank">MMS was allowing oil companies to do their own inspections, written in pencil, so  the MMS could trace over the written record in ink a</a>nd attach their name to it.  So one thing we can be grateful for is that the ones doing the inspection was not <a href="http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/05/mms-review-too-little-too-late" target="_blank">MMS</a>. But, why did the BOP fail? Why was there an explosion? Why did 11 people lose their lives and untold miles of coastlines and marshes suffer irrevocable  harm?</p>
<p>BP has promised to pay for any and all damages, sure, along with putting themselves on the same importance level as this country, demanding our complete cooperation,ignoring our environmental standards, and insulting us by saying.. ya know, this is America, so there are going to be a lot of illegitimate claims, and that looks  to be a breeze.</p>
<p>Ironically, there seems to be a lot of those illegitimate claims going around and they&#8217;re coming from BP. One of the most frustrating aspects of this entire debacle is the crazed policy of allowing BP to not only do all the clean up, but letting them decide what information is  given out, what photos are seen, what reporters have access and to where and <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/bp-refuses-help-from-conservation-experts/" target="_blank">the exclusion of experts </a>that aren&#8217;t BP people.. Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau&#8217;s son was denied entrance in the the &#8220;Land of BP&#8221; because <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/bp-now-owns-airspace-above-spill-too.php" target="_blank">BP also controls the air over the spill and Cousteau had an aerial photographer with him.</a> Reporters from <a href="http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/05/oil-spill-bp-grand-isle-beach" target="_blank">Mother Jones tell of their experience </a> of being blocked and then yelled at to get approval and an escort from BP. While you may say &#8220;Well, ok it&#8217;s Mother Jones, it&#8217;s not like it was CBS or anything&#8221;, think again.<a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/prnewser/crisis_communications/cbs_denied_access_to_shoot_oil_spill_coast_guard_and_contractors_say_this_is_bps_rules_not_ours_162174.asp" target="_blank"> CBS <em>was</em> barred from the scene </a>by the Coast guard telling them &#8220;This is BP&#8217;s rules, not ours&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not just the air, land,sea and press BP has control and say so over, they are in charge  of the water testings done in any of the Gulf states. An environmental official for Escambia County, <em>Florida </em> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/science/earth/21conflict.html" target="_blank"> <em> </em>was ordered to send water samples to a lab in Texas whose biggest clients are BP.</a>Is this not the craziest thing you&#8217;ve ever seen? Oh yeah, you aren&#8217;t seeing it because everything you are seeing has been cleaned and filtered through BP first.</p>
<p>But hey, they are going to pay for the damages and really, they&#8217;ve been straight with us so far. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/us/29spill.html" target="_blank">When they first said it was only 1000 barrels a day, when it was really 5000 barrels </a>that was just another unintentional mistake. It&#8217;s not like they have an incentive to have anything other than complete transparency here. It&#8217;s not as if there is something called a<a href="http://restoration.doi.gov/" target="_blank"> Natural Resources Damage Assessment</a> that&#8217;s done after a spill and relates to how many claims can be placed and how much is paid out. Of course the lower the spill the lower the payout, but hey BP promised to pay for all of it, they wouldn&#8217;t low-ball spill amounts. If you don&#8217;t count the complete ban on information or the repeated readjustment of the oil spill amount,  then today&#8217;s news is really nothing to be concerned with either and you can go back to the &#8220;Land of BP&#8221;. For the rest of us, today Governmen<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/27/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1" target="_blank">t scientist have finally be able to verify  that it&#8217;s not 5000 barrels</a> like we&#8217;ve been told repeatedly by BP, it&#8217;s worse.. much much worse..</p>
<blockquote><p><em><strong>government scientists said Thursday that the undersea gusher  was spewing oil at a rate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day, more than  twice the 5,000-barrel estimate given by BP.</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong><br />
</strong></em></p></blockquote>
<p>To put this into perspective</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>That would mean 260,000 to 520,000 barrels had been leaked as of 10 days  ago. The Exxon Valdez leaked about 250,000 barrels into Alaska&#8217;s Prince  William Sound in 1989.</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p><strong><em><br />
</em></strong><br />
10 days ago we surpassed the Exxon Valdez and it&#8217;s still not over.<br />
From day one BP has insulted the people in this country, demanded cooperation from our government, taken over operations and barred the press,independent scientists,volunteers and experts from the scene and the data. They have <a href="http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/05/26/bps-own-internal-documents-prove-it-knew-its-flow-estimates-were-low/" target="_blank">knowingly misjudged</a> the amount of flow by repeatedly low-balling the numbers and have told their own media outlets in Britain after the explosion and the death of 11 men that the leak is <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/the_ceo_says_spill_gulf_minor_compared_nDURatEARVBDVjbVgYoI9O" target="_blank">&#8220;relatively tiny&#8221; compared with the &#8220;very big ocean.&#8221; </a></p>
<p>Yesterday, Lt.Gen Russel Honoré, who commanded the military response to Hurricane Katrina, had this to say(emphasis mine)</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>(CNN)  &#8212; It&#8217;s interesting how many people have swallowed the BP public relations&#8217; bait to call the explosion from Deepwater Horizon oil rig the Gulf oil spill. <strong>We need to call it what it is: the BP oil spill. The federal government needs to take control and take punitive action against BP and any negligent government regulators immediately.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>As a concerned citizen, preparedness speaker and author, and former commander of federal troops in disaster response, I watched with interest as BP brought out its big PR guns to protect its brand and its platoon of expert engineers, paid by BP to talk about how it happened and how they intended to fix it.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>BP&#8217;s reaction was much like Toyota&#8217;s when it was confronted with safety issues. It, too, focused on PR to protect its brand, versus telling the truth, and sent out its engineers to talk about the problem and the fix.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>The U.S. Coast Guard was the first responder. The Coast Guard&#8217;s priority always is to save lives. They spent days looking for the 11 missing men. Meanwhile, <strong>BP took advantage of this time to make itself the authoritative voice in the news about the spill and blame other companies.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>The U.S. government response was based on laws and rules that were created after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. After Valdez, the law changed to make the offending company responsible for the cleanup. A fund was created that all oil companies contributed to. If there was an emergency oil spill, a company could draw up to $75 million from this fund to fix the problem. But the fund was meant to help small wildcat operations, not huge conglomerates like BP.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>Sticking to that regulation was part of the problem. <strong>The No. 1 rule when dealing with disaster is to figure out which rules you need to break. Rules are designed for when everything is working. A democracy is based on trust. BP has proved it can&#8217;t be trusted.</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em>The government needs to change the game and make this a punitive effort. The government has been too friendly to oil companies.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em>The government should immediately freeze BP&#8217;s assets and start to charge the corporation &#8212; say $100 million &#8212; each day the oil flows. The money could be held in a fund that U.S. government draws on to take care of the people along the Gulf Coast and pay the states for doing the cleanup.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em>Next, BP and the government bureaucrats who broke a law and put the public at risk need to go to jail.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em><br />
</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em><br />
</em></strong><br />
Gen Honore&#8217;&#8230; James Carville&#8230;  they&#8217;re right. It&#8217;s time we stop letting the fox clean up the hen house and tell the farmer he&#8217;s just as important as the farmer is. It&#8217;s time for President Obama to take over this mess and start the punitive effects. While he says the government is in charge, everything we&#8217;re seeing contradicts that the government has done anything except give complete trust in BP and their actions. I know we will hear nothing but outrage that here is another industry Obama is socializing, but for right now those people can go pound sand and watch Palin and Beck re-runs. They don&#8217;t offer anything to the conversation  as it is, so let them sit on their couch in their foil-hats crying about how they want their country back. No one with a brain <a href="http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2010/05/26/ac.oil.boat.tour.cnn" target="_blank">can watch the Anderson Cooper piece from last night </a>and not see that this has gone far too long enough. BP, private industry, you were once again given a chance to police yourself, prevent catastrophe and clean up the mess you made, and <em>once again</em> you have failed. Once again it is us, the people of this country who will suffer from your destruction and it&#8217;s our government who has to step in where they are rightly loathed to step in, an act like the adult and fix your mistake.  We would demand a thank you, but we&#8217;ll be too busy arguing with the lunatic fringe who will be having more apoplectic fits that this is just more proof that this president is a Muslim,Nazi,Socialist.</p>
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		<title>Cut government spending.. just not my Social security.. or my Medicare.. and my taxes are fair so.. Wait, what was the question?</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/cut-government-spending-just-not-my-social-security-or-my-medicare-and-my-taxes-are-fair-so-wait-what-was-the-question</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/cut-government-spending-just-not-my-social-security-or-my-medicare-and-my-taxes-are-fair-so-wait-what-was-the-question#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:24:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[$549 a plate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bridge to nowhere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[charging people to come to his live broadcast and then turning that money over to a political movement.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fox cancels Hannity tea party appearance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[George W. Bush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grass-root]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I don’t care what he says.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I think he’s a Muslim and trying to head us in that direction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I think I’ve changed my mind.”]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irony of this ‘let them eat cake’ atmosphere she’s promoting while calling for another revolution?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[isn’t it?” asked Jodine White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Crow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jodine White]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[literacy test]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socialism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socialist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tea party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tea Party convention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tea party poll]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tea-Party  aristocracy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telepalmter-gate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telepalmtergate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tom Tancredo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[“He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[“That’s a conundrum]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A new poll on just who are Tea Party members has me perplexed. I simply cannot wrap my head around some of its findings.  Ok, so they are older,whiter and more educated  making them more &#8216;exclusive&#8217;  than average and yet, they mock this &#8216;class&#8217; as being.. bad, evil or&#8230;  liberal? A majority also feel that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html" target="_blank">new poll on just who are Tea Party members</a> has me perplexed. I simply cannot wrap my head around some of its findings.  Ok, so they are older,whiter and more educated  making them more &#8216;exclusive&#8217;  than average and yet, they mock this &#8216;class&#8217; as being.. bad, evil or&#8230;  liberal? A majority also feel that their taxes are  pretty fair, yet their given name congers up the idea of a movement that is upset by their extreme taxes?</p>
<p>They are against large government and government spending  but the majority have a favorable opinion of George Bush? Given that Bush created one of the largest government spending entitlements in history and his push to make government above the Constitution when it comes to personal rights,  this is paradoxical until you look into the poll a little more. They are overwhelmingly satisfied with Medicare and Social Security and find them worth the cost. What they don&#8217;t like is &#8216;welfare&#8217;. Ya know, that <em>other</em> government spending for &#8216;those&#8217; people. They feel that this President is trying to help the poor rather than the rich.</p>
<p>When asked what they are angry about the most, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/14/us/politics/20100414-tea-party-poll-graphic.html?ref=politics" target="_blank">three of the most common answers are</a></p>
<ul>
<li>the recent health care overhaul,</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>government spending</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>and a feeling that  their opinions are not represented in Washington</li>
</ul>
<p>So let me get this straight. They want government entitlements like Social Security for them, but they don&#8217;t want unemployment benefits and &#8216;welfare&#8217; to others. They want government stability  for their government health care and favor the president who increased  these benefits, but they are dissatisfied with the president who increases those same benefits for the entire country. They watched an uncontested,democratically elected President follow the platform that elected him with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/" target="_blank">a 53% majority</a> and yet they feel  they are the ones who should be listened to in Washington, not those other people who won the election.</p>
<p>I finally get it. I&#8217;ve always figured it was this, but could just never prove it, but now.. by their own words there it is. I said it before, this is &#8216;class&#8217; issue. These people are the elitists who are jealous that someone else is finally going to get something that they have.  It&#8217;s a status thing, it&#8217;s a &#8216;new fur coat&#8217;  that now that everyone has access to one.. well that&#8217;s just horrible and Un-American. This poll explains the <a href="http://rawstory.com/2010/02/tea-party-opening-speaker-suggests-blacks-voting/" target="_blank">&#8216;literacy test&#8217;</a> they cheer for, and the need to weed one those not in their circles with <a href="http://thevsj.com/telepalmter-gate" target="_blank">extreme pricin</a>g at their conventions</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/teabag-nation.html" target="_blank"><em>“He’s a socialist. And to tell you the truth, </em></a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/teabag-nation.html" target="_blank"><em>I think he’s a Muslim and  trying to head us in that direction, </em></a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/teabag-nation.html" target="_blank"><em>I don’t care what he says. </em></a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/teabag-nation.html" target="_blank"><em>He’s  been in office over a year and can’t find a church to go to. </em></a></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/teabag-nation.html" target="_blank"><em>That  doesn’t say much for him</em>.”</a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">They consider their personal finances to be &#8216;very good&#8217; and &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html" target="_blank">nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they  would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be  cut.&#8221;</a> As long as those cuts don&#8217;t come in the form of lowering their Medicare and Social Security programs, even  though those two programs left unchecked will suck the country dry.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The snobbery this conjures up is breathtaking. All for them, less for the rest. Give us what we want, but to hell with the rest of you.  Don&#8217;t touch my Medicare and Social security but you get your welfare from the free market instead of the government. Holy shit, these are educated people? Give us a President like Bush who increased our benefits,paid off our Wall Street, saved our pensions and lowered our taxes at a cost to the deficit.. but get rid of the guy who is trying to even the playing field out just a little for 95% of the rest of the country.  The elitism and outright &#8220;I&#8217;m better than you so I deserve it more&#8221; is utterly amazing!</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">It does explain how the Tea-Party organizers <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/07/new-tea-party-convention_n_528910.html" target="_blank">can charge $549</a> just for the ticket to get into  the convention hall ( travel and hotel expenses not included) though.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">One would question their education when they say they deserve social security and medicare because they paid into it. Especially since the rest of us know it doesn&#8217;t work like that, when these people paid into it they were paying for those who are on the system then, just like we&#8217;re paying for all these tea-party people now. Too bad they want to ensure we don&#8217;t get what we &#8216;deserve&#8217; when it&#8217;s time because we paid into it now to keep them in luxury and they refuse to allow anyone to fix what could extend benefits for more and for longer.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Shockingly, 6 out of 10 feel America&#8217;s best days are behind us. Where is Sean Hannity condemning these people for not thinking their country is the best one in the world? Where is Sarah Palin eviscerating these people and telling them that unlike them, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/17/campaign.wrap/index.html" target="_blank">the &#8220;real America&#8221; </a>knows how great this country is? Oh yeah, they&#8217;re both being paid to speak for the Tea-Party. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/sarah-palin-earned-estimated-12-million-july/story?id=10352437" target="_blank">$100,000 for Sarah for her speeches.</a>. who knows with Hannity, the only thing we do know is his tea-party event was shut down by Fox Management when they found out someone was charging people to <a href="http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100415/NEWS0108/304150112/Fox-News-pulls-plug-on-Sean-Hannity-s-appearance-at-Tea-Party-rally" target="_blank">come to Hannity&#8217;s live broadcast and then turning that money over to a political movement.</a> (Btw, what do you think would happen if Brian Williams wrote a politically partsian book and pimped it on the<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/" target="_blank"> Nightly News</a> every night and then went to DNC rallies to sell his book and give extremely partisan speeches to the crowds?&#8211;Yeah, he&#8217;d be fired and all credibility revoked. )</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">There is atleast hope, one woman finally saw the idiocy in what she was supporting and had a change of heart.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin,  Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government.  I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added,  “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I  think I’ve changed my mind.”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em><br />
</em></p>
<p>If you mean the original Tea Party and followers were trying to get away from the aristocracy who felt they deserved what they were getting and the rest didn&#8217;t, and here the new Tea-Party believes they are the aristocracy who are entitled to what they have while others are not, then Yes Mrs. White.. it <em>is</em> a conundrum. Not too mention lunacy.</p>
<p>When it comes to &#8216;them&#8217; they are happy with the way things are. When it comes to those others getting a leg up, at no cost to themselves mind you, they are against it. They want to cut government, just not the government that benefits them. Elitists much people?</p>
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		<title>Telepalmter-gate?</title>
		<link>http://thevsj.com/telepalmter-gate</link>
		<comments>http://thevsj.com/telepalmter-gate#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:48:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>ekg</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Proper Gander - A Skewed View]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[$549 a plate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bridge to nowhere]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Colorado]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[English language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forced oil companies to pay each resident of the state a stipend each year]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grass-root]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Huffington Post]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[irony of this ‘let them eat cake’ atmosphere she’s promoting while calling for another revolution?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Crow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John McCain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[literacy test]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nashville]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palin cheated]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palin wrote on palms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[racism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sarah Palin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SarahPAC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socialism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socialist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socilaist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tea party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tea Party convention]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tea-Party convention 'profiteering' and the 'scammy']]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telepalmter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telepalmter-gate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telepalmtergate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tom Tancredo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[United States]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thevsj.com/?p=631</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For $549 a plate,you&#8217;d think they could get the old girl some index cards.. I mean sure, she or any GOP member for that matter can&#8217;t ever use a teleprompter again after all of their mocking of  Obama&#8217;s admitted overuse of them, but are they  really back to 7th grade cheating?
ok, here&#8217;s the thing&#8230; you [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 404px"><img src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-02-07-palinhandclose.jpg" alt="huffingtonpost" width="394" height="219" /><p class="wp-caption-text">huffingtonpost</p></div>
<p>For $<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/tea-party-convention-unravels/disputes/" target="_blank">549 a plate</a>,you&#8217;d think they could get the old girl some index cards.. I mean sure, she or any GOP member for that matter can&#8217;t ever use a teleprompter again after all of their mocking of  Obama&#8217;s admitted overuse of them, but are they  really back to 7th grade cheating?</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 211px"><img src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2010-02-07-palincrib.jpg" alt="HuffingtonPost" width="201" height="168" /><p class="wp-caption-text">huffingtonpost</p></div>
<p>ok, here&#8217;s the thing&#8230; you can&#8217;t come out on stage and  one of the 1st things you do is mock the President&#8217;s  use of teleprompters  when you&#8217;ve got freaking crib-notes written on your hand..  a cheat sheet  for your one-on-one Q &amp; A session. Not if your honest anyway.</p>
<p><em><strong> </strong></em></p>
<p>We&#8217;re past hypocrisy when you do this kind of thing and well into ridiculous and petty!  Not that I mind ridiculous or petty,  it&#8217;s the mocking of your betters that bothers me. While I&#8217;m at it, what kind of &#8216;grass-root&#8217; movement charges so much to get into their convention that only the elite of the cream of the crop can get into the convention. $549 a plate? In this economy? If it&#8217;s truly as Sarah put it, and not about the money, then why is she making $100,000 off the speech that would cost her &#8216;real American&#8217; family of four $1400 to get in? That&#8217;s just to get in the door, that doesn&#8217;t include the flight to get there, or the gas to drive or food and lodging.</p>
<p>Do you think  she understands the irony of this<em> &#8216;let them eat cake&#8217;</em> atmosphere she&#8217;s promoting while calling for another revolution?</p>
<p>Yeah,me either.</p>
<p>As for this idea that these people are the model of conservative? Is it that the Tea-party movement doesn&#8217;t care about the truth or that they don&#8217;t understand it? While Governor, Palin not only <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3125537020080901" target="_blank">took that money for her bridge</a> to nowhere but <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/97428/palin_helps_alaska_get_rich_off_oil_while_the_rest_of_the_country_suffers/" target="_blank">she forced oil companies to pay each resident of the state a stipend each year</a>. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I agree with this policy, but since<a href="http://thevsj.com/category/alwaysright" target="_blank"> my counter-part</a> calls me a socialist, I <em>would</em> be in agreement with a socialist policy like taking money from private companies and spreading it to the populist. But can you really be a conservative when you take such huge amounts of money from the government  and from the private sector and spread it around to people who didn&#8217;t earn it?</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re Sarah Palin or a Tea-party member, the answer is yes.  It&#8217;s those <em>other</em> socialists and pork-spenders that they don&#8217;t like.. the ones with (D) after their name, the ones who elected a black man, the one who is a black man. Oh yeah, that&#8217;s something else we learned this weekend, finally the Tea-party movement declared their belief..</p>
<blockquote><p><em><strong> [Tom Tancredo]</strong></em><em><strong>..<a href="http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/pagespage/2010/02/tea-party-boils.html" target="_blank">.former Colorado congressman told the first National </a><a href="http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2010/02/tea_party_takes_aim_at_msm_go.html" target="_blank">Tea Party Conventio</a>n in Nashville this weekend, where he lathered up the crowd with a speech that offered this reason for Obama’s election: “We do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country.”</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Obama was elected, Tancredo said, because of &#8220;people who could not even spell the word &#8216;vote&#8217; or say it in English.&#8221;</strong></em></p></blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s right, we don&#8217;t have literacy tests anymore..you know <a href="http://rawstory.com/2010/02/tea-party-opening-speaker-suggests-blacks-voting/" target="_blank">the tests that kept blacks from voting.</a> But hey, this is a good thing, there is no reason to hide behind a hood anymore Tancredo has de-robed the party and frankly I&#8217;m happy for them. think about it, it must be difficult to hide behind your hate that way for fear that if you let it out, people will know you really are racist. From the sounds of the cheers and applause, those waiting for Sarah Palin and listening to Tancredo are also glad to finally drop their mask!</p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nIFSdpMaqaI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nIFSdpMaqaI&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>I guess it&#8217;s just part and parcel of what we have to look forward to, an entire section of the country who believe Palin is more equipped to run this country over the likes of not just President Obama, but Hilary Clinton and *gasp* John McCain.  I guess as long as she has her cheat-sheet written on the palm of her hand, we&#8217;ll be safe when<a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/09/26/russia_palin/index.html" target="_blank"> Putin &#8216;rears his head&#8217;</a>.</p>
<p>What do you think the Tea-party group will do when they realize that  she is not like them and she is taking money out of their childrens mouths to not be like them?  It <em>is</em> about the money and fame for her, if it wasn&#8217;t <a href="http://rawstory.com/2010/02/report-sarahpac-spent-thousands-buying-copies-palins-going-rogue/" target="_blank">she would have donated the money she &#8216;laundered&#8217; through her PAC </a>back to the Tea-Party cause.  How much more proof do you need in order to believe <strong> </strong> she&#8217;s as phony as a $3 bill and as sincere as a prostitute. People, she used the money donated to her PAC to buy her own books. On the face of it that&#8217;s not to horrible, but when you look at how she received royalties for all those bought and paid for books.. you wonder which mob-boss taught her how to launder money so well. This isn&#8217;t the liberal media coming after <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/politico-rnc-spent-150k-palins-cloth" target="_blank">her for taking donations to the RNC and using it to buy clothes for her and her family, </a>this is a pretty shitty deal she&#8217;s pulling on her donors. It&#8217;s no wonder some Tea-party member were worried about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26teaparty.html" target="_blank">&#8216;profiteering&#8217; and the &#8217;scammy&#8217; feeling</a> they were getting from this convention Sarah was headlining. These people are out of work and hurting, her answer is to use their much needed money to buy her book and since she can&#8217;t just out right keep their donations,  this is the 2nd best thing.</p>
<p>I feel bad for the real  tea-party member who was sucked into this abyss. I do believe there are people out there who really do want less government spending and intrusion. I believe that for the 1st time in their lives, after mocking the &#8216;left&#8217; for all of the grass-root protesting, they finally got up their own moxie and listened to the hoopla Foxnews was spewing to  them and backed the party that they thought was the real deal. These people are about to be disillusion more than they ever were before and for them I am sorry. I only hope they wise up to the scammy-ness of where their party is going. I know these people don&#8217;t like the &#8216;Harvard educated&#8217; elite, and the idea of a Nobel being awarded to a President is akin to treason,  but is this really the person you want at the next G8  summit?</p>
<blockquote><p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FOvQCkrm3Sg&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FOvQCkrm3Sg&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>HuffingtonPost asks 2 great questions on this cheating issue..</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong><em>This would mean:</em></strong></p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>A) That she knew the questions beforehand and the whole thing was a farce. (Likely.)</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>and</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>B) That she still couldn&#8217;t answer the previously agreed-upon questions without a little extra help.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em><br />
</em></strong></p></blockquote>
<p>I don&#8217;t know, but I don&#8217;t like either answer. One proves she&#8217;s a hack and not only does she and the promoters of the convention <em>know</em> it but they&#8217;re doing everything in their power to make you sure never find out, and the other proves she&#8217;s an idiot. Regardless of the spin, neither prove she&#8217;s capable of commenting on politics, much less running a country.</p>
<p>At the end of the day the &#8216;true believers&#8217; will not believe even what their eyes show them and their ears tell them. Ironically it was not us Obama-phytes who drank the koolaid, it is the Palin/Tea Party supporters.  Obama-phytes didn&#8217;t believe he was a bastard son who was really born in Africa, because we didn&#8217;t we were called pod-people, I should know, I called them that.  But anyone who says Sarah Palin is a real Conservative, is really smart, is really capable of running this country over the likes of even John McCain..stay away from them because that is your pod-person. That is the Jim Jones follower and like those poor souls, these are just as dangerous. They will do everything in their power to elect this woman to the Presidency of the United States even if it&#8217;s forcing her poison down throats of every &#8220;real&#8221; American and real conservative in this country. I don&#8217;t believe all members of the Tea-party movement are as race-hating as those who Sarah Palin read her hand to, but if the ones who aren&#8217;t don&#8217;t stand up and renounce her and this kind of call for the good old days of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws" target="_blank"> Jim Crow</a>, they might as well be.</p>
<p><strong><em><br />
</em></strong></p></blockquote>
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