Neo-Weener Supports Joltin Joe for VP

If there were ever a point in time that the Liberul Media were to wake up and stop referring to the revoltin' joltin' Joe as some kind of Democrat, never mind an Independent of any kind, you would have to think that this neocon weener's (William "the bloody" Kristol) editorial would be the memorial to lay that GOP talking point to rest:

In a new Weekly Standard editorial, William Kristol, one of the most prominent and influential voices in the conservative movement, suggests that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) recent speech attacking war critics may be cause for the eventual Republican Presidential nominee to “offer him the vice presidency.” Peter Wehner, a former assistant to President Bush, endorses the “Joe for VP” meme at the Corner.

Joe Lieberman's consistent lies and propaganda in all things concerning illegal invasions and warmongering belie the fact that Joe is just another textbook definition of the insane neoconservative republicans. And Mr. Batshitcrazy over at the Weekly neoCON Standard proves this point.

Darien Veteran Group Fails the Charity Test

So says the Blotter:

Failing to Serve America's
Heroes on the Home Front

In the last two years, generous Americans answering appeals to help wounded and paralyzed veterans have given more than $464 million to charities that have been given an F in a new report card from a leading charity watchdog group.

Those failing charities include the National Veterans Services Fund, of Darien, Connecticut, which took in more than $6 million in contributions last year supposedly to help veterans' families.

It got a report grade of F from the American Institute of Philanthropy, which says the charity gave out only two percent of its money for charity.

I would like to hear the National Veterans Services Fund explanations for this... Same for the other 13 veterans groups that got an F. (h/t Buzzflash)

Meanwhile, in other veterans groups news, some veterans are labeled as not veteranny enough to march in veterans parades:

Iraq veteran Jason Lemieux might not be marching in the 11th annual Long Beach Veterans Day Parade on Saturday.

The Marine, who served three tours of duty in Iraq and is now against the war, was hoping to march as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a national organization that calls for immediate withdrawal of troops in Iraq.

The group's application, however, was rejected last month because of its political views, parade coordinators said.

"I wanted to march like the rest of the Iraq veterans," said Lemieux, a 24-year-old Anaheim resident. "I served my country. I'm a veteran of a foreign war. I think I deserve that respect."

Iraq Veterans, along with the groups Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, applied to march together in the parade this year under the entry "Military Patriots."

While parade organizers claim "We're not allowed to take a political stance" that is exactly what they have just done. They should be ashamed.

Date Rape Toy Recall

Good lord! Who would of thought a ^^ title like that ^^ would ever have to be written?

Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the United States and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

With only seven weeks until Christmas, the recall is yet another blow to the toy industry - already bruised by a slew of recalls this past summer.

In the United States, the toy goes by the name Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. They are called Bindeez in Australia, where they were named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.

I can only hope that the children that have ingested these things will be ok.

The two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said Wednesday afternoon.

In Australia, the toys were ordered off store shelves on Tuesday when officials learned that a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were hospitalized after swallowing the beads. A 19-month-old toddler also was being treated.

Meanwhile, there is another long list of Chinese made toys that are also being recalled for their lead content and choking hazards.

I haven't seen any reports of these toys being pulled from Connecticut's store shelves, but just because it isn't being reported on doesn't mean it isn't happening. Toys "R" Us Inc. had issued a "stop sale" order on Tuesday for "the entire Spin Master Aqua Dots product line in its North American stores and on its Web site after it learned of the news."

It is highly likely that you better check your toy boxes again fellow Nutmeggers.

Buzz it if you want to?

Phone Conversations Overheard on a Blog

Brendan over at the Booman Tribune made a few phone calls to Congress after watching the spectacle of the IMPEACHMENT VOTE unfold on the floor of the house:

"Hello, Pete Sessions office", said a young man on the other end of the phone.

"Hi, my name's Brendan Skwire," I began. "And first of all, I have to tell you that I am about the most left-wing Democrat you could ever meet. If it was up to me, it would be abortion on demand, healthcare for everyone, and out of Iraq yesterday. Pete Sessions and I agree on absolutely nothing, and if we had a few beers together, we'd probably come to blows. So I just wanted to get that out there. I loathe the Republican Party and everything it stands for. No offense, just giving you an idea of where I'm coming from."

"And none taken," the guy said graciously. "So. What's up?"

"Well, as much as I despise the GOP, there is one thing I hate more: the liars and hacks that make up the Democratic Party leadership. I mean, my GOD: they have broken just about every single promise they made to people like me who voted for them in 2006. They took impeachment off the table, they keep sending you guys blank checks for war in Iraq, they let you get away with blocking all sorts of bills... I mean, just look at the Senate! They're about to confirm Mukasey as Attorney General, a guy who won't enforce Congressional subpoenas and believes George Bush is above the law. Later this week, they're probably going to legalize wiretapping our phones. It's absolutely disgraceful what the Democratic leadership has done. They're just as bad as you guys!

"And so while I never EVER thought I would say this, please pass a message to Pete Sessions for me: tell him I extend my heartiest congratulations for making Steny Hoyer, a douchebag of the highest order, look even more like the idiot fool he is. And on the House floor! Fantastic!! Tell Mr. Sessions I applaud his participation in this hilarious prank, which exposed my party's leadership for the clowns and cowards they are.

"Again, I don't support any of your boss's policies, but credit where credit is due. That was a job well done. Well-played, sir! I haven't laughed that hard in months!"

"Will do sir," the guy said chuckling. "I'm sure Congressman Sessions will be delighted to hear your message!"

The calls he made to the Democratic Congress critters were equally hilarious...

Blog Talk Radio Tonight

If you are around TONIGHT (Wednesday, November 7), please join us again for another edition of Don't Hijack My Thread! at 8PM Eastern/5PM Pacific.

This week's topics are as follows:

• What's up with our "best friend" Pakistan?
• Getting behind the decreasing violence in Iraq
• Big Dog making lame excuses for Hillary's recent missteps
• Election Day 2007 recap
• Rep. Kucinich and his "Cheney impeachment" bill
• The "Ron Paul" factor - is he for real or just a "fad"?

The link to tonight's show is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio/2007/11/08/Dont-Hijack-My-Thread

The link to past shows for podcast or streaming is here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/epradio and you can check out Blog Talk Radio's progressive radio lineup at Heading Left (www.headingleft.com).

Info about calling in can be found here: http://political-nexus.blogspot.com/2007/04/want-to-call-into-dont-hijack-my-thread.html

Tell us something we didn't already

know...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is the president of Peru, Chavez “mocked” Cheney, saying the comment shows the United States is governed by a “bunch of ignorant fools”:

“The vice president of the United States was talking about us, but he made a mistake,” Chavez said, laughing. “Since those who govern the United States are a bunch of ignorant fools…he thinks I’m president of Peru.”

“They don’t know where Venezuela is, nor do they know where Peru is,” Chavez told the crowd.

Though, it did take a large chunk of America quite a while to figure this out.

Missing New Milford Teen Found in NJ

An update on Megan Roberts, a teen who went missing in New Milford, Connecticut, a few weeks ago and via the website set up by her family:

She went to Boston, Providence and Atlantic City. They were found because a police officer came up to them and she ran away. She was arrested for evading a police officer.

Megan was in bad shape when we found her.

snip

Thanks again to everyone who was so helpful. Please continue to keep Megan in your prayers so that she will regain control of her mind.

I am glad she was finally found and hope that she will be ok. Good luck to your family. I am certain that the other Connecticut Blogs that tried to help by writing on this, or hosting diaries on it, will feel the same relief that I do at the news that she was found.

Lou Rell Has Cancer

According to the Danbury NewsTimes Governor Jodi Rell's husband has cancer:

Lou Rell, husband of Gov. M. Jodi Rell, will undergo surgery Tuesday for removal of a small cancerous growht on his esophagus. He is expected to be hospitalized for a week to 10 days.

I wish him the best and good luck in his recovery because he will very likely have a battle on his hands. According to the American Cancer Society:

The American Cancer Society estimates during 2007, 13,940 deaths from esophageal cancer will occur. Because esophageal cancer is usually diagnosed at a late stage, most people with esophageal cancer eventually die of this disease. However, survival rates have been improving. During the early 1960s, only 4% of all white patients and 1% of all African-American patients survived at least 5 years after diagnosis. Now, 17% of white patients and 12% of African-American patients survive at least 5 years after diagnosis. These figures refer to patients with all stages of disease, so survival rates in earlier stage disease will be higher.

These survival rates are called relative survival rates. The 5-year survival rate refers to the percent of patients who live at least 5 years after their cancer is diagnosed. This includes people who die of other causes. Five-year relative survival rates assume that some people will die of other causes and compares the observed survival with that expected for people without the cancer. That means that relative survival only talks about deaths from the cancer in question. This is a more accurate way to describe the prognosis for patients with a particular type and stage of cancer. Five-year rates are used to produce a standard way to discuss prognosis, or outlook for survival.

Wilkes Ship Has Come In

And much like the "Duke Stir" it is a sinking ship:

A U.S. District Court jury has found Brent Wilkes, who was charged with bribing disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, guilty on all 13 counts in his corruption trial. TPM’s Paul Kiel notes that today’s verdict is from just the first of the two corruption trials Wilkes faces. The second involves former CIA executive director Dusty Foggo.

This guy is a real piece of work and deserves scrutiny for more than just bribing Randy "Duke" Cunningham:

Republican Cronies Were Scanning OR Reading?

Josh Marshall over at TPM digs this up:

If you're a Cunningham case afficionado, you know that in early 2002 Mitchell Wade was still acting as a cut out for his corruption mentor Brent Wilkes -- who's now awaiting trial in the Cunningham case. And around the same time Wilkes was greasing palms in DC trying to get into the Anthrax mail screening racket himself.

He got some help from Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) who got money from Wilkes. We pick up that part of the story from the San Diego Union-Tribune from March 19th, 2006 ...

Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham's offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company's document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.

One was tied to the 2002 anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.

He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.

The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.

Note the reference to the House Administration Committee. That was the committee then chaired by another Abramoff buddy -- the now-imprisoned Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). And Ney, as he'd earlier done for Abramoff associate Adam Kidan, actually read into the House record an encomium to Wilkes.

So it all comes back to the same question. Why did a company like Wade's, which had no track record whatsoever and had only been approved to receive federal government contracts two months earlier, get a contract from the White House to screen the mail of the President of the United States?

Are you sure it was only the Presidents mail they were screening?

Note the Tribune story:

Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.

All Capitol Hill mail? Wouldn't that mean that these Republican cronies were also "scanning" sensitive mail from the Democratic party side of the aisle (and to and from God knows who else inside the Hill?) as well?

To me, this seems to give these Republican cronies the ability to spy on people's mail if they were unethical enough to abuse this contract for their corrupted GOP's advantage... Does anyone think these guys weren't reading what they were scanning? "Oooh, here's a hot one! Send it to Karl..." It's not like the GOP has ever been known to be ethical when given the opportunity.

I still want to know what these corrupt and immoral republicans were doing with all of that access to Capitol Hill mail.

DFA Dem Presidential Candidate Poll

Via Democracy For America:

Total Votes: 135268 as of Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:37:45 -0500

Candidate	Votes	%
Dennis Kucinich	41941	31.01%
Al Gore (write in)	36590	27.05%
Barack Obama	19586	14.48%
John Edwards	18090	13.37%
Bill Richardson	6010	4.44%
Hillary Clinton	5355	3.96%
Other	2951	2.18%
Christopher Dodd	2370	1.75%
Joe Biden	1307	0.97%
Mike Gravel	1068	0.79%

VOTING IS STILL OPEN!! Polls close at midnight on November 5th, 2007. Cast your vote now at http://www.DemocracyforAmerica.com/PulsePoll

Vote Now - Time Is Almost Up

The final DFA Presidential Pulse Poll ends tonight at midnight Eastern Standard Time. That means you only have a few hours left to vote and make sure your voice is heard.

Today is a big day. With over 130,000 votes cast, the poll is already the largest presidential poll of progressive activists this year. Yet this isn't even close to over. Traditionally, tens of thousands of votes come in on the last day.

That means the winner is still very much up for grabs.

It is pretty obvious that my Blog (Drinking Liberally in New Milford) likes Dennis Kucinich because he is really the only liberal on that list, and a moderate liberal like myself, but you might be surprised that my second choice as a candidate would be Christopher Dodd because of the many strong stances he has taken on pet issues of mine. As a Senator, I have very little to quibble about concerning his votes. As a presidential candidate he has been responsive to the people's (and the Bloggers') serious concerns about the path this country has followed under the disastrous policies of the criminal bush administration.

I am not a Democratic party member, nor a huge supporter of that party overall either (much to the chagrin of some progressive Bloggers... heh), because there is no way in hell that they can afford to keep throwing conservative candidates on to their ballot (the ones that play the triangulation-faux-centrist games) and ever hope to fix what is wrong with this country. But that is only the Democratic party problem side of it.

Fixing it really starts by kicking every single GOP candidate out of office. The corrupt ones. The ones that hate the Constitution. The ones that trample on the Bill of Rights. The ones that have desecrated the principles of this country with torture, illegal invasions, lies and illegally spied on Americans. The ones that have been the embodiment of hatred, racism and done everything they can to divide this country in any way they can.

We, all of We the People, need to unite against these GOP atrocities.

I have said my little piece on this subject... But now it is your tun to go there, vote, and try to make a difference, because even little polls like this make a difference in shaping America's perception (sadly, this is true) of what the heart beat of America is drumming on about.

MySpace Taking on Google AdSesne

MySpace is launching it's own add network:

MySpace is launching a SelfServe for its network, which will usher in a self-service advertising platform for marketers. Showcased at the ad:tech conference tomorrow, it’s specifically designed for small businesses, politicians, and others, who would like to take advantage of MySpace’s social network for advertising. Somewhat similar to Google AdSense, there will be targeted ads that will display across its network.

Google AdSense is the monster on the internet add scene, though I am pretty sure that most Bloggers make more money with their Blogads network accounts. At least, they do when they can get some paying adds AND only for the Bloggers that do this for money...

Some of us have different priorities:

Get this Action Banner for your own web page

State Dept. Thanks Heavens for Dictators

It's not as if these Wackos of Mass Distractions at every level of the failing bush government could get any more stupid and incompetent:

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to suspend the constitution, seize emergency power, and round up leading opposition figures is bringing quiet joy to the State Department. “Thank heavens for small favors,” an aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, referring to Musharraf’s actions. Compared to Pakistan, “Iraq looks pretty good.”

I am sure that these guys are not thanking heavens for this distraction from the republican warmongers' failures in Iraq:

Year	US Deaths	US Wounded
2003	486	2,411
2004	849	8,003
2005	846	5,948
2006	822	6,398
2007	846	5,411
Total	3849	28171

You can bet these guys aren't praying for distractions from the GOP's failures:

"U.S. soldiers comfort each other at their base after a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy was driving by in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003. Three soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were wounded." (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)