Give these women a hand!

For tackling a serious issue in a good old fashioned American fun kind of way:

In the genteel world of bridge, disputes are usually handled quietly and rarely involve issues of national policy. But in a fight reminiscent of the brouhaha over an anti-Bush statement by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks in 2003, a team of women who represented the United States at the world bridge championships in Shanghai last month is facing sanctions, including a yearlong ban from competition, for a spur-of-the-moment protest.

At issue is a crudely lettered sign, scribbled on the back of a menu, that was held up at an awards dinner and read, “We did not vote for Bush.”

Give these Bill of Rights hating, Freedom of Speech dissing dirtbags a shovel to dig their hole even deeper:

By e-mail, angry bridge players have accused the women of “treason” and “sedition.”

“This isn’t a free-speech issue,” said Jan Martel, president of the United States Bridge Federation, the nonprofit group that selects teams for international tournaments. “There isn’t any question that private organizations can control the speech of people who represent them.”

Yep... Freedom of Speech, guaranteed under the 1st Amendment, is "treason and sedition" to the typical warmongering moonbat GOPooper bush supporter. Meanwhile right wing fanatics and the media that enables them by airing these remarks try to portray the left as full of vitriol and hate, try to label the left as enabling enemies of this country?

Good luck with those GOP talking points.
AND the Freedom of Speech that lets you abuse them.

Right Wingnuts Get Nuttier When They Might Lose Welfare

firedoglake has an apt description for people like this:

It turns out that Bozell and Graham have a whole new book out that documents the entire years-long pro-Hillary liberal media conspiracy in all its dastardly glory. And as ConWebBlog notes,the two are basically using this phony quote as one of the centerpieces of the book's entire promotional effort. Check this out from the book's promo page:

In Whitewash, L. Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham of the Media Research Center, America’s largest and most respected media watchdog organization, expose the unprecedented media favoritism that is the real key to Hillary’s political career. Marshalling stunning evidence compiled exclusively by the Media Research Center, the authors show how the media have relentlessly promoted Hillary from the moment in 1992 when Time magazine introduced her to the country as an “amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.”

Now Bozell is claiming that this wasn't just Carlson who said this; he says that Time magazine as an institution "introduced her to the country" this way.

Of course, this didn't happen at all. What Carlson actually wrote was this: "Friends of Hillary Clinton would have you believe she is an amalgam of Betty Crocker, Mother Teresa and Oliver Wendell Holmes..." etc, etc.

We've seen no shortage of two-bit confidence men hawking all manner of anti-Hillary paraphernalia over the years, of course, but rarely does anti-Hillary hucksterism descend to quite this level of buffoonery.

They sure follow up with some hysterical behaviour when you try to cut into their wingnut welfare... Jane Hamsher discussing one of the more recent wingnut welfare episodes:

All the mouth breathers went apeshit when I first started writing about wingnut welfare, but even though the names and faces have changed, the story is still the same:

When the wingnuts chant their talking points like a bunch of tambourine-beaters at the airport, they want to be paid for their efforts. And Pajamas Media was set up to do just that. They received by some accounts $7 million dollars to subsidize 70 right wing bloggers, and if you look at their sites there are no ads, many don’t even identify their affiliation with a logo. Look at some full-on loon like the Confederate Yankee who earns his/her 800 hits a day by having seizures over Google’s attempts to mock Christmas with Jesus butt plugs. The General will easily draw twenty times the traffic with his rapier-witted takedown, but the Confederate Yankee probably earns a lot more money than the General. These illiterate zeros are being paid out of principal, not out of any ad revenues. They are all Armstrong Williams.

The Pajamas Media folk ridicule the liberals they have bought for the purpose of rendering them neuter and biting their heads off like chickens in some geek show. Let’s just be clear, they didn’t offer this gig to James Wolcott who could tear them to shreds and blow the pig up from the inside, and they didn’t want anything to do with Crooks and Liars who draw more traffic in a day than all these fools combined simply by putting their cretinous droolings on video clip display. They are not there to make a profit. There is no “business model” involved. And every criticism they all laid at the feet of every East German factory worker after the toppling of the Berlin wall — they have no ability to work in a competitive environment, they know they will never be fired — comes into play. They’re fools, but they’re subsidized fools. They never have to worry about traffic, they never have to be even a little bit clever or creative or think or even spell right.

I mostly called them Communist welfare queens just to piss ‘em off but the irony of Miniter referring to Regnery a “Marxist cartoon” just because he can’t think of anything worse within his limited intellectual horizon is not lost.

On the other hand, Republicans are generally crooks so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Regnery is stealing something from somebody somewhere. What with the writer’s strike and all, the discovery process in this case could start filling a huge entertainment void.

It is bad enough for you to point exactly what they are, but Lord knows they will go even more ape-shit if you try and take the wingnut welfare that puts the food on their tables.

Do YOU support the troops?

Well? Do you even know what kind of support these soldiers need?

And, a CBS News analysis reveals they lose that battle, and take their own lives, at a clip described by various experts as "stunning" and "alarming," according to Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian. One called it a "hidden epidemic."

He says no one had ever counted just how many suicides there are nationwide among those who had served in the military -- until now.

The five-month CBS News probe, based upon a detailed analysis of data obtained from death records from 2004 and 2005, found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets.

From an August ePluribus Media diary on military suicides:

So now every year they send another team of experts to Iraq, and every year they file another report (MHAT I, II, III, IV and counting), and every year some poor spokesgoat has to stand up and tell a bunch of grownups that it's these kids and their personal problems, not the war, that motivates these young people with their whole lives ahead of them to end it.

Well, every year except for 2004, when the rate dropped a lot, and everyone started crowing about how all the new suicide prevention measures were working, and they looked real good until the numbers for 2005 came in, and someone noticed that in 2004 they had used a different definition of a suicide. Tricky. That year they only counted the deaths involving guns.

Last year's goat was a Col. Joseph Curtin, who assured the gathered journalists, "We're not alarmed." He went on to say that the Army was not aware of any single reason for the rise, but he dismissed the notion that the increase was somehow tied to combat exposure. Instead, he blamed (are you ready?) financial difficulties, failed relationships.

Some stats from March via ePluribus Media:

OEF/OIF Suicides

• Portion of veterans making up total U.S. suicide population: 25%
• Army soldier suicides in Iraq and Kuwait, 2005: 22
• ...above rate compared to national average: nearly 2X
• Rate of OIF Army combat zone suicide increase,2004 to 2005: 2X
• MN active-duty/discharged servicemember suicides, Jan. 2003-Oct. 2006: 13
• ...extrapolation of above rate to 50 states: 650

Do YOU really support the troops? A little clue to some of you... Parades, flag waving and magnets on your car mean squat.

DeLuca Quitting!

Via the Hartford Courant:

A grim-faced Sen. Louis C. DeLuca paid a courtesy call on Gov. M. Jodi Rell this morning, a prelude to an announcement he will resign, rather than submit to an extended legislative inquiry into his dealings with James Galante, a trash hauler accused of having ties to organized crime.

DeLuca declined to comment when asked if he was resigning, but he is expected to make an announcement this afternoon about his plans. DeLuca, 74, arrived at the Capitol, accompanied by his wife, Alice, and at least one of his adult children.

He and his wife were ushered inside to meet with Rell and emerged about 15 minutes later. Waiting outside the office were Republican State Chairman Chris Healy and Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown.

Apparently he had to clear it with The Godmother, Governor Jodi Rell, first...

Are you prepared for the 08 elections?

BooMan asks an interesting question:

Only 26 percent of Ohio voters interviewed would support a health insurance system run by the federal government and paid for with taxes.

Nearly two-thirds prefer a system that requires people to buy insurance and that offers tax credits to those who could not afford it.

Why is that?

Consider the source BooMan. Just look at who did the polling for that answer:

""But if the Democrats are banking on another slaughter in Ohio in '08, they are making a bad bet," warns Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc., the Washington, D.C., firm that conducted the poll. "The presidential race is likely to look closer to the 2004 race.""

Are they a polling outfit, or assassination squad?

Remember Mason Dixon polling?

"President Of Mason-Dixon Polling Firm Brad Corker: "Exit Polls Are Often Wrong". "[B]rad Coker, president of the Mason-Dixon polling firm that called Bush's 2.5-percentage-point win in Ohio practically right on the nose for The Plain Dealer, says ... exit polls are often wrong." (Ted Diadiun, "Rest Assured, We Checked Out Election 2004 Thoroughly," The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer, 6/18/06)"

And, yet, you are still reading today about more and more info being pieced together in Ohio on the stolen election... Polls are really only for those that dabble in soaking up propaganda, IMHO. They can be useful for some things, but most of the political ones, even the ones I quote on this Blog, are really only useful in shaping opinions, not measuring them.

You can get soaked... I ain't. Not anymore.

But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations. A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states, was discovered shredding Democratic registrations. In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes, malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots. Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.

The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.

Never again.

Are you preconditioned to accept the results of the next stolen election OR primary results?

Probably. At least, probably if you are buying the sad sack polling outfits results. heh

Mason Dixon are supposed to be one of the BIG reputable polling firms. While Mason Dixon has a reputation of being GOP tilted, it is not just the data they come out with but the data of other "reputable" data operations (Zogby is equally equated to the Dems, IMHO) that all have track records of supporting the status quo, regardless of which "side" of the aisle their data supports.

When it comes time for the 08 elections I will be prepared for the results. With BS polls, and proven BS election results in the last two presidential elections it is obvious that we can no longer adhere to the old broken record of "Trust, but verify."

I don't trust. And I will be damned certain to be there to verify the fuck out of the next elections results.

The Connecticut Citizen Audit Coalition is looking for individuals throughout the state to join the inaugural Citizen Audit Observer Corps being formed by a coalition of several organizations in order to support voter confidence in the voting process.

The coalition members are the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, Common Cause Connecticut, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and CTVotersCount.

To ensure the integrity of the election and generate voter confidence in the new voting machine, Public Act 07-194, passed by the Connecticut Legislature in June, mandates public audits of randomly selected districts and races in each primary and election. It is expected that forty to fifty towns will have districts selected for audits which must occur between Nov 21st and Nov 26th. Voting districts will be selected by a random drawing currently scheduled for November 14. Volunteers will not be asked to observe in their town of residence.

Each participant will agree to be available for one day and participate in one audit in a town near their residence. A Citizen's Audit Kit, training via phone, and scheduling will be provided by the coalition. Feedback will be summarized and published to provide input to improve the process in future elections.

Non-partisan, independent observation of post-election audits will support voter confidence in the integrity of Connecticut elections by helping to identify any specific problems with the audit process and providing feedback on audit procedures.

Be part of election history by joining the first-ever Citizens Audit Observer Corps! Sign up today.

One day of volunteer work every 2 years and you too can be certain that every vote gets counted. Not too much to ask if you really believe that every vote should count in a Democracy. Remember that Florida and Ohio (and bush as president) never would have happened if people had been there to do this across the country in 2000 and 2004. NEVER AGAIN.

Lt. Watada wins in case against Army

Via CommonDreams:

A federal judge has blocked the Army from conducting a second court-martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada of Honolulu, an Iraq war objector based at Fort Lewis, Wash., saying it’s likely the second trial would violate his constitutional rights.

“This is an enormous victory, but it is not yet over,” Kenneth Kagan, one of Watada’s attorneys, said in a written statement.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle ruled yesterday that no court-martial will be held for Watada, a 1996 Kalani High School graduate, pending the outcome of his claim that it would violate his Fifth Amendment rights by trying him twice for the same charges.

Watada’s first court-martial ended in a mistrial in February. Settle wrote that the military judge likely abused his discretion in declaring the mistrial.

It ain't over, but it is looking better for the soldier that followed his conscience.

The younger Watada is charged with missing his Stryker brigade’s deployment to Iraq in June 2006 and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President Bush and the war, saying it was illegal and unjust.

Watada, 29, had said he would be a party to war crimes if he served in Iraq. The Army refused his request to resign or be posted in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

Can't say that I blame him given that we already know that the invasion of Iraq was illegal.

Saving us from BIG media

one Blog post, and millions of petitioners, at a time...

Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has been keeping a secret from the American people. He wants to push through plans to remove decades-old media ownership protections. And he's trying to do it without public scrutiny.

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) have introduced groundbreaking bipartisan legislation that would hold the FCC accountable and put the people ahead of Big Media.

Petitions from the public — millions of them — stopped media consolidation in 2003. Sign the petition and tell everyone you know:
http://stopbigmedia.com

You can also get involved on
Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr
and the Free Press Action Network.

We beat them once and I suspect that, much like saving the Internet, we will have to do this over and over again until Congress finally tells them their monopolistic ideals will never get a pass. The media conglomerates already have too much of a monopoly and deserve to be downsized for the good of the nation.

The media landscape is dominated by massive corporations that, through a history of mergers and acquisitions, have concentrated too much control in too few hands. This leads to a lack of diversity of voices, programming that is out of touch with local concerns and increasingly commercial and homogenized news and entertainment. Further consolidation will produce media in which only the powerful few will be heard.

The chart below maps out the control the six most concentrated giants exert over all forms of news, entertainment and information.

Click on these links to view information on conglomerates that control:

• Television
• Radio
• Publishing and Newspapers

Update: If you are feeling doubly activisty today, here is a really important fight on another communications battle front from Matt Browner Hamelin:

Second, if you're feeling discouraged by the increased chances of amnesty for telecoms making it out of the Judiciary Committee, remember that Senator Dodd has vowed to stop any such legislation from becoming law, either through a hold or by filibuster if necessary. Dodd will stand up for the rule of law. He will defend the Constitution.

Now is the time to take action, though. Chris Dodd won't wait until 2009 to lead and we shouldn't wait until 2009 to stand up for what we believe in.

Call the Senate Judiciary Committee today - we'll do the dialing for you through our Citizen Generated Whip Count calling tool: http://chrisdodd.com/immunity

The Citizen Generated Whip Count calling tool is free to use to make the phone call, but no guarantees it is free from spying unless we all take advantage of it to stop retro-immunity for the political and corporate criminals involved.

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?