But the con's example exposes as more mendacity the Bushies' "proof" -- mainly some barely legible pay stubs -- that their man didn't desert the Air National Guard. Their evidence is so marinated in spin and deception, it has done nothing but justifiably deepen Americans' suspicion about Bush.
Guard and Reserve records are notoriously sloppy. If a killer can get credit for Reserve service while in jail, a privileged and insouciant playboy can certainly be a no-show at drills and still collect pay. (That would, of course, put Bush among one of the Republicans' favorite hate targets, welfare cheats, who suck up tax dollars based on fraudulent claims.)
House Democrats on Thursday narrowly turned back a Republican push for a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Georgia, but the battle is far from over.
The vote set the stage for a raucous showdown next week. Lawmakers have an opportunity Monday to reconsider their vote and activists on both sides plan to swarm the Capitol.
The vote Thursday was 117-50 for the gay marriage ban, but as a constitutional amendment, it needed a two-thirds majority, or 120 votes, to pass.
My favorite part:
"If we're not successful in passing this, then I think . . . we are one judge away, in Georgia, from having same-sex marriage imposed on us," said Sen. Mike Crotts (R-Conyers), sponsor of the resolution. "All you need is one judge. The same thing could happen to us here that happened in Massachusetts."
Yeah Mike, a judge is going to force you to marry another man! Better go buy stock in KY.
A state survey [in September 2002] found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores.
That's about 14 times the number for next highest employer: Publix, with 734.
Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates.
The survey findings surface as Wal-Mart's pay, benefits and corporate policies have come under fire nationally. Labor unions and other critics have denounced the Arkansas-based retail giant for what they call low-wage, low-benefit jobs. And unions fear the influence Wal-Mart practices could have on employee benefits in all industries.
...
"Most employees who make $7 to $8 an hour can't afford health insurance," said Cindia Cameron, organizing director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. "When a very wealthy employer passes off to taxpayers what is rightfully a labor force cost, that's a serious public policy problem."
...
Wal-Mart, with 42,000 workers in the state in 2002, had about one child in the health care program for every four employees. The ratio for Publix was one child in PeachCare for every 22 employees. For Shaw, it was one for every 30 employees, and for Mohawk, one for every 26 workers.
...
"You have a company increasingly shifting the cost of health care to taxpayers," said Shaun O'Brien, assistant director of public policy for the AFL-CIO. Many Wal-Mart employees, the union says, earn wages of $7.50 to $8.50 an hour — not enough to make benefits affordable.
So how cheap do you think that t-shirt or gallon jug of pickles really is?
Think about it, the Walton heirs are close to the top of the Forbe's richest lists, but while these people are socking away billions, we the taxpayers are subsidizing healthcare for their employees. Must be easy to get rich when you can get the state to to not only give you sweatheart deals, but also help pay what should be normal labor expenses.
I used to be in show business and I've lived and worked with a lot of great gay people. My best friend from childhood and old bandmate, Tim, is queer, and has been open about it for the past 30 years. My sister, Linda, is openly gay as well, and lives in one of the "red" states, where that can be a big problem.
So when cyber-gossip Matt Drudge published half a dozen demonstrably false stories last week about Sen. John Kerry having an affair with a grown woman, I asked the question with no malice.
Because it's been my observation that no one is more interested in the heterosexual doings of grown men and women than repressed homosexuals.
Drudge, who made his bones reporting heavily on the various real and imagined sexual dalliances of former president Bill Clinton, has vigorously denied his homosexuality, perhaps because his largely Republican, right-wing audience would look unfavorably upon it.
I wrote him an e-mail and asked if he was homosexual.
He didn't answer.
He also talks a bit about Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Bennett and he just mentions Bill O'Reilly:
The worst of all is probably is Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly, whose phony populist palaver seemingly has many convinced he's "looking out for you" when, in fact, he's a lying, racist coward.
I'm thinking this paper is privately owned.
READERS WRITE ON GAY MARRIAGE
Responses to "Bush: Ban gay marriage,"
Page One, Feb. 25
Editor's note: On Wednesday, we received no letters in support of President Bush's proposed gay marriage ban amendment.
Now there will be some wingnuts writing now, but all the letters they received on the original story were against it. All of them! Just how popular is Bush becoming?
Ed and Dianna Jellison let their business' health insurance lapse while they shopped for a better price. But then Ed fell ill, spending 17 days in a Florida hospital as a viral infection ravaged his body.
Now the couple are fighting a $116,000 hospital bill, one they say could be as low as $25,000 if an insurance company were paying it.
The tough truth for patients like the Jellisons- who earn too much to qualify for charity care- is that they are often charged the highest prices for hospital services.
...
"The typical range of discounts nationwide (among private insurers) might be around 45% to 50% on hospital services," says actuary John Bowerline with Milliman USA, a firm that tracks health care costs and consults with employers and health care providers.
Those discounts can be even higher in some markets. Hospital financial data collected by the state of California show that large hospital systems there in 2002 collected 30% to 35% of their billed charges, meaning insurers, the government and other payers receive 65% to 70% discounts.
Here are some situations for you.
1) Lets say you go the hospital with insurance, where you pick up 20% of the bill. You run up a $1000 bill. The insurance company pays $800 and you $200, right? Uhh, wrong. The insurance company will usually pay 40% of their share, but you pay 100%. The hospital pays $320 and you pay $200. You get no part of the insurance companies negotiated discount.
2) Lets say that you and your neighbor go the hospital for food poisoning from a neighbors party, and you both run up $1000 in bills for treatment. Your neighbor has insurance in the network that pays for 100% of charges and you have no insurance. Your neighbors insurance will likely pay $400 for the same treatment you have to pay $1000 for.
3) Lets say a new insurance company wants to start offering a new major medical insurance policy. They think they can keep costs lower and compete with the large companies. HAHAHA!!! It would never happen. There is no way a small company can negotiate huge discounts with hospital and medical groups like the huge existing companies do. New companies are virtually locked out of entering the market on a competitive basis. There is no incentive for larger companies to hold expenses and prices down. There will be no new competition.
The insurance companies have rigged the game. The people get screwed by the insurance companies and the hospitals. New competition cannot break into the market. Our government allows it to happen.
Yes, our politicians are owned!
"Danny Manning!"
Dominique Wilkins curses and drops his fork against a table in a Lenox Square restaurant. Wilkins begins to shake his head and says, "Danny Manning."
"I understand this is a business, but if you're going to trade me, trade me for somebody legitimate," Wilkins said. "Don't trade me for Danny Manning. C'mon man. ..."
"Never should've happened," Magic Johnson said recently. "That never should've happened."
Wilkens spent the final years of his career bouncing around Europe and the NBA, never fitting in like he had in Atlanta. He always wanted to retire a Hawk.
How did Manning help the Hawks? What kind of return did they get for trading away the only superstar the Hawks ever had?
Despite their top seeding, the Hawks lost in second round of the playoffs. A few weeks later, Manning bolted for a measly one-year, $1 million deal with the Phoenix Suns.
I've been saying for years Kasten should have been fired long ago. History is showing that he probably should have been
Q: The DTH&WP is a media content web site, which means you're broke. Who's paying the reward?
A: The reward is being generously underwritten by Doonesbury creator G. B. Trudeau. The money has been put in escrow and is being administered by Universal Press Syndicate.
Q: It's really in escrow?
A: No, but we're good for it. Thanks to Bush's massive tax cuts for people who don't need them, GBT is flush.
...
Q: Is there some sort of hitch?
A: Well, yes, but it's a hitch for a good cause. The winner won't actually receive the reward for himself; instead we'll be donating $10,000 in his name to the USO. That way everyone's a winner, including GBT's tax accountant.
The Secretary of State's office estimates the proposed change would cost the state $15 million. Even if that money could be found in the state budget, the Federal Election Commission has not yet approved a machine for use in producing the paper receipts. Without that approval, the state cannot buy the machines.
So lets see what the pro piece says:
If Georgia were to go back to work and refit a system anchored by some 26,000 voting terminals, the cost would amount to at least $15 million or more, according to Cox's office. That's money the state, in a dire budget crunch, doesn't have. Besides, any system that relies on paper backup could encounter the kinds of counting problems that have become familiar over the last 40 years of experience with punch-card technology.
Wait, who was arguing the pro position?
Conservatives in Atlanta consider the AJC to be one of the most liberal papers in the south. They must feel this is correct since opinion columnists for the paper do not call for the outright execution of anybody who feels there is a need for paper ballots to back up the electronic voting machine.
When a 9-year-old boy kicked a Fulton County man in the crotch, he decided not to take it lying down.
The man instead filed a lawsuit against the boy and his parents, claiming the kick caused him great pain and affected his sexual performance.
A Fulton County jury awarded the man $15,000 this week.
The man, who was not named to spare him further embarrassment, was working as a waiter at a wedding reception in the family's home on April 10, 1999, according to court records.
Unless the kid was one hell of a soccer player or skilled in the martial arts, I find no excuse for this. We need the man's name!
How could this happen?
The waiter, then 26, claimed the boy and his younger brother were running around unattended and threatened several people on the catering staff with a knife.
When the waiter told them to go outside, the boy headed that way- but not before turning around to deliver a swift kick to his left testicle.
And he was worried about the knife.
SEVEN people were killed and more than 100 injured in Pakistan during the annual kite flying festival marking the arrival of spring, officials said today.
An 18-month-old girl's throat was cut by a stray kite string while she was traveling with her parents on a motorbike, witnesses said, adding that she died on the spot.
Three people were electrocuted when metal wires they were using to fly or catch stray kites fell on live electric lines, and two people fell from roofs, hospital officials said.
A 12-year-old boy died while trying to catch a stray kite when he was hit by a car on a main road, police said.
More than 100 people had been reported injured since last night in various kite-related accidents, medical workers said.
I will be nowhere near next week's croquet competition.
As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush’s military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.
A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said.
...
The former Georgia governor used the 12-minute speech to endorse a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to between a man and woman and a measure to restrict the ability of federal courts to limit the public acknowledgment of God.
...
In his fiery floor speech, Miller quoted the Old Testament prophet Amos' caution of a "famine in the land" and argued that is exactly what the country is facing now.
"Yes, there's a deficit to be concerned about -- a deficit of decency," Miller said. "So, as the sand empties through my hourglass at warp speed -- and with my time running out in this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly believe that at times like this, silence is not golden. It is yellow."
Miller spent part of his speech blasting the now-infamous Super Bowl halftime show, although he said the antics between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake should have been no surprise considering their song included the lyrics "I'm going to get you naked."
"I'm not talking just about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it," Miller said. "Does any responsible adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I'd quote you some of it, but the sergeant of arms would throw me out of here, as well he should."
...
"And then there was that dancing, prancing, strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering from jock itch because he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch," Miller said. "But then, maybe there's a culture of crotch in this country that I don't know about."
Nice to know that as Bush and the GOP are running up the largest deficits ever, Zell is worried about the "deficit of decency." Now we know what is really important.
Bush also made an impression on the "Blue-Haired Platoon," a group of older Republican Women working for Blount. Behind his back they called him "the Texas soufflé," [Red Blount's nephew C. Murphy] Archibald said, because he was "all puffed up and full of hot air."
HAHAHAHA!
To "Blount's Belles," a group of young Republican women and Montgomery debutantes working for the Blount campaign, Bush is remembered showing up in "denim" and cowboy boots. To one who talked about those times but requested anonymity, "We thought he was to die for."
Yeah, there are some soldiers thinking the same thing right now.
That May, Bush first requested a transfer from his Texas unit to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base, a postal unit, after he had already moved to Alabama to work on Blount's campaign. The transfer was approved by his superiors in Houston, after the fact, but ultimately denied up the chain of command, since the unit only met one weekend night a month and had no airplanes. Bush was finally approved for a transfer on Sept. 5, five months after he had already established a residence in Alabama, to the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery. His orders, available on the Net, required him to report to the unit commander, Gen. William Turnipseed. He is named in the orders.
In interviews with the Boston Globe in 2000, Turnipseed and his administrative officer in 1972, Kenneth K. Lott, said they had no memory of Bush ever reporting, and could produce no documentation that he ever even checked in.
''Had he reported in, I would have had some recall, and I do not,'' Turnipseed said. ''I had been in Texas, done my flight training there. If we had had a first lieutenant from Texas, I would have remembered.''
Pretty damning right there. And finally,
Rewards offered by veterans groups in Alabama and Texas for any proof that Bush showed up have never been claimed. There were 700 active guardsmen in Alabama at that time and not one who saw him on the base has come forward. Even an extensive investigation by the president's campaign staff could not turn up a shred of evidence that Bush pulled any duty, according to newspaper accounts.
Why, you ask?
Why is Bush's past important to examine now?
"It seems to me to be important because Bush is willing to send our boys and girls over there to get shot, killed and wounded, to lose their arms and legs," Odom said. "Then in his own life, he did what he could to avoid it (going to war). And then later, he presents himself as a fighter pilot, parading around on that flight deck with his fighter pilot jacket on with 'Commander In Chief'' on it."
Odom said the Guard probably spent a half a million dollars training Bush, then he wouldn't even take his flight exam and failed to check the box on the form making himself available for active duty. Later, Bush was transferred on paper to a Guard unit in Colorado prior to his early release to attend Harvard Business School.
"I see him out parading around as if he was some sort of a military hero, when the truth about the matter is, he used his father's prestige in the community to get into the Guard in the first place," Odom said. "And then he used it to get himself transferred to Alabama to work on a political campaign."
Melissa Block: Would you support a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a heterosexual union?
John Kerry: Well it depends entirely upon the language and whether it permits civil union and partnership or not.
Any same sex couple can get married in a church. There are churches that will be proud to do it. There are churches that would refuse. Because of the protection they both enjoy according to searation of church and state, there is nothing the government can do to either church for their stance. This is not a religious debate.
Any amendment will only be able to ban civil marriage. That is all they can ban. So John Kerry would support and amendment to the constitution that would discriminate against a group of people because of who they choose to love.
Let me make this clear: Fuck John Kerry!
Update: Kerry quote from the Washington Post:
"I oppose gay 'marriage' and disagree with the Massachusetts court's decision."
Once again: Fuck John Kerry!
This is confusing. If what Janet did was so bad, why do they keep replaying the videotape over and over again?
Hmmm, good question.
Maybe they just want to give everyone a chance to see her performance and make up their own minds.
Oh, I'm so sure.
OK, OK. The real reason they keep replaying the Janet clip is that the media has the judgment and maturity of a slobbering, hormone-crazed adolescent -- no offense.
They go wild over a bare boob, a bare butt, a bare anything, especially if it belongs to a famous person.
Aren't they worried about upsetting the viewers?
Just the opposite. The TV industry learned long ago that many people who claim to be morally offended by something will tune in to watch it over and over again, if given the opportunity.
Wow, that's bizarre.
It's called hypocrisy, and actually it's not so uncommon among grown-ups.
And a really good point nobody else seems to be noticing.
Something else actually happened that day besides the football game?
For starters, 109 innocent people were blown up by suicide bombers in Iraq. Of course, a massacre like that isn't nearly as much fun to show on TV as the digitally obscured breast of a fading pop singer.
Why he gets the big bucks!
Kerry not only one who did his duty
As a Vietnam veteran (U.S. Marine Corps sniper), I am growing weary of the various comparisons regarding candidate and presidential military records.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) earned his medals, and I commend him for his valor. However, piloting fighter aircraft is inherently very dangerous, combat or not -- just check the training crash statistics.
Both Kerry and President Bush put themselves in "harm's way." The difference is unworthy of debate. Let's move on.
JAMES...
Oh yeah, learning to pilot an aircraft over Texas was just as dangerous as being on the ground in Vietnam! Just look at the casualities! Plus, put a coked up drunk in the pilot's seat.....
I would say Bush put himself at risk flying a plane over the state of Alabam, but he never fucking showed up for duty! Then he lost his pilot's license when he refused to take the guard physical, right after they insituted drug testing! Hmmmm.....
I say debate! Open up all the records. Does Bush have something to hide?
...Kahn told the crowd Perdue has failed in business recruitment in the same way Rocker failed when he was a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves.
"What we have here is John Rocker as governor," Kahn said, contending that Perdue had failed to close the deal on the DaimlerChrysler auto plant near Savannah.
...
"The manager — voters — decided to make a change, and unfortunately, the relief pitcher they put in was John Rocker, who blew the saves, was erratic and wild and, on top of that, shared the same sensitivities when it came to race," Kahn said.
Kahn said Perdue is a fair target on race based on his campaign promise to allow a vote on the state flag — re-opening the debate on the Confederate battle emblem — and "some of his actions in office," including his decision to replace several black department heads.
At least Rocker does not look like a Moon Pie, and had nice hair! And Yes, Perdue played the hell out of the race card during his candidacy for Governor. Race relations is a fair issue to bring against him.
All Aboard!
I rate this book five tortured and slaughtered kitties out of a possible five. It's sure to win the Mengele Eugenics Award at The New Republic's Gala Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Publication of "The Bell Curve"!
And...
Bill Frist disemboweled five of my littermates for the greater good of his offshore bank account, so I'd say this book is purr-fect.
And...
But do cat-killers beget cat-killers?
I think you see the trend.
Within science, Darwinian evolution is not controversial or considered under serious challenge, and hasn't been for a century. Evolution is real, it is observable and can be documented. In fact, adaption through competition can be seen in other aspects of life as well, such as economics.
...
And yet last week, as Georgia was pretending that the word "evolution" was too controversial to mention, scientists in China were announcing that they had documented how the SARS virus had twice evolved -- excuse me, had "changed biologically over time" -- as it migrated from animals to human beings.
Evolution is a part of so many different areas, not teaching it would do great disservice to our children. One of the reasons many viruses are hard to fight now, is because they evolve quickly, making evolution a very important part of medical research. With our economy going global, evolution of country's economies is becoming a very important area of research. You could even argue the evolution of style is important to designers trying to keep their products on the "edge."
I think Cathy Cox just shot herself in the foot. Perhaps we can now study the evolution of her political career, as she just blew any shot of becoming governor. Hell, she was even being pushed to run for Zell Miller's seat, which she turned down so she could stay an elected official on the state level.