Car Czar Proposed to Oversee Auto Bailout

John McCain for President 2008

I heard on the radio on 550 KFYI in Phoenix Arizona that there is a spreading phenomenon, at least in the greater Phoenix Arizona area. According to a caller to the JD Hayworth Show, there are many people who feel they can’t vote for anyone but John McCain because they have been left with no choice

To show that they are voting for McCain but are doing so under protest, these people are putting John McCain bumper stickers on their cars upside down and putting yard signs in their yard upside down.

It appears to be spreading as people stop and ask – “Do you know that your bumper sticker (or yard sign) is upside down? ” and are told why. Some people even put a note on their yard sign to explain it to anyone who stops by to be helpful and turn the sign around.

John McCain For President 2008

It’s time to reevaluate our involvement!

Every day there are news reports about more deaths. Every night
on TV there are photos of death and destruction. Why are we still
there?

We occupied this land, which we had to take by force, but it causes
us nothing but trouble. Why are we still there?

Many of our children go there and never come back. Why are we still
there?

Their government is unstable, and they have loopy leadership. Why
are we still there?

Many of their people are uncivilized. Why are we still there?

The place is subject to natural disasters, which we are supposed
to bail them out of. Why are we still there?

There are more than 1000 religious sects, which we do not
understand. Why are we still there?

Their folkways, foods and fads are unfathomable to ordinary
Americans. Why are we still there?

We can’t even secure the borders. Why are we still there?

They are billions of dollars in debt and it will cost billions
more to rebuild, which we can’t afford. Why are we still there?

It is becoming clear … WE MUST PULL OUT OF CALIFORNIA !!!

By Anthony Kaufman, AlterNet. Posted August 9, 2006.
In his new film, ‘World Trade Center,’ the director turns the events of 9/11 into an easily digestible myth of American heroism, with an almost happy ending. Huh?

“Don’t think; keep moving.”

Spoken by Port Authority police Sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage) as the World Trade Center buckles above him, these words ring truer than most in Paramount Pictures’ new film “World Trade Center,” directed by Oliver Stone.

Not only does this line of dialogue aptly describe the movie — which opens today — but it also illustrates a worldview embraced by the film. No wonder Paramount launched a massive marketing campaign that targets two specific groups often light on thought and heavy on action: teenage boys and the Christian Right.

A celebration of authority, God, and president Bush, “World Trade Center” doesn’t feel like an Oliver Stone movie. If conservatives were worried that Stone, the director of anti-establishment touchstones “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” and “JFK,” would turn this 9/11 movie into a platform for personal politics, he has proved them resoundingly wrong. Instead, Stone delivers the Bush base a jingoistic, All-American all-you-can-eat buffet on a silver platter.
More here: AlterNet: Movie Mix: Oliver Stone Rewrites 9/11

Personal Politics

All too often, legislators’ private interests are hidden from public view

By David Dagan
Data by Daniel Lathrop, Susan Schaab and Leah Rush

WASHINGTON, September 24, 2004 — State legislators directly influence the lives of all Americans. The 7,400 lawmakers in state capitals across the country passed more than 42,000 laws in 2003 alone and spent more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money in fiscal 2002.

But state representatives are also often uniquely positioned to influence their personal financial fortunes or those of their employers while in office. In fact, more than 28 percent of state legislators who reported their finances sat on a committee with authority over at least one of their personal interests in 2001, according to a recent Center for Public Integrity report. Eighteen percent disclosed ties to organizations registered to lobby state government. And 10 percent were employed by other government agencies, including public schools and universities. See Who’s the Boss: Legislators with other government jobs.

Although state legislators frequently have jurisdiction over areas in which they hold personal interests, many states have weak mechanisms for disclosing those ties, a companion Center report notes. In fact, 24 states received failing scores on making basic information about the outside interests of their legislators available to the public.

Read this Report here

That sentence from McClatchy Newspapers sums up how and why the Senate voted to use tax dollars to experiment on human embryos. The senators made it personal.

Egocentricity, as common in Washington as cherry blossoms and crime, thrived, making objections to tax-funded experimentation on human embryos seem, well, inconvenient at most. As one senator said of his family members: “We will all die. But no one should have to die as they died.”

Most of human history has been lived with the assumption that God doesn’t give us a vote on how we die. The Senate voted against that notion.

Since exaggerated self-awareness and egoism are cool, let me say this: The legislators and lobbyists pleading for the law have nothing on me, anguish-wise.

I have lost good friends to Alzheimer’s. The wife of one friend had to move her husband from a first-rate facility to one of lesser quality because she ran out of money. The director at the new facility counseled her not to visit her husband every day, suggesting that she try to make a life for herself. She replied: “My husband is my life.”

More on – The personal politics of stem cells

On Friday, Hezbollah fired katyusha rockets into Nahariya and hit a hospital. Only by the grace of God and the army’s forward thinking had the hospital been evacuated previously and despite massive damage to the building, no loss of life occurred.
… pictures continue to pour out of Lebanon that makes much of the world angry and at odds with Israel.

israelinsider: Views: When You Sleep with a Missile

Our government and politicians are taking to the airwaves to explain to the world why we do what we do, and how we do it. Kofi Annan’s insulting comment that we hit a UN base in Lebanon on purpose shows the extent that Annan has been corrupted by his personal politics. The media shows pictures from Lebanon and the tens of thousands of fleeing Lebanese with little regard to the fact that more than 300,000 Israelis have fled the battle areas as well and more than a million others have spent days and nights in bomb shelters.

Personal Politics

I spend too much of my life “in my head.” I think about this and that — and fret about the other. But tonight, I let myself meander through a new blog space: women’s blogs. It all started with a reference to BlogHer by Chris Pirillo. I poked around a bit, then found a women’s speaker wiki. (Stay with me, there is a political point coming!)

I explored a few categories and stumbled upon Liz Lawley, a professor from Rochester who is currently on sabbatical across the lake at Microsoft, and working with someone I know, no less. From here, I found her blog, where I met Badger, the subject of this post.

TV Series: “Cold Squad” (1998)
Original Air Date: 29 September 2001 (Season 5, Episode 1)