It's not that Bush and China 's goal is to poison your children ...

Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration

It's just that in the current Corporate and Republican view of the world money and power trumps all else. And the only purpose of Corporate and Republican power is to garner more power and more money for those same Republicans and Corporations. The first choice in making money is to take it with the least amount of effort from the least powerful (e.g. sub prime loans). Isn't it amazing how easily Christianity seems to be fitting into this model?

This take-all doctrine hasn't always been the preeminent mode of operation in this country. The American 'work ethic' really did exist and was still to be found a few decades ago.

Democrats have to stop answering Republican straw men and start projecting their vision for this country. Unless, of course, they don't have one. And they need to interpret and explain the Republican and Corporate plans for this country. Democrats must take on the Corporate and Republican control of the media.

There are really only a handful of elected officials who are really Democrats. Whether those campaigning as Democrats lie from the get-go or change after they are elected I don't know. But look at the Democrats and how they continue to enable the destruction of our country even after they are in the majority. The House, and specially the Senate, may not have enough of a majority to get their own programs passed, but they do have enough power, if they would use it, to control the budget and to start backing out some of the unconstitutional abominations the Republicans did to our laws. But they do not use their power. They blubber, bluster and they kneel down to an imbecile. They are little better than Republicans. They are NOT the Democrats they were elected to be.

All those miles ...

This is the route UPS says my package took:

1. San Jose, Ca (Origin)
   
2. Oakland, Ca
   
3. Dallas/Ft Worth A/P Tx
4. Alburquerque, NM
   
5. Phoenix, Az
6. Tucson, Az (Out for delivery)
   

I'm not suggesting that UPS is not doing the best job in the world that exists. But ...

824 driving miles from San Jose to Tucson. Compare to 2945 miles that the package took (39 + 1724 + 649 + 419 + 114). NOTE: All these miles are driving miles that I obtained on the internet (and not flying miles).

Tucson Fire Department's pickup truck ...

From the Tucson Citizen: Fire Dept. providing more primary care by Eric Sagara

... Known as the alpha truck, the pickup is a relatively new unit in the department and is used to handle lower priority calls such as Berato's.

The department created the program in April 2006 because emergency rooms are not the only portion of the medical system overwhelmed by patients with nonemergency medical needs, said Norma Battaglia, a pre-hospital manager with TFD.

Fire officials estimate that 1 in every 8 calls to 911 is for a low-priority medical need. Fire officials said the department responded to about 84,000 calls last year.

The calls range from people who have fallen out of their wheelchairs or need help getting to the bathroom to those with alcohol or drug abuse problems to people who have just had surgery and need follow-up attention.

"It's been a number of years in coming, but there is virtually no after-hours medical care available to citizens," Battaglia said. "If you call any private physician you will get an after-hours recording that says 'Please contact 911 if this is an emergency.' Basically, many, many people have turned to the fire departments and to (emergency medical services) to provide basic primary care." ...

Congrats to Tucson for coming up with and actually implementing a good idea. Just don't let Bush, Cheney, The Turdblossom and all the rest hear about the program ...

Can the world get any weirder?

Homosexuals like Senator Larry Craig, who actually make laws, are responsible for the fact that playing footsies can be an arrestable activity.

Of eyesight and birthmonth ...

All kinds of good little tidbits (don't know if they're true or not) in this article: Researchers discover correlation between birth month and short-sightedness

Wanna bet ...

Trapper John writes: No More Gonzos.

A Democratic-led Senate cannot allow this Administration to once again graft the cancer of cronyism to the head of the Justice Department.

Watch, the Democrats will do nothing, nothing, but talk as if they still had (or is that ever had) a few principles left and watch it happen. Some of them will actually grease the skids.

There are no elected Democrats.

Life long punishment ...

This comment ...

10. Comment by Jose C. (angus) — August 27,2007 @ 7:13AM

Rating: 0 Thumbs Up

I know that I will get TDs for this, but I am going to say it anyway. This country is very cruel to felons. Some felons deserve the treatment they are given, others do not. Right now in this city, there are efforts to make it so that felons will not be able to rent a place to live. In a lot of cases, that is just not fair. In some cases, it is.

A judge sentences a person to time in prison. The person does their time, gets out and still ends up being subject to a sentence of sorts. They cannot vote. They cannot rent. There are many things they cannot do. So tell me, how are they supposed to become productive members of society again?

... refers to this article: Felon-vote effort has high-level foe in Ariz. by Howard Fischer

No cookie, no see-ee ...

The online Main Today will not let you view their 'paper' if you have either cookies or javascript inhibited.

They are at pressherald.maintoday.com if you with to accommodate them.

Fascism entrenched ...

One sure way for the fascist minded to keep control of the government is to pass control of intelligence gathering and covert operations to 'hired' contractors.

Outsourcing intelligence by James Carroll

... The Washington Post reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency is transferring "core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection" to private contractors -- up to a billion dollars worth. This raises the prospect that hired guns, instead of sworn officials, will be conducting covert operations, spying missions, interrogations, "renditions," surveillance -- the whole dangerous complex of shadow activity that began as the government's most sensitive responsibility.

Given the often shocking record of what US intelligence officials have done over the years, why does it matter if such activities are carried out by contractors? The answer patently goes to the question of accountability. Public servants who are bound by oaths to the Constitution and the law understand what the measure of behavior must be, even if they fall short of it. Activities involving the surreptitious, especially, have properly been reserved to public institutions subject to political oversight. Private parties, bound by contract, operate at remove from such limit and accountability, which may be why borderline activities like interrogation or rendition are increasingly farmed out to them. ...

Bye, bye ...

It took too long but corrupt Congressman Rick Renzi has decided not to run again, though he should do more and resign immediately!

Another 'Flawed' GOPer to Bite the Dust

Of doctor offices and carpet cleaners ...

Does anyone else think the running of [some?] doctors' offices is approaching the operation of [some?] carpet cleaning concerns sans the sales calls?

A sad indictment of the state of our country ...

The press, the Cowardly Democratic Party, the disengenuous press, the Republican Fascist Party, the lying press -- why should Gore run?

Al Gore Still in the Background by paradox

Fem-blogger? ...

What is this lately with fem-bloggers?

Damn. Do we have to bring this kind of sexism in everywhere? Now you know why many women used pseudonyms.

Since you don't see her you don't refer to her weight, or her height or her perkiness or her blondness or her ...

But she's not a blogger, she a fem-blogger, none-the-less.

And you can't even leave a comment on that stupid mscl-blogger's blog without signing in.

Damn.

What to say ...

Seems the current crop of mosquitoes don't carry the West Nile virus but the next crop may or may not carry the virus and so far they have only identified one dead bird with the virus but what comes next may be bad news or may be good news.

The above is a summary of this article in the Arizona Daily Star: 'Ankle-biters' just pesky, but W. Nile lurks

Excuse me, but officers aren't being trained in the use those dangerous weapons they carry? ...

Another dangerous item to blame on Bush's Iraq obsession:

... fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ... contributing to ammunition shortages hitting police departments nationwide and preventing some officers from training with the weapons they carry on patrol.

Feel safer, already?

AIDS and China ...

For some reason the Chinese government is disbanding groups that help fight AIDS or support AIDS sufferers.

And they are doing this to hide the extent of their AIDS' problem from the world so it won't impact on the Olympic Games????

My question: Did George Bush learn from China or did China learn from George Bush? Or is this a case of parallel 'development.'

A Fox 'news' kind of person ...

Photo given to FOXNEWS.com by Elias Bermudez of InmigrantesSinFronteras.com

'Pears Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio takes the above 'photoshopped' image as a threat to him instead of a portrayal of the threat others feel that he represents.

Threats aren't new to the sheriff, with about a dozen received in the past that led to convictions. This stunt is part of a bigger picture against his efforts, Arpaio said.

Though Arpaio doesn't claim to have Mexican friends he does claim compassion (something like Bush's compassionate conservatism, no doubt).

Last week, Arpaio banned visits by illegal immigrants to friends and family in his jail. The sheriff also launched a hotline for tips on illegal immigrants, which received about 1,400 calls so far.

In response to criticism that the hotline uses racial profiling, Arpaio said police must have probable cause to check out a tip.

"We don't go around knocking doors down. We have to have probable cause," Arpaio said. "I'm not a racist. I have compassion for the Mexican people."

Border Reporter ...

If you don't read Border Reporter, why not?

If you live in Arizona and don't read Border Reporter, then start now: Border Reporter

THE BORDER REPORT --AGAIN: It’s going to happen again. The storm is coming back to Cananea. Sonoran government officials have stayed very quiet about the recent attack in the beleaguered city. ...

THE BORDER REPORT --ATTACKS RESUME IN CANANEA: An armed commando of eight men raided the town of Cananea just minutes ago. ...

... and so on.

A state of ignorance ...

From The Sideshow:

If, as Grist reports, Al Gore is telling a New York Times columnist that he advocates civil disobedience, then I don't think he's going to run for president: "I can't understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers," Mr. Gore said, "and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."

If our Representatives in the House and Senate are so amazingly ignorant of the Constitution that they swear to uphold, what does one expect from the rest of the citizenry? Our education system has been starved and often under attack for decades. We have been taught to shop and strive to turn our person and personality into some kind of corporate created image of what we 'should' be. Speaking up in public embarrasses the whole room and if the police are about can actually be very dangerous to one's own person. We have been trained to refrain from 'talking back.' AND that any utterance IS back-talk. We know that the authorities can, with impunity, lie to us. But not only do the authorities lie to the public (for our own good, of course) they lie everywhere including in court under oath.

Whether we have completely crossed over from a representative democracy into a corporate fascist country I don't know. But psychologically it appears we have. There is little outrage against these criminals who are running our country. There may be a shift in support for Bush. But there's little outrage for the criminal destruction of a country that did not attack us. To our TV-reality country it was just another 'good show.'

I don't know what will wake up this country or if it is even possible to arouse it from it's corporate induced dream state.

From sea to shining sea ...

... one expansive and nosy police state where anyone with a reader will know where you are at all times down to when you last picnicked at a National Park.

Just think, until my government issued Medicare Card, I had managed to eliminate my SS# from all the junk I carry about my person and my car. NOW my government wants to perpetually broadcast my SS#, along with other ID theft gold about me, some 100 ft (100 yards?) in every direction at all times. A Corporate and Police State dream come true ...

And they will do that to save me from a terrorist? Yeah, that's it.

"This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes."

And will that make me a non-citizen? A de facto illegal alien? If I had been born just 20 years earlier I might have missed this part of the downfall of my country.

Then again, perhaps I will be able to truthfully quote: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." But we haven't hit "worst" yet have we? In the way of things, at some point we will have to pay for what the US has done to Iraq and the Iraqis and somehow I don't think we are headed for a cathartic Nuremberg Trials.

THIS ... is ... what ... they ... want ... to ... train ... officers ... with?

Crazies to the left of us, crazies to the right of us ...

via David Horowitz writes me a letter by Rick Perlstein

via The Great Circle of Insanity by Kagro X

My God, they want someone who is actually 'qualified' ...

I'm not sure what all this means but if somewhat true and accurate, but you know the media and how likely that may be, the neighborhood is having a say in construction and contractors may actually be qualified.

The city is using a new process for planning the design and construction of a road project in which the contractor is selected based on qualifications, not simply the lowest bid.

The contractor can then start some of the structural work while final design, such as aesthetics, is being set. And even though the lowest bid isn't necessarily the one chosen, there is a maximum price set so the project can't go over budget.

That's one of the advantages to this approach on the Fourth Avenue project, said Jim Glock, city transportation director.

The new method of design planning, called construction management at-risk, was approved by the Legislature in 2004, and several jurisdictions are trying the process for the first time.

For real or just a new set new buzz words like those that rotate through the education field every 10 years or so?

The rightly pissed ...

Invisible Again

Before buying that motorcycle ...

Going through a mid life crisis? Think twice, and then again, before buying that motorcycle.

Deaths among motorcycle operators in their 40s jumped 230 percent from 1997 to 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For riders over 50, fatalities soared 400 percent.

Terrorism, hate crimes, vandalism ...

So when is it terrorism?

Arizona mosque targeted in "acid bomb" attack

Another 'nonlethal' dangerous weapon ...

Apparently it will not cause the pain of being shot in the eye with a small hi-velocity bean bag nor being electrocuted with a taser so how will our Republican breed of law-enforcers get their jollies?

The Incapacitating Flashlight --An LED flashlight makes culprits vomit-- by Prachi Patel-Predd
The flashlight, which is being developed for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), uses a range finder to measure the distance to the target's eyes so that it can adjust the energy of the light to a level that won't cause permanent damage. Then it rapidly shoots out pulses of light from an array of ultrabright light emitting diodes (LEDs).

The flashes incapacitate a person in two different ways, ...

This guy's pissed ...

Stop slamming Arizona!

Accountability along the border ...

A US Border Patrol agent, Nicholas Corbett, who shot and killed Dominguez River, an illegal border crosser, in January has been ordered to stand trial for second-degree murder.

Think the Republicans are good a securing our borders? ...

Well, think again:

1M lbs. of Chinese seafood slips past FDA inspection by Justin Pritchard
At least 1 million pounds of suspect Chinese seafood landed on American store shelves and dinner plates despite a Food and Drug Administration order that the shipments first be screened for banned drugs or chemicals, an Associated Press investigation found.

What's in a name? ...

Find the cheapest food manipulators, that is manufacturers, and get various poisons (specially from China) added to your food as filler and 'flavor.'

Now there's botulism (also poisonous) from Lakeside Foods Inc in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Does Lakeside Food package its botulism in Wisconsin or did it subcontract that out to China?

The following cheapest common denominators, that is brands, are complicit in spiraling the US food supply into the muck:

Albertson's, Happy Harvest, Best Choice, Food Club, Bogopa, Valu Time, Hill Country Fare, HEB, Laura Lynn, Kroger, No Name, North Pride, Shop N Save, Shoppers Valu, Schnucks, Cub Foods, Dierbergs, Flavorite, IGA, Best Choice and Thrifty Maid

U.S. issues new botulism warning for green beans

The complicit 57 ...

Enough Already with the Pathetic Excuses by Meteor Blades, Sun Aug 05, 2007

... Frankly, you [the complicit 57 Democratic Representatives and Senators] epitomize weak. Your every pore exudes feebleness. You are surrender monkeys. And you’ve just casually tossed away a basic protection as if it were a banana peel. ...

Arizona's Harry Mitchell is one of the complicit 57.

The Democratic Senate majority betrayed us again ...

16 Democrats voted to 'allow' BushCo to wiretap Americans without any oversight. A list of the Democratic betrayers is here and, of course, Dianne Feinstein is one of them.

Senate Democrats fail on FISA

By a vote of 60 to 28, the Senate just passed the bill that President Bush demanded today. Senators such as Mikulski, Klobuchar, and Feinstein promised to vote for the "Bond" version and the Democratic alternative bill for some unstated reason.

Really a pathetic showing by our Senators.

Update [2007-8-3 22:33:25 by andgarden]: I want to make a further point about this, because it connects to a problem I've had with Democrats for a few months. It is possible for them to oppose the President by not passing objectionable bills, amendments, and supplementals. They refuse to exercise this power--which only requires a simple majority. You can see the devastating results of this non-thinking tonight.

Something the oil companies don't want ... at least not yet.

Here's an article about a company that aims to 'coax' fuel from bacteria.

To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you're left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel.

Of course, the US isn't to blame and didn't make it worse, did it?

One of the more intellectually intact members of Bush's administration, Robert Gates, thinks up another reason the Iraqi's are at fault:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, returning from a four-day trip to the Middle East, offered a pessimistic view of Iraq's political progress Thursday, saying he thought that the United States had underestimated the level of distrust between the Shiite Muslim-led government and other ethnic groups.

And when I say Gates is intellectually intact I don't mean very intact. He equates the Iraq political environment to the US constitutional convention.

In addition, Gates sees bright spots in the possibility that the US may be able to create new little Saddam's in Anbar province:

However, he said that Sunni provincial leaders in once-restive Anbar province had been reaching out to the U.S. military, which had led to a drop in violence

"The developments at the local level, I think, are more encouraging than I would have expected three or four months ago," he said.

Iraq is falling apart but there's always some little light somewhere that can be protected and inflamed.