Eric Alterman's Use of word "Lie" Destroys Ron Christie

I'm going to step out on a limb here, but former Special Assistant to Pres. Bush, Ron Christie, comes across here as someone who must have wet his pants everytime Bush stepped into the room. Christie brings a whole new meaning to Bush ass-kisser (there really is no subtle way to say this). Bush adoration has never looked so sycophantic. Watch Christie meltdown over the word "lie," a word Eric Alterman of The Nation isn't afraid to use when necessary.

Even Chris Matthews nails Christie for his over use of "nice try" when trying to refute the historical and well documented facts presented to him.

Politico's Roger Simon on Bush v Gore: "Most Nakedly Political Act" by Supreme Court in Modern History

This might be just another one of those Bush v Gore rehashes, but I love the way Politico's Roger Simon unequivocally denounces the Supreme Court activist decision to hand Bush the presidency. You just don't see this kind of honestly from the media that often. Here's proof it can happen. Thank you David Shuster for bringing up the subject.

Voucher Advocates Attempt to Bribe Republican Lawmakers for Yes Vote

So what happens if you can’t convince the citizens of Utah that vouchers aren’t really as bad as people know they are? (Remember, the Utah Republican legislature passed a statewide voucher plan, only to be overturned by the citizens via referendum).

You simply bribe Republican lawmakers. There’s nothing morally or ethically wrong with that, is there? But that’s what happened and it appears the FBI might be looking into the allegations. The problem is all the offers were verbal, a he said she said situation, resulting in a dead end. You be the judge. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Two Republican lawmakers talked with FBI agents about bribery allegations in the Utah Legislature, although the FBI would not say Wednesday whether there is an ongoing investigation. Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, a former police officer, went to the FBI in 2007, telling them that school voucher supporters had offered to pay for his re-election bid if he would vote for their bill.

Judi Clark, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education, the pro-voucher organization that Ray said had approached him, said the group never made such an offer "nor did we even entertain that idea.

Ray told the Ethics Committee that a voucher lobbyist, whom he declined to name, had told Ray he could have his campaign expenses covered if he voted for vouchers. When he refused, Ray said, the voucher supporters offered $50,000 to anyone who would run against him. " I reported it and was basically told, 'Do you have any evidence?' and I told them 'no, I don't.' They said 'It's your word against their word,'" Ray said. "That was the only time I talked to them."

(In) another case involving Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, former Rep. Susan Lawrence, R-Holladay, told the committee she was … contacted by the FBI after news broke of her allegations against Hughes. She had alleged that Hughes offered her $50,000 if she would drop her opposition to a controversial push to provide state subsidies -- in the form of vouchers -- for private school students.

Of course, it could all be an innocent mix-up, a misunderstanding by the parties involved. Right?

Gaffney Blames Clinton for Sept. 11. Chris Matthews and Joe Conason Amazed

In this action packed segment on Hardball, Chris Matthews gives neo con Frank Gaffney every opportunity to dig himself deeper into the dark hole he crawls out of from time to time. Gaffney is the poster guy for "war monger." Here, Gaffney blames Bill Clinton for not preparing the Bush administration to deal with Bin Laden or take his warnings seriously. The Nation's Joe Conason is there to call Gaffney a LIAR.

In another segment soon to be posted, Eric Alterman calls Bush a liar, and visibly shakes up presidential ass-kisser and former special assistant to Bush, Ron Christie.

I hope this is a trend. It's about time we call the outright fabrications from Republicans what they really are, lies. They can't stand that. My advice: get used to it.

To Bush, the Medal of Honor a Worthless Trinket

Incredibly, George Bush continues to surprise even the most loyal idol worshipers. The idea that the President Alvero Uribe of Columbia would receive the Medal of Honor, after all the known human rights violations and the killings of organizers and laborers who signed up to join or start unions is beyond tasteless, it's an insult.

It appears another legacy of Bush reign is how worthless he has made the Medal of Honor and its recipients. Lori Wallach, of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, can't squeeze all the violations and Colombian nightmares in her segment with David Shuster on MSNBC.

When Private Schools Become Government Funded "Public" Schools.

The Athens Banner-Herald featured this voucher perspective from Priscilla Carroll, titled: Vouchers will hurt private schools. She points to a rarely discussed result when government money is being spent on profit educational businesses:

The idea of school vouchers has surfaced again … no one has revealed the great deception vouchers really are.The concept of "choice" in education is one argument in favor of vouchers. However, vouchers will eliminate all choice if private, parochial, Christian and home schools are tempted to take the money. The truth is, once private, independent schools accept vouchers, they no longer can remain "private." Government regulations and oversight will force them to become one and the same with the public schools.

Then, one size of government control truly will fit all. This is the great deception.
Former federal secretaries of education have warned about vouchers. Lamar Alexander, who served under George H.W. Bush, said any school who accepted a student who came with public dollars would become a public school. Richard Riley, who served in the Clinton administration, said vouchers threatened the very nature of private schools. The Supreme Court has upheld the principle that when the government offers funds, it may include as a condition that those who receive the money refrain from disseminating certain kinds of information or expressing certain points of view.

Many countries in Europe, as well as Australia, South Africa and Canada, have seen private education go by the wayside as they accepted public funds for education.

Here are a few reader responses:

rossmadison: This column is incorrect. The voucher is given to the parent. It then belongs to the parent, who tenders it to the school. For government to regulate private schools receiving vouchers would infringe on parents' choice.

Wrong, rossmadison. As the government, us, we want to make sure our taxpayer money is being spent well, hardly an infringement on a parents choice (is that a Constitutional protection? Didn’t think so). The next response nails it:

Artemis4951: Like private institutions receiving public funds, private schools will be subject to some form of government oversight. Eventually, particularly if the legislature is under pressure to show results, or has concerns, they're going to require more reporting from those private schools to prove that they are legitimate places for investment of public funds.

And here was my response, albeit a bit more partisan:

In European countries, the intent of private schools receiving taxpayer dollars wasn't to break up teachers unions, but to make sure the quality of education improved and matched or exceeded public schools. In those countries, public and private schools use the same educational materials and receive the same tests. If private schools can do a better job and still include religion of whatever message they advocate, everybody wins. But as Carroll points out, private becomes public.

Voucher advocates cannot deny that taxpayer dollars in the U.S. would go to untested schools with no accountability measures or testing. They simply state that parents know best and people should have a choice. Feel good but vacuous statements driven by ideology. Calling vouchers "scholarships" or taking corporate donations sidesteps public accountability of taxpayer spending, and sends all our money into profit driven schools while stealing dollars from state coffers.

With accounting like this, it's no wonder the country is in crisis. Blame the free marketers. They hate government but love taking its money. Go figure.

Re-Thinking Neo Liberalism and the Global Economy

It was another bit of bad news about a major corporation from CBC News:

Once a high-flying darling of the technology sector and a stock market heavyweight, Nortel Networks filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in a Delaware court.

But it was this response from a Canadian reader that seemed to hit the right note for me, and maybe for you, when it comes to rethinking our “global economy.”

karlb/ wrote: Posted 2009/01/14. I wonder how long it will take before our Parliamentarians realize we are not in a normal rhythm of recession and recovery. We have passed a tipping point, and this see saw does not have the means of a recovery. Specifically what has led us to this is the Neo-Liberal Free Trade, laissez-faire policies that has sparked a world wide economic collapse. That is in progress, we have not yet reached the precipice, but we are on the edge. Nortel represented one of the last private institutions of high level techological research and development in Canada. It has existed for over a century in some guise, survived the Great Depression, which shows the depth of the catastrophe that is upon us.

There is a way to manage this massive free fall, to allow the prospect of recovery, but our leadership, in both the Conservative and Liberal parties will not even acknowledge we are in anything but a transitory 'correction'. Those remedial policies involve reversing the disastrous policies of Classic British Liberalism, that of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, that have ruled Western economies since the dismantling of the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1971. Free Trade must be seen for what it is, a failure and a fraud.

All Free Trade Agreements need to be abrogated. The WTO must be reduced to an agent of national governments in regulating bilateral trade agreements, rather than as a shill for the predatory international investment organism. Monetarism, the global casino of currency and credit, must be completely re-organized by re-instituting fixed and stable rates of currency exchange. The gigantic monetary derivatives bubble must be deflated in as orderly fashion as possible.

The IMF must be reined in to protecting national sovereignty rather than promoting the interests of international finance. A massive effort by government to re-establish credit and confidence on a national basis, the re-nationalization of banking and currency sovereignty is implicit with this. Without these efforts Nortel is just the start of what lies in store for the rest of Canadian Economy.

Protectionism? Yes, and it's about time.

Bush Legacy Project Tries to Cover What Looks and Feels Like the Hurricane Katrina of Presidencies

I can’t make this stuff up, so just be warned, the following misrepresentations are real and thought to be believable. God, I hope we never see a guy like Bush again, the true face of conservativism. Eight years have almost desensitized us to this bizarro world vision of America by Bush and the Republicans. This might be a long post, but hell, it's been a long 8 years.

Bloomberg-- Bush has tried to have a gracious transition, which is why it’s hard to understand why he refused to grant a small request by Barack Obama and his wife to check in a few days early at Blair House, the 119-room complex within the security perimeter of the White House, so their girls could start school. The State Department had no planned visits from foreign heads of state. There are more than 100 other ceremonial rooms, should there be receptions. And there was only one overnight guest, a former -- yes, former -- prime minister of Australia, John Howard, attending a one-hour event at the White House. Howard wouldn’t have had to move to the Embassy Suites but to the Aussie Embassy, at worst. Surely he wouldn’t have minded making room for the president-elect. There would have been no need to share a bath. Blair House has 35. If not for the Obamas, Bush could have said yes for the sake of the taxpayers. The middle of Washington is in gridlock as the Secret Service has built a bunker around the hotel the Obamas moved into at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in security.

According to the CBC: In the final news conference of his presidency, President George W. Bush strongly dismissed suggestions that the United States lost its moral standing during his administration, insisting his most vociferous critics are few. Bush bristled when asked whether certain policies like the war in Iraq, U.S. interrogation tactics and the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had a negative impact on America's moral standing. "I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged," Bush said. "It may be damaged amongst some of the elite, but people still understand America stands for freedom, that America as a country provides such great hope. My view is that most people around the world, they respect America. And some of them don't like me. I understand that — some of the writers and opiners and all that. That's fine; that's part of the deal. But I'm more concerned about the country and how people view the United Sates of America."
Legacy Project

Bloomberg Margaret Carlson, author of “Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House”: Bush is embarked on a massive legacy project, displayed on a White House Web site in a 52-page book called “Highlights of Accomplishments and Results.” Each chapter ends with a box of factoids headed “Did You Know?” and the book lists his top 100 achievements. It pictures Bush atop the pile of rubble at Ground Zero with a bullhorn.

He told ABC television he deeply regretted U.S. intelligence failures, without mentioning he had sent his vice president to camp out at CIA headquarters until the professionals packaged the intel the way he wanted it. He doesn’t explain why former CIA Director George “Slam Dunk” Tenet deserved the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The legacy project can put a gloss on any event, just as flying footwear from an Arab journalist is a symbol of the “free society” he created in Iraq, and Hamas is another pillar in his crusade to spread democracy.

The Taliban in Afghanistan are stronger under a corrupt, opium-soaked government. But it’s all part of the success described with phrases like “Established the Freedom Agenda to Spread Hope Through Liberty” and “Set a Bright Course for America’s Future.”

With glasses that rose-colored, you realize how Bush could see bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans and proclaim that his disaster chief was doing a heckuva job. And how his mother, visiting a shelter in Houston, said those with one black trash bag of belongings were “underprivileged anyway” so living there was “working very well for them.” Stuff happens.
You’d never know from the book that Bush had watched as Iraq burned, its antiquities were stolen and hospitals were stripped bare. Bush’s biggest claim is that he kept us safe, but only if you don’t count 9/11, which he says “came out of nowhere.” That ignores the warning in his hands a month earlier -- “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” -- and reports that young Arabs were learning how to fly airplanes but not to land them.

On the economy, he touts a record of prosperity. But the crowing only works if he’s talking about before Lehman Brothers and other banks tanked in the fall, partly because he refused to regulate a raft of new and risky financial instruments.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit will more than double to at least $1.18 trillion this year and that unemployment will top 9 percent next year.
Consumer confidence is at its lowest point since the measurement started. The Dow Jones average, which rose above 14,000 in 2007, now stands at about 8,700.

In 2001, there were no U.S. deaths in Iraq. By lunchtime with the presidents on Wednesday, more than 4,200 had died.

Bush may be hoping one day to return to the capital, landing at an airport renamed in his honor. That will take quite a legacy project.

According to the NY Times; Yet to talk to people still inside the Bush White House is to come away with a sense that they do not feel defeated at all. Rather, having been through the crucible of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, two wars, a hurricane of biblical proportions and the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression, they describe a sense of achievement and honor in having served the country, and in particular this president. If there is sadness, it is only that they must part ways so abruptly by week’s end.

ConsortiumNews: One of the surprising claims that stood out among the combined 90 pages of so-called accomplishments was the White House’s glowing assessment of Bush’s record on veterans’ issues. Bush claims he “provided unprecedented resources for veterans” over the past eight years and provided “the highest level of support for veterans in American history … The budget increases that have occurred mostly were enacted over Bush’s opposition or related to the fact that injuries from the Iraq War far exceeded the administration’s rosy projections in early 2003. Before Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, documents released by the Department of Veterans Affairs said it expected a maximum of 8,000 cases of post-traumatic stress disorder. However, according to a study released last year by the RAND Institute, there are more than 320,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars suffering from major depression, PTSD and/or traumatic brain injury.

For his part, Bush stacked the VA with political cronies, such as former Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson, who as VA Secretary defended a budget measure that sought major cuts in staffing for healthcare and at the Board of Veterans Appeals; slashed funding for nursing home care; and blocked four legislative measures aimed at streamlining the backlog of veterans benefits claims. Of the 84,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by VA, only half, about 42,000, had their disability claim approved by VA. Instead of expediting PTSD claims, Bush's political appointees at VA actively fought against mental health claims. Bush's appointees also obstructed scientific research into the causes of Gulf War illnesses dating back 18 years to Operation Desert Storm and opposed medical research on treatment for 210,000 of those veterans. Even after Nicholson’s resignation, the Department of Veterans Affairs continued to be buffeted by scandals, including a cover-up in an epidemic of veterans’ suicides and attempted suicides. And last November, internal watchdogs discovered 500 benefits claims in shredding bins at the 41 of the 57 regional VA offices around the country.

Bush’s so-called accomplishments also claimed that Bush “reduced the number of homeless veterans by nearly 40 percent from 2001 to 2007. That statement rankled Aaron Glantz, a journalist, author and the Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism at the Carter Center. “What kind of President pats himself on the back with 200,000 veterans sleeping homeless on the street every night? That contradicts the Bush self-congratulations about veterans’ homelessness.

The Sidney Morning Harold:
The last NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Bush's presidency found that 79 per cent of Americans will not miss him. Iraq burned, New Orleans flooded, and Bush remained oblivious to each and every pratfall on his watch. Americans essentially stopped listening to him after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, but he still doesn't grasp the finality of their defection. Bush is equally blind to the collapse of his propaganda machinery. Almost poignantly, he keeps trying to hawk his goods in these final days.

Bush Legacy Project Just Like Old Bob & Ray Comedy Bit

As we watch in wonder and amazement how the Bush Legacy Project manipulates the Bush economic disaster and environmental rape, along with filmmaker John Ziegler's documentary featuring future presidential candidate Sarah Palin in "How Obama Got Elected" where she blames the media for her short comings, this audio comedy bit by Bob & Ray has never been more appropriate. This is one of their best.

Project M? Ford's Electrifying Secret...Kinda

Why didn't Ford take any of the auto industry loan? They have a secret "Project M" in the works, and it's coming out...in a couple of years? I hope they can wait that long. Here's the video and details, compliments of the N.Y. Times:



Inside the Ford Motor Company, it was called Project M — to build a prototype of a totally electric, battery-powered car in just six months. “Frankly, I think it’s a gamble not to do it,” William C. Ford Jr., the company’s executive chairman, said in an interview. “It’s clear that society is headed down this road.”

Most of the prospective electric models need to be charged for several hours to cover a day’s worth of driving. Ford estimates that its car will need at least a six-hour charge to travel 100 miles. The Volt can get 40 miles on battery power alone, and it has a small gasoline engine that drives a generator to extend its range.

Americans, on average, drive their cars less than 35 miles a day, according to the latest federal statistics, and the industry is likely to play up that fact in its advertising campaigns. Ford and its supplier partner, the Canadian firm Magna International, built the Project M prototype in the body of a Ford Focus compact car. It is planning a more distinctive design for the finished product when it goes on the market in two years.

The modest expectations for initial sales are reflected in Ford’s plan for introducing the car at the auto show Sunday. There won’t be the usual dry ice, flashing lights and pounding music.
Instead, there will be a simple announcement at a news conference, and the car will be parked on the street in front of the convention center, available for short test drives by journalists through downtown Detroit.

So You Wanna Be like the "Low Tax" Southern States? Then Take a Look at Mississippi folks.

The southern states are magnets for business. And well they should be. Republicans control their state economies and believe in the free market system. One such state, Mississippi, is a glowing example of what your state can look like if you just allowed the Republicans another chance to prove their system of economics, along with a little dab of social engineering.

According to AP:

Mississippi’s annual average income of $24,530, was the lowest in the country.

Mississippi had the highest rate of poverty, 21.1 percent, compared with the U.S. average of 9.8 percent.

Mississippi had the lowest average internet usage, 46 percent, compared to the U.S. average of 61.7 percent

Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate, which is 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some experts have blamed abstinence-only health education.

Let’s see now; low wages, unwanted pregnancy, uninformed and poverty stricken.

What’s not to like if you’re a major corporation?

Remember, 9/11 Happened Under Bush's Watch. He Did Not Protect Us

Is it just me, or do you go through the roof everytime Pres. Bush sycophants tout his one big accomplishment: He prevented another attack on the U.S. over the last 7 years. Torture worked, the Iraq war helped and what ever the Bush administration did was justified. Move along, there's nothing to see here...

Wrong, wrong, wrong. 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. It happened, Bush was president and he didn't protect us when he ignored the PDB. This is just more of the historical myth being created by these irresponsible lawless elitist conservatives. Watch how it's done it in the clip.

Palin VICTIM of the Media, Liberals and MSNBC

David Shuster brought filmmaker and former conservation talk host John Ziegler on his show to talk about "How Obama Got Elected," his surreal documentary featuring interviews with Sarah Palin. If any other filmmaker appeared this biased, they would be discredeted instantly and sent packing. Remember, conservatives are always the victims of big government, liberal schools, social programs, laws and gay people. VICTIMS!!!

Sarah Palin continues the grand old tradition.

The Misunderstood Brief History of Sarah Palin: Victim!

There's really not much I can add to this from Keith Olberman, except to say: Remember this when Sarah Palin runs for president.

Daschle Sounds Warning About Flawed U.S. Health Care Mess

When it comes to health care, does anyone think this fact is acceptable: the Congressional Budget Office projects that health expenditures will rise to 25 percent of GDP by 2025. Health care spending among other rich, developed countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development averaged just 9 percent of GDP in 2006. -American Progress.

Yet the Republicans, who claim they're fiscally responsible, are okay with this tremendous waste of hard earned income. Reining this in would bring bigger savings than any tax cut conservatives can promise American's, which is why they oppose fixing the problem. They will tell you it's a big government nightmare, but what they are really trying to do is prevent the Democrats from increasing peoples incomes and wiping out medical bankruptcy's. Without reform, disaster capitalism will continue to thrive, and empower Republican ideology.

Listen to the list of reasons Tom Daschle, Obama's choice for secretary of health and human services, gave recently before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee:

Sen. McConnell's Tax Cut Slight of Hand for Middle Class Protects Wealthy

If the Republicans were good getting us into this global crisis, then they're really good at distracting us from their bad sense of economics. The GOP reaction to Barack Obama's economic speech is cynical blustering at its slickest.

Sen. Mitch McConnell's proposal for a middle class income tax cut from 25 percent to 10 is downright incredible. Not that I wouldn't mind having a little extra money on my paycheck, but it would still break the federal governments bank and ignore the current 15 percent tax bracket or lower it to well under ten percent, putting us further into debt.

It would also take everyones eyes off of RAISING taxes on the wealthy. It's slick, divisive and just what you would expect.




According to the Washington Post:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging the incoming Obama administration to stick to its campaign pledge and immediately increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans, a position that President-elect Barack Obama has wavered on since winning election.Pelosi told reporters she "couldn't be more clear" in opposing some Obama advisers' wish to wait for the tax cuts on the highest income earners to expire in two years, as they are set to do under current law. "Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest in America repealed," she said.

Pelosi said the income tax cuts to the highest earning Americans -- which were
decreased from 39.6 to 35 percent as part of the 2001 Bush tax plan -- have been "the biggest contributor to the budget deficit," which now stands at $1.2 trillion for fiscal year 2009.

On the campaign trail, Obama touted an immediate repeal of the Bush tax cuts for top wage earners, while promising tax relief for the bottom 95 percent of Americans. He said he planned to use increased revenues from the repeal of those tax cuts to finance some of his ambitious agenda items, including a near-universal health care plan.

Hypocrite Norm Coleman's Death Throw Dance of Healing

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Republicans are always falling on their double edged sword of words, getting caught in their own hypocritical rhetoric. Norm Coleman is a glaring example of Republican bluster and bulls**t. Liberal talker Ed Schultz rubs it in.

Dan Gross Busts Conservative Myth More Spending Will Make Economy Worse. Uses Historic Proof

Right now, Barack Obama is acquiescing to Republican demands in a way that yanks the teeth out of plan to stimulate the economy. Compromise has been the Democratic downfall for years. Having said that, the spending and public works aspect to Obama's plan has history stamp of approval, but you wouldn't know that listening to conservative ideologues determined to protect the parties turf, despite its massive failure. MSNBC's David Shuster busts the myth with Newsweeks senior editor Dan Gross.

Colbert Nails the Insanity of Supreme Court Activist Decision in Ledbetter Case

Thank you Stephen Colbert. His mention of the Noll Garcia judgment was an eye opener. To start, let’s go back to the beginning. According to the Hawaii Reporter:

“Last year our conservative activist Supreme Court ruled that companies that discriminate against their employees are allowed to do so as long as they manage to hide the discrimination long enough for the statute of limitations to expire.”

In a case so bizarre Stephen Colbert got a stunned laugh out of his audience when he mentioned it, the Noll Garcia case is right out of the Twilight Zone. From the N.Y. Times:

The Idaho plaintiff, Noll Garcia, uses a wheelchair. He said his apartment violated federal standards because it was not readily accessible. Under the law, he had two years to challenge a “discriminatory housing practice” in court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, writing for the majority, said this two-year period began when construction of the building was complete. Mr. Garcia lost out because he filed suit in 2003 — within two years of renting the apartment, but 10 years after it was built.

Here’s Colbert’s biting commentary:



Apparently, Garcia should have known a decade ago that he was destined to rent the offending apartment.

In the clip, Colbert plays a clip of John McCain calling the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act a “trial lawyers dream.” That is the bottom line for Republicans. To hell with years of discrimination and back pay for American’s, you’ve got to stop those damn trial lawyers. Ideology over doing the people business. I have a question for McCain: Do companies have trail lawyers? If they do, so should the citizens of this country.

Then there is this:

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reached a similar conclusion in a lawsuit by blacks who had applied unsuccessfully for jobs as firefighters in Chicago. Judge Richard A. Posner cited the Ledbetter case in rejecting their contention that they were victims of a “continuing violation” of the civil rights law.

Violating the civil rights act is okay because it the violation is simply continued from years before. What?

Obama Double Exposed By Spider-Man

I was a silver age comic reader when Marvel Comics broke new ground with Spider-man and the Fantastic Four. In those days, most people looked at you as if you were an idiot introvert, a loser hiding away in a darkened bedroom dreaming of the day a science lab experiment would go wrong and turn you into America's first super hero. It never happened of course, but since then comics have become a legitimate art form. So legit, our next president has made the comic pages:

(AP) - Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect.

Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a "shout-out back" by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief. Quesada said, "It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We're all thrilled with that."

The comic starts with Spider-Man's alter-ego Peter Parker taking photographs at the inauguration, before spotting two identical Obamas.

Parker decides "the future president's gonna need Spider-Man," and springs into action, using basketball to determine the real Obama and punching out the impostor. Obama thanks him with a fist-bump.