How can we get back to shame without groupism?

FEMA Wants $4.7 Million Back From Katrina Victims

What america could be capable of:

vibe on 70 comments:

We must exert pressure on the Mexican government

Thisis jacked up.

welcome to the future

Just imagine if this were on every phone.

No more wondering about the location of your child or teen. Keep an up-to-the-minute progress on their location.

Locate your child on any computer with Internet Access or call our toll free hotline and they can do a remote locate for you 1-877-229-2287.
Currently, locate and tracking information is stored indefinitely.
Set safe zones to alert parents when loved one enters or leaves designated areas.
Restrict incoming and outgoing calls to pre-selected numbers.
Phone locations updated every 60 seconds.
Locate loved ones on city map or aerial view.
View tracking path of phone.
Know speed and direction phone is traveling.
Now you can know your children are safe, even when they’re out of your sight.


But wait! It's everywhere!

Giving McCain benefit of the doubt, for now

Senator John McCain’s Liberty University Address to be Televised Nationally via Sky Angel Family and Christian Television Service



I like John McCain and I'm willing to wait and see what he actually says to the graduating clas at Jerry Falwell's university. I hope he will be able to draw enough of the less extreme away from the Christian right. Assuming of course that he will be the nominee in 2008. Who knows?

Watchdog contends budget bill broke law

The issue is bizarre, with even constitutional scholars saying they could not think of any precedent for the journey the budget bill took to becoming a law. Opponents point to elementary school civics lessons to make their case, while Republicans are evoking an obscure Supreme Court ruling from the 1890s to suggest a bill does not have to pass both chambers of Congress to become law.

WHAT IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF GLOBALIZATION

Answer: Princess Diana's death.
>> Question: How come?
>> Answer: An English princess
>> with an Egyptian boyfriend
>> crashes in a French tunnel,
>> driving a German car
>> with a Dutch engine,
>> driven by a Belgian who was drunk
>> on Scottish whisky, (check the bottle before you change the spelling)

>> followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles;
>> treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.
>> This is sent to you by an American,
>> using Bill Gates's technology,
>> and you're probably reading this on your computer, that use Taiwanese

>> chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a
>> Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by
>> Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by

>> Mexican illegals.....
>> That, my friends, is Globalization

Muslim says Quran justified attack in N.C.

Police say that just before lunchtime March 3, Taheri-azar drove a rented 2006 Jeep Cherokee through the Pit, a popular gathering place at the school from which he graduated. The SUV hit nine people, but none was injured seriously. He then drove off and calmly called 911 to surrender

election reform now

Here are some good ideas on election reforms:

The Campaign for a National Popular Vote has a dandy new approach. Instead of trying to amend the Constitution through a long, difficult process that can and will be stalled by small sates, the campaign proposes a simpler, elegant solution. According to the Constitution, each state legislature can instruct its own electors to cast their votes however the state decides, usually as winner-take-all for whichever candidate carries the state. But there is no reason a state legislature cannot instruct its electors to vote for whomever wins the popular vote.

Democracy! What a concept! The states can do this one-by-one, subscribing to an interstate compact that would take effect when enough states join to elect the actual winner -- a majority of the 538 electoral votes

An interesting poll on Cnn.com

Do you agree with Charlie Sheen that the U.S. government covered up the real events of the 9/11 attacks?
click on view results

White House Civil Liberties Panel Finally Meets After 16 Months

A White House civil liberties panel created more than a year ago to monitor the effects on ordinary citizens of the war on terrorism took its first significant action this week.

It met.

One of Mars Rover's Wheels Stops Working

One of the Mars rover Spirit's wheels has stopped working and the solar-powered robot must use its five other wheels to drag itself up a slope to catch enough sunshine to keep operating in the descending Martian winter, NASA said Friday.

The right front wheel previously had an episode of balkiness but this week the motor that turns the wheel stopped working, the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.

Americans want Democrats to control Congress: poll

President George W. Bush's approval rating hit its lowest score in the Newsweek poll, the newsmagazine said in a statement, citing recent events, such as the Dubai ports controversy and the upcoming third anniversary of the Iraq war.

Only 36 percent of American adults approve of the way the president is handling his job, according to results of the survey conducted on Thursday and Friday.

Sixty-four percent are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time, while only 30 percent are satisfied.

A Newsweek Poll conducted exactly a year ago found 57 percent of Americans approved of the way Bush handled terrorism and homeland security, and 35 percent disapproved, the magazine said.

Now only 44 percent of Americans polled approve, while 50 percent disapprove, it said.

Sixty-five percent disapprove of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq and 29 percent approve.

Forty-seven percent approve of Bush's appointments to the Supreme Court -- a five-point increase since the last Newsweek Poll and the sole issue in the poll in which the public believes he is performing well.

The poll results were based on a survey of 1,020 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

a random thought

It's funny when people like russ get you to thinking. When the Space shuttle crashed a couple of years ago there was an Israeli astronaut on board. How big is the Israeli space program? For that matter what are all the Eropeans doing with their space programs? Anyone?

speaking of Pat Robertson

check out this piece at Political Cortex the religious right remains a powerful faction in American politics, and Pat Robertson remains a wealthy power broker with daily television audience that is one of the largest on cable television. True, he has become an embarrassment to many in his movement, who are now seeking to distance themselves in various ways. But this is more complicated than it may seem at first blush, because Robertson is also an embarrassment of riches for televangelism, for the religious right and for the Republican Party.


and remember that this guy is still in charge

AHHH Democracy at work

first you buy the votes

Democratic precinct committeeman to 10 months in prison and two years of supervised release for his role in a vote-buying scheme...


then you buy the congressmen

a conservative advocacy group picked up the $10,000 tab for a chartered plane and helicopter flight


now I know the vote buying is definitely illegal. But they were giving $5-$10 per vote to citizens(?) fro a specific vote. Do you think the 10 large spent on Brownback was for a specific vote or a slate of issues. Brownback said in an interview. "I was asked to speak at each of them, and my request was just to get me there and back." By the way, I've been to San Antonio and I just can't get my mind arond the trip costing 10 grand. unless the Senator was on a partially paid trip to tibet. The Buddhist association paid to et him there and Robertson's group had to pick up the tab for the long trip to Texas.

a song to make you think

check it out

Pentagon dismisses poll that says US troops want out of Iraq

I'd love to give this one to you from the NY Times or some other "liberal" MSM source, but apparently ths is no news to them either:

Nearly one in three troops said US forces should withdraw immediately. Another 22 percent said US forces should be out within six months, and 21 percent thought they should exit within a year

Everyone, everyone, everyone wants the U.S. out of Iraq

A majority of Americans of every political persuasion support Congressman Jack Murtha's call for a rapid redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq. More Republicans support it than Democrats.

...
According to a new poll of 1150 Iraqis conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, 70 percent of Iraqis want the fledgling government to request a U.S. timetable for withdrawal, including 64 percent of Kurds and 90 percent of Shi'ites.

more proof Bush shaped reality?

I'm sure this means nothing to Mike in Bigdog's butt

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq...The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate... Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb...The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program... The second classified report, delivered to Bush in early January 2003, was also a summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, this one focusing on whether Saddam would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States, either directly, or indirectly by working with terrorists.

The report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that it was unlikely that Saddam would try to attack the United States -- except if "ongoing military operations risked the imminent demise of his regime" or if he intended to "extract revenge" for such an assault, according to records and sources