Republicans Take Stance on Race

Republicans on race:

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down."

William Bennett, Former Education Secretary under Reagan, Former Drug Czar under GH Bush and Fox News contributor.

Is this what they mean by compassionate conservative?

www.mediamatters.org/static/audio/bennett-200509280006.mp3

Is There Anyone in Washington with Moral Integrity? What About the Children?

Wednesday, September 28, 2005; Posted: 1:27 p.m. EDT
CNN-A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post.

It is a good day for America! Tom DeLay is stepping down from his leadership position as House Majority leader and will probably not be back. Now maybe we can find someone who has some real morals and values to fill this post. Jesus doesn't like liars and cheaters.

This is not the first time he has been in trouble. Back in 2000 he used the credit card of a registered lobbyist to pay for his golf trip and all his expenses on that trip which is illegal. He was also admonished three times last year by congress for his conduct.

This charge could carry a sentence of up to 2 years where he may be able to catch up with all his Enron friends he has not seen since they were sent to prison for their lack of moral integrity.

You see, Texas law prohibits corporations from making political contributions but rules obviously don't apply to DeLay. DeLay thought he could out smart the law by giving the money a quick wash in the laundry before he took a Sears Roebuck contribution and donated it to the Republican National Committee.

Of course DeGay says that the prosecutor is only pursuing the case for political motives; we all know that only Republicans are allowed to do such a thing. Clinton needed to be made an example of because the Republicans needed the world to know that Democrats are just oversexed perverts who don’t love Jesus, unlike Republicans, thus making the attacks on Clinton legitimate and the attacks on DeLay sleezy partisan politics. Clearly what Clinton did affected a magnitude of people outside of himself and his family.



AP Photo of DeGay being persecuted by Democrats:

Want to Avoid Being a Victim of Crime? Have an Abortion!

This weekend we (girlfriend and I) were discussing the book Freakonomics written by a professor from the University of Chicago. The author asserts that the fall in crime, which the US experienced starting in the early 90's after Clinton came into office, is related to the Roe v Wade decision that allowed mother's all over the US to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Exactly 20 years after abortion was legal, crime in the US began to fall.

So does this mean anything? Is that 20 number significant? I would say so; according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics between 1976 and 2002, 18-34 year olds accounted for 64.8% of all murders; the average age of the offender was about 26 years old. In 2002, 62% of all prison inmates were under the age of 35 and 76% of all homicides were committed by people under the age of 35. How different would this country have been if we had all these unwanted 20 year olds running around, especially as they got older and got into their peak crime years? Since 1993, that 20 year mark, violent crime has fallen over 50%, property crime has dropped 63% and the female suicide rate is down over 30% since 1973, the year abortion became legal.



Of course there are a thousand other factors that we must take into account today that we didn't face in the 70's and 80's and those could all be contributors to the decrease in crime. Education levels are higher, the baby-boomers are older, it is harder to obtain a gun, we have more nudity and bad language on TV, we have violent video games, we have a higher divorce rate, we have more violent and satanic music lyrics available to children, we aren't allowed to have prayer's in school, we have internet porn, people are no longer afraid to be openly gay, we have gay cartoon characters, condoms are available to teenagers, etc. So, just the fact that women aren't forced to have unwanted children doesn't necessarily mean that abortion is the only reason that we don't have maladjusted, unwanted, neglected kids turning into criminals when they reach their mid 20's.

Hmm, maybe those "family values" people have it all wrong; maybe their way of life was causing all the crime.


Sources: USA Today, Bureau of Justice Statistics (DOJ), Factcheck.org

Hurricane Rita

From Tom Delay's website:
Washington, Sep 13 - Congressman Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) today announced a record grant of homeland security funds for the Houston-Galveston area, with more than $54 million in vital projects coming to the Texas Gulf Coast. The funding, part of the Department of Homeland Security’s port security grant program, will be used to enhance security operations in Houston, Beaumont, Freeport, Port Arthur, and Texas City.

I wonder if Houston, the city in Tom Delay's district, George Bush's home state, Exxon, Conoco Phillip's and Halliburton's corporate headquarters’ will find the resources and get a quicker federal relief response to Hurricane Rita than the state and city with a Democratic Governor, a black Mayor and a whole lot of poor people?

Who Would Have Guessed War Could be so Profitable?

I have compiled a comparison of stock prices of mostly Texas based (coincidence?) companies in the oil industry before the Iraq war, and as they are today. Before the war in 2003 oil was under $30 per barrel and it is now over $67 dollars per barrel. And just a couple of years ago in 2002 when the US hit a 20 year oil stock low, prices were hovering around the $26 dollar per barrel range; that's a 157% increase in just 3 years. Higher prices typically mean more room for mark ups and profit margins for sellers and processors.

Exxon Mobil-Irving, Tx
Exxon is #2 on the Forbes Fortune 500 list, the biggest oil company in the US and 2nd in the world. It is the most profitable company in Forbes Fortune 500 list. One month before the war in Iraq started their stock was trading at $33.44 per share. Today Exxon’s stock closed at over $64.33 per share; a 91% increase since the onset of the Iraq war and oil prices have increased more than 160%.





Chevron Corporation-San Ramon, Ca
Chevron, who now owns Texaco, is the 2nd largest oil company in the US. One month prior to the start of the war in Iraq their stock was trading at around $34 per share. Today Chevron Phillips stock price closed at $64.31 per share; an 89% increase since the lead up to the war.





Conoco Phillips- Houston, Tx
Conoco Phillips is the 3rd largest oil company in the US. One month prior to the start of the Iraq war their stock was trading at $24 per share. Today Conoco Phillips stock price closed at $70.18; a 188% increase since just before the Iraq war began.





Halliburton-Houston, Tx
Halliburton, who seized many no bid contracts that had nothing to do with their connection to Vice President Dick Cheney, saw their stock price increase from $19.19 in February of 2003 to a close today of $66.73; a 247% increase. 99% of Halliburton’s political donations go to Republican candidates.




Ok, I know that the DJIA historically goes up over time, not as much when there is a Republican President, but these companies I have mentioned far out paced the Dow Jones industrial average which has grown 40% since the 1st quarter of 2003 before the Iraq war. If you want to compare apples to apples we can look at another Fortune 500 company like Ford who has only seen a 14% increase in their stock price over the same time period.

DJIA:



Is it just a coincidence that Cheney and Bush come from oil industry backgrounds, as does Bush senior? Is it just a coincidence that Iraq, an OPEC nation (not for long), was about ready to switch the sale of their oil from the Dollar to the Euro? Is it just a coincidence that in 2000 the oil and gas industry contributed 7 million dollars to Democratic candidates compared to 26.7 million (78%) that went towards Republican candidates? Was the war in Iraq motivated by money and profit? I report, you decide.

Lesbians Caused Hurricane Katrina

This is a quote from Robertson concerning a gay pride parade in Orlando:

"I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you."

Here are some more crazy Christians blaming the Hurricane on "sinners".

From: http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_hurricanekatrina.html

"Just days before "Southern Decadence", an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city. "Southern Decadence" has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars. Last year, a local pastor sent video footage of sex acts being performed in front of police to the mayor, city council, and the media. City officials simply ignored the footage and continued to welcome and praise the weeklong celebration as being an "exciting event". However, Hurricane Katrina has put an end to the annual celebration of sin. "

"Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city," stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. "From 'Girls Gone Wild' to 'Southern Decadence,' New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge," he continued. "

Message: If you have sex God will kill you with a Hurricane. God doesn't care about all the murderers, crack heads, crooked lying, greedy politicians in Washington DC, all the child prostitution in Thailand and Moldova or all the drug murders in Colombia; he only punishes chick's who like to chow box.

Brownie is Looking for a Heck of a Job

FEMA chief Michael Brown has been removed from the relief effort by the Chief of Homeland Security, the organization which manages FEMA. He will now probably go back to what he is qualified to do which is raising Arabian horses, not unlike Bush who is responsible for raising Arabian oil companies.

Well, this settles who was responsible for evacuation and preparation for natural disasters such as a hurricanes and floods, as the Mayor of New Orleans has yet to be fired.

Pro-Lifers Need to Get Over the Adoption Option

I saw a blog the other day where some bleeding heart neo-con was crying about how she didn't understand how someone could have an abortion when so many families wanted a baby, but couldn't have one of their own. She was under the impression that all these "many families" had all given up taking fertility drugs, had settled on adopting 5-year-old black kids, and were unable to find one that was available.

I went to The Administration for Children and Families website, a division of the US department of Health and Human Services, to find out how many US kids were available to these many families. Feel free to check for yourselves, but here are the approximate numbers on orphans and available children up for adoption:

117,000 kids in the US, at the time of the report (1999), needed homes. 51% of these kids were black, 32% where white, 11% were Hispanic and 6% would qualify as other. 29% of these kids were babies under the age of 1 year old at the time they had been made available for adoption and 42% of them were between the ages of 1 and five. The average amount of time that these children had been waiting for a home was 46 months, almost 4 years. The numbers I am speaking of only include children in the US, so you must also consider the millions of orphans in other countries.

I'm sorry if you had your heart set on a newborn baby with blond hair and blue eyes, but nature already decided you can't have that. This is your next best option. So, until all these kids have homes or the pro-lifers adopt them all themselves, I don't want to hear about how terrible abortion is.

Another thing to consider for poor 16-year-olds who are pregnant is that roughly 17% of all children in the US (13 million) live in poverty. Children born to children are often born into poverty and are more likely to themselves become high school dropouts, teenage mothers and to be poor. So for a 16-year-old, keeping the baby is not a good option and neither is giving it up for adoption as that child will probably never find a home. Come to think of it, none of these options are easy decisions; abortion is not an easy way out as many say it is, and neither is carrying a baby for 9 months and then handing it over to someone else. Both can have serious emotional and /or medical consequences but I say either are better than a 16-year-old trying to raise a kid as a poor, young, uneducated single mother.

One last thing--while all these people are trying to put Jesus in our public schools, they may want to leave a little room for the condoms.

Sources: Deptartment of Health and Human Services, US Census

Fear Mongering, Profit Driven Drug Companies

The above is an ad I saw in Time Magazine by a drug company trying to enforce its communistic grip of the US drug monopoly that these types of companies have enjoyed for so long. They are using this as a scare tactic to convince you that anything made overseas in some "shady" country could not possibly be trusted. If that is the case, then don't ever shop at Wal-Mart, buy another pair of shoes or buy a car from any American car company ever again.

Why is it that we can trust a place like China to make our baby strollers, safety seats, children's toys and every piece of baby clothing but we can't trust them to make a boner pill? Why is it that this is one area where capitalism and free trade is bad? Why are they so afraid of the competition?

Is it because the top 7 pharmaceutical companies earn 20 billion in annual profits, that the top 12 make more profit than all the top 24 automotive related industries, including GM and Ford, combined? Could it be because a company such as Merck made 6 billion dollars in profits in 2004? Could it be because these companies make an 18.5% return of revenues, which is 8 times higher than the average of other industries? Could it be that the pharmaceutical industry wants to remain one of the most profitable industries in the world? Or could it be that we as Americans are just being taken for a ride since we pay around 45% more for drugs here than they do in other western countries, and we account for nearly half of all world wide drug revenues?

In 1990 Americans spent 37 billion dollars on prescription drugs but by 1997 it was almost 79 billion. In 2001 the top 10 US drug companies increased their profits by 33%. Prescription drugs are the fastest growing portion of health care costs as they typically increase 17% per year and will soon overtake physician compensation as the 2nd biggest expense in medical care.

You may say that they need to keep competition out because they are developing cures for cancer and AIDS and need the revenues for research and development, and to make sure their drugs are safe, right? Wrong. Only 1 out of 5 dollars made in the drug industry goes towards research and development; most companies spend twice as much on marketing and advertising. Most drug research comes from small biotech companies who later get their breakthroughs pushed by the major drug companies. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) states that over 100,000 people in the US die per year due to side effects from their medication; that's almost three times the amount of deaths from automobile accidents. The FDA claims there may have been as many as 28,000 deaths from the drug Vioxx alone.

Now, to address all the bullshit in the ad; I know the thought of buying medicine from the Neanderthals in third world nations such as New Zealand is terrifying so I have come up with some statistics from the CIA to break down the threat.

Greece, Canada, Israel and New Zealand all have longer life expectancies than the US. If these countries can keep their people alive longer than we can, then I want to take the drugs that they are taking; clearly they are working.

The Czech Republic, Greece and New Zealand all have higher literacy rates than the US. Maybe the reason our drugs kill so many people here is because the pharmacist can't read the labels and end up putting the medicine in the wrong bottles.

Here is another thought; half of the countries listed on their map are now or were at one time nuclear powers. So does this mean we trust them with the power to wipe out humanity but we can't trust them to cure humanities menstrual cramps and swollen prostates?

I would also like to point out that the company who made this ad is a British, not American company. China and India both have a larger GDP than the UK (2nd and 4th) and both have plans of going to the moon within the next few years. Oooh, I'm scared; besides, when was the last time you saw a doctor or a pharmacist who wasn't from one of the countries that were mentioned in the ad?