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?

An Open Letter to the People of Indiana

Although I guess I have known this for years my two recent trips to Indiana have led me to believe that they must have done away with their traffic laws. They still have speed limit signs but apparently highway etiquette is beneath them. So for the last time:

The left lane is a passing lane; if you are not passing someone, drive in the right lane.

The left lane is also known as the fast lane; if you are driving slow, or slower than the guy behind you then you need to move into the slow lane, AKA the right lane.

You don't have to try to fight everyone who honks at you or flashes their brights at you trying to get you to move out of the way; you do not own I-65.

When a bigger faster vehicle comes up behind you at a high rate of speed the laws of physics argues that you should move out of the way, not slam on your breaks.

I know it is hard to see out of your rear view mirror with the gun rack hanging in your back window but try using your side view mirrors from time to time if you haven't already knocked them off during your last DUI.

Yes I know there is a speed limit law but I may choose not to obey it and pay the appropriate fines if I am caught.

Just because you think 75 is "fast enough" doesn't mean that I do. Maybe I think you are stupid enough to run off the road.

Just because you think I am driving dangerously doesn't make it any more so than you being a 95 year old blind lady who can't see over the dashboard.

It is not your job to enforce the speed limit. I don't try to pull you over for driving a car that is not safe for highway travel or for not wearing a shirt in public, or your violation of open container laws now do I?

No, being so obese that you exceed the cars weight limit is not an excuse for driving slow in the fast lane.

Just because you have an old car/truck from the early 80's that is spewing black smoke from the back that would make Spy Hunter jealous, doesn't mean that you are exempt from the law due to having a car that is not capable of traveling at those speeds. My advice would be to get a new car or drive on the back-roads where your home is parked.

Apparently NRA, W, and number 8 stickers slow down your vehicle immensely; do not put one of these stickers on your car. Other observations have led me to believe that mustaches have the same affect on vehicle speed.

It's not a race; when I am forced to pass you in the right lane that doesn't mean I want to race so don't bother speeding up while I am trying to get by.

So pretty please, with a cherry on top; get the fuck out of my way!

While I am Away; Some Pictures I like

I will be away for a week or so but I wanted to leave you with some of my favorite Photobucket collections.




Same arguments for intelligent design apply:



How to support our troops Republican style:



Example of the tolerant right wing / loving Christians:






Doesn't anyone see the similarities between the last Star Wars and the our current situation?









Do we have a religious maniac in office?



WWI poster with the American Pitbull Terrier:



What is in Bush's office?



How Neocon Christian Republicans see the world:




















The Dawgs:



The aristocratic dawg:

Jesus Speaks Out Against Public Prayer

Jesus solves the issue of public prayer:

Matthew 6:5-8:
5: And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7: But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8: Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

Ok, this issue is settled! This is a quote straight from JC's mouth. If you try to pray at a football game, or in school, or shove it down peoples throats anywhere else, not only is it rude, not only do you look ridiculous, not only may you be breaking the law if you're doing it in a public place funded by my tax money, but you will also burn in Hell.

After all, the premise of Christianity is to obey what Jesus says, otherwise...

Stem Cells Continued

Ok, I have a confession to make. In my last post I showed a picture of a blastocyst which is the early stage of an embryo from which stem cells are derived, and asked people to tell me why they thought this mass of about 100 cells is a human being. Most people agreed that indeed this is just group of cells with no brain, no heart or heartbeat and no nervous system. But then there were several anonymous posters who said that this blastocyst was human because it will one day become human and that it has a soul. No, it doesn't have soul, like James Brown has soul, but it has A soul, that I suppose God implanted into it sometime between ejaculation and fertilization.

Well I have to admit that all of our anonymous posters were wrong, not because of my agnostic religious beliefs say there is no such thing as a soul, but because the picture I displayed was A COW EMBRYO! So no, it doesn't have a soul, it would have never turned into a human and there is really no difference between a bunch of cells in a cow embryo and a bunch of cells at this stage of a human embryo because they look like and essentially are the same thing. It is pretty easy for me to differentiate between a grown cow and a grown person, but not so easy for me to tell when they are only one week into their development. Sure the DNA is different but there really isn't much that sets a human blastocyst apart from that of a cow's. Cow embryos have even been fertilized by human sperm though they have yet to get past the single cell stage. So my point is that these people don't know the difference, they can't see the difference, and they cannot say for sure what these cells will turn into, if they turn into anything at all. Ever hear of a miscarriage?

I guess souls are like invisible ghosts that are stored in a soul closet up in heaven until someone gets it on and it is therefore taken out of heaven, put into an embryo by God (who is watching you have sex so he can insert the soul at exactly the right time) so it can later grow up to follow God, so it can get back to heaven. I say why not just skip the middle man and let the soul stay in heaven. Why take the chance right? If you were chilling in paradise and someone said, "hey do you want to go hang out in Somalia and starve for 45-50 years, or be born to a poor single crack mom who will hate you thus taking a chance of you becoming "evil" and therefore not being allowed to go back to Heaven and instead, burning in Hell for eternity; which would you rather do? I would rather not take the chance and just stay in Heaven, wouldn't you?

It's ironic that the very people who claim that life couldn't have evolved from a single or multi-celled organism are the exact same people who call a clump of cells, such as a blastocyst, human life. Which is it, can a clump of cells evolve into a human or not?




Here's what a guy like me sees:





Here is what the neocons see:

Is This Human? / Stem Cell Research

The above photo is of a Blastocyst, which is basically a fertilized egg a few days later with about 100 or so extra cells and a little fluid. At this stage of development, it has yet to even enter the uterus. It is from the inner mass cells of a human Blastocyst where stem cells are obtained.

I know this Blastocyst consists of living cells, as does my sperm and every pathogen that has entered my body. Why is one worth saving and the others are not? Could the people against embryonic stem cell research explain to me what, if anything, makes this human? And what information do you have that would back your claim? How do you know that this embryo will ever indeed be carried to term and result in a person?

With no nervous system, no heart beat, with no brain or anything else one would associate with a fully developed mammal, let alone a human being, how does one try to proclaim that this is indeed a human? Could someone please point out the human characteristics that are represented in this photo? Is this a human being?

ALTV?

Story: Al Gore TV, CNN

Back from his last identity crisis of being a bearded woodsman, Al Gore, along with a group of investors, debuted a new television network Monday called Current TV, and it promises to be as exciting as Al Gore himself. This network will feature short segments called "pods", and each pod will only be around 7 minutes long, as to not loose the attention of the ADD caffeine generation. CNN describes the preview as a "hipper, more irreverent version of traditional TV news magazines", in other words they are ripping off MTV News and the Daily Show all at once. However, they also explained that programming would be covering topics such as jobs, technology and spirituality. I don't know about you but when I think of "hip", jobs and spirituality are the first things that come to mind.

And excuse me for not wanting to watch a network owned by the guy whose wife was the head of the PMRC, the anti free speech organization responsible for warning labels on mainly hip-hop and metal CD's, regardless of their actual content. In other words, this was another organization trying to step in and take the place of parenting. At first glance, I would think that The 700 Club would be more exciting than this gimmick network.