Jack & Jill Politics

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

Verbal and mathematical skills drive measures of intelligence in the Western Hemisphere, and many of the kinds of work I studied are thought to require relatively little proficiency in either. Compared to certain kinds of white-collar occupations, that’s true. But written symbols flow through physical work.

Numbers are rife in most workplaces: on tools and gauges, as measurements, as indicators of pressure or concentration or temperature, as guides to sequence, on ingredient labels, on lists and spreadsheets, as markers of quantity and price. Certain jobs require workers to make, check, and verify calculations, and to collect and interpret data. Basic math can be involved, and some workers develop a good sense of numbers and patterns. Consider, as well, what might be called material mathematics: mathematical functions embodied in materials and actions, as when a carpenter builds a cabinet or a flight of stairs.

A simple mathematical act can extend quickly beyond itself. Measuring, for example, can involve more than recording the dimensions of an object. As I watched a cabinetmaker measure a long strip of wood, he read a number off the tape out loud, looked back over his shoulder to the kitchen wall, turned back to his task, took another measurement, and paused for a moment in thought. He was solving a problem involving the molding, and the measurement was important to his deliberation about structure and appearance.

In the blue-collar workplace, directions, plans, and reference books rely on illustrations, some representational and others, like blueprints, that require training to interpret. Esoteric symbols—visual jargon—depict switches and receptacles, pipe fittings, or types of welds. Workers themselves often make sketches on the job. I frequently observed them grab a pencil to sketch something on a scrap of paper or on a piece of the material they were installing.

Though many kinds of physical work don’t require a high literacy level, more reading occurs in the blue-collar workplace than is generally thought, from manuals and catalogs to work orders and invoices, to lists, labels, and forms. With routine tasks, for example, reading is integral to understanding production quotas, learning how to use an instrument, or applying a product. Written notes can initiate action, as in restaurant orders or reports of machine malfunction, or they can serve as memory aids.

True, many uses of writing are abbreviated, routine, and repetitive, and they infrequently require interpretation or analysis. But analytic moments can be part of routine activities, and seemingly basic reading and writing can be cognitively rich. Because workplace language is used in the flow of other activities, we can overlook the remarkable coordination of words, numbers, and drawings required to initiate and direct action.

If we believe everyday work to be mindless, then that will affect the work we create in the future. When we devalue the full range of everyday cognition, we offer limited educational opportunities and fail to make fresh and meaningful instructional connections among disparate kinds of skill and knowledge. If we think that whole categories of people—identified by class or occupation—are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides.

Affirmation of diverse intelligence is not a retreat to a softhearted definition of the mind. To acknowledge a broader range of intellectual capacity is to take seriously the concept of cognitive variability, to appreciate in all the Rosies and Joes the thought that drives their accomplishments and defines who they are. This is a model of the mind that is worthy of a democratic society.

Blue-Collar Brilliance

I love technical math!.. it's the most 'practical' and 'funnest' kind of math. And yes, so-called blue collar jobs require quite a lot of math, understanding blueprints, tolerances and measurement accuracy. Also, today's carpentry and tool making is done by million dollar numerical control machines that require a knowledge of geometry, and programming...It is not mindless, by any stretch.

CNBC's Darren Rovell: NYC marathon winner not a real American since he's originally from Africa
by Chris in Paris on 11/03/2009 09:58:00 AM
What an amazingly ignorant thing to say. The CNBC editor rips Meb Keflezighi for not being American-enough and as a ringer for winning marathons. Forget that his family left Eritrea as refugees, and he attended high school here and then became a naturalized US citizen over ten years ago. Yes, that is the clear sign of a ringer. Who out there doesn't flee war just to win a race?

It wouldn't surprise me if Meb knew a lot more about being an American than this clown from CNBC. I guess if we now only count "real Americans" as those who have always lived there, we might have a very different looking Olympic team.

Here is CNBC's Darren Rovell:

It's a stunning headline: American Wins Men's NYC Marathon For First Time Since '82.

Unfortunately, it's not as good as it sounds.

Meb Keflezighi, who won yesterday in New York, is technically American by virtue of him becoming a citizen in 1998, but the fact that he's not American-born takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies...

Given our disappointing results, embracing Keflezighi is understandable. But Keflezighi's country of origin is Eritrea, a small country in Africa. He is an American citizen thanks to taking a test and living in our country.

Nothing against Keflezighi, but he's like a ringer who you hire to work a couple hours at your office so that you can win the executive softball league.

The positive sign was that some American-born runners did extremely well in yesterday's men's race.

If any of them stand on the top step of the podium in Central Park one day, that's when I'll break out my red, white and blue.
NOTE FROM JOHN: I can't even believe that CNBC would publish this kind of racist crap. This "reporter" should be fired, as should whatever editor saw this story and let it be printed. Technically an American? Simply passed a test? And what did you do, Darren, to become an American? You were born here to American parents - that must have been real hard work fighting your way through your mother's birth canal. I'm sure childbirth taught you a lot more about liberty and freedom than a guy who escaped a civil war to come to a land where he could be free.
http://www.americablog.com/2009/11/cnbcs-darren...

Real Americans(tm) are WHITE, Christian and straight.

Barack Obama is not a Real American(tm).

Michelle Obama is not a Real American(tm).

Gays are not Real Americans(tm).

Hispanics are not Real Americans(tm).

Black people, whether they came over 400 years ago or 10 years ago are not Real Americans(tm).

Asians are not Real Americans(tm).

Libruls from up North are not Real Americans(tm).

If you drink Starbucks and have a college degree, you are not a Real American(tm).

Nobody commenting on this blog except Karmi, Kevin and the rest of the trolls are Real Americans(tm).

That is all.

I continue to luv Town.

That really rolls onto screen from your keyboard easily. I'm having a hard time finding the sarcasm, but it has to be there.

There is no "sarcasm". If you are not white, straight and Christian you are not a Real American(tm). That has been made VERY clear, especially from the Republican Party, over the past year. If this guy had been a white naturalized US citizen from Europe and had won the race, the writer would not have written the winner wasn't a "real American", he would have written that this is what America's all about, the melting pot blah blah blah.

Meb Keflezighi is black and African, therefore he's not a Real American(tm), as Barack Obama is not a Real American(tm).

No more 7-digit dialing for Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The city of Chicago is getting a third area code in the fall, and you'll no longer be able to reach a local number by dialing just seven digits.

The 872 area code will overlay the territory now covered by the 312 and 773 area codes to supplement the telephone number supply. The 773 area code was "exhausted" in late July, meaning that while there are still numbers, there are no more unassigned prefixes, or first three digits.

The new area code will be pressed into service on Nov. 7.

The 773 area code went into use in the fall of 1997, when the 312 area code was split. Previously, 312 had served the entire city, but for the past 12 years, 312 has only served the center of the city – bounded roughly by Armitage Avenue to the north, 35th Street to the south, the lake to the east and Western Avenue to the west. Before 1989, the 312 area code served virtually all of northeastern Illinois.

NeuStar Inc., the private contractor used by the Federal Communications Commission to handle telephone numbers, petitioned for a third Chicago area code in November 1998 – when the 773 area code was barely a year old. At the time, it was expected that both 312 and 773 would run out of available three-digit prefixes by 2001, but it took longer, the Illinois Commerce Commission said.

With the 872 area code, those who have 312 or 773 numbers will keep them. People looking for additional telephone lines in their homes should still be able to get 312 or 773 numbers even after 872 goes into service, the ICC said.

Unlike 312 and 773, which are geographically divided, 872 is an overlay area code that will be assigned to new numbers citywide.

In an overlay area, callers must dial 1 and the area code for every call, whether the area code is the same as the caller's or not. Thus, beginning on Nov. 7, all calls to and from the city of Chicago must include 1 and the area code in addition to the seven-digit number.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29055...

Racial disparity: All active ethics probes focus on black lawmakers.

Very interesting....

A racial disparity yes, but apparently a larger ethical one. Liberal Dems are in control and yet these pesky investigations won't go away. Hmmm.

You are right; that fact should raise eyebrows. I'm interested in the larger agenda here.

However, it definitely needs to serve as a reminder that "political leanings" have as much to do in any race discussion/debate as my blackness has to do with my IQ.

There are plenty of racist liberals out there just like there are plenty of anti-racist conservatives out there.

not only at national level ASmith, here in Boston, we have our own troubles with the powers that be (FBI etc) going after black lawmakers and using very disturbing tactics for both investigating and publicizing.

I live in Chicago, where we're past a HALF BILLION DOLLARS proven in cons and corruption .,...yet, NO investigation of King Richard II.

Use of ethics investigation for only William Jefferson should have raised questions. At the time, while William Jefferson was under investigation, the Abramoff scandal indicated involvement of nearly 232 Congressional members.

One thing Black lawmakers need to remember is that pesky "Black tax" and we can debate all day here about how much that may be a "stupid" idea or that it may not even really exist, but the stuff we do is always going to be looked upon with greater "care," than others. Much like the VP (black woman) of that bank... Wells Fargo, I think, who was fired because they found out she was hosting personal parties in foreclosed homes. I highly doubt she's the only person to have ever done that, but she got fired.

In no way am I suggesting that these probes are the "fault" of the individual Congressmen, but I am suggesting that they all need to step back and remember that people are watching them more closely than their neighbor and there's no reason to give said people yet another thing to pick at.

Are you serious that the women hosting theparties was an AA? Is this the case in the LA area at the baeach house or somethng else?

Yes. Cheronda Guyton is a black female.

Here's a link to an article on it (but you seem to be familiar with the situation): http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotprope...

And a link to a wedding picture of Mrs. Guyton: http://creoleindc.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c5e00...

Agreed.

You mean the undercover video star "Cold-Cash" Jefferson?

Are you referring to the FBI case where FBI agent in William Jefferson case was sleeping with major witness during investigation?

Yes that's the same one. A cloud seems to hover over him, even when he's doing something ethical......which should indicate sunny days, but....

Did you happen to notice, similar circumstances in Ted Stevens trial where tainted FBI behavior helped Stevens but not Jefferson?

Yesterday rikyrah posted Joe Liarman's Meet the Press video. In it he told how he would campaign for Republicans. This morning Gov Ed Rendell is on CNBC, after the transit union voted to go on strike-after the big sports weekend, gabbing it up w/ Tim Pawlenty agreeing w/ him on a number of issues. He went on and on about healhcare and what a good idea Pawlenty had on allowing, in the day of the internet, of being allowed to buy insurance across state lines. Ed Rendell and Tim Pawlenty are a bunch of disingenious assholes.

They are assholes because what they want, the ability to buy insurance across state lines, means that each state has to give reciprocity to other states or accept a national regulator to make sure all the policies are legal in each others states(no way in hell Pawlenty is going to agree w/a national regulator and Rendell because of the number of just shit insurance companies protected by state insurance regulators by mal and non feasance). Health insurance is written(priced) based on prevailing medicare and medicaid rates in each states, the demands of the states insurance regulator, how many people have insurance in a state-think concern of infectious diseases and the quality and quantity of hospitals in a given state-it's why the companies insist you come back to your state ASAP when you contract an illness or become hurt outside of the state. As much as Ed Rendell would like Kaiser Permanante of CA in PA, it is highly unlikely they would underwrite people across the state because of the quality issues the way the write in CA.

This is why the most important thing in healthcare insurance is the public option. The public option sets a standard across the country. A standard plays havoc w/ rates as they have to be adjusted for the standard plus the new requirements; whether you deal w/ profit nonprofit the rules of insurance means the rates will rise. But the only way to give everyone healthcare that will afffect the future costs for everyone is the public option.

It is certain there are "disingenious assholes" on both sides of the insurance debate. You are right about one thing.....rates will rise and when they do, per the HR3200 and HR3962, I will only have one choice; the public option. If Blue Cross changes my policy (copays, drug coverage, deductible), I'm out on my ear to the rationed-care public option (oh yes, as written my rate can't even go *down* without invalidating my policy). Redistribution is the theme, keep singing it loud.

Here's another tidbit than may interest some of you that run a business. What HR3962 says is, even if your employees (even yourself) opt out of employer coverage and pays for it elsewhere.......you still have to pay 8% to the healthcare bureaucracy. I know, I know, redistribution is good and about-damn-time-the-rich-man-pays fair.

CONTRIBUTION IN LIEU OF COVERAGE.—
4 Beginning with Y2, if an employee declines such
5 offer but otherwise obtains coverage in an Exchange
6 participating health benefits plan (other than by rea-
7 son of being covered by family coverage as a spouse
8 or dependent of the primary insured), the employer
9 shall make a timely contribution to the Health In-
10 surance Exchange with respect to each such em-
11 ployee in accordance with section 413.

I know you're misreading my post. If you think it is redistribution of income that's fine, ignorant but fine.
As you point out any addition to helping people receive health insurance coverage costs money. I would prefer a one payer system that we all pay into and we all pay taxes to support. What you call redistribution is bad policy that I think will lead every employer to dropping their coverage period. Everyone on the public option will quickly remind everyone we are in this together. If you think you're being short changed by the public option policies you are free to buy more insurance from private companies.
Going back to costs the first coupleof years wil be more expensive than anyone expects. You will be bringing in people whom have had poor medical access but will be brought up to speed w/ tetanus shots, vaccinations, exams for many illnesses that are handled by prescription medicines-diabietes, high blood pressure, mamograms, and prostate exams. this will cut down in the future on the expensive costs of emergency care and surgical procedures, e.g. if you catch diabetes now you can avoid kidney failure and dialysis costs, amputations from lack of blood circulation, and on and on. The future costs have a high probability of costs coming down.
the economy will benefit as well. anyone whom wants to become an entrepeneur will be able to put their capital into a business and not be worried about the risk to their family both values I am sure you hold high. If you are just a plain worker by your own decision how much easier to work knowing that your taxes will take care of your family should they become ill, that you won't be making choices between food and shelter or medicine.

Last first; as an entrepreneur of sorts I will tell you that lack of planning and unchecked overhead kill many a business. I'm sure there will be many ways to minimize the impact of these new taxes, but this is sure enough a move toward the European-style socialism. On top of that, cap and trade, and it will be hard for me to earn my middle class living, or offer one to my 22 employees. I make less than some of my employees in order to try to grow the business in this challenging environment (meanwhile my wife is a GS 9 and got a raise......and is in line for automatic promotion)(AND she's on my insurance). Reading the bills I only see $$$ and $$$ coming out of the pockets of producers like me, and my employees have insurance.

Illegals will still get coverage as they do now (ER, I'm not opposed to anyone getting medical treatment), but they won't have to pay a penalty for not having coverage like everyone else even if they work and live here.

What you didn't say is that this is a de facto single payer system. Mandated insurance, automatic enrollment, penalties for not having coverage, insurance taxes on employers even if they have other insurance, government approved plans only......and on.

Best yet, the IRS is the insurer's collection agency. How do you think some folks are going to feel when their tax check is "rerouted"?

So, my take is too much government control, too fast. We can mandate/legislate some affordable plans, no pre-existing conditions, subsidize those who need it, even if this requires some taxpayer help. The takeover is socialist, and generally our government is proven irresponsible.

misplaced

Reid reassures left Lieberman on board
By Alexander Bolton - 11/02/09 08:15 PM ET
Sen. Joe Lieberman has reached a private understanding with Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will not block a final vote on healthcare reform, according to two sources briefed on the matter.
Read More
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/66005-reid-r...

I want to know why the Democrats have to keep giving Lieberman concessions when his treacherous ass deserves NOTHING.

When Harry Reid finally realizes he is Caesar it will be to late. Liarman Cassius Brutus will have shoved the knive in to far

I'm not going to feel sorry for Harry Reid.

When he and Obama refused to kneecap Joe Lieberman, I posted right on this very board that not neutralizing Lieberman and stripping him of his committee assignments would come back to bite them in the ass.

So, Reid has himself to blame if Lieberman keeps screwing him in the ass without Astro Glide.

I do not disagree w/ you at all. It's just the ego is the same as Caesar's

Biden a key part of Obama's inner circle
By Ed Henry, CNN Senior White House Correspondent
November 2, 2009 3:19 p.m. EST

Washington (CNN) -- Apparently you can take the vice president out of the Senate, but you just can't take the Senate out of the vice president, and that might be the secret to Joe Biden's influence in President Obama's inner circle.

As I waited Friday in the ornate rooms of the old Department of War near Biden's office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, I kept wondering which Biden was going to show up for our exclusive interview.

Would it be the old Joe that I used to cover as the Senate correspondent for Roll Call newspaper many years ago, who would throw an arm around me in a Capitol hallway and be happy to give a -- let's face it -- fairly long answer about any subject I'd throw at him?

Biden had this habit of dropping flattery as well as a reporter's name into the answers for familiarity in his gosh-darn-it manner: "Look Ed, I'm literally not just blowing smoke, but you know as much about the Bush tax cuts as I do. ..."

Or would I encounter a New Joe, who's had all the spontaneity knocked out of him by White House handlers who want to clamp down on his blunt, off-the-cuff comments that turn into gaffes? After all, who can forget this year when Biden went on NBC's "Today" show and said he told family members not to take mass transit because of the swine flu -- just as the White House was trying to calm people down instead of scaring them more?

I got my answer as soon as he rushed in, flashing that signature Biden smile and asking how the heck I'd been, and did I know how happy he is to have his son Beau home after serving in Iraq because as a parent (this is where he lowered his voice just so) you never stop worrying about your children. Then he almost immediately started dropping my name again, "You know, Ed -- you have kids."

The personal references continued on every subject from the economy ("Every expert out there has said, Ed, and you know this.") to Pakistan ("I know you know the area, you've been doing this, you're a pro."). In short, it was like we were back in a Capitol hallway shooting the breeze, Biden the politician was trying to flatter a reporter, and this was hardly someone who had been muzzled by the White House, which became clear when I asked if the economy has hit bottom.

"Oh, I'm confident we've hit bottom," Biden said immediately, which is not a gaffe but is a wee bit off-message as the White House cautiously tries to manage expectations about an economic recovery.

A day after the Biden interview, the president said again in his weekly radio/Internet address that unemployment is likely to get worse before it gets better, which means the economy has not really hit "bottom" yet.

But top White House officials tell me that while Biden's instinct of saying what's on his mind no matter what in public tends to get him into trouble, that same quality is what makes the president value his advice so much in private, so they're basically letting "Joe be Joe" these days.

Obama knows Biden will tell him the unvarnished truth and not try to usurp his power, something critics charge did not happen between President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/02/biden.wh...

One Wonders...
... to what extent you have to be either deliberately or genuinely thick in order to write Official Media Criticism. Take this headline, please:

If Fox Is Partisan, It Is Not Alone

My balls. Fox is the only entire news network with a partisan agenda. Every other network plays by different rules. This is not a very difficult point to grasp, unless you have Official Media Criticism to dribble out for the New York Times.

This is a very stupid article. See if you can spot the logical flaw in how John Harwood draws the conclusion that "partisan fragmentation throughout America’s news media and their audiences has grown significantly" based upon Statistical Evidence (and note also how Harwood, toolishly, is passing on the spin of these data thrown, in the manner of a spitball, by a Republican strategist):

In audience surveys from August 2000 to March 2001, Fox News viewers tilted Republican by 44.6 percent to 36.1 percent. More narrowly — 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent — so did the audience for MSNBC. The audiences of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central leaned Democratic.

Four years later, amid the Iraq war and President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, the audience data had shifted. Fox News viewers had become 51 percent Republican and just 30.8 percent Democratic, while MSNBC viewers leaned Democratic by 41.7 percent to 40.4 percent. Viewers of CNN, Headline News, CNBC and Comedy Central grew slightly more Democratic.

By 2008-9, the network audiences tilted decisively, like Fox’s. CNN viewers were more Democratic by 50.4 percent to 28.7 percent; MSNBC viewers were 53.6 percent to 27.3 percent Democratic; Headline News’ 47.3 percent to 31.4 percent Democratic; CNBC’s 46.9 percent to 32.5 percent Democratic; and Comedy Central’s 47.1 to 28.8 percent Democratic.

Comedy Central, one will note, is not in fact a news network. and so one may wonder just what the fuck it's doing here in a statistical breakdown of the partisan leanings of "America's news media and their audiences."

The answer of course is that including it makes a tendentious conclusion smell better; but still, its inclusion serves admirably to demonstrate that tendentiousness.

Because it does not take two, or more, to "polarize." It takes one. Fox gleefully went full metal GOP, and by and large other networks remained "objective" and "nonpartisan," according to the very strange interpretation of such concepts on the part of the media elites.

This was -- and largely remains -- the American media landscape when it comes to teevee news: one entirely partisan news/opinion/poo-flinging network, and then everything else is Village property, with the exception of three cable opinion shows (Olbermann, Maddow, and whatshisface), and then... uh, The Daily Show... a fake news program on a comedy network. And then Colbert. And that's it. (Moreover, it is worth remembering that MSNBC did not decide to go "partisan left" -- Olbermann did -- and Jon Stewart became a "liberal" opinion monger largely by default, in the sense that all he's ever really done is point out that the American right constantly makes up silly lies and is allowed to get away with it, which is "partisanship" in the sense that "recognizing the obvious" is "socialism." And also, remember, Olbermann is "balanced" by Scarborough, and Comedy Central tried hard at first to "balance" Stewart with that horrendous abortion of a Colin Quinn program, which was entertaining in the sense that your horrible sputtering drunken asshole uncle is entertaining when he gives you a hug right after he calls you a fag.)

If the viewership numbers have shifted, this is pretty much entirely because of Fox. Fox viewers are convinced that every other media outlet is involved in a dark socialist conspiracy to destroy America (and that is not even exaggeration for comic effect), the Main Stream Media pretends the socialist conspiracy theory is One Side of the Story, and anyone who wants actual news, Lord help them, is fucked.

Hence this, from Harwood, is bullshit:

partisan fragmentation throughout America’s news media and their audiences has grown significantly. Future Republican presidents will have to decide, as Team Obama has, how to buck or accommodate that trend.

No, they won't. They will not face a liberal equivalent of Fox. What they will do is not a mystery. They will pretend every other network besides Fox is "partisan," they will denounce The Media, and the Media will flog themselves over their imaginary offenses against imaginary "heartland voters," and the only news opinion shows worth watching will be on comedy stations.
http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/200...

Harwood is shilling for his corporate masters.

5 million Star Trek pirates vs. 1 FCC broadband plan
Paramount Pictures says the widespread availability of a bootleg version of Star Trek means it needs to get tough on Internet users and websites, maybe even Google, Yahoo, and Bing. But what does this have to do with the FCC's national broadband plan? Everything, says Paramount.
Read More
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/11/par...

"Dan Glickman of MPAA pressed the thesis. "You can't have good connections, good pipes, good delivery systems that mean anything unless you have good content that people like," he explained. "And the reverse is true. All the good content in the world don't [sic] mean much if you can't find a delivery system to pipe it through. And you have to provide the incentives for both to be able to continue their work.""

---

On Oct 30th, the Internet was 40 years old. Wonder what Glickman thinks Internet users on the pipes have been using for content the past 40 years?

An insurance industry CEO explains why American health care costs so much
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/200...

The Taliban Ticket
by Charles Lemos, Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 09:16:32 PM EST

Kudos to Congressman Jim Moran for calling it as it is.

From the Washington Post:


At a get-out-the-vote rally in Fairfax County, Moran said: "I mean, if the Republicans were running in Afghanistan, they'd be running on the Taliban ticket as far as I can see."

Moran was talking about Republicans Robert F. McDonnell for governor, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, who is running for attorney general. By some accounts, the three represent the most conservative Republican ticket to run in Virginia in many years. Moran's comments clearly were aimed to motivate Democratic voters to turn out on Tuesday and vote blue.


At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Iman Bob McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to Regents University, an evangelical school in Virginia Beach, in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

According to Post, this isn't the first time McDonnell has been compared to the Taliban; in 2003, a liberal columnist for the Daily Press of Newport News dubbed him "Taliban Bob" for his role in ousting a female Circuit Court judge who had been accused by another woman of sexual harassment. I am sure it won't be the last either.
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/11/2/211632/675

and this further shows how incompetent a candidate DEEDS is.

And my epiphany listening to both candidates last night - we keep saying we want public servants, yet we keep showing love to slick campaigns with hollow talking points.

Deeds is way to boring and folksy to get anyone fired up; however, the current Gov sold us out for a seat on Obama's party van halfway through his term. If the Clown wins tonight, you can bet he'll begin his 2012 campaign on Nov 4th, 2009. If Deeds wins, maybe politicians will finally understand that we want positive outcomes not empty promises on the way to the next big career move. (fingers crossed)

Deeds ran a bad campaign, but where were all these people huffing and puffing about Taliban Bob before today? I haven't heard anything out of Rep. Moran's mouth before today (Election Day). Maybe he was keeping quiet on account of his brother (Brian Moran)?

I'm more pissed off at Sheila Johnson - McDonnell has been running those ads featuring her as a Democrat for Bob McDonnell.

Virginia deserves what they get if McDonnell wins - guess we can't handle turning into a truly democratic state.

uh, its not like Sheila is the pied piper of the black vote...

It was clear from jump she did this as a selfish business investment.

It's one thing not to endorse Deeds, but to actively run around campaigning for McDonnell? Say what?

NOBODY in Virginia better cry when McDonnell starts putting Pat Roberston's ideas into law and Cuccinelli starts enforcing them. Pat Robertson's boy will be in the Executive Mansion and Pat Robertson is going to want his ideas and values put into law.

Town, you know McDonnell promised Sheila Johnson something in exchange for her endorsement. If he wins, we'll find out what it is - probably getting her spa established down in Virginia Horse Country.

She's as bad a sellout as her ex-husband, and she got the money from him in their divorce to do the same ol shyt - selling out Black People for fun and profit.

She could have been like Doug Wilder and been like "I'm not endorsing anyone." But she is actively running around Virginia campaigning for the Republican ticket.

I will laugh and laugh and laugh if

a) Deeds actually wins (Somehow I doubt if they are polling in the black areas)

b) McDonnell wins and doesn't give Sheila the glamourous life she was promised.

What scares me is with this win, the other crackpots will get some pep in their step and start rolling VA back and again; Cuccinelli will gladly be their enforcer.

I'm more scared of a Cuccinelli win than a McDonnell win, to tell you the truth.

Town, you ain't neva lied.

If McDonnell wins, Virginia better secede from the Union with the shyt he and Cuccinelli will be pulling.

Y'all started spinning early.

Last Call
Posted by Zandar
Someone needs to tell Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson that you don't get to blame Obama for not responding to the H1N1 outbreak quickly enough when Wilson and 95% of House Republicans voted against vaccine funding.
Last week, some Democrats predicted that H1N1 could become a line of new line attack of attack on Obama from Republicans. In a release issued on Thursday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee claimed that any criticism of H1N1 policy by the GOP would amount to hypocrisy.
The DCCC pointed to a June vote on a supplementary appropriations bill as evidence. Wilson joined 95% of Republicans and voted against the bill, which contained special funding to combat H1N1 both domestically and internationally. But the bill also contained other much more money for other plans and programs Republicans at the time viewed as wasteful, including the Cash-For-Clunkers car purchase incentive program.

Still, the DCCC says that a vote against the bill essentially equaled a vote against combating H1N1 and means Republicans who voted against it like Wilson favored a public health program that would have resulted in even less vaccine than is available now.

"The families, schools, and businesses fighting against the H1N1 flu pandemic deserve better than House Republicans' reckless, knee jerk partisanship and just-say-no approach to helping prepare for this national emergency," DCCC spokesperson Ryan Rudominer said in a statement released Oct. 27.

Republicans like Wilson attacked the President and said that H1N1 vaccine funding was wasteful pork and voted against it. Now they are attacking the President for not having enough vaccine. It doesn't matter what Obama does. They will attack him without logic or reason.

That's why it's called Obama Derangement Syndrome. Perhaps not slashing the CDC's budget under Bush would have been a start.

http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2009/11/last-call...

so on point. is it obama's fault that the technology used to create the vaccine is about 40 years behind the times? even with all the money the US can spare, they can't really speed up the process because the process is old as methusalah.

Sorry, but Mr Obama is the man and all disasters that occur on his watch are his problem. Further, the DEMS control congress - so the blame goes to them also. H1N1 vaccine is not made by the CDC. It is made by the much reviled (at this blog) pharmaceutical industry.

"Someone needs to tell Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson that you don't get to blame Obama for not responding to the H1N1 outbreak quickly enough when Wilson and 95% of House Republicans voted against vaccine funding."

-Maybe someone needs to tell you that too.


The Republican Party: "Just Say No: The Next Generation"

...and I hit the "Like" button by mistake./

Who asked your Obama hating ass for your opinion. Are you a ass kisser for those Tea Party folks who still calls you a nigger anyway?

Why don't you refute what he says? Then calling names would/might be seen as appropriate as a valid part of your argument. You lost.
Try djchefron or ch555x way

Let me check, YEP - Mr Obama is still president, and the Dems control congress. So they get the blame for all problems, screwups, natural disasters, alien invasions etc.. . Its how the game is played.

First of all it was the republicans who cried about earmarks and had the money remove.Remember Susan Collins and the cost of her vote for the stimulus.Just like redumblicans you have a short memory on your actions and attitudes that have brought my country to the brink of destruction.So blame President Obama and the Democrats all you want, sane people know that you and your philosophy are the main culprits of our demise.

Of course, its PBO's fault. Joe Wilson's wife Roxanne has been diagnosed with swine flu.

And he's not going to admit his vote kept his own wife from having access to that vaccine.

Further evidence that South Carolina tends to send dipshyts to represent them in Congress - Jim Clyburn being the notable EXCEPTION.

lmao!

So, it's PBO's fault for Joe the Rep voting against the H1N1funding which resulted in his wife getting the flu because of the shortage...

O.o

Good Morning.Your Tuesday jam.Enjoy
Ohio Players- Heaven must be like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxsek1ovkA

thanks dj

Former storm recovery czar Ed Blakely told a California television station that New Orleanians are racist, unsophisticated and lazy.

His comments came in an interview with the University of California's online TV station, which was posted on YouTube.

Blakely said white New Orleanians saw the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity.

"Now, the white community, there's blood in the water, and they can recapture the political apparatus and kind of put their foot back on black people's throats," Blakely said.

Blakely also said New Orleans is likely to be completely wiped out by another storm within in the next 100 years.

Blakely: New Orleanians Are Racist, Unsophisticated

Well in a since he's teling the truth because that city is more caucasian than anything these days I was there in Nov. But I will say this some things need to change. They have had Black leadership in that city for years and they have done exactly NOTHING! And that is an embarrassment on US!!!

Now watch a caucasian becomes Mayor and you see how things change. And that will be a damn shame!

Sometimes we are our own worst enemies and they are waiting prey to come in and fix up what we're messed up and then get rid of us!

SMDH

I have observed that oddly when a POC is head of any type of institution in the U.S., cash stop flowing, but the instant a non-POC is in charge of same institution money suddenly begin to flow again.

When white president Jimmy Carter was in office, he sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the black Mayor of Detroit Coleman Young. Likewise, the white Gov. Millikin (a Republican) sent hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue sharing to Mr Young.
And the Mayor of NOLA is/was Ray Nagin who got hundreds of millions from the feds before Mr Obama was in office.
ACORN got money from the Bush administration - for God's sake. (not to mention the monies from white run foundations.)

I think your statement is an over generalization.

Hardly

The Department of Defense has contracted Taser International to develop a device that delivers electric shock to distant human targets.

The so-called Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation or HEMI device to be fired from a grenade launcher should be capable of hitting targets 60 meters away without causing serious injury. A major consideration of the $2.5 million project is a design of the projectile's nose for lesser impact force.

Taser International is testing various HEMI designs and will produce the first prototype for testing next year, the DOD said.

The firm is also taking into consideration the incapacitation time the HEMI device gives to hit targets. An electric shock lasting three minutes is being considered, enough time for the shooter to reach the target over a certain distance.

DOD To Partner With Taser To Develop Electric Shock Device To Be Used At A Distance

---

Taxpayers' money to Taser Intl? Police depts must be tapped out. What better partner than the "war" dept to created new methods to herd the populace on the taxpayers' dime?

In agreement could be reached before week's end between Washington University students and an Illinois nightclub that allegedly barred six African-American students while admitting nearly 200 of their white classmates.

Fernando Cutz, senior class president at the university in Missouri, said the aggrieved students have been in contact with lawyers representing Original Mother's, a bar in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.

The two sides expect a resolution to their dispute as early as Wednesday, Cutz said. He did not, however, say what the students were demanding or why he was optimistic that a deal could be struck.

The students complained to state and federal agencies after six African-American members from their senior class trip celebration were denied admission to the club on October 17.

Bar personnel cited dress code violations -- specifically baggy jeans -- in barring the African-American students, Cutz said.

A white student and a black student then exchanged jeans to see what would happen. The white student was admitted, while his classmate still was kept outside. . . He said he was already inside the bar with some 200 other students, none of whom are African-American, when the first group of African-American classmates arrived. Cutz said he quickly learned that the manager of the bar had denied the six students entry, and he said the manager told the students their baggy pants violated the bar's dress code.The celebration at Original Mother's was to top off a two-day senior class trip to Chicago, Cutz said. The party had been arranged with the bar in advance by the student class board, which includes two of the African-American students who were later denied entry, Cutz said.

Cutz, who is white, said he confronted the manager. "These six [students] were better dressed than I was," Cutz told CNN.

Chicago bar accused of racism in denying entry to students

When California wildfires ruined their jewelry business, Tony Becker and his wife fell months behind on their mortgage payments and experienced firsthand the perils of subprime mortgages.

The couple wound up in a desperate, six-year fight to keep their modest, 1,500-square-foot San Jose home, a struggle that pushed them into bankruptcy.

The lender with whom they sparred, however, wasn't the one that had written their loans. It was an obscure subsidiary of Wall Street colossus Goldman Sachs Group.

Goldman spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages, many of them from some of the more unsavory lenders in the business, and packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of that market, Goldman finds itself in a different role: as the big banker that takes homes away from folks such as the Beckers.

The couple alleges that Goldman declined for three years to confirm their suspicions that it had bought their mortgages from a subprime lender, even after they wrote to Goldman's then-Chief Executive Henry Paulson — later U.S. Treasury secretary — in 2003.

Unable to identify a lender, the couple could neither capitalize on a mortgage hardship provision that would allow them to defer some payments, nor on a state law enabling them to offset their debt against separate, investment-related claims against Goldman.

In July, the Beckers won a David-and-Goliath struggle when Goldman subsidiary MTGLQ Investors dropped its bid to seize their house. By then, the college-educated couple had been reduced to shopping for canned goods at flea markets and selling used ceramic glass.

Theirs is an infrequent happy ending among the hundreds of cases in which subsidiaries of Goldman, better known for sending top officers such as Paulson to serve in top Washington posts, have sought to contain bondholder losses by foreclosing on properties and evicting delinquent borrowers.

Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment on individual cases or on the firm's new role in bankruptcy courts.

Joining other Wall Street firms that bought millions of subprime mortgages, Goldman companies have gone to courts from California to Florida seeking approval to foreclose on the homes of middle- and lower-income Americans who couldn't keep up with their loans' soaring monthly payments.

Goldman takes on new role: taking away people's homes