FIRST IRAQ WAR VET IN CONGRESS?!

SPEAKING OF PAUL HACKETT

Dem Candidate for Congress, OH - 2nd District

"He's got a wife, kids and a good job but he's not sitting in the back row - that gives me something to think about."
[Todd Schulte, Businessman, Republican - NYT ]

Fish Bowl watched The Daily Show last night:

Lewis Black is back on The Daily Show with "Back in Black" ... He talked about race, invoking RNC heartthrob Ken Mehlman's recent appearance before the NAACP to apologize for the Republican party's attempt (to end) the "decades-old Southern strategy of race-baiting" in the South.

Black quipped:

"I would have sent the black (Republican) congressional delegation, but he's retired."

JUDGE GETS IN SWIPE AT BUSHCO
By GENE JOHNSON

SEATTLE (AP) - The sentence itself was fairly straightforward: An Algerian man received 22 years for plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium. It was what the judge said in imposing the term that raised eyebrows.

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics.

"We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel," he said Wednesday. "The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart."

He added that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have made Americans realize they are vulnerable to terrorism and that some believe "this threat renders our Constitution obsolete ... If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won."

GM, HONDA MOVING JOBS TO CANADA

There are several factors that make it advantageous to manufacture elsewhere:

Healthcare costs about $1600. per US car. We need a gummint-funded single-payer system.

Don't underrate the average American worker whose increased productivity on the job is WORTH  the increased wages he earns over the average 2nd-world worker. THEY work for less - but THEY are less efficient.

Our trade deficit with China and correlated job loss is due to unfair trade practices. The Chinese gummint subsidizes many industries and dumps cheap goods abroad. The Chinese currency is artificially set low against the dollar by their gummint to make their goods cheaper and to provide an advantage to American manufacturers who move there.

I'm no economist, but I concur with some who think the best remedy for our trade deficit is to institute a tariff that would rise or fall based on the dollar amount of our deficit with a particular country. For example, as I recall, we're currently running something like a 30% deficit with Ireland - we buy 30% more from them than they buy from us. In the case of Ireland, their goods aren't cheaper. We just buy more stuff from them. The tariff plan would add a sanction on Irish goods to the point of parity. Obviously, it would be in Ireland's interest to throw more business to US firms in order to avoid the disadvantage of adding to the cost of their goods with a tariff.

The same plan would work with China. The beauty of the tariff is that it does away with other trade sanctions for dumping, for example, and it works whether the trading partner unfairly manipulates its currency or subsidizes its industries.

WHY ARE SO MANY CHRISTIANISTS SO DELUSIONAL?!

The proof of God is THERE HAS TO BE A GOD?!

You're welcome to your belief, Fundie Friend, but you seem oblivious to the fact that others may choose a different religion or a different interpretation of the Bible than you - or they may choose REASON.

"I don't believe anything unless I can see it, hear it, eat it, drink it, drive it, boink it or perceive evidence of its existence." [Rev. Art]

I don't say you're delusional because you believe as you do - but because you seem to be incapable of recognizing the validity of other life-views.

If the monotheist religions were "true", wouldn't their scriptures - purportedly the "word of God" - be consistent? If God told Abraham, "KEEP OFF THE GRASS!"  and all monotheists accept it, why do their scriptures disagree? Talk about muddyin' the landscape! This brings us back to questions concerning "lost" or rejected texts, which are complex and may be addressed hereabouts later.

BTW, Jesus-Boy, I have two grown sons who were raised to believe in only one scary guy - and he warn't in the sky. We raised them to respect themselves and their family and to extend that respect to everyone. We taught them that there are rules in society. If you break the rules, there are consequences. It ain't rocket science, but it was enough for them, apparently. They're raisin' good kids and they've never been in jail. I think we did well without Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Marx, Jack Kemp or Doc Rosemond.

JESSICA SIMPSON V. BRITNEY SPEARS ON IRAQ in Salon

You know things are not going well in Iraq when pop singer Jessica Simpson joins the ranks of the outraged. ABC filmed Simpson's trip to perform for soldiers (in Iraq), but Simpson reportedly claims that ABC didn't include the parts involving "the enemy attacks and the shelling," charging that those tapes "got mysteriously misplaced."

Jessica Simpson ... never created the impression that she would emerge as a free-thinker. But she's clearly got better political instincts than her colleague Britney Spears. A "gum-smacking" Spears told CNN in Sept. 2003 that questioning the course of national affairs isn't her bag - and apparently shouldn't be anyone's. "Honestly," she said, "I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that."

Wonkette notes: "Jessica's also very disturbed by the situation in Darfur."

IT AIN'T THE MEAT - IT'S THE MOTION!

From Salon : It seems Paris Hilton's engagement has been weighing on her. Despite being plagued by rumors of premarital strife, the Paris and Paris wedding tour is proceeding, with a few minor adjustments. "[Paris] started complaining about how heavy her 24-carat ring [is] and that her finger hurts," says an Us Weekly source. Her doting fiancé, Paris Latsis, heir to a Greek shipping fortune, has responded by buying her "a more manageable diamond-less platinum Cartier band for everyday wear."

TURD BLOSSOM'S ALREADY TAKEN!

Earlier this week, (Columnist Tim Noah) invited Slate readers to invent a nickname President Bush could give his Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts Jr., to show him who's boss. (Although everybody in Washington pretends that Bush's penchant for bestowing nicknames is boyishly endearing, in fact, as Garry Trudeau has observed, it's an ugly ritual of domination.)

Da Rev likes "Roeminator".

HAD ENOUGH?!

Good fortune. Please spread the meme.
COMMENT!! Don't smoke in bed . . .