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I'm handing over my black card ya'll. I love Michael Buble' I can't help it. And I find Jon Bon Jovi hot! Give it back to me later on after I see the MJ movie, or when I buy my next Bone Thugs or Slim Thugga, or Lil Wayne album (which won't happen anyway, since I don't really listen it any of them, I'm a ole school hip hop kinda girl, and "around the way girl" you could say)
*snatches rikyrah's card, too, even though he has those same groups on his iPod, too.*
Ya'll didn't hear that.
You'll get this back when you come to your senses.
*doesn't mention that he has Bon Jovi and other 80's rock groups on his iPod*
Nothing to see here folks, move along.
*and Madonna*
*and Debbie Gibson*
*still doesn't mention having Twisted Sister, Whitesnake, Van Halen and other rock bands on his playlists*
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, folks.
Oops, did I say that out loud?
Seems that a bunch of our favorite 'centrist' Congresscritters were spooked (like the scared rabbits they are) by Tuesday's voting, and want to cower in their offices and avoid any controversial votes between now and the 2010 midterm.
Brilliant. That'll sure get the base to turn out for them, won't it?
From The Hill:
Vulnerable House and Senate Democrats want their leaders to skip the party’s controversial legislative agenda for next year to help save their seats in Congress.
In the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections, they don’t want to be forced to vote on climate change, immigration reform and gays in the military, which they say should be set aside so Congress can focus on jobs and the economy.
“It’s hard; the most important issue in front of us is the economy right now, and that’s where most of us really want to stay focused, the economy and jobs, that’s what our constituency is concerned about,” said Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D), who is facing a tough race next year in Arkansas.
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D), a centrist contemplating a run for Senate in North Carolina, helped Democratic leaders in the summer by voting for climate change legislation on the House floor.
He now wants Democratic leaders to narrow their focus on jobs and the economy.
“Three things ought to be the top priority: jobs, jobs and jobs,” he said.
Lincoln said that lawmakers should focus on passing healthcare reform and wait until next year to effect financial regulatory reform and reduce unemployment.
“That’s an awful lot to bite off and chew for right now,” said Lincoln, who described herself as “not in a hurry” to tackle climate change, an issue she has some jurisdiction over as chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Sen. Evan Bayh (D), who is running for reelection in conservative-leaning Indiana, said “jobs should be our top priority and we shouldn’t do anything that detracts from that,” echoing a sentiment of many colleagues in similar positions.
Bayh said he recognizes that Congress should be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time and hopefully do more than one thing,” but that controversial issues will become especially difficult next year.
Climate change legislation would be “difficult to accomplish under the best of times and doubly so when the economy is not at all good,” Bayh said.
...
Some Democrats are worried the ambitious agenda could make winning reelection that much harder.
“If it was up to me, I would figure out how to handle the war and fix the economy,” said Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.), a senior centrist Democrat who has found himself in the crosshairs of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has recruited a promising GOP challenger.
Tanner worries his party may be trying to bite off too much in the 111th Congress.
“For all of these big issues, the trick is — to use a football analogy — to go for a first down instead of an 80-yard Hail Mary,” he said. “Some of the more philosophically driven people want to do an 80-yard Hail Mary, but getting first downs is how you legislate over time.”
A group of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers see healthcare reform, climate change and immigration reform as desperation passes down the length of the political playing field. They acknowledge that healthcare reform may very well pass, but they say that climate change and immigration reform have dim prospects.
Rep. Bobby Bright, an Alabama centrist viewed as one of the most endangered Democrats in the House, said that many Americans feel alarmed by the drastic legislative changes moving through Congress. He said leaders should consider breaking up sprawling controversial bills into smaller pieces that voters would not find so daunting in size and scope.
“Maybe this healthcare bill is going drastically too far,” he said. “If we could take it in smaller steps, we could build confidence.
What a bunch of worthless grovelers.
Look, that's the point of having a government: to deal with problems that need to be addressed on a national level. If you guys don't want to be part of that, then QUIT. Resign. Give your seat up, so someone else who isn't petrified in fear of what the wingnuts might say, or what the voters might do, can use it, since you're not going to. There are only 535 people in this country who get to vote on Federal legislation. If you don't want to be one of them, fine - but step down. If you won't lead or follow, then get the fuck out of the way.
Like it or not, it's your job to deal with tough issues. If you don't want the responsibility, then run for the goddamned Library Board back home.
And can we all admit that the 'jobs' bit is a pathetic dodge? You guys don't like deficit spending, at least deficit spending that will help ordinary people. And you don't like raising taxes. So you're not going to borrow or raise taxes to do anything that will create jobs. That doesn't leave much, does it?
Oh, wait, I know: you'll come up with a bill to gut regulations that protect workers and consumers, and call that a jobs bill.
Pathetic.
http://www.cogitamusblog.com/2009/11/dear-blue-...
In brief, sever foreign interest and corporate ties from the Hill.
That will stop most if not all of it.
The charges, against 14 money managers, lawyers and other investors, followed the arrest last month of a hedge fund billionaire, Raj Rajaratnam, on charges that he had profited from inside information.
14 Charged With Insider Trading in Galleon Case
After following months of reports about Goldman Sachs using insider information. selling bonds and betting against them, and using trading software to manipulate trades, one start to believe using insider information was NOT illegal and receiving $$billion$$ in bonuses for this activity was OK. So ... Rajaratnam and others may go to jail simply because they are not GS?
Senator Talha Mehmood, chairing a committee meeting at Parliament House, also sought a report on the total number of US diplomats and other citizens in the country.
Earlier, Interior Ministry officials told the body that 284 “special Americans”, including US diplomats, were residing in 414 houses in Islamabad.
Mehmood told the committee that a US national, recruiting agents for Blackwater in the guise of an NGO, was expelled, but was allowed to return to Pakistan in less than two months. He asked the ministry to inform the body about the person who allowed the US citizen to come back to Pakistan.
The Islamabad deputy commissioner told the committee that road blocks in front of Marriott and Serena hotels would end by November 14.
On October 30, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Interior expressed concern over the presence of US private security agency Blackwater in Pakistan and asked the Interior Ministry to submit a report on the matter to the panel.
Pakistan Senate body seeks report on Blackwater
U.S. has Blackwater presence in Pakistan, they can guide the unmanned drones. Besides, a Blackwater employee performing same job as U.S. solider earns upwards to %500 more per day.
Can "we" bring our troops home now?
During a lesson on the Civil War, tour guide Ian Campbell, made black students pretend to be slaves in front of their white classmates.
Campbell said he's been a historian for more than 15 years. "I am very enthusiastic about getting kids to think about how people did things in 1860, 1861, even before that period."
One parent said Campbell took his enthusiasm too far when he picked three black elementary school children out of a group of mostly white students to play the role of cotton picking slaves during a his hands-on history lesson. The parent says the students were also made to wear bags used to gather cotton around their necks.
Campbell said, "I was trying to be historically correct not politically correct."
Children's Slavery Lesson Upsets Charlotte NAACP Leader
Talk about brainwashing kids.
A dozen people were arrested this afternoon in or just outside of Nancy Pelosi’s office, some for unlawful entry and others for disorderly conduct, the Capitol Police confirm, adding that some of the arrested were throwing papers around.
Four demonstrators were arrested for refusing to leave her office in the Canon House Office Building, and eight more were arrested for unlawful or disorderly conduct, Capitol Police spokesperson Kimberly Schneider tells our reporter, Amanda Erickson.
Apparently those who were arrested outside her office were also throwing papers in the hallway, the spokesperson says. It couldn’t immediately be determined what sort of papers the demonstrators were tossing or why the paperwork ticked them off.
This is less serious than arrests at Pelosi’s office in the Capitol itself would have been, but a dozen for unlawful entry and disorderly conduct is definitely noteworthy. More soon.
****************************************
Update: Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill confirms that the demonstrators were Operation Rescue people and that they were shredding copies of the health care bill.
A Dozen Demonstrators Arrested At Pelosi’s Office — Shredded Copies Of Health Bill
[W]atching Nancy Pelosi’s weekly press conference in the Capitol, and get this: Reporters didn’t ask a single question about the massive Michele Bachmann/Tea Party rally massing outside the building today. Not one!
Reporters asked a dozen questions, and for some reason, they only were interested in talking about the first major health care reform bill in legislative history to get within striking distance of law.
This outrageous media conspiracy to black out legitimate dissent on behalf of The One just shows you how corrupt and out of touch these elites really are.
Media Conspiracy To Black Out Bachmann And Tea Partiers Continues
Wackos because they are going after Lieberman?
The court's opinion in Murray v. Motorola added yet another wrinkle to a debate within U.S. courts over whether national regulations trump state laws when it comes to issues surrounding cell phone safety. In dismissing parts of the cases while preserving others, including a set of consumer protection claims, the decision gave both sides of the case fodder to declare victory. But while the plaintiffs still have a long road before getting to a jury, some lawyers familiar with the decision said the ruling could lead to the filing of even more suits against cell phone companies in Washington's trial court.
"My sense on this is it's probably not good for either side [the telecom companies or potential plaintiffs], because it means more litigation," said Stewart Baker, a partner with Steptoe & Johnson in Washington who specializes in telecommunications law. "It doesn't put a stake in their heart so thoroughly that the plaintiffs' lawyers will just abandon [the issue], but it doesn't create much of an incentive to settle either."
The six cases at issue, filed in 2001 and 2002, target some of the biggest names in the wireless industry, including Verizon, Motorola, AT&T, Sprint and Nokia among others, who in turn have recruited a battery of big-name defense firms. Washington-based Wiley Rein partner Andrew McBride argued before the appeals court on behalf of the defendants in January. Other firms involved include Shook, Hardy & Bacon, O'Melveny & Myers, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Greenberg Traurig, Dickstein Shapiro, King & Spalding, Kilpatrick Stockton, Drinker Biddle & Reath and more.
The plaintiffs allege they suffered illnesses and injuries including brain cancer due to radiation from their mobile phones, and that the wireless companies' marketing misled them into believing their products were completely safe. They also claim that their phones failed to meet Federal Communications Commission regulations limiting the amount of radio frequency radiation they can emit. In 2007, Judge Cheryl Long of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia dismissed the suits, reasoning that the claims, which were made based on D.C. law, were pre-empted by the Federal Communications Act of 1996.
The appeals court agreed, but only in part. Writing for a three judge panel Oct. 29, Judge Phyllis Thompson found that the plaintiffs could not pursue claims that they were injured by phones which met the FCC's emissions standards. Doing so, she wrote, would upset the agency's policy goal of creating "a proper balance between the need to protect the public and workers from exposure to excessive [radiation] and the need to allow communications services to readily address growing marketplace demands." Thompson's opinion was joined by Judges Noel Kramer and John Fisher.
D.C. Court of Appeals Resurrects Cell Phone Radiation Cases
My position on taxes is that the current tax code is to heavily designed to remove income from taxation. The simplest proof is go into a CPA's office and look at the books tax code, stack it on end based on the smallest dimension and it is still as tall as Kareem or Yao. I think they rates should be graduated to about 22% max only exemptions for houses, charity and children.
This change will cost some business and job's their existence. The release of restrictions from the economy will bring about new ones. People will take risk to start businesses and make money.
If we get healthcare change w/ a single payer or a German type insurance system(multiple insurers standard policies) the economy will really explode.
I was being snarky on the taxes, but I believe that many folks are going to be surprised by how much collective healthcare costs will hit them in the form of taxes and copays. Especially those who are not used to paying much.....those who really are under served now. The IRS will collect!
The problems you are refereing to overseas are the dynamics of achieving certain types of treatments and surgeries that are amksed by the inablity to pay in this country. Even then some aren't like receivng transplants. Steven Jobs had to pay himself a Tennesee citizenship to find a liver because he could not buy one in CA
I didn't get mine!
Arrr, it be hard out here for a player!
Yeah, a *LOT* higher. MSM can't cover him from here...
All of this is to say. So, whats your point about the MSM's alleged duty to inform the public?
On the POC jobless rate, what is the comparative difference between the government's official rate and the actual number? I haven't read it anywhere, but would like to know.
Do you mean Americus, GA?
In court, that rethug talking point has been refuted numerous to times.
"I would like you to lay out an example of someone's home being "stolen""
Google "mud people loans", subprime+blacks+target
"On the POC jobless rate, what is the comparative difference between the government's official rate and the actual number?"
Example: 50% of NYC Black Males Are Unemployed
"Do you mean Americus, GA?"
No.
On the unemployment thing, urban myth maybe, more likely political tall tale IMHO, but it's your link. Are you trying to say is strictly related to race?
Quoted from the link you posted:
"They vote consistently liberal and they are politically liberal to the core. How could this happen in New York City? How could 50% of black men be unemployed in the most convincingly liberal city in America? Cincinnati is sometimes viewed as backward, but we don't even approach those rates.
I don't believe NYC has those unemployment rates for black mean. I think that data does not exist. I think it is politically correct garbage that nobody every responds to out of courtesy."
Black male unemployment is NOT a myth nor mystery:
1. Discrimination: The Root of the Black Job Crisis
2. Capitol Hill Holds Hearing on Black Male Inner City 50% Unemployment
3. Florida: Inner City Black Male Unemployment At 50 Percent
4. Buffalo Has Nation’s Highest (51%) Unemployment Rate for Black Males
In fact LAST DECEMBER I saw "now hiring" signs at many retail places.
There were always jobs, just not jobs that pay much or that people want. Their old jobs aren't coming back and the wages aren't going back up (why, if the employer can get the same amount of work out of you at $25K that he did at $30K?). People need to realize, understand and digest that and adjust their lives accordingly.
Currnet stats: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
I understand what you are saying and I agree totally that that reality is coming. but it is part and parcel of the debate over healthcare reform. W/ everyone working in that fashion the only way to recieve healthcare will be a single payer system otherwise everyone going to the ER to die will bankrupt the country.
As to a checkbeing a check w/ the number of hours worked down to 33/wk it means everyone is part time and employers will bring current workers closer to 40 before they hire anyone. If employers are doing that you can't even get a check.
“It’s now reached the point,” reads a statement from RADAR, “that domestic violence laws represent the largest roll-back in Americans’ civil rights since the Jim Crow era!”
RADAR’s rhetoric may seem overblown, but lately the group and its many partners have been racking up very real accomplishments. In 2008, the organization claimed to have blocked passage of four federal domestic-violence bills, among them an expansion of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to international scope and a grant to support lawyers in pro bono domestic-violence work. Members of this coalition have gotten themselves onto drafting committees for VAWA’s 2011 reauthorization. Local groups in West Virginia and California have also had important successes, criminalizing false claims of domestic violence in custody cases, and winning rulings that women-only shelters are discriminatory.
Groups like RADAR fall under the broader umbrella of the men’s rights movement, a loose coalition of anti-feminist groups. These men’s rights activists, or MRAs, have long been written off by domestic-violence advocates as a bombastic and fringe group of angry white men, and for good reason. Bernard Chapin, a popular men’s rights blogger, told me over e-mail that he will refer to me as “Feminist E,” since he never uses real names for feminists, who are wicked and who men “must verbally oppose … until our flesh oxidizes into dust.” In the United Kingdom, a father’s rights group scaled Buckingham Palace in superhero costumes. In Australia, they wore paramilitary uniforms and demonstrated outside the houses of female divorcees.
"Men's Rights" Groups Have Become Frighteningly Effective
Beating your wife is a civil right?
The system definitely needs an overhaul to be more fair to parents of either sex instead of defaulting to mother as primary custodian. I know plenty of dads who are just as much of a caregiver as the mom.
You can't be serious. So everybody who is "stressed" can shirk their responsibility and not deploy? I know guys that have been there 4 or 5 times and you don't think they are "stressed" as well. This guy wasn't stressed he just didn't understand the gravity of signing up for the US Military. The military exists to fight wars it looks like Malik seemed to forget that. And I didn't see this guy trying to get out the military when he was becoming a psychiatrist on the tax payer's dime. He signed the contract he made a commitment this isn't the 60's no one forced his hand. You don't get kicked out the military because you may disagree with US foreign policy. If that was the case people would get kicked out all the time. There's an officer who doesn't believe Obama is a legitimate President. Lets let him shirk his responsibility as well.
Look, I know Iraq was/is a bullshit war, and Afghanistan is FUBARed to hell, but when you sign up--when you volunteer--Uncle Sam owns your ass. He says you're going to a combat zone, you're going to a combat zone. You signed the contract.
i don't get this "why i gotta go to war?" BULLSHIT.
Yeah, it's a "volunteer" army, but It's the armed forces you are literally volunteering to go to war to fight. You have a choice.
I don't know this guys situation, but I once wanted to become a doctor, and I through some of my own issues, I never made it. For all the people who apply to med school, I believe that of say 1000 people who apply "maybe" 20% actually get in to the "good" schools. Others have to find a way to get in and some Carribean schools, and yes the military schools are definitely the way some people go.
I'll admit that I myself kinda looked into joining just to go to med school, but I idea of having to go to war was what stopped me.
In 1976, I filed sexual harassment charges against the NCOIC of our clinic with the IG. After an investigation, he was demoted and removed from his "command."
Just because the man was (is) a psychiatrist and/or a commissioned officer does not mean he's immune from harassment.
As far as getting his education on the taxpayers dime - the man has been in the military for, what? - 10 years? At least 6 years were spent at Walter Reed. He's paid back his debt. Again - the military pays for med school but you only owe an allotment of time: 1-2 years of service for every year of med school paid by the military.
http://www.goarmy.com/amedd/hpsp.jsp
While stationed at Ft. Knox, one of my husband's running buddies was one of the bases veterinarian. The military was how he got thru vet school.
Guns.... in the PDF, it also says "you'll be commissioned as a second lt. in the Army Reserve. Following graduation.... you'll commissioned as a captain." So the 'rotc' thing is on point.
http://www.goarmy.com/amedd/docs/hpsp.pdf
One other thing: You have to be an American citizen. No shit - read the requirements
YOU nor I nor anyone else knows his reasoning for his actions. It's all speculation right now. And the Army shouldn't be giving out this man's information; it's against policy.
NOR am I excusing what he did.
Edit: I was reading at military.com and even there, there are some who want to restrain others until more is known. There's talk about 'friendly fire' and some other stuff.
And if I hear anyone else say or ask - why hasn't this major said anything ...... because he's probably on a fucking ventilator!
The military knows it and that's why many recruits have to be "trained" to kill. Lessening natural abhorrence to killing the military uses arcades and video games in malls within urban centers with killing to attract potential recruits. Recruiters are provided elementary student information to become their buddies at early ages. These recruiter buddies teach young recruits to throw grenades using baseballs. All of this is done because it is not "natural" to accept killing as a new job skill.
This educated and well traveled man raised his hand and said this,
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."
Don't act like he was some poor kid in the ghetto who didn't have resources, education or family structure to know any better.
"Lets say he was affected by a "stop loss" and we don't know that he was. So what? "
Ties in with military ignoring soldiers problems: suicides, soldier rage, PTSD, brain trauma, returning soldiers murders, police combating returning soldiers dropped back in communities, etc. It matters.
"NOBODY is forced to join the military in modern america"
True, but joblessness is a great tool for recruitment.
"if u gonna join, don't complain when you have to kill. it's the MILITARY. "
Individuals joining the service in specialities such as into special forces, infantry, or artillery go into the military with expectation to kill.
And like I said you don't know his commitment. He was in for almost 10 so and some point he decided VOLUNTARILY to stay longer.
Edit:
From lamh32 post: "He had also allegedly asked for a discharge from the military for several years after suffering abuse and harassment by other members of the military for his religious beliefs following the attacks on September 11, 2001, according to his aunt."
With that number of years, which is plenty, you surely better understand your "mission."
I can see it now - Muslims need not apply to join the military until too many white guys get shot up - it's the reason why Truman desegregated the military back during the Korean conflict.
As far as this Hasan guy is concerned, he should have been left at Walter Reed for evaluation. Why is it taking 6+ months to verify that he was making suicide bombing statements on the Internet? I betcha if you or I as private citizens were making suicide bombing threats on the internet the FBI, CIA, ATF, NSA and all the other letter organizations would be on our asses like white on rice with the quickness. This guy was flagged as potentially unstable more than 6 months ago, but as with the Virginia Tech shooter, nobody wants to step in and take a closer look at the individual until after it's too late.
John Allen Muhammad scheduled for execution in Virginia on Nov 9 is an untreated Iraqi veteran.
oh, happy day!!!!!!!!!!!
though i prefer in most cases they be allowed to live the rest of their lives in the hell that is prison.
though i totally agree with u on the untreated soldiers issue and the negative impact that has on all of us.
what's the status of the other guy (his young, crazy sidekick from the caribbean)? he still breathing???
NOBODY in the DMV is feeling sorry for John Allen Mohammed, he had all of us ducking and dodging and bobbing and weaving at gas stations, side eyeing white box trucks, shutting down Interstate 95 and fearing for our lives.
Nope, not sorry at all.
i hope malvo's life is sheer HELL!
Regarding young sidekick, yep. He's still breathing will be in jail for life.
either way, he gets nada!
Anyone wonder about this, <puts tinfoil hat on>, google "pinwale", "firstfruits", and "stellar wind". I'm sure JJP is not being watched like Freerepublic, right? Maybe I just ruined all that by putting all those words together in one post LOL. <Takes tinfoil hat off>
One cliff Van Zandt and others are ignorant. they have repeatedly stated this this type of attack has not occured before. I have no idea what they think fragging is. It has happened that officers have fragged enlisted men as well.
Two, this guy is a terrorist. I have grave doubts that there will be anything substansive here. You have to evaluate people when you promote them. If anything it shows the military is in dissarray on this issue. they ignored his issues on the grounds they are so short of pyschiatry people because they could have given him a dishonorable discharge(which fits w/ his offer to pay them back and the military passing) and/or the military officers above hi chose to punish him for any number of reasons by sending him overseas.
three, there are numerous reports about the number of suicides and violent abuse of soldiers returning home. It was posted on JJP the women taking about how many acts were occuring at FtHood. the military is not addressing this issue and it is just a matter of time before the spillover occurs in public where the mentality is different
Jon Stewart Does Glenn Beck: Touts Conspiracy Theories, Cries (VIDEO)
well, i guess it all makes sense now! hahahaha