Longtime Clinton supporter and major donor Sarah Kovner has declared the race over and now throws her whole hearted support to Obama. To quote The New York Observer, Kovner said:
"Obama's the candidate," she said. "I'm a Democrat and I have been a Democrat for a long time and I want to win in November and I don't want to continue a fight that isn't a fight anymore.
I think that we have passed the end of the beginning, and now are at the beginning of the end. Thank goodness!
The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City's daily paper isn't exactly showing the love for Sally Kern.
Kern, the state lawmaker who apparently is striving to be the David Duke of homosexuality recently came under media scrutiny and widespread outrage when a tape of an extremely anti-gay speech she gave to a Republican group became public.
Rather than apologize for her remarks she has been glorying in her new found fame. Yesterday she addressed a rally of over 1,000 people who came to show their support. I'm sure that the crowd cheered when she proclaimed that she had no intention of apologizing.
The paper apparently isn't sharing Kern's sentiments. - What they said, after the flip.
UPDATED: The San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) is now reporting that a total of 7 people were shot and that there were also multiple stabbings.
From CBS 5, KPIX http://cbs5.com/...
5 Shot As Castro Halloween Party Nears End
(CBS 5 / AP / BCN) SAN FRANCISCO Five people were reportedly injured in a shooting at 16th and Market streets Tuesday night as hundreds of police officers were on the streets for this year's Halloween party in San Francisco's Castro District.
At least one of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries, but there was no word on the condition of the other victims. Police reported the suspect was wearing a Halloween costume and was seen fleeing the scene down Market St. immediately after the 10:20 pm shooting.
It's time to order up another batch of Freedom medals.
The Instant Messages are painfully familiar. Millions of us have heard the words or similar ones repeatedly as Chris Hansen reads them back to pedophile after pedophile in his ongoing series "To Catch A Predator".
In Mr. Hansen's show we watch as he confronts men who have shown up expecting to have sex with an underage boy or girl only to find themselves looking into the cameras of a TV News team, with a squad of police waiting in the wings.
In George Orwell's "Animal Farm", all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
In the world of Howard Dean, and many of our other "friends", All people are equal but some are more equal than others, and that's how it is supposed to be, apparently.
Let me start by relating a personal experience. There is a homeless man who has been living in the back of a nearby parking lot for the past couple of years or so. Like many others in the neighborhood I have often shared with him food or a little cash.
He recently got word from the VA that he was eligible for VA benefits. Last month he got a lump sum check in the amount of $10,000 and will receive $2,000 a month from now on.
(more)
1. FEMA officials have banned any photos of the bodies of the victims
of Hurricane Katrina. FEMA director Michael Brown explained that this
policy is being put into effect to protect the privacy of the victims
and their families. The news media will be kept at least 5 miles from
any place where bodies are being collected.
Its obvious that this federal adminstration is worthless, but that doesn't mean that America cannot take care of our own citizens in need.
Detroit has offered to take in 500 families made homeless by Katrina. I urge everyone to contact the officials in their own cities and towns and urge them to make similar offers.
These suffering people are not someone else's problem, or a federal problem, but they are an American problem. Think global, act local. Urge your local officials to offer housing and jobs to these people now.
Last year a National Guard battalion from Modesto California got national headlines when it complained that it was receiving substandard training prior to being deployed to Iraq.
In a L.A. Times article this morning we learn that one company of that same battalion "has been put on restricted duty and its battalion plunged into disarray amid allegations that battalion members mistreated detainees in Iraq and extorted shopkeepers, according to military officials and members of the unit...(National Guard spokesman Col. David) Baldwin also confirmed the existence of the investigation of the alleged extortion, which involves members of another company in the battalion.
The battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Patrick Frey, has been suspended while the investigation is conducted, Baldwin said.
Soldiers from a third company in the battalion have also been "pulled back to garrison mode," a military official said."(more below the fold)
The California economy is still reeling from the huge financial hit it took when Enron and others "gamed" the electrical energy market by shutting down power generating plants under false pretenses to create shortages so bad that the state had to institute "rolling black outs". We all remember reading transcripts of the tapes which captured energy traders chortling about putting "grandma in the dark".
Well, guess what folks. The oil and gas industry apparently is following Enron's lead
USA Next, the same bunch that brought us that slimy Swift Boat attack on Kerry is now turning its well funded guns on our senior citizens. If they can demonize Grandma and Grandpa, then none of us are safe.
AARP needs our help right now - Let's show them that we've got their back. For $12.50 a year you can join AARP - and that price even includes your spouse in the membership. Go to http://www.aarp.org/ and then urge every blogger you know to put a button such as this one on their web page and link it to http://www.aarp.org/
"Gannon" was actively working to further the right wing agenda to drive queers back into the closets as part of their goal to "bring back" a fictionalized version of life in the US in the '50s.
Let me provide some background for the heterosexuals and young queers who may be reading this but are not sure what the '50s and '60s were like for those of us who weren't born heterosexual.
Halliburton found that lost shipment of radioactive material which had been missing since October - Problem is, no one knew that it was missing until this past Tuesday. Gee, the main ingredient for a dirty bomb doesn't show up where it was supposed to and it takes 4 friggin' months to notice? How are they shipping it, as 3rd class mail? Good thing that it didn't get sold at an auction of unclaimed property.
And I can't help but notice its origin. Are we privatizing the clean up of Russian nuclear stockpiles now? I know that our government is (or at least was, under Clinton) spending many millions of dollars to secure the mostly poorly or even unguarded nuclear weapons site in the former Soviet Union. How did Halliburton get in the middle of this?
A Louisiana National Guard unit defied not only the general ban, but a specific Pentagon request to prevent television news crews from filming six flag-draped soldiers' coffins arriving in the state
following the men's deaths in Iraq last week.
The Louisiana National Guard allowed a CBS crew to film the arrival of
six soldiers' coffins at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in
Belle Chasse, La., near New Orleans. Lt. Col. Pete Schneider, a
spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard, told CBS: "What we thought
was, we're going to do what the family asked us to do."
In about six weeks Iraq is scheduled to hold elections. Many question whether that country is secure enough to allow those elections to go forward. Large parts of the Iraqi population, divided by ethnic or religious differences are calling for a boycott of the process. Many who might want to vote are afraid to do so, realistically fearing that they will be labeled "pro-American" for participating.
It seems to me that the situation could easily be turned around. I believe that it is possible to have peaceful elections that will draw a huge voter turn out.
Colgate-Palmolive is sending 4,400 employees, some 15% of it's worldwide work force, home with an early Christmas present today - Termination notices.
Company chairman and CEO Reuben Mark described Colgate's worldwide sales and volume trends as "excellent" but said the company will close one-third of its factories as part of a four-year plan aimed at boosting its sales and profits.
The Associated Press reports though that while thousands of factory workers will have to explain to their children that Santa won't be able to visit this year, that will not be a problem faced by those in the executive suite.
It should come as no surprise to many that this nation's police departments often end up adopting tools originally developed for the military. Some of these end up in the hands of law enforcement as "surplus", such as helicopters, tanks and armored personnel carriers as well as guns. Other advances, such as "flash-bangs", night vision equipment and body armor end up getting marketed to both the military and the cops at the same time.
So what new tools might we expect to see in the hands of the police soon? Well, here's one of the hottest.
(more below the fold)
and link it to http://www.aarp.org/
