Attorney General Gonzales steps down:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned on Monday under pressure after months of controversy and political turmoil that President George W. Bush angrily blamed on his administration's critics in Congress.

Bush, who doggedly supported Gonzales during repeated confrontations with the Democratic-controlled Congress, said Gonzales had endured "months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department."

"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," Bush said before leaving Texas for Republican fund-raisers in New Mexico and Washington.

...

"I have lived the American dream," said Gonzales, a son of migrant workers who began working for Bush when the president was still the governor of Texas.

"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," he said.

Gonzales should be proud of his legacy. He worked his way up from migrant worker obscurity and into the halls of Federal power. From there he was able to argue against the right of habeas corpus, oversee warrantless surveillance of US citizens, advance a legal basis for circumventing the Geneva Conventions to allow torture, and, of course, participate in the prosecutor firing debacle.

Of all of this, it was at the absurd prosecutor firings that finished him. Not even arguing for torture could keep him out of the job!

God Bless America.

Technorati Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Bush Administration, politics

Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton announced a $110 billion health care reform plan Monday that would require all Americans to have health insurance.

...

A Clinton adviser compares the plan's so-called "individual mandate" -- which requires everyone to have health insurance -- to current rules in most states that require all drivers to purchase auto insurance, according to The Associated Press.

In her plan, Clinton said families would receive tax credits to help pay for coverage. The tax credit would be designed to limit the premiums to a percentage of a family's income.

Here's another reason not to vote for Clinton. No, I'm not afraid of national healthcare. What I'm afraid of is corporate shills that will "solve" the healthcare crisis in this country by legislating in the interests of the insurance industry. Clinton's plan would require us to purchase coverage from the very industry that works tirelessly to drive down quality of care and drive up quality of profits. All this plan will do is force more citizens and tax dollars into the hands of the insurance industry. Let's be clear: the insurance industry operates to maximize profits, not coverage. Who's being subsidized here? Right-wing critics will decry this plan as "socialized" healthcare, but the only beneficiaries of this plan are corporations. Sounds like capitalism to me; the ruling class will always legislate in its favor.

Americans don't need universal insurance coverage. We need quality, universal health care.

Technorati Tags: healthcare, Clinton, politics, insurance

A: Childrens do learn.

During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"

On Wednesday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said. Reuters.com

George W. Bush: America's first retarded president.

Technorati Tags: education, George W. Bush, mental retardation

Here's why we won't have real health care reform:

As Democrats Criticize, Health Care Industry Donates - New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Oct.28 — In a reversal from past election cycles, Democratic candidates for president are outpacing Republicans in donations from the health care industry, even as the leading Democrats in the field offer proposals that have caused deep anxiety in some sectors of the industry, according to campaign finance records.

Hospitals, drug makers, doctors and insurers gave candidates in both parties more than $11 million in the first nine months of this year, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent group that tracks campaign finance.

In all, the Democratic presidential candidates have raised about $6.5 million from the industry, compared with nearly $4.8 million for the Republican candidates. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has amassed the most of any candidate, despite her calls for broad changes to the health care system that could pose serious financial challenges to private insurers, drug companies and other sectors.

Is it any surprise that Clinton has received the most healthcare industry dollars? Remember Clinton's mandatory insurance plan?

Which half of the ruling class are you voting for in 2008?

Technorati Tags: 2008 elections, healthcare, insurance, corporate goverment

A little kid dressed as Link just rang my door bell. The costume was homemade and kick ass. I wish I had a camera handy.

That kid wins Halloween.

Richardson said the criminal justice system is "inherently defective" in its use of the death penalty, noting that four death-row inmates in New Mexico have been exonerated in the past 10 years.

"Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime," Richardson said in a statement Wednesday.

"If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong."

The bill replaces the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole

[From New Mexico governor repeals death penalty in state - CNN.com]

I'm glad Richardson didn't veto this bill. He made the correct choice. The bolded text above sums up my thoughts on a key methodological issue of the death penalty. One incorrect execution invalidates the system. While it is also a travesty if one person is locked up for any duration for a crime they didn't commit, at least a living person's can be cleared and compensated in the face of exculpatory evidence. Correction is impossible if the State has executed the person.

Whether the execution as punishment is defensible from an ethical stand point or if execution is an effective deterrent is another question entirely. Never mind the issue of whether certain groups of people actually receive fair trials within the justice system.

A U.S. Census worker found hanging from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

[From The Raw Story » Census worker found hanged; ‘fed’ scrawled on body]

What. the. fuck?

Obama's presidency sure has stirred up the crazies hasn't it?

Update [9/23/09 @ 7:15]: Apparently some on the right are terrified that the 2010 census will be used to round up US citizens.

At least one elected official is planning at least a partial boycott.

More Bachmann

There's always the possibility that this apparent crime isn't about the 2010 census. But right now it has that appearance.

G20 security officials took responsibility Friday afternoon for a video that seemed to depict US troops 'kidnapping' a protester.

The military was not involved in the incident, but G20 security did acknowledge that "law enforcement officers from a multi-agency tactical response team" had detained a protester they said was believed to be vandalizing a store.

Video posted at YouTube shows onlookers calling out "what the fuck" and "what the fuck is wrong with you?" as people in camo uniforms haul a protester along by his collar, shove him into the back seat of a car, and rapidly drive off.

[From G20 cops dressed in camo 'snatch' protester | Raw Story]

Some songs stay relevant...

You be the judge:

On Thursday, F.B.I. agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

The man, Elliot Madison, 41, a social worker who has described himself as an anarchist, had been arrested in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. The Pennsylvania State Police said he was found in a hotel room with computers and police scanners while using the social-networking site Twitter to spread information about police movements. He has denied wrongdoing.

[From Arrest of Queens Man Puts Focus on Texting to Rally Protesters - NYTimes.com]

...

A criminal complaint in Pennsylvania accuses him of “directing others, specifically protesters of the G-20 summit, in order to avoid apprehension after a lawful order to disperse.”

...

A search warrant executed by the F.B.I. at Mr. Madison’s house authorized agents and officers looking for violations of federal rioting laws to seize computers and phones, black masks and clothes and financial records and address books. Among the items seized, according to a list prepared by the agents, were electronic equipment, newspapers, books and gas masks. The items also included what was described as a picture of Lenin.

THe LA Times articles notes there two men arrested:

Elliot Madison, 41, and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, both from New York, face charges of hindering prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possessing criminal instruments.

...

Police say they found the two men sitting in front of computers, wearing headphones and using maps and scanners. They are said to have been using Twitter to inform protesters on the ground of police movements.

The FBI raided Madison's home in New York and spent 16 hours searching it.
They found items including anarchist literature, gas masks, goggles, face masks and test tubes.

Books and newspapers? A picture of Lenin? These are relevant how? Is it suddenly illegal to own these items? Is anarchist literature officially the wrong kind of literature now?

Gas masks and goggles? Given the anti-protestor paramilitary and police units willingness to deploy tear gas against protesting citizens to keep dissent away from the political managers of global capitalism, neither of these items seems unreasonable.

The NY Post reports that the raid wasn't just conducted by FBI agents, but by an anti-terrorist unit. Does civil disobedience now qualify as terrorism?

Right now, none of the government's actions make sense. Is there more here than is being reported or is this a federal crackdown on dissident voices protesting capitalism?

Until I hear otherwise, these arrests seem entirely unreasonable to me.

This is small town politics at its finest:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government - but he doesn't believe in God. His political opponents say that's a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they've got the North Carolina Constitution on their side.

Bothwell's detractors are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in, even though the state's antiquated requirement that officeholders believe in God is unenforceable because it violates the U.S. Consititution.

[From Conservatives threaten to sue city over atheist councilman | Raw Story]

...

"My father was a Baptist minister. I'm a Christian man. I have problems with people who don't believe in God," said Edgerton, a former local NAACP president and founder of Southern Heritage 411, an organization that promotes the interests of black southerners.

I know there are decent ones out there, but religious people tend to be fucking scum.

Why do the Democrats continue to associate with this pile of shit?

Washington (CNN) -- Dashing the hopes of Democratic lawmakers Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman signaled he would oppose a health care bill that includes a proposal to expand Medicare to people as young as 55.

[From Lieberman opposes Medicare at 55 - CNN.com]

Kick him out of the caucus already and take away his committee chairs!

South Carolina Lt.-Gov. Andre Bauer, a candidate for governor, made the comment during a town hall meeting on Friday. During a discussion of subsidized school lunches, Bauer argued that children should be denied reduced prices for school lunches if their parents fail a drug test or don't show up for parent-teacher meetings.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, as quoted at the South Carolina State. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

[From SC Lt. Gov. regrets comparing poor to animals, then does it again]

What a prick.

So the Republicans are already working to fight the "big fucking deal" healthcare bill signed by Obama earlier today:

14 Attorneys General are suing to stop the bill as unconstitutional.

Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) has a bill ready for the House to repeal it (PDF).

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and a handful of Republicans have a Senate bill worked up.

Here's the Senate Bill:

TEXT of Senator DeMint’s bill to Repeal ObamaCare: To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REPEAL.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the amendments made by that Act, are repealed.

I'd be lying if I said their outrage didn't amuse me.

When these attempts fail, what will they do next? Secede?

I'm still unclear on what rights and liberties are lost by enacting this bill.

To be fair, I'm not impressed with the mandate to buy insurance from private companies. I still think that aspect is a mistake, but maybe it will provide an opportunity for something better in the future. The bill should have, minimally, included a public option. Unfortunately the Democrats gave up on that early in the process.

Single-payer was never an option, though it should have been.

Maybe we'll get that in another 103 years.