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Open thread 7/22
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted July 22, 2007 at 1:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
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Happy 84th birthday today to former Kansas Senator Bob Dole.
http://www.bobdole.org
Happy Birthday Senator Dole!
Salute!
Watch the video at this page,
‘A Violent, ‘Normal’ Day in Baghdad’http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3383389&page=1
Can’t even wish an old man Happy Birthday eh cosmos?
Watch the video at this page,
‘A Violent, ‘Normal’ Day in Chicago’http://youtube.com/watch?v=zbW99COsb0A
Who would have thought it?
War is hell.
I guess this is the latest and greatest news?
“Who would have thought it?War is hell.I guess this is the latest and greatest news?”
Yup, you couldn’t give a shit about the people dying there daily. Let’s hope the guys watching your back aren’t a bunch of heartless fascist sympathizers.
Bob Dole is still alive, hummmmmmm.
Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65
India Elects First Female President
I add my best wishes to former Kansas Senator Robert Dole on his 84th birthday. Seems like just yesterday when Mr. Dole visited here in Wichita on his 80th birthday to support some political candidate. I remember Dole saying he would give some eight speeches in eight states that day.
His long-time aid, can’t remember his name, was traveling with him that day and told me that Mr. Dole still needs help putting on a suit coat after all these years because of horrendous war wounds he suffered in Italy in the closing days of WWII.
I always noticed that Robert Dole truly loved the highways and byways of Kansas. For years, Mr. Dole served as President of the U.S. Senate, one of the most influential positions in our federal government. He was also said to be the most prolific public speaker in the U.S., if not the world.
Even so, it was not unusual to find him criss-crossing Kansas to keep in touch here at home. I often talked to Mr. Dole and found him to be fascinated with his home state of Kansas, Russell, Pratt, Wichita, and all the smaller towns of central Kansas.
I and many others who knew Mr. Dole have countless entertaining stories of Mr. Dole’s remarkable memory for names, people and situations across Kansas.
So, Senator Robert Dole, happy birthday and hope you do find time to continue to return to Kansas from time to time.
“Tammy Faye Messner Dies at 65″
The make-up industry will have to apply for government subsidies.
U.S. wildlife was unduly influenced# Biologists to reconsider endangered species calls after determining Bush administration appointee altered scientific findingshttp://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_6432056Another crooked Bush appointee? Go figure.
With this crooked administration, if it’s not one damn thing, it’s another.
WASHINGTON – While Americans are still recovering from a scandal over poison pet foods imported from China, FDA inspectors report tainted food imports intended for American humans are being rejected with increasing frequency because they are filthy, are contaminated with pesticides and tainted with carcinogens, bacteria and banned drugs.http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55892
The Bush administration allows China to sell us tainted food, but we can’t buy prescription drugs from Canada.
Go figure.
IF the Dems wind up pulling the US out of Iraq, the vacuum there will be filled with another genocide.
And those complaining about the deaths every day in Iraq now, will be the same ones complaining about the deaths every day in Iraq after our pullout.
And they will complain that the US didn’t do anything to stop it.
“IF the Dems wind up pulling the US out of Iraq, the vacuum there will be filled with another genocide.”
That’s pretty much what’s happening now. Can we say “Civil War”?
If we’re going to fight a war, lets fight it, and fight to win. We need to put an end to this mismanaged pile of crap the Bush administration passes off as a war.
Max,
I’d say 30-100 dead per day counts as a genocide already.
One is only well-advised to stop a genocide when one is in a position to do so. We were in Bosnia, and we were in Rwanda. We did in the first case, didn’t in the second, and for doing nothing we deserve the condemnation we got. Same for Darfur; the forces we’d be opposing there are thugs and not a substantial insurgency.
However, barring another, oh, say 300,000 troops or so, we’re in no position to do so in Iraq. Period.
Tammy Faye Messner, farewell. She was one of the good ones. Quite funny and self-aware. I love this quote from the NYT obituary:
“I want my funeral to be a real happy time,” Ms. Messner told Larry King on CNN in March 2006. “I want everybody laughing and remembering how crazy I was.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/us/22bakker.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
If the Eagle had put the article about the mexicans shouting down Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagon on this blog, I’ll bet my monitor would catch on fire.
Thinkfirst,It looked to me like there were a bunch of rude Mexicans at that meeting.
Only in Bush World
“Mention the President, Lose a Case?”
Defense motion to ban George W. Bush’s name at trial defeatedShannon P. DuffyThe Legal IntelligencerJuly 20, 2007
Apparently President George W. Bush is now so unpopular that some lawyers believe the mere mention of his name in front of a jury could tip the scales against them.
Attorneys Michael P. Laffey and Robert P. DiDomenicis of Holsten & Associates in Media, Pa., are defending Upper Darby Township, Pa., in a civil rights suit brought by Harold Lischner, an 82-year-old doctor who claims he was falsely arrested for displaying an anti-war sign at a Bush campaign event in September 2003.
With the case set to go to trial on July 23, the defense lawyers recently filed a flurry of motions, including one that asked Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Gene E.K. Pratter to prohibit the plaintiff from mentioning Bush’s name.
The motion in Lischner v. Upper Darby Township said that according to the latest Newsweek poll, Bush has “the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation,” and that 62 percent of Americans believe that Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq shows that he is “stubborn and unwilling to admit his mistakes.”
Laffey and DiDomenicis argued that “the identity of George W. Bush has no relevance to plaintiff’s claim and should not be admitted.”
Any “probative value” of Bush’s identity, they argued, “is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to defendant.”
Bush’s identity, they argued, “in and of itself, presents the danger that the jury will favor plaintiff.”
As a result, the defense lawyers said, “it will be sufficient for plaintiff to testify that he displayed a sign in opposition of a ‘presidential candidate.’”
In separate motions, the defense team urged Pratter to prohibit any mention of the First Amendment — since Lischner’s suit is premised only on the Fourth Amendment — and to bar any testimony about the message on Lischner’s protest sign.
In response, Lischner’s lawyers — David Rudovsky and Jonathan H. Feinberg of Kairys Rudovsky Messing & Feinberg — complained that the defense team was asking for “extraordinary limits” that simply couldn’t be justified.
Taken together, they argued, the defense motions were asking the court “to preclude testimony on all of the important facts in this case and apparently envisions a presentation during Dr. Lischner’s case limited to testimony that Dr. Lischner was displaying an unspecified sign in opposition to an unspecified political candidate.”
In civil rights suits, the plaintiff’s team argued, it is an “accepted principle” that the plaintiff “must be given leeway to provide the jury with narrative background of the case.”
In Lischner’s case, they argued, the First Amendment, the message on his sign, and the “target” of his message — Bush — are “essential to the proof of Dr. Lischner’s damages.”
Now Pratter has sided with the plaintiffs lawyers, saying “the court disagrees that what Upper Darby proposes is a viable approach.”
Pratter found that the message on Lischner’s sign and Bush’s identity, as well as the circumstances surrounding his visit — including the war in Iraq and Bush’s bid for re-election — are “relevant to the determination of probable cause and to the adequacy of Upper Darby’s training and policies.”
All relevant evidence is “generally admissible,” Pratter said, and “the president’s identity and Dr. Lischner’s opposition to the war in Iraq — presumably as evidenced by the text on his sign — are relevant because they are part of the circumstances weighing on the probable cause analysis conducted by Officer [Michael] Kehrle.”
According to court papers, Bush came to Upper Darby on Sept. 15, 2003, for an event with local supporters at the Drexelbrook Catering Facility, located within a privately owned residential community.
It was a private, by-invitation-only event, but Drexelbrook had designated an outdoor space on its property for members of the public to observe the arrival of the president’s motorcade.
However, Drexelbrook Associates instructed the Upper Darby Police Department that neither protesting nor the displaying of signs would be permitted on its property.
Lischner, then 78 years old, was one of the 50 members of the public gathered along the driveway and had placed a torso-sized sign on the front of his chest with a message that stated: “Withdraw our troops from Iraq. Give the $87 billion to the Iraqi governing council and U.N. for immediate relief and repair of the destruction we caused.”
The suit alleges that Kehrle told Lischner that no signs or demonstrators were permitted, and that he would have to leave the premises if he did not remove the sign. When Lischner repeatedly refused to remove the sign or leave, Kehrle arrested him on charges of defiant trespass.
Lischner was later found not guilty of disorderly conduct — the crime with which he was eventually charged — and filed a civil rights suit alleging that the arrest was without probable cause.
In a previous ruling, Pratter refused to dismiss the suit, finding that the conditions imposed by Drexelbrook were illegal and that a jury must decide “whether Upper Darby had a policy, practice or custom of enforcing the landowner’s unlawful condition.”
Also to be decided by the jury, Pratter said, is “whether Upper Darby failed to adequately train its police officers and such failure to train caused Dr. Lischner’s constitutional injury.”
Now Pratter has ruled that, at trial, Bush’s identity has legal significance because it bears directly on the legality of Upper Darby’s policies.
“The facts that the political candidate was not only a candidate for arguably the most important office in our government, but also the current president participating in a campaign for re-election, were important to the court’s determination that the condition imposed by Drexelbrook was illegal and, thus, relevant to the probable cause determination.”
The text of Lischner’s sign is also legally significant, Pratter found, because “the fact that Dr. Lischner’s sign was not blatantly offensive or disrespectful, and certainly not aimed at inciting violence or some other physical disruption, is relevant to whether probable cause existed.”
As a result, Pratter rejected Upper Darby’s argument that the “probative value” of Bush’s identity and the text of Lischner’s sign is outweighed by the danger of “unfair prejudice.”
“There is no requirement that trials be made up of the blandest theories, facts and arguments available,” Pratter wrote.
“By the same token,” Pratter said, “trials are not stages set for sensationalism, and the court intends to guard against this trial becoming a platform for public polemics.”
“If we’re going to fight a war, lets fight it, and fight to win.”
So let’s pick a side in Iraq and destroy everyone else. Otherwise you cannot win.
Troll, you make sense. I vote we chose “our side”.
I’ve said this before. Start with a small, well-placed tactical nuke in, say, Anbar province. Just to show we mean business. Then put out an announcement that the next terrorist act against this country will trigger a strike against Medina. A second instance of terrorism will buy a nuke for Mecca.
Let the Muslims police themselves. Make them responsible for the actions of their Islamic brothers.
I agree!
Somewhere in that mix the US should tell the Saudis that oil is now $15 a barrel or else.
Unfortunately with Saudi loving Bush in the White House, this won’t happen.
You might be surprised to know what is going on at DU today. Lots of sadness at the passing of Tammy Faye. Repost here so the tighty righty folks dont gave to go there.
“You don’t have to be a ‘Fundie’ …… to wish for a peaceful passing for a fellow human being, and be grateful that her suffering is over.
You don’t have to be a Christian to be Christ-like in your compassion for others.
And come to think of it, you don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread – a comment that will be lost on those too young to remember the 60’s.
So here’s a Jew who’s made her opinion of psuedo-Christians known to all, saying Godspeed to Tammy-Faye – who, as things turned out, was the real deal after all.
May your God embrace you as you pass from this life, and may your family find comfort in the memory of your graciousness, and the delightful sound of your laughter.
Peace, my sister.”
Ditto. My favorite part:
“saying Godspeed to Tammy-Faye – who, as things turned out, was the real deal after all.”
So, Senator Robert Dole, happy birthday and hope you do find time to continue to return to Kansas from time to time.
Posted by: JWink
I thought Bob Dole was going to return to his home after he lost the White House? Why isn’t he living in his beloved Kansas?
Because he is too busy being a lobbyist for the Arabs – that’s why! And yet there are still Kansans who idolize this man. Go figure.
We must ban heterosexual marriage and prohibit heterosexuals from having any contact with children.
“According to charges filed earlier this week, Adhahn repeatedly raped the girl over the four years they lived together, at least once at gunpoint.”
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/128639.html
Ian–
You can’t encourage people to kill minorities.
Say “bye bye” to you post.
Yup, Not-Parkay–
Isn’t it sad.
No matter how much money the man has, he always has to have more . . .
Leave it to RepubliCONs to take a great thing like wealth and ruin it.
Yup, it’s gone.
Thanks, editors.
And Ian, quit being an ass. Just fake not being an ass if you must.
But stop it.
Tammy Faye Baker — I had her.
A Sad sad picture of what happens when you try to combine hollywood bobbles, with the spirit of christianity… You get a lady clown, in love with her eye lashes, and golden toilet handles… Such a pity…
I give Tammy Faye credit for being herself. She was no hypocrit. She said exactly what she thought and if you didn’t like it – so be it.
Tammy Faye told the truth about Jerry Falwell when he ran into try to salvage their Christian theme park. Tammy Faye told everyone that Jerry Falwell was a crook – and you noticed that Falwell ran out of there with his tail tucked between his legs.
I believed Tammy Faye when she said that she was not aware of her husband’s financial dealings. Because I don’t think Tammy Faye ever questioned Jim Baker about anything.
But I do have to question why Jim Baker was harassed so bad by the press for being a crooked preacher when we have had multiple examples of the same type of excessive financial dealings from other well-known television evangelists. Wonder whey these present-day con men are not treated the same as Jim Baker was? Maybe because the people are so used to crooks that we don’t even blink an eye anymore?
“WASHINGTON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) – A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year.
Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers to exercise control in the country.
Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: “When Bush exercises this authority , there’s no check to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule.”
“The American people don’t really understand the danger that they face,” Roberts said, adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party. ”
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070720/69340886.html
Here the news about the lawsuit against the NEA? Maybe I missed this story OR it was well hidden.
I wonder if Obama being endorsed by the NEA is a good thing?
Kickbacks paid to the NEA are said to have exceeded $2 Million per year.
Also, the NEA (takes care of teachers retirment plans, right!)charges excess fees up to 10.62% per year, depending on the investment fund selected by the teachers.
Now you would think the teachers would notice these fees on their account statements. How smart are these teachers?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/business/17suit.html?em&ex=1184817600&en=1fcf1e15602683f9&ei=5087