Ted Poe: Anti-American none energy bill smack-down

Some people Hate Ted Poe and some people love him, but few would accuse him of not speaking his mind. Representing Texas's 2nd congressional district he's not known for being shy with his vocabulary.

He took a little time out of his busy schedule to try and knock some sense into us. When things are this nuts it's nice to have someone come by and remind you that you're a moron.

He tears into the Energy Bill with a little bit of comedy and a nice chunk of reality. Is it to late to change the nomination?

Ted kind of has a POINT!

LA Times The internet stole your job

Does anyone even read news on paper these days? With last weeks announcement that parent, Tribune Co., is exploring the sale of its headquarters in Chicago and
the building in downtown Los Angeles that houses the Times. The LA times, in the face of dwindling add revenue and falling circulation announces plans to cut 250 jobs.

"Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism
than at any time in our history," Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton wrote. "But also thanks to
the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less
money."

If you've lived in LA for a decade or so you know the LA Times is kind of a staple around here, it's also kind of a joke. There hasn't been any serious investigative journalism out of this office in a long time, and this is LA, there is dirt everywhere.

Most people get their news on the net and through the television, If you're like me you haven't picked up a News Paper in a long time.

But it's still our news it's the LA Times after all, 37 Pulitzer Prizes through 2004. This is our new right? Well not really, it's part of a media company that also owns the Chicago Tribune, and Newsday, and owner of the Chicago Cubs. And this is all owned more or less by a guy named Sam Zell.

In April 2008, Zell made a controversial comment about the subprime mortgage crisis
at a conference in Los Angeles, where he stated, "this country needs a
cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have
been in houses in the first place and who for sure shouldn't be getting
sympathy."^[14]

So truth be told he's not really to well liked here. And when he offered to sell naming rights to Wrigley Field for anyone willing to put up the money in 2008 he became even less popular.

People losing jobs sucks. But so does the LA Times, and the only thing we need to clean out is guys like Zell.

Hey Paulson where's the money?

The Checks are rolling, but I don't have mine yet. When the $130 odd dollars I'm expecting arrives it will be gobbled up by the rapidly inflating fuel bill lurking in the dark corners of my SUV. It's probably costing about $130 just to print the check and I won't even notice it.

For many these checks will be a lot larger but... wait the check did arrive, the gas pump ate it.

For a lot of us they are a blip in the radar. A crumb from a pie crust that is going stale.

It's little comfort as I pull into the "eco-friendly" BP station at Olympic and Robertson.

At $3 a gallon, eco-friendly gas station was funny, at $5 it's getting pretty annoying. So is Paulson.

When liars work this hard to convince you they have your best interests at heart you know something stinks.

Iran "we said flights not fights"

In the face of growing rhetoric and threats of a mounting Israeli strike on Iran, the US has stepped back into the role of the calm big brother. Taking the position it probably wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.

While Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki makes accusations about Washington of putting unfair restrictions on Iranian media representatives who want to work in the United States.

But he also made renewed calls for diplomacy and suggested Iran was ready to consider a U.S. diplomatic presence in Tehran and called
for direct flights between the two countries, nearly three decades
after Washington severed ties with Iran.

He also suggests that there are more cracks in the Bush hard line stating "This year the Americans have brought up the idea of an Iran interests
section in Iran similar to what we have in Washington D.C.".

Not to look like a pussy.

Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United
Nations, said that it was not correct to equate U.S. and Iranian
reporters.

"There's a difference between granting visas for independent media
and reporters who work for state-run media," he said. "We strongly
believe in freedom of the press and encourage Iranian reporters to
practice freedom of the press."

Troubled to Terrorist

Israeli police are calling the rampage involving a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem rammed his bulldozer into several
cars and buses Wednesday, killing three people before Israeli police
shot him dead an act of terrorism.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CNN the bulldozer operator
drove down a busy thoroughfare in West Jerusalem, crashing into four
cars and two buses, before heading toward a crowded market. "We believe he acted on his own and tried to kill as many people as possible," Rosenfeld said.

"If he would have continued ... he would have made his way into an open
market, hundreds of people doing shopping there ... and this could have
been (an) even worse terrorist attack than we have experienced today."

The incident brings back memories of 1995 tank rampage in San Diego in which Shawn Nelson went on a rampage with a stolen tank.

This one was considered the actions of an unstable and suicidal man. But in the stark contrast of the new world disorder it seems the world Terror has expanded once more.

The bigger the word terror gets the bigger the war on terror becomes.

Mortgage Ruling Sends Ripples

The Potential for class action law suits founded on the Truth in Lending Act of 1968 not only carries with it wide spread implications for financial institutions and borrowers a like it is also shaping up to be a battle between liberty and big business.

In the right corner wearing the red white and blue trunks is what appears to be a population that was lied to and mislead by the lending institutions and all the businesses built around these institutions. The American consumer, and a promised made in 1968.

In the left corner and weighing in at in immeasurable amount of fine print are the big money players and there band front men like the the Center for Responsible Lending, the National Consumer Law Center, Public Citizen and AARP Foundation Litigation who are only looking out for our best interests.

What's on trial isn't truth in lending it's the merits of the law itself. As big money turns the tables and once again puts the burden on the citizen with comments like borrowers would "lose the opportunity to use rescission to save their
homes from foreclosure or to rescind their mortgages and refinance into
affordable ones."

While there is no denying there is truth to the statement the intension is to convince the public that it will be worse if you stand up for yourself. This law was written in good faith and passed as such because it's a bad idea to build an economy on lies and half truths. They people who created this mess are just afraid they will be forced to clean it up.

Christie Brinkley stops the war

Yesterday's top stories included escalating tensions, oil and the economy. But today global economic concerns and the threats of widening regional instability can just shove over because Christie Brinkley is getting another divorce and that's always Big Top entertainment.

But it's husband Peter Cook's attorney Norman Sheresky who's stealing the show with some wonderful comments about this road accident.

"For goodness sake: She's on her fourth husband," Sheresky told the
court. "Your honor, we're here because of the self-indulgent wrath of a
woman scorned."

Good point Sheresky but the will it hold any water in the face of what your client has already said?

CNN reports Peter Cook said on Wednesday he had sex with his teenage lover in his office, then paid
her $300,000 while hoping to keep their affair quiet. He also showered
her with spending money, including $500 hidden under a rock.

A rock? Loser!

Brinkley's lawyer said Cook spent about $3,000 a month on pornographic Web sites. That's a LOT of porn. It's also hard to ignore.

Pulling out the, yeah that sucks sorry defense, Sheresky countered with "It was wrong and he said it was wrong."

"There is no way to make that right," Sheresky said. "Peter has apologized. He's cried his eyes out. He's lost his marriage."

The basic defense here is, 'he's really sorry he screwed this hot young babe and off on a LOT of porn, and she's a bitch.'

McCain lost it but he's g2g

SunHerald.com : Cochran recounts McCain dustup with the Sandinistas

This is a lovely little story recounted by "Notably mild-mannered Republican Sen. Thad Cochran"

and it's filled with wonderful quotes about how in 1987 McCain basically scared the crap out of Thad.

"John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair"

"good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission."

Political Punch reports McCain denies this ever took place Cochran is applying the, he lost it for sure but he's cool now, spin.

Is this part of the republican tough on TERROR campaign? He'll be cool just don't put him in a room of armed men.

A new Global Warming Debate

Global View - WSJ.com Bret Stephens blog on Global Warming a Mass Neurosis is bound to strike a nerve with many. It's clear as global concerns for fuel increase the concern for the environment and global warming will fade. Fuel is a crisis of today.

Most people consider the debate on Global Warming to be over. We've clearly shifted from the questions of is it happening and are we causing it to what needs to be done about it. Now conversations on the subject focus on this as a scientific consensus.

But the consensus is actually much narrower than most people understand. We know that rising CO2 affect global temperatures in specific ways, and we know that we are raising global CO2 levels. What is far from answered is what is the long term impact. Because other factors are involved, including history.

It's probably worth mentioning at this point that historic temperatures in the US are a pretty bad place to look, if we're basing arguments on consensus, most scientists will agree the temperatures of most concern are at the poles. Things like the opening of the North West Passage are indications, but they can also be symbols.

Bret goes on to make a few more interesting connections. One of them is theological and it's an extremely important part of the debate that has been essentially left off the table. It might just be the deal breaker.

We see the three great religions drawing a line in the sand now, but the forth is still around, and the environment is the face we know today in the west. They are the Naturalists and they have names like Hindu and Buddhist and Livingston and Bateman and they differ in their faith and belief widely. Naturalism is a word as big as Christianity and it encompasses many beliefs.

But in the 70's and 80's we got rid of this term from the vernacular in a marketing campaign riddled with death defying stunts designed to grab you by your emotions.

Because everyone is so polarized by their Philosophy or Theology each side points to one man when they talk about trouble makers. Jim Hansen. Because he's exciting. He's also an considered an athiest but a better term is probably Metaphysical naturalism. That's not all there was a court case involving accusation that NASA and the Bush administration are covering up the truth.

Finding out what the truth according to Jim really is requires a look past the controversy, beyond the court case past the Supportive and Critical to the body of work.

Hansen's beliefs are his own but his work clearly illustrates that we are causing a global warming, but it's not going to wipe us out in a biblical flood tomorrow. It's also controversial because much of it suggests that we're both warming and cooling the planet. The problem is more about the mess we are making and not about the temperatures.

The headline big pile of sludge doesn't draw as many hits as Polar Ice Caps Melting. One of his major points is the headlines and the truth are very far apart.

Mr. Hansen's case is that the information that everyone needs to know just isn't being allowed to reach the average person and no matter how you slice it that boils down to media control, and a lot of money is spent advertising for the environment and against it.

As is generally the case, the truth and the answers are probably somewhere in the middle. If you tell people something over and over again eventually they will believe it.

One side of the argument that has been left out of the public view is the idea we're pretty small compared to the planet. It's been here a lot longer than us and many believe it will be here a long time after we're gone. Earth has a pretty good system for cleaning itself up and no one is going to debate that the best way to lower CO2 is to plant trees and keep the ocean and waterways clean.

Wetlands aren't just about birds they are one way the planet cleans itself and that realization is already being acted upon in a massive way in Florida.

Geo-politics, Religion and Global Economic are running the show.

But the debate about how humans live on this planet is just getting started.

ER death raises questions

Six employees of Kings County Hospital Center have been fired or suspended after woman dies in ER waiting room in New York.

More facts surface. On June 18, Esmin Green, 49, was involuntarily admitted to the
psychiatric emergency department of Kings County Hospital Center on
June 18 for what the hospital describes as "agitation and psychosis."

According to the New York Civil Liberties Union those familiar with the hospitals condition have nicknamed it "Killer County".

Kings County Hospital Center is the subject of a lawsuit filed in May
2007 by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Mental Hygiene Legal
Service, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The lawsuit describes the
hospital’s psychiatric emergency room and inpatient unit as “a chamber
of filth, decay, indifference and danger,” and seeks an end to abusive
treatment in the hospital’s psychiatric facilities where patients are
regularly ignored and those that dare advocate for themselves are
punished with forcible injections of psychotropic drugs.

Bush talks shit while US troops die

According to CNN Politics in remakes addressing what's been the deadliest month for US and Allied troops in Iraq, the leader of the free world seems to have not only lost touch with his own mounting bullshit but with reality at large.

"America is pressing an ideology that's opposite of theirs, and so of course there's going to be resistance," Bush said.

He's not talking about the Taliban here he's talking about the people Taliban or not who live in the tribal lands that border Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I have always said that all options are on the table, but the first
option for the United States is to solve this problem diplomatically,"
Bush said.

Which is kind of dead since this administration's position has always been, you don't talk to the enemy. You just kill them.

"I have also made it clear that you can't solve a problem
diplomatically unless there are other people at the table with you. And
that is why we have been pursuing multilateral diplomacy."

Wait did he just say we should negotiate with terrorists?

I was pretty sure the reason our troops are dying is because you don't negotiate with terror.

The Henry Paulson Parade

It's a busy week at the US Treasury as Paulson wraps up his Russia-EU tour. His team at home base has been busy uncovering more aliases for the Pakistani trust funds that lent heavy financing to Al-Qeada. Under Secretary McCormick gives the potentially $10 billion dollar World Bank Clean Technology Fund.

But Henry isn't a guy to be out done by his people. He's grabbing headlines as usual. And since we're not very worried about technology or Al-Qeada right now his cutting to the chase. The hints of this plan are in the

HP-1064: Remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
on the U.S., the World Economy and Markets before the Chatham House

But the implications are pretty big. As Bloomberg points out what's coming is a drastic reworking of the laws that govern how money to bail out financial institutions that are part of the Federal Reserve system. Putting the final decision to cut a tax payer check to bail out a company like Bear Stearns. But as he says it he enforces the fact that everyone thinks this was a good thing to do.

But he's really setting the stage for the aftermath of this

"We will need to give our regulators additional emergency
authority to limit temporary disruptions,'' Paulson said. "Any
commitment of government support should be an extraordinary event
that requires the engagement of the Executive Branch.''

Because not everyone did think it was a good idea, and when the smoke clears this and the other bail outs are going to be put under the microscope and, at least a few heads will have to roll.

Obama Sliding to the right on Iraq?

Susan Rice, a top Obama foreign policy adviser, told MSNBC on
Tuesday that "we absolutely have to draw down and redeploy our forces
from Iraq."

"But he has said over and over again we have to be as careful
getting out as George Bush was careless getting in. So he will redeploy
our forces responsibly, at a rate that our commanders say is safe and
sustainable."

There is no questioning the statement's made above by Rice. But is this a sign of the Obama campaign coming to grips with something the rest of us have already?

There is no clear end in sight for Iraq. With our a clear goal it's very difficult to have a clear exit strategy and if Israel does attack Iran there are few that doubt American forces will be in Iraq for decades to come. With talk of permanent bases in Iraq's SOFA, few doubt it now.

While the wording is subtle the change in position is drastic.

in September Obama argued, "the best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to
resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat
troops."

He has long run on the plan to remove 1 brigade a month for 16 months until they are all home. In the race for the White House, the Obama camp seems to be convinced that there best course is to make there policy shifts early so we will forgive and forget by the time we go to the poles. With the Hillary threat out of the race, Obama looks good against a pro war McCain even if he's softening his hard line withdrawal policy to the anti-war vote.

Pile on a bunch of guilt at the end and you might have a winner. More policy shifts to come?

A little note I found about a guy you might know

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that
purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to
our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to
their Acts of pretended Legislation

Sounds familiar doesn't it? We've been down this road before.


For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us


For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent


For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury

You know who this is about right? We have been down this road before.


For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

It's a letter to a tyrant. It was written by Thomas Jefferson and it's entitled "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America."

Mexican torture video

It's all over the news, alleged video or American special force or police training Mexican Police in torture techniques. There is a video but it doesn't show much of anything.

Police 'torture' videos cause uproar in Mexico


Mexico is infamous for torture. Clearly the only motivation for US personnel to go down there and do this is cheap gas. Viva la gas cap! Besides we don't do torture, the president already cleared all that up.

Rifts in government costing lives in Afghanistan

Amid reports of Political in fighting and bad planning in both Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post-More American and coalition troops died in Afghanistan last month than during any other month since the American-led invasion began in 2001, the latest evidence of a strengthening Taliban insurgency that has menaced NATO forces and reclaimed control over some southern and eastern parts of the country.

Civilian oversight is to make sure our Generals don't go insane and turn into monsters, it's not to put Politicians in charge of a war.

They are Generals for a lot of reasons and one is that they are learned in the arts of warfare.

It's pretty bad when you start a war based on what many consider to be a lie. Bad information at best.

It's another thing when ego and bungling send more of our children home in body bags.

We had a mission and that was to take out the Taliban for harboring an enemy called Al-Qaeda and kill our enemy and it's evil leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

I know that this is true because there is a written record of it. It's to bad we didn't let the guys we spend so much money on, do there jobs.

Iraq Sue over Oil-For-Food

Iraq sues companies over oil-for-food kickbacks - Turkish Daily News Jul 02, 2008

NEW YORK - Reuters

The Iraqi government sued dozens of companies, including oil giant Chevron Corp., for more than $10 billion, saying they paid kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program.

The civil lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court in Manhattan on Monday, seeks to recover damages from companies investigated by a U.N.-commissioned inquiry, claiming they cheated the Iraqi people out of benefits of the $67 billion U.N. program.

Iraqi government's legal action came just after it has opened international bidding for eight enormous oil and gas fields, paving the way for major investments in a nation with one of the world's largest petroleum reserves.

The lawsuit says billions of dollars were lost, "all of which were
directly translatable into food, medicine and other humanitarian goods
that were supposed to reach the Iraqi people."

The lawsuit said the defendants had violated U.S. racketeering laws
including mail and wire fraud and money laundering. Chevron and Swiss
oil trading firm Vitol were also accused of breaching their fiduciary
duties.

California gay marrage and Barack Obama

Barack made me pull The Constitution out, and the Bill of rights, so blame him. Aside from courting the hard line fundamentalist Christian voters why is Obama bashing on California's gay marriage law? He seems like a pretty liberal guy wtf.

When people try to do this to other people eventually is all starts to sound like blah blah blah to me. Since the Constitution is still out on the desk lets see why it's such a big deal, you know it's just California and they're kinda freaks anyway.

But before we talk about the big C lets look at California really quick. 2006 census 36,457,549 out of a total of 299,398,484, pretty big. Median household income, 2004 $49,894 above the national average, that's good. Oh and Hollywood, don't forget that. Silicon Valley.

But who cares it's just California.

This is a tough question with no clear answer and it's not going to get easy any time soon. The Constitution is a great document, but it's not flawless either and that's why the "Framers" set up Article V, so we could further define it as we needed to, but only in very strict, and very simply spelled out way. So we used this to add the Bill of Rights and then later some more stuff like making it law no one could ever have slaves here again. Term Limits and a bunch of other great stuff.

But no one specifically put in anything about gay marriage. So when we argue about this law in California in a constitutional sense we are talking about the the states.

Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Pretty straight forward, the Constitution doesn't say anything about it so therefore it's a no brainer.

Except wait there is one little problem.

Article IV Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

Now it can be argued that several means more than one, or that this really is just a fancy way of saying 'any' or 'other'.

Regardless of how you look at it the implications are pretty clear. Just take a look at the history of interracial marriage in the US. We have been down this road before sort of.

Some of the greatest wars, works of literature and art are born of the fruits and fires of love. Who can stop it?

If the law in California holds the house of cards comes down and we stop oppressing the last of our people, because if this law holds this fight is over, even if it lingers for another decade the deal is done. And that has some people scared to death.

My wife and I can thank a judge who read the Constitution and understood there are more than words in it there is a quest for liberty at it's core.

You may not like gay people, you may be convinced God hates them and he might. But you also know they aren't going anywhere. They won't just vanish in a puff of logic, they are here to stay.

Mr. Obama stay the fuck away from our law.

-A proud Californian Patriot