There are so many little stories with massive amounts of stupid, I am going to try to jam a bunch together into one big post.
1.) Happy Veterans Day! For Veterans Day this year, Republican leadership has decided the appropriate way to show their appreciation is a kick in the groin:
The Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), announced plans to eliminate annual congressional hearings for Veterans Service Organizations. Under Buyer’s plan, The American Legion and other Veterans Service Organizations would no longer be afforded the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.
“I am extremely disappointed in Chairman Buyer’s latest effort to ignore the Veterans Service Organizations. Eliminating annual hearings before a joint session of the Veterans Affairs Committees will lead to continued budgetary shortfalls for VA resulting in veterans being underserved,” said National Commander Thomas L. Bock…
The Veterans Committees in both houses have long operated in a bipartisan fashion. The many accomplishments of these important Committees can be directly attributed to the strong bipartisan leadership of both Democrat and Republican Chairman. “It is our sincere hope that Chairman Buyer’s goal is not to create a partisan division within the Veterans Affairs Committees,” said Bock. “The American Legion has long viewed veterans as both Democrats and Republicans.”
“I am disheartened that on the eve of Veterans Day 2005, while many of America’s young men and women are defending our freedoms across the globe, veterans here at home are fighting to protect the right to participate in the democratic process,” stated Commander Bock. “VA will never benefit from Congress silencing the voice of its constituency.”
The arrogance of these bastards in Congress. The idea that theVETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE does not have the time to ANNUALLY hear from VETERANS is just offensive and absurd.
2.) Faithfully defending the poor and downtrodden, Ralph Nader has taken on a new cause:
The two-time presidential candidate and consumer advocate asked the National Football League and the Eagles to reinstate Owens, who was dropped for the season after he complained that the team didn’t celebrate his 100th career touchdown catch and said the Eagles would be better off with a different quarterback.
While calling Owens’s comments “boorish and unwarranted,” Nader said the receiver should be reinstated because the ban runs counter to the American tradition of free speech and deprives fans from the chance of watching the five- time Pro Bowl selection play.
“There is a great tradition in this country of respecting free speech, and the Eagles and NFL should express those values in handling even churlish speech,” Nader wrote in a letter to NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie.
Is there a more tone deaf individual in the world? Terrell Owens can exercise his right to free speech all he wants- Jeff Lurie and the Eagles don’t have to finance it, and should be allowed to fire someone who does nothing but damage the organization. Nader should butt out and move on with his life.
And while we are on T.O., lt me state one more little pet peeve. I am sick and tired of reporters asking “What is going on between T.O. and Donovan McNabb,” because it frames the question inappropriately and makes it look like Donovan McNabb has done something wrong or is part of the problem. The real question should be “What the hell is wrong with T.O.,” because all Donovan McNabb has done is take guff from Owens while being the model teammate. Donovan Mcnabb has been the model of a mature athlete from the time he was booed at his draft to date. Stop making it look like this is just some sort of drama which he is a part of, as it isn’t. It is just Owens being a GRADE A, certified jerk.
3.) God hates Dover, because apparently Dover hates God:
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.
All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce “intelligent design” — the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power — as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club.”
“God is tolerant and loving, but we can’t keep sticking our finger in his eye forever,” Robertson said. “If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”
Personally, I view the continued health of Pat Robertson to be evidence there is no God. Someone this ugly on the inside should come with a wart covered, puss-infected face.
*** Update ***
It would be nice if you all would politely point out obvious errors such as the begining of this post, which used to read “There is so many…”
I originally had ‘There is so much” and then changed it, and came back an hour later and was appalled to see that mistake up there. Gah!
a guy called larry
Oh, there’s a God alright, he’s just a cruel and punishing one.
rs
But ID isn’t about religion,it’s science!
airmail
Not only is Pat Robertson the epitome of buffoon, but his statement clearly gives credence to those that think ID is just a disguise for creationism. It’s amazing how Robertson’s mouth always seem to betray his true agenda.
ppGaz
Could a reality tv show based on “Who’s the craziest?” be created around Nader and Robertson?
These two men …. both absolutely nutty as fruitcakes … have been candidates for president.
Sobering.
Yes, the Arizona Cardinals need to sign T.O. We don’t care if he can’t get along with other players. We don’t have any other real players.
Justin Slotman
Hee hee–remember when Nader wanted the NBA investigated after that game seven in Sacramento when every call mysteriously went against the Kings? Actually, that wasn’t such a bad idea…
a guy called larry
Buyer seems to think this is in the Veterans Service Organizations’ better interest. He’s moving the VSO’s hearings relative to the President’s budget request, not eliminating it. Comparing the two press releases, it’s hard to tell which would actually be better, but I’ll defer to the American Legion’s view on it.
Steve S
Meanwhile in Iraq, Condoleeze Rice is giving aid and support to terrorists in declaring
Mr Furious
Is that because Iraq voted God out of their country?
John Cole
I think Chalabi is still there.
a guy called larry
Man, Condi really loves that flypaper analogy. We have to defeat the terrorists in Iraq, or they’ll come to get us here; yet, our aim is to eventually let the Iraqis take care of them, so we can leave. To paraphrase Sonny Corleone, we’re gonna have the Iraqis insure our security?
Marcos
John, you obviously have not tried Pat’s Age-Defying Pankakes. He sells them on his neato website. Made with real puppy juice extract.
Jcricket
Depends on what the meaning of “here” is. The Jordanian hotel bombings are being claimed by/blamed on Iraqi-based terrorists. Sounds like terrorist training + export to me. Wasn’t this war supposed to stabilize the Middle East by removing Saddam’s regime?
Oh, and when is Pat Robertson going to lose his tax exempt status :) I do like that at the end of the AP article discussing his most recent idiocy they also point out he recently called for the assassination of a foreign leader and said that feminism = lesbianism (and other associated nuttyness). That’s balanced journalism (seriously).
Steve
Awww, someone already beat me to Ralph Nader’s last venture into the world of sports.
The Onion doesn’t write stuff this good. Meanwhile, over on dkos, Nader voters from 2000 are still valiantly defending their vote.
Peter ve
“Personally, I view the continued health of Pat Robertson to be evidence there is no God. ”
Let me give you an “AMEN”, brother.
Mike S
That’s been the goal for some time now. When there is a wiff of bipartisanship the GOP leadership always finds a way to kill it. Good policy is no longer the goal.
HH
The Kossacks certainly had good timing this week.
SeesThroughIt
Not only would I watch that, I would buy advertising during it. “Gentlemen: Let’s get crazy!” Perhaps we could eliminate two problems at once and have Ralph Nader assassinate Pat Robertson, then get locked up for the rest of his life.
ppGaz
That’s nothing. Right here you got Bush voters still defending their votes.
J. Michael Neal
Wow. Potshots at Congressional Republicans, Ralph Nader and Pat Robertson. From this Democrats perspective, posts don’t get much better than that.
scs
Since this may be the last ID post for a while, I thought I would share this with you all. I just looking up some evolution stuff, as I was wondering about the the lightning rod issue of the evolution of eye. I was thinking, how on earth did the first light-sensitive cells evolve as evolution claims? Anyway saw this article on the eye. Apparently this paper came out in October 2004, one year abouts, not all that long ago! No wonder theories like ID flourish, as we are just NOW beginning to piece some things together.
Some excerpts:
janine
scs, you know that article supports evolution, right? It says that the eye was not formed whole cloth but instead evolved from cells in the brain that detect light. It makes me wonder how people can support intelligent design when experiments continue to support the theory of evolution.
morinao
Personally, I view the continued health of Pat Robertson to be evidence there is no God.
I view it the other way. Christians go to heaven, right? God just doesn’t want to spend more time with Pat than He has to.
scs
I do. That’s why I posted it. I never didn’t support evolution, ever. I just thought the din against ID was exaggerated, considering I felt they made a few relevant points about certain complicated issues of evolution.
scs
By the way, I kind of still wonder how certain cells just mutated into becomning light sensitive in the first place. How did ANY cell differentuate like that? After all, before natural selection works, you need the relevant mutation. The fact that any cell just all of a sudden mutates into “light sensitivity” just seems amazing to me. I would be interested to see how this all works. Maybe an animal gene got mixed up with a plant gene for photosynthesis somehow. That’s about the only thing I can think of for now.
Paul Wartenberg
It would be so nice to ignore Pat Robertson except for the fact the GOP leadership won’t ignore someone with his deep pockets. Grrrr. Hey kids, just remember, Pat Robertson really isn’t a preacher, he just plays one on TV…
aaronpacy
The important point with Robertson’s statements is this: He (and millions like him) actually fall down to their knees and worship this GOD. A God that they believe might actually MURDER the “good people of Dover” because they used the political process to have science taught in science class!!!! This is the discussion people need to be having. Fundementalism is in it’s death throes around the world! It may seem like it’s growing….but they just scream louder. If I get to heaven…and God is just like Robertson and Falwell believe (an egomaniacal murderer who HAS to have it his way or damnation on your soul for all eternity)…then I will spit on the ground he floats over! For he is no God. He is a dictator giving us an illusion of free-will.