Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2008

Archives for 2008

ING Georgia Half Marathon

by | 40 Comments

This post is in: 

I decided to challenge myself today and sign up for the ING Georgia Half Marathon, which runs simultaneously with the full marathon. The farthest I’ve ever ran non-stop is 7 miles. About 3 years ago, I started having issues with my sciatic nerve, so I had to stop doing so much exercise. Turns out that not exercising was making it worse. It didn’t help that I gained a lot of weight – about 20 pounds. So today, I signed up and decided to start training.

I have a little more than 2 months. I was surprised to find that I could do four miles when I ran this morning. Of course, it was “run a mile, walk for 5 minutes” etc. But still, a pretty good start. Tonight, I did the same thing. It was easier because I actually went out and spent a bit of money on proper shoes. You’re looking at a fairly frugal person here. I have never paid more than about $40 for a pair or running shoes before. I bought a pair of Asics GEL-Kayano 14’s on the recommendation of a friend who regularly runs marathons. Two reasons: First, to save my knees. Second, spending money on good shoes is motivation. (I’d be pissed at myself if I spent good money and didn’t reach my goal.) Like I said, I’m frugal. But wow! I can’t believe how well they fit, how comfortable they are, and how LIGHT they are! I will never go back, and that is only after one day.

Anyway, the point of the post: anyone in Atlanta want to sign up and join me? It’s $75 for a good cause – preventing childhood obesity. My only goal is to not come in last, so it’s not like you’d be running with a pro. In fact, if you know CPR, you’re especially welcome to run with me.

ING Georgia Half MarathonPost + Comments (40)

17 Years For Padilla

by | 57 Comments

This post is in: ,

The terrorist mastermind, Jose Padilla, gets seventeen years:

Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive “dirty bomb,” was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years and four months on terrorism conspiracy charges that don’t mention those initial allegations.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke marks another step in the extraordinary personal and legal odyssey for the 37-year- old Muslim convert, a U.S. citizen who was held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant after his 2002 arrest amid the “dirty bomb” allegations. He had faced up to life in prison.

Cooke said she was giving Padilla some credit—over the objections of federal prosecutors—for his lengthy military detention at a Navy brig in South Carolina. She agreed with defense lawyers that Padilla was subjected to “harsh conditions” and “extreme environmental stresses” while there.

I don’t think there is any way to interpret this sentence other than as a rebuke to the government, who had been asking for life while insisting Padilla is a grave threat (yet, conveniently, never presented any evidence of that threat).

The article continues:

But Cooke said that as serious as the conspiracy was, there was no evidence linking the men to specific acts of terrorism anywhere.

“There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere,” she said.

ACTIVIST JUDGE!

Civil liberties groups and Padilla’s lawyers called his detention unconstitutional for someone born in this country and contended that he was only charged criminally because the Supreme Court appeared poised to order him either charged or released.

Jurors in the criminal case never heard Padilla’s full history, which according to U.S. officials included a graduation from the al-Qaida terror camp, a plot to detonate the “dirty bomb” and a plot to fill apartments with natural gas and blow them up. Much of what Padilla supposedly told interrogators during his long detention as an enemy combatant could not be used in court because he had no access to a lawyer and was not read his constitutional rights.

Padilla’s lawyers argued for a lenient sentence, in part because of his minor role in the conspiracy that was the subject of last year’s trial and because of claims that he was mistreated and tortured while he was held at a Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. U.S. officials denied those claims repeatedly.

I don’t know what the real story of Padilla’s involvement (if any) in this mess might be, and since most everything we do know was obtained while torturing the man, I doubt we ever will. I suspect that in the future, when cooler heads look back at this disgraceful period in our nation’s history, the alleged villainous treachery of Jose Padilla will be greatly overshadowed by the outrageous treatment he received and the dishonest and bumbling campaign to subvert the law while attempting to publicly convict him. The real story is not Jose Padilla, who for all we know may actually have been dangerous, but who is now, courtesy of the Bush administration, a broken and mentally deficient mess. The real story will be of the little men who, in moments of great patriotic fervor, decided it was up to them to destroy our nation’s principles in order to save us all.

History will not look kindly on those pikers.

17 Years For PadillaPost + Comments (57)

RIP, The Thompson Campaign (aka, The Great White Nope)

by | 61 Comments

This post is in: 

Sources are claiming Fred Thompson is dropping out of the race:

Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson has told several Republicans that he has decided to drop out of the presidential race and will make public his intentions by close of business.

Thompson does not plan to endorse any rivals for now, even though one of his best friends is Sen. John McCain.

I am not surprised to see this happen, although I am surprised the Thompson campaign did not get more enthusiastic support. If anything, his campaign resembled Terri Schiavo- listless, inert, and with no signs of life, so I really don’t know why it was not greeted with more enthusiasm by our friends on the right. Maybe one Schiavo affair was enough.

RIP, The Thompson Campaign (aka, The Great White Nope)Post + Comments (61)

IOKIYAR

by | 73 Comments

This post is in: 

The latest installment of the Bush administration’s firm policy of doing whatever the fuck they want:

For years, the Bush administration has relied on an inadequate archiving system for storing the millions of e-mails sent through White House servers, despite court orders and statutes requiring the preservation of such records, according to documents and technical experts.

President Bush’s White House early on scrapped a custom archiving system that the Clinton administration had adopted under a federal court order. From 2001 to 2003, the Bush White House also recorded over computer backup tapes that provided a last line of defense for preserving e-mails, even though a similar practice landed the Clinton administration in legal trouble.

As a result, several years’ worth of electronic communication may have been lost, potentially including e-mails documenting administration actions in the run-up to the Iraq war.

I know you all are as shocked as I am. I expect the Democrats in Congress will write a strong letter of disapproval.

IOKIYARPost + Comments (73)

A Home Grown Scandal

by | 20 Comments

This post is in: 

Governor Manchin and WVU find themselves embroiled in a scandal:

It started with a phone call from a newspaper reporter in October seeking to verify the academic credentials of Gov. Joe Manchin III’s daughter Heather Bresch. But in less than three months, the inquiry has mushroomed into a controversy that risks casting a shadow of cronyism over this state’s flagship university.

Officials at the college, West Virginia University, have been accused of rewriting records last fall to document that Ms. Bresch had earned an executive master of business administration degree in 1998. An investigation by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette concluded that she had completed only 22 of the required 48 credit hours.

Read the whole thing- nothing to indicate Manchin himself was involved in this, and I don’t know any of the people involved in this so I can’t attest to their integrity, but the whole thing does put a dark cloud over West Virginia and WVU. I can’t imagine someone in a position of authority just making the classes up out of air, as it is so inappropriate, but then again I never expected someone to lie a nation into war. Regardless, I hope it is resolved, and resolved quickly. The students deserve that this be taken care of in the most orderly and expedient manner possible.

A Home Grown ScandalPost + Comments (20)