California voters increasingly tolerant

California voters increasingly tolerant

There is a lot of speculation about how the Republican Party will do in the upcoming elections in California. If there is any truth in the above cited poll of Californians, then the extreme positions that the GOP has taken in California have almost certainly guaranteed its demise and decline into an irrelevant minority party. Prehistoric sensibilities rarely succeed in ostensibly modern societies.

We Aren’t Ready for Some Football, but They’re Gonna Give It to Us Anyway

Environmental exemptions OKd for football stadium in City of Industry | latimes.com

It is tough to love Los Angeles. It is an exceptionally large city ruined by the diminutive thinking of its residents and especially that of its politicians. Among the great signs of civilization in the city was the distinct absence of a football team. The thoroughly corrupt political machine of Los Angeles somehow had managed miraculously to demand that the football league pay its own way for the privilege of reaping profits from the largest media market in the nation. It was a standoff that benefitted the city tremendously. Free from the tyranny of football, people dreamt up fabulous other activities to do. Angelenos are so happy without football, in fact, that nobody remotely cares about an NFL presence.

It boggles the mind, therefore, that a state politician would go so far as to pass a special law exempting an unwanted stadium project from environmental studies that other ones have to conduct.

This is the same politicians who couldn’t quite go to the mat to preserve education and social services, but it seems as if he can pull the strings for real estate developers who want to build a stadium that nobody wants for a team that nobody will care to watch.

That Schwarzenegger would sign this giveaway comes as no surprise.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. The complacency of Angelenos in the face of the ruthless assault on the city and their quality of life, however, feels a lot worse.

Perceptions

CIF America | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

About this time last year, the Guardian (UK), ran a very unscientific poll of the perceptions of its readers of the net results of the McCain-Obama debates.

How the Brits Saw the McCain-Obama Debates
How the Brits Saw the McCain-Obama Debates

As unscientific as this poll may be, it is impossible to dispute the prevalent choice in the UK. Though it would have been nice if the American perception mirrored this British perception, we can be thankful that such a lopsided perception was not necessary for Obama’s victory.

It’s the sort of victory that makes one believe.

Almost.

Iranian Irony

Thousands protest in Iran, defying crackdown vow – washingtonpost.com.

Ahead of the protests, Tehran’s governor Morteza Tamaddon accused “foreign counterrevolutionary networks” of plotting new marches. “If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to (protest) calls … they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said late Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA.

Irony is forever. The fact that a man whose last name, Tamaddon, translates as “civility” or “civilization” would utter such hateful words comes as no surprise, therefore. The continued piling of such evidence on the smoldering ash heap of human history confirms this axiom of humanity.

Irony is forever.

Saddam’s WMD Story

Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran – washingtonpost.com.

It was what many among us had suspected all along, principally among them Harry Shearer, who said just as much in one of his Le Show broadcasts back in 2003 or 2004.

Perhaps we need more real comedians in politics, instead of boneheads who are accidentally funny. Let’s hope–nay, pray–that this reasoning is born out in Al Franken‘s election.

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End of Education in California?

BBC NEWS | Americas | California ‘to scrap textbooks’

This doesn’t mean that California school children won’t be educated. The ones with computers and an internet connection will manage. The ones who cannot afford the technology required for electronic textbooks will make Arnold Schwarzenegger sound educated.

This economic slump has an infinite upside for Schwarzenegger.

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Republican Core Values

Senate GOP leader: Party must explain core values

Yes, Mr. McConnell is right. The GOP must explain its core values to everyone because after 12 years of exercising nearly absolute power in the United States government, not a soul among America’s nearly 300 million people can discern anything that may conform to the denotation or any connotation of the word “value” in the Republican Party’s platform, its legislative achievements or its military ambitions.

Considering the fact that Republican rule has resulted in a mangled global economy, unbridled corruption in corporate and government affairs, two failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and thousands of deaths, an apology might be more appropriate, for it is difficult to imagine any rational explanation for it all.

A fishing expedition for “values” is not likely to generate any love for the GOP. The GOP may never understand the limitations that sophistry and political correctness impose upon the wielding of power.

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When Politics Gets Personal

BBC NEWS | Africa | Kenyan sues over sex ban ‘stress’

Perhaps if pro-life women were thus to protest abortion rights, the problem would go away.

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Bush & Republican Ineffectiveness, Uselessness

CIA, intel director locked in spy turf battle – Yahoo! News

Ah, yes, isn’t it nice to know that nearly six years after the 911 commission called for the major intelligence agencies to share relevant information more freely in order to facilitate the process of foiling terrorist attacks the major intelligence agencies have not changed one bit. All of which confirms that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was nothing but a red herring designed to draw attention away from the incompetent politicians (nearly all Republican) who failed to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks from happening.

The typical Republican attack on anyone who is not Republican is “tax and spend liberal”. It is quite clear that the only thing that distinguishes Republicans from anyone else is that Republicans like to tax the nation and squander the money on endeavors that fail. The war in Iraq has been an instance of highway robbery conducted by war profiteers without any net benefit to American prestige or American safety. The missile defense system has been branded as useless by the military brass itself. And, now, we learn that the establishment of an entirely new beaurocracy, the Department of Homeland Security, has had no effect on the most fundamental issue that caused the 9/11 tragedy: inadequate sharing of intelligence. In fact, if the article above is reliable, then the intelligence sharing agency created by Bush is hindering the sharing of information.

And these guys say that a national healthcare system would be a waste of money.  What gall!

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Eat a Seal’s Heart to Protest Europe

Canada’s governor general eats seal heart – Yahoo! News

Apparently bothered by the European Union’s ban on the import and sale of all seal products from Canada, Canada’s Governor General elected to gut a seal puppy, tear its heart out and swallow the heart as a form of protest.

Asked later if her actions were a message to the EU, she said: “Take from it what you will.”

In a related story, Rush Limbaugh tracked down a donkey, killed it, gutted it, and ate its heart.

He subsequently ate the animal whole, from hoof to pointy ears.

Asked later if his actions were a message to the Democratic party and his faithful followers in the Republican party, Limbaugh said “No. I just like to eat ass.”

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