"Best healthcare in the world" or maybe Waffle Houses aren't the best place for birthin'

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/31/u-s-ranks-low-for-newborn-survival/?hpt=hp_t2

In a 20 year analysis of newborn death rates around the world, the study published in PLoS Medicine revealed the number of infants who die  before they are 4 weeks old account for 41% of child deaths worldwide.  Newborn deaths in the United States ranked 41 out of 45 among industrialized countries, on par with Qatar and Croatia.

I know, Facts are unpatriotic and hate America, but nonetheless. 

And another headline from Today, maybe if we did our birthin near medical facilities?

http://www.wave3.com/story/15371718/woman-gives-birth-outside-waffle-house

but apparently this is pretty standard in the south...here's another WaffleHouse baby from 2009

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/20016659/detail.html

The classic NON apology apology

"SOME" people find offensive...really?  This is the classic non-apology.  As in... "I"m sorry for YOU being upset by the terrible things I said or did.  I'm not sorry for my actions, but that it bothered you, because what I did or said, is still ok in my mind, I'm just apologizing that YOU got upset.  Really, this is your problem, not mine.  In fact, I'm sorry you're a whiney baby"

Washington (CNN) - A member of Congress has apologized after saying that being associated with President Barack Obama would be similar to touching a "tar baby."




Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, sent a letter to Obama "apologizing for using a term some find insensitive," he said in a statement Monday

No jokes today about the absurdity of global warming today Fox "news"???

One of my favorite childish asinine things all the Fox people do, including those supposedly editorial neutral "news" people on in the morning is mock the notion of global warming every time it snows or it gets below freezing.  You've seen it, with their childish smirks "so much for global warming...ha ha ha".

Why no snarky comments this summer, with the record heat...and this.  Sean?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/01/us.record.drought/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Why no Jokes Now Sean Hannity?

Why no joking this week about how ridiculous Global Warming is this week?  They do it every time it snows as if that's proof that there is no warming, I guess this week reaches that same level of proof.  Except for most people aren't idiots and know that a snow storm or a hot weather event aren't proof of anything.  No doubt the Fox audience doesn't know the difference, but it's been repeatedly proven that Fox viewers are the most poorly informed.  That would be funny, except for you get the impression that the Hannity's and Beck's of Fox know their audience is that gullible and use it to their own personal financial advantage.

Netflix price increases...It's still a great deal

I think we've all gotten a little spoiled. Remember when DRIVING to Blockbuster to rent from their lame inventory to spend $3/movie for 3 days, or 1 day for a new release? Netflix has nearly every movie ever made on DVD, the streaming catalog is good, but it has huge gaps and with the studios playing hardball there will be fewer titles OR it's going to get more expensive (remember people Netflix is paying the studios and companies like SONY are looking at 10x price increases to Netflix...who do you think is going to pay for that?).




Redbox is cute, but again now I'm picking up and dropping off movies. With a two DVD plan and Streaming I can watch a couple of dozen movies a month. Well under a dollar a piece and I'm not driving to Walmart or the 7-11 to chose from the few dozen movies that are in a Redbox. Based on selection, convenience and price Netflix is still a steal if your a movie fan who is interested in movies beyond the latest blockbuster. It's funny that people are expecting prices to stay the same AND get a wider selection of streaming titles. Look at the enviornment Netflix operates in, they aren't raising prices to increase revenue (solely), the cost of doing business is going up thanks to the studios. I guess you cancel your account in disgust, and go see your movies at the theater. What's that run you about 3-4 months of netflix after the increase? Even at $16/month you can watch a LOT of movie for the price of 5 gallons of gas or 4 Lattes from Starbucks. Everyone hates price increases, but come on people think.

Clown - Brewer's office knew, but she didn't?

I so won't miss this clown's behavior or most of the politicians in this backwards state.  She tries to make Napolitano look bad only to make herself look like an idiot.  Even if she wasn't informed, she's the one who has apparently surrounded herself with incompetent oafs who don't think they need to tell the Governor things.  


Instead of trying to make political hay out of this, she should be asking why her deputies don't inform her of things like this, which should be there main job.  

God's Plan?

Josh Hamilton says God has a plan.  Does that mean he is God's vessel by throwing that ball when he did and where he did in accordance with God's desire to take a father from his son while that son watches?  

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/08/josh-hamilton-talks-about-thursdays-accident/related/

Absolutely. I haven’t yet. I’m going to give this situation time to, you hate to think sink in, but I can’t imagine what they’re going through right now. I can’t imagine. All I can think about is praying for them and knowing that God has a plan. You don’t always know what that plan is when those things happen, but you will.

Pryor quits...Can Oregon have that Rose Bowl Trophy?

Pryor quits…




http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/07/terrelle-pryors-career-at-ohio-state-over/related



I think that Rose Bowl trophy will look good in the Caz center. Pryor/Tressel/etc’s crimes should call into question most of their wins over the past few years. So, if USC is losing titles, why not Ohio St?



Not even talking about that joke of a punishment that let Pryor and his buddies play in the Sugar Bowl last season on the PROMISE that they’d serve suspensions this year. Seems to me that they need to give the Sugar Bowl trophy back too.



In case you forgot

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/tag/_/name/2011-sugar-bowl-coverage

Really? Are you so fired up about this? Should you be?

Well put by Steve Rushin

This about how I feel. So what? Does this surprise anyone? This is happening everywhere. Stupid rules (NCAA football has cornered market on stupid rules and hypocrisy) will be broken (again and again...be carefu... the school you love is probably doing it too). And no I don't care if Lance Armstrong took PEDs, you ever pedal through the Allps for a couple hundred miles? Red Bull ain't gonna cut it. Everyone needs to save their selective indignation for something that matters. 

This week in Republicans

This guy is pretty awesome.

Minister to state legislature: Obama's no Christian!

Love the family values that the Right's once hero, Schwarzenegger, exhibited over the past few years (you LOVED it when he was running, he was going to fix California...how'd that turn out?  Any different than the course it was on when they recalled Davis?).  Nice work.  Republican family values apparently include creating extra families without your wife.  Sweet

Speaking of adulterers, I can't believe how quickly your people spit out Newt Gingrich.  I heard two Republicans today claim that his candidacy is over already.  WOW.  All he did was point out the truth about Ryan's version of social engineering of health care.  

Disappointed in NPR's actions

NPR's behavior of getting rid of their executives today for expressing carefully edited and manipulated opinions shows a cowardice that gives it's opponents exactly the leverage it wants to further attack it.  Saying that tea partiers are racist and crazy is not radical idea, a lot of people think it.  By giving into this manipulation is concedes that they did something wrong.  NPR should have stood up and fought it or probably more effectively they could have ignored it.  Adulterers and criminals can attack NPR with some sort of moral superiority they believe in and their minions believe in, but NPR cowers and caves within hours.

I don't even remotely buy that NPR is biased.  The ALWAYS have opposing viewpoints...ALWAYS.  they try so hard to be fair that they end up putting more conservatives on the air.  I heard a bit this morning where some guy was defending Peter King's Islam hearings, there was no other person there, pointing out that for years King support terrorism in Ireland or that by continuing to kick Muslims that you further radicalize them, King plays into the hand of the radicals by treating Muslims as second class citizens, but NPR didn't present that truth...ONLY the King view.  Bias my ass.

Man up NPR and instead of conceding with all the bravery of a mouse, defend yourself.  Show the truth, show your neutrality, use data (it will be lost on the people who hate you b/c facts never get in the way of a firmly held Fox-given belief).  Stand up, it's the one thing that middle America understands.  Newt Gingrich can blame his infidelities on his patriotism and people will eat it up, surely NPR can stand up for truth.

Why is MSM talking in whispers about this story?

Why the mainstream media near silence on this? It's buried on all the news sites, you can be damn sure if it was someone who wasn't a in his demographic, it would be everywhere. Is it because it's a neo-nazi, hit a little too close to home for the tea party? I went to Fox News, who has a big thing for terrorism but their HUGE headline is about NPR.


So, much for a liberal bias in the media.

This is real terrorism, perpatrated by groups who are dangerous.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/us/10bomb.html

We distort, You blindly accept

There is a WHOLE real world going on outside the made up world created by the Republicans and Fox "news", considering their viewers will never know about the truth of what's going on in the world is my duty as an American to shed light where there is only darkness...you're welcome:

As Media Matters noted, on March 3, 2011, Fox News used footage shot by a local Wisconsin photographer to falsely label Wisconsin union protesters as "violent." The video showed protesters confronting Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman as he attempted to enter the Wisconsin capitol building. Although the video clearly showed no violence being committed, and in fact, the protesters breaking into chants of "peace" and "peaceful," Fox falsely depicted the crowd as "violent protesters," and an "angry union mob," who "ambush[ed]" Grothman.

In a statement to Media Matters, Phil Ejercito, the photographer who shot the video, responded, slamming Fox News' distortion of his material:

...

Let there be no ambiguity: I condemn the use of my work to distort the truth about the spirited but non-violent protests here in Madison. I believe that this is a genuinely dangerous narrative that Fox News is helping to create. Prior to Gov. Walker's Feb. 11 unveiling of his budget repair bill, the last time a Wisconsin governor invoked the National Guard in response to labor, seven demonstrators were shot dead in front of the Bay View Rolling Mill. I am deeply disturbed to consider that my work is being misused to establish a fictional narrative of violence by the working families of Wisconsin, and I encourage people to watch the entire clip on YouTube for themselves to understand the full context and decide for themselves what truthfully took place.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201103040013

Because the media never follows up on the truth after the lies make a media splash

So, I figured I'd help educate rather than have anyone continue to spout data that has been proven to be wrong:

 

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/03/phoenix_police_finally_admits.php

 

And one of the stories that led to the admission:

 

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/02/new_times_review_of_phoenix_ki.php

 

Phoenix police reported that there were 358 kidnapping calls in their community during 2008, and that a majority of them were linked to drug and human smuggling across the Arizona-Mexico border.

In recent months, Phoenix police union leaders have raised questions about the veracity of those statistics. And while they promulgate doubt, City Manager David Cavazos, Police Chief Jack Harris and Mayor Phil Gordon continue to dismiss concerns that kidnapping statistics are inaccurate or intentionally inflated. 

A New Times analysis of 264 of the 358 reported kidnappings shows that only about one out of every four incidents labeled as kidnappings in 2008 appeared connected to border-related crimes.

Chief Harris had agreed to discuss the kidnapping statistics with New Times, but a few days later, a police spokesman said that Harris was going to pass on the interview. 

Police officials say they aren't commenting because of an ongoing audit of those statistics by the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General.

New Times reviewed 264 police reports on a list of 2008 kidnappings -- a list generated and released by the Phoenix Police Department. While all 358 reports on that list are titled "Kidnapping," at least 53 of the actual police reports do not have the same title.

For instance, 24 of the police reports were titled armed robberies or extortions, 7 were listed as aggravated assaults and 8 were classified as possible violations of federal immigration laws. The labels on 14 other reports included a suspicious person, non-aggravated assault and robbery without a weapon.

...

But, of the 264 available police reports reviewed by New Times, only 64 incidents had discernible ties to human smuggling and kidnapping. That means thatPhoenix was dealing with Mexican-style kidnap-for-ransom cases an average of once a week, not daily. 

...

On May 13, 2008, a 20-year-old man attacked his ex-girlfriend after she drove to his apartment complex to pick up money that he owed her. When she arrived, he got into her truck and they spoke for a few minutes. 

He asked her for a kiss, and she said no. Her refusal angered him, and he grabbed a fistful of her hair, and then her throat when she started screaming. She tried to get herself and her child out of the car, but he got a hold of her shirt, ripped it along with the purse she was holding. He forced her to stay inside the car for more than half an hour before she eventually escaped.

She reported the crime to police the following day. Cops drove to his apartment, he admitted the attack on his ex and was arrested. 

The single-day investigation did not require intensive resources and the nonstop involvement of 60 specially-trained police officers and detectives, but it is among those 358 kidnapping cases purportedly assigned to specially-trained police squads. 

Another report, this one dated March 21, 2008, notes an early morning call from the Blessed Sacrament Church to Phoenix police. A priest told police he received an e-mail from someone threatening to kill him if he didn't pay $15,000. He said he had no idea who sent it. 

Cops went to the church, picked up the e-mail and logged the incident as DR 2008-80486550, a five-sentence departmental report labeled, "Extortion."

The single-page report from 2008 makes no mention of any harm coming to the priest, or of anyone being kidnapped. Nevertheless, it ended up on the list of kidnappings in that year

No doubt the right wing still thinks this is a "tough stance" on illegals

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110302/ts_yblog_thelookout/proposed-texas-immigration-law-contains-convenient-loophole-for-the-help

George Will disappoints with a ridiculous critique of "progressives"

Will: 

'Forever seeking Archimedean levers for prying the world in directions they prefer, progressives say they embrace high-speed rail for many reasons—to improve the climate, increase competitiveness, enhance national security, reduce congestion, and rationalize land use. The length of the list of reasons, and the flimsiness of each, points to this conclusion: the real reason for progressives’ passion for trains is their goal of diminishing Americans’ individualism in order to make them more amenable to collectivism.


To progressives, the best thing about railroads is that people riding them are not in automobiles, which are subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends. Automobiles go hither and yon, wherever and whenever the driver desires, without timetables. Automobiles encourage people to think they—unsupervised, untutored, and unscripted—are masters of their fates. The automobile encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.'

The right seem to be talking out of both sides of your arse (again). So “progressives” who are all about shattering the status quo and improving the station of everyone, hate cars because they allow people to shatter the status quo and empower people to be mobile? If two people get together on the lawn of the Wisconsin State House they’re animals and rioters, as they fight for their rights that the Koch Brothers and the puppet governor try to strip their rights (protestors who work to be the “masters of their fates”, demand that they be seen as “adequate” , for their voices to be heard while the billionaires who stand to gain and the politicians who do their bidding ignore that adequacy and ability to shape their own fates, nay belittle the very act of demanding they be seen as adequate”)


Progressives who believe completely in the power of PEOPLE to change the world, hate that people are empowered?

While, Conservatives who hate change anything, keep the little people in their place so that the powerful can maintain their wealth and power are now the supporter of change and the little guy. They throw rhetorical tidbits to the ignorant to make them believe they’re on the side, just long enough to get elected and then they raise taxes for 98% of us and give the SuperRich more of the goodies. It’s really sad how gullible most “Republicans” are to this.

You can make the case that rail is a huge waste of money, but Mr. Will is overreaching and fails miserably to make some anti-progressive point here. Laughably fails. I expect a lot better from Will. 

Democracy comes from within

Years ago, I told my Bushie friends that you can't impose democracy on another nation at the end of a gun, it has to come from within.  But, Bush went ahead and tried to impose something like democracy on Iraq with pretty mixed results.  One despot was removed, but with tens of thousands dead and in it's wake a nearly failed state, with constant terrorism and foreign nations still with troops on the ground to maintain this imposed "democracy".

Turn to 2011 and people rising up in Tunisia and  Egypt and now Bahrain and Libya and protests in other places as well.  Why are we seeing this now instead of immediately after the fall of Saddam?  Because you can't impose democracy on other nations, and when it comes from within like all successful democracy movements others under the thumb of despots are emboldened to change their situations as well.  So, they take to the streets when they see the power of people in neighboring nations, NOT when they see the power of the United States military.  They know that democracy isn't granted by the weapons of Western nations, they know it comes from themselves.  It is only THE PEOPLE who can change their own government.  They learned from the US Revolution, the French revolution, from Gandhi who demanded change for themselves and made it happen.

I hope that the spirit of democracy continues through the world and extends to other places.  I hope that the military leadership supports that spirit, but I'm not confident that we'll see exact repeats of how the Egyptian military responded and we're already seeing  a different response in Libya and Bahrain.  I hope the Egyptian military supports more democracy and we can't get pissed off if democracy leads to Islamic leadership (they're Muslims after all who else would they elect???), but military leadership of countries doesn't have the best track record for non-oppression.  Hopefully the Egyptian military returns power to civilians and that government is interested in serving the best interests of the people and not simply enriching themselves.

Best of Luck to everyone fighting for democracy around the world

Some more truth about the Reagan Mythology

Now that the Right has conceded that Reagan had nothing to do with the fall of USSR and that it was the Soviet Space program that was responsible while Reagan was still a B-movie actor, SAG president and host of a TV show, here some forgotten reality about his "small government, fiscal responsibility" silliness.

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/02/04/david_stockman_and_ronald_reagan/index.html

From David Stockman- Reagan's 1st Budget Director:

The Reagan Revolution was a Lincoln Day Dinner speech. It never happened in the real world of fiscal policy. During the 1980's, Big Government got bigger and the Federal tax burden was just shuffled, not reduced. The main fiscal legacy of the Reagan era is that the Federal debt was raised from $1 trillion to $3 trillion. Unfortunately, when the economy rebounded after Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker's conquest of runaway inflation, Republicans embraced the dangerous shibboleth that deficit-financed tax cuts are good for growth.

The reason spending went up is that there was no reform of the big entitlements like Social Security and Medicare and not a single department or function of government was eliminated.... Further, many of the initial cuts in discretionary programs were restored over the years, and the cost of interest on the ballooning Federal debt rose significantly.

The tax burden rose during the Reagan era as well. Specifically, when Reagan left office Federal taxes accounted for 18.4 percent of GDP -- a figure slightly higher than the 1960-80 average of 18.0 percent. More importantly, nearly half of the massive 1981 tax reduction -- festooned as it was with every manner of special interest tax breaks that K-Street lobbyists could conjure -- was recouped during the next four years in a series of annual deficit reduction bills that a bi-partisan majority was able to persuade the President to sign.

At the end of the day, during the 1980s income tax rates were lowered, the tax base was broadened through loop-hole closing and the 1986 tax reform act and the payroll tax was raised by a full percentage point of GDP as part of the 1982 Social Security rescue plan. On net, however, there was no reduction in the total Federal tax burden during the Reagan era. What survived was an anti-tax religious catechism which has left the country with two free lunch parties and no prospect of responsible fiscal governance.

Another married straight parent in Florida kills her kids

We always hear that gays can't marry because of the harm it will do to children (although marriage and adoption/child rearing are different things conflated by the homophobe crowd), but it's seems that it's always straight people that are torturing and murdering their kids.

Conservative says Tea Partyers are "irrational" and "ignorant"

http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/01/05/bruce_bartlett_on_tea_party_monumental_insanity/index.html

Bruce Bartlett is a historian whose résumé includes stints as a domestic policy advisor during the Reagan administration and a Treasury official under George H.W. Bush. 

Money Quote: The problem is that the Tea Partyers are nuts. That is my point. They are irrational, they are ignorant, they don't know anything about financial markets and they think that they are standing up for God and the balanced budget.

OK, I'll stop

(hey, you see George Will said Sarah Palin is unelectable?)

ok, stopping for real.