Stupid will make you abstinence only?

State abstinence overseer lent name to firm seeking business with agency 

The director of Ohio’s abstinence program faces an ethics inquiry and an investigation by her own department because her name showed up on business documents of a Denver firm that was close to finalizing a contract with her office.

It appears that Ohio is becoming so corrupt they don’t even know what corruption is anymore and are the new leaders in third world politics, American style.

Does anyone need to be reminded that Republicans have controlled all three branches of Ohio government since 1994?

Abstinence is a great way to avoid pregnancy and STIs but if you do have sex, please use your brain AND a condom. This message is brought to you by the T.H.Reasoner Campaign for Reality in Education.

Nope, no conflict here, move along

Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway with Michael Roston
Alito and His Coaches
For Supreme Court nominee, hearings are an inside game 

by James Ridgeway with Michael Roston
January 10th, 2006 9:59 AM

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In the first hours of Samuel Alito’s Senate confirmation hearings on Monday, Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, may very well have irreparably compromised himself.
At the hearing, Graham told Alito, nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, that he had already decided in Alito’s favor. “I don’t know what kind of vote you’re going to get, but you’ll make it through. It’s possible you could talk me out of voting for you, but I doubt it. So I won’t even try to challenge you along those lines.”

That certainly ought to be the case. Graham is one of a group of Republicans who have been coaching Alito behind the scenes. The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire reported before the hearings began:

“On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the ‘gang of 14′ who sits on Judiciary, joined a so-called moot court session at the White House.”

The coaching session for Alito has raised a few eyebrows.

“Coaching a judicial nominee behind-the-scenes is not the proper role for a Judiciary Committee member who must subsequently sit in judgment on that nominee,” writes Think Progress, a project of the American Progress Action Fund. “It could be a violation of the ethical duties of a senator.”

It shouldn’t be an ethical violation. It should be a legal one.

File under too much time on their hands

PageOneQ | Barbie website changed to appease conservatives 

WASHINGTON (January 6, 2006) Under pressure initiated by a variety of conservative groups, the Barbie website has been amended to no longer include “I Don’t Know” as a choice in addition to “Girl” and “Boy.”

I can imagine how this “outrage” started.

Kid: “Mommy, what do they mean, ‘I don’t know’?”

Mommy: “What do you mean, what do they mean, precious?”

Kid: “It says, ‘I am a Girl, I am a Boy or I don’t know.’”

Mommy: “Well, let’s see. I am a girl, I am a boy or I don’t know. Hmm. I am a girl, I am a … OH MY GOD! I DON’T KNOW! AAAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Mommy’s head explodes, fade to black.

In a statement issued by [the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition], executive director Riki Wilchins noted, “Conservative organizations have attacked a variety of cartoon and fictional characters, including Winnie the Pooh, Tinky Winky, SpongeBob SquarePants, Shrek 2’s Pinocchio, and now Barbie for either sex or gender issues,” continued Wilchins. “What’s next?,” she added.

Acknowledging that children are given a neutral or non-response option on all questions on their websites, Mattel spokeswoman Lauren Bruksh called such an option under gender, “just an innocent oversight.”

Apparently, mediocre web design equals vast rainbow conspiracy.

You can’t fire me! I Quit!

BREITBART.COM – DeLay Will Quit Leadership Post in House 

Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay decided Saturday to give up his post as House majority leader, clearing the way for new leadership elections among House Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal, two officials said.

B’bye, Bug Man. We will won’t miss you.

Wal-Mart Wimps

Wal-Mart Halts Movie Suggestions on Web – Yahoo! News
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a “Planet of the Apes” DVD to films about famous black Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Under a “similar items” section, the DVD set’s page linked shoppers to four films about the lives of King, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner.

First of all, I don’t see why Wal-Mart thinks their software is broken. The fundamental theme of “Planet of the Apes” and Dr. King’s campaign for civil rights is that rational beings have equal value and deserve equal treatment despite differences in outward appearance. Almost any large group will have both reactionary and progressive thinkers. Some will be susceptible to superstition, others will be prone to explore the reasons behind those superstitions. Some will be prone to violence, others will understand that violence only proves who is strong, not who is right. Some will cling desperately to the status quo (and do their best to convince those who don’t even profit from the status quo that it is in their best interest to preserve it anyway, generally by appealing to the previously mentioned susceptibility to superstition) and others strive to make a better world. Some will try to enforce conformity, others will celebrate diversity. Both the movie and Dr. King speak out against the oppression and exploitation of the minority by the majority justified by differences in outward appearance.

On second thought, Wal-Mart’s action is perfectly understandable. This is an example of political correctness at its finest worst. Political correctness is the product of reactionary personalities who have settled on progressive ideals. They defend any victory for social progress by quashing any further discussion of the matter, especially any suggestion that any reactionary argument has any merit or warrants further discussion (for example, that since men and women have equal rights, any suggestion that men and women are not the same is unacceptable and must be punished). One of the axioms of political correctness is that any speech that might offend someone is unacceptable. In this case, Wal-Mart fears (correctly) that someone might incorrectly perceive the link between the disparate offerings as one between black and ape rather than the appropriate connection of the common theme of civil rights among rational beings regardless of outward appearance.

Political correctness is just as much of a hindrance to social progress as any [whatever]ism it might oppose. Personally, I’ll never understand why anyone would think good enough is better than better.

Image is Everything?

Voices From History Echo Anew 

[...] While the president was challenged once or twice in the meeting, according to participants, White House aides believed they accomplished their twin goals of portraying a more solicitous president and underscoring the broad bipartisan agreement that a speedy withdrawal from Iraq would be unwise and potentially devastating to U.S. interests.

By the way, it’s hard to create much history in 23-46 seconds per voice. Damn photo ops.

totally, unbelievably, outrageous.

…was the subject line on the e-mail from bbt with the link to this story (and I agree). I’ve never been a huge privacy nut and even a year ago, I would have argued that if your only objection to something was a potential misuse of information by the state, you didn’t really have an argument.

IRS tracked taxpayers’ political affiliation | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust� that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

However, given the current administration’s end run around FISA, I’m starting to wonder.

I thought this kind of crap was why we sneered at third world governments.

But, why would you?

…expect an insurgency when you finished bombing the shit out of people?

Reuters AlertNet – Bremer says U.S. did not expect insurgency in Iraq

Remind me, who was in charge of ordering flowers?

Dementia?

Am I the only one who thinks Pat Robertson is suffering beta-amyloid buildup?

Industry Self Regulation

…doesn’t work.

While the republicans masquerade as libertarians and derisively accuse progressives of wanting a nanny state where money is concerned (they don’t seem to suffer any cognitive dissonance from trying to impose one where sex/reproduction is concerned), cronyism kills 12 more.

While I happen to agree with most of the arguments against government intervention in the private decisions of individuals, everything gets messed up when these arguments are applied to industry/corporations. Business is about profit. It is unreasonable to expect business to place the welfare of the community above profit. Therefore, protecting the community from the greed of industry must be a primary function of government.

This is the failure of the libertarian creed; in order to work, it requires individuals to recognize the boundaries of where their actions harm others, when in reality, they see only what they can get away with, or where they can influence government to place them, as boundaries to their pursuits. Why? I think it’s because many people are naturally lawyers, more concerned with the letter than the spirit of the law, with what is legal rather than what is ethical or moral.