$1,930 A Month

This is over a month old, but I have not heard this before. Does McCain really need to cash these checks? From McCain’s perspective this is probably just pocket change. After all, he thinks an income of $4,999,999.99 a year is still middle class.

From McCain gets $1,930 a month from 'broken' Social Security system:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program "a disgrace," the Associated Press reports.

"I'm receiving benefits," McCain told campaign reporters, but added, "the system is broken."

In 2007, he received benefits of $23,157 from Social Security, approximately $1,930 a month. The maximum monthly benefit under Social Security is $2,185. Social Security benefits are determined by age at retirement.

McCain, who is 71, has received benefits since he was 65.

Last week, McCain told observers at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers ... and that's a disgrace."

What's Bush Been Up To?

From Bush Administration Pushing Last-Minute Rollbacks:

The Bush administration is trying to finalize several new rules, covering a range of policy issues, before a new administration takes over and despite its own policy directive. The new rules would relax the standards and enforcement of longstanding federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the rest here.

My Take On The Choice Of Sarah Palin

No one else wants the job.

Has Taking A Leak Become Illegal In The United States?

This country is getting to be weirder and weirder. What freedom will they go after next?

If God created us and gave us certain bodily functions, wouldn’t he want us to be able to perform those bodily functions?

It appears that it is illegal to use the bathroom, or even move, during the almighty “God Bless America” at Yankee stadium in New York City. My guess is that President Bush insisted this be put in the Patriot Act before he would sign it. (You never know, I don’t think that anyone has read the damn thing from cover to cover.)

This is taking God and country a little too far over the limit, is it not?

From Fan Ejected From Yankee Stadium For Bathroom Break by Hazel Sanchez:

A Queens man is considering legal action against the New York Yankees after he was ejected from Tuesday night's contest against the Boston Red Sox for trying to use the restroom during the playing of "God Bless America."

During the patriotic 7th inning stretch at Yankee Stadium, nature called on Bradford Campeau-Laurion. When he tried to leave his seat during the traditional singing of God Bless America, however, he says he was stopped by a NYPD officer who said he'd have to wait until the song was done.

"I then said to him, 'I don't care about God Bless America. I just need to use the bathroom.' As soon as I said that, he immediately pinned my arm behind my back," Campeau-Laurion told CBS 2.

The 29-year-old says two officers pinned both of his arms behind his back and ejected him from the stadium.

"He shoved me out the front gate and told me get out of their country if I didn't like it," he said.

Campeau-Laurion says he didn't know theYankees had a rule restricting movement in the stands during the playing of God Bless America. The rule is enforced by ushers, stadium security and the NYPD.

Read the rest here.

My Reaction To Barack Obama's Speech

If Barack Obama becomes president, the middle fingers of both my hands will get a well deserved rest, after eight years of flippin’ off George W. Bush every time he appeared on my television.

Remember when the “Dean scream” was not considered presidential? After all this time with Bush, does anyone think that his speeches are presidential? The smirk alone clenches it for me.

Last night, Barack Obama was presidential.

What Is The Point Of This?

This will not make me vote Republican.

Is this supposed to make me dislike Dennis Kucinich? Or is it supposed to make me think that Michael Medved is a foolish and pathetic cretin?

Comparing Kucinich to Hitler is simply ridiculous. However, comparing Mr. Medved to Hitler’s propagandists is not.

Read more at mediamatters.org

And Sheldon Alberts sees things a bit differently than Michael Medved.

Quote Of Note - David Edwards

"The modern susceptibility to conformity and obedience to authority indicates that the truth endorsed by authority is likely to be accepted as such by a majority of people, who are innately obedient to authority. This obedience-truth will then become a consensus-truth accepted by many individuals unable to stand alone against the majority. In this way, the truth promulgated by the propaganda system - however irrational - stands a good chance of becoming the consensus, and may come to seem self-evident common sense." David Edwards, author of Burning All Illusions

Religion Can Give You Gas

From Bless you and here's some gas:

Carol Umsted got more than the word of God during services this summer at the Congregational United Church of Christ of Valley City.

She also got $50 worth of free gas, thanks to winning a raffle. For the local farmer, it was a nice side benefit, at a time when gas was more than $4 a gallon.

Churches nationwide are making similar offers, ranging from gas card raffles to 99-cent gas sales at local stations, to boost attendance during the vacation season and attract new members.

But some Christians question whether a financial incentive should be used to draw people into church.

Robert Kruschwitz, director of The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, called the promotions "unseemly" and "misguided."

Read the rest here.

Schools Are No Place For Imagination

We can’t have our children becoming creative. We can’t encourage them to think for themselves. What would they be like as adults? What would they be like as voters?

From 'Imagine No Religion' signs to go up around town by Astrid Galvan:

A national organization that promotes freedom from religion and separation of church and state is hoping to get Phoenix commuters talking with five controversial billboard ads that will go up this week.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., paid advertising company CBS Outdoor to put up five signs that read "Imagine No Religion."

The message on the billboards will start to go up Monday and will remain there for a month, said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Phoenix will be the first city to have as many as five signs.

But getting the billboards up did not come without hurdles.

The five sites chosen by the organization were changed after CBS Outdoor said they had to be 1,000 feet from any schools or churches, Gaylor said.

The site locations were finalized late last week, and CBS Outdoor was not available for comment over the weekend.

The organization, comprised of 12,000 atheist or agnostic members, aims to promote free thought and separation of church and state.

The billboards debuted last year in Madison and have made their way to cities like Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle.

A billboard reading "Keep Religion OUT of Politics" is currently displayed in Denver and will remain there throughout the Democratic National Convention.

So far, Gaylor said, there has been little opposition to the billboards, and she doesn't anticipate any issues in Phoenix.

"The free thought movement has never been stronger in this country," she said.

Read the rest here.

The free thought movement may be getting stronger, but freedom of speech sure seems to be having more and more restrictions placed on it all the time.

Now I need to go and try to figure out what it was about this news item that caught my eye in the first place.

Visit The Freedom From Religion Foundation.

John Kerry Speech

Now the blogosphere is raving about John Kerry. Are all these speeches really that good?

From Full Text: John Kerry Speech Democratic National Convention:

Thank you so much. Four years ago, you gave me the honor of fighting our fight. I was proud to stand with you then, and I am proud to stand with you now, to help elect Barack Obama as President of the United States.

In 2004, we came so close to victory. We are even closer now, and let me tell you, this time we’re going to win. Today, the call for change is more powerful than ever, and with more seats in Congress, with more people with more passion engaged in our politics, and with a President Obama, we stand on the brink of the greatest opportunity of our generation to move this country forward.

The stakes could not be higher, because we do know what a McCain administration would look like: just like the past, just like George Bush. And this country can’t afford a third Bush term. Just think: John McCain voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Ninety percent of George Bush is just more than we can take.

Read the rest here.

More Weirdness From John McCain

From McCain's Prickly TIME Interview:

For years, John McCain's marathon bull sessions with reporters were more than a means of delivering a message; they were the message. McCain proudly, flagrantly refused direction from handlers, rarely dodged tough questions and considered those who did wimps and frauds. The style told voters that he was unafraid, that he had nothing to hide and that what you see is what you get. "Anything you want to talk about," he promised reporters aboard the Straight Talk Express in Iowa back in March 2007. "One of the fundamental principles of the bus is that there is no such thing as a dumb question." When asked if he would keep the straight talk coming, McCain replied, "You think I could survive if I didn't? We'd never be forgiven ... I'd have to hire a food taster, somebody to start my car in the morning." Even after he won the GOP nomination, he demanded that his new campaign plane be configured to include a sofa up front so he could re-create the Straight Talk Express at 30,000 ft.

Here is part of the interview:

There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?

Read it in my books.

I've read your books.

No, I'm not going to define it.

But honor in politics?

I defined it in five books. Read my books.

I suppose you could call that “straight talk.”

Do You Know What Synaesthesia Is?

If you don’t. Let Professor Funk explain it to you:


I originally found this video at Of Two Minds.

Oh My, A Pastor Who Lied!

Nine Network's Caroline Hillman reports on a pastor who lied about having cancer to cover up his sexual addictions:

Are Superiors Ever Happy?

From Italian priest cancels nun beauty contest:

A Mondragone, Italy, priest said he has canceled plans for a nun beauty contest after religious leaders objected to his idea.

Father Antonio Rungi said the contest, which he described as an attempt to dispel the stereotype of all nuns being old and unpleasant looking, will not appear on his blog as planned next month due to objections from local Catholic leaders, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

"My superiors were not happy," Rungi said of the church's reaction to his plan to post pictures and descriptions of each contestant on his blog.

"The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either," he said.

Read the rest here.

Does Barack Obama Stand For Freedom Of Speech?

The revolution will be censored.

Barack Obama appears to be a censor and a control-freak. What happens to your character when you will do anything to be elected president of the United States?

From Obama tightens grip on podium speeches by Betsy Rothstein:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is tightening the reins on campaign speeches and stressing that speakers emphasize a rags-to-riches theme.

Members of Congress and others who have been asked to address the convention must have their speeches approved by the Obama campaign. In many cases, the speeches are drastically changed — to the point where the original speech is completely scrapped, Democratic sources say.

Obama has long expressed his desire to run a positive campaign, but that approach has attracted criticism from some Democrats, who say the Illinois senator must hit Republicans harder.

Still, the practice of making wholesale changes to speeches has some Democrats miffed. “This is politics through and through,” said a Democratic source who has seen firsthand the degree to which the Obama camp has changed some of the speeches of members of Congress. “Everyone gets vetted.”

Yet not every speech has been completely overhauled. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who was asked by Obama to speak about the economy, was scheduled to deliver his speech Tuesday afternoon. The Obama campaign struck just one line from his speech, which slammed the Republicans and the Bush administration, according to a Democratic source.

That line, addressing Republicans, read: “They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”

Read more here.

A Wake-Up Call

The revolution will not be televised.

Kucinich Speech - Democratic Convention 8-26-2008:


Here is my favorite part of the Kucinich speech:

Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up.

From Text: U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich Remarks to DNC:

It’s Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy.

Read the rest here.

Some Are More Equal Than Others

In the United States of America why does Steny Hoyer get better health care than I do? Why does he get a personal security detail, and I don’t? Why don’t my tax dollars get me what he has? Why should any politician get more than ordinary citizens do from our taxes? How much freedom do we have left with armed guards all over the place?

From Hillary Night by digby:

As a personal aside, I have a telling anecdote to share about the evening. I was waiting at the elevator at the Pepsi center with Julie Bergman Sender, who is shooting a film of the convention, when we were rather brusquely pushed aside by a couple of security guys and told to wait. A large entourage of big men in black suits came marching down the hallway and I thought, this has to be somebody really, really important like Al Gore or Bill Clinton. After all, politicians are casually hobnobbing all over the place this week. Only the biggest names have this kind of security.

It was Steny Hoyer.

One definition of liberty is “freedom from physical restraint.”

Jim Leach

People seem to be impressed by the speech given last night by Jim Leach at the Democratic Convention.

The short version of the speech is: Bush really, really sucks, and even the Republicans know it. John McCain is just like Bush, and even the Republicans know it. Vote for Obama, not McCain.

From Full Text: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach Speech to Democratic National Convention:

As a Republican, I stand before you with deep respect for the history and traditions of my political party. But it is clear to all Americans that something is out of kilter in our great republic. In less than a decade America’s political and economic standing in the world has been diminished. Our nation’s extraordinary leadership in so many areas is simply not reflected in the partisan bickering and ideological politics of Washington. Seldom has the case for an inspiring new political ethic been more compelling. And seldom has an emerging leader so matched the needs of the moment.

The platform of this transformative figure is a call for change. The change Barack Obama is advocating is far more than a break with today’s politics. It is a clarion call for renewal rooted in time-tested American values that tap Republican, as well as Democratic traditions.

Read the rest here.

What's The Big Deal?

So the Democratic Presidential Convention began last night. What’s the big deal?

These things consist of people of privilege giving speeches to people of privilege along with people of privilege interviewing people of privilege, while the dissenters are kept locked out of the proceedings never to be truly heard. This is democracy?

The speeches, the pomp, and the insufferable news people (I can’t stand Katie Couric) are mostly boring as hell. There is only so much of “Hooray for us” that I can take.

The whole spectacle reminds me too much of a preacher preaching to his flock of sheep. The sheep are the true source of all the power and money that somehow is always relinquished to the preacher. The same thing happens in politics.

I did see some of Ted Kennedy last night. I’m glad he seems to be doing so well.

"This marching thing" in Denver

Griff Jenkins of FoxNews in Denver:

How much money does FoxNews pay Griff Jenkins and Jamie Colby to come up with these words of wisdom?

• “This is the recreate 68 crowd” (Yes, they really do exist. How nice it was of Griff and Jamie to give us so much information and background on them. Not!)


• “This marching thing” (Not to be confused with the talking thing, pretending to be a news person.)


• “I don’t know how rowdy this is going to be” (How about reporting the news, not predicting it.)


• “These people say they believe in freedom of speech” (Meaning what, exactly?)


• “Not all of them are Obama fans. That’s perhaps the biggest surprise of all. Obama’s getting not as much love as even Bush.” (It’s no surprise to me, Obama is simply the lesser of two evils. Where is the proof to support such an inane statement that these people dislike Obama more than Bush, because I really doubt that it is true.)


• “But Griff, Puerto Rico and Hawaii as well, what is their concern there?” (Don’t the citizens of Puerto Rico and Hawaii vote?)


• “I guess they don’t believe in freedom of speech” (In response to someone saying: “Fuck corporate media.”)


• “Let’s just work this crowd, and see who else we can talk to” (Work this crowd?)


• “Do you not believe in freedom?” (In response to someone saying: “Stop the torture, stop the war.”)


• “It is out of control” (What? They seemed pretty peaceful and reasonable to me, given who they were talking to.)


• “This group saying that they want to recreate 68” (But Griff Jenkins had previously said: “There are a lot of different groups represented.” Which is it? One group, or many?)


• “Giving them a chance to speak out, to tell what their message is, and they’re not even talking, all they’re doing is screaming and yelling at him” (The message is that FoxNews sucks, lady. Clean out your ears.)

Thanks to onegoodmove, where I first stumbled upon this video.

And thanks to johnny dollar's place for the video.