Oh, yeah. It was premeditated, 1st degree murder all right

More information on Scott Roeder's murder trial in the death of Dr. George Tiller, shot and killed at and in his church, of all places, on a Sunday morning, while the Dr. Tiller was volunteering:

"The man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller bought a gun two weeks before the slaying and practiced shooting it near Topeka the day before Tiller’s death, prosecutors said Friday."

There's more: "Paul Ryding, an equine veterinarian and member of Tiller’s church, testified that... he had seen Roeder in church about six months before the shooting, sitting in a back pew."

Oh, yeah.

Besides being guilty of shooting and killing Dr. Tiller, which he confessed to, he's clearly guilty of planning (premeditating) his killing of Dr. Tiller.

Here's some more insanity from this trial:

"Security was tight. A bomb-sniffing dog was in the courtroom before jurors arrived and in the hallways outside during breaks."

I have to conclude that security has to be tight on this trial, too, because, unfortunately, more self-righteous, right-wing, sanctimonious, religious fundamentalists with beliefs about "protecting life"--those of the unborn, anyway--might well try again, like the illustrious Scott Roeder, to take matters into their own hands and possibly blow someone up down there in Wichita, what with this trial, so they can have the kind of justice they think there should be.

And that's from the religious ones.

The wackos, anyway.

Want proof?

"Cathy Ramey, a longtime anti-abortion activist from Oregon, said she came to Wichita to observe the trial."

“'I’m here because I believe that God has a consistent standard of justice and whatever force is necessary to protect an innocent born person ought to be applied to an innocent unborn person as well,' Ramey said."

But wait, there's more:

"Regina Dinwiddie, a friend of Roeder’s from Kansas City, showed reporters a petition that she had been taking around Wichita. It declares Roeder’s actions as 'morally justified if they were necessary for the purpose of defending innocent human life. Under these conditions, Scott Roeder should be acquitted of all charges.'”

"Dinwiddie said she had gathered about 100 signatures on her petition."

That is some sad, sick thinking from these people, but it is the way they think, as shown by Roeder's actions and these women's own words and actions.

When you "know" God is on your side, you can do whatever you wish.

Laws, sanity and decency be damned.

Question to Scott Roede, Ms. Ramey, Ms. Dinwiddie and their ilk: Who would Jesus kill?

Don't forget to remember

And have a great weekend, y'all

Fantastic, bizarre, freakish coincidence

Personally, I think it is absolutely a fantastic coincidence that the murderer Scott Roeder's trial for cold-bloodedly killing Dr. George Tiller--at the doctor's church on a Sunday morning, as Tiller was volunteering for the church and its worship service--is starting on the same day as the Roe v. Wade decision's 37th anniversary.

There's some terrific cosmic symbiosis going on there, somehow.

President Obama--a one-termer?

Think about this.

President Barack Obama has been in office almost exactly one year.

He did make some small progressive changes to our country. He reaffirmed--verbally, anyway--that we aren't supposed to torture. He called for honoring the Geneva Convention--again, verbally, because apparently, we might still be torturing, we can't be sure, and we haven't reinstituted Habeus Corpus...

Anyway, he got some things going back on a better track.

But the American people have a very short memory and now too many of us believe he created the huge spending we're experiencing right now.

Forget that the George W. Bush Administration started all that nonsense.

It was that previous group that thought up the 700 billion dollar bailout plan.

Forget that our economy crashed on W's watch, largely due to the Conservative's and Republican's desire for and love of deregulation and free markets.

At least they do until they screw up our banking system and the big banks all nearly collapse. Then they're all for government.

Anyway, so now, here we are, on the cusp of getting a bit of health care reform and what happens? One pivotal Senator dies and gets replaced--surprisingly--by a Tea-bagger (that would be Scott Brown, at least a sympathizer) and there goes our 60 strong, filibuster-proof vote for the reform we need so badly.

Then, early today we get a ruling from the Supreme Court, doing away with campaign contribution limits for corporations.

And the only conclusion I can come to is that this President's productive days may well be over.

I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it strongly.

We're about to go into election season and it's likely we'll lose at least some seats in Congress this Fall.

Too many Democrats are Republican-lite and/or can be bought off by corporations in their districts and voila'--the President is shackled.

Then, after this Fall's elections, it's time for the President to again start running for office and still more time when nothing of substance gets done.

The Republicans have done it. They have said "no" and stalled and blocked and stymied progress for America all they could and they've won.

Nothing of substance will get passed in the next 3 years.

Prepare, now, for repeated comparisons of this President to Jimmy Carter and his inability to get things done. I've heard it already and there will be a lot more of it.

It's going to get ugly.

Heck, it's already depressing.

The African-American President was/is hated enough just for being himself.

Then he was hated because they said he was too liberal. Then a Socialist.

His Presidency may, for all intents and purposes, be over.

This may be a one-term Presidency.

God, I hope I'm wrong about all this.

But I sure don't think so.

As feared, the American public was just further screwed

The Supreme Court just did what was feared they would and that is, they just did away with campaign contribution limits for corporations.

If you don't think your governmental representatives were for sale before, they surely are now.

And if, like me, you saw how our representatives have been "bought" in the past, with campaign contributions, well, ladies and gentlemen, it just got one hell of a whole lot worse.

Here's what just happened:

"The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns."

"By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states."

Then, to make matters worse (read: get more corporate money into campaigns):

"The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns."

And, additionally, "The case also does not affect political action committees... Corporations, unions and others may create PACs to contribute directly to candidates, but they must be funded with voluntary contributions from employees, members and other individuals, not by corporate or union treasuries."

Katy bar the door. You watch, next election millions and billions more dollars are going to flood into elections and corporations will be buying legislators and legislation like they haven't been able to nearly forever. At least, not for the last 2 decades and likely not since the beginning of the previous century.

The corporations just got the okay to purchase the best government they want, in their own best interest, that their money can buy.

American public--and common sense--be damned.

Molly Ivins is most surely spinning in her grave.

Is this city getting collectively more stupid?

I don't mean to be alarmist or to over-react but really, that's the question I come up with today.

Of course, we have our stupid and irresponsible mayor and his wife, supposedly to lead us and they've proven themselves, time and again but now all this.

Something called a "Tomahawke Ridge" subdivision to add 316 more acres and more than 600 homes, eventually, to the city is being considered today at 1:30 pm by the City Council's Planning and Zoning Commission.

(I ask again, too--since when does the Native American Indian word "tomahawk" get a British "e" on the end? Answer: when you want it to sound expensive or special. And you're a developer).

It doesn't look good.

It looks as though this council wants to pass and accept this bone-headed boondoggle.

Forget that we can't take care of our streets and sewers already, with what we've got. Forget that there aren't enough fire stations up that way already and that the Fire Chief thinks it's likely not a good idea. Forget that they city planners think it's misguided sprawl we shouldn't do or have. And forget that it further weakens the city's core.

Forget all that.

Some developer wants to make money--and likely give some to Council members, in the meantime.

Hell, yeah!

So what should happen won't and it looks as though we'll get this thing.

Dammit.

(And when did our local paper cover this locally important story? Yesterday. Once. At the last minute. Way to go, Kansas City Star. Way to not report.)

One silver lining to this expansionist crowd is that the Star has come out with an editorial agin' it. In fact, they've had a few. Here's another.

Thank goodness for that, anyway.

In it, they also support my idea that the "e" on the end is--there's that word again--stupid.

Then, for more local, home-grown ignorance and, yes, stupidity, look no further than the Star (at least they reported this), reporting that a committee has been formed, for pity's sake, to look into repealing the earnings tax in the city.

Check it out:

"Opponents of the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City have established a campaign committee and will begin to gather petition signatures within the next weeks to put repeal on the statewide ballot."

"The group is called Let Voters Decide. According to attorney Marc Ellinger, the commitee will circulate a petition that would allow local voters a chance to decide if the E-tax should be phased out in Kansas City and St. Louis."

"(UPDATE, 9:25: Businessman Rex Sinquefield has given the committee $500,000 to get started, records show.)"

Yahoo!

How, exactly, are we going to pay for anything if this goes through?

We'd lose two hundred million dollars a year in operating fees if we do away with this.

We can barely keep sewers running and streets operable now. How can we do it if we're broke?

And some people, including people downtown at City Hall, including, in this case, the Mayor, think this is a good idea.

Note that this wealthy chucklehead Sinquefeld is financing this nightmare. Apparently he benefits from this going through, while at our collective expense. He's been pushing it in St. Louis and now here, both.


So there you go, Kansas City, to repeat, stupidity reigns.

How soon can we quit this?

Three big problems with and for health care reform

There are at least three big problems with and for the health care reform right now, in Washington, that could lead to who knows where--not the least of which is that the reform will yet be killed.

First, there is the fact that right now, today, Massachussetts is rather famously voting for a Senator to replace Ted Kennedy.

Ol' Ted will surely "spin in his grave", so to speak, if the Conservative, Republican Scott Brown--Tea Bagger that he is--wins the seat.

Hopefully all the Democrats turn out today and are backed by some independent voters and put Martha Coakley in the Senate.

If not, the Democrats lose their super-majority in the Senate and we lose our ability to pass any health care reform.

And that will be for years.

Cross your fingers.

The second problem for health care reform right now is that the mandate for all Americans to buy health care insurance may get thrown out as unconstitutional.

And you know? I have to say, it does seem that it would be tough to get this to fly in our courts.

Americans forced to buy health insurance by their government?

I don't think so.

And anyway, what sense did that ever make, anyway? If you can't afford health care, how is it that the government's mandating you to buy it is going to make that happen?

If you don't have the money for health care, you simply don't have the money for health care, government mandate or no government mandate.

And finally, this brings us to what is wrong, ultimately, at its core, for this entire health care reform. The third and final thing wrong with this is that the very industries we were supposed to be reforming were allowed in the room---heck, in the negotiations--during the whole debate to begin with.

That's insane.

Since when does the patient get to be their own doctor?

Meaning, our problems with health care should have meant that the hospitals and doctors and insurance agencies--especially the insurance agencies--shouldn't have been let in on the health care reform debate and proposals. They're all putting things in there for themselves, not the American people.

So what happened?

The "single-payer" option was discarded right away and this alone was estimated to have saved us $350 billion dollars per year---enough to pay for the entire health care reform.

It simply makes no sense to have 1300 different health care insurance forms--one for each insurance agency in the country. The savings would have been huge.

And the "public option" for a government insurance plan for us--at much lower costs--was thrown out.

How else can we get insurance companies to keep their costs down unless there is a government option?

The result was that the American people and the actual reforms we needed were thrown out, for the sake of the corporations and their profits.

I hope this will all have been worth it and we get some good health care reform.

Right now, nothing is certain.

Not what's in the bill and not whether we'll even get a bill.

Here's hoping.

Can we not agree that no one should be politicizing the Haitian earthquake?

From the blog: "POLITICS FROM THE EYES OF AN EBONY MOM"

Haiti is No Hurricane Katrina

Posted on January 14, 2010 by musesofamom

Over the past few days we have looked at the utter devastation of the island of Haiti. The images are heartbreaking, but we are heartened by the response of our government. President Obama’s response has been swift, coordinated and aggressive. He said that Haiti is our neighbor and we are here to help them. In spite of our country’s best efforts we still have detractors like Rush Limbaugh use this opportunity to inject race into the situation. Limbaugh said, “This will play right into Obama’s hands. Humanitarian, compassionate. They’ll use this to, to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in, in this country. It’s made-to-order for him. That’s why he couldn’t wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.” The other disturbing thing about this tragedy is the constant comparisons between the Haitian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina. This is truly like comparing apples to oranges. Haiti is our neighbor it is not a state. Katrina happened in the United States and we were unable to help our own citizens. The effort in Louisiana was flawed on every level: local, state and federal. We found it incomprehensible that we were hearing US citizens being referred to as “refugees.” We had a president who initially was disengaged and FEMA who was ill-equipped and unprepared to deal with the crisis, but this was an internal problem. These were our citizens and we were responsible for their well-being. Haitians are not our citizens they are our neighbors and we are doing everything to help them, but please stop comparing this disaster to Katrina they are two very different situations.

Original link here:
http://ebonymompolitics.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/haiti-is-no-hurricane-katrina/

___________________________

You wouldn't think Rush Limbaugh or any other "Right-winger" would want to politicize the Haitian earthquake anyway, Katrina comparison or no, for two reasons: 1) It's almost unthinkable to do so, since it is a horrific natural catastrophe and 2) The case can be made, I think, that the US is responding far better to this disaster, as "Ebony Mom" states above, to Haiti's troubles off our shore than we did to a disaster in one of our own major cities, in our own country.

"Ebony Mom" also points out that the Fox "News" network ignored the Haitian earthquake in it's coverage of world news (link here: http://ebonymompolitics.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/fox-news-top-shows-ignore-the-haiti-catastrophe/) and Glenn Beck also wanted to politicize the horrible tragedy that is Haiti right now, on his show (link: http://ebonymompolitics.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/glenn-beck-says-president-obama-is-%e2%80%9cdividing-the-nation%e2%80%9d-by-reacting-so-quickly-to-haiti/)

Then, not to be outdone in both the politicization or "I'm a ranting, raving lunatic" arena, "Venezualan President Hugo Chavez claimed yesterday that the US is trying to occupy Haiti "undercover"."

Then, "Former President George W. Bush weighed in on the matter (I can hardly believe I'm saying this) and denied that President Obama is "'politicizing' Haiti".

So, finally, I ask you: "Can't we all just get along?"

Because sometimes we just need beauty in our day

No war

Do you know who Phil Angelides is?

If you don't, you'd better learn.

Do you know what the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is? (Hopefully it's self-explanatory).

The thing is, this commission has started meeting already. They began this week.

Mr. Angelides heads up the commission.

They're looking into the banking/mortagae/loan/investment nightmare that led us down the path to a near collapse of our economic system, both here in the US and around the world.

And I'll tell you, this is going to go on for some time and we'd better all be checking in virtually daily on this thing, to see what new revelations there are.

We need to know what happened in this crisis.

We need to know who did what.

We need to find out what was done illegally.

We need to find out what was done that should be illegal.

And we need to find out how we can avoid this greedy, stupid mess so we don't do it again.

To hell with catharsis. We need information, laws, regulations and solutions.

Ayn Rand be damned.

Things W's government didn't do that led to the financial collapse

Here is a short list of what the George W. Bush Administration did and did not do, from 2000 to 2008, which led to the banking and economic collapse of the last year. (And this says nothing of what W's same administration didn't do after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans or other travesties):

--Failed to rein in what Chairwoman Sheila Bair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. called a "shadow banking system" in which major banks ramped up their risks by making hundreds of billions of dollars in exotic, off-the-books bets.

--Decided to scale back the FBI's resources for tracking white-collar crime after Sept. 11, and assigned scant personnel at the Securities and Exchange Commission to monitor major investment banks after they were given new freedom in 2004 to take on added risks;

--Adopted rules in 2004 that restricted state regulators from policing predatory lending and other mortgage abuses, prompting some major lenders to seek federal charters to avoid tough scrutiny;

--Relyed too much on the credit ratings of Wall Street agencies, which had financial incentives to bestow high ratings on dubious mortgage-backed securities;

--Failed to monitor major banks' compensation arrangements that gave bonuses for completing mortgage securities sales, regardless of the risks of default;

--Ignored a warning to Congress by the FBI's investigation chief in 2004 that widespread subprime-related mortgage fraud would lead to a financial crisis;

--Failed to apparently be aware of and stop the illegal use of "short selling" which gets money "on the side" of a sale to a bank or lending institution. This is money that is used in the transaction but that is not reported and so is "off the books". It's illegal and it's apparently still being done today by the big banks, at minimum.

Ayn Rand, anyone?

Not me, thanks.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need government.

These are all reasons why we need government regulations.

Pay attention to this Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, folks. Read up on it. It's only just begun and the travesties are all over the map.

What we do wrong in government

We, as a nation, went through the Great Depression, sure, as we all know.

And with the collapse of the stock market back in 1929, there were examinations of what was done wrong and then we made laws to make sure we didn't do that again.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

So now we've experienced the worst collapse and decline of our economy since that Great Depression, some 80 years ago and what do we do?

Nearly nothing.

Since our economy collapsed, mostly due to banks, the banking industry and the big banks, in particular (read: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, etc.), there hasn't been one new law put in place--or put back in place--since.

It's only just now, this week, that we're examining what happened and finding out who did what, when, where and to whom.

Some of it we've known for a long time but this Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's role is an important one--and long overdue.

One of the worst things that was done was this: "...Wall Street's biggest investment banks bought many of the $2 trillion in home mortgages issued to shaky borrowers, converted them to high-yield bonds and sold the bonds to investors including pension funds, insurers and foreign banks. Many of the securities have since defaulted, and investors have lost billions of dollars.

Goldman Sachs even admitted improper actions in the sales of securities, for pity's sake, earlier today.

This was all nightmare enough but then they had to add credit default swaps to this list.

Instead of truly having and buying insurance, for which there are regulations and rules, these companies bought these "swaps", which weren't regulated, as a substitute for true, real, backed insurance.

Only the swaps weren't backed.

There was nothing behind them.

With these 2 details alone--and there was a lot more done blatantly wrong --is it any wonder our banking system and so, our economy, collapsed?

So the thing that's wrong now is that 1) nothing has changed yet, from when these large banks took us all for a ride, so to speak, to all of our peril, for which we are now paying and have to pay and will have to pay, into the future and 2) unlike after the Great Depression, we're letting the banks and their lobbyists and their money into our government, to tell us what should happen with THEIR regulations.

Does this make any sense?

And the answer is, of course not.

80 years ago, we had enough sense to correct our problems and to keep the proverbial fox out of the chicken coops.

We don't seem that smart this time around.

We don't seem to have learned that you don't let the person who made the mess in the first place make the rules for the future in order to avoid future collapses and problems.

That's not very bright, on our part.

More of us need to call for the Funk's resignation

I see from over at Tony's KC Blog that the KC Tribune has an article just now by Daniel Starling calling for Mayor Funkhouser to resign.

Here, here!

Attaboy!

Good for him!

It won't happen but, really, more of us--out here on blogs, and everyone across the city--should call for this clown to call it a day on his Mayorship.

What a mess.

We've had it.

We have decidedly not become "The City That Works" he promised. Far from it.

Streets unrepaired in good weather--unplowed in bad.

Steel plates on holes.

Bad morale downtown.

Lawsuits left and right.

Heck, he's bad to have just because of the expense of his rule.

Let it be said again: Mayor Mark Funkhouser--and his wife--need to go.

And they should do the honorable, intelligent thing and resign.

They won't but that's what should happen.

Judge Wilbert needs to recuse himself

"The judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of gunning down a Kansas abortion doctor is a practicing Roman Catholic who once courted the endorsement of an anti-abortion group..." according to a report from KCTV from the Associated Press.

This is, of course, the Judge overseeing the trial of Scott Roeder who drove himself the three hours down to Wichita from Overland Park, Kansas, so he could walk into Dr. George Tiller's church and shoot him because the doctor performed abortions. They're legal in the US, of course, but Roeder was and is vehemently against them.

But wait--there's more:

"Finance records show that Wilbert paid the group $75 in September 2008 to have his name listed in an ad in its quarterly newsletter, a 6-by-11-inch booklet of 24 pages that included articles such as "Update on Tiller charges" and 'Planned Parenthood -- a Snake in the Grass!' The judge also spent more than $16,000 on radio spots on seven stations."

"The ad in the newsletter took up most of the bottom of page 16. It said: 'The Kansans for Life PAC urges you to vote for, work for and pray for the following pro-life candidates.'"

With all this, Judge Wilbert needs to recuse himself from this case.

He clearly holds a position on this issue for and against the two sides.

He should dismiss himself from the case or be dismissed and replaced by another, truly impartial judge.

Strong, intelligent leadership

Scientists pushed the "Doomsday Clock back one minute" in the last 24 hours, "citing hopeful developments in nuclear weapons and climate change."

And you know who has lead us in those new, improved directions.

"The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which maintains the clock and puts an illustration of it on its cover, attributed the move to efforts by world leaders to reduce their countries' nuclear arsenals and collaborate on climate stabilization."

"The group, which includes 19 Nobel laureates, said a key to the 'new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government's orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of (U.S. President Barack) Obama.'"

Yeah, President Obama.

And then this:

Despite a recession that's disproportionately affected their community, African-Americans are dramatically more upbeat about their progress in this country than at any time during the past quarter century, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

Okay, so, sure, one is the opinion of scientists on a rather arbitrary evaluation of the status of humankind on the planet and the other is the opinion of one group of people in the United States but opinions matter. Assumptions of how we are matter.

These assumptions help us be able to work on for the improvement of our situations.

They help us know that what we do makes a difference.

They help us have hope.

And without hope, there is no reason.

"The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure but from hope to hope." Samuel Johnson

I had hope from 2000 to 2008 but it was very challenged hope, certainly.

To be sure you know: How you can help Haiti and Haitians

From the US State Department: you can text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

And this from UPS: UPS is shipping anything under 50lbs for free to Haiti. You can send food clothes or shoes...

and American Airlines is taking doctors and nurses to Haiti for free.

Please call 212-697-9767. Spread the word...Red Cross needs Creole speaking volunteers for a 24hr phone bank. Call Mr. Wilfrid @ 305-776-6900.

Spread the word.

Clean air, Congress, Corporations and you--guess who's losing?

Next week, it's being reported, the Senate may gut any new, effective regulations coming from the EPA regarding the Clean Air Act.

This comes about because Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) slipped an amendment into law:

"Majority Leader Harry Reid has allowed the polluting industries, represented by Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to advance a vote on whether to block the EPA from taking any steps to enforce its recent ruling that global warming gases endanger public health. Murkowski may propose either a one-year block or something more permanent, depending on her assessment of the vote count this year and after the November elections."

So just when this Congress is looking to roll on with legislation that will protect the polluting corporations, with their money and lobbyists, check out what just came across the wire from the Associated Press:

"Schools in parts of Utah kept students inside for sports and recess Tuesday after soaring pollution levels prompted state health warnings on driving and outdoor activity."

"For the third straight day, AIRNow, a national index for reporting daily air quality, ranked portions of Utah as having the most polluted air in the country..."

And keep in mind, this is Utah, folks. We're not talking the "dirty Northeast" part of the United States. This should be clean air, open West, mountain country clean air Utah.

Yeah, Congress people, keep protecting those corporations--at the expense of your constituents.

Could there be a more obvious need to work for clean air than that Utah, of all places--formerly presumed to be squeaky clean Utah--has to keep their kids indoors at school during recess?

What do we have to hit these people over the head with, to get them to see and admit the obvious?

Some good news for Kansas City

At least we're not Mexico, right?

Your Tax Dollars at Work

There is an "Economic Stress Map" out just now, from the Associated Press and while I've never heard of it before, there are a few things on it worth noting of national and local significance.

First, if you see it, I think you'll note right away how most of the top 20 counties on the "most stressed" list are from formerly, famously wealthy but now defunct California. In fact, 6 of the worst 10 are in California and 10 of the top 20 are also from the sunshine state.

Conclusion? It's bad in California and probably getting worse.

The local news from this map, for us?

Check out what County is in the number one spot, nationally.

None other than Riley County, Kansas, home of the Army's Fort Riley.

Truly, your tax dollars at work.

What's also interesting, to me, and of local interest, I think, is that Ellis County (Hays), Kansas also comes up at number 3 on the low economic stress, followed by Ford County (Dodge City) at 7 and Finney County (Garden City) at 13.

It seems that, if you want low stress, maybe it's time to move to Kansas?

Manslaughter?

Oh, hell no.

Scott Roeder, the conservative, right-wing, anti-abortion freak who took the law into his own hands, decided Dr. George Tiller should be murdered and then drove 3 hours down I-35 to Wichita to do just that--murder Dr. Tiller--may only get a manslaughter charge for this gross, unjustifiable, psychotic act.

I say psychotic because you have to have lost a touch with reality when you select to murder someone, for starters, and then decide you'll drive 3 hours down the turnpike to do it.

It's disappointing and surprising to me that the Judge in the case, Judge Warren Wilbert, is going to allow the defense the opportunity to consider letting the dirtbag Roeder off with a mere manslaughter charge.

Mind you, the jury may well find this guy guilty of first degree murder, as they ought, but the judge should have thrown this option out, right off, and for two reasons.

First, abortion is legal in the US, like it or not, and has been for decades. (Does precedent mean anything here?).

Second, there is virtually no question that Roeder killed Dr. Tiller and that he drove 3 hours, from Overland Park to do it.

If that's not premeditated, there is no such thing as premeditated murder.

And the fact that this coward Roeder shot Dr. Tiller in Tiller's church, as he was helping at the service is so gross, absurd, ironic and hypocritical it's off the charts.

Hopefully, even the religious zealouts have to see that.

The troubles with newspapers

I suppose this has been covered before but so be it. I'll keep it brief.

The troubles with newspapers--because it's far more than one problem--are that, because they're losing more and more advertisers, they have to charge more and more for their paper, for one.

Secondly, then, we, as newspaper readers (devourers?), get less and less paper, both in quantity and quality.

To wit: two things come to mind today.

Did you see today's issue? Section A of the paper is 17 pages long. If you saw it, you may have reacted to it the way I did and evaluated it the same way, too.

Seven of those 17 pages--seven--were full page ads.

I don't know about other newspaper readers but I feel like a sucker when I get one anymore, unless there's at least one good source of information in at least one column that day. That's a fairly low standard for them to hit and usually, honestly, to me, the Star doesn't even hit that too many times.

The 2nd thing that was brought to my attention (via Tony's KC Blog and Bottomline Communications) is that there are, apparently, to be more layoffs, still, at the Star.

Yikes.

Those poor people down there.

But how about us, the readers, too?

There's just so much less content (quantity) and much less good writing (quality) in the paper, really, how can they expect us to keep taking that thing?

I want to take the paper but just can't justify it.

And I don't see how they can blame us, either.

juxtaposition

 

KC Snow Removal

 

I was on the Plaza last evening, shooting pictures for my photography blog and saw these 3 snow plows. I think the whole city downtown knew they had to do a better job removing snow last evening.

But the fact is, there's still snow all over the Plaza and Southwest Trafficway is still a bit of a mess.

I'll grant you, this was a tougher storm to deal with but the fact is, cities have to be able to remove snow, period.

It's just not that much to ask or expect, especially since there are very few of these bitter cold, snowy winters.

And we sure as hell better not be annexing some new home division (up North in this case) that has 300 homes in it, for the benefit of some developer.

Here we go again, this time with another assault rifle

So here we go again with another shooting at a workplace with an assault rifle.

"An employee of a St. Louis manufacturing plant walked in with an assault rifle and a handgun on Thursday morning and opened fire, killing at least one person and wounding four others, authorities said."

The story broke this morning.

And I'm going to say--again--that we need restrictions on assault rifles because they aren't good for anything but lunacy like this and that they're certainly not for hunting and "Top of the Chain" and the NRA and other people are going to say we need them.

Nonsense.

You know what else is nonsense?

The whole idea that this President or our current government has plans to take away our guns anytime soon.

Horse poop, to be polite.

We'd like to register guns, like at all gun shows, so there is a reduced black market and so lunatics, criminals and felons don't get guns, that's all.

But it ain't gonna happen.

And we're going to continue to have more murderous, killing episodes like these.

And worse.

___________________________________________

Update: 12:10 pm--Correction: Reports now show 8 people were shot and 3 are dead.

Link here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/07/factory.shootings/index.html

But yeah, by all means, let's keep those assault rifles, right?

Two big records for America, jobs and stocks in this first decade

Did you see where it's been shown that this first decade of the century was the worst decade--ever--for both stocks and jobs?

Yep.

Check this out from The Wall Street Journal, no less:

"Since End of 1999, U.S. Stocks' Performance Has Been the All-Time Clunker; Even 1930's Beat It"

The blog "Soot and Ashes" said it best:

"And some people still support these jokers why?"

"Seriously, with that pitiful record, how stupid would you have to be to call yourself a Republican? You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can fool a Republican all of the time it would appear."

"Keep hating the fags. Keep stressing about abortion and flag burners."

"Meanwhile, you're jobless and broke."

"(UPDATE - P.S. - THE DEMOCRATS SUCK TOO. But for pure negligence, corruption and incompetence, the GOP takes the prize - worst of the worst. 2010 recommendation - vote 3rd party and anti-incumbent. 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018 - repeat.)"

Back to me--I don't know about that last part through 2018 but I surely couldn't vote the Rethuglicans back in again.

Link to original post: http://sootandashes.blogspot.com/

Reporting from The Kansas City Star

I wrote about this some time ago and here I have to go again.

On the way to work today, I was listening--as I always do--to KCUR, the local NPR station through UMKC and heard their coverage of a Kansas City Business Journal article on real estate in Kansas City .

They told of how it's soft, at least, but that we are nowhere near as bad as other places in the country like Florida and California and Las Vegas, of course.

And that's all fine and good.

But what galls me, what really kills me is that this is just the kind of article The Kansas City Star should write, first of all, and should have written months ago.

Both the commercial residential real estate markets in town are so soft it's just neither pretty nor funny.

If you drive the most-prized Plaza area, and you know what you're looking for and at, you can see condominiums left and right that are empty and waiting for buyers.

And the same goes--all over town--for commercial real estate in general and retail in specific.

But do you think you'd see an article about this in the local newspaper in the last year?

Nope.

Absolutely not.

It's an important story. It could get them terrific readership. It needs to be covered.

But who's covering it?

The Kansas City Business Journal, first, and KCUR, second, by covering their, first article.

It's pathetic.

If the Star wants readership--and of course they have to--you'd think they would know to cover important local stories like these that no one else is better positioned to cover.

But they don't. Or won't.

And I have to come to one of two conclusions.

They either don't have enough imagination to know they should be covering stories like these--which I view as highly, highly unlikely and improbable--or they want to go soft on articles like these, dealing with business and real estate so they don't offend anyone's sensibilities in the business community. They don't want to come off as negative so as to put a further damper on business, at least in the minds of their potential advertisers.

And if the answer is the 2nd one--and I think it may well be--that's a great way to further kill a newspaper.

They'd rather send a reporter, instead of around the city, to South America, to report on the sex-trafficking trade.

Strange priorities, indeed.

Is Kansas City no longer the "City that works"?

Okay, here's what's wrong with the Mayor saying our streets were cleared, cleared well and cleared quickly.

It isn't true.

We covered that earlier. In fact, lots of local blogs have covered that, I think.

But for further proof of the fact that they weren't cleared well and properly?

The Kansas City Missouri School District was closed today.

WTF?

Yeah. It seems, from what I understand, the buses can't get down the side streets they need to--along with these single-digit temperatures which no one can control, of course--so school was cancelled.

This is proof of that domino theory, Mayor. Frequently in bigger cities, one thing done poorly really does effect other things. The streets weren't cleared well so school gets shut down.

Want proof?

Look no farther than the Kansas side of the metropolitan area.

Time and again in the city, people notice it's obvious that the Kansas side clears its streets of snow better.

Missouri side?

Not well at all.

And proof of that?

The Kansas schools districts are open--Shawnee Mission, virtually all of them.

The thing is, I think if we get better, competent leadership in the Mayor's office, we'll make this city workable once again.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

And then, while we're at it, let's put a quick kabosh to even the thought of annexing 300 more homes in a subdivision up North.

We have to learn how to take care of what we have first.

Notes after having seen Avatar

Spoiler alert: if you don't want to know how it ends, don't read the last (11th) note

1) It's nice to see an anti-war movie again

2) It's nice to see a successful, anti-war film, period

3) It's nice to see a pro-environmental film

4) It's nice to see an anti-corporate film (that also happens to be wildly successful)

5) It's nice to see a film that leans on "The Wizard of Oz" for two references, at least--the first being the general's quote at the beginning of the film to his men "You aren't in Kansas anymore..." and the 2nd being when the "dragons" took off for flight at one point, they looked just like the monkeys at the Wicked Witch of the West's castle, also taking flight

6) If I were a native American Indian, I think there is a strong likelihood that, if I saw this movie "Avatar", I would be incensed that, after 200 years and untold, uncounted and countless slaughters of my people, in one way or another (out-and-out murder, taking away their clothing, history, tongue, culture, etc., and replacing it with government food, alcohol, etc., and, not to be forgotten, the accidental--mostly--introduction of disease and diseases to their people, among other things), it would irritate me that the American people finally "get it" about taking care of the planet but only because some mega-rich guy made a fictional movie about it that added more money still, to his accounts.

7) I understand Mr. Cameron plans to apply this current, new 3-D technique to some old films. If so, I hope he does "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the original "Star Wars" films--the first trilogy, as soon as possible

8) With all Mr. Cameron's wealth, first from "Titanic", now "Avatar" and then, finally, all the millions--billions?--he is likely to make from this same 3-D technology (you know he patented it), he could likely feed, clothe, house and nurse the Third World very soon. I don't think it will happen but I hope he does find philanthropy, if he hasn't already

9) See if you don't agree that the world Mr. Cameron created on this planet doesn't look like he took a great deal of inspiration from an old "Yes" (the band) album. A GREAT deal. It looks like it could be right off Roger Dean's easel

10) the seats that shake in the theater, to enhance the experience, are over-rated, in my view

11) And here's the spoiler (don't say you weren't warned twice): It's terrific to see the environment and nature defeat the "war machine"

Question: Can we now, as a country, say we have learned our lesson about nature and make mountain-top removal illegal, for obtaining coal?

We should but we won't.

And a final side note on our culture: With so few young people reading news regularly, it's a sad state of the nation that so few people in the country, also, know what's happening in their name, by their own representatives even though they are expected to vote for or against different issues and politicians and points of view. It's shocking to me.

We have created these magnificent ways of creating beautiful visual stories--now in a new, super-realistic 3-D but we don't pay attention to our own worlds--the social, political and other worlds for which we are responsible.

Crazy. Really crazy.

The world's likely spun out of control, I think.

Dumbest Political quotes of 2009

25. "I just get naked, that’s what I do." —Levi Johnston, baby daddy of Sarah Palin's grandchild, on exposing his johnson in Playgirl, as told to US Magazine (Source)

24. "No, no. I have been practicing ... I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." —President Barack Obama, making an off-hand joke during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" (Obama later called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize), March 19, 2009 (Source)

23. "I mean, we've got czars now. Czars like John Holdren, who has proposed forcing abortions and putting sterilants in the drinking water to control population." —FOX News Channel's Glenn Beck, taking past writings by Obama's science and technology advisor, John Holdren, ridiculously out of context, "Glenn Beck Show," July 22, 2009 (Source)

22. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." —a protester at a health care reform town hall meeting in Simpsonville, S.C., commenting on the government-created Medicare program, quoted by The Washington Post on July 28, 2009 (Source)

21. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." –Obama, attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009 (Source)

20. "So here you have Barack Obama going in and spending the money on embryonic stem cell research. ... Eugenics. In case you don't know what Eugenics led us to: the Final Solution. A master race! A perfect person. ... The stuff that we are facing is absolutely frightening." —Glenn Beck on his radio show, "The Glenn Beck Program," March 9, 2009 (Source)

19. "I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. ... When one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway." —Vice President Joe Biden, dispensing handy tips to protect against the swine flu and freaking us out, "Today Show" interview, April 30, 2009 (Source)

18. "I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I'm not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it's an interesting coincidence." —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak that happened when Gerald Ford was president, April 28, 2009 (Source)

17. "We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets." —Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, on the GOP's need for a hip-hop makeover, Feb 19, 2009 (Source)

16. "I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night's light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details..." —South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, writing a love email to his Argentine mistress, Maria Shapur (Source)

15."Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House." —a Twitter post by Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), comparing the mass uprising of Iranians — utilizing Twitter as an organizing tool — to the GOP's attempt to express dissatisfaction over Nancy Pelosi's decision to adjourn Congress before an energy vote last year. In response, Twitter users mercilessly heckled Hoekstra en masse, turning his idiotic statement into a full-blown Internet meme. "To Hoekstra" acquired its own definition, meaning "to whine using grandiose exaggerations and comparisons." (Source)

14. "She wears little eye-patch underwear. So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!" —State Rep. Mike Duvall (R-Calif.), caught on a live mic boasting to a colleague about an affair with a lobbyist, Sept. 9, 2009. Duvall resigned when the tape was made public. (Source)

13. "That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions." —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a pro-lifer who completely missed the irony of using the same slogan as the pro-choice movement in arguing against health care reform (Source)

12. "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." —a July 31 editorial in Investor's Business Daily warning about end-of-life counseling in health care reform. Hawking, in fact, lives in England and has been treated by their National Health Service, which, by his own account, saved his life (Source)

11. "Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook ... Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate." —Rush Limbaugh, Aug. 6, 2009

10. "The system worked." —Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, on airline security's failure to stop the Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow up a passenger jet on Christmas Day, Dec. 27, 2009. (She later acknowledged that security had failed) (Source)

9. "Hunger can be a positive motivator." —State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-Missouri), arguing in a press release against a program that feeds poor children 18, suggesting they should get jobs instead, June 2009 (Source)

8. "Exercise freaks ... are the ones putting stress on the health care system." —Rush Limbaugh, June 12, 2009 (Source)

7. "O-L-I-G-A-R-H-Y." —Glenn Beck, misspelling "oligarchy" on his chalk board while claiming he had deciphered a secret code that he said was proof Obama was trying to create an "Oligarhy," Aug. 27, 2009, FOX News Channel's "Glenn Beck Show" (Source)

6. "It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: 'Sit down and shut up,' but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out." —Sarah Palin, quitting her job as governor, July 3, 2009 (Source)

5. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly." —Obama, commenting on a white police officer's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., at a news conference, July 22, 2000 (Source)

4. "This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture....I'm not saying he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." —Glenn Beck, on Obama, sparking an advertiser exodus from his FOX News show, July 28, 2009 (Source)

3. "The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail." —a spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, explaining Sanford's disappearance and coining the , June 22, 2009 (Sanford later admitted to carrying on extramarital affair with his Argentine mistress) (Source)

2. "You lie!" —Rep. Joe Wilson, shouting out a retort to Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009 (Source)

1. "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel.'" —Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care reform plan, Aug. 7, 2009

Link to original source:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/stupidquotes/a/dumb-quotes-2009.htm