I recently sent some e-mail to David Scott (D-Ga) about Barney Frank's H.R. 5842  and just got this reply back from him.

I am unsure if he will actually see this reply to it, or if he has any real time to "waste" on such an "unimportant and trivial topic which there isn't any time for right now and will detract from real issues and might possibly cause the Democrats to lose every election for the rest of our lives!!!!!!!!".

Or some other such usual nonsense I have to listen to when I bring this topic up.

But I do it anyway. That's activism

Alternative Schools aren't much of an alternative, and even less of a school

I have lived in Atlanta for 20 years. I worked as a mental health professional for Fulton County for 8 of those years and that put me in frequent and in-depth contact with the "school system" here.

There are 2 main school systems: Fulton County School and Atlanta Public Schools, or APS. Fulton County covers a large area and the schools range in quality. Atlanta schools, those run by the the city, are almost uniformly abysmal.

Below is an excerpt of a recent report about a particular private school agency that has come in to provide "alternative school" for the city.

And it stinks.

This is NOT about one candidate OR the other one. It's is past due for that noise to cease and for folks to "get over it", and get re-focused. Stop worrying that it's all over because this one or that one became the nominee.

Democratic Nominee's "baggage" aside, the Republican primary turnout was telling: Repubs stayed home. They had NOBODY to vote for and McBush has gotten the nod out of that despair. The GOP is significantly fractured and there are sizable elements that aren't pleased with him.

Every day, more and more people are connecting the country's hard times with Republican rule. How can they not?

In 2007 320 people in LA made a complaint about police officer conduct in choosing to search them.

The LAPD reviewed the incidents themselves, of course.

The totally unpredictable results on the candidate-free flip.

Fifty-three

If I have even just a little sense,
I will walk on the main road and my only fear
will be of straying from it.
Keeping to the main road is easy,
But people love to be sidetracked.

When the court is arrayed in splendor,
The fields are full of weeds,
And the granaries are bare.
Some wear gorgeous clothes,
Carry sharp swords,
And indulge themselves with food and drink;
They have more possessions than they can use.
They are robber barons.
This is certainly not the way of Tao.

The candidate race has dwindled to either-or and that is that.

Unlike a lot of "kossacks" I am not remotely thrilled by either of the remaining Wall Street-vetted Democratic Candidates.

I am voting for Obama because I don't trust Hillary, but this does not remotely mean that I am one of the euphoric followers that man has.

It appears, rather unsurprisingly, that we are likely getting shined on the healthcare issue: meaning that the candidates know what we want to hear and they are laying it on thick.

It seems to be an indelible political tradition: filling people full of what they want to hear during election time.

Chemical Interrogation has been studied by the US Government and the CIA for decades.

The established facts of this remain "tainted" with the smell of "conspiracy theory" but are plainly borne out by what you have seen and have learned about the goings-on at Abu Grahib and Guantanamo Bay.

The link above is to a Wikipedia entry with more information than most people will care for, but chemical interrogation has doubtlessly taken place. Given that prisoners have been beaten and tortured to death, what's the big deal with dosing them with a few strong drugs?

Don't be scared...it's alright.

It's just a celebration of freedom and sharing and, well....MOJO!

You want some mojo, right?

Come on in!

How about a simple-looking bracelet

It seems a company has taken the taser and made it into a little bracelet that airplane passengers "can" wear while on the plane. If they act up, get rowdy, or try to hijack the plane, flight attendants or pilots could zap them into a brief little coma.

Anything for safety, right?

Nobody could possibly be against this, could they?

Barney Frank has filed legislation to decriminalize marijuana possession.

While decriminalization, in and of itself, is not going to solve the problem associated with the black market, it might - possibly - result in police finding something else to do with all that time they waste every year arresting 800000 Americans for no good reason.

More awaits.

There was a debate on ABC?  

With Hillary and Barack and a couple talking TV heads?

What's that? They didn't ask good questions?

You're all pissed off at the TV people now because they asked lame and stupid questions of your favorite Wall Street-approved candidate? They focused on trivia?

Is that's what's troubling you, Skippy?

No long-winded essay today.

Just a note on the state of things regarding our military and the denial of mental health trauma and service for said traumas.

Think of all the suicides that happen and try to grasp that 1 of every 5 is a military person.

Report on the flip.

Brad Blog has an exchange between Don Siegelman and Mark Crispin Miller (author of "Fooled Again", an important work about the integrity of elections in America.

The goodies on the flip.

The War on Terror is JUST LIKE the war on 'drugs'.

The war on terror and the war on drugs are so amazingly similar they are like "Siamese Twins", except that where twin humans are joined at some identifiable body part, like the hip, the War on Terror and the War on Drugs are joined at the Republican party, and with Big Corporations, with their pet Democrats aiding and abetting them all the entire friggin' way.

Every now and then something happens or comes along to       reinforce and re-affirm this similarity.

The portable lie detector is just that sort of thing.

"Politics for me...in terms of electoral politics--is over." says former Alabama governor Don Siegelman

"I think that's what Karl Rove wanted; he has accomplished his goal."

"Frankly," he continues, "I'm about busted financially. I've spent my life savings...I've spent a lot of money on trying to muster my defense."

It is really easy to read some of my stuff and think that I must absolutely hate police officers.

It's just not true. I have a couple of very good stories where police have done remarkable things, and despite a number of unpleasant encounters with them, most of my impressions of police I have met are favorable. Most of them, that is..... Any decent professional cop will likely know what I am talking about.

Cops, in the great scheme of things do a hell of a lot of really bad things that are entirely needless and should be squashed, but, since i am a pro-government maverick, I believe police are an absolutely essential government service.

But they do have some issues that need to be addressed.

From Fire Dog Lake.

Lieberman attacks Obama and stumps for McBush. In 2 short paragraphs even.

Make the jump.

Tobacco is the most addictive legal substance in America.

It's responsible, not that most people give a shit, for 350,000 deaths per year and costs untold fortunes in healthcare dollars from the diseases it causes.

But who cares, right? It's legal!

The FDA is mulling wading in and regulating some of the chemicals that are added to tobacco to make it do this, that, and the other. They aren't talking of banning tobacco or nicotine yet, but there is hope.

And your choice for President has already endorsed it! Woo-hoo!

More on the flip.