He killed himself. I have no clue as to why. He had just gotten married (his second) to a very nice lady, who seemed to care deeply about him. He just got back from Scotland on his honeymoon a couple of months ago. I guess, I'm just confused as to what brings on that kind of desperation in a person. I will always remember his wedding, which can be best described as a renaissance fair meets a scottish wedding meets a traditional southern wedding. Needless to say the Baptists in the family were scratchin' their heads when the best man walked down the aisle with a huge broad sword strapped to his back. More than a few people didn't quite get the bagpipes either, but I have to admire he and his widow's commitment to have a wedding on their own terms. My fiance, took the most beautiful picture of the two of them after the ceremony; she definitely beat all the prints the "wedding photographer" managed to produce, we got hour long developing and blew up the real nice ones as a gift. Just confused.
Yesterday, I began by looking at the mission statement and giving patterns of one of the three charitable foundations operated by Richard M. Scaife. For background on the Allegheny Foundation please refer to this diary. Further background on the right-wing noise machine (and the funding behind it) is available at http://www.mediatransparency.org/
Note, I am in no way affiliated with the folks at mediatransperancy.org, I simply appreciate their work and will reference it when applicable.
With all of the attention on that piece of humanity I prefer to call "Hot Karl," those of you twisted (and old) enough can google that salacious term (yes it is gross) our esteemed Congressman, the Majority Leader just had some major news break. Apparently Topeka, Kansas based Weststar Energy, admitted in court documents to paying $25,000 to a Delay PAC for "face time" (please note make no reference between this jargon and the aforementioned "Hot Karl"). Read all about it and rate it UP at Yahoo.com
For those of you who have the stomach to spend time in the right-wing blogosphere, I am certain that you have come across the demonization of Mr. Soros. His name has been picked up by the public at large, but there hasn't been any real investigation into the backgrounds of the public policy foundations of the right-wing and its directors. It is time for that to change. For those of you who are interested in further background into the funding of the right-wing I invite you to check-out http://www.mediatransparency.org/ .
Now keep in mind, this is the genius who brought "freedom" fries to the Capital, introduced a bill allowing preachers the right to endorse political candidates without losing their church's tax exempt status. In general those of us in NC consider him one of the true wing-nuts. His district encompasses all the major military instalations in eastern NC (Lejeune, Cherry Point, Bragg) and until today has been known for the inability to think anything resembling a progressive thought. Now please don't misunderstand me, I don't suggest that we sing hymns of praise for him, but rather this is but another symptom of a lame duck president. So without further ado, from Newsday.com
When the story about Judge Lefkow was posted in Freeperland, the reactions exhibit quite possible the most disgusting lack of respect for the judiciary I've ever seen. These are the people who are in charge now, these are the nuts that rally to the call of Dobson, Perkins, et al. This is the mindset and world view of the theo-con right. Below is the article and the freeper reactions.
In listening to the current debate over the nukular option (note the proper Presidential spelling), it is obvious to all that this will be the issue which leads to the next Supreme Court Nominee. The Democrats and the progressive movement on a whole, has been far to reactive, and although I think that it will be necessary to direct our attention at the task at hand. I feel that we must also think a few steps ahead.
I know that some of you here may have a hard time believing this, but we may have caught both a texas republican (possibly more than one) in a lie, along with a well-known Am-Taliban leader.
CREW Files Texas Public Information Request
Regarding US Senator Cornyn's
Involvement With Indian Gaming Scandal
Cornyn Claims to Have Never Met GOP Activist Ralph Reed
Well, with the approval of the nomination of Mr. Bolton looking less and less likely everyday. I felt that it would be appropriate to take a look at what the Freepers have to say about things. Feel free to laugh, or feel scared that these people have drank the kool-aid soooo completely.
I am sick and tired of David Horowitz and his lying. Even here at ECU [East Carolina University], which I admit is not especially known for its academic rigor, there is a small group of individuals who are determined to end true free speech and are instead trying to leave us with the "Biblically Approved" speech of this new dangerous Con movement. The whole assertion that social/christian conservatives receive poor grades simply because of their political beliefs is bull. As someone who has sat in classes with what I consider more than my share of conservatives [and shudder I was actully conservative myself in my younger days]
I know this may be hard for some of you to believe, but apparently some Senators and members of Congress have been caught with there hands in the porno industry cookie jar. Now regardless of what you personally feel about pornography, for a politician to declare publicly the evils of pornography but then accept money from companies which profit directly from pornography meets the definition of hypocrisy. This is not simply an attack on the Con's either. Our own [sarcasm evident] Sen. Liebermann was also caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
It breaks down exactly how the cable and hotel companies directly profit from pornography and to whom those companies and their executives donated money to in the past election cycle.
So I've got to ask the question... Recognizing that we are in an economy where our currency is information, what are we going to do when we out-source those jobs too? The service industry can only support so many people... Then there's the specter of the inverted yield curve as discussed by Devilstower, see here. So my question is when are people going to wake up and see that the company's bottom line may not be the best thing for the country! I'm not saying that we need to ditch capitalism, but one thing is crystal clear from history, periods in which the corporation was viewed as superior to the individual (i.e. worker) lead to one thing problems. In this time of media consolidation it seems to me that people have forgotten the history of this country during the laissez-faire time of President McKinley. Obviously, there are many more far less rosy views of McKinley available, but I think that the tone in the White House web page gives a clue to how glowing those are, see here.
