Bad Deeds for 8-8-2007

Neocon Bill Kristol is Wrong Again – A few days ago I reported that neocon Bill Kristol said there’s no problem with our nation’s infrastructure. He’s says bridges just fall down once in a while. According to the New Orleans’ Sewerage & Water Board the 3,200-mile water system is damaged and at least 50 million gallons of water a day is being lost. Sewerage & Water Board spokesman Robert Jackson said, “We don’t have the confidence now to say the system won’t fail. We’re basically holding it together by tape, by glue, by spit, whatever we can get a hold of.”

Young Republican National President Resigns Over Sex With Another Man – Glenn Murphy, the President of the National Young Republicans, under allegations of sexually harassing another man, has resigned from his post. Murphy sent an email to friends saying he was resigning from the post he has held for a month for business reasons. Later we find out it was for monkey-business. Another hypocritical Republican preaching family values and then lying about why he resigned.

Republican Representative Explains That He’s Not Sexually Weird, But Just Afraid of Black People – About a month ago, Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (R), a co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in Florida, was arrested in a public park after allegedly offering to pay to perform oral sex on an undercover police officer. In a tape recorded statement he made just after his arrest, Allen offered this reason for the alleged park-john-offer: “This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,” and was afraid of becoming a “statistic.” So, he’s afraid of black people. As a result of this irrational fear, he wanders into a bathroom, where he offers another man $20 to perform oral sex.

Kansas Republicans Think That Nothing Says ‘Freedom’ Like Being Compelled to Recite a Loyalty Oath – The Kansas Republican Party is forming a loyalty committee so that it can punish officers who endorse or contribute to Democrats. The state committee’s actions struck a sour note for some Republicans, particularly moderates on issues such as abortion. Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, suggested the loyalty committee could prove a “public relations disaster.” “Ironically, it smacks most of the Communist Party,” Beatty said Monday. “That’s the kind of public irony that most parties try to avoid — the party of freedom telling people they have no freedom.”

One More Way That Private-Sector Health Insurance Fails Us
Steve Skvara, a disabled, retired steel worker from Indiana tells the story of how he lost his family’s health insurance after the company he worked for, for 34 years closed two years after they forced him to retire. Skvara received a standing ovation at the AFL-CIO Democratic Debate, and rightfully so. He represents millions of hard working Americans who have lost their jobs and benefits and face the humiliation of not being able to provide for themselves or their families.

When Lower Taxes Comes Home to Roost – A popular Republican talking point in campaigns is lower taxes. In the past two years, Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for transportation needs. Now, with at least five people dead in the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge here, Mr. Pawlenty appears to have had a change of heart. Maybe he should have thought about it earlier.

Bush Has Spent 418 Days of His Presidency in Crawford, Texas – And that doesn’t count the time at places like his family’s seaside compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

God Didn’t Flood the Evil French Quarter in New Orleans, But He Did Flood Fox News Headquarters in New York

Republican Message to People Injured by Medical Malpractice: Walk it Off – If you’re going to be killed accidentally during surgery, it might be better for your relatives if it happens outside of Texas. “This is also a bad place to be maimed by a doctor,” said Paula Sweeney, a Dallas medical malpractice lawyer who has seen her business evaporate since 2003 state legislation that limited personal-injury lawsuits, especially those against doctors and hospitals. Sweeney said many people who believe they were injured by medical negligence no longer can have their day in court because of the legislation, pushed by Republican lawmakers and approved on a statewide ballot. “I have Republicans calling saying, ‘But my case isn’t frivolous.’ I explain that they didn’t just close the courthouse doors to frivolous cases, but to most all cases,” Sweeney said.

Mitt Romney Says His Sons Don’t Need to be in the Military Because They Show Their Support for Our Nation by Helping Him Get Elected – Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his five sons’ decision not to enlist in the military, saying they’re showing their support for the country by “helping me get elected.” Romney, who did not serve in Vietnam due to his missionary work and a high draft lottery number, was asked the question by an anti-war activist after a speech in which he called for “a surge of support” for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Same Agencies to Run, Oversee Surveillance Program – The Bush administration plans to leave oversight of its expanded foreign eavesdropping program to the same government officials who supervise the surveillance activities and to the intelligence personnel who carry them out, senior government officials said yesterday. The law, which permits intercepting Americans’ calls and e-mails without a warrant if the communications involve overseas transmission, gives Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales responsibility for creating the broad procedures determining whose telephone calls and e-mails are collected. It also gives McConnell and Gonzales the role of assessing compliance with those procedures.

Bush Administration Rewrites Emergency Response Plan in Secret; Ignores State Experts – A decision by the Bush administration to rewrite in secret the nation’s emergency response blueprint has angered state and local emergency officials, who worry that Washington is repeating a series of mistakes that contributed to its bungled response to Hurricane Katrina nearly two years ago. State and local officials in charge of responding to disasters say that their input in shaping the National Response Plan was ignored in recent months by senior White House and Department of Homeland Security officials, despite calls by congressional investigators for a shared overhaul of disaster planning in the United States. “In my 19 years in emergency management, I have never experienced a more polarized environment between state and federal government,” said Albert Ashwood, Oklahoma’s emergency management chief and president of a national association of state emergency managers.

Fox News Radio Show Executive Producer Says John Edwards “Whored His Wife’s Cancer as a Fundraising Gimmick” – On the August 3 edition of Fox News host John Gibson’s nationally syndicated radio program, the show’s executive producer, who goes by the name “Angry Rich” on the program, claimed Democratic presidential candidate former Sen. John Edwards (NC) “whored his wife’s cancer as a fundraising gimmick.” He also went on to call him “a fraud” and “a pansy.” Gibson referred to Edwards as “the Breck Girl,” “Silky,” and “the biggest fraud running for president.” How can Bill O’Reilly condemn others for hateful comments when this is allowed at Fox News? And how can they call this a “news” network, much less “fair and balanced”?

Department of Health and Human Services Hacks Plant Lies in Letters – Four regional directors of the Department of Health and Human Services signed their names on copycat letters sent to editorial pages across the country, spreading misinformation about opposing children’s health insurance proposals. All four somehow managed to come up with identical wording for the same dishonest points. For example: “The President supports reauthorizing this important program for low income children [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program] with enough new funding to ensure that no one currently enrolled loses coverage.” This is a flat lie. Bush’s proposal would take away coverage from some currently enrolled kids by imposing a federal income limit on eligiblity. (Currently, states have the flexibility to set their own limits.)

Regards,

Jim