Eideard

Turkey condemned comments by US Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry as “unfounded and inappropriate” after he said the country is ruled by Islamic terrorists and questioning whether it should remain in the Nato alliance…

“Obviously when you have a country that is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that sort of activity against their own citizens, then yes – not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong in Nato, but it’s time for the United States, when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it,” Mr Perry said…

Turkey noted that it had joined Nato when Mr Perry was just 2 years old, and cited its long history of fighting terrorism, including co-chairing the Global Counterterrorism Forum with the United States.

“We strongly condemn the unfounded and inappropriate allegations expressed yesterday evening about our country during a debate held in South Carolina by Texas Governor Rick Perry…Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said in Ankara.

He noted that Mr Perry trailed in the race for the Republican nomination to oppose President Barack Obama’s re-election next year and said, “This reflects the commonsense of the US electorate.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Obama administration fundamentally disagreed with the assertion that Turkey was run by Islamic terrorists.

Pretty much anyone with an education above that of a Texas 6th-grader and the ability to read and comprehend words of three or more syllables would disagree with the crap that rolls off the tongue of one of Texas’ more prominent Republican ignoranuses.

This thug still thinks he should be president of the United States
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

In his last days in office, outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour pardoned four men convicted of murder…David Gatlin, Joseph Ozment, Charles Hooker and Anthony McCray received full pardons and were released at 1 p.m. Sunday, said Suzanne Singletary, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections. All four were serving life sentences and worked as trusties at the governor’s mansion, she said.

I guess they were extra polite serving the governor his bourbon and branch.

Gatlin was convicted of murder, aggravated assault and burglary of a residence…Ozment was convicted of murder, conspiracy and armed robbery in a separate case…

Hooker was convicted in a 1991 murder, while McCray was convicted in a 2001 murder, Singletary said…

Families of the men’s victims told CNN affiliates WAPT and WLBT they are outraged by Barbour’s decision…In 1993, WLBT reported, Gatlin walked into the trailer where his estranged wife, Tammy Ellis Gatlin, lived and shot her in the head. The woman’s friend, Randy Walker, survived a gunshot to the head.

“Is Gov. Barbour going to pardon us from our aches and pains and heartache that we have to suffer?” the victim’s mother, Betty Ellis, asked WLBT. “Is he going to pardon a child that had to grow up without a mother? Is he going to pardon me from never being able to feel her arms around my neck again? What is Barbour going to do about that?”

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Charles Holt, sterilized when he was a teenager

Charles Holt, 62, spreads a cache of vintage government records across his trailer floor. They are the stark facts of his state-ordered sterilization.

The reports begin when he was barely a teenager, fighting at school and masturbating openly. A social worker wrote that he and his parents were of “rather low mentality.” Mr. Holt was sent to a state home for people with mental and emotional problems. In 1968, when he was ready to get out and start life as an adult, the Eugenics Board of North Carolina ruled that he should first have a vasectomy.

A social worker convinced his mother it was for the best…

Now, along with scores of others selected for state sterilization — among them uneducated young girls who had been raped by older men, poor teenagers from large families, people with epilepsy and those deemed to be too “feeble-minded” to raise children — Mr. Holt is waiting to see what a state that had one of the country’s most aggressive eugenics programs will decide his fertility was worth.

Although North Carolina officially apologized in 2002 and legislators have pressed to compensate victims before, a task force appointed by Gov. Bev Perdue is again wrestling with the state’s obligation to the estimated 7,600 victims of its eugenics program.

The board operated from 1933 to 1977 as an experiment in genetic engineering once considered a legitimate way to keep welfare rolls small, stop poverty and improve the gene pool.

Thirty-one other states had eugenics programs. Virginia and California each sterilized more people than North Carolina. But no program was more aggressive.

Only North Carolina gave social workers the power to designate people for sterilization. They often relied on I.Q. tests like those done on Mr. Holt, whose scores reached 73. But for some victims who often spent more time picking cotton than in school, the I.Q. tests at the time were not necessarily accurate predictors of capability. For example, as an adult Mr. Holt held down three jobs at once, delivering newspapers, working at a grocery store and doing maintenance for a small city…

Over all, about 70 percent of the North Carolina operations took place after 1945, and many of them were on poor young women and racial minorities. Nonwhite minorities made up about 40 percent of those sterilized, and girls and women about 85 percent.

The program, while not specifically devised to target racial minorities, affected black Americans disproportionately because they were more often poor and uneducated and from large rural families.

“The state owes something to the victims,” said Governor Perdue, who campaigned on the issue.

But what? Her five-member task force has been meeting since May to try to determine what that might be. A final report is due in February.

This week, the task force set some priorities. Money was the most important thing to offer victims, followed by mental health services.

RTFA. Just another part of American history that ain’t part of what your generation learned about. Nor does the current generation either.

Personally, I think the practice was contemptible, how long it stuck around adds to that contempt, double down with the reactionaries who still care more for budgets than human beings. Regardless of the reasons offered, the practice at root always was political, always belonged to people who cared most about not being bothered with poor people.

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drug overdose deaths in Florida are up a staggering 265% since 2003. But it’s not just the deaths that have Florida officials worried; it’s the births.

“We saw the number of crack babies that died, and this is just another version of that,” Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti said. “We all need to be concerned.”

According to state health records, 635 Florida babies were born addicted to prescription drugs in the first half of 2010 alone. South Florida doctors and intensive care nurses report an dramatic uptick in babies born hooked on pills that their mothers abused while pregnant.

“They go through withdrawal symptoms,” said Mary Osuch, the head nurse at Broward General Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit. “They’re crampy, miserable. They sweat. They can have rapid breathing. Sometimes, they can even have seizures…”

Marsha Currant, who runs the Susan B. Anthony Recovery Center near Fort Lauderdale, says prescription drug addiction overtook crack in 2009 as the main problem afflicting the pregnant women who are treated there…

Currant says new mothers who are hooked on prescription drugs are often reluctant to seek help for fear the authorities will take their babies from them.

“We wanted to have a place where women didn’t have to chose between getting treatment and having their children go into foster care,” she said.

Compounding the problem, women who are addicted to prescription drugs and find themselves pregnant cannot safely go off the drugs without medical supervision. They need to be weaned off slowly, or the baby will go into withdrawal in the womb.

Yes, Florida has a Tea Party governor who made his billions dispensing drugs. He’s so “serious” about the problem that he actually says stuff about it. And had to be dragged kicking and screaming into signing a bill requiring a statewide database tracking pill prescriptions. He calls it an invasion of privacy.

Meanwhile, Florida is the pill center of America. A situation which reflects a lax medical community as a whole – and a governor whose walk-in clinics established the record for the largest fine ever paid for Medicare fraud.

Patrick Bora,73, left, and his partner Jim Darby, 79, show off their civil union license
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

More than 100 same-sex couples lined up outside of a Chicago municipal building Wednesday morning to obtain licenses for civil unions, under a new Illinois law.

The atmosphere was festive, with license-seekers taking pictures of each other, and city workers waving and calling out “congratulations…”

Couples can have a civil union ceremony one day after receiving their licenses. A mass ceremony with 32 couples will be held at Millennium Park, Thursday morning, with Governor Pat Quinn attending.

The Illinois law gives same-sex couples the same rights, benefits and responsibilities of married couples under Illinois law, including rights of hospital visitation and shared parental rights, explained Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney for the gay rights law group Lambda Legal. The new rights do not include those provided married couples under federal law, such as receipt of a partner’s Social Security benefits.

“This is an important step on our march to equality,” said Clark. “Federal law has to change…”

Gabrielle Novacek, 35, and her partner Nicole Montanye, 39. are planning a joint ceremony Sunday with their friends…

Novacek said she doesn’t understand why anyone would object to civil unions. “If you feel threatened by us, that’s really unfortunate,” Novacek said. “You’re the one that has a problem.”

Sooner or later, the “land of the free” will reach the point where that so-called freedom includes real separation of state from church, freedom from the bigotry of ignorance and fear.

The United States is not in a position of providing any sort of moral leadership on this planet as long as our politicians spend time trying to interfere with love between consenting adults instead of providing access to equal civil rights.

Governor Jack Markell, his spouse and members of state general assembly

Calling it “a moment in our history,” Delaware Gov. Jack Markell has signed a bill legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples in the state. The bill, which was passed by state lawmakers in April, will take effect January 1.

“This bill is about a new energy and excitement,” Markell said at the bill signing ceremony Wednesday night. “It’s about a moment in our history that came about because people came together to work for it, because it became clear that Delaware’s LGBT community is in fact part of every Delaware community. The greater good is served when we speak out and fight hard when we see that bias, prejudice or even outdated laws attempt to lessen any one of us.”

The measure does not allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses, and religious institutions retain the right to refuse to solemnize such unions. Also under the bill, Delaware will recognize legal relationships that same-sex couples enter into in another jurisdiction, whether that is a civil union or a marriage, and treat the relationship as a civil union, according to Markell’s office…

The law makes Delaware the eighth state to offer civil unions or comprehensive domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The others are California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington. Couples in Illinois can begin applying for civil union licenses on June 1, according to the organization, and Hawaii’s law takes effect January 1.

The rest of the land will follow in due course. The majority of our citizens already agree; but, as is the habit in the United States, reactionaries and religious nutballs have the bulk of elected officials cowering in the corner over fear of not being re-elected. Stasis and cowardice are a couple of negative qualities that take forever to disappear from the body politic.

Mr. Mouth calling for state sovereignty

Texas Governor Rick Perry called on Texans to pray for rain as cooler temperatures on Thursday helped firefighters contain wildfires that have charred more than 1.5 million acres across the state.

Perry, a Republican, sought increased federal help in combating the blazes last weekend and urged Texans to ask the same from a higher power over the Easter holiday weekend.

This is the same buffoon who endorses secession and states’ rights when his butt isn’t burning.

“Throughout our history, both as a state and as individuals, Texans have been strengthened, assured and lifted up through prayer,” Perry said in a statement. “It is fitting that Texans should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this ongoing drought and these devastating wildfires.”

A wave of moisture and cooler weather had already helped the roughly 1,800 firefighters and support crews contain nine fires and make headway against many more by Thursday morning. Mother Nature generally accomplishes more than ideology.

But conditions fueling the fast-moving wildfires that killed two volunteer firefighters and destroyed 200 homes this month would not ease for good, officials warned.

This silly-ass Kool Aid Party Republikan whines most of the year about Big Government. Except when he needs a hand-up or a hand-out.

Like most of the hustlers who currently own the Republican Party he’s a national-class hypocrite. That he calls upon his dimwit followers to exercise their fundamentalist superstitions to assuage the natural results of administrative incompetence – follows as night the day.

Laying new track on a modern high-speed roadbed

Since the Department of Transportation announced the availability of an additional $2.4 billion for high-speed rail projects last month, governors and members of Congress from both major parties have been clamoring for the opportunity to participate.

As of our Monday deadline, we received more than 90 applications from 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Amtrak. The preliminary total of those requests is nearly $10 billion, more than four times what we have available.

Why is demand for high-speed rail support so high?

Because elected officials have seen the immediate benefits of jobs where rail work has already begun. They’ve seen these jobs in Maine–where the Downeaster extension to Brunswick is under construction–and they’ve seen them in Illinois–where 96 miles of track are now being laid for the Chicago-St. Louis high-speed corridor.

Demand is high because these leaders–Democrats and Republicans–have also seen the expanded manufacturing activity in Indiana, where the workers of Steel Dynamics are forging track. They know that 30 other manufacturers and suppliers have agreed to build or expand operations in the U.S. should they participate in high-speed rail projects. They know that our Buy America requirements ensure they’ll be using American-made supplies and materials, so U.S. companies, workers, and communities will receive the maximum economic benefit of our high-speed rail investment…

From Maine to the Midwest to California, construction has begun on America’s high-speed rail facilities, and we can’t afford to see this train turn back…

Today, our Federal Railroad Administration will begin determining which of the more than 90 projects can quickly deliver benefits like sustained economic development, reduced energy consumption, and improved regional transportation efficiency.

Florida’s ignoranus Republican governor turned down the project funds because he doesn’t believe in railroads, he doesn’t especially care about unemployed workers and – critical to his next campaign for dogcatcher – he wants to lockup support from the KoolAid Party who share the same ideology.

“I hope you remembered the checkbook”

Louisiana’s biggest corporate players, many with long agendas before the state government, are restricted in making campaign contributions to Gov. Bobby Jindal. But they can give whatever they like to the foundation set up by his wife months after he took office…

Marathon Oil, which last year won approval from the Jindal administration to increase the amount of oil it can refine at its Louisiana plant, also committed to a $250,000 donation. And the military contractor Northrop Grumman, which got state officials to help set up an airplane maintenance facility at a former Air Force base, promised $10,000 to the charity.

The foundation has collected nearly $1 million in previously unreported pledges from major oil companies, insurers and other corporations in Louisiana with high-stakes regulatory issues, according to a review by The New York Times.

It is among the newest of charities set up by elected officials, including members of Congress, or their families that are mutually beneficial: companies seeking to influence politicians or curry favor can donate unrestricted amounts of money, while the officials benefit from the good will associated with charitable work financed by businesses…

Ethics watchdog groups say the contributions are no accident…

NSS. You don’t need an ethics advisor to point out the inherent corruption in politically-connected charity work.

Alexandra Bautsch, the governor’s top political fund-raiser, is listed as the charity’s treasurer. Ms. Bautsch has continued to be paid by Mr. Jindal’s campaign — $112,500 last year. But none of the officers, including Mrs. Jindal, were paid for their work.

In recent years, foundations linked to more than a dozen members of Congress have routinely accepted donations from businesses seeking to influence them. In some instances, the lawmakers have intervened with federal agencies or taken up legislation on donors’ behalf…

“Foundations tied to politicians see their donations dry up when the politician is no longer in power,” Ms. Sloan said. “That demonstrates the real reason the charities get the donations is their political position, not because of the good works they do.”

Corrupt and deceitful practices continue to be the foundation of American politics. Mail me a penny postcard when Congress or some state legislature actually does something more than quote scripture over the problem.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Hawaii’s Senate has given final passage to a measure legalizing same-sex unions in the state, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie has said he will sign it.

The state House had already passed the bill, which “extends the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of spouses in a marriage to partners in a civil union,” according to the Legislature’s website. It will take effect January 1, 2012…

“I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people’s privacy and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha,” Abercrombie said in a statement. “For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawaii…”

Five states and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hawaii will join New Jersey in allowing civil unions.

Voters in Hawaii appear to have elected someone capable of bringing their personal politics into the 21st Century. Here in New Mexico we’ve been relegated to a “same old solution” resolution to our last election. Being Hispanic, Catholic, much beloved by police departments was an edge unable overcome by an exceptionally lackluster Democrat.

History tends to resolve the stupidity and inequity of human behavior grounded in superstition and hatred. But, it seems to take an inordinate length of time. Extending equal civil rights to all citizens seems to be a no-brainer; but, we often have an excess of fools without brains. They also get one vote apiece.