Day: May 8, 2010

Teabaggers knock off Conservative Republican. Har!

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Facing significant anger aimed at Washington and at some of his past votes, Utah Sen. Robert Bennett was eliminated Saturday from seeking re-election as a Republican, becoming the first incumbent to fall victim to the growing anti-Washington mood ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

Bennett came in third in a second round of balloting at the state party convention behind more conservative candidates Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee. In a final round of voting, neither Lee nor Bridgewater won 60 percent of the vote needed to win the nomination. They will now face each other in a primary election June 22…

Bennett’s elimination from the ballot likely will send shock waves throughout the political community with more incumbents worried they will also become the victims of the anti-Washington, anti-incumbency fervor that is being fueled at least in part by the Tea Party movement…

David Kirkham, a Tea Party activist, told CNN in an interview…he was so upset about the bailout issue that he was motivated to form the Utah Tea Party chapter last year.

“That one vote was pretty toxic,” he said. “That one vote affected a lot of things, changed the rules of the game. President Bush said that where we have to abandon free market principles to save the free market and fundamentally, we just don’t agree. There’s just no way.”

I love it. The Republican hierarchy has embraced the single issue nutballs for so long it’s coming back to bite them on the butt.

Here’s a right-winger who’s marched in lockstep with all the appropriate bed-wetters. Anti-abortion, ready to invade any nation hiding terrorists underneath his bed, anti-union, anti-immigrant [legal or otherwise], he fits the mold of conservative Utah pols across the board. But, that wasn’t specific enough for teabaggers dedicated to 18th Century economics.

I doubt Utah can muster enough moderate voices and votes to replace Bennett with someone, say, modern enough to have left behind the Cold War and Herbert Hoover; but, there will be other states where Republican reliance on the lunatic fringe will put them at an equivalent disadvantage.

Presuming Dems in the neighborhood with backbone and smarts. That may be a stretch.

British ultras self-destruct in British election

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They are third-rate political campaigners, though

The British National Party (BNP) failed in its efforts to break into the political mainstream when it suffered a succession of defeats in its key target seats.

The far-right party, led by Nick Griffin, was wiped out in its east London council stronghold of Barking and Dagenham, where its entire complement of 12 councillors lost their seats. In the parliamentary constituency of Barking, Mr Griffin came a poor third. The party had claimed it was on track to win 24 seats on the council, as well as win its first Westminster seat there.

…In the general election, the extremist group increased its share of the national vote to 1.9 per cent (562,979 votes) but it failed to gain a single MP from 300 candidates. In Stoke South, its other key parliamentary target, its deputy leader, Simon Darby, came in fourth. The party’s nationwide tally of 34 councillors also fell – from 34 to 12…

The BNP leader was pushed into third place in Barking by Margaret Hodge, the tourism minister and Labour incumbent, who doubled her majority to more than 16,000 votes. She told Mr Griffin to “pack your bags and go”. The 65-year-old added: “The message of Barking to the BNP is clear: get out and stay out. You are not wanted here and your vile politics have no place in British democracy.”

Bravo!

I’m surprised they didn’t follow the American model and just takeover the Tory Party.

Death metal teacher sacked

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School governors have sacked a philosophy teacher from his job after discovering his secret life – as a blood smeared death metal rock singer.

By day shaven-headed Thomas Gurrath, 29, discussed ethics with his 14-year-old pupils at his high school in Stuttgart.

But by night he calls himself The Bloodbeast and writhes around on stage covered in animal blood with topless backing singers and his band Debauchery…

“It was very worrying to listen to his music and then realise he was teaching our children,” said one parent…

They ordered him to choose between teaching and his music – saying he could no longer teach anywhere in Baden-Wuerttemberg state unless he gave up the band.

But Gurrath said he was too addicted to death metal music to quit and agreed to give up his career as a teacher instead.

I admit to mixed feelings on this one. If you maintain reasonable standards, define the curriculum to encourage growth and development of understanding in a changing world – there shouldn’t be a problem with a teacher’s avocations and beliefs.

Fact is – I haven’t known very many good teachers here in the States or in Europe. Though, Europeans would have the edge over the dimwit religion faction that controls a significant portion of American education.

Cultural differences rule!

80 young Iranians arrested for ‘lustful pleasure-seeking’ dance

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Iranian police detained 80 young men and women for “lustful pleasure-seeking” activities at an illegal concert, Tehran’s chief prosecutor has been quoted.

The socially conservative Islamic republic launched a crackdown two years ago on “indecent western-inspired movements”, such as rappers and Satanists, as part of a widening clampdown on conduct the authorities deem immoral.

The public prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said moral security police received a tip-off that a group of people were secretly selling tickets to a live music performance. “Police entered the venue where this illegal concert was being held … 80 boys and girls in inappropriate outfits and under abnormal conditions were arrested.”

He said their cases were sent to a Tehran court where the youths were charged with taking part in “lustful pleasure-seeking” activities. Alcohol had been seized, he said.

Under Iran’s Islamic law unrelated men and women are banned from touching or dancing with members of the opposite sex..

Please, take a look at what Theocracy hath wrought. Change a few of the names and customs. Maybe add a different hat. The result is still the same. An end to freedom of thought, behavior and association.

Realize the nutballs who gladly pour their pennies into anti-Islam pep rallies – would endorse exactly the same restrictions on folks in the United States – or Israel – Scotland or any other nation allowing them freedom to advocate against freedom. Because their own particular fundamentalist superstition says they have a duty to oppress everyone who doesn’t agree.

Virtual pitcher throws perfect game = $1 million

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When Wade McGilberry bought a new baseball video game that offered a cash prize to the first player to pitch a perfect game, his wife urged him to skip work and stay home to play.

He didn’t listen to her, but things worked out anyway.

On his fifth try with “Major League Baseball 2K10,” McGilberry achieved the elusive feat and won $1 million in 2K Sports’ Perfect Game contest. He used Kenshin Kawakami of the Atlanta Braves to record a perfect game — allowing no batter to reach base — against the New York Mets. His entry, recorded on March 2, was just verified by 2K Sports.

McGilberry, 23, of Mobile, Alabama, said he played the demo for a couple of weeks before the game’s release and picked up the game at midnight the day it came out. His wife, Katy, fully supported his efforts to win the cash prize.

“She told me, if I was going to be serious about this, that I should stay home [from work] and play the game,” said McGilberry, a 401(k) record-keeper. “I decided to go to work anyway.”

McGilberry said that once he got home from work that evening, he immediately turned on his Xbox 360, determined to play until he completed the challenge. An hour and a half later, he had done it. He said he had to hit the reset button only 5 times…

The confirmation code produced by a perfect game appeared on his screen, and McGilberry immediately called his wife.

“She tried to be the voice of reason,” he said. “She told me that probably some college student who played all day got the perfect game before me.”

The rules of the contest stated that the game had to be recorded with a timestamp and that entries would not be judged until the contest ended May 1. 2K Sports received several dozen submissions but said McGilberry’s was the first to meet all the criteria to win the $1 million.

Good for you, dude!

Republicans yelping as loud as their Wall Street bosses

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Which bobblehead will the Tea Party nominate for president?

The Senate on Thursday rejected a Republican attempt to defang consumer protections in a sweeping Wall Street reform bill, while voting to give small banks a break on deposit insurance.

Despite procedural delays, lawmakers covered some ground on a top priority of the Obama administration that would be the biggest overhaul of the financial rulebook since the 1930s…

If approved, the Wall Street reform bill would give Democrats a major legislative victory ahead of November’s elections. Republicans have worked for months to weaken and delay the measures, along with financial industry lobbyists.

Congress is undertaking a major rewrite of the rules to try to make banks and capital markets less prone to periodic crises that have become more common since a wave of deregulation in the 1980s. The future profitability, risk capacity and growth potential of financial firms hang in the balance…

From Reagan to Gingrich, you should realize deregulation and removing oversight was a creation of the same kind of politicians trying to protect Wall Street, now.

The Senate voted on Wednesday to create a new protocol for dismantling distressed financial firms and to bar use of taxpayer funds to bail out financial institutions…

Earlier in the day, lawmakers approved an amendment that would force major banks — such as Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs — to pay more for government deposit insurance and let smaller banks pay less…

In a win for Obama, Democrats turned back a Republican proposal that would have weakened consumer protections proposed in the wider reform legislation by a vote of 38 to 61.

The bill calls for setting up a consumer protection watchdog bureau in the Federal Reserve that would regulate mortgages, credit cards, payday loans and other products.

Take a good luck at the teabaggers prancing around and hollering about accountability and cleaning house. If they’re grayheads – they voted for scumbags like Reagan and Gingrich, the crooks who started the lobbyist ball rolling. They voted for Exxon-Mobil, Enron and more foreign wars for oil.

If they say they didn’t know this was coming, that’s admitting they’re foolish as well as ignorant.

U.S. renews, extends, travel warning for Mexico

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Pickup truck options are the same in Mexico – as Somalia
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

The U.S. State Department extended its travel warning for Mexico, citing a high level of drug- and gang-related violence.

The warning…said six Mexican states — Michoacan, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila — were particularly dangerous and advised U.S. citizens “residing or traveling in those areas to exercise extreme caution…”

Also extended was “the authorized departure of family members” of U.S. government personnel from U.S. Consulates in the northern Mexico border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros.

Mexican government officials said last month more than 22,700 people have been killed in drug-related violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on narco-traffickers.

“While most victims of violence are Mexican citizens associated with criminal activity, the security situation poses serious risks for U.S. citizens, as well,” the State Department warning said.

‘Nuff said.

Our kinfolk spent a little bit less of this winter with their 5th-wheeler in Mexico – than in the past. We got to spend more time worrying about their safety.