If you missed this bit of satire on that douche, Ed Henry, give it a read. It is mindblowingly funny. I promise you will laugh until you cry!

Thank you Steve! It has definitely been an interesting four years!

Let me add my kudo's to you, Blue Girl.

HAPPY BLOGOVERSERY!!

From the Texas Observer -

"State Board of Education votes down
"strengths and weaknesses."

Social conservatives on the State Board of Education tried-and failed-this morning to inject doubts about evolution into Texas science classrooms.

San Antonio's Ken Mercer, one of the board's seven social conservatives, offered an amendment to a final draft of science standards-which guide the content of textbooks and classroom curriculum-that would have reinserted the controversial "strengths and weaknesses" language. Mercer wanted to require science teachers all over Texas to teach students the weaknesses of evolutionary theory. But his amendment failed by one vote. The final vote will take place on Friday. It now appears that the seven social conservatives lack the votes on the 15-member board to dilute the teaching of evolution. This morning's vote was a huge victory for the pro-evolution side."

Thank you, MsJoanne. :)

And thank you too, whichwitch - that bit of good news will go into my nightly roundup tonight.

Republican leaders no-show

Well, all it does is make them look tacky and childish. But then again the leader of the Republican party Rush Limbaugh, if indeed that is his real name -- who names their kid "Rush?," is ranks near the top of the World's Most Tacky People list. Cheney is also very high on the same list.

But whichwitch, it ain't over yet. (that Texan enough for ya'll?). It is true that the "strengths and weaknesses" verbage has been voted down but the creationists on the board have been busy all afternoon today slipping in amendments attacking evolution, natural selection, and big bang theory. The final voting is tomorrow and hopefully the standards will remain relatively intact. But many of these dubious amendments are being voted in by the SBOE without advice from their science experts and the SBOE members (the sane ones that is) appear to be giving in as a compromise. I fear there has been some compromise that is detrimental to the Tx science curriculum. We shall see.

Social conservatives on the State Board of Education.
Can't we just call them lunatic, religious right crazies?

And imagine, there are 7 absolute creationists on the Tx SBOE that vote en bloc out of the total 15. There is no guarantee that the other 8 will vote together and in fact, these amendments are passing because they don't. Scary shit. The Tx SBOE really needs an overhaul - several of the creationists went virtually if not literally unchallenged in November's election. The Dems need to at least offer a challenger.

Sarah Palin just announced her nomination of right wingnut, failed gubernatorial candidate, and long-time National Rifle Association board member Wayne Anthony Ross as her new attorney general. 2010 can't come soon enough.

Here's to you, Dr. Franklin.

The quote of the day had me lol, literally. I know its an old formula, but still...

No big deal, but you left off the words "of course" from your quote of the day.

I like this blog: BaselineScenario, featuring Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008, who wrote The Quiet Coup for The Atlantic.

The Quiet Coup:
"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time."

While it's certainly sad to see John Hope Franklin go, it's wonderful that he lived to see a black man become president. If he had died three months earlier, he wouldn't have (and if he had died five months earlier, he wouldn't have witness one getting elected either). This must have been exhilarating for Dr. Franklin, considering he was more than old enough to remember the days when Obama couldn't have even gotten something to eat in most DC restaurants, let alone been inaugurated president.

'...Tim Geithner presented Congress with his ideas about re-regulating the financial industry today...'

This is EXACTLY where Evan Bayh and his Blue Dogs will earn their Corporate campaign contributions

They'll try to block effective regulation of financial institutions and carve out loop holes for their contributors

Thinly veiled bribery

The whole purpose of Blue Dogs is to serve the corporate agenda

Stay tuned

The president is poised to sign an important conservation bill, which is "the largest expansion of the wilderness system in 15 years."

Pssss, don't tell Republicans it's where we're going to send them. Pass it on. Heh.

Does it make Obama a 'conservative' to sign a 'conservation' bill? Republicans, think about it!

Also, does it seem odd to anybody but me that we could CREATE a WILDERNESS SYSTEM? Something about that just doesn't fit. Creating wilderness(?) and 'wilderness system' just don't make sense.

Maybe I'm just getting too picky. Oy.

Marijuana: Obama could simply press to withdraw M from Federal law, on the grounds that it's shaky for the Fed to control such things (in-state) anyway - and leave it to states to illegalize if "they" want to.

If we had a dictatorship, we would be able to take Gingerich and Limbaugh out and dispose of them properly. For them to make such a complaint, after all the unconstitutional stuff that their last president & VP pulled on the US, they almost deserve to be decorating the lamp-posts. No, I don't really want that, but my wish for them is that they become religious enough and self-aware enough to spend their last decade convinced that they have a special hell awaiting them.

"Obama will not legalize marijuana to help the economy."

Cho, mi cousins fro Jamaica wanta soma dat stimulass mony fo a ganja bidness, mon !

"President Obama started to sketch out his policy today on U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Senate Republican leaders didn't show up."

Must've been at a Miley Cyrus concert.

Mr. Benen, aspiring Serious Media Person, says, "a secretive wing of Pakistan's military intelligence agency continues to provide direct support to the Taliban."

The NYT names almost zero sources in the article: "The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency... according to American government officials."

Support for the Taliban... is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy... ISI" the officials said.

"American officials have complained"...

"American officials say"...

"American officials have also said"...

"...according to one official"

"ISI’s S Wing... officials say directs intelligence operations outside of Pakistan"

"American officials said that..."

"The Haqqani network...is considered a strategic asset to Pakistan, according to American and Pakistani official"

"Top American officials... evidence showed that ISI... helped plan the attack that killed 54 people."

"American officials said that... fighters... would often turn to the ISI."

"...the officials said"

"American officials said..."

"when... fighters need to stay a step ahead of American forces... they rely on... the spy agency to tip them off" American military officials said."

The only two named sources for the article are "Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence" and "Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff".

Who knows, what they claim about the ISI might be true. But who could read an article like that and NOT wonder who wants us to think this now?...

Apparently our liberal leading lights. (NPR has been on a serious neo-con campaign lately, with the same kind of smug, smarmy schmucks who did this the last time...

Way to catapult the propaganda.

Of course marijuana isn't going to fix the economy. Duh, dood. But that was a massive cop-out on Obama's part (notice he volunteered the question; it was not asked by the moderator), designed to short-circuit the fact that many questions involving marijuana were voted at or near the top of the various categories.

I like Obama, and I want him to do well, but the mocking, dismissive tone he took on this issue is galling. As others have pointed out (Sullivan, Balko, etc), the current policy of prohibiting marijuana is actually very serious (and, of course, only tangentially relates to the economy). Consider the violence in Mexico as an obvious example, as well as the continual deterioration of civil rights resulting from enforcement actions, and the number of non-violent offenders rotting in our prisons. To name only a few of the ill effects.

This issue deserves more than a derisive response in service of a cheap laugh.

When, I go to the Kansas City Star sports sites, it does not take long for me to wonder "Is there any intelligence left in that fair city?" However, once I switch to the political sites of the ubiquitous and astute Blue Girl, I know all is well. Yes, Happy Blogoversary.

Wasn't referring to you, Mr Byers, in that sports comment. You hold up the intelligence end in the eastern part of KC, very well.

Congratulations to Blue Girl, whose writing I've been admiring since she started posting here.

ckelly - did you hear any of the proceedings? These people are truly incompetent...and they are deciding what language goes into our textbooks - whew...that is scary and an outrage.

Thanks to all for the compliments and good wishes. They are much appreciated. The gig isn't lucrative, but it is rewarding nonetheless.

Here's to another four!