First Door on the Left

Why do we even bother? It’s not like they have a functioning government, anyway.

BAGHDAD, July 30 — Iraq’s Parliament headed into a monthlong summer recess on Monday, halting work despite calls from the United States and the prime minister for lawmakers to shorten their break to push through important legislation.

The decision to take off the month of August almost surely eliminates hopes that the 275-member Council of Representatives will pass laws sought by American officials as evidence that the country is making progress toward stability.

The United States was hoping for movement on measures meant to reduce sectarian strife. One would divide revenue from Iraq’s vast oil wealth equitably among the country’s factions; another would promote reconciliation with Iraq’s once-ruling Sunni minority by allowing some former members of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein back into senior jobs.

President Bush has been among those who have pressed the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to ask lawmakers to take a shorter vacation, according to the president’s aides. And critics of the Iraqi government have noted that while Parliament is in recess, American and Iraqi troops will continue fighting and patrolling the streets despite the 120-degree summer temperatures.

Republicans: If they can’t win with the current rules, they’ll just change the rules…

A Republican-backed ballot proposal could split left-leaning California between the Democratic and GOP nominees, tilting the 2008 presidential election in favor of the Republicans.

California awards its cache of 55 electoral votes to the statewide winner in presidential elections _ the largest single prize in the nation. But a prominent Republican lawyer wants to put a proposal on the ballot that would award the statewide winner only two electoral votes.

The rest would be distributed to the winning candidate in each of the state’s congressional districts. In effect, that would create 53 races, each with one electoral vote up for grabs.

California has voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections. But the change _ if it qualifies for one of two primary ballots next year and is approved by voters _ would mean that a Republican would be positioned the following November to snatch 20 or more electoral votes in GOP-leaning districts.

That’s a number equal to winning Ohio.

The Republican Culture of Corruption continues…

Stevens Home

Federal agents searched the home of Sen. Ted Stevens on Monday, focusing on records related to his relationship with an oil field services contractor jailed in a public corruption investigation, a law enforcement official said.

Stevens, 83, has been under a federal investigation for a 2000 renovation project more than doubling the size of his home in Girdwood that was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators.

Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service arrived at the senator’s home Monday afternoon, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent. He said he could not comment on the nature of the investigation.

We wish our Chief Justice well…

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. suffered a seizure and fell near his summer home in Maine today and was taken to an area hospital, where he will remain overnight , a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.

Roberts, 52, has “fully recovered” from the incident except for “minor scrapes” sustained in the fall on a dock near his home in Port Clyde, Maine, said court spokeswoman Kathleen Landin Arberg.

Arberg said Roberts suffered “a benign, idiopathic seizure,” medical terminology for an attack whose origin is unknown. She said Roberts suffered a similar episode in 1993.

Seizures are any “sudden, abnormal electrical activity” in the brain, according to background information posted online by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The local Maine newspaper offers a bit more detail…

HUPPER ISLAND — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a seasonal resident of Hupper Island, located off Port Clyde, will be staying overnight at Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport following a seizure.

St. George Ambulance responded to a call at about 2 p.m. Monday of a man who had fallen 5 to 10 feet and landed on a dock, hitting the back of his head. The patient was ashen and was foaming at the mouth. National news report quotes a Supreme Court spokeswoman as saying that Roberts was conscious the entire time of the incident. That spokeswoman has not returned a telephone call to the newspaper.

Today’s Doonesbury, while focusing on Mitt Romney, very aptly illustrates how incredibly inept and shallow the entire field of Republican presidential candidates really is…

(Click to enlarge.)

Has anyone checked the veracity of this story? Are we absolutely certain that this so-called “judge” in Spain is not in reality an activist right wing judge in the United States? Is Fernando Ferrin Calamita really a nom de plume for Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas?

MADRID – A judge has ordered a lesbian mother to hand over her two daughters to their father because, he said, her homosexuality would harm them and “raised the risk” that the girls would also become lesbians, press reports said on Monday.

Judge Fernando Ferrin Calamita, who heard the case at a court in the eastern region of Murcia, also said the woman could keep custody of the children if she found another male partner.

According to Ferrin, being raised by homosexual would not allow the children the right to the proper environment to which they were entitled.

“It is understood that (a parent’s) drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody,” he said. “Well, it’s the same with homosexuality.”

Ignorance and stupidity are not confined by the borders of the United States of America after all.

Power to the people!

Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.

MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America’s Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.

At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said.

Personally, I cannot watch Fox News. After about five minutes, the lies and distortions start making me sick to my stomach. If your constitution is stronger than mine, sign up here. I am sure your help will be appreciated.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpht4sXDhx0[/youtube]

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo signing autographs during training camp in San Antonio…

Keep it clean!

This video is safe for work, especially if you work for Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, Fox News, the RNC or any other radical right wing organization.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixkck8QnjY[/youtube]

h/t Faustus, M.D. (I guess I was one of the three.)

I’ve often wondered just how far the Bushies would go in the name of “homeland security.” Now I know…

The United States and the European Union have agreed to expand a security program that shares personal data about millions of U.S.-bound airline passengers a year, potentially including information about a person’s race, ethnicity, religion and health.

Under the agreement, airlines flying from Europe to the United States are required to provide data related to these matters to U.S. authorities if it exists in their reservation systems. The deal allows Washington to retain and use it only “where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired,” such as in a counterterrorism investigation.

According to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes “racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership” and data about an individual’s health, traveling partners and sexual orientation.

As of this writing, this information is gathered only on people traveling from Europe to the United States. Do not be surprised, however, if in the very near future, you are required to fill out a form listing your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and information about your health, sexual orientation and traveling partners.

All of this information is vital to our government. It helps ensure that they can have the proper authorities waiting for you at your destination. If you do not fit the “mold,” it’s off to the prison camps with you!

Big Brother, anyone?