Whistleblower?

I understand the CIA operates outside the laws of, well, every institution. But, isn't this person who was fired from the CIA protected on some level for bringing to light a story where the CIA was committing illegal acts?

Yes, I know it's the CIA, but the CIA operates on behalf the American public. The CIA's conduct with regard to rendition and secret prisons puts America in a bad light. Their actions reflect poorly on all of us.

The CIA may say, "that's why we fire people who do this." I get that, but at the same time what recourse does an agent have against an agency that sometimes conducts illegal programs that reflect poorly on us, and could endanger Americans without them knowing? Can we not say that actions taken by bin Laden were not the effects of causes pursued by the CIA?

Do whistleblower laws apply to the investigative agencies? I mean, people wanted Colleen Rowley to speak up, but of course, only after the fact.

Good thing the Bush Klan put a former spy, and political hack like Porter Goss at the top of this pyramid.

Continental

Is there an airline that even compares?

I've flown Delta. Average. Decent food, but you gotta pay for it. Still, I don't trust them. American? Don't like them much at all. United? Not really local to me, and I hate Dennis Hastert. America West/USAir? THE WORST. Nothing good ever happens when I fly these airlines. I'm shocked I'm alive.

But Continental, what can I say? First off, they're local to me with the Newark, NJ hub, which is nice. Granted, the seats are a little tight, but other than that, never an issue. Like the grub, like the workers, like the rewards program. I feel they run a tight ship, and things are good.

Now Continental has taken it to ANOTHER LEVEL.

Okay, so a few months ago my bags were broken into, and some expensive merch was taken (about $650). Continental didn't commit this act, but rather, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) did. They're in charge. Another time my bags were invaded, but they had the courteousy to leave a note. This time, no note, and no merchandise.

I write a letter to Continental, fill out their forms, etc., and what I got back is a voucher for $300 to be used any way I like at Continental. Of course, I tried ordering 60 Heinekens en route to Las Vegas, but that didn't work. Kidding.

I just recently used the voucher to purchase a ticket to goto Los Angeles. But the next day I found out I didn't have to go. Instead, my girl and I decided to go somewhere else, and attend a friend's wedding. Now I have a decent amount of miles, and being that this is my friend, she shouldn't have to pay for a flight. I wanted to take the purchased ticket and transfer it to her, and then use my miles for me. There was no way to use the miles for her because there were no rewards available for when she could go. I am leaving a day earlier.

So I write Continental's Chairman Larry Kellner a letter detailing what happened. In the letter I explained all that I've written here. I expected nothing, of course. What I got was something. Mr. Kellner's personal secretary called the next day, and has been working diligently to find me and my girl a good flight that works out all the kinks. And when I say they're doing everything they can, I really mean it. They're not breaking rules, or giving me free shit, but they're being incredibly thorough, generous, and patient, when they so don't have to be. Afterall, this is the secretary to the head of the airline, and she's wasting her time with me! In addition, the secretary for the VP, head of Marketing, also called to help me with my travel arrangements.

Frankly, I was laughing my ass off. But at the same time, so impressed they would goto such lengths for one customer. Talk about a classy operation.

My mum always told me, if you want something to get done, write a letter. So I did, and something is getting done.

Top shelf. I will surely be waxing about this on air, cause it's so deserved.

Really?

They called her a "N-----!!!!!" You mean, a NIGGER?

"Don't forget that they called me a damn n-----," she said. "She [the accuser] was passed out in the car. She doesn't know what she was called. I was called that. I can never forget that."

Puhhhhlease. I just got home from running, and during it I stopped to watch the local kids play some basketball. There were 4 kids playing on one end; 2 guys and 2 girls, screwing around. The word "nigger" must have been said at least 15 times in 10 minutes, and that's a modest count.

You won't ever forget it? How could you? You hear it every 5 fucking seconds from your peers! I can't forget it! You trying to tell me you are involved in this tramatic experience, but being called something you're probably called every day is what sticks? Nigga please.

I don't know what happened here, and no one else does. The neighbors of the Duke students say wonderful things about these guys, and the accuser says otherwise. I'm sure it's somewhere in between. I'd bet the accused's hands were on her neck, but that might because she let him do it. Afterall, she's a stripper who was wasted who has a child at home who was at a frat-like party who allowed herself to get hammered and who went into a bathroom with athletic men. Tough to really get a read on this one.

Again, I bet what happened is somewhere in between, judging by what others have said about the accused as well.

But in the end, it ain't white, or black, or rich, or poor, except for the media. In their case, it's all about that. It's about typical kids, making bad decisions, and now they may pay a price. It's about a desperate woman committing desperate acts because she has few options. The same way Gary Condit made a bad decision to cheat on his wife. Sure, he didn't kill Chandra Levy, but he did cheat. Chandra getting killed got him caught. Well, these kids probably didn't rape this woman, but they did call up a stripper/call girl, and probably had her perform illegal sex acts, etc. Now they pay a large price, which will most likely be embarrassment.

I have sisters. I have a girlfriend. I have a mom. I defend women. But I've also seen first hand stories like this. Like I figured the last time when a person I knew was accused of rape, is how I figure this time: it probably didn't happen.

Something happened, but not her story.

Dishonest

Always.

Okay, we understand that you believe in the failed "War on Drugs." We understand that you've invented this term "gateway drug," and actually believe in the concept. We understand that you associate marijuana with liberals and hippies, so it's bad. We understand that you don't like the weed. We get this. But to openly lie about the science, and not admit the real reasons why, well, that's, uhhhh, ummmm, uhhhh, par for the course:

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists.

The announcement inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight.

Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said Thursday's statement resulted from a past combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research agencies that concluded "smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment."

Ms. Bro said the agency issued the statement in response to numerous inquiries from Capitol Hill but would probably do nothing to enforce it.

"Any enforcement based on this finding would need to be by D.E.A. since this falls outside of F.D.A.'s regulatory authority," she said.

Eleven states have legalized medicinal use of marijuana, but the Drug Enforcement Administration and the director of national drug control policy, John P. Walters, have opposed those laws.

A Supreme Court decision last year allowed the federal government to arrest anyone using marijuana, even for medical purposes and even in states that have legalized its use.

Congressional opponents and supporters of medical marijuana use have each tried to enlist the F.D.A. to support their views. Representative Mark Souder, Republican of Indiana and a fierce opponent of medical marijuana initiatives, proposed legislation two years ago that would have required the food and drug agency to issue an opinion on the medicinal properties of marijuana.

Mr. Souder believes that efforts to legalize medicinal uses of marijuana are a front for efforts to legalize all uses of it, said Martin Green, a spokesman for Mr. Souder.

Tom Riley, a spokesman for Mr. Walters, hailed the food and drug agency's statement, saying it would put to rest what he called "the bizarre public discussion" that has led to some legalization of medical marijuana.

The Food and Drug Administration statement directly contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory agency. That review found marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

Dr. John Benson, co-chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that examined the research into marijuana's effects, said in an interview that the statement on Thursday and the combined review by other agencies were wrong.

The federal government "loves to ignore our report," said Dr. Benson, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. "They would rather it never happened."

Some scientists and legislators said the agency's statement about marijuana demonstrated that politics had trumped science.

Of course.

But maybe with Karl Rove gone things will change. Wait, who am I kidding? They're all a bunch of fucking lying fucks.

Americuns' Guns

There's a story here in Jersey City about a bunch of local thugs who have been selling guns. One of the thugs, Jamal Ebron, shot a man in broad daylight on Easter Sunday.

The guns come from Georgia, where the gun laws are more lax than they are in Jersey. Jersey City police have found the guns have been marked up considerably, and are for sale right here on the streets. Good times.

Guns that are lost, or stolen, do not have to be reported to the police. You can thank the conservatives of America for this law. They don't want it to be mandatory that a missing gun be reported. God forbid! What reason could someone possibly have against such a law?

So people in the sticks can go hunt their deer, or maybe shoot an illegal crossing the border, we in the urban areas have to deal with loose guns being sold on the street.

Nice country.

Worst Case Scenario

What if Tom Delay gets his trial, and is exhonerated on all counts? Will he then run for Congress again, or maybe even the Senate, as the man who the "liberal Democrats" went after, shamed, but was innocent all along? That would really be the worst case scenario.

Obviously, the guy is a crook. One has to hope there's a lawyer (in this case Ron Earle) good enough to convict this guy. But if he's not good enough does Delay turn into a symbol for conservatives?

Talk about a turn around.

:)

Sheezus:

"One of these day he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as press secretary," the president said. "And I can assure you I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done."

That's right, Mr. Bush refers to these times as the "good ole days."

He's really that big of a moron.

How I Do It

When I read articles in the paper I usually mark them up with questions, highlights, etc. This is how I go about doing my show, and getting my own ideas.

The immigration debate has been an interesting one for me because like conservatives I don't believe in illegal immigration. But even when they get it right, it's amazing how they still manage to get it wrong.

Let me walk you through it. But before I do I want to mention that when I see a picture in the paper of someone like JD Hayworth, with Meet the Press in the background, I know immediately I'm about to engage in some serious Jackassery. I was not disappointed.

Here's the article I read yesterday. In bold are the things that make me think/comment:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 14 — Al and Diane Kitlica have not paid close attention to the immigration debate in Congress. But when more than 100,000 mostly Hispanic demonstrators marched through Phoenix this week, the Kitlicas noticed.

"I was outraged," Ms. Kitlica told J. D. Hayworth, the Republican who is her congressman, as she and her husband stopped him for 20 minutes while he was on a walk through their suburban neighborhood to complain to him about the issue.

"You want to stay here and get an education, get benefits, and you still want to say 'Viva Mexico'? It was a slap in the face," Ms. Kitlica said, adding that illegal immigrants were straining the Mesa public school where she teaches.

A few miles west, Gus Martinez, a Mexican immigrant who was moonlighting at a hot dog stand after a day installing drywall, said the protests had changed his perspective, too.

Mr. Martinez, who said he was a legal immigrant, said he also supported border security to curb illegal entry. But he had taken the day off to march earlier in the week because he believed that the foes of illegal immigration were taking aim at Hispanics as a group. The demonstrations, he said, had instilled in him a sense of power.

Really? You think?

"It showed that our hands — Latino hands — make a difference in this country," Mr. Martinez said. "They see you are Hispanic and call you a criminal, but we are not."

Very true. Ann Coulter commented they should round up all the people at the rallies, as if they're all illegals. As if that would even be legal! But who cares about breaking the law when you're going after lawbreakers...

As lawmakers set aside the debate on immigration legislation for their spring recess, the protests by millions around the nation have escalated the policy debate into a much broader battle over the status of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants. While the marches have galvanized Hispanic voters, they have also energized those who support a crackdown on illegal immigration.

"The size and magnitude of the demonstrations had some kind of backfire effect," said John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who said he was working for 26 House members and seven senators seeking re-election. "The Republicans that are tough on immigration are doing well right now."

Mr. Hayworth said, "I see an incredible backlash." He has become one of the House's most vocal opponents of illegal immigration and is one of dozens of Republicans who have vowed to block the temporary-worker measure that stalled in the Senate.

The Kitlicas, who had been unaware of his views, decided to volunteer for his campaign. Mr. Hayworth, who has been singled out by Democrats in his bid for re-election, faces a challenge from a popular former Democratic mayor of Tempe, Harry E. Mitchell.

The immigration issue is cropping up in areas as far from the border as Iowa and Nebraska. In one House district in Iowa, Republican primary candidates are running television commercials competing over who is "toughest" on illegal immigration, said Amy Walters, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican from another district, said his office had been flooded with angry calls about the recent marches. "It is one thing to see an abstract number of 12 million illegal immigrants," Mr. King said. "It is another thing to see more than a million marching through the streets demanding benefits as if it were a birthright." He added, "I think people resent that."

But Mr. King, who supported a House bill to restrict illegal immigrants without creating a guest-worker program, said he was also feeling new heat from the thousands of Hispanics in his district, many of whom worked in its meatpacking plants. Responding to a survey by his office, some Hispanics called him a racist for asking questions about building a wall with Mexico, or suggested a wall with Canada, he said.

Mr. King comments that he's feeling new heat within his district. It's nice to see he represents his constituents, but you have to be a huge jackass to not realize the magnitude of the situation. It shouldn't take letters and calls from those in your district to have an opinion formulated by this point.

Is he a racist for asking questions about a wall? Certainly not. I'm asking those questions about a wall. He's a guy who wants to protect jobs in Iowa. Jobs the President claims "Americans" don't want. Maybe Mr. King should take it up with Captain Fearless.

It's amazing how the GOP is running ads in Spanish claiming that Democrats want to make illegals felons, when it was the GOP that did so by vote, and by extension, President Bush. Why aren't they running ads against him?

The emotions around the issue are especially intense in Arizona, where thousands of illegal immigrants cross the border each month and more than a quarter of the population is Hispanic. In 2004, Hispanics accounted for about one in eight voters.

When voters approved a ballot measure that year to block access to state services for illegal immigrants, more than 40 percent of Hispanic voters supported it, according to some surveys of people leaving polling places.

Keep in mind, not all Hispanics support illegal immigration. A lot of them paid the price of doing it legally, and a lot of them suffer a stigma because of the illegals. In addition, a lot of them have their wages suppressed, and may not get jobs because of illegals. However, many of them can spot a racist.

Legal immigrants don't want to lose services to illegals, and don't want their children to suffer, or themselves financially, because of illegals.

But many Hispanics said opinions had changed dramatically in the past few weeks, partly because of the hostility they perceived in some proposals from Mr. Hayworth and other conservatives.

"When people are talking about shooting people who come across the border," said Harry Garewal, chief executive of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "yeah, I think that causes some angst."

Exactly.

Leo Hernandez, assistant publisher of Prensa Hispana, a major Arizona Spanish-language newspaper, said the demonstrations had also played a role. "The Latino people in Arizona are more united," Mr. Hernandez said. "They are no more afraid; they go out into the streets."

In Scottsdale, where many employees are Hispanic but few residents are, some voters said the workplace absences on the day of the marches highlighted the importance of immigrant labor.

"If you don't get the Hispanics here working in this town, you don't have cooks in the back, you don't have people building houses," said Bruce Weinstein, an executive eating breakfast at a restaurant.

Disagree. How did these jobs get done before illegal immigrants came here? Young people? People who needed jobs? What, a company had to pay on the books, or more than minimum wage? Good heavens!

Many others, however, expressed alarm about the marches, saying the demonstrations could have been a chance to round up and deport illegal immigrants.

"They should all be ejected out of the country," said Andrew Chenot, a construction worker, who added, "They are in my country and they are on my job, and they are driving down wages."

Yeah they do. All people, not just white people, would agree. Except President Bush, he just says...well, we know what he says: something dumb.

I got news for you. This country will fight another war within, or at least have serious riots at some point. "These people..."

Why not a wall to keep people out? Is a wall racist? Why, because you didn't like the wall in Germany? Because you don't like the wall in Israel? Where's the conservative with the oh-so-clever comment, "The wall doesn't keep people out. It keeps American jobs in!" I know it's coming, so just get to it.

Fuck symbolism. Stand by what works, and what you believe is right. If a wall fixes the problem, build a wall.

Others here, like the Kitlicas, said the marches had only sharpened their worries that illegal immigrants from Mexico brought with them crime, financial burdens, national security risks, cultural disintegration and even diseases like drug-resistant tuberculosis — concerns echoed often by conservative talk radio hosts in the state.

Representative Hayworth said such fears were well-founded. "We have indicted felons from other societies on the loose here," he said. "You see the exponential rise of drug-resistant T.B. and other things. That is not indicting an entire culture, but it is pointing out a problem."

Mr. Hayworth recently published a book, "Whatever It Takes" (Regnery Publishing, 2006), in which he advocates enlisting agencies like the Internal Revenue Service to find illegal immigrants; arresting and deporting them all; deploying military troops on the southern border; and temporarily suspending legal immigration from Mexico.

Great plan, idiot. Add this to the wasting of cash programs conservatives love, like the War on Drugs and the War on Terror.

They hate "throwing money at the problem," unless, they're the ones doing the pitching.

Hayworth will invoke fear, like the rest of his Klan. He'll talk about diseases and fellons and rapists, even though these things are so miniscule. He'll play that card.

The irony is, Hayworth would never speak out, like no conservative should, about US companies going down into South America to dig for oil, gas, and what not, while contaminating rain forests and rivers. It's okay if our country destroys entire reasons, but god forbid an illegal should cross the border with flu.

The Jackassery in full effect. Even when one of them may be able to make a point they go off fucking it up.

His opponent, Mr. Mitchell, calls those ideas "unrealistic."

Yes, it's completely unrealistic, which is the world conservatives live in. However, Mr. Hayworth is in a safe district, and has no worries about that. Even if he were to lose, he'd get himself a nice job, after becoming well known because of his stance on immigration. He'd be the great white hope. He'd rally the base.

Randy Graf, a former Republican state legislator, is campaigning on the same border-security themes as Mr. Hayworth in his bid to succeed Representative Jim Kolbe, a Republican and a supporter of a temporary-worker program who is not running again.

Exactly. Not running again. That's when a Republican like Kolbe is going to speak out. He understands what realistic is, and that a worker-program is really the only way for those who are already here. Not the guys running, or in office, for they take the hard line.

Mr. Graf challenged Mr. Kolbe in the primary two years ago over the immigration issue and won 40 percent of the vote, putting him in a strong position against two more moderate Republicans in the primary.

Mike Hellon, one of the more moderate candidates in the current primary, said: "The marches have hardened positions on both sides. People who really want the border closed — who want to put troops down there — are more passionate than ever, and the other side is more sympathetic." He added, "It does escalate the risk factor for a moderate like me."

Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who supports a temporary-worker program that would allow illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, said that House conservatives like Mr. Hayworth remained a major obstacle to such legislation. "That is the oil in the water," Mr. Grijalva said.

But with the Hispanic electorate set to swell as the children of immigrants come of age, Mr. Grijalva said that history was on the other side.

"You might be getting a momentary bump," he said, "but in the long run you are going to lose."

I loved it when I was told how Hispanics would vote for Bush and his crew because they believed in Jesus. Man, was that special.