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America Votes. B.O. wins.
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Page 6: Politix
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
California Gives Rights to Chickens
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. & ORLAND, Calif., Nov 05, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- This evening, Farm Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization, celebrates a landmark victory for farm animals: the passage of Proposition 2 in California. The YES on Prop 2 campaign was run by Californians for Humane Farms, a coalition headed by Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States. This law phases out some of the most restrictive confinement systems used by factory farms -- gestation crates for breeding pigs, veal crates for calves and battery cages for egg laying hens -- affecting 20 million farm animals in the state by simply granting them space to stand up, stretch their limbs, turn around and lie down comfortably. This evening, Farm Sanctuary's President and Co-Founder Gene Baur released a statement on the Prop 2 victory:

"The passage of Prop 2 in the country's largest agricultural state marks a monumental victory for farm animals. This campaign did an amazing job of raising public awareness about the cruel treatment farm animals endure at the hands of an industry that has consistently fought meaningful change for animals. Farm Sanctuary supporters and campaign volunteers have seen California voters respond with reason and compassion agreeing that all animals deserve humane treatment. Today marks a significant change in the way we view and treat farm animals and falls closer in line with public sentiments and values of compassion. We look forward to seeing these confinement systems phased out nationwide."

The YES! on Prop 2 campaign has been the greatest undertaking on behalf of farm animals in U.S. history, raising enough public awareness and support to end three of the cruelest confinement systems with one ballot measure in spite of massive funding from the industry--backed opposition. Media outlets throughout the state and nationwide have covered Prop 2 and thousands of campaign volunteers have hit the streets consistently during the past several months to raise public awareness about farm animal protection issues.

Farm Sanctuary was the second largest nonprofit contributor to the YES on Prop 2 campaign. Many Farm Sanctuary members showed their support through individual donations to Californians for Humane Farms, as well as hundreds of hours of volunteer time working on the YES! on Prop 2 campaign.

Farm Sanctuary has been instrumental in setting the groundwork for many of the first victories on behalf of farm animals in California and nationwide, and was a lead sponsor of two previous successful ballot initiatives in Florida (ban on gestation crates) and Arizona (ban on gestation and veal crates):

More at link
Posted by: Beavis || 11/05/2008 12:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Choke your chicken, go to jail.
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 14:20 Comments || Top||

#2  would not be surprised to see an exodus from the industry. for 2 reasons, O's coming tax increase and this taking of property without compensation. or perhaps the growers will move to a more business-hospitable state.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/05/2008 14:32 Comments || Top||

#3  where, washington?
Posted by: Lumpy Claque7564 || 11/05/2008 16:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Or chicken, eggs, pork and veal will all be more expensive. Then the public can weigh their decision. I love animals, but I voted against this one.
Posted by: remoteman || 11/05/2008 16:14 Comments || Top||

#5  You can euthanize your family member but don't you dare mistreat a chicken.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/05/2008 16:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'd rather give chickens a little more leg room than watch
Gavin Newsom perform any more gay marriages. At least we got one right.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 11/05/2008 16:51 Comments || Top||

#7  It's funny really. We've duplicated the minimum wage labor issue with farm animals if my guess is right. Chicken sweatshops in Tijuana will provide for California while the California poultry industry leaves.

So we've increased the carbon consumption to get them to market, we've lowered our ability to ensure sanitary conditions, we've put California's out of jobs, and we've simply swept chicken cruelty issues out of view.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/05/2008 18:06 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm all for the reasonable treatment of animals. If it costs me 5 cents more for a dozen eggs thats fine. You don't need to torture them for their entire life before you kill them. Modern animal husbandry has become bizarre in its methods. I did a good sized report on the situation with hog farming when I was an undergrad and there is some really weird shit going on in the farming world right now. Many hog farmers are uncomfortable with the industry and how it has evolved. Hogs are more intelligent than dogs, and when you coupe them up in a stall where they can't move they can actually go insane. I'm all for free markets, low prices, yada, yada, but if you take the time to learn a little about what modern animal farms are doing it would probably rate about a 9.5 on your weird shit-o-meter. Its not like grandpa's farm any more, it really is bizarre and cruel, and that's coming from ME. I wouldn't even keep mooks in those kind of conditions.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:27 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Sudanese journalists stage mass hunger strike over government censorship
Sudanese journalists launched a mass hunger strike on Tuesday, and three independent newspapers stopped work for three days in the country's biggest media protest against government censorship. Between 150 and 300 journalists began a 24-hour hunger strike and the Ajras al-Hurriya, Al-Maidan and Rayal al-Shab newspapers halted production, saying they could no longer accept government restrictions over editorial content.

"We are going to stop for three days as a start. We are going on a food strike for a minimum of 24 hours," said Salah Ahmad Alkagam, head of the board of directors of Ajras al-Hurriya and one of the protest organizers. "We are going to protest against this sad practice against freedoms. We just want our constitutional rights."

Sudan's interim constitution, which is supposed to guide the country through a six-year phased implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of civil war, upholds freedom of the press and expression. But laws guaranteeing press freedom have yet to be passed, and security officials inspect the editions of every newspaper nightly.

Editors who resist censorship risk their publications being banned outright or confiscated from distribution offices.

Journalists say that news articles and editorials are banned, particularly on subjects deemed particularly sensitive such as the conflict in Darfur, corruption and human rights.

Alkagam said that the 95 people working for Ajras al-Hurriya would be going on the hunger strike, joined by more than 40 from Rayal al-Shab and another 22 from communist Al-Maidan, as well as other print journalists.

Two other reporters on strike said 250 to 300 people were refusing food.

The protest is also highlighting the frequent arrests of journalists in the country.
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1  24 hours?
What a bunch of wimps...
Posted by: Bobby Sands || 11/05/2008 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  How do we get our journalists to get in a hunger strike 'one-up' contest with them?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:37 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Deadly cholera outbreak: Zimbabwe's latest affliction
Posted by: tipper || 11/05/2008 11:12 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does anyone think that modern civilization will ever come to Africa?

It seems like the whole continent is stuck in a miasma of middle age style wars, plagues and misery.

Does the maxim about "the government they deserve" hold?
Posted by: AlanC || 11/05/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#2  The standard route. Bad water supply = cholera. Starvation dead ahead.
Posted by: mojo || 11/05/2008 14:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Have you ever seen pictures or read about Zimbabwe? It's beautiful and the interior plains are ideal for agriculture. If they can't make it happen there, they can't make it happen, period. Some of the best farmland in the world and they are sitting on it starving to death.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Medvedev orders Iskander missiles deployed in Kaliningrad
President Dmitri Medvedev took advantage of the euphoria in America today to order the deployment of missiles inside Europe as a response to US plans for a missile defence shield.

Speaking within hours of Barack Obama's election as the new US President, Mr Medvedev announced that Russia would base Iskander missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad next to the border with Poland.

He did not say whether the short-range missiles would carry nuclear warheads. Mr Medvedev also cancelled earlier plans to withdraw three intercontinental ballistic missile regiments from western Russia.

"An Iskander missile system will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region to neutralise if necessary the anti-ballistic missile system in Europe," Mr Medvedev said in his first state-of-the-nation address.

He added that Russia was also ready to deploy its navy and to install electronic jamming devices to interfere with the US shield, which involves the deployment of a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

His announcement prompted a burst of applause from government ministers and parliamentary deputies assembled in the Kremlin. The President failed to congratulate Mr Obama or even to mention him by name during his 85-minute state of the nation address televised live across Russia.

Instead, in a criticism directed at the US, Mr Medvedev declared: "Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community."

He accused the West of seeking to encircle Russia and blamed the US for encouraging Georgia's "barbaric aggression" in the war over South Ossetia in August. He issued a warning that Russia would "not back down in the Caucasus".

"The August crisis only accelerated the arrival of the crucial moment of truth. We proved, including to those who had been sponsoring the current regime in Georgia, that we are strong enough to defend our citizens and that we can indeed defend our national interests," Mr Medvedev said.

"What we've had to deal with in the last few years - the construction of a global missile defence system, the encirclement of Russia by military blocs, unrestrained NATO enlargement and other 'gifts'... The impression is we are being tested to the limit."

Outgoing President George W. Bush insists that the missile shield is aimed at rogue states such as Iran. But the plan has infuriated Moscow, which argues that it threatens Russia's security and that the US is ignoring its concerns.

Mr Medvedev said that Russia had been forced to cancel its plans to withdraw the ballistic missiles, which have a range of 6,200 miles. He said: "We have told our partners more than once that we want positive cooperation, we want to act together to combat common threats, that we want to act together. But they, unfortunately, don't want to listen to us."

In his only reference to the US election, he said that he hoped the new administration would work to repair its relationship with Moscow. He said: "I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the US administration, will make a choice in favour of full-fledged relations with Russia."

Mr Medvedev blamed the US for the global financial crisis, saying that the rest of the world had been "dragged down with it into recession". He claimed that the era of American domination after the collapse of the Soviet Union was now over.

"The world cannot be ruled from one capital. Those who do not want to understand this will only create new problems for themselves and others," he said.

Mr Medvedev, who was elected in March, also set out proposals to extend the presidential term from four years to six. He did not say whether the reform would apply to his current term.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 11/05/2008 13:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how it feels to walk around all day with Putin's hand shoved up your ass?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 13:27 Comments || Top||

#2  And this time you can't redirect/avoid the issue at hand by talking about energy independence like you did first debate, mr. president-elect.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/05/2008 15:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Let the left's number one son handle it. He's the chosen one after all. Prolly have them on the canadian border before he's done.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:14 Comments || Top||


Great White North
More than 27 kilos of heroin seized at Port of Halifax by border officers
The Canada Border Services Agency says it found more than 27 kilograms of heroin almost two weeks ago at the Port of Halifax. It says border officers discovered the drugs on Oct. 22 in a marine container that was bound for Ontario from Pakistan. The agency says the container was scanned using X-ray technology, which helped find 161 packages of suspected heroin in 81 cardboard boxes. The drugs were turned over to the RCMP for further investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, there goes somebodies Christmas bonus.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/05/2008 3:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Not to worry, the Iranian caviar, champagne, and steamed lobsters will still be available for the Inaugeration Ball. Music by "Mims" with "This Is Why I'm Hot."
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/05/2008 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Wow!!
There goes the open bar at BO's inaugural ball!!!

Posted by: James Carville || 11/05/2008 10:48 Comments || Top||

#4  "bound for Ontario from Pakistan"

Last time I looked Ontario was in Canada and NOT part of the Obama Empire. Carville and Beseker get nada, Excalibur gets it all.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 11/05/2008 11:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Poor Ontario, so far from heaven and so close to Detroit.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/05/2008 14:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The referendums: nationwide
LOS ANGELES – In an election otherwise full of liberal triumphs, the gay rights movement suffered a stunning defeat as California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages that overrides a recent court decision legalizing them. The constitutional amendment — widely seen as the most momentous of the nation's 153 ballot measures — will limit marriage to heterosexual couples, the first time such a vote has taken place in a state where gay unions are legal. In California, with 95 percent of precincts reporting Wednesday, the ban had 5,125,752 votes, or 52 percent, while there were 4,725,313 votes, or 48 percent, opposed.

Gay-rights activists had a rough election elsewhere as well. Ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Supporters made clear that gays and lesbians were their main target. Similar bans had prevailed in 27 states before Tuesday's elections, but none were in California's situation — with about 18,000 gay couples married since a state Supreme Court ruling in May. The state attorney general, Jerry Brown, has said those marriages will remain valid, although legal challenges are possible.
So...how's that gonna work AG Moonbeam?
Spending for and against the amendment reached $74 million, making it the most expensive social-issues campaign in U.S. history and the most expensive campaign this year outside the race for the White House.

Elsewhere, voters in Colorado and South Dakota rejected measures that could have led to sweeping bans of abortion, and Washington became only the second state — after Oregon — to offer terminally ill people the option of physician-assisted suicide.
I can see the license plates now, "Washington: It's to die for"...
In Washington, voters gave solid approval to an initiative modeled after Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law, which allows a terminally ill person to be prescribed lethal medication they can administer to themselves. Since Oregon's law took effect in 1997, more than 340 people — mostly ailing with cancer — have used it to end their lives.
...and Oregon's, "Death...now with Dignity™"
A first-of-its-kind measure in Colorado, which was defeated soundly, would have defined life as beginning at conception. Its opponents said the proposal could lead to the outlawing of some types of birth control as well as abortion. The South Dakota measure would have banned abortions except in cases of rape, incest and serious health threat to the mother. A tougher version, without the rape and incest exceptions, lost in 2006. Anti-abortion activists thought the modifications would win approval, but the margin of defeat was similar, about 55 percent to 45 percent of the vote. "The lesson here is that Americans, in states across the country, clearly support women's ability to access abortion care without government interference," said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation.

The marijuana reform movement won two prized victories, with Massachusetts voters decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug and Michigan joining 12 other states in allowing use of pot for medical purposes. Henceforth, people caught in Massachusetts with an ounce or less of pot will no longer face criminal penalties. Instead, they'll forfeit the marijuana and pay a $100 civil fine.

The Michigan measure will allow severely ill patients to register with the state and legally buy, grow and use small amounts of marijuana to relieve pain, nausea, appetite loss and other symptoms.

Nebraska voters, meanwhile, approved a ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action, similar to measures previously approved in California, Michigan and Washington. Returns in Colorado on a similar measure were too close to call. Ward Connerly, the California activist-businessman who has led the crusade against affirmative action, said Obama's victory proved his point. "We have overcome the scourge of race," Connerly said.

Energy measures met a mixed fate. In Missouri, voters approved a measure requiring the state's three investor-owned electric utilities to get 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021. But California voters defeated an even more ambitious measure that would have required the state's utilities to generate half their electricity from windmills, solar systems, geothermal reserves and other renewable sources by 2025.

Two animal-welfare measures passed — a ban on dog racing in Massachusetts, and a proposition in California that outlaws cramped cages for egg-laying chickens.

Amid deep economic uncertainty, proposals to cut state income taxes were defeated decisively in North Dakota and Massachusetts.

In San Francisco, an eye-catching local measure — to bar arrests for prostitution — was soundly rejected. Police and political leaders said it would hamper the fight against sex trafficking. And in San Diego, voters decided to make permanent a ban on alcohol consumption on city beaches.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 13:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...people caught in Massachusetts with an ounce or less of pot will no longer face criminal penalties. Instead, they'll forfeit the marijuana and pay a $100 civil fine.

Consider it a necessary anesthesia for living in Massachusetts.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/05/2008 16:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it tax deductible?
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Instead, they'll forfeit the marijuana...

Or, as they said in the old days, cops have the best dope...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 16:56 Comments || Top||


World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'
AP writer's opinion, presented as news...
Around the world, throngs packed outdoor plazas and pubs to await U.S. elections results Tuesday, many inspired by Barack Obama's promise of change amid a sense of relief that--no matter who wins--the White House is changing hands. As millions of voters decided between Obama or John McCain, the world was abuzz with the sense of bearing witness to a moment of history that would reverberate well beyond American borders.

"America is electing a new president, but for the Germans, for Europeans, it is electing the next world leader," said Alexander Rahr, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One more reason I'm happy that my ancestors moved away from their ancestors.
Posted by: Formerly Dan || 11/05/2008 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  "World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'"

America hopes for a less arrogant, venal, grasping, demanding, whining world.

But we're not holding our collective breath....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 11/05/2008 0:31 Comments || Top||

#3  I was already feeling ill, but this didn't quite get me to the puke point. Close enough.

Let me be the first to express my "hope" that nothing good befalls the people and countries herein offering their typical arrogant and ignorant views.

Hey Europeans - hope that "relief" takes you right through the next time you need a resolute US leader.

What makes me sorta feel that Israel may greet this development, with, er, their own distinctive sort of response? Anyone here think there's a decent chance of a big operation against Iran in the next two months?

P.S. Note Fred's apt comment about an AP writer's (banal, stupid) opinion being offered as reporting, and remember who also won tonight. There are an inscrutable number of different wheels turning that produce an American electoral outcome, but at the very least we have a few factors to savor here: a completely partisan and unprofessional press carrying a remarkably empty inexperienced and marginally talented guy to victory while vetting him not a whit; a complete pass on what seems to me an unprecedented amount and style of political thuggery (e.g. JTP's treatment by OH state agencies, the MO DA/sheriff business, legal growling at TV stations showing NRA ads).

Hey, do I sound inspired by America's "historic" achievement???
Posted by: Verlaine || 11/05/2008 0:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone here think there's a decent chance of a big operation against Iran in the next two months?

Not while Olmert is PM. By the time Bibi replaces him the Baraq Hussein will be Cinc.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/05/2008 0:36 Comments || Top||

#5  They won't know arrogance until they deal with BHO.

I think that the phrase "be careful what you wish for" applies here. Be interesting to see what happens in the next 2 years. Too bad I don't really enjoy "interesting times".
Posted by: tipover || 11/05/2008 0:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Oh, I forgot a few other victors tonight. That is, people validated by being handed power, or more power:

* members of Congress who publicly accuse serving Marines of war crimes, as they enter a CM process

* members of the Senate who publicly compare US soldiers to Nazis or the Khmer Rouge

* member of the Congress and Senate who, seeking political recourse in a war they supported that has become even a little bit difficult, dump the radioactive poison of "the President lied" into the public square

* "news" organizations that compromise ongoing surveillance operations in time of war

* "public servants" who commit felonies in providing info to those "news" organizations to copmromise surveillance operations in time of war

* members of Congress and the Senate who vote to end funding for operations in the midst of crucial, as it turns out game-changing, new initiatives, who declare the effort a failure even as it gets under way

Doesn't that just read like the most ho-hum, familiar, so-what sort of dry political trivia? That's how inured we are to these outrages.

I was thoroughly discouraged by the Beltway class and most of the country just before and after returning from Iraq. The 06 elections were bad, for the reasons offered in both comments here. Now, this. Inertia being the greatest force of nature, here I am. But in the most important ways, I really am sorta done. I just feel awful that so many outstanding military and civilian fellow citizens serving abroad or at home have to carry such an undeserving crowd - and now, under such dubious "leadership".

Hmmm, where's that catharsis thingy I've heard about? I feel sicker than when I started.
Posted by: Verlaine || 11/05/2008 0:59 Comments || Top||

#7  World learns they can help buy a President if the visa charge verification is flexible enough.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/05/2008 1:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Gee. They love us. Really and truly.

I guess that means they'll give our new leader a break so he can settle into his job for a change, right? That means....they settle their own damn disputes, they don't sit around waiting for us to come to the rescue when disaster strikes, and they work on their economies to provide jobs for their own people. This whole thing of shipping them off to us to work for pennies in unsafe conditions our citizens would never tolerate for a second is gonna kinda have to end for a bit so we can get our own economy back on the rails. I'm sure they'll understand.

Sure, ol' Joe Biden said that stuff about the new guy getting tested in the first six months. (He didn't really mean it the way you took it, you had to take it into the proper context.)

They love us now, right? So asking them to behave for the next few years and not do something obnoxious (and that includes racially insensitive cartoons or remarks about him in national sycophantic media outlets like you made about Condi Rice and Colin Powell) isn't asking too much, is it?
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/05/2008 1:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Buyers remorse in...5...4...3...
Posted by: Shotle Brown9884 || 11/05/2008 1:55 Comments || Top||

#10  I wouldn't get too worked up about the result. The beauty of democracy is that voters get to act on buyer's remorse. If Obama turns out to be a disaster, the Dems will be swept out of Congress in 2010 and out of the presidency in 2012. Remember - election or not, we still have a full-fledged economic crisis on our hands. And the American people are much less patient than they were 70 years ago. I think the Zero will live down to his record of non-achievement, and the Democrats will live to regret nominating this non-entity.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/05/2008 2:21 Comments || Top||

#11  The only problem with the idea that the Zero can be corrected in 2010 by sweeping out the Dems is all of the damage that can be done to the US and the world in that period : Hussien has already said he will cancel missile defenses, pullout regardless in 16 months from Iraq, and will NOT do anything about Iran going nuke. So, in 2 years, AFTER Tel Aviv is a cinder, we can kickout the Dems -- not going to mean much to all of the dead Jews at that point.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 11/05/2008 2:27 Comments || Top||

#12  ZF, I think you're too optimistic. I think lots of them are going to die regretting it. I'm already looking to order my bumper sticker that says "Don't blame me--I voted for McCain."

The idiots that voted for Bama wanted change. What they forgot is that change is often for the worse and is ALWAYS difficult. They'll find out soon enough, though.
Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 || 11/05/2008 2:30 Comments || Top||

#13  Remember - election or not, we still have a full-fledged economic crisis on our hands.

What. Economic. Crisis. Oh, you mean that Dem engineered train wreck with sub-prime mortgages! Yeah funny that. Overall, in non-blue states, the economy is pretty good. That's about to change.

Nothing like a little, (LOT) Deconstructionism, to flush a nation down the shitter. I hope these mouth breathers and nose pickers get all the Obama/Marxism they can stand. Let's see if they are still enamored with it in 2010/2012.

Palin/TBD-2012
Posted by: Shotle Brown9884 || 11/05/2008 2:34 Comments || Top||

#14  The idiots that voted for Bama wanted change. What they forgot is that change is often for the worse and is ALWAYS difficult. They'll find out soon enough, though.

Sometimes, a kick in the butt helps the learning process. Obama will have a filibuster-proof Congress. He can't complain that he doesn't have the votes to get things done. Remember - the recent college grads who voted for Obama can't live on hope and change. They're snotty and disrespectful to everyone. If they're still unemployed two years out of office, guess who they're gonna blame?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/05/2008 3:04 Comments || Top||

#15  If they're still unemployed two years out of office school, guess who they're gonna blame?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 11/05/2008 3:05 Comments || Top||

#16  Send for them, those who sleep at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. They deserve better.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/05/2008 7:11 Comments || Top||

#17  It ain't gonna be 2010...........

Mebbe Sarah in 2012

but it took 2 decades to get Ronnie and the Senate.

Slow disrepair..............those kids have to hit 40 to see it.
Posted by: anonymous2u || 11/05/2008 7:33 Comments || Top||

#18  Ohhh - Actually - we can still be arrogant - we can elect a black man - how come you're so racist?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 11/05/2008 7:40 Comments || Top||

#19  If the "Fairness Doctrine" is re-implimented all bets are off for 2010 1nd 2012.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/05/2008 8:10 Comments || Top||

#20  The favorite son of Moneygall, Ireland?!?

Kill me now, please.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 8:21 Comments || Top||

#21  USA is no longer a country but a voting block and trading zone; a la Europe.
Posted by: Hammerhead || 11/05/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#22  And by the way, does this mean we aren't racist anymore? Is that their reparations? My family cam here at the turn of the century, so the whole slave-talk, guilt thingy just doesn't resonate with me. Somehow I think we're going to have to hear about how unfair of a country this is pretty much constantly for the next 4 years.
*Sigh*
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#23  Nature abhors a vacuum. As America disarms and withdraws from the world stage, who or what will fill the void? The world should be careful both of what it wished for and of the law of unintended consequences.

As for me, I just told my grandson that he should NOT, as he had planned, enlist when he graduates from high school. It is not wise to serve those who despise you, who place no value on your life or well being, and who don't have a clue about the military. God help the USA.
Posted by: RWV || 11/05/2008 9:02 Comments || Top||

#24  Remember - the recent college grads who voted for Obama can't live on hope and change. They're snotty and disrespectful to everyone. If they're still unemployed two years out of office, guess who they're gonna blame?

Oh I'm sure they will find someone else to blame. The Jews (happened before!), the Christians, the rednecks, the conservatives, gun owners, the rich republicans. They will blame someone other than themselves when the marxist policies and 'redistribution' turn the economy to shit.

It happened before.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/05/2008 9:12 Comments || Top||

#25  big jim reparations will be the first thing on the ticket. buy stock in cadillac
Posted by: chris || 11/05/2008 10:19 Comments || Top||

#26  buy stock in cadillac

A little humor, to lighten things up :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVgAi4-LgCY
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 11/05/2008 10:26 Comments || Top||

#27  #24 Remember - the recent college grads who voted for Obama can't live on hope and change. They're snotty and disrespectful to everyone. If they're still unemployed two years out of office, guess who they're gonna blame?

No worries, the MSM will not feature these people. They will be pensioned off and new H3/1B, K, J1, 01, student, permanent and asylum visas will be available for a flood of new democratic voter overseas immigrants.

Posted by: Besoeker || 11/05/2008 10:28 Comments || Top||

#28  As for me, I just told my grandson that he should NOT, as he had planned, enlist when he graduates from high school. It is not wise to serve those who despise you, who place no value on your life or well being

Very true. My youngest cousin and last of my generation still in the military will return from Iraq early next year and soon after his commission comes up for renewal. I see very little possibility of his re-upping now. Better he put his degree to use and build bridges from now on.

As the next generation comes of age, I will also probably discourage them from enlisting right away. Better to get on that government gravy train and party hardy at uni for the next four years than risk their lives to deliver meals on wheels for the world's most undeserving in the worst shit holes. The military will shrink. Whether by budget cuts or disinterest is immaterial.
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 10:33 Comments || Top||

#29  Besoeker, you're assuming that there will be any applicants for those visas. Based on my totally unscientific data sample of foreign IT professionals I know.....prolly not.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/05/2008 10:34 Comments || Top||

#30  Verlaine, I hear ya bro. We had the exact same discussion at PT this morning wrt protecting those you don't feel are worthy of the very Constitution they are safeguarded by. Truly surreal.

Posted by: Broadhead6 || 11/05/2008 10:35 Comments || Top||

#31  I suspect there will be a wave of quiet resignations. Something quite bizarre about being required to submit to a urinalysis screening for drugs under a Commander In Chief who is an admitted cocaine user who couldn't obtain a clearance or pass a poly if his life depended upon it. Just doesn't pass the smell test.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/05/2008 10:40 Comments || Top||

#32  Yup.   WRT those college kids, things will be sufficiently muddied in the world and at home that they will be able to go their entire lives without realizing what they've done.

BTW, WRT Israel, I doubt it will be cinderized.  Instead, it will be forced to allow muslim arabs to become the majority and to rule there.
Posted by: lotp || 11/05/2008 10:40 Comments || Top||

#33  On the brighter side. The media has been playing the drumbeat of economic doom for a long time. At some point perception becomes reality. If that same media starts saying that the election has turned perceptions around and restored confidence there is a chance confidence might seep back in.

We all diss the media, and rightfully so, but they do have the power to alter perceptions and for now that power will be used on behalf of the nation instead of against it's President. Hopefully that will help the economy, at least somewhat.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 11/05/2008 11:08 Comments || Top||

#34  Instead, it will be forced to allow muslim arabs to become the majority and to rule there.

Never. Happen.
Posted by: Shotle Brown9884 || 11/05/2008 11:40 Comments || Top||

#35  Verlaine and Broadhead6,
I hear the both of you! A large piece of this country just proved that it is not worthy of our military's protection or service. Maybe that is too extreme, but the fact is, more than half voted for the party that has been pissing on our miltary for last 6 years. I don't expect a coup, the military is still to disciplined for that - but maybe a "green out" quietly slipping away, leaving the service, enlistments dropping. Who wants to serve a POS like Murtha, or the idiots that re-elected him last night. Defend yourselves you ignorant masses - you don't deserve the service you've been given.
Worst thing, i'm in Kalifornia where most of this left bullshiite originate (or at least resonates). Collectively, we suck!
Posted by: Rob06 || 11/05/2008 12:39 Comments || Top||

#36  "It ain't braggin' if ya can DO it..."
Posted by: mojo || 11/05/2008 14:22 Comments || Top||

#37  We all diss the media, and rightfully so, but they do have the power to alter perceptions and for now that power will be used on behalf of the nation instead of against it's President.

It will be used to advance their goals. Which is not necessarily the same thing as the good of the nation as I see it.
Posted by: lotp || 11/05/2008 14:42 Comments || Top||

#38  boo hoo, I'm cryin a river here....

the sky has fallen



Posted by: Lumpy Claque7564 || 11/05/2008 15:48 Comments || Top||

#39  Bugger off lumpy.

Biden was right. Obama is going to be tested...early and often. If he does not respond in a way that maintains America's interests or makes us look weak, he is going to lose the enxt election and his supporters will lose Congress. And those brave men and women doing the green-out, they will be ripe for replacing the losers who will be turned out.

Lemonade out of lemons folks. It is what we have to do.
Posted by: remoteman || 11/05/2008 17:08 Comments || Top||

#40  boo hoo, I'm cryin a river here....

Not yet, Lumpy. But you will be...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 17:09 Comments || Top||

#41  Less Arrogant America?

Screw off dhimmiwit.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/05/2008 17:19 Comments || Top||

#42  I just hope there are enough Servicemen and women to keep those of us who have served and do honour and appreciate their sacrifices.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/05/2008 18:35 Comments || Top||

#43  A less arrogant America, run by a guy who calls himself "the One"? A guy who says, "We're the ones we've been waiting for?" Same guy who created his own presidential seal a few months ago?
Posted by: Vanc || 11/05/2008 21:35 Comments || Top||

#44  DB, I'm not leaving yet. Unless dear leader cuts some of us off I have 8 yrs left until I hit 20. Then I plan on doing something else, possibly politics. I've had enough of these assholes. Politics is dirty but after being yelled at by Drill Instructors and a couple tours in the sand box no panzy assed libs or their media flunkies scare me. Time to stand up and be proud of what we are. No more apologizing for conservative (actually CONSTITUTIONAL) principles. No more reaching across the aisle for the sake of civility. No more pork, no more pissing on the U.S. Const, no more hiding in the country clubs and no more bullshit. Most Americans don't deserve their military, their constitution or their liberty. I'm fed up. I will run for some office even if it's the county dog catcher & do it 4 the same reason I went into the mil - for my family and for my country. Most of these congress critter douchebags are in it for ego and window dressing. I would enlist the help of any honest hardworking citizen and esp any former mil folks that are on the same page. Time to re-take the GOP from the inside and put all the rinos in the zoo.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 11/05/2008 21:49 Comments || Top||

#45  Message to the AP:
Posted by: DMFD || 11/05/2008 22:44 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Zardari seeking funds in Saudi Arabia
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has headed to Saudi Arabia in his latest effort to plead for financial support from a long-time ally.
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Pakistan does not seem to be a sustainable country with major infusions of other people's money.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon || 11/05/2008 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  more taliban style maddrasses!!!!
Posted by: Paul2 || 11/05/2008 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Richard, that's islam you are describing.
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 12:28 Comments || Top||


Pakistan receives Iran aid for Quetta
The second shipment of Iranian aid arrives in Pakistan's quake-hit Balochistan province, where over 40,000 people have been displaced.
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  i'm glad we haven't heard of any US aid being sent
Posted by: chris || 11/05/2008 10:12 Comments || Top||

#2  yesterday thee was a statement of $1 million of 'reconstruction' aid being sent from DC.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/05/2008 14:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Send them lotsa polio vaccine...
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 17:03 Comments || Top||

#4  well that just topped my day off USN
Posted by: chris || 11/05/2008 21:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Always glad to make somebody's day, Chris.
I am soliciting volunteers for local chapters of
"The Morale Suppression Team," spreading gloom wheverever happiness tries to show its smiley little face. Always searching for the gray lining hiding inside every puffy white cloud.
Where others see fragrant roses, the MST sees thorns, lying in wait, ready to shred your skin to the very bone.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/05/2008 23:36 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Mediterranean Union to be based in Barcelona
Foreign ministers from the new Mediterranean Union struck a deal Tuesday for Barcelona to host the forum's headquarters and for Israel and the Arab League to take part side-by-side. The Union's 43 member states held two days of talks in the port of Marseille to end a four-month deadlock on the two contentious issues, which threatened to hamstring the fledgling organization.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit, whose countries currently co-chair the forum, announced the breakthrough at a joint news conference in the southern French city. "It wasn't supposed to work, and yet it did," said Kouchner, adding: "The essential points were accepted completely and without reservation by all 43 states" in the Union for the Mediterranean.

Ministers from the Mediterranean's mainly Arab southern rim agreed to back the Spanish city of Barcelona's candidacy to host the Union in exchange for the post of secretary general going to a southern member.

They also clinched a deal on granting the Arab League a full-time seat at the forum - a key demand of Arab members but opposed by Israel which feared the pan-Arab group would try to block its involvement. "The Arab participation will take place in every meeting with the right to speak at all levels," said Abu al-Gheit, although it will have no right to vote.

Israel agreed to the Arab League's role in exchange for one of five deputy secretary general posts for an initial three-year period, possibly renewable. The deputy posts will rotate between three European members and two southern ones, and will initially be held by the Palestinian Authority, Greece, Malta and Italy, alongside Israel, according to the final declaration.

However, the text - with likely technical amendments - still has to be formally ratified by the Union's two co-presidents, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.

Launched at a Paris summit in July, the new union brings together European Union members with states from North Africa, the Balkans, the Arab world and Israel in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world's most volatile regions.
So the Arab League and the Paleos get representation in the MU. The southern countries have their people, Israel is isolated and in a corner, and the northern countries, to be 'fair', will accept most everything the MU proposes. This should be a real laugh-riot in the next couple years ...
Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Regional unions popping up all over the place. Wont be any need for the UN at this rate.
Pinch me, I'm dreaming.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:36 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian Parliament Impeaches Ahmadinejad Ally
Iran's parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to impeach a cabinet minister who has been a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a political setback that reflects growing opposition among lawmakers to the president's policies.

Ahmadinejad now faces heavy criticism for his backing of former interior minister Ali Kordan, who was impeached for having falsely claimed to hold an honorary law degree from Oxford University. An aide to Ahmadinejad was fired Sunday for trying to bribe several lawmakers to withdraw their support for the impeachment procedure.

The struggle over Kordan has exposed a growing divide between the government's remaining backers in the parliament. Shifting alliances make it hard to determine the breakdown of support, but Tuesday's vote showed a dwindling of government loyalists. Out of 290 deputies, 188 voted for the impeachment of Ahmadinejad's confidant, 45 voted against, 14 abstained and nine didn't vote at all. Thirty-four lawmakers failed to show up for the vote.

"Ahmadinejad will have trouble on all fronts," said Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political analyst and a well-known critic of the president. "Any big decision his government wants to execute first needs to be agreed by a hostile parliament."


The president's difficulties with parliament are also likely to complicate efforts to find a new interior minister. Lawmakers must approve any candidate for the post, which includes responsibility for organizing elections.

"As the problems become deeper, those who were supporting Ahmadinejad will try to distance themselves in the face of the June 12th presidential elections," Zeidabadi said.

Kordan, who had been interior minister for just three months, was voted out during a tumultuous parliamentary session broadcast live on Iranian state radio. He caused a storm by linking the lawmakers opposing him to foreign groups and anti-Iranian governments, often referred to here as "the enemy."

"Look how happy the enemy is that I'm being impeached. Look at the attacks to the system over this issue," he said during his defense, prompting dozens of lawmakers to boo.

"You, by your actions, are giving the enemy pretexts to attack us," responded Sattar Hedayatkhah, a former Ahmadinejad supporter.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad called the impeachment "not legal" and "unfair," and he refused to attend Tuesday's session.

Posted by: Fred || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: Culture Wars
US News & World Report abandons print
US News & World Report, long the number three newsmagazine in the United States behind Time and Newsweek, has become the latest US media outlet to abandon print for the Web. The move to become an Internet-focused publication was announced to US News employees in a memorandum on Tuesday from management of the magazine.

"We're accelerating this transformation in response to our rapid growth online where our audience is now about 7 million uniques a month and growing," US News president Bill Holiber and editor Brian Kelly said in the memo. "For all of you who have worked so hard to make this transition possible, say good-bye to Web 2.0 and welcome to Journalism 5.0," they added.
...and, for a lot of you, say goodbye to your jobs.
Like other US magazines and newspapers, US News has been losing readership and advertising revenue to online media for years.

The memo did not mention specific plans for the print edition, which has already gone this year from a weekly to a biweekly format, but The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that US News would now only publish once a month. The Post added that the monthly print edition would also be entirely devoted to consumer guides and not news. US News publishes popular annual rankings on such topics as America's "best colleges" and "best hospitals."

Earlier this year, US News announced it was "moving away from a weekly magazine with a discrete website to become a multi-platform digital publisher of news you can use and analysis."

The shift to the Web by US News comes just a week after the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor announced plans to end its daily print edition and become the first national US newspaper to become entirely Web-based.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 16:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  O.K.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/05/2008 17:21 Comments || Top||

#2  "abandons print" = "only publish once a month"

No wonder they are the #3 newsmagazine, they don't know the meaning of the words they use.
Posted by: Scott R || 11/05/2008 17:46 Comments || Top||

#3  The monthly print publication consists of their guides and ratings, so it isn't inconsistent with what he said.


That noted, USN&WR has been swirling the drain for at least a decade.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/05/2008 17:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Adios! Next?
Posted by: Hellfish || 11/05/2008 20:18 Comments || Top||

#5  I forgot what I was going to say.
Posted by: Gerthudion Clert2786 || 11/05/2008 21:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Used to look forward to gettting it just to read John Leo. He's where I first learned about Blogging. He mentioned Scrappleface, I searched it on the net, found others along the way.... and well...I've been sort of an addict since.
Posted by: macofromoc || 11/05/2008 21:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Obama expected to offer stimulus package
President-elect Barack Obama, hoping to boost a struggling economy, has proposed a stimulus package that some experts estimate could cost as much as $190 billion. At the same time, the United States is facing record budget deficits of at least $500 billion. Some analysts say the deficit could go as high as $1 trillion next year.
Let's see how much the Dems complain about deficit spending now.
Obama has said he would:

--Enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies to give taxpayers an energy rebate.

--Give businesses a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each new full-time employee hired in the United States over the next two years.

--Allow small business to immediately write off up to $250,000 in spending for new equipment and property through the end of 2009. The stimulus package enacted earlier this year provided for the $250,000 investment expensing limit only through the end of this year.

--Eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in small businesses.

--Make $25 billion immediately available for the construction and repair of roads, bridges, schools and other infrastructure.

--Provide $25 billion to states to help them cope with the economic downturn without having to raise property taxes or cut vital services.

--Make $50 billion in loan guarantees available and keep other options open to help U.S. automobile manufacturers retool and develop a new generation of fuel-efficient cars. Congress has made $25 billion available.

--Implement a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for homeowners making good faith efforts to pay their mortgage debt.

--Extend unemployment insurance for long-term jobless workers who have exhausted their benefits, and temporarily suspend taxes on those benefits.

--Temporarily allow penalty-free withdrawals of 15 percent from tax-preferred retirement accounts up to $10,000.

--Suspend rules requiring retirees to begin withdrawing from retirement accounts six months after they reach the age of 70.

--Increase home heating cost aid.

--Instruct the secretaries of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to use their existing authority to more aggressively modify the terms of mortgages.

--Reform the bankruptcy code to assist homeowners and remove legal impediments to encouraging more mortgage restructuring.

In the longer term, Obama would roll back some of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. He proposed a permanent tax cut of $500 for most individual workers and $1,000 for families. He also would eliminate taxes for seniors making up to $50,000. To help jump-start the economy, the tax cuts would be expedited through refunds based on 2007 tax returns. He would also provide a 10 percent refundable tax credit for mortgage interest to taxpayers who do not itemize their returns.

On trade, Obama has promised to review the North American Free Trade Agreement and use trade agreements to advance good labor and environmental standards around the world. He has also promised to end tax breaks that encourage companies to shift U.S. jobs overseas.
Posted by: tipper || 11/05/2008 11:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, guess the IRS will be hiring soon.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/05/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

#2  So I take we'll just...print more money?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Zimbabwe the Sequel. Ready with that load of zeros.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/05/2008 13:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies..

How about a windfall profit tax on the MSM that you lavished with all that hundreds of millions of untraceable campaign funds?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/05/2008 13:33 Comments || Top||

#5  I still like my windfall profits tax on politician's self serving biographies idea.
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 13:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Just tell me where to sign up for all that guvmint cheese.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie || 11/05/2008 13:46 Comments || Top||

#7  They can stick the money up their asses as far as I am concerned. Some of my neighbors could use some help however. Maybe he can come up with a "stimulus package" to help pay for mailboxes and posts destroyed in my neighborhood early this morning. The destruction coincided with the disappearance of McCain Palin signs. Residences with no campaign signs were not targeted.
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/05/2008 13:58 Comments || Top||

#8  If Obama and the Democratic Congress don't pace themselves, there'll be no money left to buy the 2010 elections.
Posted by: Darrell || 11/05/2008 15:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Not a lot of money left over and Africa expects Obama to solve all their problems.
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 15:35 Comments || Top||

#10  If Obama and the Democratic Congress don't pace themselves, there'll be no money left to buy the 2010 elections.

Where do you think a lot of this money is going to go? And this doesn't mention all the earmarks which are going to be stuffed in.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/05/2008 15:37 Comments || Top||

#11  I didn't see anything in there for ponies. I want a pony, dammit!
Posted by: xbalanke || 11/05/2008 17:04 Comments || Top||

#12  hell it's about time too start renaming high schools ain't it?
Posted by: chris || 11/05/2008 17:05 Comments || Top||

#13  Do they know he isn't really president until January? And, are they going to make him show a REAL birth cert before they swear him in?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 21:03 Comments || Top||

#14  Barack Obama Cultural Reeducation Camp High School
Posted by: Frank G || 11/05/2008 21:12 Comments || Top||

#15  How about a windfall profit tax on every idiot celeb in hollywood that makes a shitty movie, record (or not) and walks away w/a multi mil contract? That could pay off some social medicare. (plus inflating your tires, can't forget that great piece of advice from his majesty - what a jackass)
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 11/05/2008 21:53 Comments || Top||

#16 
Posted by: DMFD || 11/05/2008 22:52 Comments || Top||

#17  Some of these aren;t bad.

--Eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in small businesses.

I say eliminate capital gains taxes on the first $250K of cap gains for people making less than $250K adjusted gross income.
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/05/2008 23:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Euthanasia Come to Washington State
Voters in Washington State gave a clear answer yesterday to a thorny ethical question: Should a doctor should be allowed to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to a dying patient?

A state measure known as Initiative 1000 passed by a margin of 59% to 41%, making it legal for doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for patients with less than six months to live.

As we reported last week, the law is packed with provisions intended to limit the practice. Patients must make two separate requests, orally and in writing, more than two weeks apart; must be of sound mind and not suffering from depression; and must have their request approved by two separate doctors. Doctors are not allowed to administer the lethal dose.

Backers of the bill, including national right-to-die organizations and a former Democratic governor who has Parkinson's, raised $4.9 million to support it. Opponents, including several Catholic organizations, raised $1.6 million to fund their fight, the Seattle Times reports.

In Oregon, the only other state with a similar law, some 341 patients have committed physician-assisted suicide in the 11 years the law has been in effect, the New York Times reported last week.
Posted by: Beavis || 11/05/2008 09:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not a bad idea. Recommend a plastic bag over Seattle.
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 11:30 Comments || Top||

#2  "I'm elated," said former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who filed the initiative and was one of its biggest campaign contributors. Gardner is battling Parkinson's disease, though Parkinson's is not considered a terminal disease that would qualify under the initiative.

So...whaddya waiting for?
Posted by: tu3031 || 11/05/2008 12:34 Comments || Top||

#3  As a physician I'm truly angry about this.

It's simple: when I walk into a room to see a patient, I always want that patient to see a healer wearing a white coat and not an executioner wearing a black hood.

Physician assisted euthanasia blurs that line. It will become blurred more by those who advocate (as they did in the 1930s) that the old, infirm, and disabled have a 'duty' to get out of the way. And we all know where that leads.

Tu3031 makes a valid point (in his usual snarky way :-) -- if you're really committed to ending your life, you don't need my help as a physician. There's all sorts of ways to do it without involving me and my profession. You want to off yourself, go ahead, but I'm not going to help you.

This isn't about people needing 'help' to end their lives: it's about validation. They want it to be 'okay'. Tomorrow they'll want it to be a duty. The day after that they'll be making judgments on you and me about who should live and who should die.

Welcome to the new world.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/05/2008 12:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry, I voted for this; after seeing many terminally ill patients (not as many as Dr. Steve, admittedly, but enough to make my decision) wither away and lose all dignity, this provides them an option. there is no mandatory offing clause, and i am satisfied with the safeguards in the bill.
whether the slippery slope describes becomes reality, i guess time will tell. i do not see any evidence of that in Oregon, and they have had this for several years now.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 11/05/2008 14:39 Comments || Top||

#5  ask an ICU nurse what they think
Posted by: Lumpy Claque7564 || 11/05/2008 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  There was an ad about this featuring a woman in nearly Oregon who's insurance would pay for 'termination' but not for 'treatment'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/05/2008 15:39 Comments || Top||

#7  of course they pay for the cheaper option, is that hard to fathom
Posted by: Lumpy Claque7564 || 11/05/2008 16:10 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm an ICU doc. I also take care of ALS patients. I know about the issues.


You do NOT need euthanasia to have a death that is dignified and decent. Careful, compassionate doctors and nurses in the various hospice programs around the country handle these issues all the time, and they don't euthanize anyone.



When a person demands euthanasia he/she is either 1) clinically depressed 2) hasn't yet worked through the stages of grief with dying and/or 3) hasn't been educated by their doctors on how pain and suffering can be handled.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/05/2008 16:37 Comments || Top||

#9  You do NOT need euthanasia to have a death that is dignified and decent.

Hospice services in our area do a pretty decent job of being there for a person who wants to die with dignity. They don't engage in euthanasia.

As said earlier the physician doesn't need to bring about suicide as did Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Best not to become the Soylent Green society. Life gets cheapened.
Posted by: JohnQC || 11/05/2008 17:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Logical sequel to setting the living babies of failed abortions aside to die.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/05/2008 19:50 Comments || Top||

#11  There's all sorts of ways to do it without involving me and my profession.

Unfortunately, some actually do this by drinking and driving. It gets treated as another DUI death when it is a suicide. How do you tell the difference. The nastiness is when they take someone else out in the process.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/05/2008 21:41 Comments || Top||

#12  100 mph into a bridge abutment --- Catholic suicide.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/05/2008 22:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front Economy
Obama urged to shape new economic order
Political leaders urged U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to help forge a new economic order to lead the world out of its worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

Excitement about the election of Democrat Obama as the first black U.S. President was tempered by an awareness of the challenges he faces as the world's biggest economy labors in recession.

"We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
A new deal cuts in all his friends and supporters ...
"I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the United States of America will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal," he added.

Underlining the economic woes Obama faces, U.S. private employers cut a larger-than-expected 157,000 jobs in October, a report by a private employment service showed.

Initial market reaction to the election was sober, with the dollar retreating against the pound and the euro and Wall Street expected to fall after an election-day rally. European shares were down two percent, but Asian stocks earlier closed at three-week highs.

"The market is maybe reflecting the hard work ahead and difficult economic circumstances new president Barack Obama has inherited," said Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Obama does not take office until January, leaving outgoing President George W. Bush to host a summit of world leaders in Washington on November 15 to discuss the global financial crisis which has its roots in the collapse of the U.S. housing market.
Posted by: tipper || 11/05/2008 09:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pity this isn't an onion headline.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/05/2008 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Urged to lead the world out of economic crisis? A New Deal for the New World Order is exactly what I fear. The only bill Obama has introduced as a Senator was proposing a global tax to fight global poverty! Just what "wealthy" American taxpayers want to do with their excesses--send it to some African warlord so they can buy more sophisticated weapons to use on their own people! Anyone else notice the hammer and sickle flags at the celebration rally at the White House last night? The Che Guevara flags at Obama HQ's? I'm ill at the thought--Trailing Wife may have to organize an underground as I am not a good lemming!
Posted by: Thealing Borgia 122 || 11/05/2008 11:19 Comments || Top||

#3  "We need a new deal for a new world,"
Make your own. The empty suit will be too busy trying to deliver on even 10% of the promises he made to his constituents. Spit.
Posted by: Darrell || 11/05/2008 15:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Not really that new
Posted by: DMFD || 11/05/2008 15:50 Comments || Top||

#5  The prospect of Obama/Reid/Pelosi has to have a chilling effect on job creation. I have a feeling that companies will be shedding workers before the new federal overlords take over. More to the point, I think there may be a lot of capital looking for a safe haven before the end of the year.
Posted by: RWV || 11/05/2008 15:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Dow down 5%, NASDAQ down 5.5%
Posted by: ed || 11/05/2008 16:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Global realities are going to constrain Obama considerably. His ego, the one that demands that he be loved and, more importantly, re-elected are also going to constrain him from going too far from the center. This is my hope anyway.

Everyone is going to ask for a pony. Sorry, but Uncle Sugar can't afford a pony right now. You want a pony, buy it yourself you lazy, incompetent bastards.

Obama's leash will be tight despite the hopes of all those with their hands out.
Posted by: remoteman || 11/05/2008 16:47 Comments || Top||

#8  global tax to fight global poverty

Since our poor are rich by global standards will they be required to pay into this global tax too, or will it only apply to those who earn more than $250,000, er, $125,000, um, $75,000, no, $40,000?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/05/2008 22:36 Comments || Top||

#9  I'm not Mr. World traveler or anything, I go to Mexico a lot. Poor people here got nothing to bitch about, nothing. They dont know what poor is.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 11/05/2008 23:32 Comments || Top||


Barack Obama to be 44th President
Congratulations to President-Elect Obama.
Posted by: Steve White || 11/05/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, maybe he's just another crook.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/05/2008 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Whoo baby! This will be like riding a bucking bronko. More seats for HorseFace Harry. StretchFace has more servants also. And, best of all, if something befalls Bambi, we've got Plugs to fall back on. Really reassuring. They are gonna start big with a whopping healthcare plan and go from there. Being the grandees they are, hopefully they go beserko, as is their tradition, overplay their hand, and go down in flames in two years. More taxes ? All Bambi voters ought to expect a lot more. He promised that much. And as Demo Rep. Jim Moran has been saying, the wealthy have no right of expecting to keep their ill begotten gains. They must share!
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 || 11/05/2008 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Ain't gonna be 2 years...........
Posted by: anonymous2u || 11/05/2008 7:41 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2008-11-05
  America Votes. B.O. wins.
Tue 2008-11-04
  IAF strike zaps four Gazooks
Mon 2008-11-03
  Sheikh Sharif returns to Somalia
Sun 2008-11-02
  Gilani will complain about drone strikes to US
Sat 2008-11-01
  U.S. strike killed Abu Jihad al-Masri deader than Tut
Fri 2008-10-31
  Dronezap kills 15 in Pakistain
Thu 2008-10-30
  Serial kabooms kill 68, injure 470 in Assam
Wed 2008-10-29
  Canadian al-Qaeda bomb-maker guilty in British fertiliser bomb plot
Tue 2008-10-28
  Haji Omar Khan is no more
Mon 2008-10-27
  US strike kills up to 20 in Pakistain
Sun 2008-10-26
  U.S. Troops in Syria Raid
Sat 2008-10-25
  Paks bang 35 hard boyz in Bajaur
Fri 2008-10-24
  Qaeda big turban Khalid Habib titzup in Pakistain
Thu 2008-10-23
  Pirates seize Indian vessel with 13 crew near Somalia
Wed 2008-10-22
  Report: Nasrallah poisoned; Iranian docs saved life

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