By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer 47 minutes ago
NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.
Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.
The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.
The steadily growing inmate population "is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime," the report said.
Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States, said budget woes are pressuring many states to consider new, cost-saving corrections policies that might have been shunned in the recent past for fear of appearing soft on crime.
"We're seeing more and more states being creative because of tight budgets," she said in an interview. "They want to be tough on crime. They want to be a law-and-order state. But they also want to save money, and they want to be effective."
The report cited Kansas and Texas as states that have acted decisively to slow the growth of their inmate population. They are making greater use of community supervision for low-risk offenders and employing sanctions other than reimprisonment for offenders who commit technical violations of parole and probation rules.
"The new approach, born of bipartisan leadership, is allowing the two states to ensure they have enough prison beds for violent offenders while helping less dangerous lawbreakers become productive, taxpaying citizens," the report said.
While many state governments have shown bipartisan interest in curbing prison growth, there also are persistent calls to proceed cautiously.
"We need to be smarter," said David Muhlhausen, a criminal justice expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation. "We're not incarcerating all the people who commit serious crimes. But we're also probably incarcerating people who don't need to be."
According to the report, the inmate population increased last year in 36 states and the federal prison system.
The largest percentage increase — 12 percent — was in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear highlighted the cost of corrections in his budget speech last month. He noted that the state's crime rate had increased only about 3 percent in the past 30 years, while the state's inmate population has increased by 600 percent.
The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety.
"Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers," said the project's director, Adam Gelb.
According to the report, the average annual cost per prisoner was $23,876, with Rhode Island spending the most ($44,860) and Louisiana the least ($13,009). It said California — which faces a $16 billion budget shortfall — spent $8.8 billion on corrections last year, while Texas, which has slightly more inmates, was a distant second with spending of $3.3 billion.
On average, states spend 6.8 percent of their general fund dollars on corrections, the report said. Oregon had the highest spending rate, at 10.9 percent; Alabama the lowest at 2.6 percent.
Four states — Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut — now spend more on corrections than they do on higher education, the report said.
"These sad facts reflect a very distorted set of national priorities," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, referring to the full report. "Perhaps, if we adequately invested in our children and in education, kids who now grow up to be criminals could become productive workers and taxpayers."
The report said prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect an increase in the nation's overall population. Instead, it said, more people are behind bars mainly because of tough sentencing measures, such as "three-strikes" laws, that result in longer prison stays.
"For some groups, the incarceration numbers are especially startling," the report said. "While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine."
The racial disparity for women also is stark. One of every 355 white women aged 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one of every 100 black women in that age group.
The nationwide figures, as of Jan. 1, include 1,596,127 people in state and federal prisons and 723,131 in local jails. That's out of almost 230 million American adults.
The report said the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of more populous China with 1.5 million people behind bars. It said the U.S. also is the leader in inmates per capita (750 per 100,000 people), ahead of Russia (628 per 100,000) and other former Soviet bloc nations which round out the Top 10.
The U.S. also is among the world leaders in capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, its 53 executions in 2006 were exceeded only by China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and Sudan.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Texas Republicans To Determine Democratic Candidate
Republicans in Texas are planning to vote in the Democratic Primary to defeat Hillary. They should not be choosing the opponent they want. I'm sure it is happening in Ohio too, but this is shameful because Texas will go to the Republican candidate for President in the General Election.
TV talking head, Lou Dobbs tells everyone to register as an independent. Then when the primary arrives, they vote wherever they feel like that day. They should not be determining the candidates for any Party if they don't want to be part of the Party.
The Democratic Party needs to go back to the days when you had to vote in your parties primary. If you changed parties, you had to sit out one primary election.
TV talking head, Lou Dobbs tells everyone to register as an independent. Then when the primary arrives, they vote wherever they feel like that day. They should not be determining the candidates for any Party if they don't want to be part of the Party.
The Democratic Party needs to go back to the days when you had to vote in your parties primary. If you changed parties, you had to sit out one primary election.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
What The Nigerians Running The Anti-Gay Episcopal Church Are Like
"God's Country" (Nigeria) by Eliza Griswold. "Using militias and marketing strategies, Christianity and Islam are competing for believers by promising Nigerians prosperity in this world as well as salvation in the next." There are mass conversions, defects, animosities, and massacres in this dire competition between the Muslims of the North and the Christians of the South. Rene Girard's thesis about "the mimetic principle" is in effect: The two sides imitate each other and escalate in both marketing efforts and militial action. The well-document killings by Muslims are truly abhorrent; Christian belligerency, reactive or initiatory, is apocalyptically fierce. Griswold tells, for example, how the Christian Association of Nigeria "militia" attacked a Muslim town, killing 660 Muslims, burning twelve mosques and three hundred homes.
Griswold's father had been primate of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A at the time of the massacre, and a colleague of Archbishop Peter Akinola, who was then the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Akinola is now the head of the eighteen-million- member Anglican Church in Nigeria, and the spiritual and ecclesiastical host to many dissident American Anglicans who have accepted him as their bishop. To put it politely, Akinola, stiffing Griswold, launched into an attack linking Islam and liberal Protestantism while defending what Americans call "the prosperity gospel." "I've said before: let no Muslim think they have the monopoly on violence." Both sides in the Muslim-Christian conflict cite their Scriptures; one pastor legitimated rape by Christians on the basis of Matthew 24:19: "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days."
Griswold's father had been primate of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A at the time of the massacre, and a colleague of Archbishop Peter Akinola, who was then the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria. Akinola is now the head of the eighteen-million- member Anglican Church in Nigeria, and the spiritual and ecclesiastical host to many dissident American Anglicans who have accepted him as their bishop. To put it politely, Akinola, stiffing Griswold, launched into an attack linking Islam and liberal Protestantism while defending what Americans call "the prosperity gospel." "I've said before: let no Muslim think they have the monopoly on violence." Both sides in the Muslim-Christian conflict cite their Scriptures; one pastor legitimated rape by Christians on the basis of Matthew 24:19: "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days."
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Another Closeted Republican
I am convinced that Lincoln was bisexual. The article Dewey sent the link to -- Explaining a Presential Relationship bought up some very interesting points. Why is this such a issue in this day and age? Anway, thought you all would find the below of interest.
Robert L. Kincaid, Speed's biographer, describes the gay dialectic of their relationship: "Thus it was that Joshua Fry Speed and Abraham Lincoln passed the first hours in their bed together. Speed saw in Lincoln the rough-hewn product of the frontier. . . In Joshua Fry Speed, Abraham Lincoln saw a youth who was truly a 'gentleman to the manor born'" The two men shared the same bed for four years; both Speed and Lincoln always used the specific term "four years" in the way lovers mention anniversaries; they never said "several" or "many" but always used the specific number. They both had counted the years and held them sacred. Kincaid rightly concluded, "How much Speed contributed to the development of Lincoln in the four years they slept together is idle speculation, but their kindred hopes and ambitions fused into a unity and understanding which was never broken" (Kincaid, Robert L. 'Joshua Fry Speed, Lincoln's Most Intimate Friend.' Harrogate, Tennessee; Lincoln Memorial University, 1943)
If there were ever any quarrels or differences between Speed and Lincoln, they were not recorded. Their separation was brought on by events beyond their control. Speed's father died; he had to return to Louisville to help settle the estate and to comfort his mother. While there, Speed was pressured into marriage much against his wishes. Lincoln himself sought out a substitute in Mary Todd. Like Speed, she was from an upper-class Kentucky background, was well educated and was attracted to the tall man's prospects. Having lost Joshua and not yet ready for Mary, Lincoln cancelled the plans for marriage on January 1, 1841. Lincoln was thrown into the depths of despair, mourning for his Joshua who had left him. A friend wrote, "We have been very much distressed, on Mr. Lincoln's account; hearing that he had two Cat fits and a Duck fit since we left." Toward the end of the month, Lincoln himself wrote his law partner John Stuart, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell: I awfully forebode I shall not" (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor. 9 Vols, New Brunswick NJ; 1953 - 1955, Vol I, 229)
Lincoln recovered only after he had joined Speed that summer in Kentucky. Speed's biographer holds that "no incident in Lincoln's life was perhaps more enjoyable than his visit in the Speed home at 'Farmington' near Louisville in August and September, 1841" (Kincaid, 15) But when Speed married in February, 1842, Lincoln wrote from Springfield, "I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now; you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely" (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor. 9 Vols, New Brunswick NJ; 1953 - 1955, Vol I, 281)
Mother Speed gave the skeptic Lincoln a copy of the Bible to restore his spirits, but Lincoln never really recovered from the loss of his greatest love. As he mused in a letter to Speed about their friendship: "I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss" (Lincoln, I, 281) . Lincoln never forgot Speed; he wanted to name his first born after Joshua (Mary objected). After Lincoln was elected President, he saw Speed several times and found time for them to be alone together. In Chicago, the president=elect arranged for Mary to divert Speed's wife so they could slip off together to Speed's hotel room. "When the two men were alone, Lincoln stretched his long frame upon the bed, and," according to Speed's biographer, "Offered a post to Speed. . . But Speed declined" (Kincaid, 22-23). But their romance essentially ended January 1, 1841.
What more evidence could be called for in proving Joshua Speed and Abraham Lincoln were lovers? Lincoln's breakdown after his separation from Speed was always recognized by him as the lowest point in his life. Since Lincoln was a lawyer and Speed quite discreet, their physical relations never came into court. Indeed homosexuality seems not to have been a prosecuted crime in the circuits where Lincoln practiced. And snobbishness and pretentiousness more than lustiness led to social ostracism. Lincoln as a lawyer/politician and Speed as a storekeeper had finely honed skills for giving people what they wanted, folksy friendliness. Neither man was exclusively homosexual but that they were married and had sexual intercourse with a woman is not evidence they were not homosexual. Suppose something quite unlikely; the two men never had any "genital contact" during the four years they shared the same bed. Would that abstinence have made them any less homosexual? Speed was no casual pickup; he was Lincoln's type. Like Mary Todd Lincoln he was a Kentucky belle; was a couple classes above Lincoln; supported the tall man in his ambitions; and knew just how to soothe and relieve his depressions. What one biographer writes of Mary Todd was equally true of Joshua Speed: "She provided a marriage-long course in middle-class etiquette" (Baker, Jean H. 'Mary Tood Lincoln: A Biography', New York,: Norton, 1987, p132). The main difference between Mary and Joshua in their relations with Lincoln was that Lincoln tried to spend all his time with Speed while he was eager to get away from Mary.
Women were never Lincoln's first choice as love objects. Sarah Lincoln (His beloved stepmother) recalled that he never took much to the young girls. Indeed he seems to have been repelled from women as sexual partners. One grisly tale concerns Matilda, his stepsister, who had secretly followed him into the woods for a "good long chat and a wild romp." Matilda found Abe splitting wood and as a surprise jumped on his back whiel he was splitting wood. As she jumped he "accidentally" axed her in the thigh (some more genteel accounts say "ankle"). Lincoln then tore off the "tail of his undergarment" to stop the bleeding. Psychohistorian Charles Strozier writes that "the issue then became what to tell Sarah. Matilda was inclined to lie but Lincoln urged her to tell the truth. . . This ruthless honesty is ostensibly the point of the story. . . However, the sexual play and excitement between adolescent siblings unrelated by blood, living in a one-room cabin, seem the deeper meaning of the anecdote" (Strozier, Charles B. "Lincoln's Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings.' New York; Basic Books, 1982, p22-23).
By contrast the story about Lincoln's visit to the prostitute is seldom told: he didn't have sex because he lacked the needed two dollars. But the humor does not disguise the fact that Lincoln avoided sex with a woman. One of his better documented courtings was with Mary Owens, a woman many believe he proposed to because she was sure to reject him. Owens later claimed Lincoln was "deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's happiness" (Hertz, Emanuel, "The Hidden Lincoln from the Letters and Papers of Wiliam H. Harndon." New York; Viking Press, 1938 p303). And Mary Todd's sister stated quite definitively that "Lincoln was unable to talk to women and was not sufficiently educated in the female line to do so" (Baker, 89)
Lincoln married Mary Todd in November, 1842, and their marriage still offers room for historians to argue and novelists to imagine. Gore Vidal convincingly suggests that Lincoln had contracted syphilis which he passed on to Marry; three of their four children - Edward (1846 - 1850), Willie (1850 - 1862), and Tad (1853 - 1871) - all died prematurely and Mary herself suffered mental disorders (Vidal, passim). Mary Todd had several close, passionate relations with other women. While she had an informed and vigorous interest in politics, her husband progressively excluded her from his confidence. The early deaths of her children brought many nightmares; after the birth of Tad in 1853 she ceased having sexual relations with her husband and they soon maintained separate bedrooms.
After Joshua Speed, Lincoln himself never formed another intimate relationship with anyone (including Mary Todd), but he did pursue more casual male friendships. Between 1842 and 1861, he spent as much time on the road as at home. While other married circuit lawyers and politicians tried to go home as often as possible, Lincoln preferred sleeping overnight with the unmarried men. Thus he teamed up with Ward Hill Lamon, a husky twenty-year old beauty who went on to become his bodyguard. Once he slept four or five nights with Lamon at Lamon's house while Mary Todd was in New York City on a shopping trip. Lamon also provided for a beautiful group of Pennsylvania soldiers ("Bucktail Brigade") to guard Lincoln in the summer quarters in 1862. Margaret Leech writes, "He grew to like the Bucktails, especially Company K, with whose captain he became so friendly that he invited him to share his bed on autumn nights when Mrs. Lincoln was away from home" (Leech,Margaret. "Reveille In Washington" New York; Harper, 1941, p303). The captain got transferred by Company K continued on duty at the White House.
Robert L. Kincaid, Speed's biographer, describes the gay dialectic of their relationship: "Thus it was that Joshua Fry Speed and Abraham Lincoln passed the first hours in their bed together. Speed saw in Lincoln the rough-hewn product of the frontier. . . In Joshua Fry Speed, Abraham Lincoln saw a youth who was truly a 'gentleman to the manor born'" The two men shared the same bed for four years; both Speed and Lincoln always used the specific term "four years" in the way lovers mention anniversaries; they never said "several" or "many" but always used the specific number. They both had counted the years and held them sacred. Kincaid rightly concluded, "How much Speed contributed to the development of Lincoln in the four years they slept together is idle speculation, but their kindred hopes and ambitions fused into a unity and understanding which was never broken" (Kincaid, Robert L. 'Joshua Fry Speed, Lincoln's Most Intimate Friend.' Harrogate, Tennessee; Lincoln Memorial University, 1943)
If there were ever any quarrels or differences between Speed and Lincoln, they were not recorded. Their separation was brought on by events beyond their control. Speed's father died; he had to return to Louisville to help settle the estate and to comfort his mother. While there, Speed was pressured into marriage much against his wishes. Lincoln himself sought out a substitute in Mary Todd. Like Speed, she was from an upper-class Kentucky background, was well educated and was attracted to the tall man's prospects. Having lost Joshua and not yet ready for Mary, Lincoln cancelled the plans for marriage on January 1, 1841. Lincoln was thrown into the depths of despair, mourning for his Joshua who had left him. A friend wrote, "We have been very much distressed, on Mr. Lincoln's account; hearing that he had two Cat fits and a Duck fit since we left." Toward the end of the month, Lincoln himself wrote his law partner John Stuart, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell: I awfully forebode I shall not" (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor. 9 Vols, New Brunswick NJ; 1953 - 1955, Vol I, 229)
Lincoln recovered only after he had joined Speed that summer in Kentucky. Speed's biographer holds that "no incident in Lincoln's life was perhaps more enjoyable than his visit in the Speed home at 'Farmington' near Louisville in August and September, 1841" (Kincaid, 15) But when Speed married in February, 1842, Lincoln wrote from Springfield, "I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now; you will be so exclusively concerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely" (The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor. 9 Vols, New Brunswick NJ; 1953 - 1955, Vol I, 281)
Mother Speed gave the skeptic Lincoln a copy of the Bible to restore his spirits, but Lincoln never really recovered from the loss of his greatest love. As he mused in a letter to Speed about their friendship: "I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to Illinois. I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss" (Lincoln, I, 281) . Lincoln never forgot Speed; he wanted to name his first born after Joshua (Mary objected). After Lincoln was elected President, he saw Speed several times and found time for them to be alone together. In Chicago, the president=elect arranged for Mary to divert Speed's wife so they could slip off together to Speed's hotel room. "When the two men were alone, Lincoln stretched his long frame upon the bed, and," according to Speed's biographer, "Offered a post to Speed. . . But Speed declined" (Kincaid, 22-23). But their romance essentially ended January 1, 1841.
What more evidence could be called for in proving Joshua Speed and Abraham Lincoln were lovers? Lincoln's breakdown after his separation from Speed was always recognized by him as the lowest point in his life. Since Lincoln was a lawyer and Speed quite discreet, their physical relations never came into court. Indeed homosexuality seems not to have been a prosecuted crime in the circuits where Lincoln practiced. And snobbishness and pretentiousness more than lustiness led to social ostracism. Lincoln as a lawyer/politician and Speed as a storekeeper had finely honed skills for giving people what they wanted, folksy friendliness. Neither man was exclusively homosexual but that they were married and had sexual intercourse with a woman is not evidence they were not homosexual. Suppose something quite unlikely; the two men never had any "genital contact" during the four years they shared the same bed. Would that abstinence have made them any less homosexual? Speed was no casual pickup; he was Lincoln's type. Like Mary Todd Lincoln he was a Kentucky belle; was a couple classes above Lincoln; supported the tall man in his ambitions; and knew just how to soothe and relieve his depressions. What one biographer writes of Mary Todd was equally true of Joshua Speed: "She provided a marriage-long course in middle-class etiquette" (Baker, Jean H. 'Mary Tood Lincoln: A Biography', New York,: Norton, 1987, p132). The main difference between Mary and Joshua in their relations with Lincoln was that Lincoln tried to spend all his time with Speed while he was eager to get away from Mary.
Women were never Lincoln's first choice as love objects. Sarah Lincoln (His beloved stepmother) recalled that he never took much to the young girls. Indeed he seems to have been repelled from women as sexual partners. One grisly tale concerns Matilda, his stepsister, who had secretly followed him into the woods for a "good long chat and a wild romp." Matilda found Abe splitting wood and as a surprise jumped on his back whiel he was splitting wood. As she jumped he "accidentally" axed her in the thigh (some more genteel accounts say "ankle"). Lincoln then tore off the "tail of his undergarment" to stop the bleeding. Psychohistorian Charles Strozier writes that "the issue then became what to tell Sarah. Matilda was inclined to lie but Lincoln urged her to tell the truth. . . This ruthless honesty is ostensibly the point of the story. . . However, the sexual play and excitement between adolescent siblings unrelated by blood, living in a one-room cabin, seem the deeper meaning of the anecdote" (Strozier, Charles B. "Lincoln's Quest for Union: Public and Private Meanings.' New York; Basic Books, 1982, p22-23).
By contrast the story about Lincoln's visit to the prostitute is seldom told: he didn't have sex because he lacked the needed two dollars. But the humor does not disguise the fact that Lincoln avoided sex with a woman. One of his better documented courtings was with Mary Owens, a woman many believe he proposed to because she was sure to reject him. Owens later claimed Lincoln was "deficient in those little links that make up the chain of a woman's happiness" (Hertz, Emanuel, "The Hidden Lincoln from the Letters and Papers of Wiliam H. Harndon." New York; Viking Press, 1938 p303). And Mary Todd's sister stated quite definitively that "Lincoln was unable to talk to women and was not sufficiently educated in the female line to do so" (Baker, 89)
Lincoln married Mary Todd in November, 1842, and their marriage still offers room for historians to argue and novelists to imagine. Gore Vidal convincingly suggests that Lincoln had contracted syphilis which he passed on to Marry; three of their four children - Edward (1846 - 1850), Willie (1850 - 1862), and Tad (1853 - 1871) - all died prematurely and Mary herself suffered mental disorders (Vidal, passim). Mary Todd had several close, passionate relations with other women. While she had an informed and vigorous interest in politics, her husband progressively excluded her from his confidence. The early deaths of her children brought many nightmares; after the birth of Tad in 1853 she ceased having sexual relations with her husband and they soon maintained separate bedrooms.
After Joshua Speed, Lincoln himself never formed another intimate relationship with anyone (including Mary Todd), but he did pursue more casual male friendships. Between 1842 and 1861, he spent as much time on the road as at home. While other married circuit lawyers and politicians tried to go home as often as possible, Lincoln preferred sleeping overnight with the unmarried men. Thus he teamed up with Ward Hill Lamon, a husky twenty-year old beauty who went on to become his bodyguard. Once he slept four or five nights with Lamon at Lamon's house while Mary Todd was in New York City on a shopping trip. Lamon also provided for a beautiful group of Pennsylvania soldiers ("Bucktail Brigade") to guard Lincoln in the summer quarters in 1862. Margaret Leech writes, "He grew to like the Bucktails, especially Company K, with whose captain he became so friendly that he invited him to share his bed on autumn nights when Mrs. Lincoln was away from home" (Leech,Margaret. "Reveille In Washington" New York; Harper, 1941, p303). The captain got transferred by Company K continued on duty at the White House.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Obama Snubbed San Francisco Mayor
During his Senate run in Illinois in 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is said to have declined to have his picture taken with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was in the center of a national turmoil over his decision to allow same-sex marriage in the city.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the snub took place at a fund-raiser hosted by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
"I gave a fund-raiser at (Obama's) request at the Waterfront restaurant," Brown told the Chronicle. "And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn't get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin."
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday that the snub took place at a fund-raiser hosted by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
"I gave a fund-raiser at (Obama's) request at the Waterfront restaurant," Brown told the Chronicle. "And he said to me, he would really appreciate it if he didn't get his photo taken with my mayor. He said he would really not like to have his picture taken with Gavin."
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Clinton Winning Democrats
Obama continued to win the black vote and whites in red states. Is this support in the red states a sign of the Clinton dislike in the south?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/06/super.main/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/06/super.main/index.html
Monday, February 4, 2008
Preacher Copeland Declares Holy War Against Senator
Pentecostal Preacher Pledges Holy War Against GOP SenatorBy Steve Benen,The Carpetbagger ReportIt hasn't generated a lot of headlines, but in the world of religion and politics, it's a pretty big deal. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, recently asked six high-profile, hyper-wealthy Pentecostal televangelists for their financial records, under the suspicion that they're using their ministries for personal gain. (Imagine that.)Not surprisingly, most of the televangelists' ministries have been loath to cooperate with the inquiry. One in particular is pledging a holy war.Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has gone after more than a few iconic nonprofits during his tenure atop the Finance Committee, including the Red Cross, Smithsonian and Harvard University.But now the Finance ranking member and former chairman may have met his match: televangelist Kenneth Copeland of the sprawling Kenneth Copeland Ministries based in Newark, Texas.In a Jan. 22 closed-circuit broadcast of his 2008 Ministers' Conference obtained by Roll Call, Copeland pledges a holy war against "Brother Grassley" and the Senate for attempting to get a look at the controversial ministry's finances. Grassley wrote a Nov. 6 letter to Copeland and five other prominent ministers requesting a variety of financial information."You render unto the government what belongs to the government. And you render unto God what belongs to God," Copeland loudly intones to approving murmurs from the crowd of 1,000 ministers and their guests.Oh, the irony is rich.These TV preachers believe the separation of church and state is some kind of Satanic, communist plot to be rejected by decent people everywhere. That is, right up until a senator wonders if perhaps they're abusing their tax-exempt status, at which point the church-state wall is high and impregnable.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Republicans Take From Poor To Give To The Rich
Bush's Republican supported cuts in Estate Tax would give the Wal Mart children $34 million over ten years and cut Medicare by $29 million over the same ten years.
http://www.alternet.org/story/48278/
http://www.alternet.org/story/48278/
Friday, February 1, 2008
Mobil Sets Record For Rip-Off Profits
Mobil Oil Company set a new record for excessive profits last year. All this price gouging was done during a time of war. Not only are they un-American, but the government that let them gouge the public should be ashamed too. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080201/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_exxon_mobil
Ohio Primary Debates
LOS ANGELES (CNN) – CNN announced Thursday that it will partner with the Ohio Democratic Party and the Ohio Republican Party for back-to-back presidential debates at the end of February.
With the race for each party nomination likely to extend beyond the February 5 Super Tuesday contests, it’s increasingly possible the critical battleground state of Ohio – which holds its presidential primary March 4, along with three other states — could very well determine the 2008 Democratic and Republican nominees.
"Ohio will once again decide who wins the White House,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern. “The Ohio Democratic debate is important because it will allow the next President of the United States to address the issues most important to Ohioans."
Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine also highlighted the state’s potential kingmaker status. "No Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio,” said DeWine. “It's a critical battleground state in November that could play a deciding role on March 4. We're proud to partner with CNN on this debate in advance of what could be a decisive primary election in the Buckeye State."
The Democratic debate will take place Wednesday, February 27, while the Republican debate will follow on Thursday, February 28. The network said further details will be released soon.
With the race for each party nomination likely to extend beyond the February 5 Super Tuesday contests, it’s increasingly possible the critical battleground state of Ohio – which holds its presidential primary March 4, along with three other states — could very well determine the 2008 Democratic and Republican nominees.
"Ohio will once again decide who wins the White House,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern. “The Ohio Democratic debate is important because it will allow the next President of the United States to address the issues most important to Ohioans."
Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine also highlighted the state’s potential kingmaker status. "No Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio,” said DeWine. “It's a critical battleground state in November that could play a deciding role on March 4. We're proud to partner with CNN on this debate in advance of what could be a decisive primary election in the Buckeye State."
The Democratic debate will take place Wednesday, February 27, while the Republican debate will follow on Thursday, February 28. The network said further details will be released soon.
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