Awesome satirical piece on DailyKos: “Dispatch From the War on Christmas”:
This whole war has been a nightmare. I was at Circuit City yesterday, looking for a cheap DVD player. Out front they had a “Happy Holidays” banner that must have been in letters three feet high. I stepped under it, may Jesus forgive me, because I knew I had to get in there, but inside was no better. Some damn wreaths, here and there, and lots of lights, but no tree. I swear to God, no Christmas tree at all — I looked everywhere. It was like being in Iraq or something.
I stumbled around with the rest of the shoppers. Everyone was in a daze, bumping into each other. I don’t think any of us knew what to do, except just keep shopping, but I could tell everyone was thinking what I was. But I wasn’t ready to see the DVD player prices, and I lost it.
“FIFTEEN FUCKING PERCENT OFF?”, I shouted. (Sorry for the language. This war has screwed us all up) — “FIFTEEN FUCKING PERCENT? WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR HERE, AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS A FUCKING FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF?”
The last time, Bill Clinton was taking Bush to task about the Iraq war. This time around, Clinton’s publicly attacking Bush’s stance on the Kyoto accord:
Former President Clinton told a global audience of diplomats, environmentalists and others Friday that the Bush administration is “flat wrong” in claiming that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to fight global warming would damage the U.S. economy.
With a “serious disciplined effort” to develop energy-saving technology, he said, “we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets in a way that would strengthen and not weaken our economies.”
[snip]
“There’s no longer any serious doubt that climate change is real, accelerating and caused by human activities,” said Clinton, whose address was interrupted repeatedly by enthusiastic applause. “We are uncertain about how deep and the time of arrival of the consequences, but we are quite clear they will not be good.”
I know that I’ve said “No More Bushes, No More Clintons.” But if there were any way to get Big Bubba back in the White House, I’d vote/endorse it in a second.
Now that a couple of days have passed, a lot of people are wondering wither the air marshalls were justified in shooting Rigoberto Alpizar. Eyewitess accounts seem to directly contradict the official reasons given for the shooting:
One passenger said he “absolutely never heard the word ‘bomb’ at all” during the uproar as the Orlando-bound flight prepared to leave Miami on Wednesday.
Federal officials say Rigoberto Alpizar made the threat in the jetway, after running up the plane’s aisle from his seat at the back of the jetliner. They opened fire because the 44-year-old Home Depot employee ignored their orders to stop, reached into his backpack and said he had a bomb, according to authorities.
It is hard to say exactly what I would do in that situation without actually having been in that situation, of course. But I’ve gotta believe that there was another resolution besides shooting the guy in the back. Surely one of the marshalls should’ve been able to tackle they guy.
For some reason, I seem to write a lot of entries about Kansas. Can’t imagine why that is, but it might have something to do with the fact that many Kansas residents are apparently out of their friggin’ gourds. Take, for example, Jennifer Watt, a school principal who suspended a student for speaking Spanish at school.
A school superintendent in Kansas has apologized to a high school student suspended for speaking Spanish at school.
Zach Rubio, 16, was sent home from the Endeavor Alternative School last month for speaking in Spanish in the cafeteria and elsewhere at school.
Principal Jennifer Watts sent him home and suspended him through the following day.
District officials told the boy’s father the action was a direct result of his speaking Spanish. Rubio’s father is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years.
Yes, you did read the right, the only “crime” that Rubio committed was speaking his native tongue. Apparently, in Kansas, that’s worthy of suspension from school.
There’s another story about school newspaper censorship, this time regarding high schools in Pennsylvania.
The student newspaper at Lampeter Strasburg High School ran the ad for Common Roads in its November issue — only to have it pulled.
The ad invited gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth to check out the group.
“It’s just saying we’re here if you need us. Check us out,” said Carol Reisinger, executive director of Common Roads.
The superintendent of the Lampeter Strasburg school district, Dr. Robert Frick, nixed the ad after the papers were printed.
They were reprinted without it. Other school papers refused to take the ad from the beginning.
Frick wouldn’t go on camera, but he told the television station that the advertisement encouraged students to attend “something we know nothing about.”
All I can say is: ugh. Schools should be teaching kids about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, not first-hand experience in how censorship works.
Colorado Pols links to a Denver post article suggesting that there is some discord among anti-gay-rights groups in Colorado, specifically regarding a possible amendment banning gay marriage here.
At issue among the different gay union foes is the scope of the final amendment language. Focus on the Family wants a measure that would outlaw any recognition of any legal union outside of that between a man and a woman. Other organizations wish only to protect the definition of the word marriage.
Also according to the article, noted Colorado gay rights rich guy Tim Gill started a PAC with a multi-million dollar budget to fight anti-gay-rights amendments nationwide.
Here’s hoping that the right-wing groups self-destruct, or that Gill’s PAC makes some strides here in Colorado.
