As the World Turns.

When Judge Weller was shot in his office in June 2006, he knew right off the bat who did it.
_____

Although she's been crucified by the media, Heather Mills has refused to compare herself to Jesus Christ; instead, she likens her predicament to the late Diana.
_____

A prominent real estate agent with popular music connections was found murdered:

A woman who helped pioneer the punk music scene, influenced the careers of Madonna and the Ramones and went on to become known as a real estate agent to the stars was found bludgeoned to death Tuesday night in her apartment at 965 Fifth Avenue, the police said yesterday.

The victim, Linda S. Stein, 62, was found shortly before 10:30 p.m. by her daughter Mandy and a friend, who called 911. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

I am sure there will be more about this case.
_____

Washoe, the chimpanzee who knew sign language, has died at the age of 42.
_____

Miscellaneous.

If editors are going to write editorials, they need to get the goddamned facts straight, especially when it comes to the so-called "right to die."

A "right," which translated, means the right to kill, for it is almost always the elderly, the ill, and the disabled who are the targets.

Kevorkian is far more than an "eccentric." He's a fucking serial murderer made into a folk hero by people who should know better.

Oh, and Terri Schiavo wasn't "brain dead." Not even her "husband" and his crackpot attorney ever made that claim.

Campaign Notes.

AFSCME continues its string of picking primary winners by endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

In 2004, the union endorsed Democratic nominee Mouthzilla.

However, the union wasn't unanimous for Hillary:

One official who attended today’s board meeting said 23 board members had voted to endorse Mrs. Clinton while 10 voted for other candidates or for no endorsement. At the meeting several officials argued against backing Mrs. Clinton, saying that she would have trouble beating a Republican in November 2008 because her negatives are so high.

It's a bad sign. She can't win the general election, and last night's debate gave the GOP plenty of ammo, should she win the nomination.

Obituaries.

I thought I'd include a somewhat brief (for the NYT) obituary of singer Robert Goulet, who died yesterday.

In addition to third wife Vera and his three children, he had two grandkids.

For those curious about my previous posts about the late singer, here you will find them, including the post with the famous passage from Elvis: What Happened?

I thought it was worth repeating.

This writer didn't overlook the Elvis story:

He earned a footnote in the saga of Elvis Presley: Mr. Goulet was performing on television when Presley famously blasted his TV screen with a handgun.

A possible explanation for Elvis's negative opinion of Goulet is here.

Supposedly this is the gun in question.

Apparently Goulet himself was puzzled over the incident:

To some music fans he was best known for a performance in which he did not participate: Elvis Presley once put a bullet through a TV broadcast of a Goulet performance.

Goulet always professed bewilderment over the incident, saying he and Presley got on so well that Presley gave him a ring.

Go figure.

ORU Scandal.

A Tulsa judge will hear motions next month in connection with the ORU lawsuit.

ORU's request for a quick court date has been denied.

Why the Hell

are media people still pimping for has-been, never-was Obama? He didn't distinguish himself at all in this or any of the other debates, for God's sake.

Edwards has ALWAYS done great in the debates as has Biden. Why act astonished by the obvious?

This letter following the article is spot-on:

In a perfect world...

...the Democratic primary would be be a neck-in-neck horserace between John Edwards, Chris Dodd (who won that debate in my opinion), Joe Biden and Bill Richardson. I heard concrete ideas from people with the experience to justify their positions.

Barak Obama is in hopelessly over his head. I found it painfull to watch him. Hillary clinton could not give a straight answer to save her life. She came across as calculating and dishonest from start to finish. Everyone is talking about the final ten minutes. Personally, I found her "elastic" justification for her Iran vote to be frightening and her tap dance around her husband's sealing of his presidential document (covering his communication with her) painted her with dishonesty.

I wish the media would focus it attention on those candidates that actually could make a difference instead of the two who's main qualification seems to be raising money from wealthy interests.

The WSWS

trashes the Democrats, and they do this more than they do the Republicans.

They've got to increase their market share of the voting public to .0001 percent of the population.

Campaign Notes.

John Edwards almost always finishes in the top two in these debates (with perhaps Joe Biden edging him out a couple of times). But the media have set the agenda that the Democratic debates would be all Obama and Clinton. Well, Obama certainly didn't earn a "B+," as alleged in this piece. He always does poorly and did last night. He's not a debater. In any case, he's done as a candidate.

Hillary Clinton has not done well the past couple of debates. As times goes on, her unflappable demeanor has gradually disappeared. I hated the fact last night's debate was all about her; the media have gotten their marching orders that she must be the nominee--ANYTHING to keep John Edwards from getting traction.

We know, if we are honest, Edwards has AlWAYS excelled in these debates, but the corporate media, representing the financial elites in this country, will not allow him to get enough face time because he is addressing the class issues which have been so disastrous for the American people.

And how was the face time for the candidates last night?





Can you imagine how far Biden could go if he even had half what HRC had? He got in a lot in the little time he was given.

That

was a hell of a trip to Oregon, I must say. The bus left here in Reno about 9 o'clock, and just before we hit Verdi, about ten miles west of Reno, the goddamned bus died. The bus driver discovered the bus got overheated and quit. The bus quit, I mean, not the driver. This happened for a total of two or three more times. He had to let it cool off for about ten minutes before he could turn it around and go back to Reno. I thought to myself, by the time I got on the bus and got to Sacramento, I'd be so far off schedule I would probably be several hours late getting to Oregon.

So basically I said to myself, fuck it all. I was tired of hearing the jokes about us being the new Donner Party, even though the jokes were funny, but I was tired. When I got to the bus station, I asked to get my suitcase (and hell, I traveled LIGHT for me, with only two bags), and then I took a cab back.

I called my sister, who was in bed, to let her know not to wait for me at the bus station since it might be several weeks before I got in.

I have a month off before returning to work, so I am not sure I will make another try or else just wait until the holidays before trying again.

If I Had the Time,

I'd live blog this debate. Hillary Clinton is getting hit hard from all sides, including from Russert and Williams. It's the pits being the designated frontrunner; you end up having a big target on your back.

She's not doing that well so far.

What gets me is, despite some jabs by the other candidates, the WHOLE focus of this debate is Hillary Clinton. This is despicable; not one vote has been cast, yet the media are already declaring her as the nominee.

Edit: Of course Edwards and Biden did best in that debate. I just hope it isn't too late and Democrats finally get a clue that they need to win this election.

More Campaign Notes.

The media won't report John Edwards has won another state SEIU endorsement, this one from New Hampshire.
_____

Obituaries.

Singer Robert Goulet, 73, lost his fight against lung problems while awaiting a lung transplant.

What a shame.

I saw him in person here in Reno in 2004 at the Eldorado. I remember what a great sense of humor he had.

As the World Turns.

The Queen is standing behind whoever the royal is involved in the "blackmail plot" mentioned in the Times last weekend.

The royal fears that he will be named in the foreign press, which is not covered by the reporting restrictions that apply to blackmail cases.

And more here.

And here.

Apparently somebody named the royal involved on Fox News. I haven't been able to find the name as of yet.

At least one person did hear the name. What a disappointment:

The minor Royal believed to be at the centre of the blackmail, cocaine, and sex video tape scandal is David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley, nephew to the Queen and the son of the late Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon.

He is a somebody to the royals but a nobody to everybody else.

For Fun,

here are some YouTube clips of Dolly and Porter:









This was rather touching:

A recent lung cancer diagnosis, though, halted his personal momentum if not his career’s resurgence. Sunday, he spent his final hours surrounded by family and by his old duet partner, Parton. Though their professional split in the 1970s involved some legal rancor, Wagoner and Parton had long since set aside any differences.

“I went over on Sunday afternoon and spent the last few hours with Porter and his family, so I was able to say goodbye,” said Parton, who rose to stardom when Wagoner chose her to be his foil on the syndicated Porter Wagoner television show.

“I sang for him and prayed with him. It felt good that I had the opportunity to say goodbye properly. His family is very grateful to everyone for all their help.”

They were great together. RIP, Porter.

Campaign Notes.

I will, incredibly enough, be able to watch tonight's debate on MSNBC just before I head out the door to take the long, long, long bus ride to Medford. I will be there for a week before I return back to Reno.

Because I work at a year-round school now, I have breaks scattered through the year. At first I was apprehensive about this arrangement, but now I think it might be better for me.

I won't get as burned out as I was before.

People who think teaching isn't hard are people who have never done it in their lives. It just about kills the hell out of a person, especially the deadlines, rules and regulations of special education. They're a nightmare.

The kids and teaching, however, are great.

The Blood Horse's

Steve Haskin believes the Eclipse Awards are a "done deal," with Curlin likely to win Horse of the Year honors.

Roy and Gretchen Jackson,

who bred George Washington, were extremely saddened about the tragedy that befell him last Saturday during the Breeders' Cup Classic.

After watching the Danehill colt suffer multiple injuries to his right front leg and be euthanized on the Monmouth Park track, Roy Jackson could not help but think about Barbaro. The Jacksons' champion homebred also had to be put down after a long health battle that began with a similar injury suffered at the 2006 Preakness Stakes (gr. I).

“We’re not as emotionally involved with George Washington on a day-to-day basis,” Jackson said Oct. 28. “But I would say it brought up some of the same kinds of feelings as the Barbaro story. We didn’t have that connection (to George Washington), but I still feel very sorry about it. He was a special horse.”

George Washington was very popular in Europe, where he spent most of his racing career.

Miscellaneous.

PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk is on MySpace looking for new converts to her anti-animal cause.

Make no mistake about it. Despite displaying pictures on her webpage showing her with a puppy and writing books about "companion animals," she and her group are totally opposed to animal domestication because it is "exploitative." If the truth were known about the group, and most members aren't even aware of the "ethical" underpinnings of their agenda, PETA and Newkirk would be regarded as the crackpots they are.

They don't give a rat's ass about animals ("slur" intended).
_____

We Might Just As Well

piss Florida off because we aren't going to win that state anyway at the rate things are going.

I Seriously Hope

Obama's flameout doesn't mean we are stuck with Hillary Clinton and a probable loss next November.

This is what happens when Democrats don't use any fucking sense at all and let the media dictate who their candidates will be.

It should NEVER have been 24/7 Hillary and Obama. NEVER.

As the Knife Turns.

The screws get tighter in the robbery case against Simpson.

Barackka of Donniebrook Farm.

The big story coming out of the Obama campaign during the past week or so is his attempt to win South Carolina, which I think Edwards will ultimately win if he takes Iowa as expected, by appealing to the anti-gay black vote. He is doing this by having Grammy-winning singer Donnie McClurkin join him on the stump as a master of ceremonies.

McClurkin has billed himself as a "ex-gay," whatever that is, and he has said he was cured of it by turning to Jesus instead.

If the blogs and discussion boards are representative of voter sentiment in the "real" world, Obama has jumped the shark and probably ought to get out of the presidential race.

The Jesse Ramirez

and Haleigh Poutre cases should give pause to those who advocate killing off patients diagnosed "PVS." We are now finding more and more cases where "PVS" has been misdiagnosed.

Obituaries.

Country singer Porter Wagoner, 80, who had his biggest popularity in the 1960s, especially during the time he worked with his discovery Dolly Parton, has died. He suffered from lung cancer.

I think some of Parton's best work was done with her old partner. She went solo in around 1975.
_____

As the World Turns.

Entertainer Donovan Leitch is still stuck in a time warp, I'm afraid.
_____

Blame firefighting shortages for the southern California wildfire disaster.
_____

Questions arise over a vehicle crash which involved 59 Belgian horses, including 14 who were killed:

Fisch said horse enthusiasts from northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin are mobilizing to try to keep the horses from continuing on their journey, which Fisch suspects will end in a slaughterhouse.

She said most of the animals were just 1 or 2 years old.

She said the trailer was not designed for horses, and the large draft horses inside this one would have had to duck their heads in the cramped quarters of the double-deck trailer.

"They were wedged in like sardines," said Fisch, who stayed at the crash until it was cleared about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

"At least seven were removed alive and had to be put down," Fisch said. "They would literally come out flopping over on their side—if not dead, in terrible shock. So exhausted, and so stressed."

Fisch praised the veterinarians and horse lovers, as well as the Newport Township firefighters, who worked long hours saving the trapped horses.

"This was just sweaty, dangerous, back-breaking work," she said. "We're all sore from pulling and pulling, trying to get these animals up out of the trailer."

I suspect the surviving horses will not be slaughtered.
_____

Dr. Arnold says marijuana is not a drug.
_____

Campaign Notes.

About the only place in the country where Republicans are outraising Democrats in the fundraising race is in Nevada.

I like these reasons:

# Established relationships the candidates have nurtured with Nevada's monied elite.

# Desire from the state's leading industries -- most importantly the gaming industry -- to curry favor with and gain access to government leaders.

# A desire among some to prevent U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton from being elected.

Mitt Romney, though, is the only Republican candidate who has made a serious effort to campaign in Nevada so far.

The Art of the Political Smear

has gotten more sophisticated in recent years thanks to the advent of anonymous email.

For Those Interested,

DaVinci's The Last Supper can be viewed in detail on this website.

Campaign Notes.

Oh, Jesus Christ.

That's yet another reason why the Clinton candidacy is so wrongheaded. We are going to keep rehashing the smear shit over and over and over again.

It's way past due for candidates like this one to get out of the way and therefore people can back no more than one or two rivals against the Clinton machine.

It's just a disaster, I fear. Hillary won't do any better than Mike Dukakis.
_____

Not all country music artists are kneejerk rednecks, for they support candidates in both parties.
_____

I think the shining star is now a fallen one and fallen ever further behind.
_____

Is It Really

Armageddon for the misnamed "evangelical" movement, more accurately termed the religious right?

I expect if they fall apart this time, they will resurrect themselves from the dead and infect the body politic once again.

Or something.

A beautiful animal, George Washington was bred by Roy and Gretchen Jackson, the same people who bred and raced Barbaro.

George Washington raced in Europe.

Snip:

"He did well to stay up," jockey Mick Kinane said. "He was brave. He didn't go down. He stayed up on it. He saved me."

(Patricia McQueen photo)

As the World Turns.

Nevada Day organizers risked alienation yesterday.

The statehood celebration is a major event in this state. When I lived in Oregon, few people knew or even cared about when it became a state (February 14, 1859) and certainly didn't celebrate it.

Everybody here knows when Nevada was admitted to the Union (October 31, 1864).
_____

Mississippi's Como Elementary is an example of the outrageousness of NCLB.

Not that any of our politicians give a shit enough to throw that piece of crap into the garbage can where it belongs.
_____

The injury suffered by George Washington in yesterday's Breeders' Cup Classic could not be repaired and he had to be put down:

“He had an open fracture of the condyle,” said on-call veterinarian Dr. C. Wayne McIlwraith. "The fetlock was dislocated with both sesamoids fractured as well. So it was a hopeless injury as far as repair, and he has been euthanized.”

I just hate this stuff, and it seems that more and more horses are prone to breakdowns because of poor breeding habits. Soundness simply isn't as prized as it once was.

George Washington, 4, raced just 14 times and won six races. Compare his record with the likes of Whirlaway, Exterminator, John Henry, or even Affirmed and Spectacular Bid.
_____

This is something to read during the dinner hour.
_____

No amount of magic was able to keep David Copperfield out of the courtroom on rape charges:

Sources confirmed that the woman told investigators Copperfield later promised he could help with her modeling career and invited her to his isolated $50 million private retreat at Musha Cay, in a tiny string of white-sand islands 85 miles southeast of Nassau, Bahamas.

She told investigators Copperfield assured her that there would be other guests at the 150-acre resort, which is restricted to a maximum of 24 guests and rents for up to $50,000 a night. From Nassau, the retreat is accessible only by charter plane and then private boat.

When the woman, 21, made the trip in late July -- after exchanging e-mails with Copperfield, 51 -- she found herself the only guest on the island with him, she told investigators. She has told Seattle police, and later the FBI, that Copperfield raped and struck her during her two days on the island, said sources familiar with her allegations.

She said that, afterward, Copperfield threatened her, telling her she'd better keep quiet, and then escorted her onto a plane, sources said.

_____

A man took riding a bicycle to extremes and found himself in court.
_____

Oprah should have invested her loot in schools in this country.

This scandal has been all over the tabloids.
_____

Campaign Notes.

Jeri Thompson is scared to death of embarrassing her husband, when in fact it is her husband who should be scared of embarrassing his wife.
_____

As the World Turns.

Prince Harry racked up quite a bar tab.
_____

I wonder who this could be.
_____

ORU Scandal.

Attorneys for the university are concerned there has been a trial in the media against the university and the Robertses, and they want a gag order placed.

Preakness Winner Curlin

has won the Breeders' Cup Classic today at Monmouth Park, the last race on the eight-race card.

Unfortunately, as is far too common in these races, there was a breakdown in the race and the horse, George Washington, had to be euthanized.

As I mentioned yesterday, I couldn't get access to the races because of the satellite dish.

English Channel won the Turf.

Ginger Punch won the Distaff.

Kip Deville won the Mile.

Midnight Lute won the Sprint.

Lahudood won the Filly & Mare Turf.

And War Pass won the Juvenile.

Something needs to be done to stem the occurance of breakdowns in these races, especially these types of races. A generation ago, these were extremely rare.

After I finished marching, I took some pictures of some of the other entries.





I decided to be a poop and snap this picture as we were marching in the parade.



Some participants talk before we head out on Carson Street. When we did, it was quite a long walk. The crowd was very receptive to our entry, which is something considering northern Nevada still leans Republican. I was, however, upset I couldn't obtain the Nevada Day button with this year's logo. All of the souvenir stands sold out of them, and they are not available on the website. I did pick up some other stuff on the way back to the car.




I went to Carson City this year to be a participant in the parade rather than a spectator. I marched in the Nevada Democratic Party entry. I walked carrying the White Pine County sign in the shape of state of Nevada. In this picture, Nevada Democratic Party Chair Jill Derby sat under the float's flying saucer.

Here are some pictures I took of the Nevada Day Parade. This year's theme was Mysteries of Nevada: Area 51 having to do with UFOs and aliens. Too bad organizers didn't invite Dennis Kucinich to be parade marshal.

Will

workers reject the UAW-Chrysler contract?

In a Little While

I am going to head over to Carson City for the annual Nevada Day Parade. The parade supposedly starts at 8 a.m., but I am not sure it is that early.

In the meantime, here, here, and here are the results from yesterday's three (and new) Breeders' Cup Championship races, including video of each race.

Today will be the main event of the eight-race card at Monmouth Park. I doubt I will be able to even record the races since I can't seem to access ESPN.

California News.

The fires plaguing southern California this past week still continue.

After Putting It Off

for 30 years or so, I finally got around to seeing blues great, B.B. King, who performed tonight at Reno's Grand Sierra Resort. I have been wanting to see him, and he has appeared in northern Nevada many times over the years (he's lived in Las Vegas for over 30 years), but I just never got around to it. Since he's 82 years old and has some health problems, including diabetes, I decided I better see him in concert.

He may be old and he had to sit on a chair the entire time because of his bad knees, but he's still sharp as a tack and his guitar playing is intact. King also loves to talk; he and my landlord should get together sometime and see which one can talk the other to death first. The capacity crowd enjoyed his several minutes of monologues sandwiched between the music. The band is top notch, and King's nephew, Walter Riley King, was there with him. I am, however, a bit surprised that none of King's numerous kids was interested enough or talented enough to go into show business or at least share a stage with him (as noted on this blog a couple or so years ago, according to an interview he gave to the New York Times, he has fifteen kids by fifteen different women, surely a show business record of sorts).

In any case, he was great. He and his band performed for over 90 minutes.

I have been a big fan of blues, both the electric and country, since around 1969. King is the last of the great blues artists of the twentieth century and is the most famous. I have many recordings from many different blues artists, and I will probably get more in the coming the years since I like the music so much. Unfortunately, there are few people living today who have followed in the greats' footsteps.

King is one of those people who have made the world a much better place.

As the World Turns.

Thanks to a "three-strikes" law, a man could get life in prison for killing a police dog.

A fund has been established by the Vancouver Police Department to raise money to purchase another dog.
_____

You really have to worry about the state of the judicial system in this country when somebody who has clearly committed child abuse is allowed to walk free.

Some details of this horrendous case:

A Naples mother who had her 13-year-old daughter’s head shaved and private area pierced to prevent her from continuing to have sex was acquitted of child abuse charges Thursday.

A five-man, one-woman Collier Circuit Court jury deliberated roughly three hours before deciding the 39-year-old mother was not guilty of aggravated child abuse or child abuse, finding her actions didn’t involve punishment, malicious intent or cause permanent damage or disfigurement.

She didn't mean any harm to her daughter; she was doing it for her own good.

Kelly and Rogers said jurors didn’t find any malicious intent. “She made poor parental decisions, but nothing was done with malice,” Rogers said. “She tried to get help and then called police, but no one helped and she wound up getting herself in trouble.”

Unreal. The person who did the piercing wasn't very credible, at least to the jury, but why does the mother walk?

They believed Day over Maresca, and considered the case an intrusion on parental rights.

“Maybe it was not the best decision in the world,” Kelly said. “But the intent was to try to stop a girl who was completely out of control. ... Are you going to put every parent in jail for making a bad decision?”

_____

Hooch, the sole survivor of three dogs who were hit by a train the other day, is on the road to recovery.

People should know better than to do what those owners did.
_____

Just How

did the UAW decided to screw over its membership in the Chrysler issue?

Mack Trial.

There was a "to do" list left on the kitchen table.

Campaign Notes.

I'd still like to know where people get the idea Gray Davis wannabe Barack Obama is "gifted"?

But for his ethnic/racial background, there is nothing whatsoever notable about him.

In Broder's demented mind, no other candidates but Clinton and Obama matter. I hate to tell him, but things just may turn around when the Iowa caucus results come in.
_____

So is Hillary Clinton "running away" with the race?

I hope to hell not, for the sake of the Democratic Party's chances next fall.
_____

ORU Scandal.

Oral Robert University is $52.5 million in debt:

The debt accumulated from “years and years and years and years of . . . borrowing,” said board of regents Chairman George Pearsons, who still was gathering information on the sources of debt.

“The board is working on it, doing everything we can to get rid of it,” Pearsons said in an interview last week. “The banner is up: Debt is out. That’s our determination.”

As the World Turns.

The Darren Mack trial officially began with defense lawyers trying to use the insanity excuse for his murderous behavior.

The excuses are drugs, and, get this, "self defense," i.e., it was all his slain wife's fault he killed her:

Defense attorneys painted Charla as a physically and verbally abusive wife. Her own step-grandmother, whom Mack believed to be clairvoyant, predicted Charla would one day stab her husband and that prediction prompted him to start carrying around a knife, his lawyers said.

Freeman said Mack had loved his wife so unconditionally that he allowed her to have sex with other men and women so that she could satisfy her sexual appetite.

_____

A miniature horse was killed by two pit bulls on the loose.

This just makes me sick:

A miniature horse given to a boy with brain cancer by the Make-A-Wish Foundation was killed by a pair of pit bulls who were found roaming in his yard, authorities said.

The 31-inch tall horse, Anniversary, was donated by the foundation to 3-year-old Christian Vasquez in late August.

Christian, who was diagnosed in January with a malignant form of brain cancer, received a pull cart, a blanket, a halter and a bridle set from the foundation on Saturday, said Jelaine Workman, executive director for the foundation's Amarillo chapter.

This is what happens when a guilty-as-sin defendant has no case at all but thinks he can beat the system. The victim is the one who is on trial.

We saw this in the O.J. Simpson trial, and we saw this in the Robert Blake trial, and this tactic is used all the time in lesser known cases.
_____

A few pictures of the recent John Henry memorial service can be found here on this fan site.
_____

I am about to hit the sack, but I have been listening to some of my vintage favorite recordings of the 50s and 60s, when I came across this old Ebony article from 1998 of an interview with the "real" widow of famed doo wop singer Frankie Lymon (1942-1968). As you may recall, there was a big court battle over the rights to his biggest hit, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," and three women claimed they all had been married to Lymon.

The dispute was made into a movie.

Lymon was one of my all-time favorites. I love doo wop.

I thought the article was worth posting a link from this blog.
_____

The Collective Inferno

engulfing California is worse because, like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina two years ago, there are serious problems facing our infrastructure and emergency response.

The Booming Economy Casualty List for 10/17-10/25.

Bank of America--3,000 jobs lost

According to this, the UAW doesn't sound like the auto workers' best friend.

In a somewhat related piece, the auto industry faces turmoil.

Jackson County's Libraries

finally opened after being closed due to Congress sitting on its collective ass and doing basically nothing about it except a short term bandaid solution, but that's only because services were outsourced to a private outfit, thus saving money on labor costs.

The contractor has half the budget of the old, and hours are reduced.

This is a shitty way to resolve a problem.

As the World Turns.

Singer Robert Goulet will remain sedated until he receives a lung transplant.
_____

It's hard work being a dog breeder.
_____

It Ain't

the best of times to be a rightwing media flak.

Now This Is

interesting, to say the least:

A former U.S. attorney general on Tuesday accused the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh of launching public corruption probes that targeted Democratic officeholders while looking the other way when presented with evidence of misconduct by Republican officials.

The incendiary remarks by Richard L. Thornburgh, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania as well as the top Justice Department official from 1988 to 1991, represented some of the most extraordinary testimony yet in the continuing congressional investigation into allegations of politicization of the Justice Department under ousted Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

Thornburgh, now an attorney in private practice, represents nationally known forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who was indicted by a federal grand jury last year for allegedly misusing his elected position as the Allegheny County coroner. Prosecutors allege that Wecht directed employees at the coroner's office to spend substantial portions of their time performing tasks related to his private consulting business that reportedly grosses over $1 million a year.

Thornburgh said the indictment blew out of proportion what were, at most, a series of minor transgressions. He said prosecutors targeted Wecht because he was an outspoken and highly visible Democratic figure in western Pennsylvania. The case is set for trial in January.

Pass the popcorn, please.

Campaign Notes.

Woke up this morning with light in my eyes
And then realized it was still dark outside
It was a light coming down from the sky
I don't know who or why

Must be those strangers that come every night
Those saucer shaped lights put people uptight
Leave blue-green footprints that glow in the dark
I hope they get home all right

Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won't you please take me along
I won't do anything wrong
Hey, Mr. Spaceman
Won't you please take me along for a ride

I was reminded of the song while reading this.

Talk about alienating your supporters.

And yes, we are becoming an alien nation.
_____

I don't know if I will get a ticket or even make it to the debate if I did get one, but I put in for a ticket to the Democratic debate in Vegas on November 15.
_____

Our Dictator

didn't "destroy" "conservativism." He is the end result of the twisted political philosophy.

One can't ruin something that's morally bankrupt to the core.

Bush's Plan

to increase the media monopoly should concern everybody.

All of it in pursuit of profit.

Let's Hope

the Chrysler agreement is defeated by auto workers.

The Democrats

better not fuck it up and nominate somebody who can't win. The GOP's candidates aren't as weak as we'd like to think they are.

This sure as hell is true, but Republicans won't nominate him to the top spot:

The other stunner of the weekend, both in Washington and Florida at Sunday's debate, was the sterling performance of Mike Huckabee. One of the great mysteries of this campaign has been the reluctance of Christian-right leaders to support the Arkansas governor. While they have pointed to his lack of "viability"--read: money--as the reason, the real source of religious-right discomfort with the whip-smart, witty Baptist preacher unquestionably lies with Huckabee's economic populism. He is a down-the-line social conservative, to the extremity of advocating for the repeal of "no-fault" divorce. But Huckabee's governance in Arkansas has borne scant resemblance to the corporate flackery of his fellow Christian-right heavyweights--the man raised taxes, for goodness' sake, and just won't stop talking about uplifting the working class and bringing minorities into the party. At times, he even sounds--heaven forbid!--pro-labor. All of which matches him up, almost to a T, with the clear majority of not only Republican but also independent and conservative Democratic voters in the South and Midwest. These folks, black and white, tend to be social conservatives and economic populists. Huckabee is the first candidate in a long time who embodies that particular alchemy. He is also, far and away, the freshest and most appealing talent in the race--on either side. He is the one Republican who would be an absolute cinch to win the general election against any of the three leading Democrats. But he remains a long shot--unless Iowa Republicans give him a slingshot.

He clearly studied Bill Clinton, for his style is almost identical to the former president's. He's by far the most talented politician the GOP has. I look for him to be the running mate to whoever wins the nomination.

ORU Scandal.

For the first time in three years, Oral Roberts came back to the university he founded to promise "the devil" would not steal ORU.

The IRS might, however.

California News.

Southern California as we know it is endangered today.

As the World Turns.

I ain't any right-winger, but there is something terribly wrong with our country if middle school students are having sex.

They are below the legal age of consent, for God's sake.
_____

The Daddy Warbucks of the radical right has gotten his comeuppance:

Unfathomable but true, when Scaife (rhymes with safe) married his second wife, Margaret "Ritchie" Scaife, in 1991, he neglected to wall off a fortune that Forbes recently valued at $1.3 billion. This, to understate matters, is likely going to cost him, big time. As part of a temporary settlement, 60-year-old Ritchie Scaife is currently cashing an alimony check that at first glance will look like a typo: $725,000 a month. Or about $24,000 a day, seven days a week. As Richard Scaife's exasperated lawyers put it in a filing, "The temporary order produces an amount so large that just the income from it, invested at 5 percent, is greater each year than the salary of the President of the United States."

The numbers are just one of many we-kid-you-not dimensions to this tale. In late 2005, Ritchie Scaife peered through a window at one of her husband's many homes and saw him with one Tammy Sue Vasco, a woman whose colorful criminal history includes an arrest for prostitution. And this tryst was no one-afternoon stand. Ritchie Scaife describes Vasco in court filings as her husband's "mistress."

_____

Very Often Bloggers

of the "left" persuasion trash Democrats more than they do Republicans, especially those Democrats who don't fit in with their preconceived idea of what Democrats should stand for.

Because they can't count, these same bloggers hold the Democrats far more responsible for the continued mess in Washington than they do the Republicans.

Without a veto proof majority or a president of their own party in the White House, there's not a hell of a lot Democrats can do.

Edit: Fixed the goddamned link.

Campaign Notes.

It figures that when I can't watch a debate, the debate is worth watching.
_____

I certainly hope John Edwards doesn't go the way of the Mouth of Montpelier, despite having the same fool running things.
_____

Miscellaneous.

I doubt PETA cares much about facts when it has an agenda which is opposed to animal domestication in general.
_____

More Campaign Notes.

John Edwards continues to promote his message that everybody needs to hear whether they want to or not.
_____

ORU Scandal.

Some ORU alumni are sad a lawsuit was filed instead of the parties going through "Christian" mediation.

As the World Turns.

Actually, it is "As the West Dries Up," thanks to drought conditions.

We went to Lake Mead and Lake Powell this past summer, as I wrote about, and both lakes were very low. That was the first thing we noticed about both of them. Yet, especially in Las Vegas, people are moving to that part of the country despite water shortages.
_____

Oklahoma has an unfortunate reputation as a "puppy mill" state.
_____

One of these years I am going to visit Hearst Castle.
_____

A very, very lucky few who toil at blogs can actually make enough money at it to do nothing else.

Yours truly obviously can't.
_____

Noted educator and social critic Jonathan Kozol is making a strong personal statement against that piece of shit known as NCLB.

Kozol is one of the great people of our time who actually wants to make this world a better place by promoting social justice.
_____

Political Notes.

It was no surprise Bobby Jindal got elected governor of Louisiana, especially given the fact he had 12 other opponents.

Jindal is only 36 years old.

This guy is probably one to watch in the coming years.
_____

The Middle Class

isn't pulling down as much money as one would think:

The real "middle" among American wage earners, after deductions for child support and, if you're lucky, payments into a 401(k), is $30,881 a year. That's the median wage - not the misleading average wage - meaning, half of employees make more than $30,881, and half make less. Not very impressive, is it? A family of four with one wage earner making $20,000 is officially in poverty in the United States, which is not very far away from the median wage of a little over $30,000. And we haven't even talked about health care costs and the ever-rising price of housing.

The median is the true figure (half above, half below), not some phony "average" which, as the writer notes, includes people like Bill Gates. A handful of the Forbes 400 and even those pulling down more than 200k a year can distort the figures.

"Household" income is also a big distorter, as multiple incomes for one family can mask the real decline in wages and salaries of individual jobs. It's obvious two incomes have about the same purchasing power as one from thirty or forty years ago.

Both cooked figures are very similar to reading Labor Department statistics about the "fastest-growing" jobs over the next decade. Those percentages mean absolutely NOTHING when it is the NUMBER of jobs being projected that should be the concern.

Campaign Notes.

Barack Obama can take comfort in this article:

But the Bush-Obama-Cheney nexus means rather less than it may seem. Conventional genealogies conceal how rapidly genes get diluted down the generations. You inherit directly only half of your father’s genes, a quarter of each grandfather’s, an eighth of any great-grandfather’s. And with ancestors much further back, you may share no more genes than you do with a random stranger met in Times Square.

_____

Edwards continues to pile up union support, support which is critical in the early states.

The handwriting is clearly on the wall with regard to Iowa. Yes, the race is a dead heat, but Edwards hasn't spent anything in the way of television ads, while his "frontrunner" opponents have wasted millions.

Why in the world would Hillary Clinton, with her name recognition, spend millions on ads? It tells me the ground operation there isn't all that strong, while Edwards has spent the past three or so years building his up.

Biden should do well there. He is good at "retail politics."
_____

Ron Paul won the straw poll of people who were at the Conservative Leadership Conference last weekend in Sparks.

The results are interesting, but they show just how far out of the mainstream attendees are.

It would be like having a straw poll of posters at Democratic Underground where Dennis Kucinich almost always finishes close to the top.
_____

The Republicans had a debate tonight on Fox News, but I was unable to watch it because of satellite problems.

I almost always problems with receiving the signal from Fox, and I often have problems with Court TV as well. That's the big problem with having a satellite dish as opposed to cable.

But I'm not going back to cable for a long time, if ever. It costs too goddamned much.
_____

As the Mouth Yaps.

It might have been another lifetime ago because the once-vocal Mouth is now working quietly behind the scenes as DNC chair.

As I've written countless times over the years, I never disliked him at all; I just felt he was a wretched presidential candidate, which events bore out. He's done much better as the DNC chair.

That's the probably the only positive thing the nutroots have accomplished since they began screaming about the Democratic Party.

The reason he changed his tune is it's likely this is the "real Dean." The monstrosity of 2003-2004 was the creation of advisers like Joe Trippi.

Campaign Notes.

Catty remarks about Hillary Clinton might knock the Socks off her support.
_____

Joe Biden lands a haymaker on Obama.

It may sound farfetched at this point, but I believe the primary race will end up being Edwards vs. Biden.
_____

As the World Turns II.

The McCartney divorce could get very, very ugly.
_____

Orion the cat somehow survived a house fire.
_____

A bald eagle found shot unfortunately had to be euthanized.
_____

Other

than being an idiot with a death wish for going out in the Alaskan wilderness all by himself, there is mystery surrounding Chris McCandless' final days and death.

Incredibly, the bus where McCandless spent his final days and where people found his stinking corpse has become a tourist attraction.

As the World Turns.

Sex abuse in the schools isn't too rare, not even way back when.

Nowadays, it simply isn't tolerated. If you want to destroy your teaching career do one of two things: cheat on standardized tests or molest students.
_____

More commentary about the Hastings Center Report "perspective" justifying denying the civil rights of those who are profoundly disabled; in other words, the commentary about the "Ashley X" case, the treatment which was found illegal.

I can't for the life of me understand why liberals and progressives aren't more in favor of disability rights for ALL disabled people. It makes no sense.

Speaking of "Ashley X," I missed this good article from Salon which was published last February. Evidently the doctors were more troubled about the mutilation than was noted by the media.

_____

Elementary, My Dear

Watson, as he proved his intellect was way below anybody's in high school--hell, pre-school--as he is given the boot.

Even the so-called smartest people in the world prove they are more stupid than the rest of us.

Now

this is interesting:

To begin with, not everyone makes the $165,000 a year or so that members of Congress do. In fact, at least 100,000 federal workers — at least 5 percent of the active work force — do not have health insurance. In many cases, according to the union that represents the workers, they consider even the cheapest options within the federal plan unaffordable. The lowest-priced family coverage offered by Blue Cross, for example, costs the employee about $2,400 a year.

Of course, Medicare, a single-payer program for the elderly, should be expanded to cover everybody. We already have "socialized medicine" for some people because the private system can't do shit when it is motivated by turning over a profit.

This Year,

the Breeders' Cup Championships will be held over TWO days instead of one. This year the organizers are adding three new races to the mix. The races will begin this coming Friday, October 26 and conclude Saturday, October 27.

Check local listings for the times.

I hate the fact NBC isn't going to broadcast the races anymore. They did a superb job over the years.

As the World Turns II.

Well, well, well:

Marcus S. Owens, a lawyer who headed the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees charities and foundations, said the Casey foundation might incur taxes on its purchase because it would have difficulty demonstrating that buying the letter furthered a charitable purpose. “They’d have to establish the link between the transfer of money for that letter and promoting free speech,” Mr. Owens said, “and that’s going to be tough.”

Oops.

In Response to People

like talk show host Bernie Ward who always bitch and moan that the Democrats don't do shit in Congress because they are "spineless" and never mind numerical reality, John Edwards wants to put forward a "True Blue Majority" initiative to help elect super-majorities in the House and the Senate.

As long as Republicans vote in lockstep and are able to vote in numbers to hinder any progress, Democrats aren't going to be able to make much headway.

An Edwards ticket would certainly create coattails nationwide.

John Henry

was honored today at a memorial service at the Kentucky Horse Park, where the racing great lived out his days following his retirement from the track.

About 500 people were at the service, including Judy Gadwood:

Judy Gadwood never saw John Henry race.

She never saw him flex that 251/2-foot stride in person, never stood in the grandstand cheering as he willed himself across the finish line.

That Gadwood learned of the legendary gelding long after he had beaten his last foe into submission didn't matter to the Burbank, Calif., resident.

It wasn't enough to keep her from falling head over heels in love with the diminutive old warrior -- or to stave off the tears yesterday.

"My introduction to John Henry was through my late husband, John, who passed away in 1991," said Gadwood, clutching her John Henry photo against her John Henry T-shirt. "Little did I know what I was in for, because that little horse got into my heart and never left.

"I came here for my birthday Oct. 8th, the day they euthanized him, and then I came back this week for his funeral. That's how much he means to me. He's like family now."

As the World Turns.

DNA pioneer James Watson is now up the crick.

Watson tried to defend or clarify what he said last weekend, but I think he made things worse:

But he restates his position that studying genes may help to understand variations in intelligence. In his interview with a Sunday newspaper, Dr Watson said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really". He was quoted as saying his hope is that everyone is equal but that "people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true".

Dr Watson says in his article today that he has never been one to shy away from stating what he believes to be true, however unpalatable that may be.

"This has, at times, got me in hot water," he says. "Rarely more so than right now, where I find myself at the centre of a storm of criticism.

"I can understand much of this reaction. For if I said what I was quoted as saying, then I can only admit that I am bewildered by it. To those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly. This is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

However, Dr Watson goes on to suggest that genes may account for many behavioural traits, including intelligence and even criminality. "The thought that some people are innately wicked disturbs me," he says. "But science is not here to make us feel good."

Watson needs to shut up. So do those posting comments over here. It seems the Aryan Nations mob has been active on that site.
_____

Rush Limbaugh decided to exploit a controversy in order to benefit a charity.

The winner of the letter was a rich philanthropist, Betty Casey. Limbaugh pitched in an equal amount to charity.
_____

Jason Torres went through an experience he happened to forget--he was struck by lightning.
_____

I am coming to the conclusion the best place to embezzle money is from a church.
_____

It appears there's another Terri Schiavo out there who might wind up getting knocked off by rotten relatives.
_____

This critique of an offensive editorial (called "perspective") in the Hastings Center Report is accurate.

Too bad the Hastings article is available only if you have campus online access, which I have, and therefore is unlinkable. The article is in pdf format. The publishers probably did it so the article wouldn't get widespread notice.

Shit, old James Watson could have written that piece of crap.

It'll Be a Cold Day in Hell

when "evangelicals" jettison the Republican Party and support some third-party candidate, especially if that means somebody like Hillary Clinton gets elected.

It's purely wishful thinking.

Campaign Notes.

Barack Obama gave an interview with the local paper yesterday when he was in Reno.

More about his visit is here.

_____

Bill Richardson must be optimistic about his chances in Nevada because he has opened a fourth office in the state, this one in Elko.
_____

Considering It Was

a workday, Barack Obama still managed to pull in 2,000 people at the Grand Sierra Resort for a town hall meeting.

During his 15-minute speech, Obama went on the attack after the designated frontrunner, but commenters who were there disagree he did much in that regard.
_____

Obituaries.

Big-voiced singer Teresa Brewer, somebody whose records I heard zillions of times in the days before I became potty trained, has died at the age of 76.

She was very young then in the 1950s, as was I. In fact, I wasn't even born when she had some of her hits.

Brewer was married twice, divorced once, and widowed once. She had four daughters, one stepson, four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
_____

Actress Deborah Kerr, 86, has gone from here to eternity. She died Tuesday in Suffolk, England.

In this famous still, she's sucking face with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity. It caused quite a stir at the time:




(Columbia Pictures)

The LA Times must have expected her death because she got quite a long write-up.
_____

The last of the famed Rat Pack, comedian Joey Bishop, has died at the age of 89.

He was less flamboyant than most of that exclusive club.

Bishop's wife died in 1999. He had a son, two grandkids, and some gal he shacked up with for several years.
_____


_____

Crackpottery came to Reno yesterday in the form of a PETA protest.

The women should have put bags over their heads; they are that foolish. (Andy Barron, Reno Gazette-Journal)

As the World Turns.

The kids of this country don't stand a chance against a Republican Party which thinks ANY help to people is "socialism," and never mind all of the handouts to the rich and corporations.
_____

The ruination of the United States continues under the guise of "competition."
_____

And speaking of ruin, just how much has our dictator ruined the presidency?
_____

Campaign Notes.

Rumor has it Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas is going to throw in the towel.

He was a longshot anyway.
_____

John Edwards will participate on an online forum today at 2 Eastern and 11 Pacific.

Barack Obama, of course, will be in Reno today at a town hall meeting.
_____

State labor leaders in Oklahoma endorsed John Edwards for president.

And another endorsement in Massachusetts.
_____

Republican-leaning David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register throws in a few snotty remarks about John Edwards but admits it's way too early to write him off:

But watching him work in the sweaty auditorium of a Waukee elementary school Tuesday night, one gets a different feeling: Iowa Democrats may still give this guy a new lease on political life.

Why? John Edwards is tenacious and still in the hunt for first place. While the latest Iowa Poll shows Clinton at 29 percent, Edwards slipping to 23 percent and Obama at 22 percent, it's also important to remember that both Clinton and Obama have dropped millions on television commercials in the state. Edwards has yet to make his big media buy.

He's also getting his share of union endorsements, although those don't produce the results they once did.

He spends more time in Iowa than his rivals. (His wife jokes that if someone asked the couple for directions in Iowa, they could provide them.)

While Obama and Clinton have only recently discovered the fact that 49 percent of Iowa's Democratic caucus-goers live in rural and small-town Iowa, Edwards has been mining those tiny lodes for years.

Edwards isn't hurting for money in this campaign season, not if he's as tight with a buck as he's been in the past.
_____

I'm Sorry,

but if anybody thinks that the religious right is going to bolt from the GOP just because Giuliani might be the nominee is engaging in extremely wishful thinking.

Especially if Democrats are stupid enough to pick Hillary as the nominee. Few if any Republicans are going to splinter off and form a third party and allow Clinton to win the way her husband won.

The right would be happy if somebody like Mike Huckabee became the running mate.

ORU Scandal.

The scandal keeps getting better and better as Richard Roberts has decided to take a leave of absence :

The last 3 weeks have taken a serious toll on me and my family. The untrue allegations have struck a terrible blow in my heart. The untrue allegations of sexual misconduct by my wife have hurt the most. It has broken her heart and the hearts of my children that such untrue allegations could be made. Lindsay and my children have sustained heavy damage these last weeks. God is very interested in the family unit and so am I.

The plaintiffs have said "We don't know if any of these allegations are true, but they are so defaming that the Roberts won't survive." We Roberts have a strong faith in God and in what is right. We will do what is right and trust the Lord.

Today, I have asked the Board of Regents of Oral Roberts University to grant me a temporary leave of absence until such time as these matters can be resolved. I have prayed about it, and feel that it is in the best interest of my family and the University.

I have a tremendous love for the students and alumni of ORU -- they are precious to God. They came here to get a quality education and to learn to hear the Voice of God. That's happening daily. Even today, other young people around the world are searching for the right college to attend. I pray that they will consider ORU. This university is academically sound, spiritually alive and physically disciplined.

I don't know how long this leave of absence will last, but I fully trust the members of the Board of Regents. They are great men and women who have a deep love for this university and for me and my family. I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as President.

Meanwhile, I will give myself afresh and anew to my family, and to prayer and the Word of God. I shall continue my role as Chairman and CEO of the Oral Roberts Ministries. I shall continue on television as I have a burning passion for the lost, the sick and the hurting of this world. I shall continue preaching and teaching God's Word and drawing people to Christ our Savior. I shall continue to write letters and books and minister to the needs of people for I have a passion for souls. Thank you for all your prayers and support; it means a great deal to me and my family.

Somebody

should tell scientist James Watson who the stupid person actually is.

It sure as hell isn't "Africans."

So What Do We Really Know

about "vegetative" patients?

Well, perhaps that many doctors have been killing or allowing to have killed far too many people just because those people cannot communicate their feelings in the "normal" way.

Campaign Notes.

While Obama tries to be all things to all people, he may discover he is nothing to a lot of Democratic voters.
_____

Meanwhile, GOP donors are hedging their bets over which loser to back.
_____

John Edwards should know better than to believe anybody other than Hillary Clinton will win the nomination.
_____

As the World Turns.

A doctor who was convicted of manslaughter in a sensational case back in 1975 but whose conviction was overturned is still alive and has a book out.

I have a number of articles in an old scrapbook about his case.
_____

Now even a little bit of booze can kill you, and I don't mean in DUI accidents, either.

With everything bad for us, we ought to all curl up and die.
_____

My representative displays his concern for children.
_____

At the rate Republican senators and representatives are bailing, Heller could be the only one left.
_____

Gene Lyons

also notes the continued media hatred for Al Gore.

In truth, the reason they hated him so much had to do with the fact they couldn't run Bill and Hillary Clinton out of town on a rail. By lying about Gore, they thought they could defeat him.

They didn't really; it was up to a corrupt USSC to hand the election over to Bush.

So Why is It

the media despise Al Gore?

You Know,

I have looked high and low for things to comment on, and there's absolutely nothing out there today.

Oh, yeah, Rudy paid Barack a compliment today, which should do something for both of their poll numbers.

And there was the story of same damned dumb shit who tried--and failed--to enter the Darwin Awards.

But outside of that, there's not much to write about.

I could work on my midterm exam, but I don't feel like it right now.

As the World Turns.

Jeanette Sliwinski is on trial for murder.

She's the motorist who claimed to have tried to commit suicide when her car rammed into another one, killing three people.
_____

ORU Scandal.

The IRS warned ORU about the way the university handled its political programs, and evidently that warning was ignored.

Jeremy Burton, a spokesman for ORU, confirmed that ORU was first contacted by the IRS in a letter May 3, 2006.

The letter stated that the IRS was investigating ''whether we participated in political programs inappropriately for a 501(c)(3) organization,'' Burton said in an e-mail to the Tulsa World.

ORU answered the IRS' questions and received a follow-up letter with additional questions on July 25, Burton's e-mail states. The university responded to those questions as well, he said.

Campaign Notes.

John Edwards is still very much in the race, and he is going to places where the "frontrunners" wouldn't deign to go.
_____

As the World Turns.

A loudmouthed "progressive" talk show host was allegedly mugged Sunday night.

I never cared for her. Her voice is positively grating.

Edit: We now know those stories are false.

Now I can go back to ignoring her.
_____

Well no shit. NCLB is designed to MAKE schools "fail" so they can be privatized.
_____

As the Knife Turns.

O.J. might not get out of this jam.
_____

As the World Turns II.

Now I've heard everything:

A Foster City man is being held for allegedly hitting his father in the head with a hammer because he mistakenly thought the 81-year-old man had to be hospitalized before he could be admitted to a nursing home, prosecutors said today.

Jayantibhai Patel, 57, is being held on $500,000 bail, despite requests from Patel's father and other relatives that he be released.

I am speechless.
_____

Alleged child molester Chester Stiles has been arrested.
_____

The Road to Inevitability

is inevitably lined with landmines.

She ain't gonna get elected president in a million years.

Champion racehorse Slew O' Gold, who was defeated in dramatic fashion by Wild Again in the inaugural running of the Breeders' Cup Classic back in 1984 but still won champion older male honors, was euthanized yesterday because of infirmities of old age. He was 27 years old.

These pictures of Slew O' Gold were taken on August 1, 1989, at Three Chimneys Farm, where his sire, Seattle Slew, stood for several years. Slew O' Gold was a rangy bay, almost as tall as Forego. He had a beautiful head.

From the report:

Slew o’ Gold, who was pensioned in August of 2002, was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age. “It’s been well documented that Slew o’ Gold had Cushing’s disease and EPM, but he had a variety of other ailments as well,” said Three Chimneys veterinarian Dr. Jim Morehead. “Once we devised his air conditioned stall this summer, he was quite comfortable but he was very happy last week when we finally got some cooler weather."

"Sandy (Hatfield, Three Chimneys stallion manager) commented that he practically dragged his groom to the paddock every morning last week. Indeed, on Sunday morning, he was jogging in his paddock. But Sunday afternoon he had a convergence of symptoms that told us his system was failing, and he was euthanized Sunday evening."

ORU Scandal.

One of the issues brought up in the lawsuit has to do with the use of students being involved in a local political campaign, in this case a candidate endorsed by ORU president Richard Roberts.

As for Lindsay and Richard Roberts, they have been praying a hell of a lot:

The Robertses said the lawsuit took aim at their character. It contains a report at least partially written by Lindsay Roberts' sister, Stephanie Cantees, whose job is to record happenings and rumors around town and in government and report to Richard Roberts.

The report claimed that the Robertses used ministry vehicles for themselves, had ORU and ministry employees do their daughters' homework, charged personal clothing expenses to business accounts, used the ORU "jet" to take one daughter and her friends on a senior trip, and more.

When the Roberts daughters heard those allegations, they said, "All right, here we go again," Lindsay Roberts said.

The family has been the subject of false rumors before: that Lindsay Roberts was pregnant when she and Richard Roberts married, that the family had installed a wall-length aquarium in their home to house a shark, and that Oral Roberts died in surgery, to name a few, they said.

The report referenced in the lawsuit "was so ridiculous, I just dismissed it out of hand" when he received it from Cantees three years ago, Richard Roberts said.

This, too, is interesting:

Lindsay Roberts expected to become a lawyer. She described herself as being shy when she met Richard Roberts at ORU. Since that day, she knew she wanted to marry him. Now she appears on television 10 or more times a week.

Her husband wanted to be an athlete and night-club singer. Not yet a Christian, he wanted to get out of his parents’ house. He started singing and acting at the University of Kansas and had plans to sing in Las Vegas lounges for the summer. But in his second semester, he was hospitalized with a colon problem that would require surgery. He prayed, “God, if you’ll heal me, I’ll serve you.”

One of the commenters below the article had a slightly different version:

I see that Richard has changed his story of how "he" decided to leave KU and come back to Tulsa. The original story was that his parents and some folks from the University went up to where he was performing in Kansas City in a musical production with Shirley Jones. Mr. & Mrs. Roberts demanded that he drop out of show business and enroll in ORU and live in the dorm on campus where they could keep track of his whereabouts. This was not a rumor someone made up; it used to be official Oral Roberts family information.

. . . This is sort of like the Roberts family and ORU in denial that Richard's elder brother, Ronald Oral was not openly gay after he was divorced. I knew some people in Hollywood who told stories of Ron going to gay clubs when the weekly TV shows were taped at NBC Studios in Burbank. He supposedly just happened to be in the LA area because he came with the family for the trip.

. . . In regard to Lindsay's original relationship with Richard, it is considered to be professionally unethical for a student, no matter what standing with the institution, to date a staff member or a professor of the same institution.

Campaign Notes.

Surprise, surprise! Old Rudy is tainted.
_____

John Edwards received a boatload of endorsement from various state SEIU affiliates, including California's.
_____

It's a good time to be a liberal, but will liberals, or rather Democrats be able to seize power after next year's elections?
_____

Obama made a pitch to 4,000 people today in Madison, Wisconsin.
_____

Just what is in it for Jeri Thompson?
_____

This Writer

is absolutely correct about "living wills" and all of the other schemes perpetrated by the "right-to-die" crowd.

Who the hell has the right to tell somebody else his or her life isn't worth living, regardless of age, disability, or illness?

As the World Turns.

Zillionaire Richard Branson believes Steve Fossett is likely dead.
_____

Is the United States as we know it toast?

I'd hate to think so.
_____

Another animal cruelty or animal hoarding case has come to light.

When you've got that many animals, you're obviously not right in the head.
_____

More Campaign Notes.

I doubt I will be able to attend, but Barack Obama is going to be in Reno on Thursday morning, October 18, with doors opening at 11 a.m. It will be at the Grand Sierra Resort.

It's a town hall meeting but as I said, because I work that day, I doubt I will be able to go.
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Rudy tries to sell to a skeptical public the idea he saved New York from whatever it was he claims he was trying to save it from.
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Fall Leaves.

This afternoon I was out and about Reno taking pictures of some fall leaves. Here are a few pictures:

ORU Scandal.

In written statements released yesterday, Richard and Lindsay Roberts deny all of the allegations in the lawsuit filed against Richard and ORU by three fired ORU professors.

Lindsay Roberts is actually just slightly younger than I am at 51. She's still not a trophy wife, however, at least not in recent years. I could have found out her age here at USA People Search, had I remembered to look her up.

Here is what she had to say about the charges leveled against her:

Lindsay Roberts said in her statement Saturday that "the part that grieves me the most" is the spreading of the allegations through the media "when the parties suing have continued to say they don't even know if these allegations are true."

"I believe it's grossly unfair to allow such speculation to be used against me and attached to a lawsuit in which I am not even named as a party," she said. "I firmly believe that my vindication will certainly come in the court of law in the future and I am issuing this statement because I am unwilling to idly sit by and be accused of actions that are not true."

(Photo of the pair by Kelly Kerry, Tulsa World)

Campaign Notes.

Champion lightweight boxer Hillary Clinton hits Iowa without breaking a sweat.

However, I expect Iowa to hit back--and hard--when caucus goers there pick John Edwards for the Democratic nomination.

Remember, he has yet to run much in the way of television ads there while Clobama have spent literally millions on ads.
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Mitt Romney's candidacy has put the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the spotlight, some of it harsh.

The church has made many claims over the years about the circumstances surrounding its origin and in its growth, and it has been heavily criticized:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in a log cabin by Joseph Smith and five members in upstate New York in 1830. Members believe Smith revived the early church after receiving revelations from God through the angel Moroni. From those early American beginnings, the church has grown rapidly, fueled mainly by black and Latino converts won over by Mormon missionary zeal.

The global surge of Mormonism has been hotly debated, with one scholar, Rodney Stark, claiming it is the fastest-growing religion in the world, rivaling Islam. Stark predicts there will be 60 million Mormons by 2080. Many have attacked that claim as a myth, saying the church also struggles with retaining members.

Its origins have been disputed by many who claim the religion and the Book of Mormon were elaborate hoaxes perpetrated by a master con man, Joseph Smith.

While the church receives kudos by many for its pro-family message, its attitude about women basically having no value other than wives and mothers (I exaggerate only slightly) doesn't endear itself to many outside of the faith. The church also deserved much criticism in recent decades over its racism with regard to blacks. And it also has to continually confront its long-ago history of polygamy.

I honestly don't know if Romney's religion--considered a cult by many fundamentalist and evangelical sectors of Christianity--will make or break him. I think if somehow he wins the nomination, he may--if he's smart--pick Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, as a way to counteract the criticism.
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More About Our Booming Economy.

The plain unvarnished truth is if the raids against illegal immigrants continue, the economy will be impacted because companies would have to raise pay in order to attract workers who legally live in the United States.

And we can't have those uppity working-class people get a fair share of the economic pie, can we?
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It's "no shit, Sherlock" as the number of foreclosures rises in the Bay Area.
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Financial firms join businesses in trying to find ways to screw workers over on their pensions.
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As the World Turns.

Everything I learned about war I learned from my cats. (Joao Silva, NYT)

A snip:

But that lay ahead when I arrived at the Baghdad airport one recent summer day with the crate carrying the four cats. Getting them that far had been a saga, finding Iraqi health officials ready to issue and counterstamp fit-to-travel documents; negotiating the 12 hazardous miles to the airport through an obstacle course of checkpoints where soldiers and policemen have been trained to destroy on sight any “suspicious package”; and persuading wary airline personnel to clear the cat crate for loading.

The process took hours, and left me exhausted, sitting on the terminal’s marble floor beside the cats, as the time for boarding approached.

All about was hubbub, with hundreds of angry, fearful Iraqis struggling to secure their own passage out. The cats seemed terrified, so I fell once more into my anthropomorphic mode, offering them a quiet discourse on what lay ahead — the 3,000-mile air journey, detention in the quarantine center and, ultimately, liberation into a green and pleasant land where they would be full citizens, never again wanting for shelter, warmth and food.

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Speaking of cats, a tiger once believed to be extinct in the wild in China has been spotted.

I don't mean the tiger is spotted instead of striped, but that it has been seen for the first time in more than twenty years.
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Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier 60 years ago.
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Since NONE of the area surrounding Lake Tahoe, whether in the north or in the south, in the east or in the west, EVER should have been allowed to have been developed in the first place, it's no surprise that even the allegedly "blue-collar" South Lake Tahoe is being turned into Incline Village South.

Most of the homes in the south shore area are now vacation homes, according to an article sometime ago in the San Francisco Chronicle (about 60 percent).
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We All Knew

John Edwards was the one candidate the Republicans didn't want up against our dictator in 2004, and they wanted to make damned sure he didn't get the nomination.

Of course he is now being branded as a hypocrite, if he is covered at all, by the same Republican-owned media. The powers-that-be will NOT allow John Edwards to take hold in this country.

The powers-that-be are not only the Republicans but also far too many Democrats in the party apparatus, and far too many of them support the unelectable Hillary Clinton.

Senior Republican operatives appear to have targeted John Edwards early in the process of the 2004 presidential election as the most likely Democratic nominee and opponent of the Bush-Cheney reelection effort; extensive efforts were apparently launched within both FEC and DOJ to go after Edwards’s campaign funding resources, with a particularly ferocious focus on trial lawyers. At the same time, the Justice Department took quite extraordinary steps to camouflage its conduct, for fairly obvious reasons—it was sensitive to the potentially adverse consequences for the Bush Administration and its re-election efforts that would result from the disclosure of its use of the machinery of the criminal justice process to attack a political adversary.

As the World Turns II.

Steve Fossett found a challenge he couldn't defeat and has wound up as a modern-day Amelia Earhart:

Fossett, 63, had previously survived a nearly 30,000-foot plunge in a crippled balloon, a dangerous swim through the frigid English Channel and hours stranded in shark-infested seas.
Fossett, who made millions as a commodities broker in Chicago, also completed the Iditarod sled-dog race, scaled some of the world’s best-known peaks, sailed and flew around the world, and set more than 100 aviation and distance records.

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The "philosophy" of one-time Hollywood screenwriter Ayn Rand is a key reason why American politics is so fucked up:

By rejecting altruism and embracing selfishness she rejected the Judaeo-Christian underpinning of the religious right. The only moral obligation a person had was to his or her own happiness. That meant capitalism should be given a free rein with an unregulated market economy.

She pushed America's cult of individualism into uncharted waters where ruthless self-interest and disdain for poorer members of society were the guiding principles.

Growing up in Russia probably had a lot to do with her extremist beliefs, but that doesn't excuse the fact she was one screwed-up woman.
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As the World Turns.

Now ALL of the west will soon look like Incline Village.

It makes me sick.
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Marion Jones will be remembered for nothing else but somebody who was willing to cheat to win.
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Why do we give a shit about Ann Coulter?
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The other day Georgetown University Law School had a panel discussion of the Schiavo case, obviously from the point of view of those who supported her right to live. Even though one of the attorneys for the Schindlers, David Gibbs, is noted in right-wing circles, the case really wasn't a left-right matter. It was a disability rights case which unfortunately got twisted by the media.

The panel, which included Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, admitted there were mistakes that were made, particularly in the early part of the case, which made the parents side of the case almost impossible to prevail.

The court-ordered killing was a horrible injustice and set a terrible precedent.
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Campaign Notes.

After attending the Conservative Leadership Conference in Sparks, Mitt Romney tried to appeal to them by stressing his far right credentials. You know, God, mom, apple pie, and the flag.

It may have gone over like a lead balloon, however:

Richard Viguerie, who pioneered direct mail fundraising for the conservative movement, accused the Republican leadership of abandoning conservatives and called for attendees to refuse to support the leading presidential contenders, including Romney.

"Not one of them are principled conservatives," he said. "Not one of them was there in the last 10 or 12 years when conservatives desperately needed leadership. So why should we be there for them?"

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Let's forget the fact black women in South Carolina have other choices for candidates besides the two novelty candidates.
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Although it is inevitable Barack Obama will not win the nomination, that hasn't stopped Michelle from saying Hillary Clinton isn't inevitably inevitable.
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John Edwards is expected to get a major union endorsement which will greatly help his chances in Iowa, which I believe he will win anyway.
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No Matter

how stellar Al Gore's reputation is, leave it to the WSWS to find a reason to tarnish it.

ORU Lawsuit.

Everything about the lawsuit you want to know can be found at this link.

I have also included it on the sidebar and will include it on the links page, too, for the time being.

Richard Roberts ultimately found himself up the creek when he got involved in local politics.

And Speaking of

"Hot for Hillary":



Oh, Jesus.

Somebody on Salon's Table Talk

reposted some links to a copy of an old Usenet group story, and there is no way in hell I am going to comment on them.

link

I am not going to directly post the story links onto this blog.

The tale leaves me speechless, to say the least.

ORU Scandal.

Even more allegations have surfaced.

Perhaps the benign-looking Lindsay isn't so benign after all:

Most of the elements of the Cantees report are similar to allegations in an early version of the former professors' lawsuits, but more details are added to several of the allegations, especially allegations involved Lindsay Roberts and an unnamed teen boy.

The report says that dead-bolt locks were installed on all bedroom doors at the Richard Roberts residence at the insistence of his oldest daughter.

''This was precipitated by Mrs. Roberts repeatedly moving into the home her 16 year old male 'friend,' which made her daughters uncomfortable,'' the assessment says.

The assessment also says: ''Mrs. Roberts has personally spent the night in the ORU guest house with an underage male on nine separate occasions.''

The report also says there are photos of Lindsay Roberts and an underaged male smoking at the president's residence, and 29 photos of her and an underage male alone in her sports car after midnight.

Stay tuned...

Campaign Notes.

Mitt made his pitch in Sparks today, assuring people he would crack down on drugs (no pun intended).
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A new book tells us how much the Clintons and the Gores hate each other.
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I suggested clear back after the 2000 fiasco that Al Gore should run for president again and suggested a draft for 2004 on some of the discussion boards. Some people ran with the idea, and now even more people are trying to draft him to run.

I doubt it'll be successful, but if it were I'd throw my support to him.

Note the number of people who have signed the petition. It's pretty impressive.
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As the World Turns.

File this under "no shit."
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With friends like the UAW, who needs enemies?
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Now the Rumormongers

will go positively apeshit because former President Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize, along with a United Nations Panel, for their work on climate change.

Gore has won an Academy Award and now this. I would be surprised if he ever wanted to bother with running for president.

Racehorse Teuflesberg

underwent surgery today, and the prognosis is considered good:

He had surgery today and came out good; his prognosis looks good,” Kelly said. “Dr. (Larry) Bramlage said the next two weeks are crucial because when he broke down he stretched out some of the blood vessels that run down the back of his legs, and there’s a ligament that goes from the back of the knee to the foot that was also stressed. If he’s not getting enough blood supply to that area there’s more risk of infection, so that’s the main concern.”

We've Heard This

time and time again about abolishing the Electoral College, and time and time again nothing is done about it.

And nothing will ever be done about it. The Republicans will never allow it.

Does

Dick Armey really believe Hillary Clinton will be president, or is he just HOPING Democrats will be silly enough to pick her so the GOP can knock her off in the general election?

I'll report, and you decide:

The political horizon for conservatives is bleak and will get worse before it gets better, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey said today.
In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Armey predicted U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton will win the presidency next year, saying no Republican candidate is strong enough to beat her.
“The Democrats will win,” Armey said. “I don’t see any way that Hillary Clinton won’t be president. She is more well-organized, she is more intelligent.
“I don’t admire her. But I don’t discount her ability. She is ruthless and she is tough.”
Armey, who presided with Speaker Newt Gingrich during the 1994 Republican Revolution, is scheduled to speak Friday at the Conservative Leadership Convention in Sparks.

Guess What

I am going to be ordering?

A memorial to the champion is planned:

“John Henry was special to the park, he was special to racing, and his story is just a great one, regardless of whether you are into racing or not,” said Oster in a release. Oster has been a park volunteer the past 10 years and was one of John’s primary caretakers. “He was the people’s horse, he was a blue-collar horse, he didn’t have a lot of breeding, and he overcame every obstacle he ever had in his life.”

Oster said the idea of a memorial has been in the works since 2002, when John Henry nearly succumbed to colic and underwent surgery.

"At first I thought we needed to do something very grand," said Oster. "But then, the more I thought about it, the more I felt that any memorial needed to be unpretentious and simple, just like John was himself.”

The memorial, pending approval from the park commission, will consist of a landscaped sitting area outside John’s former paddock at the Horse Park’s Hall of Champions and will include an understated monument to be sculpted by local equine artist Shelley Hunter.

Campaign Notes.

Thanks to some quick thinking, Rielle Hunter, the woman the National Enquirer hinted MAY have had an affair with John Edwards, shot that shit down.

I wonder if a lawsuit is in the works.

Hunter wasn't actually named in the article, but other sites such as the Huffington Post threw that shit out there for public consumption. So did Mickey Kaus of Slate. You know, piles of innuendo, and we all know two plus two equals five.

It would have been inconceivable for somebody like Edwards to pull that kind of crap and be another Newt Gingrich.

Edwards has officially denied the ludicrous allegations.
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It's Not Even

Halloween yet, but hundreds if not thousands of the battiest people in the United States are converging in Sparks for the Conservative Leadership Conference, an event which I blogged about a couple of days ago.

It's too expensive for me to go down there and mull around. As I mentioned before, Mitt and Duncan will be there to give speeches and hold townhall meetings.

ORU Scandal.

Here is more about promises to clean up the mess at ORU.

As the World Turns.

If she wants to tote a gun around with her, she should find another line of work.

If kids cannot carry concealed weapons, why should she?

This is the most asinine thing I have ever heard in my life.
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Apparently Dr. Daniel Gunther suffered from bouts of depression, according to his relatives.

Gunther was one of the doctors involved in the hideous "Ashley treatment" case.
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Steve Fossett has become a modern-day Amelia Earhart.

I have read several theories, one of the most interesting being a poster at Democratic Underground proposing the theory Fossett died much the way golfer Payne Stewart and the other passengers and crew did in their plane crash in 1999, and Fossett's plane then veered way off-course to parts unknown until it crashed after running out of fuel.

Nobody has found any sign of the plane as of now.
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Is this a case of life imitating art or the other way around?

The Booming Economy Casualty List for 10/4-10/11.

The UAW once again sells out the rank-and-file union members by agreeing to outrageous concessions like a two-tier wage system.

Here

is a blog devoted to the late, great John Henry, with lots of recent photographs of the champ.

Fans visited his gravesite today.

The champion is now a legend:

With John Henry's death has passed an era in thoroughbred racing that probably never will be duplicated. John Henry was the final survivor of a triumvirate of renowned geldings -- Kelso and Forego were the others -- who ruled the tracks from the 1960s through the 1980s.

These three geldings made their careers under conditions that no longer are imposed on racehorses. They carried high weight assignments, sometimes more than 130 pounds, while also setting track records.

All three were so durable that they returned year after year to successfully race against horses a fraction of their ages. John Henry surpassed the others in this, becoming one of only two horses ever to win a major stakes at the advanced age of 9.

Kelso, five times Horse of the Year, was the first of this amazing trio. He was a formidable competitor during the early 1960s and is consistently rated in the top five on lists of the greatest horses of all time, behind such horses as Man o' War, Secretariat and Citation.

Then came Forego, three times Horse of the Year during the 1970s. Forego once carried 137 pounds while spotting 18 pounds to the younger Honest Pleasure and 28 pounds to some others when winning the 1976 Marlboro Cup.

He was retired in 1978 and eventually moved to the Kentucky Horse Park, where he died in 1997.

John Henry dominated the early 1980s. His durability was such that he seemed like he would race forever. Racing fans loved him for this.

Jesus,

talk about a conflict of interest:

A profile of Lynne Cheney, the vice president’s wife, that appeared on the CBS News program “Sunday Morning” last weekend included a statement of disclosure. The correspondent, Rita Braver, told viewers that her husband, the Washington lawyer Robert B. Barnett, had represented Ms. Cheney in the publishing deal for her new memoir, “Blue Skies, No Fences,” which served as the main peg for the story.

Yesterday, after questions about the propriety of Ms. Braver’s assignment were raised on several media Web sites, including that of CBS News, the division’s senior vice president for standards, Linda Mason, defended it.

I'll bet Dan Rather finds that a bit funny and proves his point in his lawsuit against the network.

Whoever

did this to this little dog should be taken out and shot:



At least the little guy will make it.

Campaign Notes.

It sounds as if the Republicans are trying to throw some dirt on JRE.
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Meanwhile, it's time to use Bill Clinton's foundation against his wife's run for the White House.

Dental Insurance, or the Lack of It,

or the totally inadequate benefits of most dental plans, which are mostly good for checkups and perhaps a filling or a root canal but nothing else, is a major scandal. Now people's teeth are paying the price.

Like yours truly, who has major gum disease and a tooth that is broken and unslightly in the front.

However, the article talks about dentists, greed, and shortages. Those are important, but again, I say most dental insurance policies, provided people have the insurance to begin with, are totally worthless.