text:
"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell." Harry S. Truman
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sorry for the lack of updates
Friday, November 20, 2009
Anti-Defamation League calls Glenn Beck 'fearmonger-in-chief'
Fox News host Glenn Beck is the media's "fearmonger-in-chief," helping to sow distrust and paranoia about the government through conspiracy theories, says the Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL, one of the world's most prominent groups devoted to fighting racism and anti-Semitism, singled out the controversial TV and radio personality as having gone beyond other similar commentators in his opposition to the Obama administration.
Beck creates "an intersection between the mainstream and the extreme," says an ADL report released this week. Beck's claims "play an important role in drawing people further out of the mainstream, making them more receptive to the more extreme notions and conspiracy theories."While other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists. This has not been the case with Glenn Beck," the report states
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann Thursday night that news personalities like Beck are exploiting the current economic crisis to radicalize the population, as has happened before throughout history.
"What makes it possible for Glenn Beck to enable and take advantage of what's happening is the fact that there's a lot of misery out there, there is a lot of legitimate anger, people are losing their jobs, losing their homes or they're afraid of losing their jobs or losing their homes. It is in this climate of often legitimate rage that Glenn Beck comes in and provides scapegoats," Huffington said on MSNBC's Countdown.
"Traditionally, throughout history, these are the dangerous times," Huffington continued. "And that's why our various establishments need to become much more sensitive to what's going on out there, and not leave it up to the Glenn Becks of the world to take advantage of what's happening."
While Huffington did not explicitly mention Germany in the era of the Third Reich, her comments in the context of a report from the ADL strongly suggested a parallel to the Nazis' scapegoating of Jews for Germany's economic woes in the 1920s and 1930s.
But in this case, it is a black president, rather than a Jewish community, that is being scapegoated, the ADL report suggests.
"In the year since we marked the historic election of the nation's first African-American president we have seen a tremendous amount of anger and hostility," said ADL head Abraham Foxman. "There is a toxic atmosphere of rage in America being witnessed at many levels, and it raises fundamental questions for our society."
The ADL report subtly hints that the political trend of mainstreaming militant views could lead to politically motivated violence.
"The fact that these anti-government sentiments are coming from such a broad spectrum makes it more likely that some individuals will become so inflamed with anger that they will move farther toward the fringes," ADL National Chair Robert G. Sugarman said in a press release. "This could result not only in the swelling of the ranks of anti-government extremist groups and movements, but might give rise to more individuals who are willing to act on their anger."
M.C.L quick hit: I know liberals hate it when the progressive media talks about people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin because they're a bunch of ass clown, yes Beck is a ass clown but unlike Palin he's a dangerous ass clown.. Beck knows the type of people he's talking to and he's inciting them to do something remember the dude that shot those cops in Pennsylvania he was a Beck head. While we may view him as a joke but he got people that take him serious and they will act because he scares them to act.
This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Nov. 19, 2009.
New Missouri billboard tells Americans to 'prepare for war' against the government.
Fired Up! Missouri points out that the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee is highlighting a new billboard in the state with steps for a "citizens guide to revolution of a corrupt government":
This billboard replaces one that warned that the socialist "Obama-Nation" is "coming for you." It's unclear who the owner of the billboard is, but the first one was the work of a "Missouri businessman."
Motor City Liberal comment: Again and again I have to remind the Republicans and my new right wing lurker what Republicans and their allies in the right wing media did to George W. Bush critics again when Natalie Maines said she was ashamed she was ashamed being from the same state the right wing tried to ruin the Dixie Chicks' careers and the Republicans created the narrative if you didn't support Bush you might as well be rooting for the terrorists. Now the Republicans and their minions in the right wing press are openly inciting the nuts in their ranks to do something.
Michigan Town Rejects Liz Cheney's 'Fearmongering' And Welcomes Guantanamo Detainees
Recently, the Liz Cheney-founded right-wing advocacy group Keep America Safe released a mini-documentary that features several residents of Standish, Michigan, speaking out against a possible transfer of detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in the city. The video ominously warns that the transfer would turn the town into "Guantanamo North" and claims that Standish residents are dead set against moving Guantanamo detainees to their city. Watch it:
Yet, as the Plum Line's Greg Sargent reports, the video poorly represents the views of the residents of Standish. He interviewed Standish City Manager Michael Moran, who dismissed Liz Cheney's "fearmongering" and said the documentary was "off base":
Standish's City Manager tells us that local leaders and residents want the facility, and dismissed Cheney's efforts as "fearmongering." Cheney is "certainly not representing the views of our community," the City Manager, Michael Moran, told our reporter, Amanda Erickson.
While some local residents do appear to have expressed mixed feelings or opposition to the plan, Moran says that they're an isolated minority that Ms. Cheney's video elevates out of proportion in a way that's "off base."
The truth is, the residents of Standish — like the residents of Thomson, Illinois — aren't afraid of housing terrorism suspects on U.S. soil. Last month, the Standish City Council voted 6-0 in support of a resolution asking the federal government to relocate Guantanamo prisoners to their city. Moving detainees to the city would help keep their prison facility open, which would guard against "the loss of the 350 jobs provided by the [jail]."
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Six-Year-Old Girl 'On Verge Of Never Hearing Again' Due To Insurance Company Denial
As the story of six-year-old Madison Leuchtmann of Franklin County, MO, demonstrates, even children are victims of this insurance company abuse. Madison was born with bilateral atresia, which means she lacks ear canals in both ears. In order to hear, she wears a special device on a headband that allows her to make out sounds. Despite her disability, Madison is at the top of her kindergarten class and is slowly learning to read.
Yet Madison, due to her growth, will soon require a new hearing implant to be able to recognize sounds. Her hearing and speech therapist warns that "if she doesn't get her implants by age seven, she's not going to be able to blend her words. … She won't be able to hear herself [talk]." Madison's pediatrician, Dr. Randall Clary, also insists that without the implant, the girl may never be able to hear again.
Unfortunately, the Leuchtmann's family insurer, Cigna, has issued "one denial after another," flatly refusing to cover the $20,000 bill for the implant. In a written statement to the local news station Fox 2, Cigna explained, "It is not unusual for commercial benefit plans to exclude hearing assisted devices," prompting Dr. Clary to angrily respond, "This is obviously medically necessary. You have a child that has no ear canals!" Dr. Clary also told Fox 2 that he sees these sort of denials "on a weekly basis." Watch Fox 2's report:
The United States is the only developed country without a universal, cradle-to-the-grave health care system. In no other developed country would a girl be on "the verge of never hearing again" because a for-profit insurance company decided that its bottom line was more important than keeping a child from going deaf.
Foxx: Republicans 'Passed Civil Rights Bills Back In The 60s Without Very Much Help' From Democrats
During a debate on the House floor today over designating 21 miles of the Molalla River as "wild and scenic," Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-old right wing battle ax), who opposes the legislation, tried to claim a progressive environmental record for her party. "Actually, the GOP has been the leader in starting good environmental programs in this country," said Foxx.
Foxx then extended her claims of the GOP's progressive history to the issue of civil rights. "Just as we were the people who passed the civil rights bills back in the '60s without very much help from our colleagues across the aisle," said Fox. "They love to engage in revisionist history." When Foxx finally yielded her time on the floor, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA) passionately rebuked her:
CARDOZA: Today, what I'm hearing on the floor really takes the cake. The gentlelady from North Carolina, in her statement just now, indicated that the Republican GOP had passed the Civil Rights Act legislation with almost no help from the Democrats. I can't believe my ears. It was the Kennedy and Johnson administration where we passed that Great Society legislation. It was over the objections of people like Jesse Helms from the gentlewoman's state that we passed that civil rights legislation. John Lewis…
FOXX: Would, would the gentleman yield?
CARDOZA: No, I will not yield. John Lewis, a member of this House, was beaten on the Edmund Pettus bridge to get that civil rights legislation passed. Tell John Lewis that he wasn't part of getting that legislation passed.
When she was given a chance to respond, Foxx could only say that Jesse Helms wasn't elected to the Senate until 1972. Watch it:
Foxx's claim that Republicans were the real engine behind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a common notion among conservatives. But as Cardoza points out, it was President Lyndon Johnson who "choreographed passage of this historic measure in 1964." In fact, the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), voted against the legislation.
To support the claim that Republicans were actually the architects of civil rights, conservatives often point out that a "higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats supported the civil-rights bill." But this ignores the "distinct split between Northern and Southern politicians" on the issue. When this is taken into account, the facts show that "in both the North and the South, Democrats supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act at a higher rate than the Republicans."
New Right-Wing Craze Prays That Obama's 'Days Be Few'
Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Diana Butler Bass at Beliefnet explains that Psalm 109 is one of the "imprecatory" prayers, "a lament in the form of petition to destroy one's enemies." While perhaps intended to be a joke, she notes that the psalm actually "entreats God to destroy the president":
It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another–and usually more powerful–person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms–full of violent images of vengeance and death.
Quite a few of the "Pray for Obama" items are being sold at CafePress.com, although many of them have been taken off of the site (here's a cached version of some of them). Cafe Press representative Margene H. told ThinkProgress that while the site took down some of the "Pray for Obama" items today, it is now in the process of reinstating them:
We initially pulled the Psalm 109:8 content from our products today because broader media dialog indicated that these designs potentially suggested violence towards the president. Based on current public discourse and further review of the actual content, we have determined that it is fair political commentary and we are in the process of reinstating this merchandise. As with all of our content, these designs will continue to be reviewed and if at any time their meaning is construed as advocating violence we will revisit our decision.
On Tuesday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow spoke with "Patience With God" author Frank Schaeffer, who said that while the psalm was "frightening" in a secular context, it's even "more threatening" in a biblical context.
Motor City Lib comment: Exhibit G in the case for why I hate conservatives/right wingers the same losers who's buying these hateful items were the same people six years ago were breaking Dixie Chicks cds at their local Wal-Mart parking lot because what the lead singer said about being ashamed coming from the same state as Bush. Being ashamed coming from the same state as a president the right will try to end your career, make shirts hoping for death of the president the right will laugh it off and their knuckle dragging followers will buy it up.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Palin-Beck 2012?
O'Donnell stumps local Palin supporter
Fox News displays old campaign footage to claim Palin is getting 'huge crowds' at her book signings.
This afternoon, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett proudly announced that Sarah Palin is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand new book. Take a look at — these are some of the pictures just coming into us." But the pictures that the network chose to display on-air appeared to be old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Individuals in the crowd are seen holding McCain/Palin signs, and others are holding pom-poms and cheering wildly. "There's a crowd of folks," an enthused Jarrett observed, referring to the old footage. Watch it:
The Daily Show's Jon Stewart recently caught Fox News' Sean Hannity displaying crowd shots from a rally earlier this year to claim that a recent GOP health care protest drew a larger audience than it actually did. Hannity later acknowledged that he "screwed up."
Monday, November 16, 2009
Tea partiers punk'd into supporting removal of white people from US
A crowd of some 40 people showed up to the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday to protest proposed reform of US immigration law. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration was pushing for immigration reform that would create a pathway for the legalization of undocumented immigrants.
Napolitano said she would like to see a "tough, fair" plan that would allow illegal migrants to gain legal status if they pay a fine, pass a criminal background check, pay all back taxes and learn English.
That idea brought 40 anti-immigration protesters to Saturday's protest, as well as 30 pro-immigration reform counter-protesters, according to FightBackNews in Minneapolis.One of those protesters, going by the alias "Robert Erickson," got a speaking spot at the rally and used it to argue for the eviction of all descendants of European immigrants -- in other words, that contingent of white Americans who these days see themselves as "real" Americans
But some of the demonstrators didn't seem to notice that the angry speech was targeted at them.
"In Minneapolis where I'm from, we have a huge immigrant population that has been causing a number of problems," Erickson began. "With the economy in recession and so many people laid off and unable to find work, immigrants should not be competing for the few jobs that are open. It's just not fair to the folks who have a claim to this country and have a right to be here."
That was met with with applause, but soon it became clear that "Erickson" had a different notion from the Tea-partiers as to who actually has "a claim to this country."
"Let's send these European immigrants back where they came from," he said to wild cheers. "We need to send every one of them back home. ... They stole this land through genocide and ethnic cleansing."
Even after that comment, some of the anti-immigration protesters didn't seem to notice that "Erickson" was standing up for the right of Native Americans to reclaim their land from the Caucasian population -- even though, as FightBackNews noted, the pro-immigration reform crowd had joined in the cheering.
"Erickson" walked off the stage leading the crowd in a loud chant of "Columbus go home! Columbus go home!"
Political mockery has been gaining steam as a tactic of progressive activists. Last month, the Yes Men held a phony press conference pretending to be representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce, and tricked major media outlets into reporting that the group had relented and now supported climate change legislation.
In August, a farcical group calling itself Billionaires for WealthCare mocked opponents of health care reform with slogans such as ""If God loved the poor people, he wouldn't let them get sick," and "Healthcare rationing, that's our job!"
The following video was filmed Saturday, November 14, 2009, and uploaded to YouTube by FightBackNews.
O'Reilly warns of a coming 'tax revolt': 'Pelosi will be bobbing up and down in the Boston Harbor.'
Glenn Beck(R-creepy stupid douche) had Fox News host Bill O'Reilly(R-phone sex) on his radio show today to promote their upcoming "Bold & Fresh Tour," which will take the two right-wing personalities around the country to preach "the truth — straight up, whether you like it or not." When Beck brought up Dennis Miller's appearance on the O'Reilly Factor last week — in which Miller warned of a coming "insurrection"– O'Reilly predicted a "tax revolt" that will "get nasty" and end up with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "bobbing up and down in the Boston Harbor."
BECK: Last week, I head you say that — you were on with Dennis Miller. … You two were talking about an insurrection coming.
O'REILLY: Tax revolt.
BECK: He used the word insurrection. And not in a comedic way.
O'REILLY: Yeah, tax revolt. I think people, when they figure out how badly they're going to get hurt in the next few years, there's going to be a tea party on taxes and its gonna get nasty. Nancy Pelosi's going to be bobbing up and down in the Boston Harbor.
This statement appeared to be too much for Beck even, who replied, "Uh, I don't think that's necessary." Listen here:
Sarah Palin Rejects GOP Senate Candidate Mark Kirk's Plea For An Endorsement
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), a candidate for Senate in 2010, wrote a memo to Sarah Palin requesting that she endorse him during her visit to Chicago for the Oprah Winfrey Show. The Post noted that "Palin's endorsement [of Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman] helped force state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava (R) from the race" in the NY-23 special election, and that Kirk's memo is "tangible evidence of the power of Palin's endorsement in a Republican primary."
The memo is also tangible evidence of Kirk's willingness to dramatically switch positions in order to gain political power. Last year, Kirk panned Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) selection of Palin as his running mate, telling the Chicago Tribune, "I would have picked someone different." Asked about Palin's qualifications for office, Kirk said, "Quite frankly, I don't know."
However, it appears that Palin has rejected Kirk's request for an endorsement. Recently, Kirk told ThinkProgress that he had been expecting her endorsement once she visited Chicago:
TP: How about Sarah Palin? How close are you to getting her endorsement?
KIRK: We sent a memo detailing the race, and she'll be coming in to Chicago shortly.
Watch it:
However, Palin visited Chicago last week to tape an interview with Winfrey and made no mention of Kirk. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal noted that Kirk was "unsuccessful" in his bid for an endorsement, despite his detailed memo.
Facing a competitive challenge from businessman Patrick Hughes in the Republican primary, Kirk is attempting to veer to the right. After voting in favor of cap-and-trade clean energy legislation during the summer, Kirk quickly changed his mind and told tea party activists that he would vote against the same bill in the Senate. Speaking to another assembly of conservative supporters in April, Kirk suggested that people should shoot Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) for raising taxes.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Maddow Rips Rep. Pete Hoekstra For Leaking Sensitive National Security Information
Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow accused Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and current gubernatorial candidate, of leaking sensitive intelligence information to the press. Hoekstra told the Washington Post this week that Maj. Nidal M. Hasan had e-mail conversations with a radical Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Aulaqi. Maddow excoriated Hoekstra for letting Aulaqi know that his e-mail is being monitored:
MADDOW: Why is it Pete Hoekstra who's taking it upon himself to tell the press that this radical cleric is having his email read by U.S. intelligence agencies? The FBI had not said publicly that this cleric had been emailing Hasan. The CIA, the NSA, the White House — nobody else had reported this cleric was e-mailing Hasan. This is just Pete Hoekstra letting us know — and letting the radical cleric who is under surveillance know — that he's under surveillance.
Maddow's guest, The Nation's Chris Hayes, said Hoekstra's reputation is "of an epic grand-stander." Watch it:
Asked if there was a concern that Hoekstra was leaking sensitive information, a Republican spokesman for the House intelligence committee told Maddow's show, "I do not know, guessing, since [Aulaqi] was deported, he knew he was a target anyways." Maddow noted that Aulaqi wasn't "deported," but rather left the country voluntarily, according to the 9-11 Commission. (Aulaqi had contacts with some of the 9-11 hijackers.)
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) said, "I am disappointed that some have rushed to the news media with unfounded information in order to gain headlines."
Hoekstra has been trying to use the Ft. Hood shootings to engage in a political attack against Obama, claiming "administration officials delayed briefing members of Congress about the alleged gunman," thus raising "red flags" about what the White House was hiding. "What do they know that they don't want us to know?" Hoekstra said on Fox News.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Glenn Beck publicly shamed by satirist after losing domain battle
Following his victory, the Web site's creator voluntarily turned the domain over to Beck and publicly shamed him in an open letter for assaulting the First Amendment.
Isaac Eiland-Hall, the satirist behind glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com, thanked the pundit for his "assistance" in helping spread the rhetorical meme by filing a dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization to gain control of the domain.
The Web site, which has now been taken offline, was a mockery of Beck's now-famous rhetorical style, asking questions and making hazy connections between many times unrelated people or events, then wondering why he has not gotten a denial.A copy of the Web site now resides on GB1990.com. In addition to garnering widespread media coverage due to Beck's complaint, the site has also spawned a chain of copycat parodies
Beck's lawyers had argued their client's name was in fact a trademark, leaving Eiland-Hall in breach of intellectual property laws by using it in a domain. They also argued that the site, which is clearly labeled as satire, somehow led users to believe its information was factual.
The WIPO ruled against Beck on Friday.
National Public Radio added: "'Even a 'moron in a hurry,' read the decision, quoting Eiland-Hall's attorney, 'would not likely conclude that Complainant sponsored, endorsed or was affiliated with the website addressed by the disputed domain name.'"
In a letter to Beck that concluded with the username and password to access the domain, Eiland-Hall said:
It bears observing that by bringing the WIPO complaint, you took what was merely one small critique meme, in a sea of internet memes, and turned it into a super-meme. Then, in pressing forward (by not withdrawing the complaint and instead filing additional briefs), you turned the super-meme into an object lesson in First Amendment principles.
It also bears noting, in this matter and for the future, that you are entirely in control of whether or not you are the subject of this kind of criticism. I chose to criticize you using the well-tested method of satire because of its effectiveness. But, humor aside, your rhetorical style is no laughing matter. In this context of the WIPO case, you denigrated the letter of First Amendment law. In the context of your television show and your notoriety, you routinely and shamelessly denigrate the spirit of the First Amendment. The purpose of the expressive freedoms embodied in the First Amendment is not to simply permit the greatest possible scope of expression, but also, in doing so, to also strive for excellence in the conveyance of ideas. Rather than choosing to strive for excellence and civic contribution, you simply pander to the fears and insecurities of your audience. And in the process, you do them, and all of us, a great deal of harm.
Shame on you Mr. Beck.
The WIPO clearly agreed in its ruling, calling the site a "satirical critique" of the public figure and "strongly protected" under long standing law safeguarding free speech.
"The panel [also] found that the URL is, in fact, confusingly similar to Beck's trademark and that people searching for legitimate information on Beck might stumble upon this site," PC Magazine noted.
Tech reporter Chloe Albanesius continued: "On the second point, however, the panel found that Eiland-Hall had an interest in the URL for political purposes, and that he did not benefit financially from Beck's name."
"Why won't Glenn Beck deny these allegations?" the site reads. "We're not accusing Glenn Beck of raping and murdering a young girl in 1990 – in fact, we think he didn't! But we can't help but wonder, since he has failed to deny these horrible allegations."
The joke was originally created by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who once performed a bit about fellow comedian Bob Saget raping and murdering a young girl.
"The idea is to force someone to explain away completely baseless charges made by insinuation alone; since Beck already has a reputation for doing this, the joke was supposed to give Beck a taste of his own medicine," explained Nate Anderson at Ars Technica.
"I imagine [the ruling] may further open a floodgate for the creation of similarly extreme sites should Beck remain as zeitgeisty and controversial as he has been these last few months," Mediaite writer Glynnis MacNicol suggested.
Glenn Beck did not actually rape and murder a young girl in 1990.
Pat Robertson: Islam isn't a religion; treat Muslims like fascists
Conservative commentators are ratcheting up anti-Muslim rhetoric in the wake of last week's Fort Hood massacre, with televangelist Pat Robertson leading the way with a declaration that Islam is "not a religion," but a "political system" bent on destroying all the world's governments.
In a commentary on his show, The 700 Club, Robertson noted that the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre, Nidal Malik Hasan, had come to the attention of authorities prior to the rampage by emailing a radical cleric and trying to contact Al Qaeda.
"Nobody wanted to go after him because of political correctness," Robertson said on Monday. "We just don't talk about somebody's quote 'religion,' even if the religion involved beheading infidels and pouring boiling oil down their throats."Robertson said Islam should be treated like a fringe political movement
"If we don't stop covering up what Islam is ... Islam is a violent -- I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion, it's a political system, it's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination," Robertson said. "You're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group."
Robertson pointed the finger of blame at the US military, suggesting that the families of the 12 killed and 30 wounded have a strong case for suing the Pentagon.
"Those in the Army should be held to account for the fact they let this man loose," Robertson said.
This is not the first time that Robertson has aired controversial views about an act of violence on American soil. In 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Robertson agreed with fellow preacher Jerry Falwell that the attacks were God's punishment for the US allowing abortion and homosexuality.
"I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America ... I point the finger in their face and say you helped this happen," Falwell said, to which Robertson replied: "I totally concur."
Both evangelists issued apologies for their statements later.
But Robertson's theme this week -- that the military is to blame for not preventing the massacre -- has been echoed by numerous right-wing pundits. As David Weigel reported at the Washington Independent, "birther" lawyer Orly Taitz is arguing that the Fort Hood massacre is evidence that soldiers should be allowed to disobey orders.
Taitz is the lawyer who has spearheaded a number of largely unsuccessful lawsuits challenging Barack Obama's legitimacy as president on the argument that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States. She was behind the release of the now-discredited "Kenyan birth certificate" for the president.
In an appeal of a federal court's decision to dismiss one of her lawsuits, Taitz wrote:
Recent terrorist incident at Fort Hood has given this question paramount importance. This order has advocated blind obedience by the members of the military. If someone were to have common sense, brains and strength of character to challenge allegiance of Nidal Malik Hasan in court, after he made numerous anti-American and antimilitary statements, maybe 12 young boys wouldn't be 6 feet under today, maybe 12 mothers and 12 fathers wouldn't had their hearts ripped out of their chests and torn apart.
And the author of a recent book claiming that the US's largest Muslim advocacy group is trying to plant "spies" on Capitol Hill now says the Fort Hood massacre proves it's time for a "backlash" against Muslims.
In an interview with FamilySecurityMatters.org, Dave Gaubatz, co-author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Seeking to Islamize America, said it's time to make a "bonfire" out of the terrorist materials he says are circulating in mosques.
"This was not an isolated incident," Gaubatz told the Web site:
Maj. Hasan (allegedly) did what he was taught. Politicians, Muslims, and law enforcement are concerned about a 'backlash' against Muslims. Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim Brotherhood and their leaders. ... If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a "house cleaning." Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.
Last month, four Republican House representatives called for an investigation into claims in Gaubatz's book that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy group in Washington, is trying to use the congressional intern program as a way to plant "Muslim spies" on Capitol Hill. That notion was met with derision and ridicule from CAIR, which said that Gaubatz used his son to steal private documents from the group, and that the documents showed nothing more than typical lobbying activities by CAIR.
On Monday, a federal judge ordered Gaubatz to remove some of the 12,000 pages of CAIR documents he had posted to his Web site. The judge supported CAIR's claims that the documents were "unlawfully obtained."
The following video was broadcast on The 700 Club, November 9, 2009, and uploaded to the Web by MediaMatters.
Lawsuit alleges that New York Post DC bureau chief's goal was 'to destroy' Obama
She says that hiring practices at the paper — as well as her firing — were driven by racial prejudices rather than merit.
And she recounts the paper's D.C. bureau chief stating that the publication's goal was to "destroy [President] Barack Obama."
Guzman's revelation isn't all that surprising considering that a Senior Vice President at Fox News, also a News Corp. subsidiary, admitted earlier this year that the network is consciously aiming to be "the voice of opposition" to the Obama administration "on some issues."
Sunday, November 08, 2009
GOP leader: 'Healthcare bill will dim the light of freedom'
"I came here to renew the American Dream, so my kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had. I came here to fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations," Boehner said in a statement.
"Americans want a common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 2,032-page government takeover that increases costs, adds to our skyrocketing debt, destroys jobs with tax hikes and new mandates, and cuts seniors' Medicare benefits," the statement added. "Americans asking 'where are the jobs' are getting more of the same from out-of-touch Washington Democrats: more spending, more debt, and more government.
"Republicans have better solutions to lower costs and expand access to quality care – especially for those with pre-existing conditions – without adding to the crushing debt Washington has placed on our children and grandchildren," he continued. "Our plan will lower premiums by up to 10 percent, making health care more affordable for families and small businesses. That's what the American people want, and that's what Republicans will continue to fight for."
One Republican joined the Democrats in supporting the bill; 37 Democrats joined Republicans in opposing it. The bill passed the House 220-215.
The Republicans' bill referenced in Boehner's statement was estimated by Congressional auditors to cover just 3 million more Americans by 2019, and leave 52 million Americans without coverage (a net improvement of 5 percent).
WND falsely claimed alleged Fort Hood shooter "advised Obama transition"
From Media Matters
WorldNetDaily falsely claimed that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan "advised Obama transition" in the headline of an article by Jerome Corsi highlighting his listing as a "participant" in a report for the Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) at George Washington University's Presidential Transition Task Force. However, Corsi himself acknowledges that there is no evidence that "the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition" -- indeed, the Task Force was initiated in April 2008. Moreover, while Hasan was listed as one of approximately 300 "Task Force Event Participants" in the report's appendix, HSPI has reportedly said he was not a "member" of the Task Force, and was listed because he RSVP'd for several of the group's open events.
WND article featured false headline "Shooter advised Obama transition"
From the November 6 WND article:
WND claim contradicted by HSPI report and WND article itself
Corsi: No evidence "the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition." In his article, Corsi wrote: "While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity."
HSPI Presidential Transition Task Force initiated in April 2008 -- well before Obama's election. According to the HSPI Presidential Task Force report Corsi uses to establish the link between Hasan and the organization, "in April 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) established the Presidential Transition Task Force, comprised of national and homeland security experts, policymakers and practitioners."
According to HSPI, Hasan not a Task Force member, listed because he RSVP'd for groups' open events. In a November 6 blog post, Gawker reported:
FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: Daniel Kaniewski, the institute's deputy director, confirms that Hasan attended task force meetings as an audience member, and stresses that he was not a member of the task force. "All of our events are open to the public," Kaniewski says, "and when someone RSVPs we put their name in the [report] so everyone knows who was in the room." He says institute staffers recall Hasan attending at least one task force event, and that he RSVP'd for several. "We do recall him speaking at one of our events as an audience member," he says, "but none of us recall what he actually said. Generally, our events are attended by people in the homeland security community, and Hasan had a very legitimate reason to be there. He was a fellow at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences."
Hasan was listed in the group's report as one of roughly 300 "Task Force Event Participants."
Motor City comments: The mouth breathers that make up the right wing media has once again outdone themselves. Trying to link the Fort Hood shooter to President Obama proves those on the right have lost their collective minds. I know I'm repeating here but again I'm forced to remain you guys and the few right winger lurkers the different rules we're operating with here during the Bush regime if you voiced any type of criticism of George W.Bush right wing talk radio and websites like World Net Daily lead the charge to make those people pay. Leap ahead to 2009 those same forces who claimed those who disagree with the president sided with the terrorist are now saying the president sides with terrorist.
I wonder what would happen if I make the claim that Osama Bin Laden bookmarks World Net Daily because that's one of his favorite sites? We all know what would happen they would threaten me with a lawsuit.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
The Tea Party's Takeover of the GOP
You have to hand it to Michele Bachmann: She has succeeded in turning the GOP into one big Tea Party.
This past weekend, the Minnesota Republican went on Fox News and called on viewers to show up on the Capitol lawn on Thursday at noon for a press conference and a last ditch attempt to kill health care reform. The gathering that resulted was marked by the now-routine extremism of the Tea Party conservatives. "I'm a bitter gun owner who votes," read one sign. Others questioned President Obama's citizenship, portrayed him as Sambo, or called him a traitor. One said, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothschilds." Old ladies wore red T-shirts decrying "Obamao care." The crowd also took spirited swipes at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At one point someone yelled, "Put down your Botox and show yourself."But what was most noteworthy was that the entire House Republican leadership was also in attendance—and their rhetoric was just as over-the-top as some of the protesters. House Minority Leader John Boehner declared the health care bill the "greatest threat to freedom I have seen." In essence, Congressional Republicans were merging with a movement that gives open expression to racist and anti-Semitic sentiments.
The crowd was several thousand strong, many bused in by Americans for Prosperity, a group created by the owners of Koch Industries, a huge oil and gas conglomerate. The AFP chapter from New Jersey reportedly sent 29 buses. Four AFP buses came from Maryland's Eastern Shore, and more came from Richmond and North Carolina. Lots of people in the crowd carried AFP signs or stickers warning "Hands off my health care."
During the rally, all the prominent House GOP legislators wanted a shot at the mike, including Boehner, whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, Roy Blunt of Missouri, presidential aspirant Mike Pence of Indiana, and what seemed like the entire Texas GOP delegation. There were so many Republicans blow-bagging that dozens of hungry patriots were heading for the exit long before the speeches ended. But aside from Bachmann herself, only South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson won overwhelming adoration from the crowd—he could barely get a word in over the rousing cheers of "Thanks Joe!"
Most attendees looked old enough to have already experienced government-run health care themselves. (Walking to the Hill from Union Station along with people headed to the rally, I could hear some of them wheezing and joking that their aging spouses should have rented Segways to get them to the event.) This demographic was reflected in the celebrity lineup apparently arranged by Bachmann, who said that her "good friend," the actor Jon Voight, was the first person to call her at home after her Fox appearance.
Voight and John Ratzenberger—better known as "Cliff from Cheers"—shared the same message: The Democrats' health care plan will send the country down the path to European socialism. The crowd erupted with chants of "Nazis! Nazis!" Ratzenberger insisted that the Democrats' philosophy doesn't come from America but from "overseas," where, he said, quoting Churchill, they embrace the idea of the "equal sharing of misery." Voight warned darkly that President Obama wants to use the health care bill to create national socialism, and that Americans would end up like Europeans where health care "leads to many deaths." Standing in front of them was a protestor who carried an enormous sign that read, "National Socialist Health Care—Dachau, Germany 1945" over a large photo of a stack of naked bodies piled up at a Nazi death camp.
But Voight and Ratzenberger's speeches were mild stuff compared with that of talk show host Mark Levin. After ranting about the various things "they" want to take over and ruin—everything from Social Security to the banking system to the auto industry—Levin proclaimed: "Now they want to control health care. They want to play God and decide who lives and who dies." The crowd responded with cheers of "Impeach Obama!" (At about this time, President Obama was making a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing to praise the American Medical Association and the AARP for endorsing the health care bill.)
Many people I spoke with said they came because of "the babies," and their belief that the health care bill will fund elective abortions. Tony Perkins, the head of the evangelical group the Family Research Council riled up the crowd with claims that the bill is "another bailout of the abortion industry with your money" and that Planned Parenthood had helped draft the measure.
Aside from the abortion foes, most protesters seemed to be focused not so much on the specifics of the bill, but on its price tag. "The deficit is the thing I'm most against," said Dr. Jo Allen Jones, an ER doctor from West Virginia who showed up in her white coat and proudly pointed out the blood spots on it. She had heard about the march from Glenn Beck and Americans for Prosperity. She was standing with two other doctors from Alabama, also in white coats, who were concerned about future reimbursement rates and the lack of malpractice lawsuit relief in the bill.
Sharon Johnson, from Williamstown, New Jersey, had driven down in the morning simply because she had seen Bachmann on Fox. She came with her wheelchair-bound friend, a retired teacher who now suffers from a rare degenerative nerve disorder much like Parkinson's. The trip, Johnson said, was a bit of a sacrifice because she had stayed up late watching the World Series, and "after a half a case of beer" she wasn't feeling so great this morning.
She's an Army veteran and gets her health care from the Veterans Administration. "I guess you could say I'm on the public option!" she said with a laugh. But she'd had some experience with a government-run health care system in the Army, where she was unable to get an operation on her shoulder for a year. She's afraid these types of problems will expand if the reform bill passes. Her friend, who had trouble speaking because of her disease, was attending simply because she was afraid she would lose her health care under the bill. She, too, has government-provided health care, via the state of New Jersey.These sorts of contradictions were apparent everywhere. But one thing about the rally proved sparklingly clear: Michele Bachmann is a major star. When she stepped up to the podium on the Capitol steps, the crowd went wild. It wasn't too hard to imagine the event as a warm up for the 2010 presidential election, where Bachmann might prove a far more viable candidate than Sarah Palin. The rally confirmed her primacy as a leading voice of the Republican Party—a party that, with this protest, has fully embraced the conservative movement's most extreme elements.
Conservative lawmaker calls fellow GOP rep. 'captain crazy'
But her decision to "jump ship" while her boss engaged in perhaps her boldest media moment yet has some on Capitol Hill scratching their heads.
Including a conservative lawmaker in Bachmann's own party.
"When your captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship," an anonymous conservative Republican House member told Politico Wednesday.
Marston had tried to warn the reporter off, to no avail.I'm just not talking about it, and frankly I don't think there's a story here," Marston wrote in an email. "Now, the thousands of people calling our office to tell us [they're] coming to Capitol Hill tomorrow — that's a story."
Today, conservative activists are planning to storm the Capitol to tell members of Congress that they don't want "government" to take away their healthcare, part of a scare tactic engineered by Bachmann's aides. Activists were told to bring videocameras and point them in congressmembers faces as part of an effort to derail House Democrats' healthcare overhaul.
The Minnesota Republican has garnered national attention for her sometimes outrageous quips -- including one in which she said conservatives should slit their wrists to defeat Democrats' healthcare plans.
Marston appears to have soured on Bachmann over time.
In a statement last year, she said of her boss: "She looks like the type of person who you would invite in to have a cup of coffee at your table. There are a lot of people who are good, smart, well-meaning, well-intentioned members of Congress, but they speak to the people like they are members of Congress. Rep. Bachmann talks to people like they are people."
But this fall, when she said President Barack Obama held "anti-American views," her tune changed.
"You either love Michele Bachmann or you don't love Michele Bachmann at all," Marston told a reporter.
When your captain's crazy, it's time to find a new ship.
Republicans wouldn't find coverage under their own health plan
G. Gordon Liddy's producer claims around 'a million' attended the GOP's anti-health care reform rally
After the 9/12 march on Washington, conservatives falsely claimed that over a million people attended, when in reality the closest thing to an official count — numbers given by the Washington DC Fire Department to ABCNews.com — placed the crowd at "approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people." Though today's anti-health care reform rally has been much more sparsely attended, that hasn't stopped conservatives from inflating the numbers again. On G. Gordon Liddy's radio show today, producer Franklin Raff, who was on the ground at the rally, told guest host Joseph Farah that the crowd is "just as big or bigger than" the 9/12 rally, which Raff estimated "at about a million." Listen here:
Capitol Hill police told NBC's Luke Russert that the crowd was about 4,000. At around 2 PM eastern time, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) posted an aerial picture of the crowd on her TwitPic page, clearly showing a crowd far, far smaller than "a million":
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Pugh outlines agenda after taking council's top spot
Newly elected by the residents of Detroit, Council President-elect Charles Pugh and the city's other new leaders are making the media rounds this morning, vowing to bring a new sense of cooperation to city government.
Pugh, talking to the Free Press today about his win, said he envisions a new approach to city government in Detroit.
"It sends a message Detroiters have been thirsty and hungry for new leadership for a long time," he said this morning. "Usually you might get one new person, maybe two. But it is hard beating an incumbent. And it is different to have more than half of the city council be new people. I don't know that that's ever happened before."
Pugh, taking the council reins of a city saddled with debt, said his intends to tackle the budget first -- which may include layoffs. But he'll steer clear of city employees doing a job comparable to the private sector. He also said he intends to avoid layoffs in the Detroit Police Department, instead focusing on putting administrative officers back on the street and citizens in office spots.
"There has to be sacred cows in the budget," Pugh said. "They say everything should be on the table in this kind of crisis when you're trying to avoid receivership. But our safety is the most important thing. We cannot be making more cuts to the police department. We need to make sure the mayor under the people want to see more officers on the street."
One stop Pugh intends to make is to the Board of Elections for paperwork certifying he'll be paid $85,000 a year for the new spot – cash to pay his mortgage.
"That's officially provable income, and the mortgage company was kind enough to postpone the sheriff's sale," he said. "Now that the election has happened, I'm on much more solid footing negotiating."
He said he also now has help from a lawyer adept at handling foreclosures and the Wayne County Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program, a county-funded program open to all residents.
"This was something that was frustrating and embarrassing for me as an individual," he said. "However because it was exposed, very astute people adept at dealing with this have stepped forward to help me."
Mayor Dave Bing, on WWJ-AM (950) this morning, said he'll also focus on the budget, which means reviewing each city department's efficiency and effectiveness. "The financial situation the city is in still my primary focus," Bing said this morning, adding that law enforcement and education also take top spots.
He said he won't advocate privatizing services already handled well by city employees.
"But we have to be competitive," he said.
Bing also said he also believes Time Magazine's ongoing analysis of Detroit - including one in this month's issue -- fails to look at the city's future promise.
"The spotlight has been on us for a long time from a negative standpoint," he said. "The article looks at our past more than our future."
On WWJ-AM (950), Gary Brown, elected to Detroit City Council's No. 2 spot, said he's looking forward to working with Bing, who will now serve a full four-year term.
"I think we haven't had a city council and a mayor that have worked together in a long time, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with him," Brown said.
M.C.L comment: I'm hearing people taking shots at the election of Charles Pugh here's the problem I have with these people, I'm willingly to wager a lot of these people who say this or that about Charles Pugh are the same ones that helped get Ronald Reagan, George H.W. John Engler ,George and Barbara Bush special need son George into high office. If Charles Pugh sucks he will suffer when he's up for re-election.. I guess my problem with some in the suburbs is that some want to run what's going down in Detroit and at the same time those in the suburbs wouldn't want me to have a say in their city or county political affairs. Fair is fair if you want say in Detroit I should have say in Warren, Roseville, Eastpointe, Rochester Hills because I spent time there.
'We can now put Detroit back on the right path,' Bing says
BY JOHN WISELY, SUZETTE HACKNEY and CECIL ANGEL
As results poured in Tuesday evening giving Mayor Dave Bing a full 4-year term, the basketball Hall of Famer sat on a couch with his wife watching the HBO documentary about President Barack Obama's ascension to the White House.
The two sat close and whispered, with their two daughters and some close friends nearby. The quiet time was a respite for Bing after a campaign that covered four elections in eight months. He defeated his challenger 58% to 42%.
He now moves on to try to steer the city through its most difficult financial crisis since the Great Depression.
"Together we can now put Detroit back on the right path," Bing said Tuesday night in his victory speech at the Fort Shelby Doubletree Hotel downtown. "Thank you for your confidence. I see progress and I know we are headed in the right direction."
Bing's victory was widely predicted before Tuesday but still brought hope and support from leaders across the state.
"He's taken a job that ain't gonna be easy," House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, told the crowd. "The change is coming and residents of the city are going to benefit."
Former Mayor Dennis Archer touted Bing's relationship with elected officials in Washington, D.C. Archer said those alliances are key to helping Detroit rebuild.
"We've got some real challenges out there," Archer said, "But they can be met."
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP, just proclaimed that Detroit's best days are now in front of it with Bing as the captain.
"We can be fixed, we can be nourished and we can be transformed, and we have the right man at the right time to move it," Anthony said of Bing.
Bing supporters took turns speaking as election results rolled in.
"It's been a long haul, and as the mayor has stated this is the fourth quarter," said Emmett Moten, an owner of the Doubletree Hotel where Bing's party was held. "As of 8 o'clock tonight the ball crossed the goal line, and it's in for the next four years."
Moten said the Bing administration is business friendly because Bing, a longtime Detroit business owner himself, understands the needs of those willing to invest in the city.
At a party in a loft in Corktown, challenger Tom Barrow entered with his family shortly after 11 p.m. He shook hands with supporters as he made his way through the building to the stage. As he neared the stage, he paused and cheers broke out. He continued shaking hands, then began his concession speech.
"We're going to fall short and I'm happy though, that we fought the good fight," Barrow said.
As his supporters applauded, he pulled out notes.
"I didn't write a prepared speech," he said. "I'm going to talk from the heart."
He thanked God for the election and told his supporters he knelt down to pray this morning.
"Now is the time we can leave our mark on this city in a positive way," Barrow said.
He said: "We offered Detroit hope. We said there's a difference between despair and hope. People said, 'Are you sad, Tom?' I'm not. I'm only sad we're not able to make the changes."
He later went on to say that he'd accepted the will of the people of Detroit.
"I said it was wrong to have someone who's never lived in Detroit to be our mayor. The people of Detroit said that's OK," Barrow said.
He told his supporters he didn't want them to second-guess anything they'd done.
"We had an opportunity to change and we decided not to, and I accept that," Barrow said.
He addressed part of his speech to Bing, urging him to be sensitive to the residents.
"This is not a business. It's not a steel business. It's a municipality," he said.
Barrow ended his speech by saying: "For those in Detroit who didn't vote for me, I accept your will." Then, he went on to say, "I thank all 50,000 of you who left a good name for my son."
Creigh Deeds Failed To Run As A Progressive
McDonnell "spent much of the campaign trying to tie Deeds to cap-and-trade environmental legislation and pro-union legislation on Capitol Hill that is unpopular with many Virginia voters." But rather than make the affirmative case for progressive policy reforms, Deeds responded by largely "distanc[ing] himself from Obama's agenda, especially on health and energy policy." Some key examples:
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON CLIMATE: By the end of his campaign, Deeds was running ads attacking Obama's clean energy agenda, saying Obama's "cap and trade bill" would "hurt the people of Virginia." Other ads carried the same message: "Creigh Deeds says no to any new energy taxes from Washington." Instead of disputing his Republican opponent's false attacks on climate legislation, Deeds amplified them. Deeds chose to run away from his past record on environment and climate issues. He had been a leader in "getting a land-preservation tax credit program into effect and supporting mass transit," and "supporting a gas tax to fund transportation improvements." Deeds "was one of 40 members of a commission on climate change convened by Virginia's current governor." His campaign platform included strong renewable energy and energy efficiency standards and environmental protection programs. Deeds embraced some coal industry positions. During the primary season, Deeds defended the despicable practice of mountaintop removal, telling a reporter in March, "The coal industry calls it surface mining."
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON HEALTH CARE: During the final gubernatorial debate, Deeds stressed that health reform must "reduce costs so more people can afford insurance" and "increase coverage," but argued that creating the option of a public health care plan "isn't required." "I don't think the public option is necessary in any plan…I would certainly consider opting out if that were available to Virginia," he said. After the debate, Deeds conceded that the plan might be "one way" to reduce costs, but "maybe one way might not be the best way." "We have to leave all options on the table to find ways to reduce costs and increase coverage," he concluded. The Deeds campaigned also issued a statement reiterating the candidate's lukewarm support for the plan. "If the public option proves to be the best way" to reduce costs and expand coverage, "he'd support having Virginia participate. He'll examine all of the proposals on the table and choose the option than provides Virginians with the most affordable and quality coverage."
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON LABOR ISSUES: "When I'm governor, you won't just have a friend in Richmond — you'll have a partner," Deeds told union supporters in October, 2008. However, despite support from SEIU and the Teamsters, Deeds then proceeded to campaign on an anti-labor platform. He opposed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — which would have created a fairer path toward unionization for workers — saying it would "put us at a competitive disadvantage" and reasserting the false right-wing claim that EFCA would eliminate the secret ballot in union elections. Deeds also did not support the right of public safety employees in Virginia to bargain collectively, "because it would carry with it the right to strike." However, Deeds had previously told the Fraternal Order of Police of Virginia that he was a "strong" supporter of their right to collectively bargain.
NOT PROGRESSIVE ON IMMIGRATION REFORM: More than one in ten Virginians are immigrants. The Immigration Policy Center also points out that Latinos comprised 2.0% (or 74,000) of Virginia voters in the 2008 elections — enough to make a difference in a tight race. Creigh Deeds might regret repeatedly voting in favor of legislation that would hurt a large and growing part of his constituency. Deeds voted alongside his contender, Republican Robert F. McDonnell, to designate English as the state's official language. He also supported denying undocumented immigrants state or local benefits. Deeds recently voted in favor of a bill that would've restricted in-state college tuition benefits to undocumented immigrants. And although undocumented immigrants can't vote, about one-third of all "unauthorized families" in the country are "mixed-status families," or families that include legal resident and US citizen family members. Neither Deeds nor McDonnell talked much about immigration on the campaign trail, however, Deeds' organizers told the Washington Post that he would treat immigration as a federal issue and McDonnell would not.
After insisting he's not 'crowing' about GOP victories, Steele gloats by striking the Heisman pose on MSNBC.
This morning, RNC Chairman Michael Steele appeared on CBS's Early Show and attempted to convince the audience that he was humbled by yesterday's GOP victories in New Jersey and Virginia, saying, "We're not crowing, we're smiling." But just an hour later on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Steele dropped all pretense and struck the Heisman pose to gloat:
Of course, the GOP's favored candidate, Doug Hoffman of the Conservative Party, lost the special congressional election in New York's 23rd district, despite attracting heavy conservative endorsements from the likes of Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Sean Hannity, and eventually the RNC and Newt Gingrich. The district now has a Democratic congressman for the first time since the mid-19th century. Watch Steele's two morning segments here:Quick M.C.L comment here Michael Steel doing a Heisman pose because the Republican won two elections out of 10 proves he's dumber than fake throw up, Steel you lost a district where you had control for 100 years what you did on "Cup of Joe" is like a boxer celebrating winning the 12th round after losing the first 11.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
By JAMES STAMERS
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Magazine April 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
What I wanted was a good night's sleep. What
I got was visitation rights with the most
exasperating pack of sleepwalkers in history.
A fried egg came floating up through the stone steps of the Medical Center and broke on my shoe. According to my watch, it was time for the breakfast I didn't have that morning, so I waited a moment for the usual two rashers of bacon.
When they materialized, I hopped aside to avoid them and went back into the building, where the elevator took me straight up to the psychiatric floor, without asking.
"Your blood pressure, salts, minerals, vitamins, basal metabolism, brain pattern, nervous reflexes and skin temperature control are within accepted tolerances," it droned, opening the doors to let me off. "You have no clinical organic disorders; you weigh a hundred and fifty-two pounds, Earth, measure six feet one inch, and have a clear pallid complexion and an egg on your shoe."
I walked down the corridor to Dr. Doogle Spacio-Psycho Please Enter and went determinedly in.
"Name, please," said the blonde receptionist, tapping her nail eroder.
"Jones. Harry Jones."
"Mr. Harry K. Jones, the physicist?"
"Oh, no," she said, fiddling with the appointment list, "Mr. Harry K. Jones has just had his morning appointment and left."
"I know," I said. "An important piece of clinical data has just turned up. I have returned with an egg on my shoe."
"I think you'd better see the doctor."
I sat down to wait and took the little bottle of pills from my pocket. "From the Galaxy to you, through Dr. Doogle, Spacio-Psycho," it said on the label. "The last word in tranquilizers. Conservative Zen methods only, appointments any hour, first consultation free, no obligation, call personal transmitter DDK 51212-6790, Earth. Active ingredients oxylatohydrobenzoic-phe-ophenophino, sugar, coloring to 100%."
The inner office door opened and Dr. Doogle smiled fatly at me from behind his expensive desk.
"Do come in," he called, "and tell me all about it."
"It's happened again," I said, going into his office.
"Well, why not, if you feel that way? Nurse, bring me Mr. Hing-humph's case history."
"Mr. Har-ry K. Jo-nes' film is in the transcriber, Doctor," said the receptionist. "Mr. Jones, the physicist."
"Ah, yes, of course. Please sit down, Mr. Jones. Now what exactly is the trouble? Hold nothing back, tell me all, reveal your intimate thoughts."
"The main entrance just served me the breakfast that your diet forbids," I said, sitting down.
"Plain case of wish fulfillment. Put it down to poltergeists, Mr. Jones."
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"Well, now," Dr. Doogle said, drumming his fat fingers, "I don't think we need to go into technicalities, Mr. Jones."
"Look," I said firmly. "I came to you to get a quiet night's sleep. No more insomnia, you said, leave your problems in the laboratory, let not the nucleii banish sleep, work hard, sleep hard, take tranquilizers and enjoy the useful recuperation of the daily wear on body tissues, deep dreamless sleep of the innocent."
He look at me suspiciously.
"It sounds like the sort of advice I might have given," he admitted.
"Well, at least I managed to keep my dreams in my head until I started your treatment. I have an urgent problem to solve that vitally affects national security. I can't have this sort of thing happening in the middle of an experiment."
I pointed to the fried egg on my shoe and shook it off on the pile of his green carpet.
"Yes. Well," he said, peering over the desk at it. "If you feel that strongly, Mr. Jones, perhaps you'd better give up the diet and just take the pills."
"I want to know how it happens," I said, and I settled firmly into the consulting chair.
Dr. Doogle coughed professionally. "Of course, of course. You are an intelligent man, Mr. Jones. One of our leading physical scientists. Naturally you wish to know the precise mechanism of such phenomena. Very commendable and entirely natural. Think no more about it."
"Dr. Doogle, do you know what you are doing?"
"Spacio-Psycho is still in its early stages, Mr. Jones. You are really privileged to be a pioneer, you know. We have had some most interesting results with that new tranquilizer. I hope you're not losing faith, Mr. Jones?"
"I accept the orthodox philosophy of Spacio-Psycho, it is only the basic philosophy of Ch'anna or Zen, and I had the routine scientific education, naturally."
"Ah," said Dr. Doogle with rapture, "the substratum of the universe is no-mind, and thus all material things are in constant unimpeded mutual solution. Ji-ji-muge, the appleness of an apple is indistinguishable from the cupness of a cup."
"And an egg on the shoe is the breakfast I didn't have," I said.
"Here," he said. "I think those pills are sending your sleeping mind down beyond the purely personal level of your own emotions and subconscious cerebrations. Take these, in a little water, half an hour before going to bed."
I stood up and walked over to the door.
"What are they?" I asked.
"Same as before, only stronger. Should send you right down to the root of things. Pass quiet nights in no-mind, Mr. Jones, sleep beyond the trammels of self, support yourself on the universal calm sea of no-mind."
"If these don't work, there'll be no-fee," I told him.
I took three of the stronger pills that night, turned off the light and lay back in bed, waiting for sleep to come and get me. The antiseptic odor of the Medical Center recalled itself, but nothing else happened, and I was still waiting to go to sleep when I woke up next morning. No dreams of a breakfast I couldn't eat, no dreams at all. I had been smelling the memory of formaldehyde and just slid off to sleep. I could still smell it, for that matter, as if it were coming from the slightly open bedroom window. I looked up.
"Hallo," said the tall skinny man in a doctor's coat on the window sill.
"Hallo yourself," I said. "Go away, I'm awake."
"Yes, you are. At least I assume you are. But I'm not."
I sat up and looked at him, and he obligingly turned his head to profile against the brightness of the window. He had a sharp, beaky face that was familiar.
"Haven't we met somewhere?" I asked.
"Certainly," he said, in a slightly affected voice.
"I don't know your name," he said, "but I have a very important post-operative case at present, and you keep charging around the ward when you're asleep. I just came over, as soon as I could get a few hours' sleep myself, to ask you to stop doing it, if you don't mind."
"I've done no such thing."
"You were doing it all last night, my friend."
"I was not," I said. "I spent last night here in my own bed. I didn't even dream."
"Ah, that probably accounts for it. Tell me, do you take drugs, tranquilizers, by any chance? We've had a lot of trouble with that. They seem to cause a bubble in the sequence of probabilities and things shift about. I've been taking a new one myself, while this case is on. I suspect that although I'm dreaming you, I think, you are not asleep at all. At least I wasn't when you made all that noise in my ward last night."
"No, I'm awake," I said. "Very much so."
"I see. Well, I shall wake up soon myself and go back to my own world, of course. But while I'm here, I suppose you haven't any advanced works on post-operative hyperspace relapse?
"Pity," he said, as I shook my head.
"I suppose you have no information on the fourth octave of ultra-uranium elements?"
He shook his head. "Didn't even know they existed," he said. "I don't believe they do in my probable time. What are you, a physicist? Ah," he added, as I nodded, "I wanted to specialize in physics when I was in college, but I went in for medicine instead."
"So did I," I said, "medicine, I mean, but I never passed pharmacology with all those confusing extraterrestrial derivatives."
"Really?" he said interestedly. "It's my weakest subject, too. I'm a pretty good surgeon, but an awful fool with medications. I suppose that's how we got together. You won't come busting up the ward again, will you?"
"I'd like to be obliging, but if I don't dream and I don't know where I am when I'm asleep, I don't see what I can do to stop it. It's not as if I'm really there, is it?"
He crossed his arms and frowned at me. "Look," he said. "In my probable time, you're as much physically there as I am now in your time here. I'll prove it. I know I'm asleep in the emergency surgeon's room in my hospital. You know you're awake in your bedroom."
He held out his hand and walked across the floor to me.
"My name's Jones," he said.
"So's mine," I answered, shaking his solid hand. "This must be a very vivid dream to you."
We smiled at each other, and as he turned away, I caught sight of his reflection in the wall mirror beside my hairbrush on the cabinet.
"Good heavens!" I said. "In a mirror, you look exactly like me. Is your name Harry Jones?"
He stopped, walked over to the mirror and moved about until he could see me in it.
"Harold K. Jones," he said. "You've got the face I shave every morning, but I've only just recognized you. You're me."
"I prefer to think you are me," I said.
"So you did fail that final pharmacology exam, eh? And I didn't, in my probability. Well, well. I must admit it seemed more probable I would fail at the time, but I passed."
"It was that tramp Kate's fault. She said yes too easily."
He coughed and looked at his fingers. "She said no to me. And, as a matter of fact, after I passed I married her. She's my wife."
"I'm sorry. I meant nothing personal."
"You never married?"
"I never really got over Kate," I said.
"I wonder what would have happened if I had qualified and then not married her."
"You mean what did happen—to the Harry K. Jones who passed in pharmacology but did not marry Kate. He must be around in another probability somewhere, the same as we are. Good heavens," I shouted, "somewhere I may have solved the fourth octave equation."
"You're right, Harry. And I may have found out how to get hyperspace relapse under control."
"Harold," I said, "This is momentous! It is more probable that you-I and I-you will make a mess of things, but there must be other probability sequences where we are successful."
"And we can get to them," he shouted, jumping up. "Are you using oxylatohydrobenzoic-pheophenophino?"
"Something like that."
"Three pills last thing at night?"
"Ever have foreign bodies materialize into your time-space?"
"Several breakfasts," I said. "The last egg was yesterday, on my shoe."
"It was Virginia ham with me, so I stopped dieting and increased the dosage."
"So did I," I said. "I suppose, apart from major points where a whole probability branches off, we lead much the same lives. But eggs don't dream. How did the ham get into your waking world?"
"Harry, really! I have a tendency to jump to conclusions, which you must control. How do you know eggs don't dream? I would have thought, though, that a pig was peculiarly liable to the nightmare that it will end up as a rasher—any reasonably observant pig, that is. But I don't think that is necessary. Obviously, we are dipping down to a stratum where things coexist in fact, and not merely one in fact and the other in mind, or one probability and not its twin alternative. Now, how do I get hold of the me that solved this hyperspace relapse business?"
"And I the ultra-uranium octave relationship," I added.
"Look out," he said. "I'm waking up. Good-by, Harry. Look after myself...."
He flickered, paused in recovery and then faded insubstantially away. I looked around my empty bedroom. Then, because it was time to go to work at the laboratory, I shaved, dressed and left my apartment, as usual.
Some high brass and politicians had been visiting the laboratory, showing off to their females how they were important enough to visit the top-secret bomb proving labs, and the thick perfume was hanging in the sealed rooms like a damp curtain.
"I wish they wouldn't bring women into the unventilated labs," I grumbled to my assistant.
"Never mind, Chief. If you can make this bomb work, they'll let you build your own lab in the Nevada desert, with no roads to it. Have you found the solution?"
"I'll tell you when I have," I said. "But I do have a new approach to the problem."
And as soon as I could, I left the labs and went back to my apartment downtown, took three pills and lay still, waiting for sleep. I could not get the smell of that perfume in the lab out of my nose. It was a heavy gardenia-plus-whatnot odor. I woke up in the middle of the night with the perfume still clinging to the air. The room was dark and I crossed my fingers as I leaned over to turn on the bedside lamp. If mental concentration on all the possible errors in my work was the key, the successful me should be here in the room, snatched from his own segment of probability.
I turned on the light. There was no one else in the room.
"Hell," I said.
Perhaps it just meant he, or that me, was not asleep, or was perversely not using tranquilizers. Or didn't that matter? No, I controlled this alone and had gone wrong.
"Did you say something, Harry?" asked Kate, stepping out of the bathroom and pulling the top of her nightgown into, I guess, place. "Ooo, fancy dreaming about you. This is odd."
I sat up and covered myself protectively in the bedsheets.
"Look, Kate," I said. "I don't want to see you. I'm not your husband, really. He's a pleasant fellow, I met him today, and he's not me. I never became a doctor. No doubt you remember what I was doing instead of studying."
That was a mistake, for she came and sat on the edge of the bed and ran her fingers into my hair.
"I thought it was odd I should dream about my husband," she said. "I'll believe you, because I don't know how I got here and you do look like the Harry I used to know, before he went all high scientific surgeon and no time for fun."
She curved more fully than she had when she was eighteen, but there was neat symmetry to her sine formulae, and she still had blonde hair. Her perfume was the same as the one in the lab I had been smelling all day, it was now reaching me at high amperage.
So that was the key, the evocative power of smell association. I sniffed deeply at the perfume in appreciation.
"Like it?" Kate asked, wriggling.
"Only for its scientific values," I said. "It suggests a most valuable line of research."
"I'm in favor," she said, and pressed me to the bed.
"Your husband is coming!" I shouted, and it worked. She disappeared. Presumably she woke up in her own probability time-space. And no doubt Kate's reflexes by now were trained to snap her awake and away at the suggestion that her husband was around. It was highly improbable that Kate would alter much.
I got up to make myself some coffee. There was no point in wasting sleep without a plan. Clearly, I had to take the pills and fix the appropriate smell in my mind, and when I woke up I would drag the proper slice of another probability with me. And then I would interview the me who had solved the ultra-uranium heavy element equation. And the bomb to end all bombs would be perfected. The test was ready, waiting for me to say, "Let's go, boys. We know what will happen this time."
But there was, it struck me, the difficulty of finding the right scent to evoke the right probable me.
I collected all the toothpaste, deodorant, shaving stick, aftershave lotion I could find in the bathroom and started on the toothpaste. I inhaled deeply and lay down, with the first tube on my chest. But after the coffee, I slept very briefly, and when I looked up there was only a toothbrush on the carpet. It was not mine in this world and I had no idea whose it was, or rather which probable me it belonged to.
But at least this established the principle. The smell produced the object—and, if I went deep enough in sleep, it would produce the whole Jones.
I dressed quickly and went out for a walk in the night air, breathing deeply and memorizing every scent I came across. Then I went back to the apartment, sniffed hard at the row of personal unguents, and lay down to sleep.
When I woke up, it was morning and the room was full of people.
There were about a dozen of me, some wearing very odd clothes, some scowling, others grinning unbecomingly, and some looking just plain stupid.
"Gentlemen," I said, standing up on my bed, "I am sorry to disturb your dreams but a matter of vital consequence has made me call you all here. I am Harry, or Harold K. Jones, and I became a physicist. I need your help. Do any of you know anything about the octaves of elements beyond uranium?"
There was a babble, through which I heard chiefly:
"The man's mad.... He says he's me.... Who are you, anyway?... No, you're not. I'm Jones...."
"Please, gentlemen," I said. "I don't expect we have much time before some of you wake up in your own probability. You, sir, in the armchair—yes, you in the tight pants—how about you?"
"Me?" he said. "I'm Captain Jones. Third Vector Spacefleet. Engineer rank. Who the galactic hellix are you, eh?"
Even from the bed, I could detect the smell of sweat and grease from his working uniform.
"I suppose you took up flight engineering at high school?" I suggested.
"Quite right," he snapped.
An early deviation, obviously. I remembered being enthralled with the arrival when I was a kid of the early space rockets, but my enthusiasm was daunted by old Birchall, who made us stick to airplanes. Obviously, his was not.
"How about you?" I asked, pointing to the thinnest me in the room.
"Penal colony on Arcetus," he said. "Eternal labor."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I wonder which time—well, how many physicists are there here, or physical chemists, or astronomers, or even general scientists?"
I walked around the room, detecting toothpaste brands A, B, C and Whitebrighter, and a range of toilet preparations with manly odors contributing to our popularity with friends, relatives, girls and bosses, but no other physicist. Not a trace of research in my line. And one or two of them were already showing signs of waking up elsewhere and disappearing from the room.
I was about to start tracing it back to the point when I abandoned a medical career, and I could still smell the formaldehyde, when Dr. Harold K. Jones appeared.
"Look," he said, "I want you to keep away from Kate. Perhaps I didn't make that clear yesterday.... Good heavens, where did you get all of these me from? Does anyone here know anything about post-operative hyperspace relapse?"
Disgustedly, I saw that more than half of them did. Perhaps I should have been a doctor, after all. The probabilities were heavily represented in medicine. I sat on the bed and stared at my toes while the doctors babbled excitedly together. I gathered that Dr. Harold K. Jones had solved his problem, anyway.
"Excuse me," said a thoughtful me in a very quiet voice. "I didn't want to make myself obtrusive, but I did do a certain amount of research on the theoretical possibilities of elements heavier than uranium. It seemed to me they might go on being discovered almost indefinitely."
"They are," I said quickly, "octave after octave of them. Tell me about it, please."
"Look," he said, "it was only an idea. I really specialized in biochemistry, but we do use trace elements, and the formula I worked out at the time was—let me see...."
"Please try to remember," I said.
"Ah, yes, it was this," he said, and the strain of remembering woke him up and he disappeared back to his own probability.
"This was damned well planned, Harry!" said Dr. Harold K. Jones enthusiastically. "I think we can save hundreds of people every year now. I always knew I had it in me."
"Listen, Jones," said Captain Jones of the Third Vector Spacefleet, pushing himself through the crowd. "I've been talking to one or two of the others, see, and if you have the galactic gall to disturb my sleep again, I'm going to blast you. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly," I said.
"It's tricky out in space, you know. No hard feelings, but the fraction of a micro-error and poof! You see what I mean. I must get a sound sleep at stand-down."
"Don't forget what I said about Kate," Dr. Harold K. Jones remembered to warn me. "I know how to do it, too. And you can have an accident with my instruments—easily."
He disappeared. I watched as the others woke up and went, one by one, even the felon from Arcetus, until they were all gone and I was alone with dark thoughts on heavy elements. It was so improbable that I was the only me who had worked on these lines, and very probable that if two of us with similar minds did work on the same problem, we could between us find the answer. Look at Dr. Jones and his hyperspace relapse.
Thinking of Dr. Jones made me think of Kate, and I fell asleep again with the memory of her scent in my head, as if I were really smelling it. When I woke up again, halfway through the morning, there she was in my room. She was at least dressed this time, but she smiled familiarly at me.
"For God's sake, Kate," I said, "go back to your husband!"
She began to cry. "Oh, Haroldkin," she said. "I'm so glad to see you. I must be dreaming, because I know you're dead, but I've kept everything just the way it was. Look—I haven't even touched your messy desk."
"Are you sitting in a room?" I asked.
"I'm in your study, Haroldkin," she said, surprised. "Can't you see?"
"No, as a matter of fact, I can't."
"Oh! Then I can throw out all these old papers?"
"What old papers?"
"Oh, I don't know, Haroldkin," Kate said. "You made such a fuss about failing that silly medical exam that you never let me touch your desk when you graduated in physics."
"Yes," said Kate, throwing paper after paper onto the carpet. She made sweeping motions in the air and dumped a mass of notes into her lap. They appeared on her fingertips, but they stayed in existence when she dropped them on the carpet.
"How did I die?" I asked, bending down and thumbing rapidly over the papers.
"A bomb went off," she said. "I really don't want to talk about it. But you were so eminent, Haroldkin!"
I must have been very soft in the discrimination to have allowed that revolting nickname, I thought, but it was clear from the papers I was holding that I knew my physics. And there it was, printed in an issue of the Commission's Journal that never existed in my time-space, the whole equation I was looking for. It was so obvious when I read it that I could not understand how I failed to think of it for myself—for my own myself, that is.
When I looked up, this probable Kate had gone. I wanted to thank her, but the evening would do. Meanwhile, here was the ultra-uranium fourth octave equation.
I called the laboratory, read it off to my assistant, and told him to get on with the test.
"Right, Chief. I'll go down myself and give you a report when I get back."
I said fine and took the rest of the day off. It was the peak of my career so far, and from the widow Kate's comments, it seemed as if I had a great probable career to come. Of course, I would have to redouble our safety precautions at the labs and it would be best if I never went near the proving grounds. That other physicist me probably made some error that I would avoid, being forewarned.
By evening, I decided to try to locate that probable Kate again, to thank her, and to find out exactly how that poor me blew himself up with a bomb. With care, I recalled the perfume and also the musty smell of the papers, for I did not want Dr. Harold K. Jones' Kate appearing. Then I removed all other odoriferous substances from the bedroom, took three pills and was about to lie down to sleep when my assistant called to report on the test.
"That you, Chief? What a success! We're made. Your name's in lights, Chief! It was the most colossal explosion I've ever seen. It burned the area like toast. It even smelled like toast, with a touch of ozone and sulphur. Very strong smell...."
"Stop!" I screamed. "Stop!"
But it was too late. I could smell it clearly as he had described it. And now the pills are working. How in the name of heaven am I going to stay awake? Because once I fall asleep....


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I have never been able to get through this song without crying. This awesome rendition by Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill is no exception. Watch especially the reaction of the members of this audience, who are mostly from the Country music world, a part of the entertainment world where Christians are still welcomed and appreciated. Seeing these big names being moved by this hymn is touching. So be prepared to thrill, weep and rejoice!
How Great Thou Art


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Is Vaping with Additives Safe?
By Maria Herrera
October 10, 2016
Little has revolutionized the cannabis industry in the past few years more profoundly than the vape pen, but questions are surfacing about whether additives and compounds commonly found in vape oils pose health hazards to humans.
Vape oils often contain many seemingly-benign compounds—such as propylene glycol, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and vegetable glycerin—which are commonly used as carriers of flavors in cannabis concentrates, and to make the oils thinner and easier to vape. In some cases, the compound's own sweet taste makes them perfect companions to cannabis extracts. Until now, however, most safety testing has assumed that the substances would be consumed, not inhaled. In assessing related potential risks, scientists evaluate what happens to these compounds when they are combusted (i.e.vaped), taking into account factors such as number of puffs, puff volume, duration and, importantly, temperature.
New research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) published in July traced the source of harmful chemicals in many e-cigarettes to propylene glycol and glycerin. Published in Environmental Science & Technology, the study found that the thermal decomposition of these substances found in many vape pens and e-cigarettes, leads to emissions of as many as 31 harmful toxic chemicals, including acrolein and formaldehyde.
Propylene glycol—according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry—is used to maintain moisture in medicines, cosmetics, and food products. It's also a solvent for food colors and flavors, and used in the paint and plastics industries. It is the stuff at concerts and theatrical production that makes up artificial smoke.
Dr. Jahan Marcu, author of "The Hidden Dangers of Propylene Glycol," which appeared in Project CBD's website, questions the safety of these compounds. As Chief Scientist for Americans for Safe Access—a membership-based organization working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research—Dr. Marcu has stated that a thermal breakdown product of propylene glycol is formaldehyde, which is considered a "Group 1 carcinogen" (carcinogenic to humans) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Among some of the other important findings in the study is the fact that not all puffs are created equal: Emissions of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein—all either carcinogens or respiratory irritants—increased with usage as buildup collects around the heating element of a vape pen.
Another additive commonly found in vape oils is polyethylene glycol (PEG). Composed of repeating ethylene glycol molecules, PEG is a chemical compound widely used in cosmetics such as moisturizer creams, laxatives and toothpaste as thickeners, solvents, and softeners.
The Toxic Free Foundation—a database of compounds such as polyethylene—reports that impurities have been systematically found in various PEG compound. These impurities include ethylene oxide; 1,4-dioxane; polycyclic aromatic compounds; and heavy metals such as lead, iron, cobalt, nickel, cadmium, and arsenic – many of which are linked to cancer. Ethylene oxide, for example, is highly toxic even in small doses, and was used as a component in World War I nerve gas.
While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated propylene glycol as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) for use in food, the FDA designation assumed that the compound would be eaten, not inhaled. It might also be worth noting that other FDA 'GRAS' substances have been found to cause illnesses and even deaths, including artificial coloring Red #3. Banned from cosmetics in 1990 after studies found it caused cancer in animals, it can still been found in foods such as chewing gum, popsicles and yogurts).
Patient advocates such as Dr. Marcu would like to see proper labeling of vape pens listing any ingredients that may have been added to the cannabis extract, as well as an explanation about how to correctly used them, such as what temperature to store the oils and how long to hold the vape button.
One manufacturer is proactively addressing the issue of additives. Temple Extracts, a California-based vape producer, uses pesticide-free, organically-grown cannabis, and processes their cannabis oils without PEG, propylene glycol or other additives. "We feel very strongly that creating pure oils should be the standard, not the exception," according to Michael Straus, one of Temple's principal consultants, and a long-time organic foods / sustainable agriculture expert.
"Not all vape pens are cut with these agents," Marcu added in a phone interview. "There are tons of products (in the general marketplace) that are safe, and we should be able to do the same with cannabis."
Ultimately, it falls upon the consumer to ask the right questions, and to seek products that are manufactured with integrity and get as close to pure as possible.
Maria Herrera is a freelance journalist and the Communications Director at the Nevada County Cannabis Alliance. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com
References: (1) Correlation of volatile carbonyl yields emitted by e-cigarettes with the temperature of the heating coil and the perceived sensorial quality of the generated vapours. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2016 May;219(3):268-77. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2016.01.004. Epub 2016 Jan 25. Author information 1European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, 21027 Ispra, VA, Italy. Electronic address: firstname.lastname@example.com. 2European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, 21027 Ispra, VA, Italy. (2) Emissions from Electronic Cigarettes: Key Parameters Affecting the Release of Harmful Chemicals Mohamad Sleiman†‡§, Jennifer M. Logue†, V. Nahuel Montesinos∥, Marion L. Russell†, Marta I. Litter∥⊥, Lara A. Gundel†, and Hugo Destaillats*† † Indoor Environment Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS70-108B, Berkeley, California 94720, United States ‡ Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand (ICCF), Université Clermont Auvergne, Sigma-Clermont, BP 10448, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France ICCF, UMR 6296, CNRS, F-63178 Aubière, France ∥ División Química de la Remediación Ambiental, CNEA-CONICET, Avenida Gral. Paz, (1650) San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina ⊥ Instituto de Investigación e Ingeniería Ambiental, Universidad de General San Martín, Campus Miguelete, Av. 25 de Mayo y Francia, (1650) San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b01741, Publication Date (Web): July 27, 2016 Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society (3) https://www.projectcbd.org/article/how-safe-your-vape-pen (4) http://thetoxicfreefoundation.com/database/ingredient/peg


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If you look at my portfolio the images fall into two general categories, the subject fills the frame or is more isolated with some "breathing space" around it. Obviously these aren't the only two options for composing an image but in general it's how I see things.
The image above shows some people interacting on a bench in George Square Glasgow. They were feeding the pigeons and enjoying the weather on a July day. When I saw the image I took a couple of frames trying to get as much of the subject in the frame. I wanted some motion blur with the birds in the foreground but that's for another post. It was late morning and not particularly Sunny so I wasn't looking for any major contrasts and wanted a good depth of field.
Alternatively the next image shows a completely different composition style. It's much less obvious what is happening in the frame. The subject is placed to the far left and partially obscured, because of the lens the perspective is exaggerated. There is lot of deep black and contrast due to the exposure, this negative space leads your eye around the frame, and also makes you think about the image. In general I don't go out with either style in mind, I keep my options open and shoot the conditions as I see them. Always carry your camera and keep your options open.