medi-o-core

Ok. I get it. 24 Hours of news, you run out of things to say. You know pertinent things like whether Bushypoo is gonna blow up the world any time soon. Nope, Michael Jackson getting away with something Catholic priests have gotten away with for roughly 1,900 years. You must put in effort to reach things that we should care about. Business, economics, politics, world events. You must actually SCROLL DOWN to get to them. WHY?

But mixed with the things of moderate importance is a gem that we all needed to know. PARIS HILTON IS RETIRING! Now the news can return to its former glory! And for all you people who thought there was no hope for CNN, well I tell you now that there is hope. Yes CNN can become the world's first 24 hour TABLOID NETWORK! The crap on their site reminds me of the Weekly World News, which featured a story on Saddam and Osama's marriage, and their camel. After all, CNN.com tells me that King Tut returns to dazzle!...Last I checked, he was a dessicated mummy...not too dazzling.

But its all ok, the Senate is apologizing for lynchings:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate seldom says it's sorry, although it is now ready
to officially express its remorse over the failure to outlaw lynching in the United States.

A resolution that the chamber was likely to take up Monday voices regret for the Senate's unwillingness for years to pass a law stopping a crime that cost the lives of over 4,700 people, mostly blacks, between 1882 and 1968."

Wow. 4700. Now, lets think...how many has Iraq cost? How many more?

And who's next? Who has WMD's? Who has too much oil? Who's still communist? Who will be added to the axis of evil? Perhaps math will become part of this elite group, who knows....I'm sure Bushypoo thinks its actually a thing he can fight, like terrorism.

ps...How the hell do you fight a concept?

peace out
-Dirty Teags

Edit by the less Bugs Bunny-resembling (much to her mother's disappointment) christie:

- Link fixed. I think.
- Linked the Associated Press article.

The Right Conversation for America

By Washington Post columnist Fred Hiatt

The Post has criticized the administration for failing to give detainees hearings as called for under the Geneva Conventions; for writing memos that toyed with the definition of torture and undermined long-standing Army restraint in questioning prisoners; for prosecuting low-ranking soldiers while giving the brass a pass; for allowing the CIA to hold prisoners beyond the reach of the International Red Cross or any other monitor; and for refusing to empanel a truly independent commission to examine accountability for prison abuse up the chain of command, up to and including the White House.

Rumsfeld does not accept The Post's assessment of these events. But even if he did, as I understand his comment, he would point out that none of these offenses, even if accepted as true, is as heinous as filling a mass grave.

But just invoking such a comparison, even implicitly, amounts to a loss for the United States. If we have to defend ourselves by pointing out that we are morally superior to terrorists, it's a loss.

Read the whole piece. It's good.

Buh-bye Arnold?

Gah. I'm going to miss out on voting against our Gubernator (it's almost as if that title NEVER gets old) in 2006.

From the Washington Post, which I realize is a ridiculous source for state-wide news:

The governor's once-soaring popularity ratings have dropped in recent months, and some surveys have shown that, after a steadily increasing number of ballot initiatives in recent years, many voters oppose a special election, which could cost the state $44 million to $80 million, according to various estimates. If his issues lose with voters in the fall, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, "it makes his reelection prospects lower, and will make it harder to deal with the legislature."

Schwarzenegger has not declared whether he will seek reelection in 2006.

Our populist-wannabe senator, eh? That kind of doesn't work without the voting population behind him.

"How can we just stand around while our debt grows by billions and billions of dollars?" he said.

Or, in Arnold-speak: "Haww kahn ve zhust staahnd avound vile aur dep grows by billiahns ahnd billiahns ov dah-llars?"

Three main issues will be:
1) budget/spending cuts
2) redistricting
3) merit-pay vs. tenure for teachers

And from LA Times, it isn't too hard to determine that they don't like this too much. Or maybe they're just too busy blasting the Michael Jackson trial verdicts (not guilty of all charges) :

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this evening set a special election on Nov. 8 for California voters to consider his plans to overhaul state government and a handful of unrelated but controversial initiatives...

The initiatives he has embraced would alter the balance of power in Sacramento by shifting the job of drawing legislative districts to a panel of judges, imposing a new spending cap on the government budget, and lengthen the time required for public school teachers to obtain tenure...

The special election is expected to cost taxpayers at least $52 million, according to the Secretary of State's office, although the governor's opponents say their own survey of 58 counties shows a figure closer to $80 million...

Schwarzenegger promised during his campaign for governor that he would never change Proposition 98, which sets minimum funding for schools. But he now says the initiative, which voters passed in 1988, unfairly puts a strain on the budget at the expense of other government programs...

The governor's final initiative would make it harder for teachers to get job protections, and make it easier for them to get fired for poor performance. The governor originally had proposed paying teachers based on merit, but his political allies, who sponsored all three measures, failed to collect enough signatures in time for that plan to appear on a fall ballot...

This is more than half of the article. For the Michael Jackson case, they have:

ANALYSIS: Accuser's Mother Was 'Weakest Link'
READING OF THE VERDICT: AUDIO VIDEO
PHOTO GALLERY: The Scene in Santa Maria
VIDEO: D.A. Sneddon Jurors 1 Jurors 2 More
QUICK UPDATES: LAT Reports From Santa Maria
VERDICT BLOG: Reactions
DOCUMENTS: The Legal Paper Trail
-->TIMELINE: Tortured Road to a Verdict

Kind of puts the priorities of a prominent member of the American MSM (mainstream media) in perspective, eh? No wonder George is always reading stuff by 'em Brits all the time. Well, okay. I adore the Washington Post but even I said "ENOUGH!!!" to their seemingly endless Deep Throat coverage. Shameful...