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8 Registered (cassielA, Dax, joblo, jokul, Kiari, Myrddin, Ray, WindDancer),
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Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
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Belly up to the...
SPORTS BAR
Tonight at 8:00pm Eastern
in the Town Meeting Room.
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"Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, seemed to give a thumbs down to bipartisan legislation that would greatly expand educational benefits for members of the military returning from Iraq and Afghanistan under the GI Bill." --Obsidianwings.com
Also, McCain missed about ten votes on matters dealing with Iraq, and in June of 2006 he voted NO to a resolution that Bush start withdraswing troops from Iraq (with no specific timetable.)
Two months earlier, McCain was one of only 13 Senators voting against a $430,000,000 appropriation for outpatient care and treatment for veterans.
Two years earlier, McCain voted against creating a reserve fund to allow for an increase in veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion by eliminating tax loopholes. In other words, he favors tax loopholes over veterans' welfare.
There's much more. You can find his record for yourself at many websites. My question is, why does McCain consistently vote against benefits for veterans?
One of the excuses he uses is that it will cause members of the armed forces to leave earlier if they get more benefits when out. But of course, benefit amounts can be linked to length of service, with smaller benefits for fewer years in service, etc. But McCain doesn't want these vets to have increased benefits at all.
If you close your eyes and sit silently for a moment, you can almost hear the veterans saying "Thank you" to John McCain.
Wait a minute. Maybe the first word isn't "thank".
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OMG! As if Barack Obama doesn't have enough to worry about, NOW Hillary Clinton has been caught declaring that the voices of "her delegates" should be heard at the Democratic Convention. In a story posted online by ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5528104&page=1
Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of supporters last week that she's looking for a "strategy" for her delegates to have their voices heard and "respected" at the Democratic National Convention -- and did not rule out the possibility of having her name placed into nomination at the convention alongside Sen. Barack Obama's.
"I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified," Clinton, D-N.Y., said at a California fundraiser last Thursday...
For real? You mean Hillary Clinton could really be planning to get her name placed in nomination in opposition to Obama? She said it, so it must something that's been rolling around in her mind ever since she publicly announced she was "suspending" her campaign for president.
And in some other public statements Hillary has been seen giving her view of what sort of person is needed in the White House, but never mentioning Barack Obama's name in these statements.
Now I KNOW I'll be watching the Democratic National Convention. My guess is until Obama figures out a way to drive a stake through her heart, Hillary Clinton, like a Countess Dracula is going to keep rising from her political coffin to suck the blood out of the Obama campaign.
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Jose Medellin is set to be executed tonight in Texas. Jose is a Mexican national who was convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls in Houston, Texas, 15 years ago. Medellin bragged about having "virgin blood" on him after the rapes and murders. He was aided in these rapes and murders by 5 other gang members. Derrick O'Brien, not a Mexican, has already been executed. The other gang members were under 18 at the time and not eligible for the death penalty. Their victims were Elizabeth Peña, 16, and Jennifer Ertman, 14, lest anyone think we are only doing this because pretty little blond haired, blue eyed, white girls were involved or that Texas only executes Mexicans.
The Mexican government and lawyers for Medellin want an appeal because he was not allowed consular access before his trial. The Texas Attorney General's Office urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeals, saying the execution "fully complies with international law" and noting that the Justices already have ruled that the International Court of Justice's decisions are not U.S. law and not binding on American courts. Barring an 11th hour stay, it looks like we are going to serve justice tonight.
My Mexican immigrant buddy had this to say.
"You know, they are going to kill that Mexican tomorrow night."
"Good.", I said.
"Si. It's good. He should not have done that to those girls. This is not what a good Mexican man or any good man should do to little girls."
Me again, "Right. I hear in Mexico there is no death penalty."
"Oh, no. But this does not mean someone would not have cut off his pelotas and left him for dead."
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In order to fend off evil spirits on the road, bikers attach small metal bells, called Guardian Ride Bells, to their motorcycles. Once on a bike with a bell, the evil spirits are attracted to it and trapped inside. The constant ringing of the bell drives the evil spirit insane and causes them to fall back to the road from whence they came. These bells are often decorated with demonic imagery to further entice the evil spirit to enter the it. Other bells are adorned with more positive imagery which some bikers believe enhances the power of the bell. Still other riders believe the bell needs no decoration. The sound and the metal are what does the trick. Legend also has it that the bell carries twice as much power if given by a loved one.
Either way, it's all bullshit. The whole Guardian Ride Bell "legend" was created by slick marketing agents in order to sell dinky little pewter bells at $5-$20 a pop.
The real ride bells were not little trinkets, but more like cow bells. They were not to ward off evil spirits, either. They were to warn off other bikers that this guy with the bell was the last guy in the pack to crash. Ding-a-ling-a-ling! "Watch out for me! I'm a ding-a-ling." That's what the bell was about. A bell was not something you wanted on your bike, obviously.
The real legend has it that these ride bells were started by either the Hells Angels or by a gang that was absorbed into the Hells Angles. It has nothing to do with spirits or any Pagan beliefs at all.
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US President Bush will be going to China for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics on August 8th.
Some say this is a bad decision. They want President Bush to abstain from attending the opening ceremonies or any part of the Olympics in Beijing because of China's human rights violations. In particular, the recent attacks on Tibetan Monks.
I say this is neutral diplomacy. We are sending teams of US athletes to China to represent our nation. Our president should be there to show support for those athletes and for the games as well. It is not so much good diplomacy as it is the right thing to do for our team.
For President Bush not to attend over political reasons would be an act of bad diplomacy. The Chinese are hosting the games and our athletes. We should be the good guests and send our president. For him not to attend would be just plain rude.
After all, we are participating in the games if the president attends or not. If we were going to use the Olympics to make a statement against China, we should not be in the Beijing games at all. That is not what the Olympics is about though. This is about national pride by athletic competition, not by political posturing.
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We must all question these latest attempts by the McCain campaign to "label" Obama as an evil "messiah". Let us not be fooled by the impact that these ads (comparing Obama to Moses and visiting Mesopotamia.. etc.) will have on some of the zealous evangelicals.
Actually, I do not think that McCain himself fully understands the almost "hidden messages" implied on these ads, he may not be smart enough. But the handlers of McCain are fully aware of the subtle message to evangelicals to see Obama as signs of portent to Armageddon.
This along with the Brittany-Paris ad has got to be among the more underhanded attempts to smear someone....worse than the "Swiftboaters"!
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According to the New York Times, hospitals have taken the problem of what to do with seriously ill (i.e., renal failure) and/or "catastrophically injured" (i.e., brain injured) patients. Spend $30,000 for a flying ambulance and send them back to their country of origin.
So, what's wrong with that? Well, for one thing, it's against federal law for a hospital that receives Medicare or Medicade money to release a patient onto the street. If the patient needs longer term care and/or rehabilitation, the hospital must transfer the patient to an appropriate facility.
The problem with that appears to be that most secondary care facillities won't take uninsured patients. They are for profit while most hospitals are not for profit organizations. So the hospitals have taken it on themselves--pack 'em up and ship 'em out.
The question then becomes a legal one. Are cross-border repatriations--done without control or over-sight--legal? Or is it 'patient dumping?'
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I'd like to try a little experiment here, one designed to relieve much stress and thus make life easier to navigate. I usually do this in the morning because it sets the tone for my day, but that's just my personal choice. I'm doing it now, only because I want to present the idea to you and get it started. Try it for three weeks and see if you notice any measureable differences. Post here if you like, or keep a private journal...
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Today, I am grateful for the challengers in my life, as they show me something about myself that needs work. This one single act of viewing others in a non-judgmental light has done more to simplify my life than one can imagine.
Today, I am grateful for the learning process of how to say "yes" to what promotes my progress and "no" to what does not. A friend told me saying no is never easy, but that it does get easy-ER. Thank you.
Today, I am grateful for the increasing knowledge that "less is more." The more junk I get rid of, whether it be clutter of the house OR the mind, the less encumbered and more energetic I feel.
And last, but certainly not least...
Today, I am grateful for the "light show" in my backyard. In the dusk, as I am settling in for a night's rest, I gaze out my bedroom window to watch flickering fireflies. It makes me think of the birthing of ideas... like a Dream Nursery. Neat, huh?
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Salim Ahmed Hamdan is the first Guantanamo 'detainee' to be tried by military commission. He's alledged to have ferried weapons and ammunition for Al-Qaida while working as Osama bin-Laden's driver. It was his case that led to the Supreme Court's decision regarding a detainee's right of habeus corpus and the various political/legal machinations that ultimately led to the 2006 Military Commissions Act.
Is Hamdan a terrorist or is he a 38yr old Yemeni, father of 2 children, with a 4th grade education whose job was to be bin-Laden's driver?
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 architect, in a written statement to the Commission maintains he "was a "primitive" chauffeur and mechanic who "was not fit to plan or execute" terrorist attacks."
Who is he, really?
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This week-end is the culmination of Seattle's Sea Fair. Over the week-end, the Blue Angels will give two performances of high-speed, precision, F-18 flying over Lake Washington. They've had 3 practice runs in order to prepare.
They perform during the mid-way break in the hydroplane races taking place on Lake Washington. This is a yearly event in Seattle.
This year, though, there's a new twist. The mayor of Seattle, totally on his own, has declared this Sunday to be a 'no drive' day. No cars will be allowed on Seattle's streets.
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8471 Members
37 Forums
11221 Topics
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Max Online: 2631 @ 03/18/08 12:30 AM
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