Soledad Flying Solo

I watched the CNN coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sunday night and was impressed with both Roland Martin's and Soledad O'Brien's role as correspondents for the event. She seemed quite impressed with Wright's "performance" and I was wondering what would happen the morning after with other media observers would say. Sadly, not a one that I saw had any words of praise so Soledad stood alone.

As a whole new collection of Rev. Jeremiah Wright clips are played throughout the day today, and most likely throughout the weeks ahead, commentators and journalists will weigh in once again. Wright gave a speech last night at an NAACP dinner in Detroit and this morning at the National Press Club.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien attended the NAACP dinner (she was a guest announcer as well), and discussed the reaction to the speech on CNN's American Morning.

Her take? "It was an illuminating speech. It was a really funny, not angry, interesting, dynamic speech. So, certainly a home run for him from that perspective," she said.

Given This Post-Racial Society ...

Why is this?

About 1,100 people have been executed in the United States in the last three decades. Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, accounts for more than 100 of those executions. Indeed, Harris County has sent more people to the death chamber than any state but Texas itself.

Yet Harris County's capital justice system has not been the subject of intensive research until now. A new study to be published in The Houston Law Review this fall has found two sorts of racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty there, one commonplace and one surprising.

The unexceptional finding is that defendants who kill whites are more likely to be sentenced to death than those who kill blacks. More than 20 studies around the nation have come to similar conclusions.

But the new study also detected a more straightforward disparity. It found that the race of the defendant by itself plays a major role in explaining who is sentenced to death.

h/t P6

Stuck On Stupid

I haven't posted my views on all of the Rev. Wright/Obama drama that went down Friday, Sunday and this morning but it most certainly has been entertaining. Unfortunately, Rev. Wright was preaching to the choir as for all of his eloquent explanations and sharing of historical/sociological and theological information, it went straight over some people's heads!

In the past 24 hours, Fox News' best friend, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has given two speeches, one in Detroit at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's 53rd annual "Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner." For many whites, who could watch the speech live on CNN, this was the first time they didn't have to strain to see grainy YouTube video footage gamed by Fox News.

To help the white folks decipher what Wright was saying during the NAACP dinner, we created a tag cloud of what the minister really said, then a tag cloud of what white people think he said.

Here's the tag cloud of what Rev. Wright actually said.

Oklahoma Forces Uterine Probes

This definitely needs to go to a higher court.

The Oklahoma State Legislature is playing doctor again. Last year they dictated how specialists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center may care for pregnant women who have medical complications. This week, despite intense lobbying efforts and the Governor's veto, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1878, which mandates invasive and unnecessary medical testing for women.

Under the guise of obtaining informed patient consent, this new law requires doctors to withhold pregnancy termination until an ultrasound is performed. The law states that either an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound, whichever gives the best image of the fetus, must be done. Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest.

Why Did He Get Married?

No matter whose fault it was, Gary Coleman is damaged goods and I don't think any amount of therapy is going to fix it. Going on Divorce Court certainly won't.

The honeymoon is over for Gary Coleman and his new bride.

The 40-year-old actor and his 22-year-old wife, Shannon Price, are set to appear on TV's "Divorce Court" on May 1 and 2. The couple wed in August after meeting on the set of the 2006 comedy "Church Ball."

Among the problems the pair discusses with Judge Lynn Toler are Coleman's anger and intimacy issues. Coleman and Price agree they have "ugly" monthly fights.

"If he doesn't get his way, he throws a temper tantrum like a five-year-old does," Price says, according to a transcript of the show provided to The Associated Press. "He like stomps the floor and yells, 'Meehhhh,' and starts throwing stuff around. He bashes his head in the wall, too."

Coleman says he gets frustrated because "the male is always the bad guy."

"When I try to state my case or explain things to her or try to get her to understand my point of view," Coleman says, "my point of view doesn't matter."

Price also complains that Coleman has no friends and inexplicably disappears from home in the middle of the night. When Toler presses him, Coleman admits he is negative.

"I don't have any friends and don't have any intention of making any," he says. "People will stab you in the back, mistreat you, talk about me behind your back, steal from you. And they're not really your friends. (They're) only there because you're a celebrity or because they want to get something from you."

Coleman went on to describe the couple's private life as "mediocre."

"It's not her fault," he says. "I always feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders every day I get up. ... There are days I don't even want to get up."

"Divorce Court" is a syndicated show on which couples appear to settle real divorce cases. The show's judge resolves issues such as alimony and asset division, and her decisions are legally binding.

Everything Is Blowing Up Roller Coasters

Just what they need in the middle of a sectarian war ... "Disneylalnd!"

[Llewellyn] Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the firm that developed Disneyland. "The people need this kind of positive influence. It’s going to have a huge psychological impact," Mr Werner said.

The 50-acre (20 hectare) swath of land sits adjacent to the Green Zone and encompasses Baghdad's existing zoo, which was looted, left without power and abandoned after the American-led invasion in 2003...

Success seems improbable at best. Resentment is sure to be created. How about some of the naivete and over-confidence that got us into so much trouble with this war in the first place? Do you have any of that for us, Mr. Werner?

Mr Werner, who has been sold a 50-year lease on the site by the Mayor of Baghdad for an undisclosed sum, says that the time is ripe for the amusement park. "I think people will embrace it. They'll see it as an opportunity for their children regardless if they’re Shia or Sunni. They'll say their kids deserve a place to play and they’ll leave it alone."

Sure. A massive Disneyland-style amusement park, operated for American profit, plunked in the middle of Baghdad — that won't be a target for hostilities. Not at all.

The project will cost $500 million (£250 million) and will be managed by Iraqis. Under the terms of the lease, Mr Werner will retain exclusive rights to housing and hotel developments, which he says will be both culturally sensitive and enormously profitable. "I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn't making money," he said. "I also have this wonderful sense that we're doing the right thing – we're going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit."

A $1 million skateboard park, the first phase of the development, will open in July.

Who Will Get Him A Glass Of Water Now?

A black woman may not have gotten him a glass of water but she probably would have made him pay his dayum taxes!

A Florida judge sentenced the "Blade" movie star to three years in jail today. Snipes was convicted of tax fraud in February for not filing his income taxes for at least three years.

Snipes' attorneys had filed character-building testimonials from Denzel Washington, Woody Harrelson and television's Judge Joe Brown Wednesday, along with a sentencing memorandum recommending probation, not imprisonment.

In February, a federal jury convicted Snipes on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return. Jurors acquitted Snipes of felony tax fraud and conspiracy charges that carry more significant punishment upon conviction.

Had he been found guilty of all charges filed against him, Snipes could have faced up to 16 years in prison.

Prosecutors claimed that Snipes did not file his tax returns from 1999 through 2004, and jurors concluded that he failed to file for 1999, 2000 and 2001.

There will be no rivers of tears over this way ...

Bush's New Paper Tiger

Now it's Syria ... again.

Syria's ambassador to the United States on Thursday dismissed as "a fantasy" U.S. accusations that North Korea had helped his country build a secret nuclear reactor.

"This is a fantasy and this administration has a proven record about fabricating stories about other countries' WMDs," Ambassador Imad Moustapha said in an interview on CNN, referring to weapons of mass destruction.

"I hope the truth will be revealed to everybody," Moustapha said. "This will be a major embarrassment to the U.S. administration for a second time -- they lied about Iraqi WMDs and they think they can do it again."

The United States laid out intelligence on Thursday it says shows North Korea helped Syria build a suspected nuclear reactor that was destroyed by Israel last year.

Moustapha said the building that the Washington alleges was a secret nuclear reactor was just an "ordinary military building" that was empty.

Moustapha said he had been called in by the U.S. State Department and told "a ridiculous story about an alleged Syrian nuclear project and they told me they had compelling evidence that Syria was planning to acquire nuclear technology."

He said the "secret building" was easily seen on commercial satellite pictures and it did not have any barbed wire or heightened security around it.

"I hope the American citizens and the representatives of the American people would not be as gullible this time as they were prior to the war on Iraq and they will stop believing the silly accusations of the U.S. administration," he said.

A Sad, But Not Unexpected, Told You So

I said I wasn't going to post on this but what the heck! Star Jones is divorcing Al Reynolds.

Star Jones has filed for divorce from her husband, Al Reynolds, after three-and-a-half years of marriage, a rep for the former “View” co-host has confirmed to Access Hollywood.

“Several years ago I made an error in judgment by inviting the media into the most intimate area of my life. A month ago I filed for divorce. The dissolution of a marriage is a difficult time in anyone’s life that requires privacy with one’s thoughts. I have committed myself to handling this situation with dignity and grace and look forward to emerging from this period as a stronger and wiser woman,” Jones said in a statement to Access.

A source close to the former talk show host told Access the couple’s relationship has been in peril for some time, saying, “It hasn’t been an easy relationship for a while. There were all these rumors out there, all this speculation, which made it difficult for Star.”

I said from the beginning that the marriage would be over once she stopped looking like a drag queen. After she was canned from The View, she underwent therapy and changed her look. I'm sure that a lot of soul searching showed revealed a few truths about herself and the man she'd proclaimed as her soul mate while in her previous state of mind.

I believe it was the first or second season of The View on an show where Whoopi was a guest and Star was going on and on about wanting to get married. Whoopi looked at her like she was a kook and told her that she really just wanted the wedding. Well, she got the wedding - a spectacular one at that. I know it wore me out trying to watch and listen to her plan every last detail of that event. But after the wedding, there is the marriage and all of thing nice things that the fairy god mother lent to her for that special day disappeared. I'm sure it was a nice ride while it lasted and I hope she truly will emerge from this minus the exaggerated sense of self.

More OJ Foolywang

Or-J truly needs to give it a rest. I guess he doesn't expect to win because he has to remember that if Fred Goldman would go after a worthless fake Rolex looking for a buck, he'll be positively orgasmic at the prospect of snatching a $500K prize from OJ.

Fans of Donald Trump's "Apprentice" reality game show may get treated (or punished) with a new season featuring maligned ex-football star O.J. Simpson. According to the New York Post, the former athlete and Hollywood movie actor has asked to be considered for the next season of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice."

"Simpson really wants to do it. Trump and NBC are thinking about it, but are being very cautious," a source told the column. "There's a certain amount of heat associated with Simpson."

Simpsons infamous acquittal of the double murder of his ex-wife and her companion has all but eclipsed his fame as an NFL pro. His appearance on the show could be a ratings juggernaut for NBC or it could backlash and loose sponsorship for show.

The first season of "Celebrity Apprentice" was won by British tabloid editor and television personality Piers Morgan. He and his winning team raised more than $500,000 for Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund.

Trump would have him on the show if he thought he could get away with it - though I thought OJ was potentially facing jail time. Would this be a pre-prison or post-prison appearance?

Okay, She's Just Tacky

Of course I was never a fan or follower of this "megavangelist" or her message and this whole drama between her and her husband just proved that they are no closer to God than anyone else. Now she's going to appear on Divorce Court?

Just when the media spotlight was fading on national evangelist Juanita Bynum, the pastor found a new forum where her star could shine again —reality TV.

Frankly, Judge Lynn Toler, of Fox TV’s “Divorce Court”, had no idea who Bynum was when producers asked if they could invite her on the popular courtroom show. Creative minds behind the scenes of Divorce Court wanted to tackle a serious topic —spousal abuse.

Toler’s staff thought Bynum’s national story of surviving domestic violence would help others living with abuse find the strength to leave violent relationships —and attract some solid ratings. “I had never heard of her before,” Toler said of Bynum Wednesday. “The executive producer came to me and said I know you don’t like to do shows on domestic violence, but this is a way we could do it responsibly.”

Footage of Bynum’s two-part interview on Divorce Court has been posted on www.divorcecourt.com in anticipation of her appearance today. And if ratings hit a home run, Bynum could be invited back.

A spokesman for Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III on Wednesday said he, too, was asked to go on Divorce Court, but declined the offer. In March, Weeks pled guilty of assaulting Bynum last summer and was given probation as a first offender.

“Bishop Weeks understands that he cannot prevent his wife from saying whatever she wants, but as in the past, if mistruths are told, he will respond accordingly,” said his divorce attorney Randy Kessler.

Bynum’s decision to appear on Divorce Court after the media blitz surrounding her domestic violence trial has some metro Atlantans wondering whether the Pentecostal “prophetess” is trying to extend her stay in the limelight.

She's a loud attention whore and I feel for the people whose lives were so jacked up that they found her "performances" of value.

P.S. That show is generally entertaining when the folks are nameless/faceless folks existing in relationships that I couldn't see getting further than a hello. I don't watch "reality TV" to see real people! LOL!

Rev. Wright On Bill Moyers

I'll have to check my local listings to see if this airs in my area ...

In a rare interview, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said media organizations that circulated controversial sound bites of his sermons on the Internet wanted to paint him as "un-American" or "some sort of fanatic" in order to bring down Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ," Wright told journalist Bill Moyers in the first interview he has granted since comments critical of U.S. policies surfaced on television and the Internet.

" 'And by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint?' That's what they wanted to communicate. They know nothing about the church."

[...]

Moyers is a member of Wright's denomination, the United Church of Christ. Excerpts from the interview, conducted this week and airing in the Chicago area at 9:30 p.m. Friday on WTTW-Ch. 11, were released today.

In the interview, Wright told Moyers that people who heard the entire sermons understood his message and those who chose to air the sound bites had a "devious" agenda.

"The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly," he said. "When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from The New York Times called me, a 'wackadoodle.'

I Told You Obama Folks Were Crazy

Come on people! Stop!

How much would you pay for Barack Obama’s unfinished breakfast? It is not an academic question—or at least, it wasn’t yesterday, when Obama’s leftover waffles from a campaign breakfast at Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Glider Diner went up for auction on eBay. The listing proclaimed, “THIS IS BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S BREAKFAST FROM THIS MORNING, 4-21-08 AT THE GLIDER DINER IN SCRANTON, PA. WINNER GETS HIS USED DINER PLATE WITH HIS USED SILVERWARE AND UN EATEN PORTION OF HIS WAFFLE & SAUSAGE LINK. IT WAS WRAPPED WITH SARAN WRAP IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS DEPARTURE AND IS NOW IN THE FREEZER AWAITING THE LUCKY WINNERS BID!!!”

Turns out that the Glider’s owner had given the breakfast leftovers to a loyal customer, John Oakes, who threw them up on eBay with the intention of raising money for his candidate—Hillary Clinton. Obama’s breakfast had gotten 36 bids and reached $20,100 before it was taken down on Tuesday. Oakes said he removed it because he was worried the listing had given the Glider Diner bad publicity. He also said that his claim that he was raising money for Hillary was just a joke.

“We put it up there because we figured people are nuts and they might go crazy with it. And guess what? They did,” Oakes said.

Maybe $4.00 Gas Isn't All That Bad

.... 'cause ain't no way!

Will Payback Be A Bitch?

This is funny. I seem to remember back in 1988 when Jesse Jackson was a Presidential candidate, some little white girl in Iowa asked something like "if he becomes President will he make us slaves?" I cannot fathom where a child would get an idea like that but I've often wondered if there isn't a secret little fear that if black people get too much power, they will flip the script. Jon Stewart asked Obama
the same thing.

Appearing on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" Monday night on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama denied a hot rumor -- just started by host Jon Stewart -- that he planned, if elected to the White House, to "enslave the white race."

He quipped, "That is not our plan, Jon, but I think your paranoia might make you suitable as a debate moderator."

Obama, on a more serious note, said he had closed the gap in the state to "6 to 8" points behind Hillary Clinton, setting himself up for a "defeat" if he does worse than that.

He also said Clinton's tough campaigning did him "a favor...She has put me through the paces." If he wins the nomination, he said, everything's "going to be old news" by the general election.

Unfortunately, if Obama thinks that the penny ante "paces" he's been put through by "the Clintons," he's not ready. The GOP will eat him alive and the "race card" will played using far less innuendo than Bill Clinton mentioning Jesse Jackson's name in the same breath as Obama's.

Waste Not, Want Not

More money down the drain ...

The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.

The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.

Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.

Less than a week after Chertoff accepted Project 28 on Feb. 22, the Government Accountability Office told Congress it "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future" developments.

A glaring shortcoming of the project was the time lag between the electronic detection of movement along the border and the transmission of a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO reported.

Although the fence continues to operate, it hasn't come close to meeting the Border Patrol's goals, said Kelly Good, deputy director of the Secure Border Initiative program office in Washington.

"Probably not to the level that Border Patrol agents on the ground thought that they were going to get. So it didn't meet their expectations."

The Border Patrol had little input in designing the prototype but will have more say in the final version, officials said.

Agents began using the virtual fence last December, and the towers have resulted in more than 3,000 apprehensions since, said Greg Giddens, executive director of the SBI program office in Washington.

But that's just a fraction of the several hundred illegal immigrants believed to cross the border daily near southwest of Tucson.

The virtual fence is part of a national plan to use physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities to secure the Mexican border and eventually the Canadian boundary.

... and we know nobody jn power really wants to keep those folks out.

Chelsea Says ...

Mother knows best!

Chelsea Clinton says her mother would be a better president than her father because she is more prepared and more progressive.

Clinton told about 300 people at Duke University on Tuesday that former President Bill Clinton didn't have a complete grasp of the inner workings of Congress when he took office in 1993.

The former first daughter said her mother, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, will benefit from her time as a New York senator.

Chelsea Clinton said her mother knows how to be productive in Washington. She stands her ground on issues but knows how to work with Republicans. And that, she said, will help her mother navigate challenges and fulfill her campaign trail promises.

More Stating The Obvious

Yes, we know this. Both the US and Israel can blow any country in the world off of the face of the earth. Iran knows that. The constant insinuation (either by Iran or us) that they will attack Israel is np more than bluster and grand standing because we all know the ramifications. I know Clinton has to establish herself as a hawk. That kind of talk may appeal to the uneducated and non-thinking. I don't want to hear it!

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could "totally obliterate" Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel.

On the day of a crucial vote in her nomination battle against fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in hopes that this warning would deter any Iranian nuclear attack against the Jewish state.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel)," Clinton said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," she said.

"That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic," Clinton said.

Her comments appeared harder than a week ago, when during a presidential debate she promised "massive retaliation" against any Iranian attack on Israel.

Obama rejected Clinton's rhetoric as saber rattling on a day when Pennsylvania Democrats voted in a party primary contest that could help decide which Democrat will face Republican John McCain for the White House in the November general election.

Yes, it's saber rattling and it's irritating. But, Obama better figure out how to do more than brush it off if/when he ends up in the ring against John McCain because this topic is par for the course.

Inciting A Psycho

What lessons weren't learned here? Would it be that American braggadocio does not work and often makes things worse?

Sitting bravely behind concrete walls while visiting Iraq this weekend, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose to channel her boss (circa 2003) by responding to Muqtada al-Sadr’s latest threat with an official “taunt” from the U.S. government:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers. …(read on)

VetVoice’s’ Brandon Friedman goes on to explain that this “actually provides a huge piece of propaganda for Sadr, who can now use it as a rallying point for his followers who will view this as a challenge to their honor,” and just when the surge was beginning to work so well.

Spencer Ackerman has more.

Condi really needs to sit down and be quiet for the remainder of her boss' term. I'm sorry that their plan to reshape the Middle East didn't go according to their diabolical plans but to continue to stir up trouble in their remaining months is just ridiculous! This is one class act of an administration.

Crooks And Liars

This is where we are folks! We expect the bottom of the barrel to somehow rise to the occasion and represent the US of A in an honorable fashion.

Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.

Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

Those numbers represent a fraction of the more than 180,000 recruits brought in by the active duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines during fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2007. But they highlight a trend that has raised concerns both within the military and on Capitol Hill.

The bulk of the crimes involved were burglaries, other thefts, and drug offenses, but nine involved sex crimes and six involved manslaughter or vehicular homicide convictions. Several dozen Army and Marine recruits had aggravated assault or robbery convictions, including incidents involving weapons.

Both the Army and Marine Corps have been struggling to increase their numbers as part of a broader effort to meet the combat needs of a military fighting wars on two fronts. As a result, the number of recruits needing waivers for crimes or other bad conduct has grown in recent years, as well as those needing medical or aptitude waivers.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, who released the data, noted that there may be valid reasons for granting the waivers and giving individuals a second chance.

But he added, "Concerns have been raised that the significant increase in the recruitment of persons with criminal records is a result of the strain put on the military by the Iraq war and may be undermining military readiness."

The services use a waiver process to let in recruits with felony convictions, and many of the crimes were committed when the service members were juveniles.

And Don't Ask Me No Mo'!

She said she's not running!

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to end speculation Monday that she might be a vice-presidential running mate for Senator John McCain.

While praising Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, Ms. Rice said in an interview, “I don’t want to be, don’t intend to be, won’t be on the ticket.”

She said she would return to academic pursuits at Stanford University at the end of the Bush administration.

I wish folks would stop asking!

A Hot Mess!

This is why so many local governments - who know good and well this abuse, exploitative and illegal activity was/is occurring - were turning a blind eye. This is going to be a costly, legal quagmire.

Gary Banks, a lawyer representing the state Children's Protective Services, told the judge the state believes "there is a systematic process at the ranch near Eldorado at which children were exploited and sexually abused."

The children were rounded up and placed in temporary custody in a raid that began April 3 after a domestic violence hot line recorded a complaint from a 16-year-old girl. She said she was physically and sexually abused by her 50-year-old husband.

Walther was clearly struggling with how to organize what is believed to be the largest child-custody hearing in Texas history, and perhaps in the nation. Texas bar officials say more than 350 attorneys from across the state have volunteered to represent the children for free. Child welfare laws require each child in state custody to have an attorney.

"If I gave everybody five minutes, that would be 70 hours," Walther said, stressing a need for efficiency as well as the protection of the children's rights.

Still, I would like for our frickin' National Guard (or somebody) to raid every last one of those "compounds" and do exactly what Texas is doing. It has to happen for the sake of the children.

One In Seven?

Sheesh!

One in seven mortgage holders worry they may soon fail to make their monthly payments and even more fret that their home's value is shrinking, according to a poll showing widespread stress from the nation's housing crisis.

In an ominous snapshot of how the sagging real estate market and sour economy are intersecting, the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll also found that 60 percent said they definitely won't a buy a home in the next two years.

That was up from 53 percent who said so in an AP-AOL poll in September 2006. Only 11 percent are certain or very likely to buy soon, down from 15 percent two years ago.

In today's economic climate, even holding onto what they already have is a challenge and source of distress for significant numbers of homeowners. Nearly three in 10 said they are concerned their home's value will decline over the next two years, while 14 percent of mortgage holders expressed worry that they might miss payments in the next six months.

Hillary Get Your Gun

I like Hillary and still would like to see her win the nomination but I've gotta laugh here and agree with Obama.

Democrat Barack Obama lashed out Sunday at rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, mocking her sudden vocal support for gun rights and saying he understands the concerns of working class people.

"She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her," Obama told an audience at a union hall here.

The Illinois senator has spent two days on the defensive after comments he made at a San Francisco fundraiser suggesting working class people are bitter about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result. Clinton has pounded him for the remarks, calling him "elitist and divisive."

After reiterating his regret for his choice of words, Obama turned the tables on Clinton — noting that she accepted campaign contributions from drug and insurance company lobbyists and mocking, among other things, her sudden fealty to the rights of gun owners.

"She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She's talking like she's Annie Oakley," Obama said, invoking the famed female sharpshooter immortalized in the musical "Anne Get Your Gun."

I think it was this morning that I heard that Hillary was campaigning at some bar/tavern and had a beer and a shot of whiskey. WTF? I don't know what she drinks at home or if she drinks but, damn, she's out there doing boilermakers? I don't think she needs to try that hard (coming from a petite person who had her share of beer, chasers and boilermakers back in the day).

Hey! I Want A Turban Too

I guess this is a guys only thing but I think it's nice. San Jose's mayor is the one who does not look like the others!

To understand what it feels like to wear clothes of a different faith, non-Sikhs - including the Jewish mayor of Fremont and a Catholic state assemblyman - plan to wrap their heads in brightly colored cloth this weekend as part of "Sikh Turban Day," an international movement launched five years ago.

"I said, 'Sure, I'll do it,' " said Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman, who plans to show up early to the Fremont Sikh temple on Sunday to get help winding the long piece of turban cloth around his head. Wearing a turban is a first for Wasserman, who is Jewish.

"It's just a way of showing unity and understanding for each other's culture," he said.

Wasserman will join Union City Mayor Mark Greene and Assemblyman Guy Houston, R-Livermore, who will also don turbans Sunday in Fremont, in an event timed to coincide with Vaisakhi, a holiday that remembers when the first Sikhs became baptized more than 300 years ago. Houston's spokesman Keith Ochwat said the assemblyman, who is Catholic, has worn a turban in years past and even plans to bring his own from home this year.

The San Jose gurdwara, or Sikh temple, plans to host a similar event on April 26 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. The temple will provide dozens of colorful turbans for anyone to try on, said lay leader Bob Dhillon. In years past, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, Vice Mayor Dave Cortese and Santa Clara County Supervisor Pete McHugh have participated.

Uh Oh Obama!

I think he might be in a spot of trouble. This doesn't exactly sound right though I'm sure he was trying to identify with the struggles these folks face. The media is all over it.

The Huffington Post's Mayhill Fowler reports that, at that same San Francisco fundraiser where Obama revealed his previously unknown college sojourn to Pakistan, the junior senator from Illinois seemed to try to get inside the mind of small towners in Pennsylvania, with a dose of sociology and a dollop of dime-store psychology.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

It seems to me that this comment could be interpreted fairly easily as dismissing people who hold views on guns, or religion, or immigration, or trade because they believe in those views -- and not because they're "bitter" or lashing back at a system that has discarded them.

Elizabeth Edwards Prefers Hillary's Health Plan

This is interesting but I know Elizabeth Edwards does her homework so concerned Democrats might care to listen up.

Elizabeth Edwards praised Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan on ABC News this morning, saying "I just have more confidence in Senator Clinton's policy than Senator Obama's on this particular issue."

Meanwhile, Time notes that Mrs. Edwards has joined the Center for American Progress which "has been operating for the past two years as a kind of Hillary Clinton Administration-in-waiting."

Is an endorsement coming?

Note that last week, Mrs. Edwards hinted that she and her husband may back different candidates.

I Say Obama, You Say Tiger?

The media shouted bloody murder when Bill Clinton stated the obvious that Jesse Jackson had won South Carolina (so it wasn't unexpected that Obama would) as though it were some sort of sin to say that blacks in South Carolina have overwhelmingly voted for the black candidate before. I don't know what the heck this guy is trying to say.

Army Staff Sergeant David Bellavia introduced John McCain at Vets for Freedom Rally today with this unfortunate line, linking Barack Obama with golfer Tiger Woods. But not in a good way:

"Fortunately, I have the privilege, the distinct privilege today, of introducing a true American hero who defies political norms in Washington," Bellavia said. "Sen. John McCain has spent a lifetime in service to our nation. His example of unwavering courage is a model for every American. Rest assured that men like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate and admire. You can have your Tiger Woods, we've got Senator McCain."

Keith Olbermann invited Michael Eric Dyson on The Countdown to ponder the possible rationale:

DYSON: Now we can’t discern the person’s intent, it may have been fine. But that’s even more problematic. If there was no specific and particular and conscious intent to do harm, that means that this grows out of a pattern of habit. That it is just a natural reflex. And that one, you know, interchangeable African-American multi-racial person is as good as the other or they’re indistinguishable.

OLBERMANN: Since I first heard this today, I’ve been trying to figure out, with some sports background in my past, if the veteran there was not talking about race, what he could have been talking about. Because what is there to be dismissive about about Tiger Woods? He’s an almost unbeatable golfer. He is, in fact, the man who re-calibrated what had been a very non-diverse sport and because of that re-calibration, everybody in it made a lot more money than they would have otherwise. He brought people a lot of green, never mind any other color. If you’re comparing anybody to Tiger Woods on a non-racial basis, the other guy loses, doesn’t he?

This kind of stuff takes me back to my early/college era experiences with white folks. They couldn't "play the dozens" worth crap so no matter how off the wall or non-nonsensical some of my "jokes" would be, their response was always something racial. Needless to say, none of that lot went on to become one of my lifelong friends and they've probably raised passels of little Archie Bunkers to pollute this generation with those who cannot see that trying to use an amazing guy like Tiger Woods to insult someone is wholly stupid.

Eugene Robinson On Condi Running For VP

The people who are coming up with all of these "dream tickets" really do seem to be dreaming and not thinking clearly about how/why running mates are really selected. Eugene seems to get it:

She wouldn't bring any political base to the ticket, since she doesn't have one. She wouldn't bring any regional advantage, since McCain is almost certain to beat either Democrat in Rice's native state of Alabama, and almost certain to lose to either Democrat in Rice's adopted state of California. And while McCain has tied his candidacy to the Iraq occupation, he maintains some distance from the Bush administration by charging that until recently the war was woefully mismanaged. Rice, as national security adviser in Bush's first term, was one of the mismanagers.

She would, however, provide three things that McCain could really use: relative youth, undeniable pizzazz and photogenic diversity. The Republican Party is in danger of presenting a ticket that looks like a tintype portrait of yesterday -- while the Democratic Party shows the nation a YouTube video of tomorrow.

All right, there's another problem. Rice has described herself as "mildly pro-choice" on abortion and pronounced her support for affirmative action "if it does not lead to quotas." Given McCain's apostate views on immigration, global warming and campaign finance, it's hard to see how he could pick someone with so little regard for the Republican Party's bedrock views.

So I won't hold my breath. But I can't help but imagine having another controversial, larger-than-life character wade into the fray, one who not only raises McCain's big wager on Iraq but also takes us further into terra incognita on issues of race and gender. Whatever you think of Condoleezza Rice, she's a formidable woman with more qualifications than almost any other vice presidential choice I can think of. We'd get to watch another brilliant political novice try to take the country by storm. And, as a bonus, there would be the piano recitals, the early-morning workouts, the skybox appearances at football games, the impromptu lectures on Russian history (in Russian), the daily fashion show. . . . Pleeeeeease?

I won't hold my breath either!

The Baby Has Two Faces

God forgive me. I said I wasn't going to post the baby with two faces but I just couldn't resist:

"A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

Lali has a rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated -- she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

'My daughter is fine -- like any other child,' said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

'She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time,' Ali said."

Some of the comments I've seen/heard flying around have been kinda out there. How can they "operate" to remove one of the faces? Yes, the baby looks odd and will look odd forever but surgery would mutilate her. I'm glad these people see her as the reincarnation of a goddess because some of the folks I know sound like they would smother the poor child. She brings a great sense of pride to this family and this town. I think I'd call that a blessing.

Burn In Hell

I really wish I was kidding when I say burn this town down, but I mean it!

The 16-year-old girl whose phone call triggered the massive raid on a polygamist sect's West Texas compound told a local family violence shelter that her husband beat and raped her, according to court documents released Tuesday.

Child welfare officials said Tuesday they had completed removing 416 children from the ranch and have won custody of all the children. Another 136 women left on their own.

"All of the children have safely been removed from the ranch," Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner told reporters in nearby San Angelo.

But Meisner said the agency still didn't know whether the 16-year-old was among the children pulled from the compound on the grounds that they were all in danger of "emotional, physical, and-or sexual abuse."

The documents said that investigators discovered a number of teen girls who appeared to be pregnant as they searched the compound.

"Investigators determined that there is a widespread pattern and practice of the (Yearn for Zion) Ranch in which young, minor female residents are conditioned to expect and accept sexual activity with adult men at the ranch upon being spiritually married to them," read the affidavit signed by Lynn McFadden, a Department of Family and Protective Services investigative supervisor.

McFadden said that as soon as girls reached puberty, they were spiritually married to an adult male and required to produce children.

The girl said she was not allowed to leave the compound unless she was ill. She told the shelter that her husband, would "beat and hurt" her when he got angry, including hitting her in the chest and choking her while another woman in the house held her baby. The girl also said her husband sexually assaulted her.

When all of the women and children are out, get the torches ...

Wright or Wrong, Who's The Real Patriot?

Pundits and wing nuts are still making a fuss over select Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments. While words can be important, so are DEEDS!

In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)

The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.

What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.

While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.

Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?

After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities.

This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.
[...]

When You Don't Know Jesus Like She Knows Jesus

Sometimes I like colored folks. Sometimes I don't.:

"Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago)interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!"

"This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.""

Le sigh!

Counting On Stupidity

It's far too late in the game for anyone who is seriously considering a bid for the Presidency to still be confused about the difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites. So, either John McCain is as stupid as the average American (the sort who don't think that Catholics are Christian) or he's banking on that stupidity so that he can play the same game that the Bushes played when constantly linking Iraq to 9/11. I have to assume that he's doing it on purpose though my mom thinks he isn't smart enough to play this dumb.

I can’t figure out if he’s doing this because he’s too stupid to learn and educate himself or if he buys into the Rovian theory that if you stubbornly keep repeating something over and over that eventually, it’s accepted as the truth. Either way, is that the kind of Commander-in-Chief we need after Bush?

Think Progress:

During today’s hearing with Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) questioned Petraeus on what he called “the major threat” of al Qaeda in Iraq. In the wake of his recent confusion over the nature of al Qaeda, McCain today seemed to refer to al Qaeda as a “sect of Shi’ites”:

MCCAIN: Do you still view al Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?

PETRAEUS: It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was say 15 months ago.

MCCAIN: Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shi’ites overall?

PETREAUS: No.

MCCAIN: Or Sunnis or anybody else.

How Is This Seen As Being Open?

If I'm wrong, I'll stay wrong but I just don't see how they are reading Condoleezza Rice's words as something other than "not interested."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left slightly open the chance on Tuesday that she might be interested in running as vice president on Republican White House contender John McCain's ticket.

Pressed by a reporter, Rice declined to make a strong, direct rejection that she would never be interested in the second spot on the Republican ticket that is almost certain to be led by McCain as the presidential candidate.

Rice chose instead to lavish praise on the Arizona senator, adding that at the end of the Bush administration in January 2009 she planned to go to her home in California where she had served as provost at Stanford University.

"Senator McCain is an extraordinary American, a really outstanding leader and obviously a great patriot," Rice said at a news conference with the foreign ministers of Mexico and Canada at her side.

"That said, I am going back to Stanford. I am going back to California," she said, when asked to make a "Shermanesque denial" and rule out talk of any political ambitions.

Time will tell. I think she's sick of politics. I wish they'd stop trying to find a token they feel can compete with the first black man or first woman who has the potential to become President. They still won't get much more of the black vote and because Condoleezza is somewhat moderate, she won't win over any folks on the far right.

The Muslim Stuff Is Beyond Old

... but of course some elements just can't let it go. I pity the fools who still buy this drivel.

From the April 3 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

SAVAGE: Could you play "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)"? Because the flowers are in bloom out here. It's my favorite time of the year. I suffer, like, from allergies, but the blooms are gorgeous, the apple -- the apple tree. They are -- pink.

["A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)" plays]

SAVAGE: Doesn't it bring back beautiful feelings, compared to the filth that they play now? They're simple. Who would put on a white sportscoat today? He'd get his head stomped. Look who we inherited in this country, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Hussein Obama, in one generation. A war hero to -- a war hero who commanded the Allied operations against Nazi Germany was running for the presidency then. Now we have an unknown stealth candidate who went to a madrassas in Indonesia and, in fact, was a Muslim despite what Straw Hair will tell you on Softball. Yes, check it out.

... and even if he were a Muslim, so the hell what?!

Christopher Hitchens Is Such A Bitch

I was half watching this show over the weekend and obviously missed this. Christopher Hitchens is a drunken louse!

SULLIVAN: Two things. One, it's important to clear up that he [Wright] did not say "The Jews are going to get you" in some conspiratorial, classic anti-Semitic fashion. I think that's just --

HITCHENS: He [Wright] thinks only Jews are going to object to [Rev. Louis] Farrakhan and [Libyan leader Moammar] Gadhafi. Excuse me?

SULLIVAN: No, he didn't say "only."

HITCHENS: No, but --

SULLIVAN: Again, you keep playing with that quote. We're happy to have it on the record. And now you've made me forget my second point, which is --

HITCHENS: Oh, well, don't be such a lesbian. Get on with it.

SULLIVAN: I'm sorry, I've forgotten my second point. But I do think that's important. And I don't think Wright is Farrakhan. And I don't think Obama, in any conceivable way, represents anything but racial inclusion and integration. And anybody that looks at any part of his career and can be in any doubt about that is beyond me.

The reason he went to that church, clearly, if you read his biography, is he wanted to understand what it was to be black in America. He didn't understand. He's a very polyglot person. He grew up in Hawaii, he had some time in Indonesia.

Don't be such a lesbian? Andrew Sullivan is gay. We know that. What the heck kind of thing is that to say in the midst a political discussion? He couldn't find a good argument so he takes it there? It's just tacky!

All Eyes On The Green Zone

McCain can give all of the pro-war speeches he wants, Baghdad is coming apart at the seems and the green zone is becoming less and less secure.

MSNBC cuts away as McCain is delivering his usual pro-war Iraq speech and as he talks about leadership—MSNBC breaks into a news report that says at least 4 mortars were shot into Baghdad’s green zone.

McCAIN: Faced with the prospect of defeat, we had two fundamental choices. We could retreat from Iraq and accept the horrible consequences of our defeat. Or we could change strategies and try to turn things around. It was, I believe, a critical moment in our nation’s history, and a time of testing for our nation’s political leadership.

In the year that has passed, our nation showed its strength –

MSNBC: And speaking of Iraq, we do have breaking news out of Iraq, where at least four mortars have been fired into the heavily-fortified Green Zone today. It’s unclear at this time if there are casualties or any major damage. Now the news comes just a day after five U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq. Two, again, inside that Green Zone…read on

You see a pattern here, don’t you? I wonder if the insurgents will ultimately stage a huge assault on the green zone as the Maliki/Sadr situation worsens.

As I've said before, best believe there will be a huge assault on the green zone - come hell or high water.

Bush And McCain's Baghdad

I guess the fruit of the surge will be Baghdad as a demolished ghost town.:

At least 14 Iraqi civilians were killed in clashes in Baghdad today; nine of the casualties occurred in Sadr City, the Mahdi Militia’s stronghold that "has been under siege since last week by about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops." Three American troops were also killed, and hundreds of Iraqis fled Baghdad “as U.S. and Iraqi forces increased pressure on anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who faces an ultimatum to either disband his Mahdi Army or give up politics.”

Condi Said No And I Think She Means No

I wish they'd stop peddling this nonsense. How many times/ways does she have to say she is not interested in running for a political office. It will take her at least a decade the wash the stench of the Bush administration off of her body. I think she should return to academia where she can hob nob with folks with some semblance of sense and brain activity.

ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is actively courting the vice presidential nomination, Republican strategist Dan Senor said.

“Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,” Senor said this morning on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

According to Senor, Rice has been cozying up to the Republican elite.

It's About Dayum Time!

Finally the law has invaded one of these filth pits and rescued the poor, helpless children who are victimized from birth to death. I wish Utah and Arizona had the balls that Texas does. People try to romanticize/normalize it when they watch shows like "Big Love" but we know what goes on is not normal or legal.

Authorities say more than 400 children have been taken from a polygamist compound and placed in state custody as they continue to investigate whether one of them had been an underage bride.

Authorities have uncovered the equivalent of a small town on the 1,700-acre property in rural West Texas they raided last week. They say 133 women left the compound voluntarily and that an unknown number of men remained there and are not free to leave.

Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner says she believes the operation is the biggest of its kind in Texas. She was also involved in the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.

A girl's report to authorities last week that she was abused led to last week's raid.

I say burn the "compound" down if necessary.