Environmentalists give Barack Obama a pass on oil spill – Josh Gerstein – POLITICO.com.

A California high school principal has apologized for telling five students they couldn't wear U.S. flag shirts on Cinco de Mayo, the local superintendent said Friday.

Tensions at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill had risen in the wake of the decision to forbid the shirts, as the students who wore the shirts defended their right to show their patriotism — even on a Mexican holiday — while a large group of Hispanic students staged a walkout Thursday in protest.

via FOXNews.com – California Principal Apologizes for Forbidding U.S. Flag Shirts on Mexican Holiday.

It looks like the circus and childish antics are rearing their ugly head once again in Albany.

It started as an angry blow-up, and then it escalated. A state senator with a history of anger management issues says his race-based rant was part of his fight against the “evil of white supremacy.”

via NY Senator: ‘You Racist People In Here’ – wcbstv.com.

One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off.

via Iowa Town Renames Good Friday – ABC News.

If I had any words for this, I am sure they would escape me.

The ethical woes facing Democrats are piling up, with barely a day passing in recent weeks without headlines from Washington to New York and beyond filled with word of scandal or allegations of wrongdoing.

The troubles of Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, followed by those of two of the state’s congressmen, Charles B. Rangel and Eric J. Massa, have added to the ranks of episodes involving prominent Democrats like Eliot Spitzer, Rod R. Blagojevich and John Edwards.

via Political Memo – Rash of Scandals Tests Democrats at Sensitive Time – NYTimes.com.

What an idiot…

The Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America has quietly launched an initiative aimed at making Obama supporters’ voices heard on the largely conservative airwaves.

I have been calling idiots, idiots a lot today. Maybe tomorrow I will start calling them brain dead morons. I wish I was smarter. Then I could really come up with something smart to call them.

via Obama campaign arm focuses on talk radio – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who made his substantial fortune by suing military contractors and later lambasted them as a lawmmaker, was indeed evacuated from Niger by personnel working for Xe Services (the private security empire formally known as Blackwater), his spokesman confirms.

This guy is so much an idiot.

via Blackwater Rescued Progressive House Rep. Alan Grayson from Niger’s ‘Civil Unrest’ | World | AlterNet.

So anyone with a pulse saw the Austin plane crash for what it was–an ugly event caused by a bitter weirdo. And nearly everyone was thankful it didn’t turn out worse.

But I guess Washington Post contributor, Jonathan Capehart, is pulse-less. After reading Joseph Stack’s suicide note, J.C. wrote, “I am struck by how his alienation is similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.”

via » Daily Gut: People Died, WaPo Lied – Big Journalism.

Labor groups are furious with the Democrats they helped put in office — and are threatening to stay home this fall when Democratic incumbents will need their help fending off Republican challengers.

The Senate’s failure to confirm labor lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board was just the latest blow, but the frustrations have been building for months.

via Unions bash Dems, warn of political fallout – James Hohmann – POLITICO.com.

The Democratic activists in attendance were also frustrated—they say they want to hear more from their leadership in Washington. Following consecutive losses in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts – all states Obama carried in 2008 – jittery Democrats here said they expect better communication to the public about what the administration and Congress have accomplished.

via Obama to nervous Democrats: We’ll lead party through storm – Jonathan Martin and Alex Isenstadt – POLITICO.com.

Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.

via Why are liberals so condescending? – washingtonpost.com.

So the Lancet, a British medical journal named after a really sharp object, retracted a horrible study attempting to link measle vaccines to autism.

Now this would really be great news, if the study had not come out, oh, 12 years ago. It’s really scary that it took a medical journal over a decade to admit what nearly everyone else with a working brain knew: the study had more gaping holes in it than Tom Sizemore’s septum.

But sadly, although the study author has also been discredited for this harmful crud, it doesn’t matter. People who believe in junk science will continue to believe in junk science, because their egos won’t allow any other option. And so they will continue preaching to parents a dangerous and false belief that ends up killing kids.

via Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Daily Gut: Celebrities Who Make Kids Sick.

I took a shot in the dark and looked her up on Facebook December 1st. Found someone who I thought looked like her and sent a message. She replied asking for more clues and I replied. Soon there after she friend-ed me and it was done.

After some emails back and forth catching up I settled in, happy with connecting with a long lost colleague.

Then came along December 2nd. I thought I would make a comment on her wall, but for some reason she was not to be found. I checked and I was a friend short and sure enough she was gone.

To verify this, I sent her this message:

Dude, did you kick me out of your club?

Was it because you found out that I am a right-wing nut job?

I am not really though, I am just a limited government conservative that believes in people helping people and not government helping people.

If so, I am sad to lose the connection, but it is what it is.

She soon after replied with this message:

I’m sorry, but some of the anti-Muslim comments on your page really offended me. Also the fact that you call the president “dear leader’, but refuse to actually listen to him speak. He’s not my favorite person right now, but I listen to his speeches, just like I listened to every single one of Bush’s. I’m afraid that I just can’t tolerate people that don’t pay attention and form their opinions based on their own inner beliefs rather than fact.

Your right wing beliefs I’m cool with, but your celebration of judgement and bias without due diligence I am not.

Before I could offer a rebuttal, she had completely cut off any ability I had to reply. For if she had not been so quick to judgement and bias without due diligence, she could have realized that I am on the internet just about every waking hour, reading my political blogs, news sites and listening to streaming audio of talk show through out the day. Some might call it an obsession.

So I thought I would offer my rebuttal here and reply as I would have if she had not cut me off.

Here goes;

I’m sorry, but some of the anti-Muslim comments on your page really offended me.

- These comments are not mine but of commenter’s on my page. I don’t agree with them but I am not about to censor the speech of someone else. Those are their beliefs and not necessarily mine.

Also the fact that you call the president “dear leader’, but refuse to actually listen to him speak. He’s not my favorite person right now, but I listen to his speeches, just like I listened to every single one of Bush’s.

- I do refer to him as ‘dear leader’ for obvious reasons, but I do listen and read all of what he has to say. I just choose not to do it during my prime time TV time.

I’m afraid that I just can’t tolerate people that don’t pay attention and form their opinions based on their own inner beliefs rather than fact.

- If only she had been a little more tolerant and was not so quick to judge based on her own inner beliefs rather than fact, we could have remained friends.

It is what it is though.

Maybe one day if she every reads this, we can reconnect and try again to be friends who don’t necessarily agree.

If I only allowed friends on Facebook that agreed with me, needless to say it would be me and a couple of other folks.

I like people that don’t agree with me. It makes for some stimulating conversations.