Bottle Billions At Stake -- Will Pro-Bush Saxby Chambliss Bring Osama Bin Laden Into This?

For years, health groups and concerned parents have been battling county and state bureaucracies over junk food sales in American public schools. Definitive studies have proved that junk food and bottled drinks (including so-called sports drinks like Gatorade) are not only unhealthy but lead to depressed grades and OBESITY! Reality check--the brain needs real nutrients to operate properly and the body needs healthy food to prevent heart disease. DUH. Now Senator Harkin has introduced a bill that would force the U.S. government, specifically, Dept. of Agriculture (God save us all), to set appropriate standards for food nutrition in schools. Course, that won't prevent the bureaucrats from writing "rules" to dilute the law, and besides, who is going to enforce it? DOA? ... Ok, ok, it's still a good idea and a great step, yes.

Regardless, the lobbyists representing Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other bottlers (annual sales of sports drinks reached $7.5 billion in 2006) are naturally lying through their green Gatorade teeth and claiming that that sports drinks and sweetened waters are lower in calories and actually good for high school students and young athletes, and they're going all out spending millions in marketing to prove it. A TV ad for Gatorade, e.g., has NBA player Kevin Garnett slapping around like a stupid milkman and setting Gatorade bottles at the doorsteps of homes just filled with handsome active models impersonating parents.

Anyway, all concerned parties are on board with Harkin's bill. More than 100 organizations, from the American Federation of Teachers to the Yale Prevention Research Center, support the new law. BUT GUESS WHO IS IN THE WAY? Why is it that it seems easier to sign up a member of the Republican party to defeat anything that might really make a difference to human health? Is that true or am I delusional? Pro-beverage lobbyists, shareholders and execs are betting their money on pro-bev politicians like ranking Republican member, the grand and honorable Senator Saxby Chambliss. And btw, he represents Coke's home state of Georgia. It's the real thing, Coke is.

I do declare, Saxby, yoh razah-thin lips been kissn' that ass o glass for waaay too long!

I must remind everyone that Chambliss is the George Bush political clone who beat Max Cleland in Georgia by running absurd attack adverts associating Cleland with photos of Osama Bin Laden--and simply because Cleland was attempting to be sensible about the Iraq war. So with his connections to terrorists, maybe Chambliss can now ask Bin Laden to return and pose with Harkin or perhaps members of the Amercian Federation of Teachers. That should turn the tide for Coke, obesity and stupidity notwithstanding.

One Last Jena 6 Reality Check Courtesy AP

I just had to quote this from Tod Lewan, an AP national writer, who recently published an article on the Jena 6 story. After researching court testimony, interviews with teachers, officials and students at Jena High, and public statements from a U.S. attorney who reviewed the case for possible federal intervention, these facts came out:

• The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
• Two nooses - not three - were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
• There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
• The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days - they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.

Reality check time! When will the media, Al Sharpton, Jackson and company stop polarizing America for the sake of a good story and ratings?

In Lynch Mob America, Wrong Makes Right Once Again - Jena 6 Debacle and Racism

What is really going on in Jena, LA, given today's hyped news coverage? It appears once again as if the media is creating a black and white story rather than presenting ALL the facts. Why let facts get in the way of a good story? But just to sober things up a bit, a few important facts that are not being talked about because they might lead to inconvenient conclusions upsetting to lynch mob America:

• The white victim, Justin Barker, according to court documents, was slammed in the back of the head by a blunt force. Was it a fist, a bat, a stick? Who knows, but he was knocked unconscious and the Jena 6 began "to kick and stomp his lifeless body." Barker spent about three hours in a local emergency room for treatment of injuries to his head and face. According to spokespeople for the Jena 6, this attack was justified because of white racism in Jena. In other words, the attackers can't be held reponsible. Barker was kicked and beaten by black jocks (yes, they're all athletes) and long after he was unconcsious. So this behavior is justifiable?


• The Jena 6 reporters claim that The Jena 6 attackers, especially Mychal Bell (a local football star), were charged unfairly for the crime. Well, guess what? The mainstream media isn't reporting the fact that good ole Bell is an extremely violent human being. According to Wikipedia, "A request to lower Mychal Bell's $90,000 bond was denied on August 24, 2007, due to his juvenile record, which showed that he had been previously convicted of four other violent crimes. Bell was put on probation for a battery that occurred December 25, 2005, and he was later convicted of yet another battery charge and two charges of criminal damage to property."


• Also, according to supressed sources and Wikipedia, another little known fact: "The case sparked public outcry, as court-appointed public defender Blane Williams, himself an African-American, did not call a single witness in his attempt to defend Bell ... Much has been made of the fact that all members of the jury were white, however, an all-white jury was impaneled after none of the 350 blacks in LaSalle Parish who were called for jury duty showed up to participate in the trial.

So, a summary of the facts which create an inconvenient amount of gas for some of you: the jury was white because the black community refused to care enough to participate; Bell's defense attorney was black; Bell is a violent felon with a history; and finally, the Jena 6 acted in manner that was both cowardly and vicious.

Please keep all this in mind as the media does it's thing and the usual mouthpieces spout their rhetoric. By the way, the white students who hung the ropes from the tree should have been expelled, yes! Because they were not expelled did not give Bell and his jock cronies license to gang-assault somoene just because he was white. If anyone believes that Bell and the Jena 6 are innocent victims of white racism, please speak up here and tell me why, k?

____________

What Do We Expect the Bush Bureaucrat General To Say?

I'm not going to waste time blathering on at length about the BS that General Petraeus is vomiting on Capitol Hill along with Ambassador Crocker (don't get me started). Of course, the surge is working! But why can't someone get to the f'n point already? Have we changed centuries of blood feud culture? Have we calmed their thirst for power? Have we stopped the influence of Iran and Syria? Have we stopped the influence of terrorist leaders? Have we changed their opinions about American infidels? Have we created an Iraqi government the country will accept as legitimate? Can we point a gun at their heads forever? Do we expect the bureaucrat general to agree with the Dick Cheney 1994 comments (see video below this post) noting an Iraq invasion as a waste of time and life?

The answer to all of these questions? You already know. Write the Dems and any elephants with half a brain and a speck of morality. Tell them to END THE BULLSHIT. Damn the Bush legacy!

BTW, below is a video with Keith Olbermann who comments on the White House editing of the September Petraeus report to Congress. Worth watching.

1994 - A Very Different Dick - Don't Attack Iraq!

I know this is old news, but I want it as a reference while other points are made. Also, some people have still not seen this!

What Do ALAS Feminist Bloggers Have in Common With Rush Limbaugh Supporters?

This is in relation, once again, to the Duke Rape Case. I find a terrible and frightening similarity between nuggets of anonymous thought on a popular feminist blog called ALAS, and the kind of stuff you read on the radical right blogs, i.e., a strategy of shoot first and keep shooting till your hand goes cold. They readily accepted the false claims and statements of Nifong and Mangum with the same zeal and unquestioning vigor that Rush Limbaugh junkies accept the words of their master as absolute gospel. Course, the media disinformation, Nancy Grace, and others, are to blame for much of this, but still. You judge for yourself. Is this typical of feminist thinking or just typical of human beings who reinforce each other's wrongness? ... These comments are from last spring. Posters are commenting on the "guilt" of the lacrosse players.

• Q Grrl Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:36 am The entire Duke lacrosse team has shat on the community for years — turn around is fair play.


• Rachel S Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 6:41 am One of the things that I find ironic is that these people who are so quick to point out alternative theories and suggest that this never happen are prognosticating (sp) about evidence that is either wrong or simply not there.


• Antigone Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:20 am I don’t doubt that the girl was raped.


• Shannon Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 7:21 am I think the victim deserves someone to take her side for once. These guys can get a fancy lawyer, and are protected by their status. Nobody is calling them into account for their rowdyness or loud partying, and saying that is why they raped the woman, but the woman is being bashed by rape apologists right and left.


• Q Grrl Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 8:38 am What part of the crime do you disbelieve? Barring non-consensual sex, what about the beating and strangulation? These men, specifically the lacrosse team, have proven, year after year after year, their willingness to engage in illegal and disruptive behavior, with little to no regard to the consequences. Suddenly, when the crimes escalate (or are finally reported) these men are innocent until proven guilty? Honey, they’ve been proving their guilt for years. Hell, they’ve already copped to criminal activity the night of the party, so I’m really not sure what “innocence” of theirs you’re trying to shore up.


• Ampersand Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 9:52 am But it seems incredibly unlikely that all of them are innocent (even if none of them committed the rape, some of them may have important knowledge that they’re withholding, such as descriptions of other guests at the party). Under the circumstances, and given the severity of the crime, I don’t think the use of public shaming by the DA is out of line.


• geoduck2 Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 10:03 am What is it about this case that is hard to understand? The police found 4 fingernails & her cellphone and her makeup bag in the house. (They held her from behind with an arm around her neck. Her nails broke off as she tried to pull away the arm that was cutting off her airway.) The medical examination found tearing and injuries consistent with rape. Her father says that her face is bruised ... A court standard is innocent until proven guilty. But we are all free to take and judge the information available to us.


• ms. jared Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 am thank you for this post. i too have noticed how quick everyone is to say “don’t rush to judgement” but it seems it’s only reserved for rape. we can “rush to judge” ken lay and tom delay and every other criminal ASAP but when it comes to rape we’re all supposed to immediately dismiss the victim’s claims and wait for the courts to decide.from what i’ve read and from past experience, i am much more inclined to believe her and i do.


• anon Writes: April 3rd, 2006 at 1:14 pm I posted the below on Rachel’s Tavern, but I think it is relevant to this discussion. The way I see it, you basically have 2 kinds of people - those who are able to believe that such heinous acts can be committed by “basically good kids” and those who are not willing to believe it, which leads them to concoct elaborate schemes for explaining the rape and beating of this woman (which as far as I can tell is not in question - the only thing that IS in question is the who) ... Similarly, I think the men on the Duke Lacrosse team who allegedly raped the young woman have some sort of explanation in their heads that absolve them of responsibility. They may believe these rationales so completely that they are probably puzzled by the outrage and outcry. They may have lied to themselves so completley that they have begun to really believe it.

And then, many months later, when it had become overwhelmingly clear that Nifong and Mangum were lying and that the lacrosse players were innocent (even Susan Estrich had backed off), we have comments by many of the exact same people, even as recently as June. The comments in parens are mine:

• Whether or not the Duke Lacrosse Players committed rape that night--I now believe they did not, although of course I could be mistaken--thinking that an inconsistent narrative shows no rape took place is wrong. (OMG! After it had been shown that Mangum lied repeatedly to protect herself and destroy the lives of others--and btw, inconsistent story demonstrates false testimony in other crimes so why do these people not see this as evidence of lying, especially in this case where the lies on the part of Mangum were so numerous and profound?)


• With trepidation, I’m not limiting the comments here to feminists. (In other words, these people fear opinions that might contradict their own?)


• If it can be proven that Nifong withheld evidence and lied to the judge, he should be disbarred and, ideally, put behind bars. (OMG! IF? IF? IF? Who is she kidding?)


• THIS POST IS A FEMINIST, PRO-FEMINIST AND FEMINIST-FRIENDLY ONLY THREAD. (Regarding an ALAS post that slams everyone as a "vulture" who claims false rape charges potentially hurt real victims--in other words, this poster seems to be saying, "Just tell me what I want to hear." I have friends who work in rape crisis centers who say the same thing. I guess they're vultures too?)


• I stand by most of my past posts on this subject. But I no longer believe Mary Doe was raped that night. Nor do I believe she wasn’t raped. I’m now an agnostic on this question. (She is "agnostic" on the subject! No evasion here.)

Enough. Now, I can't talk compare this to Rush Limbaugh supporters without wanting to vomit, so I'll just leave that part out. But a big question remains. Have these people become just what they hate, i.e., ignorant, narrow-minded sexists?

You tell me.

"Until Proven Innocent" - A Must Book for "Liberal" Hypocrites - Ugly and True

I've gave up on the left many years ago, and the right long before that. What I'm left with now are feelings of revulsion and impatience, for I find them both horribly hypocritical and self-serving. Whatever happened to reason, I ask you? Nevertheless, you must buy and read the nonfiction book, Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. The book was written by Stuart Taylor, a columnist for National Journal, and K.C. Johnson, a history professor at Brooklyn College and CUNY.

No book could possibly do a better job of documenting and shining a glaring spotlight on the radical left of the Duke Campus--a group of lynch-mob academics who were determined, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, to condemn three innocent people simply because they were white and male. The evidence cannot be refuted. It's UGLY and it's TRUE. Only the biggest ostrich on earth could hide from these facts.

Courtesy of a great article on UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT on NPR, a slice or two from Chapter 8:

For many months not one of the more than five hundred members of the Duke arts and sciences faculty—the professors who teach Duke undergraduates — publicly criticized the district attorney or defended the lacrosse players' rights to fair treatment. Not even after enough evidence had become publicly available to establish clearly both the falsity of the rape charge and the outrageousness of Nifong's actions—widely seen as the worst case of prosecutorial misconduct ever to unfold in plain view. But, as some admitted privately to friends, they were also afraid to cross the activists—black and female activists especially—lest they be smeared with charges of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, or right-wingism ...That's what would happen to a chemistry professor who—months after the team's innocence had become clear—became the first member of the arts and sciences faculty to break ranks with the academic herd. It took less than twenty-four hours for the head of Duke's women's studies program to accuse him of racism in a letter to The Chronicle.

The book goes further to note the contribution of a special Duke faculty member, Houston A. Baker Jr., a professor of English and of African and African-American Studies.

Baker was in demand among TV hosts such as MSNBC's Rita Cosby and CNN's Nancy Grace. He was also quoted in newspapers local and national, including The New York Times and USA Today ... Baker provided a window both into his soul and into the indifference of many academics to fact after a critic e-mailed him, "You will owe a big apology when the truth comes out, but I doubt you will be man enough to issue it." Retorted the professor: "Who is really concerned about whether a woman was actually raped or not? Are you a perfect idiot?" Baker tossed out a litany of false charges of misbehavior by lacrosse players, such as that they had "beat up people who were gay," before closing: "... You live in a white supremacist fantasy land. . . . Whew! Have you read recently? Anything? . . . And, get over yourself, buddy. Get smart before you write to a professor, OK. Read SOMETHING."

Thanks guys, for "Until Proven Innocent." Thanks to National Public Radio for bubbling this book to the surface.