Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License in La.

This is a major story that isn't even on the front page of the NY Times. That this sort of thing goes on in America would explain why Republicans are using racism as a political strategy. We need to find out how this clown got to where here is. And how soon do we get rid of him. And we need to ask every Republican what they think of this judge. Let's smoke these racists out.

in reference to:

"A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.""
- Interracial couple denied marriage license in La. - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)

6-Year-old "Balloon Boy" Story: Media Hits a New Low

I've never seen a more trivial story become a major news event. The Press/media has hit a new low. It including the interruption of regular scheduled programming in NYC about an event that occurred in Colorado. The early reports were about a runaway balloon that might've involved a 6-year-old. It turns out there was no boy in a balloon. Therefore, the press, including the NY Times spent a major amount of time covering a story about an empty balloon. So it might make ironic sense that the family involved in this possible hoax, are kooks.

"When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm. In this ultimate swap, the Heenes swap lives with a psychic mom who speaks to the dead and can control the weather, her husband and her children -- who believe they are destined to be star," the promotional copy read.

Father Richard Heene is an amateur scientist and storm chaser, according to a 2007 Denver Post profile. He is a co-author of the Web site The Science Detective.

Here's a video CBS news. Katie Couric called the event "incredible." I call it pure sensationalism.

Watch CBS News Videos Online
The NY Times has this "story" featured prominently on its homepage.

For hours on Thursday, people around the country were gripped by television images of a homemade, silver balloon careening through the skies near here, whooshing over fields and trees and yards with a 6-year-old boy believed inside.

[...]Sheriff Alderden flashed two thumbs up and said simply: “He’s alive. He’s in the house.”

Asked about the possibility that the event was a hoax, he said: “From our investigators on the scene, by all accounts, the angst and anguish this family was experiencing was genuine and the relief they experienced when he reappeared was genuine. I can’t imagine he would have been instructed to hide by his parents.”

There was nothing on the front page on the what should have been the top story: a justice of the peace refusing to marry an interracial couple.

Burned Teen Michael Brewer Holding on to life; Prognosis Grim

We need to ask how our society continues to breed such savages. Until we answer that question our nation is in danger.

in reference to:

"Four days ago, Michael Brewer Jr. was celebrating his 15th birthday with his family, a happy teenager doing back flips in the swimming pool. On Wednesday, the slight, blonde-haired teenager was heavily bandaged in intensive care at the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Burn Center, suffering from burns on 65 percent of his body. Gone were his eyebrows and eyelashes, along with most of the hair on the right side of his head. If he survives, his recovery will take months, say doctors.The Deerfield Beach seventh-grader was burned by five schoolmates who attacked him during a squabble over a video game and a bicycle, according to authorities"
- Burned teen Michael Brewer holding on to life; prognosis grim - Today's Top Stories - MiamiHerald.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Earmarks Sap Energy Chief's Priorities

Another promise not kept by Obama. Not that he could keep it. But those promises certainly helped get him elected President. Mr. Obama never had the power, nor will he ever have the power, to change this corrupt system.

in reference to:

"When President Barack Obama signed a spending bill for the 2009 fiscal year in March, he said he wanted earmark-laden legislation to be an "end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability."
Congress, however, hasn't given up earmarks -- the term for seemingly parochial projects funded at the behest of lawmakers.
The Obama administration didn't request these energy projects; it has proposed eliminating many of them.
Critics of the proposals -- which total more than $400 million in the legislation nearing Senate approval -- say they threaten to distract the Energy Department at a time when it is trying to disburse roughly $37 billion that Congress approved earlier this year for fuel-efficient vehicles, a modernized electric grid and other projects."
- Earmarks Sap Energy Chief's Priorities - WSJ.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

More than 85,000 Iraqis killed in war violence, ministry says

And nothing to show for it.

in reference to:

"The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry said 85,694 people were killed from 2004 to October 31, 2008, in the violence across the country. There were 147,195 people wounded during the same period. The figures include civilians and Iraqi security forces but not insurgents and militias."
- More than 85,000 Iraqis killed in war violence, ministry says - CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Keith Olbermann, Countdown Transcript (10-14-09)

Complete transcript. Excerpt below.

Insurance industry is a "cartel":

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.

It is a concept so elemental to American capitalism that any child whose played monopoly can understand it, the competition necessary for free trade prohibits by necessity, abusive behavior by any one firm or a group or firms, namely fixing prices, rigging bids or otherwise colluding to dominate and control the market. That`s why this country has anti-trust laws.

But if it seems to you that the health insurance industry has been allowed to behave outside of those anti-trust laws, that`s because it has for the past 64 years.

Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: The insurance cartel -- it`s not a nickname, it`s a real cartel -- it has finally occurred to the Senate that it might be the right time to do something about it.

The judiciary committee today is turning its attention to McCarran- Ferguson Act which has, since 1945, allowed insurance companies to dominate the market and reap enormous profits, that`s according to today`s witnesses to the judiciary industry.

Last month, Chairman Leahy, along with several co-sponsors having introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009. It would repeal the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry.

The cartel itself, today, is claiming that the antitrust exemption allows it to keep costs down -- which might be a better argument if the industry did keep costs down.

Olbermann interviews Congressman Grayson on the non-health care reform:

OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.

It is a concept so elemental to American capitalism that any child whose played monopoly can understand it, the competition necessary for free trade prohibits by necessity, abusive behavior by any one firm or a group or firms, namely fixing prices, rigging bids or otherwise colluding to dominate and control the market. That`s why this country has anti-trust laws.

But if it seems to you that the health insurance industry has been allowed to behave outside of those anti-trust laws, that`s because it has for the past 64 years.

Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: The insurance cartel -- it`s not a nickname, it`s a real cartel -- it has finally occurred to the Senate that it might be the right time to do something about it.

The judiciary committee today is turning its attention to McCarran- Ferguson Act which has, since 1945, allowed insurance companies to dominate the market and reap enormous profits, that`s according to today`s witnesses to the judiciary industry.

Last month, Chairman Leahy, along with several co-sponsors having introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009. It would repeal the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry.

The cartel itself, today, is claiming that the antitrust exemption allows it to keep costs down -- which might be a better argument if the industry did keep costs down.