Labels: hack journalism, John Edwards, Tim Russert

Labels: Marc Maron, Sam Seder, The Tudors

A federal prosecutor who was arrested in an Internet sex sting after he allegedly traveled to Michigan from Florida to have sex with a 5-year-old girl hanged himself in a Michigan federal prison Friday morning, Detroit television station WDIV-TV reported.

John D.R. Atchison, 53, was put on suicide watch after he used a bed sheet in an attempted suicide in September.

Detroit police confirmed Atchison's suicide death at 10:14 a.m. Friday. They have not released any details.

Atchison was a married father of three and a respected figure who coached girls' softball and basketball in a park a few blocks from his home in a well-to-do Florida beach community.

Atchison had been communicating with an undercover sheriff's detective from Macomb County, Mich., who was posing online as the fictitious girl's mother and arranged for him to have sex with the child, police said.

He was arrested carrying presents for her, including a doll and earrings, and sexual materials, officials said.

"There were no red flags. He was normal. He went to work at the courthouse Monday through Friday. It's not like he carried dolls to the ballpark," said police Lt. Rick Hawthorne, who knew Atchison for more than 10 years.

Labels: I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning, perverts

Labels: Rudy Giuliani

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."

Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign.

The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.

An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later provided a copy to one of the professors.

It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:

• A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.

• Mrs. Roberts — who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site — frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university expense."

• The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."

• Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.

• Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors.

• University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework.

• The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by the Roberts' children.

• The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.

Tim Brooker, one of the professors who sued, said he fears for the university's survival if certain changes aren't made.

"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, `And God said, build me a university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'" Brooker said. "Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."

Labels: Christofascist Zombie Brigade, hypocrisy

Labels: immigration

Labels: Baseball, I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning

Labels: 2008 election, comedy, John Edwards, Marc Maron

Labels: cat blogging

Here’s what Reagan said in his famous 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing,” which made him a national political figure: “We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet.”

Today’s leading conservatives are Reagan’s heirs. If you’re poor, if you don’t have health insurance, if you’re sick — well, they don’t think it’s a serious issue. In fact, they think it’s funny.

On Wednesday, President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded S-chip, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health insurance to an estimated 3.8 million children who would otherwise lack coverage.

In anticipation of the veto, William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, had this to say: “First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the president’s willing to do something bad for the kids.” Heh-heh-heh.

Most conservatives are more careful than Mr. Kristol. They try to preserve the appearance that they really do care about those less fortunate than themselves. But the truth is that they aren’t bothered by the fact that almost nine million children in America lack health insurance. They don’t think it’s a problem.

“I mean, people have access to health care in America,” said Mr. Bush in July. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

And on the day of the veto, Mr. Bush dismissed the whole issue of uninsured children as a media myth. Referring to Medicaid spending — which fails to reach many children — he declared that “when they say, well, poor children aren’t being covered in America, if that’s what you’re hearing on your TV screens, I’m telling you there’s $35.5 billion worth of reasons not to believe that.”

It’s not just the poor who find their travails belittled and mocked. The sick receive the same treatment.

Before the last election, the actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s and has become an advocate for stem cell research that might lead to a cure, made an ad in support of Claire McCaskill, the Democratic candidate for Senator in Missouri. It was an effective ad, in part because Mr. Fox’s affliction was obvious.

And Rush Limbaugh — displaying the same style he exhibited in his recent claim that members of the military who oppose the Iraq war are “phony soldiers” and his later comparison of a wounded vet who criticized him for that remark to a suicide bomber — immediately accused Mr. Fox of faking it. “In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it’s purely an act.” Heh-heh-heh.

[snip]

Mark Crispin Miller, the author of “The Bush Dyslexicon,” once made a striking observation: all of the famous Bush malapropisms — “I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family,” and so on — have involved occasions when Mr. Bush was trying to sound caring and compassionate.

By contrast, Mr. Bush is articulate and even grammatical when he talks about punishing people; that’s when he’s speaking from the heart. The only animation Mr. Bush showed during the flooding of New Orleans was when he declared “zero tolerance of people breaking the law,” even those breaking into abandoned stores in search of the food and water they weren’t getting from his administration.

What’s happening, presumably, is that modern movement conservatism attracts a certain personality type. If you identify with the downtrodden, even a little, you don’t belong. If you think ridicule is an appropriate response to other peoples’ woes, you fit right in.

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Labels: conservatives, scumbaggery

According to a recent poll of women voters commissioned by "Lifetime Television" ("Television for Women"!) women are complaining again. Over a third of the women respondents say none of the presidential candidates are addressing their concerns.

According to the summary provided by the "Lifetime Television" web page, the top concerns of half or more of the respondents are these: the "insufficient effort to cure breast cancer," gun control, medical benefits, childcare, the rising cost of a college education, the connection between pollution and health risks, violence against women, and equal pay.

Nearly three-fourths believe it is more important for the government to shore up the Social Security Ponzi scheme than to bother with those silly tax cuts.

These could only be the poll results of people who have nothing to do with the creation of wealth. They sit home waiting for their husbands to bring home the money, or toil away at little jobs dreamed up to assuage the egos of bourgeois women living in the suburbs.

[snip]

As a class, women have never borne collective responsibility for work, they have never learned how to store food for the winter, and they have not generated economic growth.

Labels: Ann Coulter, idiocy, insanity, wingnuttia

"If Henry Waxman today wants to go to Iraq and do an investigation, Blackwater will be his support team. His protection team. Do you think he really wants to investigate directly?"

Labels: Blackwater, domestic terrorism, House Republicans

When reality gets a bit too heavy for me to deal with, in this case for example, I always end up thinking about the death of Bill the Cat. If you are not familiar with Bloom County, there was a particular episode that dealt with Bills death. Obviously, everything was screwball and comedy, since frankly I was never quite sure if Bill fit the definition of alive. Anyway, there is a part where various comic strip characters are being interviewed about the life and death of Bill. I believe in one panel, Charlie Brown, in silhouette, talks about Bill drinking all his root beer and trashing his Hollywood bungalow.

I see Lisa Crawford, who plays the character Lisa Crawford Moore on the comic strip Funky Winkerbean sitting down and doing an interview about her departure from Funky Winkerbean.

Lisa, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today.

Lisa: You are so welcome. I'm happy to be interviewed.

Lisa, you have been a character in Funky Winkerbean (FW) for decades. We saw your character grow from an awkward teenager to a successful lawyer, marrying your best friend and having a child with him. How do you feel about your departure from FW?

Lisa: Wow, there are just so many emotions going through my head right now. Obviously sadness and loss is the primary emotion I'm feeling. I have loved working on FW. I practically grew up on the set of FW. I am personally close to most of the cast and I hope to see them regularly after this.

I'm also partially happy. I think it's time I move on. I have had offers to appear in other strips. I may have a small part on For Better or Worse, as a predatory home wrecker, trying to break up Michael's marriage. I still do not know if I will take the part, but it would be a challenge.

More importantly, I'm going to go home and eat and eat and eat. I had to lose 45lbs this last 6 months! I need to gain back 20lbs (laughter).

Was the idea of killing of your character, strictly Tom Batiuk's (TB) idea, or did you have any input?

Lisa: Well, I have a small ranch in Texas that I spend the winters at. In fact, my neighbor is Thomas Haden Church. That man should have his OWN strip, let me tell you! Anyway, I was out riding horseback when I see Tom pull up to the fence. I'm thinking, what the hell is Tom doing out here?? This was down time for all of us on the strip.

I ride to the fence gate, let Tom in, he gets out of his rented car and tells me he has made an important decision and he and I have to talk.

Tom and I have always had our differences. I do believe I have slapped him on at least two occasions, with little regret on my part. But I love Tom, both professionally and personally. He told me what he had planed for my character. I slapped him for the third occasion.

Tom and I spent two of the most heart wrenching two days working out what would happen to Lisa. I made peace with Tom and understood where he was going with the character. I didn't quite like it, but I understood.

I also made peace with my character Lisa last winter too. There is a small grave on a hill on the ranch, under an old mesquite tree that represents my time on FW. The grave has a maternity dress I wore during the whole teen pregnancy episode, a Robin costume I wore when I married Les, a pink ribbon I got during breast cancer awareness month walkathon and a whole bunch of mud from my tears.

You and Les Moore have had a professional and personal relationship for years. You both seemed like the perfect couple. What happened and where are you two now?

Lisa: Boy, where to star with that? Les and I have been friends from day one. I have always adored Les as a friend. I believe it all started to change some time in the late 80's. In fact, I know the precise moment and it involved Tina Yothers. About two weeks before, that said "moment" Les and I were at a party in New York. I think we were helping Tom sell one of his books and we had appeared on the Today show. Anyway, Les and I get invited to this glitzy party for a movie premier, I don't even remember which. Being in the comic strip industry and being invited to a movie premier is a big deal. In the entertainment world, we are slightly ahead of Soap Opera celebrity. Slightly more famous, less cash. Them's the breaks. Anyway, while we were there, Les got the idea that he is going to go introduce himself to Winnona Ryder. He offers her a drink and introduces himself. She offers him a $40 tip, thinking he is a polite waiter. Oh the wretched look on Les's face. I felt so bad for him that night. It wasn't like Les is Brad DeGroot from Luann. That's another story which needs a shot of tequila to tell. I grabbed Les by the arm before he embarrassed himself even further and explained that we had an even bigger party we needed to attend. He and I spent the rest of the night at some coffee house in Greenwich talking and laughing and I was thinking Winnona really lost out that night.

Fast forward two weeks and who do I see Les with on the set? That's right, Tina Yothers from Family Ties. I don't know the full story, but an episode of Family Ties was going to involve Tina stuck up a rope in gym and Les was going to make a guest appearance, stuck up another rope, right by her. Lazy writers at the time, I guess. I didn't know that feelings for Les I had, had grown to the extent I was feeling at that moment. I was fuming. I was absolutely f***ing livid. I was about as angry and jealous as I think I have ever been. I wanted to take a fresh, steaming hot Montoni pepperoni pizza and smash it right in Tina's face.

You know, you spend a lot of time with someone, you sometimes don't recognize feelings that sneak up on you. I really thought I thought of Les as a brother, honestly. A good friend, a buddy even. But more than that? If you would have told me I would end up falling for Les, I would have told you that was about as likely as Charles Schultz writing in that Charlie Brown actually kicks the football from Lucy and then goes and actually kicks Lucy's ass.

A year passed and as many of my fans know, Les and I ended up getting married and we have two wonderful children together. Reality sat in about 5 years down the road and unlike the comics, Les and I changed and it was not in a way that made us grow closer. Towards the end of our marriage, things got so ugly, I almost had to quit the strip. I really pushed Tom into writing that difficult time into the strip. You know, Les falls for one of his students. Gets arrested. Thrown in jail, beaten and only occasionally seen in the comic. Tom didn't go for it, said it could be a good plot line, but it would be hard to bring in any comedy in it. Comedy. Cancer? Sure. Les's character getting busted with jail-bait and thrown into state prison, not so much. It was just the anger in me talking, but still. Gets me worked up just talking about it.

The rumors about Funky and me are just that, rumors. It didn't take anyone else to come between us, we did that all on our own. Les and I came to an understanding. I had to come to realization that I could not change Les, and Les could not change who me. Les will always be, in my opinion, much like his comic strip character; a great listener and a good friend with a good heart and of course, a bit of a dork. Unlike his comic character, Les has almost no ability to commit to a relationship. I truly believe that Les would shrivel up and die if there were no women for him to seduce on an almost monthly basis. Myself? I had no desire to put up with it. Les was and is a great friend and a fantastic father. He unfortunately, made a lousy husband. Having children together, we managed to work things out as far as being friends with each other. Sometimes, he even listens to the fairly good advice I give him. Sometimes I think he should accidentally get shoved into one of the pizza ovens in the comic strip.

We know about your relationship with Les, how about your relationship with the other cast members?

Lisa: As I mentioned, I'm fairly close to most of the cast, especially the ones that have been there for a while. I have a home in Ohio, where the main set is and I do believe that almost everyone in FW has come over on several occasions. Funky and Holly come over to the ranch quite often, actually.

Is there any particular cast member you have or had a rocky relationship with?

Lisa: Other than Les? No, not really. I sometimes was a bit distant with Mr. Dinkle and to this day, I still call him Mr. Dinkle. It may not seem like it, but he is just so intense. So focused. So in character at all times. I learned so much of my craft from him, but never got to know him on anything other than a professional level.

Lisa, I want to clarify a rumor for us. Did you and Cindy ever have a lesbian affair?

Lisa:(nervous laughter) OH my! Where did that rumor come from?

It's been an urban legend for years and is quite a popular item to speculate about on the internet.

Lisa: (laughter) The internet. Of course. It's a series of tubes!

Well, I can say, I did have a wild side when I was younger. The whole teen pregnancy thing was actually not that far off from really happening. Cindy however?

Well, I'll end this rumor right now. No lesbian affair.

(giggling) But we made out on at least two occasions! We were teenagers and peppermint schnapps does strange things to me. Cindy was and is a hottie, can you blame me?

In 1992, Tom had you all age by 10 years, how did you all manage that?

Lisa: Well, the same way this upcoming jump will be handled. Lots and lots of make up. In 1992 it was such a relief to stop playing a teenager. I had to stoop to make myself look smaller and had to wear this girdle that made me have a figure only slightly more busty and curvy than a teenage boy. It was a nightmare. Most of us had had enough at that point. Tom may have said it was his idea, but frankly, most of the "teenagers" almost walked off for good.

How do you feel about the next 10 year jump, with your departure from FW?

Lisa: Well, I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned, but I will be in a few strips, mostly as flash backs and on video. Everyone else will just need to spend a little bit more time with make up and prosthetics here and there.

Also, a lot of the kids currently on the strip are being, well fired. I mean, in a way, it's a good thing. Growing up as a 6 year old, your entire life on a comic strip is too much. Look at what happened to those Family Circus kids. I mean, each one is in their 50's and they have to be digitally altered to still fit the strip. How many times has Billy been arrested for his "child" like behavior outside the strip? I'm sure there is only so much a judge is going to put up with and roaming around the neighborhood, jumping on peoples cars, walking through their houses and messing with their property may be cute for a 7 year old, but not a crazed 52 year old.

Autumn, who plays my daughter Summer is just a sweetie. Wise beyond her years. She actually will be on the ranch next year as I really have grown to think of her as a daughter.

The young lady that will be the new teenage Summer has already been hired. Apparently she was going to be in a new Spider-Girl strip, as the teenage daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker, but that didn't work out.

As far as character development? Who knows. I don't really know where Tom will be taking some of these characters. I heard that Wally Winkerbean does not have a contract yet, so maybe Tom still has some thinning of the heard to do. (points her finger in the shape of a pistol at a picture of Wally and her on her wall)

Is there anything you would like to say to FW fans before to end the interview?

Lisa: I would just like to thank them all for their support. I have seen the final strip with my character already. It's hard to watch yourself in a strip like that. The whole time, I was thinking of all the memories I have about FW. The laughter, the tears, the depression, the absolute joy. Those memories just came swelling back and it hit me like a real death would.

I think it's important to remember, that FW, like life has a whole grab bag of events that happen to the characters. We may not like the sadness, but it helps define laughter. We may not like the ugliness that sometimes life offers up, but it makes the beauty in life, that much more beautiful.

Lisa was a character in a comic strip called Funky Winkerbean. She loved and laughed. She cried and even hated, just like all of us. She was a geek who feel in love with another geek and that love was everlasting, as corny as that may sound. She had a child that no mother could love any more strongly. She died on her terms against an impossible fight. Yet, she lives on...every time you see Summer. Every time you think of her as a pregnant teenager trying to figure things out. Every time you think of her and Les being married on Halloween as Batman and Robin. Every time you think of her fighting and winning against breast cancer. Every time you think of her, Lisa is very much alive. It is your own comic strip in your own mind, it is your story of Lisa that matters. If you don't close the page on her memory, she will never be gone.

Lisa, thank you again for letting us interview you.

Lisa: It was my pleasure. And just to let you know, I'm going to have a book out by summer. Tentatively titled "Confessions of a Comic Strip Starlet: The Lisa Crawford Biography". I have several publishers who want the rights, but I have not picked one yet. Keep a look for it on Amazon.com and my subsequent tour to promote the book!

Labels: cancer, pop culture

Labels: Afghanistan, Ciara Durkin, government conspiracy

Our Nation is committed to the health and well-being of our youth. On Child Health Day, we reaffirm our commitment to helping children develop good nutrition habits and active lifestyles, so that they can grow into healthy and productive adults.

[snip]

On this day it is also appropriate to recognize the important role the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has played in helping poor children stay healthy . To preserve that role and ensure that poor children can get the coverage they need, SCHIP should be reauthorized.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 18, 1928, as amended (36 U.S.C. 105), has called for the designation of the first Monday in October as "Child Health Day" and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this day.

I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 976, the "Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007," because this legislation would move health care in this country in the wrong direction.

[snip]


This bill would shift SCHIP away from its original purpose and turn it into a program that would cover children from some families of four earning almost $83,000 a year. In addition, under this bill, government coverage would displace private health insurance for many children. If this bill were enacted, one out of every three children moving onto government coverage would be moving from private coverage.

Labels: George W. Bush, health care, hypocrisy

Labels: media, media whores, Rush Limbaugh

Mr. Prince, who comes from a wealthy and prominent Republican family in Michigan, said his company’s phenomenal rise came from competence, not connections. He said he had not personally lobbied the White House or Congress to get federal contracts.

Asked if his sister-in-law, Betsy DeVos, a major Bush fund-raiser, former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman and wife of the party’s 2006 nominee for governor, had interceded on Blackwater’s behalf, he smiled and shook his head. “No,” he said.

The company had less than $1 million of federal government contracts in 2001. Last year, the company took in nearly $600 million in federal money, most of it under contract with the State Department to provide bodyguards for diplomats and visiting dignitaries, including the dozens of members of Congress who travel to Iraq each year.

[snip]

Mr. Prince said he was proud of his employees, who have conducted thousands of escort missions in the most dangerous parts of central Iraq without death or serious injury to any of the people they are assigned to protect. Thirty Blackwater workers have been killed in Iraq, he said.

He said Blackwater guards strictly followed rules of engagement set by the State Department, which call for gradual escalation of force before any shots are fired.

The House committee staff found that Blackwater employees had fired their weapons 195 times since early 2005 and in a vast majority of incidents used their weapons before taking any hostile fire. The report also said that in most cases Blackwater guards fired from fast-moving vehicles and immediately fled the scene of any confrontation.

Labels: Blackwater, Iraq

Labels: bloggers

Turns out Joseph Schmitz, COO & general counsel of the Prince Group, Blackwater's parent company, is married to one Lucila Garnica Gallo, Colomba Bush's sister (Jeb Bush's wife).

Labels: Blackwater, Bush family, corruption

Labels: bloggers

Maher: So why don't you just not bring up a finding bill? You're the only ones who can bring up the bill. Why don't you just do that?

Emmanuel: Well, if the question is why don't we just not bring up the funding, first of all, that's not the way to get the kids out of there. Bill, that might sound good and be a good sound bite, but the fact is...I have constituents there. Let me tell you what's part of this. OK? And this is a very tough call for a lot of members of Congress; at least the number of us who oppose this war. $48 billion of the recent request is for the best humvee now to protect kids. We made .. a real argument when this war started that we had kids go over there with no kevlar vests; parents were buying their own kevlar vests for the United States Army. Humvees that were not protected. These are the best humvees. You have constituents over there, their kids are over there, they're serving....

Maher: [starts to interrupt]

Emmanuel: No, wait a second. Do you not get that humvee there that can save a life?

[Audience member shouts out; pandemonium]

Emmanuel: No, wait a second. I'm all for bringing 'em home. You know how you bring 'em home? We need a new president because this president will not [unintelligible].

Labels: Democrats, Iraq, spinelessness

You can’t especially single out Countrywide for the failure of investors to realize how much risk they were taking on — that’s a failure with many fathers, including everyone from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, which were far too free with their AAA ratings, to Alan Greenspan, who assured us that while there might be a bit of “froth,” there was no national housing bubble.

But Countrywide made more questionable loans than anyone else — and its postbubble behavior does stand out. As Ms. Morgenson reported in yesterday’s Times, Countrywide seems peculiarly unwilling to work out deals that might let borrowers hold on to their homes — even when such a deal, by avoiding the costs of foreclosure, would actually work to the benefit of both sides.

Why block mutually beneficial deals? As the article points out, Countrywide can make money from the fees it charges on foreclosures, while the losses from mortgages that could have been saved, but weren’t, are borne by others.

Last but not least, since it may be the key to the whole story, is the victimization of Countrywide’s own stockholders.

Last year Mr. Mozilo’s huge compensation drew a protest from a group of shareholders including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Pension Plan. But the worst was yet to come.

In late 2006, even as Countrywide began using shareholders’ money to buy back its own stock at more than $40 a share — it’s now worth only $19 — Mr. Mozilo was selling. Between November 2006 and August 2007 — that is, during the months before investors fully realized the extent to which his company would be hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis — he unloaded $138 million worth of Countrywide’s stock.

Again, unless the stock sales lead to insider-trading charges, there’s nothing in this story that involves illegality. Still, how can it be that so soon after Enron, WorldCom and other scandals rocked the business world, we’re once again hearing about executives cashing in just before their companies are revealed as less successful than advertised? The answer, of course, is that we never dealt properly with those scandals.

Labels: corporatism, corruption, greed, mortgage crisis, real estate

Labels: Burma

Labels: blogging