] Live near the DC area?
] Join Ben & Jerry%u2019s and friends for a demonstration
] in Washington DC. Join us as we protest drilling in the
] Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Earth Day April 22nd.
] For more information please call our Event Hotline at
] 1-800-253-3787.For more information on the battle over
] the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge visit
] www.Greenpeaceusa.org

Free Hippie Icecream

Ben & Jerry's - Baked Alaska

I received this in my email today...
I thought it might be spam, but it doesn't appear to be:

JUST A REMINDER...

In 28 days, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. You will be charged for these calls.

Call this number from your cell phone 888/382-1222 or register on-line at www.donotcall.gov.

It is the national DO NOT CALL list. It only takes a minute of your time.

It blocks your number for 5 years. Please pass this on to everyone you know who may be interested."

U Nevermind: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_cell_phone_directory.htm

Do not call

] "We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon
] international law, not the Constitution of the United
] States. That's just outrageous, and not only that, he
] said in session that he does his own research on the
] Internet. That is just incredibly outrageous," DeLay said
] in the interview.

Tom Delay death spiral watch. This is Fox news. Fox news closed with a quote from a Democrat saying that they need to get Delay out of the public sphere for a little while and let him cool off. Fox news.

How dare judges attempt to research questions that are presented to them! Delay's position is that judges shouldn't be interested in the truth, per say. They shouldn't seek out objective perspectives on matters they need to consider. Rather they should be beholden to the power and money that drives the "democratic" government.

Delay wants to use the "good behavior" text in Article III Section I to bring all federal judges under fine grained political control.

He seems to be operating under the perception that the American people don't realize that the legislature is corrupt, or that politicians are bought and sold, or that people think that judges ought to live in a bubble. He is wrong on all counts, and he is starting to sound like a fool.

FOXNews.com - Politics - DeLay Calls Justice Kennedy 'Outrageous'

] Year after year, Wal-Mart's low pay and meager
] employee benefits force hundreds of thousands of
] employees to resort to Medicaid, food stamps, and public
] housing. Call it the Wal-Mart Tax. And it
] costs you $1.5 billion in federal tax dollars every year.

They had a full-page ad in the Times today.

Welcome to the new WalmartWatch.com

] Ad Targeting Voinovich
]
] [dinner sound effects/cutlery]
]
] Wife: Honey, were you watching C-SPAN today? Did you
] hear how disloyal Senator Voinovich was to Republicans
] and President Bush? Voinovich stood with the Democrats
] and refused to vote for John Bolton, the man President
] Bush has chosen to fight for the United States at the UN
]
] Husband: No, I was streaming it on the Internet at the
] office, but from what I could tell, Senator Voinovich
] played hookey from the hearings?
]
] Wife: Yeah that's right. He's missed most of
] the Bolton confirmation hearings, but then shows up at
] the last minute and stabs the President and Republicans
] right in the back.
]
] ...
]

The transcript for a political ad. You have to read the rest of it... it's not long. They sure are jackasses.

Move America Forward: Ad Targeting Voinovich

] Joseph Ratzinger Is New Pope

And he's even more conservative than John Paul. His new name is Benedict XVI, guess he's better than Pius I, or Pius "the weak" IX.

But at least I learned something: http://atheism.about.com/od/popesandthepapacy/a/overview.htm

The pope is in rome because apperently they're from the line of St. Peter who setup shop in rome. Did you know the pope had a real army up until 1860? Did you know that the vatican only became indiependant after deals w/ Benito Mussolini? Yeah... 1929... which is two years AFTER this Benedict XVI guy was born.

The church is doing this in a such a way as to get ready and do this again.

--timball

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

] What we are seeing, for the first time, is a fundamental
] challenge to the rule of law itself.

I keep telling myself they aren't this stupid... its all theater... They won't actually do this stuff...

Latest Assault on Judges Threatens Rule of Law

] In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for
] bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to
] bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers
] in five federal courts and subsequently completed
] in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited
] medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million
] Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical
] bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to
] bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since
] the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the
] onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more
] likely than other debtors to experience lapses in
] coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall
] prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

There IS something more perverse then this bankruptcy bill. Its the conservatives who are celebrating its passing. These people are getting screwed, and they are happy about it. They are cheering it. They have been completely manipulated.

The idea that this bill is intended to prevent irresponsible people from using bankruptcy to avoid the consequences of their actions is simply not supported by the facts. If that were the case, there would be no reason that exceptions could not be made for people who face catastrophic medical expenses, and people who have dependent children and had recently been divorced. Neither of these circumstances is predicatable, and therefore neither can be considered irresponsible behavior. This can happen to any middle class family. Furthermore, an exception for medical bills exists for veterans. If it can exist for veterans, then it can exist for anyone.

Why not? All you have to do is ask why not have an exception for medical catastrophies. Keep asking until you get an answer that seems satisfactory. You will be enlightened.

Conservative readers will refuse to beleive what I'm suggesting the answer is. They will seek out any other explanation even if it is not entirely sound. They are fooling themselves. I encourage them to keep asking that question.

That answer is that were such exceptions applied to this law, the result would be unpalitable to its supporters, as likely 60-70 percent of the cases would be eliminated before the means test was even applied. Pile on other concerns such as theft, natural disasters, etc... The result would not have the economic impact that the advocates of this law seek.

People who tell you that bankruptcies raise interest rates surely have a poor understanding of economics. Interest rates are set by economic externialities, price competition, and demand. They are lower today then they have ever been.

Costs in the lending industry don't impact prices. They impact dividend yeilds for owners.

Its quite simple. This law will cause an increase in dividend yeilds measured in small fractions of cents for companies that provide financial services, and the cost is to ruin people who have been the victims of severe unpredicatable catastrophies.

In other words, they are fucking you up the ass, and you are smiling about it all the way.

MarketWatch: Illness And Injury As Contributors To Bankruptcy -- Himmelstein et al., 10.1377/hlthaff.w5.63 -- Health Affairs

"I'm not here to discuss the Democrats' agenda."

That's my favorite.

Okay so here's what's going on. Unlike most committees the ethics committee has equal representation by both parties. Under the previous (108th congress) rules a tie vote in the ethics committee would mean the committee would act on whatever it was they're voting on. But under the new rules (109th) a tie means "status quo". Aka they've gutted the entire point of the ethics committee.

DeLay's (Broken) Record

wanna get drunk w/ a bunch of strangers in different cities? Come on out and drinkliberally.

--timball

Drinking Liberally