The Progressive Blog Alliance HQ

(Crossposted at Pushing Rope)

For the past four years, Mary Brandenburg has introduced legislation that would require members of the Florida House and Senate to take the FCAT and make their scores public. Her reasoning is that if grown adults can't pass the tests then children shouldn't be expected to. Legislators even have the option of taking the third grade FCAT test. Bradenburg's proposal has died four years running. Howard Goodman reports that fellow House members told Brandenburg they are intimidated by geometry and algebra.

(Crossposted at Pushing Rope)

America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.

George W. Bush

Perhaps this is what the President means.

Perhaps the Vice-President will now have to go cold turkey since the Washington Post obtained documents confirming meetings with Exxon Mobil Corp, Conoco, Shell Oil Co and BP America Inc. Cheney was so intent on keeping his addiction secret that he used executive privilege.

This site has some useful tips on how to spot signs of addiction.

(Crossposted at Pushing Rope) There is a thirteen page report on why Officer Martha Gearity transferred out of a TPD anti-crime street unit.

The behavior according to the investigation includes constant flagellation, belching and excessive sexual joking by male officers. It says quote "officer Gearity said that they talked about anal sex, they watched pornographic movies at work, talked about their sex lives in the open, made reference to her menstruation, joked about having homosexual relations with one another in graphic detail and took pictures of a penis with a camera phone." Those involved include Officer Gregory Cotner, Officer David Duncan, Officer Ryan Sigler, and their superiors Corporal David Watt and Sergeant Gene Strickland.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life)

one of the great legal lights of our time

Jeb Bush

William Rehnquist on civil rights.

"It is about time the court faced the fact that white people in the South don't like the colored people," Rehnquist wrote. "It [is] not part of the judicial function to thwart public opinion except in extreme cases."

Rehnquist had bizarre ideas on what equal protection meant. During his days as an Arizona lawyer, he fought an ordinance requiring businesses to serve black people. Rehnquist even threatened to punch a man. The reason being is Rehnquist didn't take kindly to complaints that he was intimidating black voters.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Reuters has a story on five American citizens being held in Iraq without the right to legal council. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman would not identify the five or talk about their case. Then he said this.

The Pentagon, however, remained tightlipped. "I'm not going to get into any detail," Whitman said.

"What I will say is that one of these individuals was believed to have knowledge of planning associated with attacks on coalition forces. Another individual had in his possession possible IED (improvised explosive devices) components. One individual was possibly involved in kidnapping and another was engaged in what was described as 'suspicious activities."'

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

A few thoughts on Sandra Day O'Connor announcing her retirement.

1). The Senate filibuster compromise will go out the window.

2). Progressives will be (rightfully) scared that the court will get another Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas.

3). Bush will use the same deft political touch to turn the confirmation into another John Bolton disaster.

4). Conservatives will try to overturn Roe V. Wade because Republicans in Congress are too scared to touch that decision. The right has become the the legal activist side with activist judges. The Terri Schiavo fiasco and Scalia's bizarre dissenting opinion.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

According to a classified intelligence report, Iraq has become a better training ground for terrorist than Afghanistan ever was.

They said the assessment had argued that Iraq, since the American invasion of 2003, had in many ways assumed the role played by Afghanistan during the rise of Al Qaeda during the 1980's and 1990's, as a magnet and a proving ground for Islamic extremists from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.

The officials said the report spelled out how the urban nature of the war in Iraq was helping combatants learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other kinds of attacks that were never a staple of the fighting in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet campaigns of the 1980's. It was during that conflict, primarily rural and conventional, that the United States provided arms to Osama bin Laden and other militants, who later formed Al Qaeda.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Brag about things you don't understandA girl and a woman, a boy and a manEverything is sexually vague [an awkward phase?]Now you're wondering to yourselfIf you might be gay

Sixteen Blue by the Replacements

Tommy Duncan has a good post about the political backlash Hillsborough Couunty commissioner Ronda Storms is facing after she ordered a vote to pull gay pride displays from libraries. The vote passed 6-1.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara actually makes Donald Rumsfeld look like the Prince of Compassion. This exchange he had with Maureen Dunn at Harvard University in 1995 boggles the mind. McNamara either tries to duck the question, about a famous incident during Vietnam, or his decision to let an American pilot die in Chinese territory never made a personal impact on him.

QUESTION: Mr. McNamara, you don't know who I am but you certainly-- from my entire-- you poised a situation which created the rest of my adult life. My name is Maureen Dunn. I don't know if you remember the incident of February 14th, 1968, the China incident, where you, the President, the Vice President, Secretary Clifford, General Wheeler, General Taylor, Secretary McNamara, George Christenson, Secretary Rusk, Tom Johnson and Walt ... (inaudible) met for 30 minutes about the China incident. Do you remember that?

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Two thoughts.

The first is that there is no way in hell that I would strap a bomb on my body and blow myself up. The second is how the hell can the U.S. military fight suicide bombers in Iraq. Republic of T has a rather gruesome picture of the aftermath of of suicide bombing of a Baghdad diner. If the administration is going to keep telling the American public that the insurgency is on it's "last throes" then they need to either provide details or get a better press secretary than Scott McClellan. The reason being is that Terry Moran is handing Scotty's ass to him.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Arnold Schwarzenegger faced 15 minutes of booing when he spoke at Santa Monica College. The school is the Governator's alma mater. Hey, no community college is too good for this superstar.

Here is a video his commencement address. A disturbing part of the video is a police officer taking a protest banner from students. That certainly is not legal. Yet, stuff like this has happened frequently since the 2000 election.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

This is unbelievable.

Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her.

In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, Bush said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m., and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

"Between 40 and 70 minutes elapsed before the call was made, and I am aware of no explanation for the delay," Bush wrote. "In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome."

I will be liveblogging the John Conyers Hearing On the Downing Street memo. If anyone is liveblogging this feel free to trackback.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Via Kevin Drum: there is no better form of medicine than that practiced by Doctor Bill Frist. The man is so good that he can diagnose patient Terri Schiavo without ever meeting her.

"She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

The autopsy report.

The autopsy released Wednesday on Terri Schiavo backed her husband's contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding she was severely and irreversibly brain-damaged and blind as well. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Roxanne got an interesting comment that she made into a post.

i haven't read everyone's blogs but i need to bitch because i am not allowed to say any of this while in the service... isn't it strange that those who are here to uphold democracy (soldiers) hardly ever get treated to its benefits. I as an AMERICAN Citizen cannot say anything negative about my boss President Bush. I am not given that right. I signed that right away. I am fighting for freedom and do not have it for myself. Its a simple irony but maybe those outside the military do not see it. i have three more months in a six year contract i signed as a young man in the army... i have been informed that i will now have a minimum of a year and five months added onto that contract.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

It is official.

Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, who as Florida's secretary of state was both praised and vilified for her part in the 2000 presidential recount, said Tuesday she will run for the Senate next year against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.

Her announcement brings a major name to the race, along with the potential to raise a lot of money.

"The time has come to launch a campaign for the U.S. Senate," Harris told The Associated Press.

Harris was elected to Congress in an extremely conservative district. If Bill Nelson can't beat her then he is a worse candidate than John Kerry.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Via M-Pyre: Kansas state Senator Kay O'Connor has come out against the 19th amendment.

Section 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

To have a woman come against the right for other women to vote is madness. How did O'Conner join the Republican Party? Why, by registering to vote.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

The ignorance of the PC crowd has reached a peak. Parents and students, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, complained to the Board of Education to stop the marching from playing a song with raunchy lyrics. The first question is why should a marching band be worried about lyrics? Marching bands don't have singers so the question of lyrical content is mute.

The story gets better.

The song in question is the Kingsmen classic Louie Louie.

The Louie Louie controversy started in 1964 when an angry parent complained to Attorney General Robert Kennedy about a "pornographic" record. "The lyrics are so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter," wrote the distressed parent.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Man, this is big. A Bush administration neocon goes down hard.

A policy analyst who worked in the office of the undersecretary of defense was arrested today and charged with illegally disclosing classified information relating to "potential attacks" on U.S. forces in Iraq, the Justice Department announced.

In a statement and an FBI affidavit, the government said Lawrence Franklin, 58, passed information to two unnamed individuals at a restaurant in June, 2003. He also is accused of disclosing information to an unspecified "foreign official" and to unnamed members of the news media.

Crossposted at Last Day of My Life

Taz links to a story about Florida not appealing a Judge Ronald Alvarez decision to allow a 13 year-old girl to have an abortion. Florida Department of Children and Families Marilyn Munoz said, "The judge had no knowledge of the young girl's condition, so Secretary Hadi requested that we... inform the judge and ask for an injunction to request time for him to review the case."

I didn't know being thirteen was a "condition."

What was bizarre is that DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi went against long-running policy of allowing minors to have abortions.