Mark Kirk Settles Nothing, Fails to Set Record Straight

Posted on by TL

I’ll leave this to someone much more objective in politics than I am: Carol Marin at the Sun-Times.

Carol was at a press conference this week where Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate was going to take questions about his several "misstatements" regarding his military service. Kirk did not satisfy Marin.

From the Sun-Times:

There are, by my count, approximately 10 misstatements or exaggerations of his military service. When, I asked, is a misstatement a mistake and when is it a willful untruth, a lie?

The congressman’s response: "I, I would say that some are quite small when you reach back 30 years. And with regard to the military award, that was my error. And I owned it and apologized for it. And like I said in the speech, [this] is to correct the record, to apologize, to release your official Navy record and then stand on that."

Kirk’s supporters in the audience voiced their disapproval with those of us who sought more candor, less carefully parsed responses.

That’s OK.

They’re partisans. We’re the press. And this is politics.

Unless there are new revelations to come, it’s time to move on.

One Kirk supporter told me the problem with these campaigns is that candidates have to be so careful about what they say and how they say it for fear someone like me will go over their claims with a fine-tooth comb.

Well, no kidding. That’s what happens during political campaigns.

And the public deserves to know.

Myths And Falsehoods About Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court Nomination

Posted on by TL

ENEWSPF is carrying a quite comprehensive article from Media Matters for America that addresses – heck, blows out of the water – every myth and falsehood that has been floated about Elena Kagan, including the following:

  • Myth: Kagan is "anti-military"
  • Myth: Kagan is "radical"
  • Myth: Kagan’s praise for an Israeli Supreme Court justice shows she’s a radical (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan’s thesis shows she’s a socialist
  • Myth: Conservatives can credibly argue that Kagan’s personal and political views are relevant to confirmation process
  • Myth: "Kagan Standard" means Kagan must answer questions about issues that will come before the Supreme Court
  • Myth: Kagan’s Goldman Sachs role taints her nomination
  • Myth: Conservative opposition is based on the substance of Kagan’s nomination
  • Myth: Obama used "empathy" standard rather than fealty to law in choosing Kagan
  • Myth: Kagan is unqualified because she hasn’t been a judge (UPDATED)
  • Myth: Kagan has said judicial experience is an "apparent necessity"
  • Myth: Republicans would be justified in opposing Kagan because she lacks a judicial paper trail
  • Myth: Kagan is "Obama’s Harriet Miers"
  • Myth: Kagan’s record shows that she will rubber-stamp war-on-terror policies
  • Myth: Kagan’s 23-year-old statements about the Establishment Clause suggest she’s hostile to religion
  • Myth: Kagan’s recusal obligations would be "extraordinary"
  • Myth: Kagan "can become" too "emotionally involved on issues she deeply cares about"
  • Myth: Kagan not "fair-minded, impartial" and doesn’t have "proper temperament to be a judge"
  • Myth: Kagan is anti-free speech
  • Myth: Kagan supports banning books
  • Myth: Kagan wanted to "ban pamphlets" by individuals (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan is anti-Second Amendment
  • Myth: Kagan compared the NRA to the Klan (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan banned ROTC from campus
  • Myth: Kagan "cover[ed] up" plagiarism at Harvard Law
  • Myth: Kagan’s citation of Marshall’s statement that the original Constitution was "defective" is controversial
  • Myth: Kagan’s memos to Justice Thurgood Marshall prove she’s outside mainstream (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan’s campaign donations are unusual
  • Myth: Kagan supported Saudi sponsors of terrorism
  • Myth: Kagan accepted a gift by Saudi prince that brought Shariah at Harvard (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan acted improperly in Warner Creek case
  • Myth: As SG, Kagan indulged her own views rather than defending the law
  • Myth: Kagan is avoiding "traditional interviews" with the press
  • Myth: Kagan supports holding terror suspects "without due process" (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan believes that foreign law trumps constitutional law (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan wants to protect sex offenders in the Catholic Church (NEW)
  • Myth: Kagan supports cloning human beings (NEW)

Read the entire article here.

Violence Escalates at Taste of Chicago

Posted on by TL

If you’re going to the Taste of Chicago, be careful.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Three teens — including a 15-year-old boy who was seriously hurt, and two others who got caught in a “melee” — were stabbed near the Taste of Chicago Thursday night.

In an apparently unrelated incident around the same time and at the same Loop intersection where the boy was seriously hurt, police officers Tased a man.

The boy was walking down the street with a group of friends in the 200 block of South State Street when they encountered a group of males fighting about 9:25 p.m., according to police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines.

The boy felt a pain in the back and realized he had been stabbed, Gaines said.

Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said the male stabbed is 15 years old.

That stabbing happened near the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and State Street and one person was taken in serious condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital about 9:18 p.m., Fire Media Affairs spokesman Joe Roccasalva said.

The Tribune called it a "rowdy night."

That’s an understatement:

Some people attending the Taste reported other violence, which apparently brought out a large contingent of riot-clad police to the area.

Taja Jarrett, 20, was getting out of her retail job in the Loop at 8 p.m. when she said she first noticed large crowds in the area. She and Shanice Brown, 17, were planning to check out the Taste  festivities when they saw a fight break out near one of the entrances.

The two walked west to Dearborn Street where they encountered another large brawl. They also saw an increased police presence, including officers on horses, ATVs, on foot and in cars. Dozens of helmeted on all-terrain vehicles ushered a large crowd west on Jackson Boulevard away from Grant Park.

Other reports are coming in from friends on Facebook of people getting caught in the middle of fights on Metra trains coming from the Taste.

Be careful.

Phil Jackson Rides Again: Will Return to the Lakers

Posted on by TL

Phil Jackson

From the L.A. Times:

Phil Jackson said it himself. He’s ready for one last stand.

Energized after a week at his Montana lakeside home, Jackson decided to return for an 11th season with the Lakers, the chance to go for another three-peat outweighing the desire to be merely a spectator next season.

"Count me in," he said Thursday in a statement released by the Lakers. "After a couple of weeks of deliberation, it is time to get back to the challenge of putting together a team that can defend its title in the 2010-11 season. It’ll be the last stand for me, and I hope a grand one."

He provided additional context in a brief e-mail to The Times.

"I got a message from on high … that said, ‘Phil, you’ve got to come back, there is a need to fulfill the prophecy. You know 12 [titles] is a holy number and 11 just doesn’t fill that.…’

"So I listened to my doctors and watched the sunrise and the sunset a few times and voila, I’m back."

The Great Zen Buddhist Coach rides again.

My money’s on a three-peat.

Memories of Republican Rule Will Help Dems in November

Posted on by TL

What’s worse than two more years of a Democratic majority in Congress?

A return to the disaster plan of the GOP.

From the Washington Post:

Architects of President Obama‘s 2008 victory are braced for potentially sizable Democratic losses in November’s midterm elections. But they say voters’ unease about a GOP takeover will help their party maintain congressional majorities.

"I think the prospect of a Republican takeover — while not likely, but plausible — will be very much part of the dynamic in October, and I think that will help us with turnout and some of this enthusiasm gap," said David Plouffe, who was Obama’s campaign manager two years ago and is helping to oversee Democratic efforts this fall. Still, he put all Democrats on notice, saying: "We’d better act as a party as if the House and the Senate and every major governor’s race is at stake and in danger, because they could be."

Plouffe and other Democratic strategists say Obama will play an important role in making the case that the Republican Party is one of obstruction and indifference. But they think the outcome in November will depend as much on the skill of candidates in mobilizing potential supporters who are now disinclined to vote.

The GOP, architects of the Great Recession. Republican leadership in Congress would double-dip us right back down.

Merle Savage: Workers Cleaning Oil from the Gulf Need Respirators

Posted on by TL

I received an email this evening from Merle Savage that included a link to the video above. In the video, she references her Web site, Silence in the Sound. Her plea is simple: give respirators to those working to clean the oil hemorrhaging from the Gulf of Mexico, because the oil is toxic. Ms. Savage is asking that we help spread the word.

Here’s a 2009 release from Silence in the Sound:

My name is Merle Savage; I worked as a female general foreman for VECO, during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill beach cleanup in Prince William Sound, Alaska. After working for 3 days on the oily beaches, I had a persistent cough that developed into bronchitis, headaches, sore throat, upset stomach and fatigue. On the 4th day I reported to the sick bay and was given medication by the doctor who was supplied by VECO, and on the way to my room, I fainted. I had 3 days of bed rest, but went back to work with recurring symptoms. Of the workers that I supervised 80% had the same medical problems. I wonder how many other cleanup workers, like me, went home thinking we would get better, but didn’t? The symptoms escalated until my medical condition took over my life, and was so bad that I have been unable to hold a job.

I know my medical condition was caused, in part by, the toxic fumes I breathed while cleaning the oily beaches, that was outlined in Dr. Riki Ott’s book, Sound Truth and Corporate Myth and DVD, Black Wave. She stated people were sick, and how Exxon didn?t tell the federal health officials about thousands and thousands of workers who had respiratory illnesses during the 1989 cleanup. She had found that many survivors of the cleanup, like me, are continuing to struggle, after 20 years, without any compensation from Exxon. Some of the illnesses workers are having include; neurological impairment, chronic respiratory disease, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, liver damage, kidney damage, cancers, and blood diseases.

Dr. Ott’s web site is: http://www.rikiott.com another short video that exposes medical issues generated by Exxon’s toxic cleanup is: http://video.google.com.

I wrote a book, Silence in the Sound, about my experiences during the cleanup, and have listed many stories about other workers on my web site, who have similar health issues like mine. http://www.silenceinthesound.com/stories.shtml

I am convinced that Exxon’s toxic cleanup poisoned me, and thousands of other cleanup workers. I found a law firm, Barnett and Lerner to represent me in order to secure future medical care, payment for past medical care and possible compensation.

The firm of Barnett and Lerner is able to represent anyone who was exposed to the poison vapors. I invite you to visit their web site http://www.barnettandlerner.com sign on as clients, and allow them to represent your interest against VECO.

Silence in the Sound : The Adventure
is available from Amazon.

Rod Blagojevich’s $400,000 Closet

Posted on by TL

I haven’t written much about the trial of Rod Blagojevich. Court proceedings bore me, and we always learn far too much about the alleged offender than we ever wanted to know.

Now this, from the Sun-Times:

A $5,000 Oxxford suit, $1,400 spent on Geneva Custom Shirts, $63 in Hanro underwear and $214 in ties — and it was all bought in a matter of days.

The Blagojevich household spent more on fine clothing than on their mortgage, child care, travel or private schools in the years that Rod Blagojevich served as governor, testimony at his trial today showed.

Jurors in the ex-governor’s trial were shown credit card bill after credit card bill where Rod Blagojevich dropped hundreds of dollars at a time on ties at Saks Fifth Avenue and thousands of dollars on high-end, custom Oxxford suits, not to mention pricey Allen Edmonds footwear.

The grand total from 2002-2008: more than $400,000 on clothes.

Several thousand dollars was spent in November of 2003 on Maximilian Furs.

The line of the day belongs to Blago’s brother, Rob:

On his way out of court, Rod’s brother, Robert, who is also on trial, stopped and smiled.

“For the record, I buy my ties on sale,” he said.

That does it for me. In addition to other categories, I am now filing the Trial of Rod Blagojevich under “Entertainment.”

Oy.

Results are In: Jews Have A Lot In Common

Posted on by TL

The title is tongue in cheek. The research is real.

From Science Magazine:

Who are the Jews? For more than a century, historians and linguists have debated whether the Jewish people are a racial group, a cultural and religious entity, or something else. More recently, scientists have been weighing in on the question with genetic data. The latest such study, published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, shows a genetic connection among all Jews, despite widespread migrations and intermarriage with non-Jews. It also apparently refutes repeated claims that most Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Central Europeans who converted to Judaism 1000 years ago.

The method and results:

Ostrer and his colleagues analyzed nuclear DNA from blood samples taken from a total of 237 Ashkenazi and Middle Eastern Jews in New York City and Sephardic Jews in Seattle, Washington; Greece; Italy; and Israel. They compared these with DNA from about 2800 presumably non-Jewish individuals from around the world. The team used several analytical approaches to calculate how genetically similar the Jewish groups were to each other and to the non-Jewish groups, including a method called identity by descent (IBD), which is often used to determine how closely two individuals are related.

Individuals within each Jewish group had high levels of IBD, roughly equivalent to that of fourth or fifth cousins. Although each of the three Jewish groups showed genetic admixture (interbreeding) with nearby non-Jews, they shared many genetic features, suggesting common roots that the team estimated went back more than 2000 years. Ashkenazi Jews, whose genetic profiles indicated between 30% to 60% admixture with Europeans, nevertheless clustered more closely with Middle Eastern and Sephardic Jews, a finding the researchers say is inconsistent with the Khazar hypothesis. "I would hope that these observations would put the idea that Jewishness is just a cultural construct to rest," Ostrer says.