Last Call

The article about the poor women in the video depressed me, so I'm ending the night on a lighter note.


PEARL, Mississippi (Reuters) – Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour freed two sisters on Friday from a state prison where they were serving life sentences for an $11 armed robbery on condition that one donate a kidney to the other.


Sure, it was a gimmick for publicity (Barbour may be considering a run in 2012).  But the two sisters, who had no prior criminal records and were the focus of many campaigns to release them from prison, get their second chance.  16 years seems long enough.


In Berlin, a baby penguin escaped from its quarters in the zoo and wandered into the lion's den.  Lucky for the cute little penguin, the cold had driven the lions into their shelter and zoo staff captured the penguin and returned it to its proper home.  I repeat, no penguins were harmed in the filming of this episode of Whew, That Was Close.


There, I feel better. I hope you do as well.

The Worst Thing I've Heard All Year: Part II

(CNN) -- Police arrested a suspect believed to be one of four men shown in a video apparently sexually assaulting disabled women in a care home and other places, authorities said in a statement.

Another suspect took a disabled woman to Las Vegas and married her.  He then brought her back to the care center, where she was assaulted repeatedly by other men.  Thirteen DVDs, containing over one hundred hours of sexual assaults, were mailed in by an anonymous person.  The taped assaults show at least ten perpetrators, and at least eight severely disabled women.  


This is the dirty secret of the health care industry.  It's incredible what people have suffered at the hands of unsupervised employees. This is one of those times I hope prison offers its worst, and the men who took advantage of the innocent and the powerless suffer without hope of relief.


When governments continue to cut corners, this is only going to get worse.  

Civil Stupidity: Wikileaks Connection Gets A Big Fat Subpoena For Twitter

And so it begins.  At what level is our activity monitored, and at what level is it protected?  How is protection of our information or enforcement of breaches going to be handled?  A reader implied in an earlier comment that if you're not a criminal that you shouldn't have anything to hide.  Not so. I am completely legal and aboveboard, but I do like having the right to my privacy.  This is one of many similar stories.  Not only is it interesting from a legal point of view, but from a social standpoint.  The outcome of these growing pains will define our future.

The US Department of Justice has subpoenaed Twitter, a top social-media site, for information pertaining to certain persons and accounts linked to WikiLeaks, according to media reports. The action comes after Attorney General Eric Holder indicated last year that the Justice Department was looking at options for prosecuting those involved in WikiLeaks’s release of secret US documents.

As for the Twitter subpoena, the Department of Justice is demanding a sizable amount of information: “It includes all mailing addresses and billing information known for the user, all connection records and session times, all IP addresses used to access Twitter, all known email accounts, as well as the ‘means and source of payment,’ including banking records and credit cards,” details Salon. The information to be produced is supposed to go back to Nov. 1, 2009, Salon says. 

That really is quite a bit of information.  It's why we should be concerned with online privacy and how our personal information is stored, and for how long it is stored.  It doesn't really matter if it's a hacker or a telemarketer, our information is sold or stolen regularly.  If the Department of Justice can demand this information, we should be setting protective guidelines and overseeing security protocols, and establishing liability for when our information is used without our permission.  It is naive to think that the law will only use our private data for good and noble purposes, and it is plain stupid to think that even our right to private conversations are safe.  Who is protecting us from those who would abuse this access?  Surely not the same guys who benefit from that access... right?

Epic E Equals MC Double Helixed Win

Hong Kong students are proving that biostorage works for saving and storing data safely.

In 2007, a team at Japan's Keio University said they had successfully encoded the equation that represents Einstein's theory of relativity, E=MC2, in the DNA of a common soil bacterium.

They pointed out that because bacteria constantly reproduce, a group of the single-celled organisms could store a piece of information for thousands of years.

But the Hong Kong researchers have leapt beyond this early step, developing methods to store more complex data and starting to overcome practical problems which have lent weight to sceptics who see the method as science fiction.

The group has developed a method of compressing data, splitting it into chunks and distributing it between different bacterial cells, which helps to overcome limits on storage capacity. They are also able to "map" the DNA so information can be easily located.

This opens up the way to storing not only text, but images, music, and even video within cells.

As a storage method it is extremely compact -- because each cell is minuscule, the group says that one gram of bacteria could store the same amount of information as 450 2,000 gigabyte hard disks.

They have also developed a three-tier security fence to encode the data, which may come as welcome news to US diplomats who have seen their thoughts splashed over the Internet thanks to WikiLeaks.

"Bacteria can't be hacked," points out Allen Yu, another student instructor.

"All kinds of computers are vulnerable to electrical failures or data theft. But bacteria are immune from cyber attacks. You can safeguard the information."

Pretty damned amazing if I say so myself, storing data in bacterial DNA like that.  That's nothing short of amazing.  I wonder how long it will take to make this technology viable commercially.

Imagine an e. Coli barcterium with the Library of Congress encoded into its DNA.  Totally new frontier here for a number of applications.

Insert your own computer virus jokes here, too.

EPIC WIN.

Head In The Sand Alexander

This morning on CNN's State of the Union, Tennessee GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander found his culprit for yesterday's shooting.

Well, Candy, I think you’re responsible, by bringing this up, of doing the very thing you’re trying to condemn. You’re making and implying a direct connection between Sarah Palin and what happened. You’re picking out a particular incident. Well, I think the way to get away from it is for you not to be talking about it.

To recap, It's perfectly fine to put crosshairs on congressional districts as a political figure because that's free speech.  But talking about the people who do that is irresponsible and should be stopped, and if the media simply stops reporting on dangerous rhetoric, the problem will magically vanish, so reporting on that should be prohibited speech.

I believe our sensationalist Village does share in the blame, but it's because they refused to attach any possible danger to irresponsible hyperbolic rhetoric like this, not because they are doing so now.

There's a difference, and Lamar Alexander should know better.

Dave Weigel meanwhile explains the Palin angle:

Among the people who gave the impression that these were targets: Sarah Palin. When she announced the list in a tweet, she wrote "don't retreat, instead - RELOAD!" Jonathan Martin points out that after the election, Palin tweeted about her success (18 of the seats went to the GOP) by saying "remember months ago 'bullseye' icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin' incumbent seats?" Throughout 2010, when Palin was criticized for the target map, she either didn't respond or mocked the "lamestream media" for interpreting her gun metaphors as calls for violence. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, for example, she got big applause when she said "Don't retreat, reload -- and that is not a call for violence!" The media wasn't going to force her to stop using the gun line.

Palin doubled down, and she had a lot of support from conservatives for doing so, because a lot of them considered the "target map" criticism a bad faith attack on her. Were some of the attacks in bad faith? Maybe. But Gabrielle Giffords had specifically raised her concerns about the target map. Palin had many, many months to stop using the "reload" line, or to identify the targets as "surveyor's symbols," and she didn't do that.

No she didn't.  Neither did Sharron Angle, Michele Bachmann, or Steve King, or the GOP leadership.  And that's the problem.  They are quick to condemn this rhetoric now.  They should have been doing that years ago.

Sherman, Set The Wayback Machine For April 2009

Back when conservatives threw a fit because of a Homeland Security report that warned of anti-government extremist violence.  Here's what I said back then:

These same people told us we had to have this oppressive gulag-era secret police wiretapping and security apparatus in place to protect us from the Great Beturbaned Brown Horde. The fact that the apparatus still exists is a problem, of course. But it's now it's feeling out the same whackos that gave birth to it.

Only now, in the last 24 hours, is this all a bad thing to these idiots. They didn't care if Bush used it on Americans, as long as those Americans weren't conservative Republicans, the rest of the effing country was fair game. Anyone who wasn't a conservative Republican was of course a suspect Muslim terrorist sympathizer.

The mere possibility that the tables have been turned and Bushenstein's Monster has turned on its creators had never, ever, ever, occurred to them.

More importantly we were told that the notion that anti-government lunatics who resented the government enough to want to resort to violence was all just Obama administration propaganda from a deeply paranoid administration who hated the Constitution and hated veterans and hated rule of law and should accept the eliminationist rhetoric as free speech and shut up already.

Except that, you know, the report was right.

And it wasn't the first time, either.

Pipe Dream

In other news, the Trans-Alaskan oil pipeline has a leak somewhere.

Only a fraction of the oil that normally courses through the Trans Alaska pipeline was flowing early Sunday after operators discovered a leak near Prudhoe Bay, a company spokeswoman said.

Crews making a routine inspection "found oil in the basement of a booster pump building" around 9 a.m. Saturday, according to Aleyeska Pipeline Service. Company spokeswoman Michelle Egan, who said flow has been reduced by 95%.

On a typical day, 642,261 barrels of oil would pass through the pipeline.

"Crews are currently onsite to assess the situation and isolate the source of the leak," a company statement said..

Well that's good, I suppose.  If it's leaking in building perhaps it can be cleaned up, and maybe it won't get into the water table near there.   Still, could be hundreds of thousands of barrels worth of mess.  We'll see.

Last Call

The nine-year old girl who died in today's shooting in Tuscon was named Christina Taylor Green.

She had been elected to student council at school, and was invited by one of her neighbors to go meet her Representative in Congress.

She was born on September 11, 2001, according to ABC News.  She was featured in a book about children born on the day the Twin Towers fell.

She died on January 8, 2011.

Wrap your head around that if you can.  I'm trying to, and I still can't.  Here we have a child who was born on the most infamous day in the previous decade, and died as a direct result of the events of the most infamous date in this decade...this decade being just over a week old.

Hug your loved ones.  I have no answers about fate, or God, or karma, but even I have to see this as a message to all of us that we have got to knock this crazy shit off.

No more.

Olbermann's special comment for tonight, because he says what I'm trying to say a thousand times better.

The Butcher's Bill For Tea Party Rhetoric

Here's a chilling report from MSNBC with Rep. Giffords after her office in Tuscon was attacked in March by wingers over her vote on HCRA.

"They really do need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up and, you know, things for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the things is, the way she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district.  When people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action."

Consequences indeed.  Like someone shooting you in the head, point blank.

No matter what this lunatic's motives were, there is still no excuse for violent rhetoric.  As far as Palin goes, she understands that, hence the efforts to remove these "targeted" references from her site today.  No such luck, Sarah.

Feeling guilty, are we?

But there's no mistaking this guy's target was Gabrielle Giffords.  This was an assassination attempt on a sitting member of Congress.  He killed 5 others to try to escape.  His original target was Giffords, who was apparently shot in the temple at close range.

You cannot say the hateful language of the extreme right did not contribute to this.

Arizona Congresswoman Shot In The Head At Event UPDATED

Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head today at an event at a grocery store in her home district in Tuscon.  NPR is reporting she has been taken to nearby University Medical Center.

The 40-year-old Democrat, who was re-elected to her third term in November, was hosting a "Congress on Your Corner" event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

At least nine other people, including members of her staff, were hurt. Giffords was transported to University Medical Center in Tucson. Her condition was not immediately known.

Giffords was talking to a couple when the suspect ran up and fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said.

The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s.

More on this tragedy as it unfolds.  Hopefully the Congresswoman and all injured will recover.

[UPDATE]:  AP is reporting that Gabrielle Giffords did not survive her injuries.

[UPDATE 2]:  NPR is reporting that six others were also killed in the shooting.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and six others died after a gunman opened fire at a public event on Saturday, the Pima County, Ariz., sheriff's office confirms.

A terrible day for America.

[UPDATE 3]:  Hotline On-Call's Reid Wilson:

I did a story once on Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, a NASA astronaut who is scheduled to captain the next shuttle flight.

This is an absolute travesty. 

[UPDATE 4]  Dave Weigel reminds us that the last Member of Congress to be assassinated was Democratic Rep. Leo Ryan of California, in Jonestown in 1978.

[UPDATE 5]  Gawker is reporting an eyewitness account identifies one of the victims in the shooting as a ten-year old child.  Jesus, Mary, Sikkar and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.  A ten-year old kid.

[UPDATE 6]  MSNBC reporting now that Giffords is not dead, but in critical condition. 

[UPDATE 7]  Congresswoman Giffords remains in very critical condition at Tuscon's University Medical Center, in surgery now to try to save her life.  President Obama calls the assassination attempt "a senseless and terrible act that has no place in a free society."   Once again, at this time, Rep. Giffords is alive and in surgery.

[UPDATE 8]  Talking Points Memo is reporting that one of the victims shot at the event was a federal judge. 

[UPDATE 9]  The federal judge, Chief Judge John Roll, appointed by Bush Sr., has died. 

[UPDATE 10]  US Capitol Police are putting the toll at 18 shot in total, 6 dead so far including Judge Roll.  Congresswoman Giffords remains in critical condition. 

[UPDATE 11]  AP reports the shooter as one Jared Laughner. 

[UPDATE 12]  Press conference at the medical center, 11 brought in including Giffords, one dead, 5 critical, 5 in surgery, docs "optimistic" Giffords will recover.  The person who died in surgery was the 9-year old girl.  My God.

[UPDATE 13]  President Obama speaking now at the Oval Office, says he's sending FBI Director Mueller to Arizona to assist Gov. Brewer in the investigation.  Confirms that Judge Roll and the 9-year old girl were among the 5 dead so far.  "What Americans do in a time of tragedy is come together."

[UPDATE 14]  Arizona's GOP Gov. Jan Brewer speaking, says "We have disturbed people in our communities who do terrible things" and urges the country to "move on" from this disaster. Very bizarre speech.

Food For Thought

In another troubling sign the global recession is far from over, rising food prices in Algeria has sparked another round of riots in the north African country.

Rioting broke out across Algeria again yesterday, with police deployed around mosques in the capital after days of violent protests against high food prices and unemployment. 

Riot police armed with tear gas and batons maintained a strong presence around mosques in Algiers, while unrest spread outside the capital. The official APS news agency said protesters ransacked government buildings, banks and post offices in several eastern cities overnight, including Constantine, Jijel, Setif and Bouira. In the Belcourt district of the capital, rioting resumed after Friday prayers. Young protesters pelted police with stones and blocked roads.

Hundreds of youths clashed with police in several Algerian cities earlier this week. On Wednesday, riot police used tear gas to disperse youths in the Algiers neighbourhood of Bab el-Oued, where the most violent of the protests occurred. 

The cost of flour and cooking oil has doubled in the past few months.

Unemployment stands at about 10 per cent, the government says. Independent organisations put it closer to 25 per cent. Official data put inflation at 4.2 per cent in November.

Not every country has a Federal Reserve willing to tinker with the margins to kill inflation, either.  The reality is while prices on big ticket items are falling, basic staples and simple commodities are rising worldwide.  It's not going to be pretty, either.

More of this will be coming.  And soon.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Republicans have been irresponsibly characterizing the Affordable Care Act as evil and un-American and despotic for so long now that a group of Wyoming Republican state legislators have come full circle into the abyss and taken the evil, un-American, and despotic act of trying to criminalize implementation of the law as a felony worth up to 5 years in jail.  Ezra Klein:

In the Wyoming state legislature, 10 congressmen and three senators have co-sponsored "The Health Care Choice and Protection Act." The intent? To make it a felony to implement the health-care reform law -- which is, you'll remember, the official law of the land. Here's the relevant bit:

Enforcement of federal laws prohibited; offenses and penalties.
Any official, agent, employee or public servant of the state of Wyoming as defined in W.S. 6-5-101, who enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this article shall be guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), imprisonment in the county jail for not more than two (2) years, or both.

Any official, agent or employee of the United States government or any employee of a corporation providing services to the United States government that enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this article shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than five (5) years, a fine of not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), or both.

Ezra goes on to point out the legislation wouldn't last any longer than a popsicle in a blast furnace in front of a judge of any stripe.  The larger point, and I agree with him, is that Republican rhetoric on what the Democrats have done over the last two years -- basically classifying everything they don't agree with as something that Americans should rise up against, and that a country governed by Democrats is unconstitutional bordering on tyranny -- has now resulted in the attempted criminalization of representative democracy itself.

This legislation here?  This really is the government trying to throw people in jail for the "crime" of disagreeing with somebody in a democratic state.

That's the difference between the rhetoric and the action.  And Republicans own this idiocy, lock, stock, and barrel.

Don't Throw Me In The Mandate Briar Patch

Slate's Adam Chandler and Luke Norris argue that if the insurance mandate part of the HCRA is struck down as unconstitutional, it should be replaced by the public option.

Conservatives argue that for Congress to require all Americans to buy private health insurance exceeds its regulatory powers under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. Before Judge Hudson, they distinguished the health care law's individual mandate from government programs like Social Security. The Social Security program is designed so that Americans pay taxes directly to the government, which pools the money and disburses future Social Security benefits. In contrast, the novelty of the health care law is that it requires Americans not to pay a tax, but rather to buy their health care insurance privately. The government's involvement is a step removed, and this is what Judge Hudson found to be constitutionally defective.

But here's the catch: If the part of the health care law that's unconstitutional is the part telling people to buy private insurance, an obvious solution is to pass a health care law including a public health plan, which would operate like Social Security and Medicare. In other words, the public option. With a public option as part of the law, people who don't want to buy insurance from a private health care company would pay into a government fund in exchange for an insurance benefit, just as they do with Social Security and Medicare.

Opponents could still argue that any law requiring universal coverage is beyond Congress' reach. But they'd run into a big wall: Supreme Court decisions that place Social Security and Medicare, along with a list of other entitlements, squarely within the constitutional ambit of Congress. Like we said, the public option and Social Security and other entitlements are structurally quite similar—indeed, the public option is essentially a form of Medicare. So to strike down the public option would require reversing a lot of well-established precedent. Courts would have to return to the laissez-faire ideology of a century ago, epitomized by the 1905 Supreme Court case Lochner v. New York. That ruling infamously limited the extent to which the government could intervene in the private sphere, leaving legislatures unable even to set minimum-wage laws, for example. And courts long ago repudiated it.

Now suppose that conservatives succeed with their current, safer legal strategy, and knock out the individual mandate. Because the private-only mandate had been the middle, compromise position, Congress would be left with the two more extreme options on health care—either a plan that includes something like the public option, or the status quo. As costs rise and more Americans go uninsured, will the public really want to roll back reform? When Americans are asked about the current health care law, a majority say they either favor it or wish it were even stronger. Making the public option the only option would fulfill the wish of those wanting a stronger bill. 

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It's a solid argument and one I agree with.  I think the mandate should be dropped and the public option instituted because the public option is a far better solution, not because the mandate is unconstitutional, I don't believe it is and I don't believe it will be found as such.

But hey, hell of a reason to implement a Medicare for all option for all Americans to pay into, yes?

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Oil continues to wash up on the Louisiana coast some nine months after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
• The US Army is revising and revisiting its policy on women in combat, according to the Army's top General.
• Pakistan's ruling coalition managed to entice back a former member to keep a slim majority, but the government is on shaky ground.
• A package that ignited inside a Washington post office was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
• The Justice Department has delivered a subpoena to Twitter asking for information on an ex-WikiLeaks volunteer in Iceland.

Last Call

Rep. Anthony Weiner goes up against the Bachmanniac on Social Security, and utterly decimates her.

In one characteristic exchange about Social Security, Bachmann said that "all the surplus in Social Security is a big vault stuffed with IOU notes, there's not one dime sitting in there."

Weiner shot back: "Are you surprised to learn, Congresswoman Bachmann, that we don't have a room filled with dimes?"

And it only gets worse for Bachmann from there.  Keep in mind this is Weiner going on Hannity the Manatee's show on FOX News and making her look exactly as foolish has she needs to be portrayed as.

More of this, please.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 57

An avalanche begins with a few small pebbles.

US Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. lost a foreclosure case in Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in the clash between bank practices and state real estate law. The ruling drove down bank stocks.

The state Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a judge’s decision saying two foreclosures were invalid because the banks didn’t prove they owned the mortgages, which he said were improperly transferred into two mortgage-backed trusts.

“We agree with the judge that the plaintiffs, who were not the original mortgagees, failed to make the required showing that they were the holders of the mortgages at the time of foreclosure,” Justice Ralph D. Gants wrote.

Foreclosuregate has now officially become a Major Problem for the banks, ladies and gentlemen.  Bank stocks got hammered today as a result. 

Now things get ugly.

The Mask Slips Again

And Republicans show their bigotry towards Latinos, this time in Missouri.

One of the five planks of House Speaker Steve Tilley’s Show Me Solutions Initiative priorities list is to end new driver testing in languages other than English.

In the section of his speech to the House calling for more accountability in government yesterday, Tilley said the state had the duty to require anyone wanting a Missouri driver’s license to pass it in the state’s official language.

You'd think you want people to fully understand the driving laws of the land so that they don't hurt people while driving, but apparently that's not the public safety issue here.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol conducts written tests of would-be drivers in 12 languages, including English, said Capt. Tim Hull, director of the public education and information office. The languages include major European languages such as Spanish, French, Italian and German, as well as Chinese, Greek, Korean, Russian, Vietnamese, Japanese and Bosnian.

If a driver cannot pass the road test, they may hire, at their expense, an interpreter from a state-approved list, Hull said.

With road sign colors and symbols based on an international standard, Hull said, the patrol sees no safety issues for drivers who are not well-versed in English.

So even the Missouri state troopers agree with this.  They want people informed of the laws, and the whole point of shapes and colors on road signs is to make them recognizable without having to read them.  In fact, part of the written test in just about any state is to recognize the signs without lettering on them, so Tilley's legislation is a moot point from a public safety issue.  And let's not pretend everybody driving a car in Missouri (or any state for that matter) is 100% literate, either.  That's why the signs are shaped and colored like they are.

Again, this is a moot point.  So what's Tilley's real game here?  The mask slips again thanks to a fellow Republican:

Rep. John Cauthorn, R-Mexico, said he likes the idea and thinks his constituents will, too.

“The average guy on the street hates Spanish, and it is everywhere,” Cauthorn said. “To the average guy, that is important. We are almost to the point of losing our identity as a nation.

“If folks are going to come here and work, they need to work toward learning the English language,” he said.

Ding ding ding!

In State Rep. Cauthorn's world, the average guy "hates Spanish" and presumably hates those who speak it, too.  Those who speak other languages than English are robbing America of its identity, according to him.  They're not American.  They don't count.

Cauthorn seems to think the average Missourian is a nationalist racist asshole...and he's proud of this.  Fascinating.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

If this is the new normal for the Tea Party right (and every indication that these inmates are indeed well ensconced in administration and day-to-day affairs of the asylum) then the next two years are going to be awesome.

An apparent member of the birther movement seated in the gallery of the House of Representatives on Thursday interrupted a reading of the Constitution. The woman yelled out "Except Obama, except Obama, help us Jesus!" as Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) read the "natural born citizen" clause of the Constitution.

The woman screamed out from the House Gallery as Pallone read Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution, which reads that "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." 

Steve M. has much more on this particular World Nut Daily all-star, Theresa Cao, Professional Birther.

The monster the wingers created is now quite loose in DC.

Bon's List Of Things To Track In 2011

Everyone has their favorite topics and points of view.  I plan to do some lengthy follow-ups on a few things, and some patterns have emerged.  I see a lot of things going on, but they all come back to civil rights and the way fear is being used to coerce citizens into giving up their rights.  For this, I am going to introduce a new tag: Civil Stupidity.

Here are some things you may see referenced under this tag:

Privacy -  We are losing our right to privacy and our freedom to make decisions for ourselves.  Some of this started with Bush's failures by allowing calls to be tapped without a warrant, and has continued with Obama.  Internet privacy is going to become a hot topic while ISPs fight for customers.

Women's rights - Over the past few years, women have had some successes with equal treatment, but they are the exception to the rule.  Equal pay in the workforce was killed by Republicans, and recently it was suggested that women may not be guaranteed protection and equality in the Constitution.  The latter was in contradiction to a unanimous ruling, but the fact that it was even uttered is cause for alarm.

LGBT issues - Dont Ask Don't Tell, gay marriage, the ability for two consenting adults to live how they please.  Why is this anyone's business?  Why does anyone feel they have the right to dictate how others should live?  I proudly performed my first same-sex wedding ceremony, and I hope to report some breakthroughs on this front in 2011.

On Facebook and in the comments, readers are always welcome to throw in their two cents.  Please feel free to chip in your opinions, and if you see an article that you think is of interest to to Civil Stupidity, please drop me a line here, or at my site (www.bonthegeek.com).

Rudy Awakening For 2012

Here's my question about this:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) denied on Friday reports he is rounding up staff to explore a run for president in 2012.

Giuliani, the former 2008 presidential candidate, denied a New York Post report that he was gearing up to run again in 2012. 

"I haven't done that. I haven't rounded up my political advisers," Giuliani said on MSNBC.

He said that a coming trip to New Hampshire, a key primary state, came without political intentions, too.

"I go to New Hampshire a lot; I don't have anything scheduled right now," he said.

Why would anyone even consider that Giuliani, after his complete freakin' disaster of a run in 2008, would ever try again in 2012? Exactly what has changed between now and then for Rudy in particular to be even remotely considered a viable candidate for President?

Nothing.  The guy's a joke.  I actually consider him a rung down the 2012 GOP list from people like Gingrich and John Bolton's mustache, for crying out loud.

Go away Rudy, nobody cares.  I don't even have a tag for your useless ass.