StupidiNews!

• Isaac is expected to strengthen to a Category 1 or 2 storm before making landfall Tuesday and early Wednesday on the Louisiana coast, seven years to the day after Katrina.
• Minnesota's State Supreme Court has rejected the notion that the ballot measure on same-sex marriage in the state is misleading, clearing the way for a November vote.
• The daughter of Cuban vice-president Marino Murillo, Glenda Diaz, has defected to the US through Mexico and is now reportedly living in Tampa, Florida.
• As a result of last week's patent case victory over Samsung, Apple is now seeking to have a number of Samsung phones in the US banned for patent violations.
• Arctic sea ice melt has now reached record proportions with weeks to go in the warm season, with the percentage of sea ice coverage now below 2007's recorded minimum.

Last Call

So America, what happens when the talk of President Obama's re-election leading to "civil war" and "armed resistance" and "the blood of tyrants" leads to something very real and frightening?

Prosecutors say a murder case against four soldiers in Georgia has revealed they formed an anarchist militia within the U.S. military with plans to overthrow the federal government.

One of the accused troops, Pfc. Michael Burnett, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter and gang charges in the December slayings of former soldier Michael Roark and his girlfriend, 17-year-old Tiffany York.

Burnett told a Long County judge that Roark, who had just left the Army, knew of the militia group’s plans and was killed because he was “a loose end.”

Prosecutor Isabel Pauley says the group bought $87,000 worth of guns and bomb-making materials and plotted to take over Fort Stewart, bomb targets in nearby Savannah and Washington state, as well as assassinate the president.

Gosh, you mean the people with all the guns and the training to use them to kill saying "We must resist Obama by whatever means necessary" is just meaningless talk, and our brave men and women in uniform would never act upon any dark impulses to turn on a Commander-in-Chief that was constantly referred to by an angry right-wing media as an illegitimate, America-hating tyrant who is just waiting to institute martial law, right?

Oh wait.  These people apparently did.  And they bought nearly $100k in firearms, weapons and explosives with the express intent it seems of attacking the federal government and trying to assassinate the President.

But remember, it's just talk.  That is until someone gets hurt, in which case it won't be appropriate to assign blame or even discuss the role of right-wing hate speech in America because that's "exploiting a tragedy for political gain."

So glad the right never did that say, eleven years ago next month.

Oh, and before the BOTH SIDES DO IT nonsense,  the answer to that is "no, they don't."

Isaac Aguigui, the Army private and alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate Barack Obama and "take over" Ft. Stewart in Georgia, apparently served as a page at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. That's his mug shot after he was arrested for the alleged murder of Pvt. Michael Roark on the left. At right is a 2008 Reuters photo with the caption: "Republican National Convention page Isaac Aguigui watches from the edge of the floor at the start of the first session of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 1, 2008." 

To recap:  Guy supposedly running this plot to assassinate the President, was a page at the GOP Convention in 2008.  If the shoe had somehow been on the other foot, this would be the top news story in America for the next week.

Of course, nobody seems to care that this guy is exactly the douchebag right-wing asshole type that the Justice Department tried to warn people about in 2009.  For their trouble, the right savaged the report and the Obama administration as anti-white racists who hated America's troops.

Screw you.  These guys had tens of thousands of dollars in weapons and were going to kill Americans and go after the President because they believed what they were told, that the government is the enemy and must be stopped with lethal force.

End of line.

Collateral Damage

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – More than half the babies in University Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit one day this month were suffering from drug withdrawal — one sucking licorice-flavored morphine to ease his tremors and near-constant crying, another so sensitive to light and sound that he slept in a dark isolation room.

Kentucky has seen its hospitalizations for addicted newborns climb from 29 in 2000 to 730 last year. The state's 2,400% increase dwarfs by comparison a disturbing national rise of 330% found in a study that examined hospitalizations from 2000 to 2009. 

This is the war on drugs, folks.

So tell me again why we have the federal government chasing down marijuana stores while this runs rampant across the United States.  Tell me we shouldn't allocate our resources differently.  Tell me babies suffering is the price we should pay for this stupidity.

Joplin Mosque: A New Hope

(Reuters) - A rally for Muslims in Joplin, Missouri, drew hundreds of people on Saturday night, nearly three weeks after a local mosque was destroyed by a fire which members of the Islamic community suspect was a hate crime, the organizer of the event said.

The gathering at a city park was promoted on a Facebook page as a way to show "that love is stronger than fear or hatred."

Organizers saw the rally in part as a giving-back to the local Muslim community because their mosque was a relief center for victims of the May 2011 tornado in Joplin, which took 161 lives and damaged or destroyed more than 8,000 buildings.

This is a good sign, because my neck of the woods isn't known for its religious tolerance.  That locals are showing support is an amazing step towards redemption.  It's also a reminder to those who still secretly cheer the arsonists... we're not all like you.  Some of us are better than that.

Child. Hot Car. Again.

LOWELL, Mass. — Police are investigating the death of a 9-month-old boy found in a parked car on a hot Saturday afternoon.

The death seems to be an accident, according to the Middlesex district attorney's office, which is investigating the case. Still, police blocked off the back entrance to the home on Huntington Street.

A police source says the baby lived on the first floor of the two-story home. A group of people gathered out front while investigators worked in the back. 

Accident or not, this child is dead.  When are we going to assume people should know better and start prosecuting blatant ignorance?  It's August, for God's sake.

Springfield Enjoys A Day Of Awesome

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-- Comic book fans will be out in droves today for one of Springfield's biggest events.

Rublecon 2012 will be held at the Howard Johnson on South Glenstone all day Sunday.

The events kicks off at 9a.m. and will run until 6p.m.

At least 15 different vendors will be on-hand to showcase thousands of comics, action figures and other collectibles.

This year's event will also feature guest Adrienne Wilkinson from Xena Warrior Princess.

Yours truly was there, with the Fly By Knight Comics group.  We launched our first issue of Zee: The Average American Maniac and a collection of bonus stories from my fiction blog, Dead Shuffle.  We sold out and had a great time.

And thusly the Bon learned that having one's picture taken repeatedly and signing autographs does not suck. Adrienne is an amazing person, by the way.  If you ever get a chance to speak with her, you should.

Bill Nye The Pundit Guy, Part 2

Bill Nye speaks the truth here, as much as the fundies don't want to listen.

Bill Nye, host of the popular nineties children’s show Bill Nye the Science Guy, is warning parents to not teach their children creationism because, he says, it does them a disservice by undermining their scientific understanding and development.

In a short video for Big Think, Nye says that despite being the seat of some of the world’s greatest technological innovations, America is still home to so many who refuse to accept the fundamental scientific theory of evolution. If that belief is passed on to future generations, he said, America would be deprived of the scientists and engineers it will need to stay technologically competitive down the road.

“I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution, and live in your—in your world, that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in our universe, that’s fine, but don’t make your kids do it, because we need them,” he said. “We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future.”

Not in the GOP future, Bill.   That future is full of ignorant, manipulated, cynical suckers who do what they are told.  And the GOP platform adopted this week at the RNC Convention gives away the game plan.

Science, critical thinking, those are for people who question the status quo and the world around them.  You need not apply those to Republicans in 2012.

Hurricane Todd

The real storm in the Republican Party isn't Isaac, but Todd Akin.  If Republicans actually follow through with this plan, McCaskill wins for sure.

Republicans are desperate for Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race after his controversial comments about legitimate rape. Nearly every top Republican, including Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, have publicly called for him to quit.

This morning on ABC News, however, Mary Matalin — a well-connected GOP operative — suggested that Republicans would run a write-in candidate to defeat Akin. Matlin said that, if necessary, Republicans would “transfer the money” to Ann Wagner — a former chairwoman of the Missouri GOP who is currently running for Congress — to run as a 3rd party or write-in candidate. 

Wow.  Is Matalin this dumb?  I thought she was supposed to be a political analyst.  A write-in campaign would split the vote so badly that McCaskill could win with 40% or even 35% of the vote, something she'll be able to get easily.

But here she is pushing the centrist nonsense.  The Tea Party backlash against that would rip the Missouri GOP in half.  I guess I shouldn't be complaining, after all it's the GOP shooting itself in the head.

But damn, pundits are stupid.

StupidiNews!

• Tropical Storm Isaac is now over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico and following a track very similar to Katrina as the seventh anniversary of that storm approaches New Orleans.
• A series of rule changes at the Republican convention in Tampa is causing controversy as Ron Paul supporters are crying foul after being stripped of status.
• South Carolina's voter ID law goes to federal court on Monday, with the state's bloody history of voter suppression weighing heavily on the case.
• With oil production in the Gulf Coast shut down due to Isaac, oil and gas prices have jumped to their highest levels since April.
• Voting for the 2012 Robot Hall of Fame continues through the end of September, and robot fans worldwide are being asked to vote.

Last Call

Meanwhile, Syria is all but in name trapped in a bloody civil war where hundreds and thousands are dying.

On Sunday, 60 people were killed in Damascus and its suburbs, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. The LCC said 21 people, including an entire family, were found dead in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

It said 47 people were killed Sunday in Daraa, the town south of Damascus near the Jordanian border where Syria's uprising began.

CNN spoke by Skype to an activist named Osama, who said the army was executing families in their homes in Daraya and stealing some possessions.

He said shelling began last Monday and the military closed all the ways in and out. He kept contact with people inside Daraya through the Internet.

He was told the army moved into the neighborhood on Friday and began sweeping through buildings where families were taking cover.

At least 50 bodies were found in one apartment basement, he reported.

Saturday's death toll included more than 200 bodies found in Daraya, but it was unclear when those victims were killed.

I talk about how our political system is broken and how America is in trouble, and I am humbly reminded that perspective is everything, and as bad as the GOP is, they are nowhere close to the al-Assad regime in the evil, repugnant bastard department.

And so it goes.

Re-Birther Of The Uncool, Part 7

On Saturday's Up With Chris Hayes, Chris discussed Romney's full birther conversion with an excellent African-American panel consisting of The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, Ill Doctrine blogger and DJ Jay Smooth and comedian and "Totally Biased" host W. Kamau Bell.  Ezra Klein called it "one of the best things I've ever seen on cable news" and I'd have to agree.

There's more at the site, or at Ezra's link, but it's worth watching. Also, Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes discussed Romney's obvious birther trolling on Maddow's show Friday night...also worth a watch. Finally, Bon and I discussed Mitt the Birther on this week's Podcast vs. The Stupid.

Give it all a gander, folks.

Deaf Man Hears Music For The First Time

The 23-year-old filmmaker, whose life has largely been visual until now, still struggles to adequately explain the rush of new sounds echoing through his head. He compares them at one point to seeing a high-resolution photograph for the first time. Later, he describes the sensation as being exposed to a color you've never seen before.

Finally, with a broad smile on his face he offers this analogy: "It's like the first time you kiss a girl. It's like that."

The experience came as he cruised around his Orange County, Calif., neighborhood with friends soon after getting the new hearing aids. He had always wanted to really hear Mozart, so his friends put on "Lacrimosa," the brooding work the composer completed on his death bed in 1791.

"I was in the car and it was quite an experience," recalls Kyle Sinnott, Chapman's best friend since high school. "He was nodding his head and moving his fingers. He cried at one point, and the same goes for everybody in the car. Everybody let out a tear."

I cannot imagine what life would be like without sound.  Most of us couldn't.  However, this man knows and has seen both sides.  It's interesting to read his journey, and the full article is very thorough.  It describes the confusion and the irritating inability to just mute the world.  Unlike what we see, what we hear has layers and distortions that we can't just turn off.  Babies sound funny to him, and I'm sure downtown traffic can be maddening.

Still, it's a heartwarming story, enjoy!

Oops! Were You Using That Kidney?

An Ohio nurse accidentally put a kidney in the trash, prompting the University of Toledo Medical Center to suspend its live donor program as it investigates the incident.

Doctors tried to resuscitate the kidney, which came from a live donor, but it was rendered unusable.

“We cannot fathom the disappointment that those impacted have experienced over the course of the last week. The University cannot begin to express the sorrow that we feel that this unfortunate incident occurred. We apologize sincerely,” Dr. Jeffery P. Gold, University of Toledo chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine, said in a statement.

It's unfortunate, and would  be devastating to everyone involved.  Those who lost the donor and the person awaiting the transplant.   It's hard to fathom what goes on during a transplant.  It will be interesting to learn what the investigation reveals.  Right now we don't know who is to blame.

Best wishes to the person who is still next in line.

Florida Frenemies

Former Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is now backing Barack Obama, causing howls of betrayal from the state's Republicans.

As America prepares to pick our president for the next four years — and as Florida prepares once again to play a decisive role — I'm confident that President Barack Obama is the right leader for our state and the nation. I applaud and share his vision of a future built by a strong and confident middle class in an economy that gives us the opportunity to reap prosperity through hard work and personal responsibility. It is a vision of the future proven right by our history.

We often remind ourselves to learn the lessons of the past, lest we risk repeating its mistakes. Yet nearly as often, our short-term memory fails us. Many have already forgotten how deep and daunting our shared crisis was in the winter of 2009, as President Obama was inaugurated. It was no ordinary challenge, and the president served as the nation's calm through a historically turbulent storm.

The president's response was swift, smart and farsighted. He kept his compass pointed due north and relentlessly focused on saving jobs, creating more and helping the many who felt trapped beneath the house of cards that had collapsed upon them. 

But it's the Tea Party that has really turned Crist off:

As Republicans gather in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney, Americans can expect to hear tales of how President Obama has failed to work with their party or turn the economy around.

But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.

The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve. 

Ouch.

How much Crist's endorsement of Obama will help, I have no clue.  It's not like he had a whole lot of political capital in the blood red Marco Rubio/Rick Scott Florida.   But there's a reason why Dem Sen. Ben Nelson and Barack Obama are running a tough race in this supposedly now permanently red southern state, and it has everything to do with what Crist had to say about the GOP.

Coming on the doorstep of the Tampa convention, that's going to get noticed.

Last Call

Yet another poll shows Todd Akin disintegrating in the Missouri Senate race.  I'm beginning to think it may be over for the guy no matter what he does.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the results of the 50-41 lead for Claire McCaskill:

U.S. Senate challenger Todd Akin's support in Missouri has plummeted since his remarks a week ago about "legitimate rape" and pregnancy, putting him 9 points behind Sen. Claire McCaskill in a race he was previously winning, according to a new Post-Dispatch/News 4 poll.

More than half of Missouri voters now view the Republican congressman unfavorably, the poll indicates, and fewer than one in five view him favorably.

Akin's fall is especially dramatic among women. They were about evenly split between Akin and McCaskill in a similar poll at the end of July, but women now oppose him by almost 20 percentage points. Even in rural areas where Akin retains the lead, his support has dropped significantly from a month ago.

"I was undecided ... Now I'm not supportive of him," said Bonnie Walker, 75, of Queen City, who was one of the poll respondents. "It's such a negative for Missouri."

Akin, long a staunch opponent of abortion rights, was comfortably leading McCaskill, the incumbent Democrat, before the recent controversy. A Post-Dispatch/News 4 poll in July, before the Republican primary, showed Akin ahead of McCaskill by 5 points in a hypothetical matchup, 49-44.

In other words, what was shaping up to be a cakewalk for Akin is now turning into a bloodbath for McCaskill.  Akin's support among men is still dead even, 46-44...but women now prefer McCaskill 55-37. 

The poll also finds Mitt Romney ahead in the state by 7 points, 50-43.  Tying Romney to Akin isn't working.  Yet.

We'll see.