Etc. and News

It didn't matter to the "birthers" there was irrefutable proof of Obama's U.S. citizenship when the birth announcement was published in the Hawaiian papers back in 1961, but the White House decided to issue a copy of the certificate of live birth of the president anyway.

Enough of this shit.

I want proof he is a member of the Democratic Party.
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Don't think for one minute a dictatorship couldn't flourish in the United States of America.

Look no further than Detroit's Bob Bobb, an Eli Broad goon, who is destroying the city's schools over the objections of parents and teachers.

Last week, layoff notices were sent out to all 5,466 teachers in the Detroit school district. Under a new law signed by Republican governor Rick Snyder, emergency financial managers have dictatorial powers to void collective bargaining agreements, dissolve school boards and other elected bodies, and sell off public assets. Bobb has said he will nullify the labor agreement with teachers next month, enabling him to ignore seniority when choosing which instructors to retain.

Bobb has utterly NO qualifications to run a school system, yet he is allowed unilateral powers.

Time to get rid of this shitbag.
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Heller is getting Ensign's job, as everybody knows.

Etc.

Some backdoor deals must have been in the works ever since Shelley Berkley announced her intention of running for the Nevada Senate seat.

Now that Ensign is resigning in a couple of weeks, Gov. Sandoval can put in a GOP replacement who will be an incumbent when up for election.
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Another Broadie screwed up things for taxpayers.

News, Etc.

Demand for a general strike in Wisconsin grows in light of the likelihood the so-called Democratic legislators are about to cave in to Walker's insane demands.
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And we know or should know cries the states are broke and we can't do anything about it are simply lies put forward by a media and politicians bought off by the financial elites who have created the economic crisis in the place:

The problem is the entrenched power of the capitalist ruling class and its total domination of the political system. The two established parties, the Democrats as much as the Republicans, are wholly owned subsidiaries of the financial elite. Both parties defend the profits and property of the owners of the banks and giant corporations.

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Facing almost certain defeat and embarrassment next year in losing the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate, incumbent John Ensign uses the "family" excuse to not seek re-election.

News, Etc.

Senator John Ensign has the unmitigated nerve to think that because he has repented to God, that gives him the excuse to try and con the voters of Nevada once again.
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It's never been aboout the kids when it comes to Michelle Rhee.

News, Etc.

Thanks to the worsening economy and the fact our politicians have instituted a philosophy that the rich should have everything, Obama is promoting "austerity" measures on everybody else.

What a son of a bitch posing as a "Democrat."
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It's the poverty, stupid. Not that education "reformers" care because these poor won't amount to anything anyway.
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John Ensign is wasting his time running for re-election.
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A memorial was held for Highway 50's famous Shoe Tree, which was cut down by some idiots who didn't understand the significance of it.

A new tree in the area has been designated the official Shoe Tree.
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News, Etc.

Somehow "John Ensign" and "ethics" don't actually go together. In any case a special counsel has been named in the ethics investigation against him.

Meanwhile, he has indicated he will run for re-election.
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The ACLU, not surprisingly, knives teachers in the back.

The ACLU has never been known to defend teachers' rights at all.

Snip:

On January 21, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger stripped teachers employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) of certain seniority rights, allegedly to stanch the loss of young, quality teachers at inner-city schools. If the order is upheld on appeal, the LAUSD can lay off higher paid veteran teachers without regard to their years of service, in violation of collective bargaining provisions that have been in effect for decades.
The anti-seniority provision is the key to a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit filed against the LAUSD by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California and Public Counsel. Also representing the plaintiffs are lawyers from the California-based law firm of Morrison & Foerster LLP, which has deep ties to liberal politics and the Democratic Party. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a non-profit corporation controlled by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, is another party to the settlement agreement.

I'd like to know how layoffs will be determined fairly if seniority is not put in place. The reason there is all this support for the bimbos is that they are cheap hires and are usually unaware of their rights. It has nothing to do with "ability," for it takes many, many years to get good at teaching.

Of course the poor students will be screwed over royal with dipshits and unqualified "teachers" in their classrooms, to say nothing of the dipshits and crooks running the schools and school districts.
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Obama needs to shut the hell up when it comes to Egypt.
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News, Etc.

John Ensign, whose only regret in life is having been caught screwing around on his wife, is intent on screwing over the voters further by running for re-election.
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The rest of the country's gain is Sacramento's loss as Michelle Rhee has taken herself and her organization to California in order to keep a watchful eye on her wayward fiance.

Here is another story.  The comments following it are great.

And the comments are great here.

News, Etc.

If you don't feel like jumping off a bridge or slashing your wrists, this article will certainly help steer you in that direction.

I am not quite that pessimistic. The mess can be undone, but people have to recognize what the problem is first, and they have to recognize it before it is too late.
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The government employee who put down the canine Afghan hero Target has been fired.
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John Ensign dodges a bullet.
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News, Etc.

The House decided to ape the Senate for its worthlessness and shot down extending the filing dates for federal UI benefits thanks to procedural nonsense.
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Brian Sandoval might ditch the Nevada governorship and challenge incumbent senator John Ensign, who has indicated he will run for re-election despite investigations and scandal.

Or maybe Sharron Angle can offer a challenge.
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Apparently some college administrators never heard of IDEA or ADA.

Disgusting.
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This is so tragic I can't believe it:

By the time he arrived at the pound on Monday, the shelter employee in charge of euthanizing animals that day had apparently picked the wrong dog out of the pen and administered a lethal injection, performing what the shelter referred to as “P.T.S.,” or put to sleep.

“I am heartsick over this,” Ruth Stalter, the county’s animal care and control director, said in a statement. “I had to personally deliver the news to the dog’s owner, and he and his family are understandably distraught.”

Barraged with criticism, the county ordered an investigation and placed the unidentified woman who euthanized Target on administrative leave. “This is unacceptable,” Ms. Stalter said, “and no family should be deprived of their companion because procedures were not followed.”

News, Etc.

Read between the lines of this article, and it sounds like bad news for Harry & David, especially when most of the execs don't even live in the Rogue Valley.

Employees sing a different tune than the absentee execs who probably can't find Medford, Oregon, on a map.

What a pair of winners:

The new CEO, Steve Heyer, lost his most recent high-profile job as chief executive at Starwood Hotels after facing allegations that he had sent inappropriate sexual e-mails to underlings.

Ross Klein, whom Heyer brought in to run Harry & David's new branding effort, left a job at Hilton Hotels in 2008 after he was accused of corporate espionage, an allegation that is a subject of a federal criminal investigation. Klein is working out of an office near his home in Beverly Hills.

Heyer and Klein have denied any wrongdoing.

Jones of Wasserstein praised both men.

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Doug and Cindy Hampton may lose their home, but I seriously doubt they will be homeless.
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Good riddance to this piece of rubbish.
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Speaking of rubbish, I am glad I didn't bother to look at Oprah Winfrey's trashing of public school teachers. As the writer of the linked post notes, Oprah is hardly in the position to cast stones at American public schools.

Askin' Ain't Gettin'

Ensign happens to be Nevada Democrats' best friend right now:

The scandal has marked a stunning fall for a politician who was once a rising conservative star with White House aspirations.

Ensign has said he would not resign because he wanted to help Republicans defeat Reid. Ensign said last year that a resignation would take some of the attention off Reid, split GOP resources and hurt "the conservative cause."

Ensign's office did not immediately respond to telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment this week.

Getting Into the Mind of Nevada's John Ensign

isn't a place where one wants to be, but if one actually has the nerve to look into it, it's more horrible than one can imagine.

In other words, just because a guy is cute and has nice hair doesn't mean he's nice. Ensign believes in only one thing, and it isn't God, although he talks about Him all the time. Ensign believes himself to be the only cause worthy of support.

Into the mind of this cretin:

In interviews with the Las Vegas Sun, more than a dozen friends, associates and Republican allies, some of whom have known Ensign for years, describe him as a politician who has grown narcissistic and reckless — a detached, self-righteous figure with almost no regard for those who helped send him to Washington or keep him there.

Ensign’s actions in the wake of the affair, and the resulting investigations by the Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee have bled into the lives of his once-closest aides, associates and friends, as well as largely innocent bystanders and his family.

The sources, most of whom spoke to the Sun on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigations, said what rankles so many in Republican circles is that Ensign seems oblivious to the collateral damage caused by his actions, and unwilling to make the matter disappear by resigning.

Steve Wark, a longtime Nevada Republican operative, said Ensign’s failure to make and maintain relationships has come back to haunt him. “What’s made this more difficult for John Ensign is that when politicians get in trouble, other elected officials come to their aid out of devotion or obligation,” he said.

Nevada voters sure know how to pick their politicians.

John Ensign Should Worry About Being Indicted,

but I am not so sure if it would make a difference with the voters of Nevada.

They've done a lot of stupid things over the 26 years I have been there and even before that. The state's politics IS getting more embarrassing by the day.

John Ensign Continues to Disgrace Nevada

because he won't resign. According to a report, a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas in the Ensign/Hampton probe:

A federal grand jury reportedly has issued subpoenas in a probe of Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who has been under scrutiny for his efforts to find lobbying work for the husband of his former mistress.

According to one subpoena obtained by a Las Vegas television station, recipients were ordered to testify March 31 in Washington, D.C., and to turn over documents relating to the Republican senator.

TV station KLAS reported Thursday that the subpoenas went to six unnamed Las Vegas businesses. One of the subpoenas posted on the station's Web site blacks out the recipient's identity.

Video:

John Ensign

is probably cooked to a crisp now that more evidence is surfacing about improper actions regarding his former mistress and her husband:

Mr. Ensign, Republican of Nevada, suggested that a Las Vegas development firm hire the husband, Douglas Hampton, after it had sought the senator’s help on several energy projects in 2008, according to e-mail messages and interviews with company executives.

The messages are the first written records from Mr. Ensign documenting his efforts to find clients for Mr. Hampton, a top aide and close friend, after the senator had an affair with his wife, Cynthia Hampton. They appear to undercut the senator’s assertion that he did not know the work might involve Congressional lobbying, which could violate a federal ban on such activities by staff members for a year after leaving government.

The e-mail messages also hint at what Mr. Ensign’s office now says was an effort by the Las Vegas firm, a small energy investment business called P2SA Equity, to improperly link Mr. Ensign’s possible assistance to a promised donation.

Of course this was done to contain the extramarital scandal involving Ensign and Doug Hampton's wife Cindy.

Jimbo Eruptions

You know what they say about birds of a feather.

Apparently Gibbons is still in the race for the governorship although he keeps doing things to sabotage his already nonexistent chances:

“I don't think it's anything that any of us didn't expect. We’ll see where the chips come out and end up," said Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Gibbons was quick to come to Ensign's defense.

“John's a wonderful friend and I believe in his heart he was doing what he thought was right. And it’s unfortunate that it crossed maybe a line or two,” Gibbons said.

Only a line or two, just like Jimbo allegedly said to former cocktail server Chrissy Mazzeo in a Las Vegas parking garage: "I'm not going to fuck you. I'm going to rape you."

News

This case happened in Britain, so one wonders if this murderer would have been hailed as a national hero in the United States.

On the other hand, she killed her "useless eater" son with heroin, so that's a no-no.

Details:

A mother who gave her brain-damaged son a lethal injection of heroin to end his "living hell" was jailed for life on Wednesday after being found guilty of his murder.

Frances Inglis, whose 22-year-old son Tom suffered severe head injuries when he fell out of a moving ambulance, had admitted ending her son's life but denied murder, saying she did it "with love" to end his suffering.

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Because the former veterinarian has done enough probing, it's the FBI's turn to probe HIM.
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More Dumb Politics

John Ensign says the GOP should lay off his colleague in the Senate from the same state.

Why is It

John Ensign looks like he's had a facelift? He was questioned about his ethics problems, and of course he's spinning like a top:




He needs to get out of the Senate.

News

The top two horses of this year made the list of top female athletes in this AP year.

Of course the horses are Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra.
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Richard Heene gets 90 days for perpetrating his balloon hoax.
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John Ensign makes number one in the scandal ratings.
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