deadissue.com

If Ken Buck gets elected we can probably look forward to incidents like this in the United States. i don’t see how anyone that is not a complete misogynist could support Buck.

Farmers don’t like it when someone threatens to take away their entitlements:

ELIZABETH — Out among farmers and ranchers, the philosophy of limited government and self-sufficiency must survive another meeting with reality.
Colorado growers average hundreds of millions of dollars a year in federal subsidies from crop payments, disaster insurance, price supports and land preservation.

Yet rural areas such as Elbert County vote 70 to 80 percent Republican, for a party that this year promises to target hidebound entitlements and cut spending across the board.

The philosophical tension can put a strain on candidates such as GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Buck, who told Elbert County voters last week that he was the only candidate willing to say everyone would feel the pain of much-needed budget cuts

The level of denial it takes to be a conservative never ceases to amaze me.

Looks like other people are starting to no notice pot legalization may have a coattail effect.

Pollsters have noted a distinct increase in youth voter enthusiasm in California in recent months, attributed largely to Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that, if approved, would decriminalize, regulate and tax marijuana in the state.

Transferred to other elections, that additional enthusiasm could be enough to propel Democratic candidates in other states to victory in 2012. Where tight races exist, even a relatively small increase in the youth turnout could tilt the election in the Democrats’ favor. As the WSJ notes, the under-30 voter turnout in California in 2008 accounted for 6.5 percent of the total electorate; this year, pollsters expect the youth vote to account for 11 percent of the total votes cast. The paper reports:

After watching conservatives use anti-gay ballot at measures to get other conservatives to the polls it would be great to see the same tactic used for something good.

This is one of the funniest things I have ever read, the entire article is really good but this part almost made me spit my lunch on my ipad:

Buried deep in the anus of the Bible Belt, in a little place called Petersburg, Kentucky, is one of the world’s most extraordinary tourist attractions: the Creation Museum, a kind of natural-history museum for people who believe the Earth is 6,000 years old. When you visit this impressively massive monument to fundamentalist Christian thought, you get a mind-blowing glimpse into the modern conservative worldview. One exhibit depicts a half-naked Adam and Eve sitting in the bush, cheerfully keeping house next to dinosaurs — which, according to creationist myth, not only lived alongside humans but were peaceful vegetarians until Adam partook of the forbidden fruit. It’s hard to imagine a more telling demonstration of this particular demographic’s unmatched ability to believe just about anything.

Even more disturbing is an exhibit designed to show how the world has changed since the Scopes trial eradicated religion from popular culture. Visitors to the museum enter a darkened urban scene full of graffiti and garbage, and through a series of windows view video scenes of families in a state of collapse. A teenager, rolling a giant doobie as his God-fearing little brother looks on in horror, surfs porn on the Web instead of reading the Bible. (“A Wide World of Women!” the older brother chuckles.) A girl stares at her home pregnancy test and says into the telephone, “My parents are not going to know!” As you go farther into the exhibit, you find a wooden door, into which an eerie inscription has been carved: “The World’s Not Safe Anymore.”

I guess we know where the tea-party gets their “facts”

I thought this was one of the more interesting points made about the upcoming election and the likely republican gains:

It is always worth beginning this conversation with a recognition that given where things stood in January 2009, large House losses were essentially inevitable. The Democratic majority elected in 2008 was totally unsustainable and was doomed by basic regression to the mean.

I never really thought about this statistical rule and the real-world consequences of it, I guess these things really do work in practice.

Things like this make me glad I voted for Obama

For the first time in more than a decade, the federal government is funding sex education programs that aren’t based solely on abstinence. But they’re not just about handing out condoms, either.

Beginning this school year, a five-year, $375 million grant is being divided among 28 programs that have been proven to lower the pregnancy rate among participants, no matter their focus. Many programs distribute condoms, but about half also aim to boost teens’ academics, get them involved in extracurricular activities

Whenever I am in rural areas I am shocked by the number of sixteen and seventeen year-old mothers I see, hopefully this program will lower the teen birthrate in some of those areas.

At the beginning of the summer i bought eight 12packs of Throwback Pepsi, which is Pepsi made with real suger rather than high fructose corn syrup. I stocked up mostly because I liked the taste, and I had also considered selling them on e-bay as they are rummored to go for $12 for a twelve papck. During that time I lost 16 pounds and went from a BMI 26.4 to a BMI of 24.1. At some point in there I stopped drinking regular Pepsi all together, and if I was traveling or out at a restaurant I would drink iced tea or water, but I am pretty sure that is the only major change I made to my diet. I did notice as I got lighter it was easier to exercise, I might run for an extra mile or ride my bike a little farther. Once my weight got under 180 pounds(at the beginning of the summer I weighed 184 pounds) I stopped getting sore when I exercised.

This experience made me realize two things, first, if you can lose a little bit of weight things really do get easier, and second, how bad is high fructose corn syrup?

Before John McCain went crazy he talked about work Americans won’t do and the need for migrant workers. Looks like he was right.

Looks like not only is pot legalization very popular it seems to have a coattail effect:

A ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in California could help propel endangered incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to re-election in November, according to a respected polling expert.

The presence of the pot legalization measure, Proposition 19, on the ballot is likely to entice many young Californians to vote in November when they otherwise would not have, declared Nate Silver of the New York Times on Wednesday evening. And young voters strongly lean Democratic, making them likely to pull the lever for Boxer.

Boxer, a three-term senator, is locked in a tight battle against former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the Republican nominee. While the race has been virtually tied for weeks, Boxer has lately ticked up in the polls.

Kip with the two tallest building in Denver in the backround.

A couple of people have said that he looks to be deep in thought, the truth is, he was very interested in a squirrel.

I am starting to wonder if some people don’t see high unemployment as a benefit, After all it keeps inflation low and also leads to lower costs for businesses as desperate people will probably work cheaper. In fact any safety net available probably makes workers less desperate and thus raises the cost of workers for business.

It seems like policy makers might really want to look at this and perhaps find a minimum level of inflation that is acceptable and also a target unemployment rate that is lower than nine percent.

Seems like the best way to lower infant mortality is to improve living conditions.

The highest child mortality rates are found in sub-Saharan Africa [EPA]
The number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthday has fallen by a third since 1990, the United Nations Children Fund has said.

But the rate of decline is still way off a globally agreed target set to be met by 2015, Unicef said in a report on Friday.

It said the total number of under-five deaths decreased to 8.1 million per year in 2009 from 12.4 million per year in 1990, from 89 deaths per 1,000 live births to 60 in 2009.

The deaths are increasingly concentrated in India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and China. The highest rates were in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in eight children dies before their fifth birthday.

“The good news is that these estimates suggest 12,000 fewer children are dying each day around the world compared to 1990,” Unicef said in a statement.

“However the tragedy of preventable child deaths continues. Some 22,000 children under five still die each day, with some 70 per cent of these deaths occurring in the first year of the child’s life.”

The tea party candidates may sound crazy but I don’t hear them saying anything diiferent that other republicans. They may not hide their racism as well as more polished candidates, but they are the same Reagan republicans that have been around for most my life.

The article I linked to talks about some of Christine O’donnells nuttier positions and also makes the point that republicans don’t like poor people, even when that poor person is a true believer.

I have a feeling for most of the year the Broncos will be one good defensive player away frm winning a lot of games. Too bad they wasted a first round pick on a third round quarterback.

After watching all the hate groups trying to exploit 9/11 by threatening to burn Koran’s or trying to exploit the day for financial gain, I don’t see how anyone can claim Christianity makes this country better. In fact, after watching the ADL try to pile on the mosque as well, I guess I should say all organized religions are divisive and profit motivated. Maybe it is time to reconsider the tax excempt status we give to religion, and reevaluate the status we accord supernatural beliefs.

I have been traveling quite a bit the last few weeks which means I get to watch Fox news, while sitting around airport and hotel bars. First up was Sharan Angle, Harry Rieds opponent in Nevada. She still thinks that “second amendment remedies should be available if she loses. In other words she is advocating a terrorist attack if she loses.

Ken Buck is still talking about the benefits of rape and incest, but the national republican committee is funding and supporting these morons which makes me think that nationally republicans are pro-terrorist and pro-incest

Here is hoping I can make a link work from my ipad:

“America’s policy for almost 70 years has been to keep marijuana—arguably no more harmful than alcohol and used by 15 million Americans every month—confined to the illicit market, meaning we’ve given criminals a virtual monopoly on something that US researcher Jon Gettman estimates is a $36 billion a year industry, greater than corn and wheat combined,” Johnson wrote.

Last week, the California Council of Churches IMPACT, which claims to represent 21 denominations with 1.5 million worshipers, officially endorsed California’s Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that could see the state become the first in the Union to decriminalize marijuana by popular decree.

It is good to see churches doing something helpful politically and it also shows economic potential of marijuana legalization to maybe help end or at least lessen the recession we find ourselves in.

Looks like the opponents of prop 19 in California are going a little over the top. What is more interesting to me, where are the Libertarians, shouldn’t they be in favor of less regulation?

As a huge zombie fan I am glad to see they are finally being given some respect by the legal system.

Looks like pesticides may not be completely harmless to people after all.

Exposure to organophosphate pesticides, especially prenatally, significantly increase susceptibility to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children born to Mexican American women in the Salinas Valley, an area of intensive agriculture and heavy pesticide use.

These latest findings support previous results from a study published in the June issue of Pediatrics and reported by Medscape Medical News at that time that showed US children with higher levels of organophosphate pesticide metabolites in their urine were more likely to have ADHD compared with their counterparts with lower levels.

The war on insects has some collateral damage to people and it is strange to me that no one wants to admit that. Most propenents of pesticide use seem happy to ignore any science that shows potential harm to people.

The other issue is that most insect species build a tolerance for pesticides pretty quickly, humans don’t seem to evolve as quickly; long after the bugs have adapted to a certain pesticide people are still suffering from the consequences.

This about says it all:

I think it’s time to acknowledge what we are increasingly learning: the base of the GOP – aided and abetted by what’s left of their elites – want a religious war abroad and at home not on Jihadism, but on Islam itself. And a vote for the GOP is a vote for this agenda. It is a vote for global warfare and domestic division.

I am surprised that people are just now starting to see how corrosive christian beliefs are for the U.S and how dangerous they are for the rest of the world.

The Republican nominee for governor thinks bike paths are part of a UN plot to make us all sissies, or something. And Ken Buck is the nominee for the Senate and he seems to be pro-incest and is definitely pro-rape ara really not that far away from what most republicans and Tea baggers think, they are just a little more upfront about it. I have feeling that the lasting legacy of the Tea Party will be that they forced their candidates to explicitely state some things that make them pretty much unelectable in all but the most conservetive areas of the country.

Looks like genetically engineered crops are starting to mix with local weeds. Monsanto said this couldn’t happen, apparentely lieing is OK as long as it is to bolster the bottom line.

Looks like their is a new “superbug” to worry about.

Maybe one day, one of these bugs will turn out to be as nasty as they say it is going to be, but it seems like certain industries have an interest in keeping people scared so that they keep funding research on these potential killers. Which makes me skeptical of all the claims about the next lethal disease.

Everyone needs to pray to the Aqua Buddha.
On a related note, I wonder how many public figures openly mock religion behind closed doors, and then pretend to believe in when it gets them somewhere.

Since 9/11 the fringe has decided it is OK to let their freak flag fly, what is kind of funny about it is maybe the U.S has fewer freaks than we thought, as TPM noted when a group of people decided they could use stinky smelly dogs to harrass muslims, because everyone knows Muslims don’t like dogs. Of course the plan failed because most racists apparentely don’t own dogs and Muslims don’t seem to be bothered by dogs either.

It is sort of funny to watch the racists fail when they try to put one of their stereotypes to work.

Perhaps the worst idea during the Bush years was not the war in Iraq, it was the tax-cuts. I bet if you did a graph you would see that the minute Bush and Cheney decided to let rich peoople have a free-ride the economy sputtered to a halt and has really not recovered. Hopefully the Bush tax cuts will expire and start to end the fiasco that was the Bush/Cheney administration.

This week Jesus hates Muslims. At this point does anyone doubt that the wars in Iraq and Afganistan are at least partially motivated by the desires of christians to start a holy war.

Back in the day Right thinker used to argue that pharmacists shouldn’t have to help women, or black people for that matter if they had a religous reason for being a douchebag. Looks like many christians thienk their religion allows them to be both a douchebag and a bad employee.

And, yeah I am trying to get right thinker to comment.