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I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way.

So I stole a bike and asked God for forgiveness.

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Hypocrites and Dangerous Phonies

By Ann Davidow

As if further proof were needed, the final vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the brouhaha surrounding a speech current USDA employee, Shirley Sherrod, delivered twenty-four years ago at a Georgia NAACP event served to buttress the credentials of the hypocrites and phonies in our midst.

The reasons advanced by most Republicans on the committee for withholding support for Elena Kagan bordered on the absurd. Calling her unqualified was a stretch even for that crowd. Both Kagan and Sotomayor received “well qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association while Bush I appointee, Clarence Thomas, mustered up a lukewarm “qualified” evaluation. Disturbingly, Thomas pals around with Rush Limbaugh and his wife heads a conservative lobbying group in sync with the Tea Party agenda. The bar was set pretty low when Thomas joined the court and his political proclivities leave a lot to be desired for someone on the nation’s highest court.

Kagan may have sidestepped some questions, but candor is often reason enough for detractors to raise objections. For a party committed to resisting all administration appointees, reason rarely informs dissent. Lindsay Graham to his credit voted with Democrats to allow an up-or-down Senate vote on the Kagan nomination, pointing out that “elections have consequences.” A sly reminder, perhaps, of the upcoming November elections. With respect to recent proceedings nothing could have been more destructive of the process than Chief Justice Roberts’ tortured and misleading responses during his confirmation: his ‘firm’ belief in Stare Decisis for example. Chairman Leahy, for his part, observed that opinion in the country rejects the Supreme Court Citizens United decision allowing unlimited campaign contributions by corporations and unions.

Meanwhile as the President was signing hard won financial reform legislation, national attention was riveted on Shirley Sherrod. In some ways her story was more important. Understandably President Obama didn’t want his presidency to be about race. But Nixon’s “southern strategy” remains a force in today’s politics and as such must be reckoned with. That Andrew Breitbart, a Tea Party fanatic could raise a storm by posting on his website a doctored video of Sherrod that made it appear she was making racist comments illustrates how explosive the issue of race has become. The efforts of the opposition have had their effect and the President can no longer pretend that his election has not unleashed a racial animus. Opponents try to disguise it as something legitimate.

The pretense that color plays no part in the raucous displays at Tea Party events is a fiction that needed to be dispelled. The NAACP called on the group to denounce its racist elements.

Washington Awash in Money?

by Wes Pruden
Washington--April 23, 2010--Money is a lot like blood. Blood spilled in the jungle is easy to track. Money spilled in the pursuit of avarice and greed can be easy to follow, too, sometimes even to Pennsylvania Avenue.

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We don’t need no steenkin Shutoff Valve!
Hence, the shutoff valve became voluntary...
Thank you, Uncle Cheney!   
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Lawyers for Goldman Sachs, the big Wall Street investment banking house, have been negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make some, if not all, of the civil fraud charges against the firm go away, and President Obama has been entertaining the chairman of Goldman Sachs at the White House.

We're so screwed!

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I want to die peacefully, in my sleep...like my grandpa...
Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.   
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