As if Latinos needed more reason to swing heavily Democratic next year, how about this bit of Republican disrespect?

Univisión planned to air the first presidential debates in Spanish on Sept. 9 and 16, one for Democrats, the other for Republicans, trumpeting a national coming-out party for Hispanic voters.

Except Republican candidates aren't coming. Only Ariz. Sen. John McCain agreed to participate in the event at the University of Miami.

So much for Sept. 16.

''That date is off the table,'' university spokeswoman Bárbara Gutiérrez said Wednesday.

Democrats aren't passing up this chance to communicate with one of the nation's largest swing constituencies.

All eight Democratic candidates are slated to show up Sept. 9, and party leaders plan to highlight the contrast. The New Democratic Network, a nationwide political group, is planning news conferences and inviting Hispanic leaders, including Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Cabinet member Henry Cisneros and U.S. Rep. Luís Gutiérrez of Illinois.

More @ Daily Kos

Most of them already bails on the Cancer Forum.

You have to admit though, when you are completely beholden to Corporate Interests, it can be very hard to find time in your schedule.

Bad Scary News

Members of an Iranian Energy Ministry delegation visiting Baghdad at the invitation of the Iraqi government were released Wednesday, a day after being arrested at their hotel by American troops and led away in handcuffs and blindfolds.

.....

Iraqi and Iranian officials said the Iranians were in Baghdad to help resolve Iraq’s power crisis. American officials said they were held after being stopped and searched at a checkpoint near their hotel because unauthorized weapons were found in their vehicles.

more @ NYTimes


Good News [You probably never heard about because the Corporate Media thinks it wont get ratings.]

Taliban militants in Afghanistan have now released 12 of the 19 South Korean hostages they have been holding for the past five weeks.

from ABC news via Rachel Maddow Show

Katrina Information Network

Sign up and Take Action

http://www.katrinaaction.org

KATRINA ADDITIONAL FACTS – May 10, 2007

• Number of teachers that Louisiana’s state-run Recovery School District was short for 2007: 70
• Percent drop in enrollment of Louisiana state public colleges and universities from fall 2005 to fall 2006: 12
• Damage sustained by local nonprofit health centers in Louisiana and Mississippi: $60 million
• The number of adult inpatient psychiatric beds in post- Katrina New Orleans, compared to a pre-storm high of 234: 17
• When New Orleans’ University Hospital reopened in November 2006, the number of its 575 pre-storm beds available: 85
• Over 107,000 people have applied for aid under Louisiana’s “Road Home Program,” yet just over 630 closings have been held to date.
• There are not adequate programs to help renters in Louisiana and Mississippi although they constituted nearly half of those displaced by Katrina. In New Orleans, average rents are up 45 percent from pre-Katrina levels.
• Despite the region’s severe affordable housing crisis, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), which is in HUD receivership, plan to raze almost 5,000 public housing units in the city, even though they did not suffer significant storm damage.
• The number of children is outstripping capacity, with students facing packed classrooms, few special-education services and a lack of books. This January, New Orleans public schools placed 300 students on waiting list because they had no room, sparking lawsuits by public education advocates.

Many of those people are still without homes.... with the city left in shambles. Why isn't that on the news still? Guess it's not sexy enough.

Katrina Timeline from Hullabaloo

7AM CDT — KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]

7:30 AM CDT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 “government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees” were breached. [AP]

8AM CDT — MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.” [NBC’s “Today Show”]

11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]

MORNING — BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA: In a briefing, Brown warned Bush, “This is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think.” He also voiced concerns that the government may not have the capacity to “respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe” and that the Superdome was ill-equipped to be a refuge of last resort. [AP]

MORNING — MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES: In the same briefing, Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center Director, warns, “This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there’s a big big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. … I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there’s obviously a very very grave concern.” [AP]

MORNING — BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: “I spoke to Mike Chertoff today — he’s the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on — a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are.” [White House]

MORNING — BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]

11AM CDT — MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: “Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as ‘this near catastrophic event’ but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, ‘Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.’” [AP]

LATE MORNING — LEVEE BREACHED: “A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.” [Times-Picayune]

11AM CDT — BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “This new bill I signed says, if you’re a senior and you like the way things are today, you’re in good shape, don’t change. But, by the way, there’s a lot of different options for you. And we’re here to talk about what that means to our seniors.” [White House]

4:30PM CDT — BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: “We’ve got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell — she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check.” [White House]

8PM CDT — RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld “joined Padres President John Moores in the owner’s box…at Petco Park.” [Editor & Publisher]

8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]

LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

Complete Timeline @ thinkprogress

Edwards in Portsmouth, NH

First-tier Republicans skip cancer forum

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The biggest names in the GOP presidential primary — Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) — skipped the first-ever forum on cancer sponsored by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.

more @ thehill.com

G.O.P. Plans Early-Primary Penalties

The Republican National Committee plans to penalize at least five states holding early primaries, including New Hampshire and Florida, by refusing to seat at least half of their delegates at the national convention in 2008, a party official said yesterday.

Much of the focus in the primary scheduling fight up to now has been on the Democratic National Committee’s moves to penalize Florida by not seating its convention delegates because of the state’s decision to move up its primary. But the Republican rules are just as stringent, and the national party said yesterday that it would not hesitate to enforce them.

more @ NYTimes

I mean to post about the DNC threats to Florida.

more on that here

Florida Dems threaten to sue DNC... /sigh

Florida Democrats wrote a letter to Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean Friday, threatening a lawsuit if the party penalizes them for moving their presidential primary.

more here

As The New York Times notes ... scandal has pursued them into 2007. “The real question for Republicans in Washington is how low can you go, because we are approaching a level of ridiculousness,” says one Republican strategist.

So what's the tally this year so far? Well, there is, of course,

1) Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and

2) Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) with their sex scandals (the attempted restroom tryst and numerous successful hotel room trysts, respectively).

3) Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and

4) Rep. Don Young (R-AK) are under investigation for their ties to the oil company Veco (though that's just the tip of the iceberg for Young).

5) Reps. Tom Feeney (R-FL) and

6) John Doolittle (R-CA) have found themselves the focus of a reinvigorated Abramoff investigation (though Abramoff is in prison, he's still busily cooperating).

7) Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) had his house raided.

8) The FBI is investigating Rep. Gary Miller's (R-CA) land deals.

9) Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) whose land deal with a businessman and campaign contributor became such a scandal that she finally just sold back the plot of land.

12) Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and

13) Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) ..... Both are facing ethics committee investigations for their calls last October to former U.S. attorney David Iglesias about his office's investigation of a state Democrat.)

A kind of bonus field of scandal has been campaign officials for the various Republican candidates and their various scandals.

And there are a couple holdovers from 2006, of course; scandal figures who've stuck around and managed to keep a relatively low profile.

10) Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is still apparently under federal investigation. And

11) Rep. Ken Calvert's (R-CA) land deals are still winning scrutiny.

more @ talking points memo

After the Bush Library reportedly backed out of a portrait they had commissioned from British artist Jonathan Yeo, the 36-year-old artist went forward with one anyway, a collage created from fragments of 100 porn magazines.

Check out the unblurred work here.

from towleroad

Rescue and recovery workers at ground zero have developed asthma at a rate that is 12 times what would be expected for adults, according to findings released yesterday by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

from truthout.org

more of the forgotten.....

Here in New Hampshire, we are working to make sure every child has access to quality, affordable health care. Just this year, we passed a budget that will allow us to provide affordable health insurance to another 10,000 children and expand our outreach efforts.

That is why I am so disturbed about rule changes that the Bush Administration proposed last week. [for more info on those rule changes see my post "George Bush doesn't care about young people"]

...

These proposed changes could negatively impact 2,000 kids currently enrolled in Healthy Kids. It also could jeopardize part of our efforts to enroll 10,000 additional children in the Healthy Kids program over the next three years

from Gov. Lynch

Find out more at www.nhhealthykids.org.

More about Lynch

Sunday, September 2 - 10:00AM -18 Thurlow Street,Plymouth

"Thank you all very much for coming out today," Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho began his press conference yesterday.


....

Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men's restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity.

from the Nation


My first thought of hearing about this was "Surprise surprise, yet another "family values" anti-gay crusader turns out to be not only gay, but engaging in practices that no self respecting gay person ever would."

If you want to learn more about how Not-Gay Senators hook up with Men in bathroom stalls read more here."

Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages."

More of Craigs known and largely suppressed sexual history @ Dailykos.


"To me, it's pretty obvious that every conservative anti-gay extremist is gay. If you're not gay, you don't sit around obsessing over gay sex. If you sit around obsessing about gay sex, then you're gay. It's that simple."

Here Kos discusses the Parody of the anti-gay values set


I know this is a HUGE deal. It has large political ramifications AND its exactly the kind of story the Corporate Media loves so it will play and play and play and play.

Which is exactly why I am already sick of it.

Initially I was pissed because they somehow kept a lid on it. The arrest stayed a secret for 2 1/2 months.

Then as I began to realize that this was going to be the news focus for the coming weeks to months I stopped caring.

Anyone care about the housing market dying? Or the stock market tanking? Or that mortage loan sharks getting bail out? Anyone remember Katrina? Walter Reed? Rove resigning? Gonzales? Afghanistan? Remember those miners?


Screw it... HERE is the REAL story to watch!!

Husbands less likely to share housework than live-in boyfriends, study finds

Now thats what I call a REAL threat to marriage!

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.

U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said

more yahoo news via huffingtonpost

Over in New Hampshire, clothesline activists have asked for legislative advice from Project Laundry List – the first US clothesline activist group – according to the group's founder, Alexander Lee. And North Carolina recently passed a law invalidating city or county limitations on "energy devices based on the use of renewable resources." In addition, the clothesline movement there is hoping to find a "test case" to legally establish clothesline rights in North Carolina, Mr. Lee says.

"We get e-mails and calls every day from people wanting to know where they can get the materials to hang out their clothes or how to deal with homeowners' association rules," says Bryan Wentzell, the group's chairman of the board. "[The Right to Dry movement] could take off all across the country," he says, noting that independent states like Vermont will be the first to jump on the bandwagon."

More @ CSM

More info on Project Laundry List

Alberto Gonzales to resign.

more @ truthout.org

more @ dailykos here and here

more @ nytimes via huffington post

Great commentary and video clips on Bill Richardson's recent August 24th visit to Keene, NH

Check out Blue New Hampshire