Chicken Soup 4 The Damned

Reagan Voted 'Greatest American'

He edged out Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.... More than 2.4 million Americans cast their vote by phone, text or e-mail in the poll, organised by the Discovery Channel and AOL.

Dancing Principal Won't Be Fired

[Selma, IN] Some community members were outraged by [Principal] Mehaffey's dress and behavior. Mehaffey wore short shorts, was picked up by a male student, was handcuffed by a male student pretending to be a police officer and tore the T-shirt off a male student during an encore of the songs "YMCA" and "Macho Man."

Brazil's Biofuel Strategy Pays Off As Gas Prices Soar

All gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 26 percent [sugar] ethanol, but motorists driving flexible-fuel cars have the option of filling up with pure ethanol, or E100, which currently is selling for about half the price of the blend....

• Adapting cars to pure ethanol can be done relatively inexpensively by adding a fuel sensor and corrosion-resistant hoses...
• [Corn] Ethanol was selling for 30 cents less a gallon than gasoline this month in the Chicago wholesale market, even before refiners deducted the federal tax subsidy.
• The pressed sugar-cane juice can either go to huge fermentation vats to make alcohol or be spun in centrifuges to produce sugar and molasses... The plant supplies its own electrical power by burning the crushed outer stalk of the cane...
• Exact comparisons are hard to come by, but mill manager Mario Ortiz Gandini said the mill can produce sugar for less than half the price of U.S. ethanol from corn.
• [Plantation manager Paulo Rodrigues said] sugar cane requires fewer chemicals than any crop except pasture. His farm uses wasps to fight insects, reducing the need for chemical pesticides. The crop's dense leaves absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, making it a good recycler of the greenhouse gas implicated in global warming.

The [US] tariff is a sore point with [Roberto] Rodrigues, Brazil's agriculture minister.... he grows sugar cane on 7 square miles of rolling countryside. "If the U.S. and Brazil would open their markets, they will contribute to democracy and peace," he told a group of visitors to his farm last month.

Jackson Plans Party At Casino For Devoted Fans

[Los Angeles] To thank selected fans for their allegiance during his child-molestation trial, Michael Jackson and his family plan an invitation-only bash Saturday night at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez -- although it is not clear whether the self-described King of Pop will be on stage.

Jackson, 46, was acquitted Monday on all counts of molestation and conspiracy after a 14-week trial that brought throngs of his most ardent fans to the steps of the courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif. Some of those fans and others selected by the Jackson family should get word today of their invitation to Saturday's performance.

US Runaway Bride Sells Her Story

Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, who sparked a costly police search when she vanished from her Georgia home, has sold media rights to her story to a New York firm.... Media reports said the deal was worth $500,000 (£274,000), although this has not been confirmed by the firm.

...Ms Wilbanks apologised for her disappearance but only promised to pay overtime costs incurred during the search. She has not yet offered to repay the whole cost of the search, totalling almost $43,000 (£24,000). The deal has angered local officials in the couple's home town of Duluth, Georgia.

"You want something printable?" Mayor Shirley Lasseter asked a local reporter when asked about the deal. "I think it's a shame that anybody could profit from this," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports her saying.

Cheerleaders Put Feces On Pizza As Prank

The squad from Fossil Ridge High School sent the pizza to the Keller High School girls on June 2, the last night of a four-day camp at the University of Texas at Arlington.... Less than 45 minutes later, some Keller cheerleaders knocked on the door of Fossil Ridge varsity cheerleading sponsor Audrey Wilson... The Keller girls accused the Fossil Ridge squad of sending them a pizza with feces on it and showed the pizza to Wilson....

Once the facts were determined, four Keller High School cheerleaders were sent home... The next day, other Keller cheerleaders apologized and read a letter to the Fossil Ridge squad, [a] Fossil Ridge cheerleader said....

"I'm friends with a lot of the Keller girls. At camp we were all getting along, and then they did that," she said. "I just think it's really mean, and really disgusting."

Exxon Recruits Accused Bush Official

A former White House environmental official, accused of doctoring reports on global warming, is joining oil major ExxonMobil. The company confirmed that Philip Cooney, the former chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a former energy industry lobbyist, will start work in the autumn.

Cooney quit his White House post days after the New York Times reported that he had changed government reports to cast doubt on the global warming phenomenon. The report said he had deleted some paragraphs and edited others drafted by government scientists. Exxon refused to say what his new job would entail.

Before President Bush recruited Cooney, he worked for the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group for the oil industry.

Why I'm Not A Democrat Even Though I Hate George Bush

I sent Peter the following:

I think I'm right and Jerry, Craig, Bill, and David are wrong on the "obvious thesis" being neglected in the democratic message.

But if I'm the only one who sees it that way, I don't need to keep going. Does it look to you more like it looks to me, or more like it looks to them?

Peter asked for a summary...

Jerry has been writing these lengthy pro-democratic analyses and has insisted that he's been including obvious summaries people can walk away from his posts with.

However badly I've made it, my point has been that if no one can walk away from his posts with a summary, he's only convenient as a complacent adversary for neo-cons to cite, with which neo-cons can shame real dissent.

This is a post where I cite what's been said where I try to make this point: http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/002982.html#95793

Peter answered my question:

Well, personally I think it doesn't matter whether he includes a summary or not. If he presents his points as a five page dissertation or a five word soundbite, adversarial neo-cons will deliberately miss the point or distort it for the purpose of shaming real dissent...

To which I replied:

But as I demonstrated in my post, the democrats aren't issuing soundbytes even *they* believe.

None of poor who voted for Bush believe the neo-cons are resolved to wage war for oil, or to lie and kill people. As inane as the neo-con soundbytes are, most people believe they are issued honestly.

This leaves the poor only hearing soundbytes anyone believes from the neo-cons.

To this, Peter replied:

The poor voting for Bush didn't do so because the Neocons had better soundbites. They voted for Bush because Bush spoke the language of fear 24/7 and kept them so off-center they didn't know which end was up. That, and Bush--who has lived a life of privilege--manages to project this down-home, "I'm just one of you guys" image that fools the "common folk" into believing he's one of them....

I asked Peter if I could cite our exchange to make my last point and he generously agreed. I'm going to refer to a personal anecdote, so I feel comfortable [leaving] the discussion [thread] on it.

About 10 years ago I was a substitute teacher for 2 weeks in a middle-school special ed class. One of the students was a kid who, if you asked her what 5 and 7 added to, she couldn't tell you. She couldn't add it in her head or on paper. So when the class was being instructed in math, she was given a bucket of dried lima beans to count with and finish her classwork [in isolation].

She could still count, and I supposed that she was capable of doing anything I was capable of doing. So I told her to write out a number-line, and to move a bean right or left to add and subtract. Nothing we all don't do in our heads. When I was called in to sub in the class weeks later, she was doing her classwork at her desk still using the number-line I asked her to write out.

Since then, I've read Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle," where he had a line about measuring the quality of a scientist by how he explains the principles he works with to lay-people. I've taken opinions like this as agreement that the merit of lengthy discourse can be measured by what the "lay-people" take away.

If I'm interpreting what everyone is saying [correctly], we all agree the democrats will continue to lose to the neo-cons as long as they give up on the voter, but we disagree that it can be accomplished. Or maybe y'all think the voters will simply overlook being neglected before medicare and deficits have harvested middle-class savings. From what I've experienced, and from the reinforcement that experience has gotten, I really can't fathom giving up on the voter in the manner I see the democrats doing.

Voters Give Thumbs-Down To Baby-Faced Politicians

Researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey, US, carried out studies to determine the importance of candidates' facial appearance in determining election success....

Writing a review accompanying the paper in Science, psychologist Leslie Zebrowitz from Brandeis University in Massachusetts describes the trait as being less "baby-faced." A round face, large eyes, small nose, high forehead and small chin are baby-faced features, she says...

Misrepresentation

While the News found a large clan of Tyners among the Cherokee, they aren't related to the Joshua Tyner branch from which [Ward] Churchill descends.

...the News' examination found plenty of evidence that Joshua -- who became an Indian fighter in Georgia after the raid that killed his mother -- was white, as was the rest of his family.

When Marine Recruiters Go Way Beyond The Call

• With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You can't block calls from the government, her server said.

• The next step of Axel's misadventure came when he heard about a cool "chin-ups" contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox.

  ...in the morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and "then had him out all night, drilling him to join."

• ...when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door.... This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!"

• ...the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.

  "They said we were going somewhere but I didn't know we were going all the way to Seattle," Axel said. Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told him.

• At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."

Harris To Challenge Nelson For Senate Seat

[Tallahassee, FL] Republican U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, who was praised and vilified for her role as Florida's secretary of state in the 2000 presidential recount, said Tuesday she will run for the U.S. Senate next year against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson....

In 2000, Bush won a 537-vote victory over Gore after a dispute that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. While Democrats accused Harris [both the Florida secretary of state and the Florida Bush campaign chair in 2000] of partisanship in her handling of the recount...

'Lactivists' Taking Their Cause, And Their Babies, To The Streets

The calls for a "nurse-in" began on the Internet mere moments after Barbara Walters uttered a negative remark about public breast-feeding on her ABC talk show, "The View...." Ms. Walters, who remarked a few weeks ago on the show that the sight of a woman breast-feeding on an airplane next to her had made her uncomfortable, said through a spokesman that "it was a particular circumstance and we are surprised that it warrants a protest."

"We're all told that breast-feeding is the best, healthiest thing you can do for your child," said Lorig Charkoudian, 32, who started the Web site www.nurseatstarbucks.com after being asked to use the bathroom to nurse at her local Starbucks....

"People make you feel like you're doing something dirty, almost," said Rene Harrell, 26, of Chantilly, Va., who said she was recently asked to leave a Delta airport lounge in Atlanta as she nursed her 8-month-old son, Elijah. Once on the plane awaiting takeoff, she said, a man across the aisle complained loudly about her into his cellphone as she continued to nurse....

"It's just, where would you like me to go so I don't bother you by being here?" Ms. Harrell said. "He was not on solids. It's not like I could have given him something to tide him over. He needed to eat."

Activists Hit Ford On Help For Gays

Ford is being criticized because it offers up to $1,000 per vehicle in donations to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation when members of the group buy a Jaguar or Land Rover this year. Ford also offers up to a $500 donation to the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign for each Volvo purchased by members of that organization...

Ex-FBI Official Admits He's 'Deep Throat'

The scandal that brought Nixon's resignation began with a burglary and attempted tapping of phones in Democratic Party offices at the Watergate office building in Washington during Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign.... But the most devastating disclosure was the president's own role in trying to cover-up his administration's involvement.

Among other things, Deep Throat [W Mark Felt] urged Woodward and Bernstein to follow the money trail -- from the financing of burglars who broke into the Democratic National Committee offices to the financing of Nixon's re-election campaign....

Felt was convicted in 1980 for authorizing illegal break-ins in the 1970s at homes of people associated with the radical Weather Underground. He was pardoned by President Reagan in 1981.