A progressive political blog that highlights the infringement of religion upon today’s government.

Sorry this one is getting out late but I am sick today. However I didn’t feel right not publishing anything so here I am. Don’t be mad at me if its shorter and crappier than normal. Thats just about how I feel today. Well, maybe not shorter. crappier though for sure. At least I’m not suffering alone (get feeling better Jessica). Hope your all have a great day and I will try to post more later.

Hillary Clinton Wins BIG in West Virginia

Even though I have decided to support Obama I am still very happy to see that Clinton is not only competitive in blue collar states, but overwhelmingly preferred 67% to 26%. I know that it wont happen but showings like this make my dreams of a unity ticket seem almost possible sometimes.

Hagee Flip Flops on Religious Views

Taking a line from the McCain campaign John Hagee has flip flopped on his outspoken attacks on the Catholic Church. Every time McCain flip flops on a position his supporters can chalk it up to pandering for votes (or Alzheimer’s). What is it called when religious leaders flip flop on their beliefs?

The Rest of The News

• A bar owner in Marietta is selling racist Obama - Curious George T-Shirts. Just more proof that we have a lot of work to do still.
• Republican Congressional candidate Mike Erickson is being accused by an Oregon woman of having paid for her abortion. If true this will mark the one millionth Republican hypocrite outed this year. I think he wins a toaster.
• Conservatives are still trying to get amnesty for their big business telecom buddies. Over at DailyKOS mcjoan has listed the names and numbers for the conservative Democrats the Republicans are targeting. If they are yours give them a call.
• Was Einstein an atheist? Personally I could care less what Einsteins religious beliefs are but some people are making a big deal about it.
• In Ohio a father was jailed after his daughter failed to pass the math portion of her GED. As always there is more to the story, but it doesn’t get better. Read about it here at Newshoggers.
• Charges have been dropped against the “20th hijacker” Mohammed al-Qahtani. During his interrogation Mohammed was subjected to what people in a civilized society would refer to as torture.
  

  In the log, U.S. interrogators describe how they ratcheted up techniques on their captive during 50 days starting in November 2002 to extract a confession - by using sleep deprivation, leaving him strapped to an intravenous drip without bathroom breaks and having him strip naked….A special Guantanamo investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, subsequently told Congress that al-Qahtani was also forced to wear a woman’s bra, dance with a male guard, “perform dog tricks” and was smeared with fake menstrual blood to lower his self-esteem - techniques the general described as “degrading and abusive” but not inhumane.
  Cageprisoners.com

Daily Video

Todays video is John Stewarts interview with the unapologetic neocon Douglas Feith. If there is one think to admire about neocons like Feith, they never get caught up in the little things like reality or facts. Crooks and Liars has a good write up on the interview.

Part 1

Part 2

Thats all for this morning. I’m going to take some more medicine and go lie down for a while. I know that some of the news is actually from this morning but yesterday was a pretty slow news day. Besides I normally start these the night before and then just check for new stuff in the morning. Of course this is an open thread and I’ll make sure and moderate comments through the day.

William ~ WWJV4.com

Good morning everyone, this issue of our RSS Roundup is going to be really short as I have a project that is taking up all my time. As you all know this is an open thread so please feel free to comment on anything that is currently in the news. I’m also playing with a new format so let me know if its more readable.

No NASA Has Not Found Aliens

Retrofitted Hubble

Everyone has been excited about a cryptic announcement made by NASA about “the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years”. NASA was waiting until the Hubble was modified but PZ Meyers had to ruin the fun. Creationists discovered Russell’s Teapot and are planning on putting into space.

The Rest of the News

• Republicans and the Bush Administration are once again backing big business over average Americans. This time its by fighting to prevent Kansas based Creekstone Farms from testing all of its meat for mad cow disease.
• Opponent not saying anything controversial? Then lie about it. Thats what Republicans are doing. Just ask Al Gore or Barack Obama.
• 18 year old resident of Austin openly lesbian Randi Shade easily defeated incumbent Jennifer Kim with 64% of the vote for Austin City Council.  (Thanks for the correction Dan)
• 82% of American’s now say that the country is seriously on the wrong track. Or if your an optimist 18% say things are going great.
• Leading Republican Roy Blunt agrees that McCain offering third Bush term on economic policy. (and 18% of Americans cheer?)
• 5 of the (at least) 112 lobbyists working inside John McCains campaign have been tied to ruthless dictators. 2 of those who represented the Burma regime in Myanmar have already quit the campaign. There is now a petition for the firing of 3 more here.
• The Bush Administration has been hyping Iran’s involvement in weapons for Iraq without evidence for a while now. Here is yet another article on how the media is covering up this lack of evidence.

Daily Video

Today’s video is from Brave New Films and it exposes once again the Republican Yacht Party’s true interests. In California Republicans are fighting to keep open a tax loophole that lets them buy yachts tax free. If closed this would bring in around 26 million to a state that is being forced to lay off teachers. Read More about this issue here.

Thanks for reading,
William ~ WWJV4.com

WWJV4’s Weekly Cectic Comic
copyright © 2007-2008, Rudis Muiznieks

I hope everyone had a good Mothers Day weekend. It went really well at our house except pretty much everyone was sick at some point. There seems to be some little bug going around that lasts a couple days. At least I’m hoping thats all the longer it lasts because the weather is getting nicer and I want to stop being sick til next winter.

Well it’s Monday morning so here is some light news and humor to start your week out right.

The Republican’s started off Mother’s Day weekend by voting against Mothers Day. This isn’t really funny, its just sick. And you all thought that Republicans were the family values party. lol (final vote results here)

This is really cool and not as geeky as it sounds initially. There is a new game Fold It that makes protein folding competitive and fun. As you work through the levels you are taught the basics just like any other problem solving game. The game requires no science knowledge as it relies on intuitive thinking and problem solving skills. What makes this really cool is that as you advance you have the potential to make actual scientific discoveries as you work on unsolved proteins. (h/t Richard Dawkins)

A group known as “The Resistance“, which is an incestuous crossbreed of conspiracy theorists and Christian fundamentalism, has launched a boycott of Starbucks over its new Logo which shows a topless mermaid. The Resistance also supports Ron Paul. I know thats obvious from the description of the group but I wanted to point that out anyhow.

God Tube Video Of the Week

Every week we will be featuring our favorite crazy video from God Tube. If you haven’t checked it out that place is a virtual gold mine of crazy. I just started watching video’s from there last week and it is simply AMAZING. If you have a favorite clip from God Tube let me know and if its funny and crazy enough I’ll post it so we can all point and laugh.

Music Video of the Week

This weeks music video was first posted at Loganotron so stop by and say thanks. You probably know this one so go ahead and sing along. Get your co-workers in on the fun too. This version is Corky and the Juice pigs who do a very good rendition of “I’m The Only Gay Eskimo”.

There you all go, have a great Monday and as always consider this an open thread. I would like to hear if anyone did anything great this weekend for your mothers, sisters, wives … etc.

Thanks
William ~ WWJV4.com

This is a hard post for me to write because from the very beginning I was a strong Clinton supporter. I proudly defended her to all my friends, readers, and family. I made the arguments that her experience, positions, and long history of fighting for health care, working class families, and womens rights make her an excellent Democratic nominee. As recently as last month I felt compelled to write about how she should not drop out despite the media’s incessant calls for it.

Today I am not backing off of those positions, nor am I ever going to suggest that any candidate should bow to pressure to drop out of the race. Hillary has earned the right to campaign and pursue the presidency all the way to the convention if that is her choice. If the blogs or media or whoever has a problem with that so what.

However I have been gradually convinced that despite Hillary’s many many positives Obama is the better candidate to receive the parties nomination. This decision isn’t based upon policies or experience as I still feel that Clinton wins in those categories. Instead its based upon something much simpler but vastly more important. Character.

I’m not necessarily talking about personal character as I still strongly feel that both candidates have impeccably strong characters. Instead I am referring to the character of their campaigns and how they affect the progressive movement. I have always felt that no movement can ever be about one single battle and the decision has to be not who can be elected but who can help build the progressive movement. Obama’s campaign is the clear winner by that criteria.

It also does not help that in order to sell the myth of “electability” Clinton consistently works to ostracize parts of the Democratic party. 4 or 8 years in the White House will not be enough time to fix the damage caused by George Bush. So to achieve the long term comprehensive success the progressive movement needs to fix this nation we need to bring liberals, progressives, and moderates together. Sorry Hillary but statements like this are exactly what we don’t need.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me”

(h/t Bloggernista)

So today, for these reasons and many others, I am formally announcing my support for Barack Obama. At this point we will be moving on and focusing on the general election against serial flip-flopper John McCain. I wish Hillary Clinton the best of luck and will always support her as she will no doubt continue fighting for the progressive ideals she has devoted her life to.

William ~ WWJV4.com

Its finally Friday and whats even better its Mothers Day Weekend!!! I hope you all have made plans to thank the many mothers in your lives. Well lets get right into the news from the past 24 hours or so. I flagged a lot of stories but from skimming it looks like today is going to be a pretty fast one. As always this is an open thread to talk about whatever.

How does John McCain, the Republican Nominee only get 74% of the vote with no one else campaigning?

Somehow I missed this yesterday. Crooks and Liars has published their top 10 list of McCain’s Out of Touch Moments. My favorite is still the “I’m not running on the Bush presidency.” joke. That one makes me laugh every time.

Here is something that shouldn’t surprise anyone. McCain’s “maverick” image is entirely made up by the media.

John McCain is refusing to release his wife’s tax records. So much to say on this topic that I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to what he may be hiding. I will say that this is so offensive that even some right wing magazines are attacking them over it.

A Michigan State Supreme Court ruled that “Michigan’s 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers.”

The over stretching of our military caused by the needless war in Iraq has been reported many times. Yesterday we learned via Newshoggers that over 43,000 injured troops listed as medically unfit for duty have been sent anyhow. If I had voted for Bush it would be time to put another “Support The Troops” sticker on my car so I could feel better about myself.

This was under CBS’ Strange News but its really not strange at all, in fact for those in law enforcement its so common that it made me wonder why it’s even news. Suspect Surrenders After Cop Yells ‘Taser, Taser, Taser!’. In many situations the presence of a taser will be enough and this story is about just one of the hundreds of examples that happen across the country every single day.

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights on May 15th. I’ll have more information on our sidebar (today) and you can read more here. (h/t Alas, a blog)

And finally one more …

12 nuns in Indiana were unable to vote because of the states restrictive voter suppression registration laws. Whats worse is that these horrible laws are being pushed throughout the nation by conservatives under the lie of “voter fraud”. Anyone want to guess which party the poor, disabled, and elderly who are disenfranchised by these laws vote for?

This may sound like a good idea at first,” stated Sister Sandy Schwartz of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary regarding voter ID requirements, “but once you stop to think about who would really be affected, this is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being able to vote.

Thats enough for today, its Friday and I have a lot to do. Have a wonderful weekend and make sure and thank all the moms you know. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY SUMMER!

p.s. I didn’t forget about Clinton’s comments. I have a story in draft about it that I will try to get out today. If not I’ll cover it on Monday’s RSS Roundup.

William ~ WWJV4.com