McCain still hates farmers. Nothing to say here really. Maybe if they were rich businessmen with hot lobbyists they could get something out of the old man.

Post-War Veteran Suicides May Exceed War Casualties: Because of a lack of mental health care for returning war veterans it is very likely that psychiatric illness may claim more lives than combat. Remember last month when the VA was caught concealing suicide numbers, how likely do you think it is that this administration is going to be honest about this epidemic?

New Jersey has approved paid family leave for same sex couples as well as married couples. This is a big step forward. Now to get the rest of the states to accept that in America everyone is equal.

Eleanor Badger over at RH Reality Check has a good writeup of a practice that the anti-choicers are using to shut down abortion providers known as TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers).

230 top economists have signed a letter condemning Clinton’s idea to offset the cost by adding a windfall tax to the oil companies. Oddly little attention has been paid to McCain’s even worse gas tax plan. See Obama’s response here.

In ultra conservative Florida a substitute teacher lost his job after being accused of wizardry. yeah, wizardry. This boggles my mind and I live in Kansas so I have developed a pretty high tolerance for this fundamentalist crap.

Pat Tillmans mother was on 60 minutes reminding America of the deception that surrounded her sons death. Watch it at Think Progress.

Women in Malaysia may need a letter giving them permission to leave the country. This move to control women is being sold as a measure to protect them from being tricked into carrying drugs. You know, because women are too dumb to take care of themselves apparently.

Apparently in a move to increase the number of abortions anti-choicers are planning to protest against contraception. You know, that stuff that prevents unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions. If you want to see the kind of woman who could promote such craziness here is Pam Stenzel. Pam wants to teach your kids that birth control can kill them and that abortions make girls anorexic, depressed and suicidal. (h/t Feministing)

[youtube width="500" height="394"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0ezYNWIDB0[/youtube]

And finally I wanted to point out this post by Melissa McEwen at Shakesville. Its about a young girl who had the courage to fight back against her assaulter and the horrible consequences that followed. This story deserves a post of its own but I don’t have the time. Besides I doubt I could do it justice after Melissa’s post. This is my response to anyone who has ever wondered why women don’t fight back.

That is pretty much my roundup of the news from yesterday. If you have any comments please feel free to post them. Also if I missed anything please post that as well.

William ~ WWJV4

As you watch this video keep in mind that John McCain has been saying that “I’m The Only Candidate That The Special Interests Don’t Give Money To”. Odd how he never mentions that he has a lobbyist doing business right out of the “Straight Talk Express” bus. Or that he has 59 lobbyists on his campaign staff. The most of any candidate on either party.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEROVh8zK4[/youtube]

Yeah. Republicans. Standing up for truth and honesty except for when they are not. That’s some straight talk there folks. Head over to Brave New Films and sign the petition they have going there asking McCain to return the Millions he has collected from lobbyists.

“The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported,” said the 21-page draft report, obtained yesterday by The Washington Post.

The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars away from “productive investment” by American businesses in the United States. It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion.

Washington Post – 11/13/07 – ‘Hidden Costs’ Double Price Of Two Wars, Democrats Say

This is expected to be presented to Congress later today, and from there we will see how seriously the Mainstream Media takes it. They have hardly blinked an eye at the current costs, but finding out that the actual costs may be well over a Trillion dollars is significantly different. One thing I would love to see the MSM take up is how our fiscally responsible president can waste 1.5 Trillion on an unnecessary war of choice but can’t spend a few Billion to provide health insurance to millions of our working class children.

Gotta love those nutty pro-lifers and their crazy priorities. War > Children. I’ll post more on this issue as the story unfolds.

* Notice: This story is pending editing but I wanted to push it out as Summer is running errands this morning. So don’t be surprised when all my spelling and grammar issues are fixed later On the bright side you get to see how much better my writing is after Summer fixes it. *

First I want to say that had Bush ever cared about fiscal responsibility in the past this veto would not be such an issue. However, the hypocrisy of ignoring pork leaden bills passed by his own party, while vetoing much leaner (yet still porky) bills passed under Democrats is clear partisan politics at its worst. The only possible explanation giving that the bill passed with a combined vote of 462 to 52, way more than needed for the override, is that Bush is still throwing his temper tantrum that Congress isn’t doing whatever he wants anymore.

Below is a chart from Citizens Against Government Waste that clearly shows the trending on pork barrel spending. Remember from 1995 to 2006 the Spend and Spend Republicans controlled congress. Luckily Clinton was able to reign in a lot of their spending so the damage doesn’t get bad until after Bush takes over. After that; however, it is clear that having so called fiscal conservatives in the Congress and White House at the same time is a recipe for financial disaster with pork-barrel spending increasing every single year! Well, at least until the fiscally irresponsible Democrats take over again, then somehow it all changes.

In 1995 the Republicans gained the majority in Congress and held onto that majority until the 110th congress took over in 2007. During the decade plus of government by fiscal conservatives congressional earmarks exploded and they turned Clinton’s budget surplus into record deficits. They raided social security to pay for irresponsible tax cuts for their rich buddies. Worst of all they have waged a huge war with no accountability and oversight over funds which has lost billions and billions of dollars. While running the country like a bunch of giddy teenagers with daddy’s credit card they have never let up the attacks on the so called “tax and spend” Democrats. Luckily for them fact checking isn’t really their followers’ thing.

So now after happily funding the Spend and Spend Republicans extravagant spending spree our President wants to call foul on the Democrats for not being fiscally responsible? I am almost at a loss for words for how hypocritical and dishonest this accusation is. Since the Democrats have taken over they have drastically reduced the number and cost of congressional earmarks (see above). Instead of praising their efforts to reign in spending, the president has embarked on a dishonest and partisan offensive with the only motive to help his party in next year’s elections.

So as Congress prepares for their first successful veto override it is important to keep in mind how this administration works. The lessons learned from Karl Rove have not been forgotten. Bush will politicize everything, putting everything second to his desire to win political influence and power no matter the costs. Bush knows this bill, which is being pushed by high powered Republicans, will override his veto without any cuts to spending. He could care less about the spending. This is all about getting in one last jab at the spending habits of Democrats before he leaves town. It is the desperate partisan politics of a spoiled man child who is angry for not getting his way.

The bill was intended to authorize hundreds of projects to repair hurricane damage, restore wetlands, and improve the levees for New Orleans. Each of these key projects is years and years overdue, with the last such authorization taking place in 2000. By vetoing this bill Bush has endangered vital wetlands that play a key role in protecting our gulf states from hurricanes. In fact, the destruction of these wetlands is highly regarded as one of the key reasons Katrina did so much damage.

“Every day brings new evidence that President Bush is out of touch with the American people and their priorities,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “More than two years after failing to respond to the devastation and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, he is refusing to fund important projects guided by the Army Corps of Engineers that are essential to protecting the people of the Gulf Coast region.” – CBSNews.com

According to Dana Perino Bush vetoed the bill because it was “fiscally irresponsible”. It is clear that this is just more partisan attacks intended to bash the Democratic controlled Congress. This after 6 years of never vetoing a single Republican spending bill, racking up record deficits (after blowing Clinton’s Surplus), and raiding Social Security to pay for his rich buddies’ tax breaks. The idea that this administration can even say the words fiscal responsibility with a straight face is laughable. The fact that they can do so and not be called on it by our so called “liberal media” is sad.

This veto, like the SCHIP veto, is the act of a spoiled and irresponsible child. This administration is more concerned with creating the illusion of fiscal responsibility and scoring partisan political points than looking after the best interests of the country they swore to protect. Luckily for us this is one temper tantrum we won’t have to put up with long as the votes are there for an overturn. I do expect to see the same kind of lies and misinformation about this bill as they trotted out for SCHIP, with the same staggering indifference to the truth.

Update: 11/9/07 By William
The promised veto has happened. See my write up of President Bush’s first veto here. Unless Bush stops using his veto powers for partisan political stunts at the expense of the nations needs there will be more veto overrides coming.

Fiscal responsibility is once again the rallying cry for conservatives as another election cycle heats up. This is nothing new as every four years we are treated with the same ol’ rhetoric and then after elections it is business as usual. What never fails to amaze me is that the so called fiscal conservatives are so gullible they will latch on to anyone who says what they want to hear. It doesn’t take a genius to see the same trends playing out during this election cycle.

Bush and his conservative toadies are ratcheting up the rhetoric as they step up attacks on Senator Clinton for her support of a $1 million dollar earmark to support what they are calling the “hippie museum“. In making these baseless attacks the conservatives and their cronies are proving their hypocrisy as they ignore a much larger, and ethically suspect, earmark by Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky). You see, according to this story from Seeing the Forest, Senator McConnell is supporting a $25 million earmark for a British defense contractor who is under investigation for “longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations.”

So if your a “fiscal conservative” $25 million for a foreign company under criminal investigation is better than $1 million for a museum? Makes sense to me. Never mind that the museum will not only educate but will also help to revitalize an area that has fallen on hard times with the drop in tourism while the other is just another example of Republican corruption and hypocrisy. Maybe one of the conservatives who read this blog can explain how Clinton can be attacked while McConnell gets a free ride?