State of Paralysis

California, it has long been claimed, is where the future happens first. But is that still true? If it is, God help America.

Despite the economic slump, despite irresponsible policies that have doubled the state’s debt burden since Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor, California has immense human and financial resources. It should not be in fiscal crisis; it should not be on the verge of cutting essential public services and denying health coverage to almost a million children. But it is — and you have to wonder if California’s political paralysis foreshadows the future of the nation as a whole.

Cheery. Not.

Scientology on trial in France

The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud.

Her lawyers are arguing that the church systematically seeks to make money by means of mental pressure and the use of scientifically dubious “cures”.

To be fair, one could say that about most religions. But most religions aren’t founded by a hack sci-fi writer on a bet.

Biblical Prophesy and the Iraq War
Bush, God, Iraq and Gog

May 23, 2009 “Counterpunch” — The revelation this month in GQ magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President Bush by that means?

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.

Uh, because they are a crazed idiot. An idiot that had no business being the commander in chief of our armed forces, as evidenced by the fact the fact he saw himself fighting a holy war from a mythology book.

Madness. Utter, unblinking madness.

GPS System Could Fail Next Year, Report Warns

Mismanagement and underinvestment by the U.S. Air Force could possibly lead to the failure and blackout of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a federal watchdog agency says.

“If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to,” the GAO report states.

Oops.

FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts

You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

But if inspectors should notice evidence of unrelated criminal behavior — say, a marijuana plant or stolen property — a Supreme Court decision suggests the search can be used against the resident. In the 1987 case New York v. Burger, two police officers performed a warrantless, administrative search of one Joseph Burger’s automobile junkyard. When he couldn’t produce the proper paperwork, the officers searched the grounds and found stolen vehicles, which they used to prosecute him. The Supreme Court held the search to be legal.

My, this is, uh, what’s the word?

Insane.

Ever wonder why the right wing continues to dominate talk radio, even as it loses elections?

Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates righties Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and Dr. Laura, among others, is owned by the nation’s largest radio-station conglomerate, Clear Channel. Clear Channel, thanks to FCC deregulation, was allowed to gobble up over 1000 radio stations — including 16 of the most powerful, (lower-case) clear-channel AM stations in major markets.

As always, follow the money.

It’s rare we get to praise, instead of chide the great state of Texas, but this is reason enough:

Texas Senate OKs guns on college campus bill today

AUSTIN — A bill to allow college students and employees to carry their concealed handguns on campus won final passage today on a 19-12 vote in the Senate.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he introduced the bill because of the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where he said victims were “picked off like sitting ducks.”

The “debate” on this issue need only go so far:

Criminals are going to carry guns and do bad things with them. People should be allowed to carry the means to defend themselves. If they choose not to, and to depend on the police to save their lives, so be it. Their call.

But any discussion further than that from the victim disarmament crowd will be full of false statements, “I feels” and fake statistics. Bottom line, either you are allowed to defend yourself, or you’re not.

Caught in a Lie, U.S. is Using White Phosphorus in Afghanistan as a Weapon

When doctors started reporting that some of the victims of the U.S. bombing of several villages in Farah Province last week — an attack that left between 117 and 147 civilians dead, most of them women and children — were turning up with deep, sharp burns on their body that “looked like” they’d been caused by white phosphorus, the U.S. military was quick to deny responsibility.

Now that policy, and the military’s blanket denial that phosphorus was used in Farah, have to be questioned, thanks to a recent report filed from a remote area of Afghanistan by a reporter from The New York Times.

ACLU says school censored student’s Milk report

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday threatened to sue a San Diego County school that refused to let a student present a report on slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk until her classmates got their parents’ permission to hear it.

After the principal sent letters to alert parents about the “sensitive topic,” Natalie was allowed to give her 12-page PowerPoint report during the May 8 lunch recess, but not in class, Blair-Loy said. Eight of the 13 students in her class attended, he said.

Yet again, fear of love and freedom brings out da stupid. Parents of San Diego, turn left toward the ocean, and keep walking. America doesn’t need ya.

The Case of the Missing H-Bomb: The Pentagon Has Lost the Mother of All Weapons

60 years have passed since a damaged jet dropped a hydrogen bomb near Savanah, Ga. — and the Pentagon still can’t find it.

Things go missing. It’s to be expected. Even at the Pentagon. Last October, the Pentagon’s inspector general reported that the military’s accountants had misplaced a destroyer, several tanks and armored personnel carriers, hundreds of machine guns, rounds of ammo, grenade launchers and some surface-to-air missiles. In all, nearly $8 billion in weapons were AWOL.

Those anomalies are bad enough. But what’s truly chilling is the fact that the Pentagon has lost track of the mother of all weapons, a hydrogen bomb. The thermonuclear weapon, designed to incinerate Moscow, has been sitting somewhere off the coast of Savannah, Georgia for the past 40 years. The Air Force has gone to greater lengths to conceal the mishap than to locate the bomb and secure it.

Boy, I’m glad I don’t live within range of that thing.

Oh. Wait…