Politics Index

Guests for the Sunday TV news shows (AP)

May 31st, 2008 admin

AP - Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

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If I Were A Dead Student

May 31st, 2008 admin

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

It was an elaborate hoax, but 36 students at El Camino High pulled it off with potentially life-saving consequences.

The result was a soberingly realistic dramatization about the dangers of drinking and driving, delivered with surprising professionalism.

Many juniors and seniors were driven to tears – a few to near hysterics – May 26 when a uniformed police officer arrived in several classrooms to notify them that a fellow student had been killed in a drunken-driving accident.

The officer read a brief eulogy, placed a rose on the deceased student’s seat, then left the class members to process their thoughts and emotions for the next hour.

The program, titled “Every 15 Minutes,” was designed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving [Hal - surprise!]. Its title refers to the frequency in which a person somewhere in the country dies in an alcohol-related traffic accident.

About 10 a.m., students were called to the athletic stadium, where they learned that their classmates had not died. There, a group of seniors, police officers and firefighters staged a startlingly realistic alcohol-induced fatal car crash. The students who had purportedly died portrayed ghostly apparitions encircling the scene.

Though the deception left some teens temporarily confused and angry, if it makes even one student think twice before getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, it is worth the price, said California Highway Patrol Officer Eric Newbury, who orchestrates the program at local high schools.

First of all, anyone who says “if it save evens one life” or “if it makes one person think twice” or “if just one person is changed” or whatever has immediately lost the debate and shown themselves to be a raging fool.  If this makes only one student think twice, it was a colossal waste of time and effort.

Second, I can’t believe that the newspaper is actually praising this.  Professionalism?  There’s nothing professional about unnecessarily traumatizing people.  Who wrote this story?  The VP of MADD?

I’m reminded of this “scared straight” bullshit where cops will go to a high school, have the kids get on the floor and pretend to be conducting a drug raid.  They’ll go the whole nine yards—weapons out, body searches, screaming at them.  Penn and Teller did a great piece on this for their “War on Drugs” episode where they point out that the officers were clearly pointing their guns at the kids.

I hate these kind of “lessons” that are “for the kids own good”.  They do not teach kids not to drink and drive or to avoid drugs.  What they create is resentment and bitterness.  What they create is suspicion of law enforcement and do-gooder organizations.  Hell, just reading this story made me want to run out, get blasted and drive on the wrong side of the road.

Even worse is when they create acceptance of government interference in people’s lives.  Or inculcate the idea of perpetual immaturity—the idea that we are a nation of infants who need to be looked after and fooled into good behavior.

One final thing from the article:

The 36 students who participated later attended a retreat at the Carlsbad Inn, where they tried on “beer goggles” that mimicked the sensation of having a .25-blood alcohol level.

I’m sure that wasn’t supposed to be as fun as it sounds.

by Hal_10000

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Former governor wins Va. GOP Senate nomination (AP)

May 31st, 2008 admin

AP - Former Gov. Jim Gilmore was narrowly nominated Saturday by the Virginia Republican Convention to run for the seat of retiring Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner.

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Obama quits Chicago church after long controversy (AP)

May 31st, 2008 admin

AP - Barack Obama is resigning a 20 year membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ in the aftermath of inflammatory remarks by former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

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Obama kicks Trinity United to the curb, resigns Church membership?

May 31st, 2008 admin

Posted just minutes ago by DrewM. at ACE of Spades HQ

Obama resigns church membership:

Breaking on CNN from Obama shill Roland Martin.

Remember, “I could no more distance myself from Pastor Wright than I could from my white grandmother”?

I guess grandma is on notice.

If true, it’s becoming more and more apparent that Obama is not only one of the most shady characters in American presidential election history, the guy is totally inept.

Everyone on planet earth will see such a move for what it is: a cheap, years-late political calculation. I guess Obama means to put this on the list of things we are not permitted to discuss.

Monroe Anderson appears to have broken it: Wright out or wimp out? Obama quits Trinity

In the wake of the Father Michael Pfleger controversial sermon last Sunday at Trinity United Church of Christ, Barack Obama sent a letter yesterday resigning from his place of worship for the past 20 years.
I sort of, kind of, understand why he did it. But I’m also sort of, kind of, concerned about what this might portend for an Obama presidency.

Anderson’s description of Wright and Pfleger as cornerstones of the community is an absolute joke, but he inadvertently yields a nugget of truth about the whole thing.

Obama knows what Trinity is all about.

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