…ruining lives across the decades:

A woman who escaped a Detroit prison camp 32 years ago and fled to Southern California, where she married and raised three children, was back in custody Wednesday following her arrest last week at her Carmel Valley home.

Marie Walsh, 53, was known as Susan Lefevre in 1975 when she was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison for conspiracy and violation of drug laws, according to the U.S. Marshals Service…

Walsh, who has lived in Carmel Valley for 10 years, said her family knew nothing of her former identity and fugitive status prior to her arrest.

Walsh characterized her reformed, family-oriented ways as grounds for mercy and lenience when she faces justice again in the Midwest.

Arrested under idiotic laws three decades ago, the continuing idiocy is now going to rip apart a family and punish a woman who has long since put her life on the right track.

Hooray for the drug war!

Cry me a river, would you?

In an interview on PBS set to air Friday, Wright expressed frustration with how his sermons had been portrayed by the news media and critics of Obama’s White House bid.

“I felt it was unfair,” he told PBS’ Bill Moyers according to released excerpts. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt that those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”

Speaking to PBS, Wright did not recant his past sermons. “The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly,” he said.

…and then he may or may not have said:

“It’s not my fault you devious white devils don’t listen to a downtrodden black man who just can’t get a break anywhere in his 10,000 square foot home.”

From McCain’s speech in historic Selma, Alabama today:

In his speech, McCain reminded of the courage and cause of Martin Luther King Jr. and of John Lewis, who took the first blow of an Alabama state trooper’s baton and who now is a Democratic congressman from Georgia.

“There must be no forgotten places in America, whether they have been ignored for long years by the sins of indifference and injustice, or have been left behind as the world grew smaller and more economically interdependent,” McCain declared. “In America, we have always believed that if the day was a disappointment, we would win tomorrow. That’s what John Lewis believed when he marched across this bridge. That’s what he still believes; what he still fights to achieve: a better country than the one he inherited.”

“A better country than the one he inherited.”

Hmmm, and here I thought that America was the best country. As in, ain’t no gettin’ better than that, commie pinko liberals.

Hey, McCain, just what is so wrong with America right now?

I expect the outrage of the right wing blogosphere over this insult to our great nation to be deafening.

…

…

(pin drop)

…

(feather drop)

…

(subatomic particle impacting the floor at an indeterminate velocity)

…

Odd, they sure seem to get in a huff when a Democrat says something equally benign.

Update: Still all quiet on the wingnut front.

No response yet from Michelle Obama proclaiming that “the United States of America has always been the best country, ever, a super-duper one even.” We should probably investigate her for treason.

Update 2: Far, far be it from me to jump to conclusions about anyone, but - uh - in this case, I seem to think that all the right-wing overreactions to godless anti-Americanism by the liberal candidates-to-be, have been - what’s the kind word for it? - oh yes, buckets of Republican horse shit.

Now, someone get me my lapel flag pin so I can prove I am a patriot.

Heck, here in Colorado, we might as well just push the kids down and run away giggling something about “bureaucracy.”

The principal at Runyon Elementary sent a letter home to parents saying he’s “astounded” at the reaction of the Colorado Department of Education after his fourth grade teachers realized the CSAP writing test used a question which students practiced with earlier…

Hilliard’s letter states that during the written portion of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) tests for fourth graders, teachers realized the real question was one used by students during a practice session. The letter states that a teacher remembered this question from a CSAP test several years ago and used it in class thinking it would never be used again.

The letter states that once teachers realized the issue, they contacted CDE with hopes of getting a different written test to administer to these students…

The district asked the state for any accommodations like taking another version of the written test or using a question from a previous year. Instead, the Department of Education decided to invalidate the test and give zeroes to 60 of the students who took the written portion.

That’ll teach those kids a lesson in honesty.

Could be U.S Representative (R-KY) Geoff Davis:

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a “snake oil salesman” [at a Northern Kentucky Lincoln Day dinner].

He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a “highly classified, national security simulation” with Obama.

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

“That boy.” That’s gonna go over well.

Oh yeah, and then the little tidbit about revealing the goings-on in a “highly classified, national security simulation.” Smooth.

I suppose Rep. Davis would be happy just to nuke’em all and let his God sort them out (especially the brown folks, seeing as how he can’t tell them apart)…

Whoops: Looks like Davis has issued a non-pology.

It was just “a poor choice of words” and was not “meant to impugn” Obama or his integrity.

Well, no, and I don’t think anyone said it did… what it appeared to do was reveal a large chunk of personal disrespect (and a small bit of latent racist tendencies perhaps), as well as impugn Obama’s ability to defend the country in a time of dire need (not much I can think of more dire than a nuclear attack, unless it’s someone first moving small Kansas towns closer to Denver so they can see the mushroom cloud).

I’ve no plans to vote for Obama; I just think public mouthpieces shouldn’t say stupid things and then act like they didn’t (Reference: Obama, bitter, small-town folks, paraphrasing apology).

Update: John Cole adds:

And before the weak attempts to claim that the use of “boy” was just due to an age differential, let me point out that this casting call reject from O Brother Where Art Thou is 49 years old. Obama is 45.

Oh, sure, but if Geoff was 18 and Obama was 14, would we really be having this discussion?

OK, fine, what if Obama was 14 and white?

The good news is that I am tasty.

So I’m told.

Maybe it was “pasty.”

Hard to tell; after all, she did have her mouth full.

That’s right, there’s no telling how low I will go to make fun of a story.

(found via the good gay people of this place)

And, very soon, he will be imprisoned in a 10,000+ square foot, four-bedroom prison that looks remarkably like a posh house.

Oh, man, the horror!

Perhaps Ban Ki-Moon is just scared “someone” will level another UN compound.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned the Internet broadcast of a video made by the Dutch politician Geert Wilders, describing it as “offensively anti-Islamic,” while he also called on those upset by the film to remain calm.

Hello, Mr. Secretary-General, these are people who get upset about cartoons. They are as likely to remain calm as they are to be rational.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson after last night’s airing of the film, entitled Fitna, Mr. Ban said “there is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here.”

This is only an incitement to violence among a set of people who are already irrational and violent. I can’t comment on the “hate speech” aspect of it, as I have yet to view the video (but I will try this weekend).

I’ll take this speech seriously when Ban Ki-Moon takes the world stage to protest Ben Stein’s cinematic idiocy, in which atheists / evolutionists are regularly juxtaposed with Nazi imagery. I’ll still think the UN should find better things to do though. As ill-informed and dishonest as the hacks behind “Expelled” happen to be, I have no desire to blow them up, cut off their heads, or ask for a fatwa.

Freedom of speech is exactly what is at stake here. No one is frightened of the words and images that Mr. Wilders is putting forth; they are frightened that a crazy, killin’ subset of Islam will go ape-shit about it and take out some civilians to show Allah how much they love him.

Is the Secretary General dishonest or stupid?

“I acknowledge the efforts of the Dutch Government to stop the broadcast of this film and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.”

I agree completely.

When someone says something with which you disagree, something that even offends your sensibilities, you have a social responsibility to not kill them for it.

Man, that’s hard to get your head around, isn’t it?

Also, this is not the same as yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. Hurrying to escape from a burning building is a rational action, so it is understandable that people might get injured. Blowing yourself or others up because they drew a picture of or talked smack about your Prophet is, to put it mildly, absolutely insane.

It’s bad enough that so many people in the world embrace religious myths; it’s worse that they will happily kill because of them.

With more money, of course!

Momentum for federal assistance to struggling homeowners, a non-starter with the Republican administration and many members of Congress only a few months ago, has picked up steam in Washington.

Wow, I wish I had signed up for an adjustable rate, interest-only jumbo loan with a balloon payment, with lots of fine print I didn’t bother to read, so that I could get the government to help pay for it! Suh-weet!

Instead, dumb me, getting that 30-year fixed mortgage that requires me to write a $1400 check every month, with no help from Uncle Sam.

Personal responsibility is so overrated.

I took the Pew Research Center current events quiz and I did quite well:

Here’s Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 3% of the public. You did better than 97% of the general public.

Uh, duh… of course I did.

Just one more reason you good people should default your opinions to mine, no matter the topic!

You can take the test right here.

(via Wheels)