SAR #12234

“If we want to make a difference in schools, we cannot ignore what goes on outside them.” Richard D. Kahlenberg

Guilty As Accused: Todd Akin, Republican candidate for the senate from Missouri, will not back down on his rape/pregnancy comment because his “creator God” wants him to spread the message, which is – some say - backed up by Nazi death camp experiments. And besides, sometimes that's God's way of getting you pregnant, according to another Republican troglodyte. Are there any R's running who are actually fit to govern?

Spiraling:Pretty much Italy is doing everything wrong. It has a high debt to GDP ratio and is pushing austerity measures to bring down the debt level, but the austerity cuts will result in GDP falling 2.3% this year and 1.4% next. The economic slowdown in Europe has not skipped Italy, where rising unemployment has led to falling consumption. To raise more money to narrow the debt, the government has raised taxes on consumption (leading to less consumption leading to lower tax revenues and so on). Is Italy going to follow Spain down the drain? Who can save them, Germany? Note that this is what the R's want to do to the US. Who's gonna save us?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: General Dempsy, newly appointed leader of the 200 acknowledged US troops and thousands of mercenaries still in Iraq, says he won't discuss Iraqi support for Syria with Baghdad, nor the help they are giving  Iran in evading US financial sanctions. He was looking forward to selling them military equipment to help bring peace to the area.

Money Wins: The DC US Court of Appeals has ruled that 34,000 Americans must continue to die every year so the coal industry can keep despoiling the earth and cooking the planet.

Long Ago... Once upon a time when politicians got caught lying in their campaign ads, they would pull the ad and, maybe, issue a limp apology. Not now. Not Romney. He's lying when he says Obama is “gutting welfare reform.” Everyone – Ds, Rs, MSM editors and journalists, policy wonks, probably even FOX – knows for a fact that Romney's blatantly lying. It is as demonstrably false as any claim ever aired by a major-party presidential candidate, which certainly qualifies Romney for the office.

Prioritization: Ideology trumps electability in the abortion plank of the Republican platform, which calls for a total ban on abortion – with no exceptions - and establishing the 'personhood' of zygotes and fetuses in an amendment to the Constitution (supported by both Ryan and the now infamous Rep. Akin). This would criminalize IUDs, oral contraceptives, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research. It would place the US in the exclusive “no exceptions” club with Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.

Another Twist: Perhaps it is not the income and foreign accounts and such that keeps Romney from releasing more tax returns, maybe it's because he claimed he lived with his son in a Massachusetts basement, not out of state (as he apparently did). Which would open him to charges of voter fraud.

Trail of Fears: Having fled the Colorado School of Mines to escape pressure from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, now the oil and gas folks have gotten him thrown out of University of Wyoming. Eppur si muove.

Porn O'Graph: Into the valley of death...

The Parting Shot:

 

In mint condition.