This woman is a joke.

Health care...jobs...the economy. These are the issues that you and other Working America members have told us you care most about. We're always looking for ways to take action with you on those issues, and one of the most important elements of taking action is having information you can trust, information from someone who's on your side. You can't know how to change things without knowing what's going on.

That's why we'd like to introduce you to our new Main Street blog. It's a source of information on the issues you care about-not just health care and jobs but education, the mortgage crisis and retirement too-and coming from Working America, you know that that the focus will always be on what will benefit working families. We won't waste time crying that a Wall Street millionaire might have to sell his third vacation home.

Instead, we'll put the challenges working families face into the context of the broader economy. The Main Street blog is where working people come to learn and talk about "the economy," which isn't distant or abstract, but something we all deal with every single day, at work or in the search for work, in the aisles of the grocery store, and at the kitchen table.

Forty-nine states have had two votes in the Senate for months. How much longer will Minnesota have to wait for its second Senate vote?

Minnesota's recount process has examined every vote and given all parties a chance to be heard—61 percent of Minnesotans think the recount has been "fair, impartial and accurate." Yet we still are waiting to have a second senator to represent the interests of our citizens.

Sign the petition urging Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to certify the election and give Minnesota its full Senate representation as soon as the Supreme Court rules on the recount!

SIGN THE PETITION!

Unemployment at 8.5 percent. Record new unemployment claims. Hardworking families are struggling to get by. That's where the Unemployment LifeLine comes in. It's a one-stop guide to the resources in their area. Check it out

I don't want to go to your poorly designed, ad ridden, ajax ruined websites. I want to read your news by RSS. I want to READ your news via rss, not just read the title and the first sentence.

I'm sure you do this to try and force us back to your site so you can bombard us with ads. Let me explain something to you. I, like most smart internet users, use AdBlock, so I never see your annoying ads. Second I'll use a different news source's RSS if you keep your crappy format.

See I don't need you anymore. Information is no longer in the strangle hold of the MSM. There are 1000's of news sources who will filter out your corporatist crap and present me only what I want in my news, information!

See I don't support you because, well honestly I think you suck and have long out lasted your usefulness.

In other words, change or be chastised.

I recall the story of the philosopher and the theologian. The two were engaged in disputation and the theologian used the old quip about a philosopher being like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat—which wasn't there. "That may be," said the philosopher; "but a theologian would have found it."

—Julian Huxley

via Lost and Found

This is old news but I've never written about it.

A few months ago Pete Stark "came out of the closet" as an nontheist. He is a Democratic Representative from California's 13th.

From Wikipedia:

Stark is the first openly nontheistic member of Congress, as announced by the Secular Coalition for America.[1] Stark, who has represented San Francisco's East Bay since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an SCA questionnaire sent to public officials in January 2007. In a statement, Stark said he is a "Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being. I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social service."

I'm not one to think we should impeach people lightly, or for political reasons, but this is clearly an instance where it is necessary. He has really messed up, and clearly broken the law.

Sign the petition to impeach Gonzales.

Today on TechPresident The Battle to Control Obama's Myspace.

My Thoughts:
What they did is practically stealing. A supporter put in lots of his own hours to support a candidate he was passionate about and when the Obama campaign got grabby he gave a very reasonable offer. They continued to be greedy and used a loop hole to steal from Joe. Disgraceful!

Obama's campaign is arrogant to think they have any right to Joe's fan page.

First Edwards blogger nightmare, now Obama's stolen MySpace page... do any of these "populist" "netroots" candidates have any understanding or respect for the tools and the people that are making them popular?

MoveOn.org had a Virtual Town Hall with the '08 Presidential hopefuls. I wasn't able to participate but all the "videos" and a summary is available on Campaign for America's Future's blog, Common Sense.

I'll be listening to the audio at work today!

This is, for now, the last edition of the Letters from Iraq series.

As my time in Baghdad comes to close, there are many images which will likely never leave my mind.

The young male officer from South Africa, armed to the teeth, a veteran of previous wars and conflicts, rarely phased by anything around him, but telling his mother he was not in Baghdad because he did not want her to worry.

The old Iraqi whom had run a cafe in the same location since mid 1970, the cafe a bombed out shell, the cooking stove bruised and battered, but still preparing tea and breakfast foods, serving me hot tea with the question "You want good tea today Mister?"

The probably 19 year old American Marine, sitting in a heavily armored vehicle, holding onto a machine gun turret which to me looks like could stop several tanks, eyes me with suspicion. I can't help but wonder if a look of concern, fear, wondering why a civilian is even here, wondering when or
if he will go home?

Speaking with a female officer telling me about the stress and fear she experiences on a nearly daily basis, but also basically unfazed by the car bomb which explodes while we talk, shaking the building and rattling the windows.

The bright, articulate, lady whom lived through her own war in her home country, to immigrate to the U.S. and now finds herself in another war in Iraq, how can she not wonder if the world will ever make sense. Me trying to send an email home to my daughter, but the gunfire was too loud and
getting too nervous to sit still, I opted to get up and pace around and find other souls with the same thoughts/concerns as I.

The barely teenage Iraqi, normally working the Baghdad version of a Kwik Trip, whom did not show up to open his store during the last two days I was there, and no one knew where he was at.

Rules
1 - Say no to Betas
--Netscape beta were worse not better
2 - Know your Adoption Rate
IE7 will over take IE6 by the end of the month... wow.
3 - Take an Inventory
CSS 3 support is in beta still
no text shadow
4 - Keep them separated
Use conditional Comments
5 - Kick Ass
CSS2 support
something about png color shades that i didn't understand

This blog post is completely off topic for this blog, but I have a unique opportunity so I'm going to take advantage. Last night I got to go to an advanced screening for the new, and at this moment still not in theaters, movie 300. So this is my first attempt of being a movie critic.

I've never read the graphic novel, so I went into the screening knowing little about it. I knew it had Spartans and I've always been interested in ancient Greece and mythology.

The two things that stick out right away about this movie are first the story telling, which is much better then found in most movies. It is told as a story, and it seems natural, not forced as if it was the only way to make the movie. Second is the visuals are very well done. The blood, which in most movies looks stupid when it is in excess, looks great in this movie. So it is easy to say this movie is cool bloody fight scene after cool bloody fight scene.

The story is interesting but honestly was easy to predict. That didn't make it a bad story, just predictable early on. As I said the telling of the story was very well done.

The movie also blurs the line of whether this is an attempt to tell the a story as it "might" have happened. Sure the battles are unlikely but not fantasy, but there are a few characters which go over that line. That's fine and great in a movie, but it did seem a little awkward at times to understand the frame, mythology or fantastic. (But I've been told my thoughts on story framing are insane on a couple occasions. oh well.)

At long last IrnBru001.com has relaunched!

This site now contains my blog, formally hosted at irnbru001.blogspot.com

If you'd like you can register for the site or if you have a drupal log-in go ahead and use that, I think it should work.

Come back often and the site progresses!

From Bill Scher, blogger for the Campaign for America's Future. An interesting post looking at the religion in politics issue from a different perspective.

A good quote:

Lots of ink has been spilled about how Democrats and liberals suffer from a "religion problem" -- a perceived hostility towards Christianity and religion in general. But Pew Research Center exit poll data from the 2006 midterm elections shows the opposite.

Democrats crushed Republicans among secular voters, broadly defined as those who attend church seldom (favoring Democrats 60% to 38%) or never (67% to 30%). Republicans retained strong support among those who attend church more than weekly. But among those who only go weekly -- the larger portion of the religious vote -- the Republican lead shrunk from 15 points to 7.

Read the whole thing here

More letters from Iraq

The people of Iraq are interesting. Many work here on the compound in a variety of positions. Some were previously employed here prior to the war, some since the war. It is rather sad to hear the man working as a translator was previously a college professor but can no longer teach now. He described to me the University is technically still open but most of the faculty and students are too frightened to attend. Then last night I heard the militia again attacked the University and killed more staff. I have not had a chance to talk with him yet today.

The people working here are generally friendly. Most greet me with "Hello Mister". I respond back, or sometimes first, Kafahoulek (which basically means How are you today and is a standard greeting). They are a poor people, most wear the same clothes each day. Some of the men have suits, but seem also to wear the same everyday. The clothes are clean and well cared for. Self pride in a land of chaos. I know food is limited, especially milk. Gasoline seems generally plentiful, but the gas stations are apparently run by the militias and present risks for the citizens each time the fill up. Still seems to be a number of cars, not in good shape but run well and I have heard there is a thriving and fairly efficient underground market for auto supplies.

I watch the workers here at times. The living quarters here were once probably nice but now quite run down. I have heard many say the decay began to be very bad about 10 years ago, with the war adding more. Interestingly, most of the Iraqi's, and staff whom have been here for awhile, very clearly point out, the first two years after the war, life was relatively stable and improving. the last two years, things have gotten much worse. Many theories.

From my friend in Iraq, the links I added myself

I was awaken a few nights ago by an odd combination of sounds. The first was a rooster crowing, although it was not yet day light. A relatively normal sound but overlayed was the sound of helicopters and machine gun fire. A combination of sounds that just really should not be.

Many of the officers here are "third country nationals". The U.S. and Britain are first country, other countries with actual military units here are second country. Third country then are those here with no formal military presence but supplying private security officers and contractors. (I believe that is the set up).

Everyone is badged and ID'd. Several from South Africa and New Zealand. The New Zealanders refer to themselves as "Kiwis" after their native bird. (Maori natives from New Zealand have a unique custom with each other of shaking hands while touching forehead to forehead). A complete melting pot. I have been impressed though as these officers are educated, experienced, friendly, well spoken, and quite honor bound. They are here to work hard and accomplish a task. Hearing of their own countries plights and pluses has been an experience.

Americans have a very centric view of themselves, Americans/we
are clearly not the only "civilized" people but we may be some of the more unrealistic. I also noticed passing through one checkpoint, the Gurkha tribesman manning that checkpoint are some of the most respected and feared fighters in the world; as has been the case for centuries.

The world is a complex place, in many ways and definitely more so than any previous conflict, played out in the stage of Baghdad. Sitting in the parking area of one major crossroads point, easily officers from 20-30 countries pass through every hour. An experience and an education.

Interestingly enough a good friend of mine just went to Iraq. He agreed to supply me with a few updates during his time there, which I will post on this blog. This will be his thoughts, as a civilian, of what he sees and feels during his stay in Iraq.

IrnBru001,

Just thought I would drop you a note to say hello.

Life in downtown Baghdad is quite interesting. The base is kind of a tense place but functioning like it is suppose to I guess. The contrasts here, well the best word is surreal. As an example, driving in from the Baghdad airport to the base, wearing body armor and a helmet, riding in this heavily armed convoy of 4 vehicles, each vehicles with rifles pointing out the windows and the lead has a machine gun pointing out the back, driving through bombed and destroyed roads and buildings: then seeing on the side of the road an Iraqi woman walking holding hands with a small child and a man riding a bicycle with her (which made the officers in the convoy nervous), apparently just trying to live in the middle of chaos. Just doesn't seem to fit together, which I guess is the definition of surreal. An image I probably will not soon forget.

Overall, my role is going well, and I am staying safe.

Today is Darwin Day a celebration of the life and works of Charles Darwin.

Want to know how you can celebrate?

Well here are a couple ideas:

• Take the day off! (thats what I've done)
• Join or renew you membership to a secular, atheist or pro-science group. Some good ones include: Center for Inquiry, American Atheists, Campaign to Defend the Constitution, or Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
• Go to a Darwin Day event
• Buy a Darwin Fish for your car
• Watch Richard Dawkins on CNN give Paula Zahn the smack down!
• Read one of the great works of Charles Darwin
• Spread the good cheer with this "Darwin Day Card"
  <center><br /><h3>Happy Darwin Day!</h3><br /><img src="http://www.irnbru001.com/darwinfish.jpg"><br />From <a href="http://www.irnbru01.com/">IrnBru001.com</a></center>
• Or if you're in DC like me join me with a visit to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History

Enjoy the day, having evolved so far we deserve it!

Richard Dawkins is appearing on CNN in response to the outrage cause by the clip I referred to below.

He will be appearing on the Paula Zahn show Monday the 12th (which is Darwin Day btw) hopefully to give voice to our outrage. I believe he will be on the 8EST show.

Here is part of the horrendous segment, for those who are too lazy to click the other day's link : ).

Ever wonder why I feel secularism is an important topic?

Watch this video and you may understand

It goes from bad, seeing the plight of two couple, to worse, a network giving intolerance a soap box.

Watch this and try for a moment to wear my shoes.

Dwindling In Unbelief

Found this from a great Jesus' General post. Dwindling In Unbelief is from Steve Well, the Editor of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible/Quran/Book of Mormon, which is the best annotated version of the Bible (and Quran and Book of Mormon) I've ever found. I really have been waiting quite a while for a print version.

Dwindling in Unbelief's newest post is this great video featuring Richard Dawkins.