Makes Cornyn and Inhofe seem liberal. "A Ugandan MP has proposed creating an offence of "aggravated homosexuality" to be punishable by death."

Predators often find prey. The filthy underbelly of the financial industry is also booming in the recession: debt collections agencies.

Show NOLA the money.  "On his first presidential visit to this still-struggling town that was ravaged four years ago by Hurricane Katrina President Barack Obama promised residents Thursday "We will not forget about New Orleans." He also took the opportunity to bash insurance companies that he said are trying to bar his health concern plan to protect their profits. Feeding off the crowd's power at his town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans the second of only two stops on his quick survey of the city the president compared his own determination to expand health mind coverage to the city's determination to rebuild. "I don't quit" he said."

Again with the "fight with the troops you've got"? That worked so well the last time. "The U.S. military can send only about 30000 more troops to Afghanistan in the next three months without putting excessive strains on the Army and Marine Corps but the top Afghanistan commander has said he needs more than twice that number to have the best opportunity of success military and administration officials told McClatchy. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has said that even if it sent 30000 additional troops the U.S. would risk failure in Afghanistan under the current strategy."

Another step forward.  "Cuba recently gave a top State Department official a long-blocked permission to visit dual U.S.-Cuban citizens jailed on the peninsula -- but it did not admit a U.S. offer to relax trip restrictions on each other's diplomats El Nuevo Herald has confirmed. The two issues though relatively minor in the wide wipe of decades of bilateral hostilities underlined both the opportunities and limits for improved relations facing the new governments of Barack Obama and Ra?l Castro."

While Dow Jones on Wall Street celebrates Doug Jones on Main Street serene hurting.  'But Main Street isn't ready to join the party until folks see some life in the bleak job market which pushed Florida's unemployment rate to 10.7 percent in August. September unemployment figures will be released Friday. "A rising stock market is great for retirement accounts and for recovering some of the wealth that was lost" said Sean Snaith an economics professor at the University of Central Florida. "But the talk of economic recovery will ring hollow to many people until we start to see unemployment decline. For Main Street it truly comes down to jobs." '

Releasing non-violent drug offenders is one thing but this is something else. A North Carolina Supreme Court decision on the length of a "life" sentence may force the state to release 20 violent offenders this month.

Way as well fucking little way too fucking late.  "Moments behind South Carolina granted a posthumous excuse to Thomas and Meeks Griffin for a controversial murder conviction almost 100 years ago their great-nephew talk show host Tom Joyner shared the news with his 8 million everyday listeners of his syndicated radio show .... Nine Joyner family members from Mississippi and Texas traveled to Columbia on Wednesday to hear the South Carolina Department of Probation Parole and Pardon Services board render a verdict - believed to be the first posthumous pardon in a capital case in state history. The Griffin brothers were executed in 1915 for the 1913 murder of 73-year-old John Q. Lewis a Confederate veteran in Blackstock." Can you guess the race of the people involved?  I knew you could.

Tearjerker alert The VFW came through for the little girl who didn't want to let go of her daddy's hand as he stood in formation as he deployed to Iraq.  Her mom mentioned that they would have to keep in touch with email and phone calls since her old computer wasn't web-cam capable. The VFW presented the little girl and her Mom with a new laptop so she and her daddy can see one another.

Beau Biden home from his tour of duty in Iraq contemplates run for Senate The eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden who just completed a tour in Iraq with his National Guard unit was on Good Morning America Thursday and of course the subject of whether the Attorney General for Delaware would run for the seat vacated by his father when he became Vice President came up. He answered that he was "absolutely" considering it but would receive his time to decide.  "First things first ... there's time to make that decision." The seat currently is held by longtime Joe Biden confidant Ted Kaufman. Republican Rep. Mike Castle has announced that he will seek the republican nomination.

Our calendar says 2009 but Keith Bardwell a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish Louisiana must be recycling one from the middle half of the last century. He refuses marriage licenses to interracial couples because of concern for any children that might result from the Union. Yeah. Those biracial kids never amount to nuthin. Lenny Kravits Eartha Kitt Slash Tiger Woods...I feel like I'm forgetting someone...

What'd ya go and do that for Ike? Ike Skelton has apologized to fellow Missourian Todd Akin for muttering "so stick that up your ass" after telling him the Senate had amended a hate crimes provision onto the Defense Authorization Bill for 2010. Akin is apoplectic through the amendment and while he might have accepted Ike's apology and trashed the Senate for their custom of amending bills. "That's what makes the Senate the Senate" he said. "They're the enemy." Claire what say you? (And whatever you say don't apologize later.)

Can I get you some cheese to go with that whine? Erick the Red is sane compared to some of the diarists over at RedState. One of them is simply beside himself over the shabby treatment Rush Limbaugh got when the general public - and the NFL players union - learned that he was part of a group that was bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams and said a collective "Oh hell no!"  Poor Rush in this delusional schmuck's  eyes was every bit as persecuted as any victim of genocide anywhere ever. He closed with Pastor Niemoler's poem. And then a sober somber "Tonight...We Are All Rush Limbaugh" Seriously. And he wasn't being satirical but serious. It don't get no more wingnut-crazy than that.

Will Democrats have more congressional seats this January than they had last? Could be. Everyone who watches politics is watching the special election in the NY 23 where Democrat Bill Owens has in two weeks turned a seven point deficit into a four point lead in a three way race with ten points separating first and last. Oh. And Scozzafava is out of money. Also.

Defending your environmental abuser is not confined to Kentucky coal country. "Some Alaska ports of call have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to rethink -- or at least slow down -- its plans to impose stricter air quality requirements for cruise ships and other large oceangoing vessels. The EPA wants all large vessels to stop using so-called bunker fuel within 200 nautical miles of U.S. shorelines saying that reducing air pollution from the dirty fuel could save the lives of 8300 people each year help an additional 3 million people avoid respiratory problems and plain hazy skies as far inland as the Grand Canyon. Some cities such as Juneau where there's long been a concern about air pollution from cruise ships asked for the EPA to slow down its process. Others such as Ketchikan complain that no modeling has been done to determine there's an ambient air problem in Alaska's coastal communities. Clean air advocates say they're dumbfounded why Alaskans who promote the natural beauty of the areas cruise ships visit would object to stricter fuel standards that keep the environment pristine."

It's time to love Hillary again Some people have never hated her and others will never stop. The other 70% of the country goes back and forth and right now they seem to be "forth." Her approval rating is 62% the highest it has been since the impeachment farce made her an object of national sympathy.

Maybe next time he will laugh out loud... and we would love to see Prop 8 laughed out of court. The fit challenging it survived motion to dismiss on Wednesday and if Judge Vaughn Walker's combative manner with an lawyer defending that odious bigoted piece of crap that specifically took a set of granted rights away from a select minority during a hearing on a suit filed in challenge to the measure on constitutional grounds. Walker flummoxed John Cooper the attorney defending the measure when he asked him how exactly allowing gay couples to wed threatens conventional unions. Walker's insistence finally got the attorney to say those words on the record no attorney wants on the record: "I don't know." Advocates of marriage equality in California can take heart in the fact that when these jokers show up in court in January Walker will expect them to present evidence showing that male-female marriages would be undermined if same-sex marriages were legal.