Suburban Guerrilla

It’s that time again! If you can afford to help, please do so. I appreciate each and every contribution.

Prop 8 ruled unconstitutional. More later tonight, I’m going out.

It took me a while to get familiar with all the stories, but I’ve read them now and I don’t think she’s guilty of anything. But once again, Democrats are eager to throw one of their own under the bus without any proof. (ACORN, anyone?)

And yes, it’s a little odd that there’s always a much higher set of standards for black politicians. In white politicians, corruption is treated like an asset. It means you’re someone to be taken seriously! (i.e John Ensign.)

I want the Democrats to do this. I really do.

Oh noes, but what will happen to the Democrats when they’re in the minority?

I’ll tell you: Voters will see what happens when the Republicans get their way. Democracy! During the Bush era, Democrats fought hard to modify the worst of the Republican abuses because, well, they wanted to make it not as bad.

How long do you think it will take voters to figure out which policies they want to support?

Besides, I do believe elections have consequences. As it stands now, Democrats get to hide behind Republican obstructionism and I’d like to see an end to that.

I knew it was bad, but since my father died of pancreatic cancer, this news has a particular resonance with me. So this is it: time to get serious about my sugar addiction.

Believe it or not, I’m a lot better than I used to be; when I was growing up, I lived on sugared cereals and cups of tea with four heaping spoonfuls of sugar in each one. I switched to organic sugar years ago, and that was an improvement.

But am I healthy? Nope. And sugar takes its toll (if I have a glass of limeade — one of my very favorite drinks — I’m literally drunk from it. I actually stagger and feel like I’m going to pass out). Sugar makes me sleepy, inert, exhausted.

So I’m declaring it publicly, because it has to end. Today I had my last Pepsi. Ever? God, I hope so. And I have to stop eating all the processed foods with the high fructose corn syrup, because I’m not ready to die just yet.

I hope some of you will join me. I will report on my progress, and maybe we can support each other:

Aug 2 (Reuters) – Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

Or Afghanistan. We’re America, war is what we do!

The next president of Haiti? Wyclef Jean and Sharissa:

Paul Krugman talking sense on the Anti-Defamation League calling for a ban on the Ground Zero mosque:

First, this has been building for a very long time. I remember my first visit to Israel, in 1981; even then older Israeli academics, veterans of an earlier era (literally — many of them had fought in 1967 and 1973), would talk grimly about the Likud government and its harsh policies, saying things like “I feel as if we’re living under a foreign occupation.” And it’s only gotten worse since then.

Second, Beinart doesn’t talk as much as I’d like about how this relates to U.S. politics. As he says, American liberals, while they fiercely support Israel’s right to exist, can’t bring themselves to support the policies of Israel’s current government. So the Israel-is-always-right crowd has gravitated to people who don’t have any problem with the occupation — which means the American hard right, including the Christian right. And they seem oblivious to the fact that they are thus making an alliance of convenience with the enemies of tolerance.

Exactly. Last night on Hardball, I got to watch Mr. Campbell Brown aka well-connected neocon Dan Senor spewing a bunch of weasel-y nonsense on the topic. He’s a lifelong Republican operative who now is a “communications strategist”, and he’s very good at sowing divisive nonsense. You’d think Matthews might mention his current business, but oddly enough, he uses Senor’s former job titles to add gravitas:

Could I just point out that the fact any Muslim country allows a Catholic church to exist is a classic example of religious tolerance? I mean, there was this little movement called the Crusades…

Now why would he think a thing like that?

A longtime employee of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has accused its leaders of racial discrimination after they fired him last month.

Keith Carter, who joined the NRSC in 1995, has charged Republican officials with creating a hostile environment for the two African-American employees who worked at the committee.

Carter, who is black, said he was referred to as “boy” and forced to clean up the feces of dogs white employees had brought to work.

He filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court on Monday.

Well geeze, Keith, SOMEBODY had to clean up the dog crap!

I don’t think I’ll ever eat Gulf seafood again:

The Obama administration is facing internal dissent from its scientists for approving the use of huge quantities of chemical dispersants to tackle the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Guardian has learned.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has come under attack in Congress and from independent scientists for allowing BP to spray almost 2m gallons of the dispersant Corexit on to the slick and, even more controversially, into the leak site 5,000ft below the sea. Now it emerges that EPA’s own experts have been raising similar concerns within the agency.

Jeff Ruch, the executive director of the whistleblower support group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said he had heard from five scientists and two other officials who had expressed concerns to their superiors about the use of dispersants.

“There was one toxicologist who was very concerned about the underwater application particularly,” he said. “The concern was the agency appeared to be flying blind and not consulting its own specialists and even the literature that was available.”

Want to see if your street’s under water after the 15-ft rise in sea level? Click here! (Don’t forget to convert to meters.)