advocates

Just the fact that Obama is considering this is ridiculous:

The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday.

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

I guess Obama is trying to appease his base of Sarah Palin and her ilk.

This morning Michael Steele was quick to seize on any chance of slamming President Obama’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize and even used it to drudge up a very old meme – the celebrity mantra:

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain -– President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.”

The DNC is quick on their toes today firing back with this stern reaction:

The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.

Here’s Buchanan on Levi Johnston yesterday:

BUCHANAN: “Well, first, with regard to Levi, I think First Dude up there in Alaska, Todd Palin, ought to take Levi down to the creek and hold his head underwater until the thrashing stops.“

It’s amazing that MSNBC continues to bring Buchanan on the air. Its not just statements like this, but his past patterns of racism. I am finding it harder and harder to even watch that network given their tendency to ignore such problems. I don’t even watch Olbermann or Maddow that much anymore. Perhaps if more people turned of MSNBC they would get the idea that we don’t want to give credence to a network that employs a mad man such as Buchanan.

So this is how our military rewards the brave troops fighting in a war of lies - by silencing them?

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. Officers have weighed the need for wartime discretion against the opportunities for the public to personally connect with some of the most effective advocates for the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the troops themselves. The secret-keepers have generally won the argument, and the once-permissive atmosphere has slowly grown more tightly regulated. Soldier-bloggers have dropped offline as a result.

This isn't limited to just the military either, as the article goes on to say:

Active-duty troops aren't the only ones affected by the new guidelines. Civilians working for the military, Army contractors -- even soldiers' families -- are all subject to the directive as well.

So the wife of Joe soldier can't even blog about how much she misses her husband? How about children of soldiers having MySpace accounts? This is a disgrace to our brave men and women, along with their families. This is the communistic type of leadership George Bush wants. And yes - it is George Bush as he is the Commander in Chief. Perhaps Congress needs to weigh in on this issue also.

Now little Suzie - go get daddies commander to approve what you are writing on your blog about the cute new boy at school!

UPDATE!

From the AP

Kansas Schools OK Scrutiny of Evolution

The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 Tuesday to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote.

The Kansas school system was ridiculed around the country in 1999 when the board deleted most references to evolution. The system later reversed course, but the language favored by the board Tuesday comes from advocates of intelligent design.

The intelligent design concept holds that some features of the natural world are best explained by an unspecified intelligent cause. Evolution is a fundamental scientific theory that species evolved over millions of years through natural selection.

The standards are used in developing state tests for fourth, seventh and 10th-graders, though local schools have the final say on what is taught in their classrooms. Students will be tested on the new standards in the 2007-08 school year.

The board is expected to vote on final approval of the standards in October.

Oh good old Kansas. I am sure Westboro Baptist is having a shit fit over this one!