Congress

From Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif, 34 years of this rhetoric:

He once called a Republican colleague a "whore for the insurance industries." He called a fellow Democrat a "field marshal" on behalf of Israel. And, last week, he outdid himself by saying that Republicans were sending young soldiers to Iraq "to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Whether you agree with the war or not this is ridiculous!

Say What?

When Ohio officials shortchanged some African-American precincts of voting machines during the 2004 election, lines grew long and tempers short. But one person untroubled by events was John Tanner, the head of the voting branch in the Justice Department's civil rights division. He even wrote a letter to the Ohio officials defending the decision to send machines disproportionally to white precincts.

When, the following year, the Georgia Legislature passed a stringent voter ID law that would have effectively disenfranchised many poor people lacking driver's licenses, many lawyers in Tanner's office saw it as an effort to suppress minority voting. But not Tanner. He quickly decided not to challenge the law.

Despite these questionable actions, Tanner largely escaped notice until a recent conference in Los Angeles, where he opined that voter ID laws might disenfranchise elderly voters but not minorities, because they "don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

USA TODAY Nov. 2, 2007

They said what?

Every day I read or hear something that completely blows my mind. Something so utterly ridiculous that the only thing I can do is think "what the (expletive)". Some quotes are such classics that I feel they need their own hall of fame. This will be enshrine them forever in all their idiotic glory.

First to be enshrined is a quote from Bank Of America spokeswoman Betty Riess regarding the $3 surcharge levied against non-customers who use BofA ATM's:

Spokeswoman Betty Riess says the higher fees help offset the "significant investment" the bank has made to upgrade and expand its cash machines. The bank decided to charge non-customers a $3 fee at 10,700 ATMs — nearly two-thirds of its network — in bank branches and supermarkets as a way to "reduce wait time for our own customers," Riess says.

Now I am a Bank Of America customer and I can honestly say I have never had to wait to long at any ATM. This is ridiculous. Why can't BofA just tell it like it is. Something along the lines of "We want more money so you are going to pay this bullcrap fee and your going to like it. The other banks will be joining us soon and you will not escape the fees. Don't you know we need new boats!" That would be easier to take then some blowhard nonsense.