Yes, I was pulled over by the cops.

They asked me to produce proof of insurance, but my fricking glove box was jammed with the drivers manual.  He didn't ticket me for not having my headlights on, but did ticket me for not having proof of insurance.  He told me if I would provide proof to the clerk of court this would be dismissed.  Failure to provide proof would result in a $385 FINE if I didn't pay this fine, I would lose my license to drive. He let me go.  

The next day, I was able to pry my glove box open, and I provided my proof of insurance to the clerk of court.  The fine was dismissed but they gave me a $50 court fee  

I am a disabled bipolar agoraphobic. I am on a fixed income.  I really believe all this excessive fining and feeing will cause many poor people to lose their licenses to drive, rendering them permanently economically marginal.  I live in Iowa.  You literally can't hold a job without a license. To call a license a privilege in a state like this is a joke.  I am not saying it was right for me to not have my lights on when I pulled out of the parking but I am a human being, and none of us are prefect.  I am not saying that I was right for not knowing my glove box was jammed up, but I am a human being and nobody is perfect.  I didn't ask to have an illness, or to live on only $530 a month but that is the way things are for me, and for many others.

I called my Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat, who is a Harvard/Princeton educated economics professor at Iowa State, to ask him if he could do something to lower fines, and his only response was that I should have produced Insurance and should have had my lights on, if not being able to pay such fines causes me to lose my driving privileges that is tough.   When I inquired about the court fees, that were charged despite the fact that charges were dismissed, he claimed I made them take me to court, so it is tough.  I said, what about the presumption of innocence, should the tax payers as a whole be paying the costs of the court, he changed the subject to my admission of not having my lights on. Remember this is a Democrat.  He literally sees no problem with losing your license for inability to pay fines and fees.  He sees no problem with not being able to drive in state where a person has to be able to drive to get a job.  

It just seems like if you are poor neither party gives a shit about you.  I literally have no-one to vote for, when voting for state representative.  I think I will just pass on voting for that seat just because he is the Democrat.  I live in an upper middle class college town.  They are liberal, but wealthy, and probably have no empathy for the poor.  I know it is not possible to get a primary challenge to him so I have no one to vote for.  I am a non-citizen practically.

I also fear I will eventually lose license for being human and poor.  I might as well commit myself to the loony bin then, otherwise I will starve.  I suppose both parties feel that people like me are suppose to fall back on our families, but my relationship with them is emotionally and sometimes physically abusive. Yes they maybe the reason I am messed up.  

God help me, but I am skeptical he exists.   I am feeling very depressed now.

I believe very strongly that his crusade against the netroots candidates is motivated by support for Iraq war.  I believe they are trying to replace candidates that are strongly against the Iraq war with candidates that are for it, but won't commit vocally in favor of it.  Their latest entry is Acuri in NY.  Acuri won't commit to a position on withdrawal, other than vague statements  that he believes the troops should stay until Iraq is stable.   Duckworth is another stand for nothin.   Harold Ford, Schumer's mentoree, openly says he loves Bush and doesn't want a pullout until the job is done.  

Please realize, Schumer is a member of a neocon front group named Foundation for Defense of Democracy. He is not all that stealth about his own beliefs, and we should stop being willfully blind to his motivation. Here is some information on Schumer's ties to this group from right web.

Crossposted from Dameocrat Blog

More Than 500,000 Rally in L.A. for Immigrants' Rights - Los Angeles Times: "More Than 500,000 Rally in L.A. for Immigrants' Rights
By Teresa Watanabe and Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer
2:51 PM PST, March 25, 2006

Crossposted from Dameocrat Blog

City Pages - Bin Laden's Game: "CP: Can you talk about the role that the Iraq war has played in his recruiting successes?

This story probably won't stop the hasbara people from making the claim that "Arafat launched the last intifada," but many Israeli officials privately acknowledge "this is not true," which means unilateral disengagement and the idea that there is "no partner for peace," is also bunk. Just read the comments by former Shin Bet agent Yuval Diskin.

Quote:
Microsoft Clarifies Support for Windows 98, Windows Millennium

Microsoft announced a clarification in extended security update support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium (Me) Editions for critical security issues. Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition support was scheduled to end on January 16, 2004. The continual evaluation of the Support Lifecycle policy revealed, however, that customers in smaller and emerging markets needed additional time to upgrade their product. Therefore, critical security updates for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me will be provided on the Windows Update site through June 30, 2006.
Key Dates:

* Paid incident support for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) is available through June 30, 2006.

• Critical security updates will be provided on the Windows Update site through June 30, 2006.

• Customers may request non-critical security fixes for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, and the most current version of their components until June 30, 2006 through typical assisted-support channels.

• Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me downloads for existing security issues will continue to be available through regular assisted-support channels at no charge until June 30, 2006.

• No-charge incident support and extended hotfix support for Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition ended on June 30, 2003.

• No-charge incident support and extended hotfix support for Windows Me ended on December 31, 2003.

Flemming Rose - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Flemming Rose" the man who published those cartoons depicting Mohammed as a suicide bomber, has some disturbing ties to campus watch, and seems to be obsessed with the "clash of civilizations".

Excellent two part article from the guardian about whether Israel's treatment of the Palestinians can be compared to Apartheid.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Worlds apart: "As far back as 1961, Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African prime minister and architect of the 'grand apartheid' vision of the bantustans, saw a parallel. 'The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state,' he said. It is a view that horrifies and infuriates many Israelis.

A prominent Israeli political scientist, Gerald Steinberg, responded to an invitation to appear on a panel at a Jerusalem cultural centre to debate 'Is Israel the new apartheid?' by denouncing the organiser, a South African-born Jew, for even posing the question.

'As you are undoubtedly aware, the pro-Palestinian and anti-semitic campaign to demonise Israel focuses on the entirely false and abusive analogy with South Africa. Using the term 'apartheid' to apply to Israel's legitimate responses to terror and the threat of annihilation both demeans the South African experience, and is the most immoral of charges against the right of the Jewish people to self-determination,' he replied.

Many Israelis recoil at the suggestion of a parallel because it stabs at the heart of how they see themselves and their country, founded after centuries of hatred, pogroms and ultimately genocide. If anything, many of Israel's Jews view themselves as having more in common with South Africa's black population than with its oppressors. Some staunch defenders of Israel's policies past and present say that even to discuss Israel in the context of apartheid is one step short of comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, not least because of the Afrikaner leadership's fascist sympathies in the 1940s and the disturbing echoes of Hitler's Nuremberg laws in South Africa's racist legislation.

Yet the taboo is increasingly challenged. As Israel's justice minister, Tommy Lapid, said, Israel's defiance of international law in constructing the West Bank barrier could result in it being treated as a pariah like South Africa. Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has called for a campaign against Israel of the kind used to pressure South Africa."

Hey Democrats!  Now that we know Matalin is working for Cheney, please don't take campaign advise from this man!

Arianna rightly roughs up Carville!

Are the Democrats finally getting feisty?  Today Senator Frank Lautenberg (D)New Jersey, introduced an amemendment to change the name of the Republican "Deficit Reduction and Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005" to the "Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act"!

The post quotes him as saying,

"'Let's call this bill what it is -- a moral disaster,' explained Lautenberg. 'This bill would close the door of opportunity and cut critical services to the poor, elderly, sick and hungry.'

Senators had yet to vote on the amendment as of this post, but given the Republican majority in the Senate the name change seems to have little chance of passage.

The overall bill being debated in the Senate is aimed at making cuts in spending on entitlement programs in order to offset the massive federal costs incurred for the clean-up of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the Gulf Coast. Democrats have massed in opposition to the cuts, which they insist disproportionately disadvantage the nation's poorest and most infirm citizens."

 I really was shocked at the level of gall it would take to make the poor pay for this.  However the Democrats have let other things like this slide, so I no longer expect anything from them.

I guess Joe isn't reading the polls!

SEN. JOE BIDEN, D-Del., made some interesting comments during his Manchester stop Tuesday night. He said too many Democrats were elitist and even unpatriotic, and he blamed them for helping Republicans paint the entire party as out of touch with America.

Biden noted that some Democrats had even questioned why he wore an American flag pin on his lapel.

The senator has been refreshingly honest about his run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008. Further honest comments like those he made Tuesday night might hurt his chances within a party lurching increasingly to the left. But the Democrats need to hear them.

The anti-American left has seriously damaged the party, and unless more high-profile Democrats take them on, theirs will continue to be the minority party in America.  

I think he made the part about the American flag pin up!

According to the latest polls Bush's approval rating is at 35%.  His favorability rating is 33%.  If the Democratic party nominates him or someone like him it is truly dead, dead dead!

I know I am on everyones shit list because I dislike kos, but I do cover issues hardly anyone else gives a shit about. Here is just one issue that I think the Democrats should prioritize that is absolutely not on the kossack or mainstream Democratic agenda.  For years the republicans have been able to undercut social programs by portraying the poor as morally inferior. They have even gotten mainstream economics departments at Universities to put out this kind of stuff.  The mainstream news often reports these kinds of "spun" statistics without recongnizing that they are really carefully disguised op/eds, rather than careful research.