A Trip Through The Mud

The Associated Press is reporting that George Bush said the attorney general’s “good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.”

That's fascinating.

I thought the good name "Attorney General of the United States" was dragged through the mud by Gonzales.

Another Racist Rant from Dennis Byrne

Today's Dennis Byrne column (I read it so you don't have to) contained more of his usual racist ranting. Today's featured these thought:

The door at my local Blockbuster video store is labeled "entrance." Right below, for Latinos who might be puzzled, appears the word "entrada." Over at the local Home Depot, the word "electrico" appears on a large overhead banner, in case any Spanish-speaking customer can't read the other word there: "electrical."This is insane. You mean to tell me that Latinos are too dense to figure out that this door is for going in? Or that Spanish-speakers are unable to make the intellectual leap between entrance and entrada, even though they share the same root?

Let me get this right. According to Dennis, Latinos cannot be told in their own language which door to use, but people who speak English are that dense [Byrne's word]. Was that his point?

Further, this was a door on a private business. That business, in order to make a sale, wants to work with people who speak languages other than English.

That upsets Byrne.

Want him to buy? Don't make things easy on the Latinos.

Ultimately. it is hard to find the harm in being polite. The signs in question are nothing more than that -- a attempt to work with everyone in order to get along.

That doesn't work for Byrne though. If people are getting along, Dennis is Mad As Hell.

Dangerous Mines In Illinois

On August 6, 2007, six miners were trapped and are now presumed dead due to a mine collapse in Utah. Although originally blamed on a earthquake, University of Utah researchers now say that the opposite is true. They have reported that the mine was weakened by a risky form of mining and the collapse caused the reported seismic activity.

The owner of that mine, Robert E. Murray, is the owner of several other mines across the country.

In Illinois, Murray owns the Galatia Mine. That mine has 850 federal health and safety violations in 2007 alone.

Unless the state and federal governments crack down on Murray and his mines, there will be a tragedy in Illinois.