1. Cindy McCain Was a Drug Addict

2. Place Your Bets: How Far Right Will Obama Go?

3. "Women Would Benefit from Mating with Many Men"

4. The George W Bush Sewage Plant [The Shit Stops Here]

5. "Pregnancy Pact" Story Unravels

Cindy McCain Was a Drug Addict [Source]

It's a psychedelic experience this week, watching Cindy McCain out on the campaign trail, attacking the opponent's wife. In rally after rally she says, "I've always been proud of my country," a not so subtle jab at Michelle Obama's gaffe earlier about really being proud of America for the first time.

But Cindy McCain has one hell of a scandal in her past. In the mid-nineties she was addicted to prescription pain killers. Worse, she was stealing the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team, a third world relief organization she founded.

Like most ridiculously rich people, she didn't have to go to jail for her crimes and was allowed to enter a rehab program rather than face criminal charges. The charity was shut down.

So when Cindy McCain says, "All I know is that I've always been proud of my country," take it with a grain of salt.

She spent at least three years stoned out of her mind. It's impossible to know what she thought during that time. Was she really proud, or was she just hallucinating?

Cindy's addiction has been virtually ignored this election season. As a thought experiment, try to imagine what the reaction would be if Michelle Obama had a history with drug addiction?

If Michelle Obama had stolen drugs meant for third world countries to support her own addiction?

Of course, we want to leave spouses out of politics.

But if Cindy is out attacking Michelle people are going to start throwing rocks back at her glass house. She'd have to be high to think otherwise.

Some stories about Cindy's drug addiction: Salon.com and The London Telegraph

Place Your Bets: How Far Right Will Obama Go to Get Elected? [Source]

In an action that combines cynical political opportunism and outright reaction, Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, has publicly denounced Wednesday’s decision by the US Supreme Court outlawing the execution of people convicted of child rape.

Obama’s rush to embrace the right-wing minority on the Supreme Court is a clear demonstration of his political trajectory.

Having become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee—and given the overwhelming popular hostility to the Bush administration and the Republican Party, in a strong position to win the White House—he is moving rapidly to the right, seeking to demonstrate his reliability and fitness to govern from the standpoint of the financial aristocracy that really rules America.

In this context, the most pernicious role is played by those who bolster illusions in the “progressive” character of Obama and Democratic Party, even as their right-wing orientation is openly displayed.

This is the stance taken by the Nation, the weekly liberal magazine whose web site has published a grotesquely distorted defense of Obama’s death penalty comments. The magazine’s Washington correspondent, John Nichols, writes:

“It ought to come as no surprise that, while McCain rushed to exploit the Supreme Court decision for political purposes, Obama was circumspect.

He recognizes that the raw emotions associated with cases of this kind do not lend themselves to reasoned debate.

And, while a Feingold might recognize this as a teaching moment, Obama is a more cautious player. But, on matters such as this, there is something to be said for a cautious response.”

No matter how far to the right Obama goes, liberal apologists like the Nation will find words to justify and excuse him. That is a measure of their own prostration before the American ruling class. More...

"Women Would Benefit from Mating with Many Men" [Source]

A new study shows that women still regret one-night stands more than men: apparently, 80 per cent of men had overall positive feelings about the experience compared to 54 per cent of women, and men were also more likely than women to want their friends to hear about it.

But, while explaining that women have not adapted to meaningless sex because it does not suit them at this stage in evolution, the article didn't tell the whole story.

Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University was quoted as saying:

"In evolutionary terms women bear the brunt of parental care and it has been generally thought that it was to their advantage to choose their mate carefully and remain faithful to make sure that their mate had no reason to believe he was raising another man's child."

But Professor Campbell went on to say (and not reported by the Telegraph):

"Recently biologists have suggested that females could benefit from mating with many men - it would increase the genetic diversity of their children and, if a high quality man would not stay with them forever, they might at least get his excellent genes for their child."

Funny how any story about how women enjoying multiple partners as part of evolution doesn't usually make the news. More with explicit videos to ram home the message.

The George W Bush Sewage Plant [The Shit Stops Here] [Source]

PR Watch's "Spin of the Day" for Wednesday was a grassroots campaign to rename a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush:

The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is engaged in an effort to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the "George W. Bush Sewage Plant."

The group has been gathering signatures at local festivals, events and city parks and has already collected 8,500 signatures, about 1,300 more than is needed to put the question on the city's ballot in November.

If the measure passes, the new name will become effective starting next January, when the new president is sworn in.

Supporters plan to engage in a "synchronized flush" during the inauguration as a way to send a "gift" to the newly-renamed plant, saying they believe this will be a "fitting monument to this president's work."

The chair of the San Francisco Republican Party called the group's effort "loony bin direct democracy," and vowed to defeat it. A spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns the plant, says that while his agency understands the humorous intent of the endeavor, the award-winning facility has been efficient at keeping the streets and ocean clean, thus the plant should be "the last place" the group should use to make a negative statement about George Bush.

"Pregnancy Pact" Story Unravels [Source]

Time Magazine's story about an alleged "pregnancy pact" at a Massachusetts high school appears to have been based on unsubstantiated rumors.

The reporter heard the story from the school principal during an interview about a recent spike in teen pregnancies at the school. The principal claimed that the spike was due to seven or eight girls who decided to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

Time published the principal's story without further corroboration. The sensational tale made headlines worldwide. Like all good stories, this one improved in the re-telling. MSNBC reported that there were seventeen conspirators in the group, up from seven or eight in the principal's original claim.

Alarmed, the mayor of the town pressed the principal for details about the alleged pact.

According to the mayor, the principal's memory was foggy when he was pressed for details. He couldn't remember how he heard about the pact. Now, the principal has issued a statement challenging the mayor's claims about his shaky memory.

Time published the assertion without further evidence.

On Monday, Mayor Carolyn Kirk said that an inquiry had turned up no evidence of a pact, and she claimed that Mr. Sullivan “was foggy in his memory of how he heard this information.”

And a local newspaper reporter covering the story closely said “the idea of the pact is not something we had reported and not something we have found.”

In his latest comments, Mr. Sullivan aimed “to put to rest the notion” that he had difficulty recalling his underlying evidence:

My only direct source of information about the intentional pregnancies at the high school was the former nurse practitioner at the Health Center.

My other sources are verbal staff reports and student/staff chatter, all of which I have found to be very reliable in my experience as a principal and all of which I filter myself for accuracy and keep confidential.

Kim Daly, the former head nurse practitioner who was his direct source, told The New York Times that she could not back up the “pact” claim. “It was complete news to me,” said Ms. Daly. “I have never heard of it, ever.”

One of the pregnant girls told Good Morning American that there was no pact.

The 17-year-old says that a bunch of girls who were already expecting decided that they would help each other raise their babies while staying in school. Somehow, the rumor mill twisted this benign self-help arrangement into a bizarre sex pact.

The pregnancy pact story had the ring of an urban legend from the very beginning. The reporter and the public were way too eager to believe that wanton females besotted by Juno were getting pregnant to take advantage of their high school's inclusive policies for teen moms.

This wasn't journalism, it was a bad morality play. Now the shoddy story is finally unraveling.