California Conservative

AP reports: “Patients at a state mental hospital overdosed on illegal drugs, were improperly restrained for hours on end and were forced to spend 12 hours in soiled diapers, according to a scathing report issued by the U.S. Justice Department.”

“The report said the problems were among ‘widespread and systematic deficiencies’ at Napa State Hospital, including suicide and inadequate medical care. Some patients were bathed only every two to four weeks, the report said.

State officials were given until Aug. 15 to implement ‘minimum remedial measures’ at the mental hospital, which has about 1,100 patients.”

Scheduled to have its first “airing” on August 1.

According to Tech-Confidential: “This past weekend former Vice President and presidential hopeful Al Gore was screening prospective videos for a cable and satellite channel –- called Current — that he, along with several investors, is scheduled to introduce Aug. 1, The New York Times reported Saturday.”

“Gore is the channel’s co-founder and chairman, and will have a say in what is aired on the channel, which is aimed at people between the ages of 18 and 34 and will rely on viewer submissions for much of its content.”

Have a say? There’s no doubt “program director” Al Gore will select only the best shows for this special audience and key voting bloc. We’re confident that he’ll put the “Dem” in demographic.

“Other investors in the cable channel include Joel Hyatt, the founder of Hyatt Legal Services, who served as national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee during Gore’s failed presidential run, Blum Capital Partners (led by Richard Blum, husband of California Senator Dianne Feinstein) and Yucaipa Cos. of Los Angeles (run by Ron Burkle, a Democratic fundraiser). Bradley Whitford, who plays a White House adviser on ‘The West Wing,’ is an individual investor.”

That’s quite a prestigious line-up. Without a hint of bias or political leaning.

This won’t be a vehicle to promote the Democratic “message” (if that’s what complaining about Republicans can be called). No sir. It’s just about appealing to the youth (or “empowering this generation,” to quote Gore), whether they “rock the vote” or not. After all, “[t]he total price tag was an estimated $70 million for the cable platform, according to a recent article in The Deal.” It’s not like these wealthy liberal investors expect a return. Let’s just call it another public broadcasting service (PBS).

“Gore has been busy since he lost the bid for the presidency in 2004. He also launched Generation Investment Management, a London-based investment firm, and he’s a member of the board of Apple Computer Inc. and an unpaid consultant to senior executives of Google Inc.”

Busy as a bee from Tennessee. Anybody wonder what Gore consults Google on?

Stay tuned. Literally.

RELATED:
Al Gore: First the Internet, and Now…
Google Is Biased: No Search Required
It’s All Gore: Preaching About Global Doom
AlGore.com Gets Web Award

UPDATE:
Welcome PoliPundit readers!

Please stay a while. Feel free to poke around. There’s plenty more material to make you laugh and make liberals cry.

From the looks of it, the answer is maybe.

Aaron’s cc: points out that a recent CafePress newsletter sent out all its online merchants is actively promoting anti-Rove tchotchke, from mugs to t-shirts. (See screenshot)

Aaron asks the obvious questions:

“Biased much? Who on CafePress’s staff permitted this? Is it CafePress policy? Have they EVER had a similar promotion about, say, Sandy Berger who admitted to stuffing top secret documents in his socks and underpants? Let’s search CafePress for Sandy Berger… gee, NO products!!!”

Whether or not we can say that Michelle Malkin has picked up on “the story,” one thing is for certain: She’s had enough. Malkin writes:

“The Left may be overboard on the Plame thing. But I don’t want Karl Rove’s name or face on anything I wear or drink out of, you know what I mean? Ick. Gotta know when to give it a rest.”

Tell that to CafePress.

RELATED:
Our favorite product is the pillow pictured above.

Maybe that’s why liberals are comfortably sleeping through the realities and tough challenges facing the new world.

UPDATE:
CafePress is getting some competition. WSJ recently reported that Zazzle.com received a significant amount of venture capital funding from some big names in Silicon Valley.

UPDATE II:
Welcome Michelle Malkin readers!

Please stay a while. Feel free to poke around. There’s plenty more material to make you laugh and make liberals cry.

AP reports: “Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that Britain would not “give one inch” to terrorists on his policy on Iraq and the Middle East, while police said two suspects in last week’s failed bombings were emigrants from Somalia and Eritrea.

“London is being tested but standing firm,” he said.

Asked whether the British-backed and U.S.-led invasion of Iraq had fueled terrorist attacks around the world and in London, Blair said “there was no excuse or justification” for their actions of the bombers.

“Whatever excuse or justification these people use, I do not believe we should give one inch to them, not in this country and the way we live our lives here, not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in our support for two states, Israel and Palestine, not in our support for the alliances we choose including with America. Not one inch should we give to these people,” Blair said.

“Sept. 11 for me was a wake-up call,” he said. “Do you know what I think the problem is? A lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again.”

Right-o. Wake up, people.

A new technique for endoscopy.

AP reports: “A funny thing happened five minutes after Dr. Amar Al-Juburi started an endoscopy procedure on Sandy Sellers. He was done. Sellers swallowed two cameras mounted in a clear pill the size of vitamin. After waiting 15 more minutes to make sure a computer captured the 2,600 images taken during the five-minute test, the woman was free to return to her job as a doctor’s office technician.”

Amazing story. The stuff of science fiction, now realized.

Three cheers for modern technology and medicine.

He’s on a mission, and he’s ready to “shake his bon-bon.”

Livin’ la vida loca, for sure.

AP reports: “On his first visit to the Middle East, Ricky Martin declared he will try to change negative perceptions of Arab youth in the West.”

Martin, whose hits include “She Bangs,” “Shake Your Bon-Bon” and “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” posed for photos with fans, at one point draping over his shoulders a traditional Arab kaffiyeh headscarf with the slogan “Jerusalem Is Ours” written in Arabic on it.

“I had no idea that the kaffiyeh scarf presented to me contained language referring to Jerusalem, and I apologize to anyone who might think I was endorsing its message,” Martin said in a statement released Monday by his New York-based publicist, Ken Sunshine.

Nice work, Ricky. If you’re going to be an ambassador, try not to look stupid or create an international incident.

Talk to Sean Penn.

Democrats are very concerned.

The future for union political support is uncertain. How could this happen?

Weighing in on yesterday’s headline news of the breakup between the AFL-CIO, the Wall Street Journal offers some salient commentary:

“The AFL-CIO, the giant union consortium formed in 1955 by George Meany and Walter Reuther, is breaking apart this week in a dispute over how to revive labor’s lagging fortunes. The tragedy is that neither faction is offering an agenda that will make workers more prosperous in our increasingly competitive global economy.”

That would require more work than they’re used to.

Instead, we are witnessing a fight over who gets to preside over a declining labor movement. Two of the largest and more successful unions, the Service Employees International and the Teamsters, are rebelling against the leadership of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. The irony is that it wasn’t all that long ago, in 1995, that Mr. Sweeney won his job with his own coup against Lane Kirkland, the Cold War hero and more moderate labor voice.

In the wake of the GOP takeover of Congress the year before, Mr. Sweeney promised to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into electoral politics to stop the Gingrich revolution. He staffed AFL-CIO headquarters with activists from the political left–environmental groups, culturally liberal outfits–and made the union consortium a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party.

A decade later we can see how that turned out. Democrats remain in the House and Senate minority, and union membership continues to decline across the American economy. The unionized share of the total U.S. work force has been sliding steadily for years, and was down again last year to 12.5% from 12.9% in 2003. In the more dynamic private sector, only 7.9% of employees now carry the union label. (More here)

Just like Democrats, the unions have made a business of only criticizing change and defending the status quo, but never offering new solutions. Perhaps the DNC will take the hint. (But we hope they don’t)

UPDATE:
Divided Labor Movement Worries Democrats
Labor split could hurt Democrats’ campaigns

RELATED:
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Walkout from AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO: “Proud Union Queers”
Arnold: Live to Fight Another Day
Unions - 1, Arnold - 0

AP reports: “A flight from Los Angeles to London was diverted to Boston early Tuesday because three Pakistani passengers were acting suspiciously, but nothing amiss was found and the three were released after questioning, authorities said.”

Better safe than sorry. Period.

United Airlines Flight 934 landed in Boston shortly before 3 a.m., Logan Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said.

The three Pakistani men were taken into custody and questioned after other passengers complained that they were moving about the cabin, FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.

“Some of the individuals were in first class and another was in coach,” and they were walking between the two sections of the plane, she said.

Weighing the concerns for public safety, a matter of life and death, choices need to be made without regard for “political sensitivity.” It’s the way of the world today, thanks to terrorism.

However, as Michelle Malkin quips, “I can hear the stampede of ACLU lawyers already.”

On the heels of this morning’s big news about the union breakup, Scott Ott reports:

Senate Democrats today introduced legislation to block the Teamsters and Service Employees labor unions from walking out of the AFL-CIO.

Teamsters President James Hoffa said his union and others want to focus their resources on recruiting new members, instead of simply throwing money at Democrat election campaigns. The departure of the two largest member unions will deplete the AFL-CIO annual budget by $20 million.

“Just like President Reagan busted the air traffic controllers strike, we must move to prevent this threat to our two-party system,” said Sen. John F. Kerry, a key sponsor of the bill. “If we don’t stop this illegal labor action, many people with no practical work skills may have to leave high-paying positions to go out and find actual jobs for the first time.”

Truth in humor.

RELATED:
AFL-CIO Splinters, Spooking Some Democrats

In this time of terror, it’s important to learn the rules.

While news of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is filling the airwaves, a simple reality is being ignored by most liberal critics of London’s police policy: If authorities request an individual to stop (”halt”) for questioning, he/she is inviting lethal consequences by fleeing. That’s the bottom line.

Respect the police. If you’re innocent, there’s no reason to run. As a community, we must rely on each other to do the right thing.

It’s not an issue of civil rights. It’s about survival and protecting all citizens. It’s about the greater good of society.

According to the International Herald Tribune:

“Menezes was followed by plainclothes officers after he left an apartment bloc that was under surveillance. Wearing a padded jacket [CC Notes: A winter jacket in summer], he boarded a bus and traveled to the nearby Stockwell subway station. According to officials, his clothing and behavior aroused the suspicions of the police, who ordered him to stop.

Witnesses said Menezes ran into a subway car, where officers shot him. It was unclear why Menezes, who spoke English, did not stop.”

The paper also reports the family “may sue the British police.” While the accident is tragic, the anger must not be misdirected.

In this new era of global terrorism, it’s obvious that noncompliance is not an option. As a matter of public safety, we expect our governments to be vigilant in order to avoid catastrophes.

With only a week since the last attack in London, there’s no blaming the UK police for following protocol: shooting a suspect who resisted attempts for basic questioning.

It’s a dangerous world. And as the first line of defense, police will shoot again.

UPDATE: (7/28)

It’s a spoof. But there’s inherent truth to it.

(Hattip: LGF/Michelle Malkin)