Today an article appeared on CNN that sort of surprised me...several colleges across this great nation have come to the realization that the 21 year old drinking age is a failure. Yes, I said that, and I am now going to be a target for anyone who is a member of MADD...

Before you send me in front of the firing squad...come visit my reasoning below...

Many are following developments in the NY-13 Congressional district, the only district in NYC represented by a Republican. That Republican, Vito Fossella, is your typical high and mighty "family values" screaming Bush Republican. This week he was first arrested for drunk driving, then it was revealed that he had an affair, fathering a child with a woman other than his wife and ruining that woman's marriage.

This has been covered on dKos today in several diaries. I just want to add the statement made by Fossella's main Democratic opponent, Steve Harrison, regarding these developments. Steve's statement below.

Republican Congressman Vito "Vino" Fossella is really not looking too good right now. His conduct the night of his drunk driving arrest is something he is going to have a hard time living down. Sordid details (minus a possible affair in the background) below.

Sorry for the short diary, but there isn't much to say about it. Congressman  Vito Fossella was arrested for Drunk Driving. Details below.

Hat tip to my fellow Daily Gotham writer, Bouldin:

Already up on Specious Report but it was edited for brevity (that's my interpretation of that, anyway). I think it works better with the Garrison Keillor paragraph. The good part of all of that is that I misspelled Keillor(just caught it), and effin' Spellcheck got it right!

Obama Makes Appeal For Bitter White Midwesterners: "Let ‘em Drive Drunk!"

Anyone that has come to this site via Google knows my opinion of Matt Shaner.

I think he is the worst candidate in the race to represent Pennsylvania District 5 as a Congressman.

He seems woefully ill prepared, completely disconnected from the common voter, and incapable of sound judgement. But that's just my opinion.

Why should anyone in PA Congressional District 5 vote for a person who:

    No, I see no conspiracy here, but it's interesting to note anyway.

    Sidney Blumenthal, Clinton counselor (and YearlyKos 2 attendee; I spoke to him briefly at the Teamsters cookout, and he was cool/cold but polite), be in some trouble, see AP channeled by Yahoo, Police: Clinton aide to plead guilty,

   A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has agreed to plead guilty to drunken driving after the arresting officer was ordered to Iraq making a trial on a more serious charge impossible, police said Monday. ...
    Now an unpaid adviser to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Blumenthal, 59, was arrested Jan. 7, the day before the New Hampshire primary, and charged with aggravated drunken driving. Police said Blumenthal was traveling 70 mph in a 30 mph zone. ...
    The plea deal was reached after the arresting officer was activated by the military and ordered to Iraq, Segal said, adding that without the officer's testimony a trial would not have been possible.

I was driving home, listening to Rhandi Rhodes and she said something that floored me. She said that Cate Edwards was hit by a drunk driver in Chapel Hill, NC. That the drunk driver, who rear ended her car, was twice the legal limit. It seems as if Cate Edwards is OK.

What really stunned me about this story is how I have heard nothing about this anywhere. If this was Chelsea, we would be getting BREAKING NEWS alerts about it. (I would NOT wish this to happen to anyone, I have been in a few myself and my body is still paying the price.)

More below...

File this one under: Things Taken For Granted That Are, In Fact, Not True

I don't spend much time thinking about breathalyzers. I might be excused for not giving them too much thought, since I have never been stopped for DWI. But my husband is a alcohol and drug counselor, his agency has a state contract for the federally mandated program in alcohol safety, and he created the Spanish-language version of that program. I go to conventions with him where the main activity is drinking and giving each other breathalyzer tests. Never, at any time, have I heard anyone suggest there might be a problem with the breathalyzer.

In this week's edition of Parade, there's an article which asks whether raising the minimum drinking age to 21 has been good policy, and moreover whether it's fair that an 18-year-old can take a bullet or be blown up by an IED in Iraq or Afghanistan, but can't have a Budweiser with his friends at a bar before leaving home.....

No one is suggesting that 18-year-olds should drink themselves into a stupor. Rather, critics of the current drinking laws point out that a sizable minority of 18- to 20-year-olds, and roughly a fifth of 16- and 17-year-olds, already drink heavily often or on occasion. Indeed, the 21 drinking age isn’t so much a law as a slogan: Even supporters concede it is widely flouted and often not enforced. Yet, because 18-year-olds—adults in most other senses —generally can’t drink legally in bars and restaurants, they tend to drink in dorm rooms, on isolated fields and at unsupervised house parties, where adults can’t watch them.

There have been quite a few pixel's spilt over the WWE Cage match between O'Reilly and Geraldo this week involving the Virginia Beach Drunk Driving case - but have most of us completely missed the true exploitation taking place in this artificial heart string tugging and demonization that has become so common-place today?

Could the truth be that this isn't about Illegal Immigrant or Drunk Driving?

Let's examine exactly what this is all about over the flip...

A good friend of mine is in the hospital tonight.  When he gets out of the hospital he will go to jail.

It started with a few glasses of wine at lunch, a jovial lunch with old friends.  And a bad decision to drive home.

His car crossed a double yellow line.  

Smashed headon into a van driven by a woman with four children.  She died.

He's charged with felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter.

By now everyone in the United States (and probably Europe as well) has heard of the new proposed law by a NY Senator which would criminalize crossing the street while talking on a cell phone or listening to any "electronic music device." Rightly the senator in question is now a national laughing stock and the odds are his bill, unlike the "walkers and talker" it aims to protect, is going nowhere.

Part I of this series detailed a particularly egregious incident of medical misdiagnosis which led to the untimely death of a 42 year old woman.

Part II began to address the question of whether or not the time has come for medical misdagnosis, especially when it results  in human death, to come under the scrutiny of the Criminal Justice System.

Part III, below the fold, continues to address the criminality issue raised in Part II

In two separate studies published today, researchers virtually beg the public not to interpret the results too literally. That"s because they deal with alcohol and come up with surprising findings.

A continuing debate is whether Libertarians are better off voting for Dems or Repubs. As a Libertarian I'm also a Democrat and believe the Democratic party stands for individual freedom. Which is why I'm so concerned over the new proposal by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to require mandatory alcohol detectors in all new automobiles. Guilty until proven innocent is not the foundation of American jurisprudence but if this proposal is put into effect it will become so.

Last week, Washington State Senate Candidate Mike McGavick came clean with his life's big failings:  A failed marriage, a bad tenure as CEO of a mega-corporation, and a drunk driving incident.

At the time, he was somewhat recognized for these powerful and personal admissions.

But now it turns out he lied, even while coming clean...

(details below)

Patrick, the guy who drove his pickup truck through the house of Jeremy (CT) 2 weeks ago has apparently issued an apology on his myspace blog. Patrick has removed almost everything from his profile, including pictures, and any reference to drinking and such. But he left up his own blog.

After Markos posted a link to Patricks Myspace page I went over there and checked it out and wrote him a stern E-mail. It was just a line one comment, but I regret sending it. That didn't help anyone, especially Jeremy. You live and learn as they say...