Porn For Women

My new favorite book is Porn For Women.
I love it so much that I bought the pinup calendar for 2009.

Here is an excerpt for your enjoyment, ladies.





A girl can dream, can't she?

From the Spirit in the Sky...

A montage of the Carina Nebula.
Pretty. But check out the image in the upper left.




Is god trying to tell us something?

Sky Report

This is my favorite time of the year for stargazing... and even if you don't have a telescope, there are wonderful things to see if you have clear skies. Have you noticed Jupiter and Venus in the southwestern sky right after dark? You can't miss it.

From The Sky Report:

This week brings the climax to the pairing of the brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, in the evening sky. This spectacle is best seen at about 6:00 p.m., when the two planets are about 17 degrees above the southwest horizon. Jupiter is nearly 5 degrees to the upper left of brighter Venus on Wednesday night, the 26th. They continue to draw closer until they reach conjunction, their closest approach to each other, on Sunday night, November 30. The planets are then separated by just over two degrees. The grouping is made even more spectacular by the presence of the slender crescent moon, just 7 degrees below the planets. This trio will be at their most attractive on the next night, Monday, December 3, with Jupiter 2.2 degrees to the right of Venus, and the moon only 4 degrees to the upper right of the pair. On following nights, Jupiter will appear farther from Venus, moving down and to the right. The planets set at about 7:40 p.m.

This conjunction is simply a chance alignment of objects separated by tens and hundreds of millions of miles—they are not actually close to each other in space. At the time of the conjunction, the moon is about 240,000 miles from us, Venus is the same distance from us as the sun, 93 million miles, and Jupiter is about as far away as it can be from us, 539 million miles.

Later at night, the brightest star of the night time sky, Sirius, in Canis Major the Big Dog, sparkles 40 degrees high in the south at 2:00 a.m. Located to the south east of the belt of Orion, Sirius rises in the south east just before 9 p.m., and is low in the south west before dawn.

Saturn, in Leo the Lion, rises in the east half an hour after midnight, and is well placed for telescopic viewing in the south east in the early morning hours, attaining a height of 54 degrees above the horizon when dawn starts at 5:11 a.m. The planet is now providing the best views of its nearly edge-on rings that will be visible until the year 2025.

The Decline and Fall...

"Indian minister offers resignation over Mumbai attacks"

THAT'S what happens in civilized countries after events such as this.
In THIS land of incompetent retards and semi-literate barbarians, having such events occur is rewarded by re-election, raises, and promotions for the individuals responsible for our protections.
The U.S. rewards those most incompetent in our society and THAT is why the great American Empire will surely fail and come to ruin. Even the folks at Citibank think so: Financial Disaster Will Lead to Civil Disorder in 2009 or 2010, Says Secret Citibank Memo.


(Add/Edit): And from back in July of '07: The former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, has been executed for corruption, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports.


(Where shall I file this? Hmm. Wonder if I have a category entitled "Heckuva job, Brownie.")

Light up your MoJo!

Glowfur lets you light up the night!


Far out! Groovy, Man!

All we need now is some color organs, The Yardbirds, Buffalo Springfield, The outsiders and...uh, The Archies?





More information here (if you have the bread for the kewel stuff)!





And it's not to worry about any animals being hurt, they say!

How I Spent My Thanksgiving Weekend In a Blue State

By Liz

I spent the holiday weekend at Stephen King's Bed and Breakfast in Maine in a tiny and quaint little town on the seacoast. I met so many lovely people while I was there. Quite a few conspiracy theorists though. I had no idea just how f*cked we really are! They told me so many things I did not know. As a gracious traveler, I simply either agreed with them and added to their horror when I could think of something good to say.

Did you know that currently in San Francisco, there are medical marijuana shops as numerous as Starbucks? And, and, and, the drug pushers are buying pot there and selling it to high school students. Yeppers. I was dumbfounded (and jealous.)

Did you know that Sarah Palin is more qualified to run this country than Bill Clinton was? He was a dumb old hillbilly. Yesiree. It turns out that Gov. Palin was set up by Katie Couric to fail in the interview. Couric is a puppet for the liberal media. Gov. Palin is very smart and you can certainly see Russia from Alaska and that is so the US can keep an eye on them. Sarah is smarter and more qualified than Hillary to run the country too.

I found out that every single thing that ever happened in this country including the economic meltdown and the bombings in Mumbai can be traced back to the Clinton administration. Bill Clinton outed CIA operative Valerie Plame too. I was given specifics but I can't remember them all. So I had to agree with it all and added that the Clinton presidency contributed to Bush's drinking problem.

Do people ask me where I'm from just so that they can say that I'm not a real American? I'm pretty sure I was born here although my birth certificate could have been forged by illegal aliens for all I know. I was reminded on several occasions that NY is NOT the real America. I agreed wholeheartedly of course because I already knew that. I added that here in Gomorrha, we're all gay, Muslims, terrorists, atheists and abortionists who smoke crack. And those were illegal aliens who trampled the man to death at Walmart on Long Island. No one flinched.

But wait, there's more. Obama went to a Muslim high school. He's only 9% white(?). If we don't drill in the ANWR we will never be free of foreign oil. Anything that isn't Clinton's fault, is Pelosi and Reid's fault because they don't let ANYTHING get through congress. They are obstructionists, doncha know? Obama will get rid of all the coal plants in America and will get rid of guns and outlaw bibles too. God help us, we will be wearing Burqas before long.

I politely asked these lovely people where they got all this information that I didn't know and the resounding answer was Fox News because it was fair and balanced. It was strongly suggested that I watch that channel so that I could find out how much trouble we are in. Oh I will. I will! And I thought that only lefties were the conspiracy theorists. Silly me.

The relatives, thank goddess, didn't talk about politics or current events. I just got my earfuls from the locals and travelers staying at the B&B. It's fun traveling to blue states. You have to try it some time!

Black Friday shoppers out in force, but cautious

what a headline!!!!

I was sitting here loading up the tune library in preparation of picking the perfect 20 songs for my xmas cd that I am making for gifts this year. I wouldn't go near the mall if you paid me. Besides, I have to save every penny for the college tuitions this year. No problem with the kids not getting gifts under the tree this year. We are all committed to only buying food (i include beer in this group) and gas. We're having a contest to see who can go the longest!!

I CANNOT believe the headling -- shoppers out in force but cautious.

Read this story and tell me if the word cautious isn't the word you would have used if you wrote this headline for this story.



I think I'll do another post for our favorite top 20 xmas tunes from the library. This story is just so wrong on so many levels.

How depressing...



Here's a nice tune to forget about it.
(it's always the first one on the playlist)



Mary's Boy Child - Boney M

OF(AT)SP*

*Obligatory Friday (After Thanksgiving) Sex Post

An Open Letter to Henry Paulson

Just my two cents on the matter.

Every once in a while, we need relief from the rigors of the day.
Click the image to see it full size.
Then right click that image and save it as... whatever you want to call it.
You can them print it out and solve it.

I'll print the solution in a couple of days.

Enjoy!

Just Plain Fun

A tip of the Thanksgiving Pilgrim hat to Wolfie over at the VCL for the pic!

Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie

Videos courtesy of Dailymotion

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Do not get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.
- Galatians 6:9

and from the God Web -

Thanksgiving: Mirror Unto the Soul of a Nation
A House Divided ... Can and Shall Stand. Here's How.

Thanksgiving is the only American holiday in which an act of prayer is front and center. On Thanksgiving Day the President of the United States will lead the nation in a prayer. This happens at a time when the nation is deeply divided over the appropriate connections between politics and piety, church and state. It happens at a time when the law forbids a public school principal from doing exactly what the President is doing, and if he or she did try to lead such a prayer, the same government which the President heads would step in and forbid it.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court continues to wrestle with the place of prayer in our public schools, and Congress passionately debates legislation designed to circumvent prior court decisions. Ironically, in countless local communities across the United States, people of different faith traditions will gather in a common act of prayer on Thanksgiving Day, even though their understanding of what such prayer signifies varies wildly.

More than any other holiday, Thanksgiving has been the time for ecumenical and interfaith services all across this country; yet, it is also a holiday which reflects the deep divisions and fissures in American society perhaps more than any other.

It was Abraham Lincoln who, rephrasing Scripture, said: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Yet our differences over the proper place of faith in our nation's public life clearly show no signs of being resolved. Today it is becoming clearer and clearer that consensus on such issues is impossible. We are coming to realize that a nation divided over questions of basic belief and practice cannot stand .... unless there is a greater degree of appreciation for religious difference than there has been in the past. Also required is an appreciation of the experience and point of view of those who have no religion.

Unless we disenthrall ourselves of the notion that the purpose of Christianity or any other religion is to triumph over all others, it is likely that the Scripture's warning about the nation's fall may prove relevant at this time in our history.

On the other hand, as we learn to appreciate and even celebrate our differences, then all Americans shall truly have something to be thankful for.

May the house in which we render thanks be large enough and welcoming enough to include even those who are not prepared to pray!

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of the start of the Gorging Season:



Yummy!

Goin' Down: Turn Up the Volume

(Very special thanks to Jeff Beck)

Russian Analyst Predicts Hurricane “Colossal Shitstorm” Headed for the U.S.

“I got my head out the window, and my big feet on the ground.”

-Jeff Beck

We’re goin’ down. Igor Panarin, a leading analyst and professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has confirmed his long-held view that the United States is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts. When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said:

"Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia."

How many areas of will the U.S. be divided into? Oh, around six parts, as Panarin offered this prediction:

“The U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.”

How exciting! "the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality”? Got that, New Yawkas? And what type of “mentality” might that be? Oh well. Thanks for the heads up, Igor. We have only ourselves to blame.

-2Truthy

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Try to keep everything down!)

That time of year again

It's that time of year when many of us find ourselves sitting at a table with wingnut, Faux News watchers, bless their hearts, who are full of "facts" about how the liberals are ruining the country. While it would be wonderful to talk about how amazing it is that we have our first black president, I am quite sure that tomorrow's dinner in NH will focus on how he is the antichrist himself and the most liberal Muslim in the Senate.... ever.

Then we'll probably hear about how the northern autoworkers make $70/hour (they don't) and how good it is that southern autoworkers make a pittance with no health insurance and that's why the relatives only buy foreign cars because it's the American way to exploit those who make slave wages...

I agreed to put up with the catholic, conservative, homophobic, right wing that is my son's father's side of the family for Thanksgiving as long as Christmas is spent with liberal people of my choice who are mostly not my relatives. I did that last year and it worked out fantastically.

My plan of non-attack for tomorrow is to start drinking heavily upon arrival in New Hampshire and sit with the children. I vow to keep my mouth shut for the most part except that I promised myself to interject that "I like Hillary" when her name comes up just to make things interesting.

What kind of thanksgiving do you expect tomorrow? How will you deal with wingnuts?

No good deed goes unpunished

Or you're damned if you do and damned if you don't

Trying to save money and cut back? Well 'screw you', says Long Island Power Authority

LIPA wants to raise power bill
Cut back on your power use this year? You may have helped to raise your LIPA bill.

The Long Island Power Authority said yesterday lower customer usage has cut revenue, one of the factors behind a proposed 4.8 percent bill increase for next year.

The hike in LIPA's 2009 budget comes despite a record drop in the cost of fuel and on the heels of two increases this year. It translates into a $7.50 monthly increase on average residential LIPA bills, and represents a power supply charge increase of more than 9 percent.(continued)

-----------

Why in tarnation does al qaida want to target NY all the time? We're not the REAL AMERICA! Ask anyone. Really.

Breaking News: Feds warn of terror plotting against NYC subways

"...the threat may also be directed at the passenger rail lines running through New York, such as Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, which are particularly busy with Thanksgiving holiday travelers."

Some music to simply relax to:
Enjoy!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!




A Christmas Lullaby - by Cary Grant 1967

Does this surprise you?

People Said to Believe in Aliens and Ghosts More Than God

The poll of 3,000 people found that 58 percent believe in the supernatural, including paranormal encounters, while 54 percent believe God exists. Women were more likely than men to believe in the supernatural and were also more likely to visit a medium.

Oh wait, they only asked 3,000 people. hmmm.

6 minutes that could destroy your mind!
(Unless you were insane to begin with!)

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Daily Show's Best Sarah Palin Moments

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

If you didn't vote for a presidential candidate on November 4th...

...maybe now you have a good reason.
Washington Note:
SCOOP: McCain and Obama Camps Coordinated on Building Staff Rosters for Next Government
Don't they make a divine couple!


A senior Obama campaign official shared with The Washington Note that in July 2008, the McCain and Obama camps began to work secretly behind the scenes to assemble large rosters of potential personnel for the administration that only one of the candidates would lead.

Lists comprised of Democrats and Republicans were assembled, sorted into areas of policy expertise, so that the roster could be called on after the election by either the Obama or McCain transition teams.

This kind of out-of-sight coordination is rare between battling presidential camps and provides some indication that both Obama and McCain intended to draw expertise into their governments from both sides of the aisle -- or at least they wanted to appear interested in doing so if the information leaked out about the list development process.

Fascinating tidbit on cooperation behind battle lines.

1929

(photo courtesy Mel Toast)

During the1929 financial crash, some Wall Street stockbrokers and bankers actually jumped from their office windows, committing suicide when confronted with the awful shame of their firm’s and clients’ financial ruin. Awful shame?



The catch phrase “moral-hazard” since then has been downgraded to junk status, with antiquated concepts like ethics and morals taking a backseat to “toxic-hazard” in board rooms from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. But those were the good ‘ol days.


Many people were said to almost feel a little sorry for them.


In 2008 the attitude has changed somewhat…


-2Truthy

Jersey and punkster got me remembering this from Paul Simon.
My Little Town
Maybe apropos of the coming century!

This Week in Science.

Needles

“Great Scott, Jim! I’m a doctor, not an acupuncturist!



Hal9000

Have your own Hall 9000 on top of your monitor (but you have to do a little work!).
My God! It’s full of paper!




Pocket Projector

This looks really kewel! Maybe you can project videos anywhere; “Star Wars” on the back seat of the car; “Deliverance” on the side of a tent; “Behind the Green Door” in front of the toilet…

"The overpowering unimportance of this makes me speechless."

The above quote is from Representative Thomas Reed (R-ME), back in the late 1800s when asked for his reaction to a Papal message, and can be found in BarbaraTuchman's book The Proud Tower, on page 122 (MacMillan Press).

And it precisely echoes my sentiments concerning this:

Obama Skips Church for Gym

(Nov. 23) - Since the election, future President Barack Obama has traded Sunday morning pews for some quality time at the gym.

The Obamas have refrained from public prayer for fear their large retinue would disturb the church service, according to an anonymous aide who spoke with Politico.com.

"They do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw," said the aide, according to Politico.

Since the election, Obama has been focusing on building his administration team. Monday, he introduced members of his economic team, and urged the incoming Congress to act quickly on a stimulus plan.

The Obamas haven't belonged to a church since the spring, notes ABC News, after Barack Obama split with Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ because of controversial sermons by the pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. A videotape from one of Wright's sermons showed him damning America.

Churches, especially African-American houses of prayer, played an important role in Obama's candidacy, notes the Associated Press and Politico. Obama made campaign stops in churches. Congregations prayed for him on Election Day, and celebrated his victory, the Associated Press reported.

Now, churches in Washington, D.C., are scrambling to lure the Obamas to their pews, reports the Associated Press -- even if Obama hasn't attended church in weeks.

***

I have a number of observations about this.

One, I can hear Fox News and the "Christian Right" sharpening the knives over this, along with the Truly Insane (so ably led by MichelleMalkin and Rush Limbaugh). They will automatically contend that Obama is the secret Muslim they've squealed like castrated pigs about all this time.

Two, while I will be the first to say that while the President of this country, in its current state, needs all the help he can get (natural, supernatural,eldritch or otherwise) and bearing in mind that George Washington went to prayer services at St. Paul's Chapel in New York after his first inauguration, I feel that Presidents shouldn't go to public worship services. Don't want to be seen endorsing one sect over another, now do we?

Three, the point made in the article is correct. People go to church to find a quiet spot where hymns and rituals can supply a focus with which to meditate; do you really want that mucked up by a Presidential entourage and the Secret Service?

Four, if the "Christian Right" get all huffy about this, I will simply smile and lay this on them:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thouprayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." - Matthew 6:5-6

Of course, far be it from the "Christian Right" to pay any real attention to what Jesus said.

Restaurant Review - The Blue Sapphire

I had occasion (and the spending money) to visit a recently-opened restaurant in Central Florida, near the Cypress Gardens theme park. Its name is The Blue Sapphire and it bills itself as a sushi bar and lounge.

The decor is slightly modern minimalist, with several fish tanks and plasma screen TVs; the lounge area is composed of low, plush sofas and chairs set with lighted plastic cubes that act as tables. The bar has a waterfall-style sculpture behind it and the backlighting for the bottles changes colors.

There's an actual sushi bar in the back where you can sit and watch while the chefs prepare your nigiri or maki in front of you. And there are cooked entrees and appetizers.

Wanting to get a second opinion, I took my Mom along with me.

As an appetizer, Mom ordered a selection of tempura-fried veggies (mushrooms, onion, green peppers, cucumbers) with a tasty dipping sauce. I ordered nigiri as my appetizer, and selected salmon roe. The roe, small orange balls, were presented in a bowl made of half a lemon with the pulp scooped out and served on a bed of shredded daikon and carrot. The obligatory pickled ginger and wasabi were on the side.

Both: Highly recommended. I'll certainly come back to try more varieties of their nigiri.

The entrees came with a delicious broth, and a garden salad with a ginger dressing. Mom ordered teriyaki style beef and vegetables, while I asked for tempura-fired chicken and shrimp, which came with a soy-based dipping sauce.

Both: Highly recommended.

Dessert was taken home, and consisted of two pieces of tempura cheesecake, drizzled with chocolate and raspberry sauces and a dollop of whipped cream.

Both: Delicious!

Verdict: While not exactly cheap (the tempura chicken and shrimp were $14.95, the priciest thing ordered) the food was exceptional, the service excellent and the setting quite calming.

The Blue Sapphire earns four spoons.

Fireball explodes in western Canada

Here's the story.

Monday Morning Musings

On Saturday I met my cousin for cocktails at a chain restaurant in a local mall (not my idea). What astounded me were the teaming masses of people who were shopping... so much so that there were literally no parking spaces- you had to follow people to their cars (I hate that.) At 4PM, the restaurant lines were out the doors into the mall. Shouldn't we be saving money?

______________

I was prophetic once. I worked for Citicorp for about 10 years in the 70's and 80's. I would sometimes deal with customers, when I first worked in the branches and fresh out of art school, who were afraid to put all their eggs in one basket and would ask me, "What if Citibank goes under?" My standard answer was, "If Citibank goes under, it will be part of a huge economic meltdown and that will probably be the least of your problems." On a side note, Citibank prided itself that they didn't have unions. Is that why they are getting bailed out?

______________

People who are very near and dear to me have lost their jobs or on the verge of losing their jobs. More people that I don't know are in the same boat. Newsday reported that 26,000 Long Island families can't afford turkey dinners for thanksgiving. That's up from 20,000 last year. I'm going turkey shopping today, although I think missing out on a turkey dinner is the tip of an iceberg.

______________

During the last recession, I was in the financial situation that I could help out people who were in dire straights. Man oh man, you lose more friends that way. Either they fall off the face of the earth or they turn around and kick you in the ass. I don't have the means to bail anyone out this recession, but I will be sure to contribute what I can anonymously to people I don't know.

______________

Obama worse than Bush? I don't think so.

______________

You get a chance to muse in the comments.

The History Of The War on Christmas

The Religious Right's 'War on Christmas' Began Centuries Ago


Don't expect to hear about the real war on Christmas from Faux news.

Further evidence perhaps that the collapse of the economy was planned and encouraged

"All US Financials Will be Nationalized in a Year: Manager"

CNBC.COM:

It's not preferable, but all major U.S. financial companies will eventually be under government control because the alternative is so much worse, Hugh Hendry, chief investment officer at hedge fund Eclectica Asset Management, said Friday.

"All financials will be owned by the U.S. government in a year," Hendry said. "I bet you."

Nationalizations take dramatic losses from the private sector and places them on the larger balance sheet of the public sector, he said.

"It's not good," but society is vulnerable and society is going to have to intervene, Hendry said.

Shareholders Should Get Nothing

Because the taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for bailout out the banks, shareholders shouldn't be compensated, Hendry added.

(Watch the accompanying video for Hendry's full comments...) (See Link)

"Actually the shareholders of Citigroup have looked the other way for more than a decade" while management took excessive risk, he said.

Shareholders should take nothing away if it is nationalized, because the taxpayer will be "paying this for a long, long time," he added.

I'll let the politico-econo-socio experts decide if such a situation comes to pass whether or not the U.S. can then be termed " A Fascist State." Whatever it might be changing into though, I hope most of us feel good about it.

Listen to songs, smoke a cigarette, smoke more, die

(great title by youtube user!)

Got sidetracked again at youtube folks!! Just came across this old "Your Hit Parade" video -- had to post it.....My My My how things have changed.



OMG I'm coughing up a lung here!! ROFLMFAO!!!!! (fast forward video to 3:40)

So round - so firm --- So Fully Packed

so free and easy...... on the draw

oh the historic chant of the tobacco auctioneer.....

one of the true traditions of our country!!!

I only stumbled on that video cause I was watching this video

Incredible Sonovox - Kay Kyser - 1940 film "You'll Find Out"

**(The ending is precious!!)**

and I only watched that video cause I was looking up some info on my NEW FAVORITE SONG by Desmond and the Tutus

TERRIFIC TUNE!!

"Kiss You On The Cheek"



Crap.....


now I want a cig

better go clean the house now

Speaking about the abysmal knowledge of civics by elected officials...

You can take the same test they failed here.
Except you, blackdog.

US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. continued

It should be noted that according to the results after I took the test, the national average score for this quiz is now 77.6%.

I imagine that many political junkies will score quite well on this test since we do a lot more reading and discussion of public policy than most people. I wonder what Sarah Palin would get on this test?

Brits May Ban Happy Hour

LONDON – Britain is considering a ban on "happy hour" discounts at bars and restaurants to curb drinking, a spokesman said Saturday, as health advocates warned that a rise in liver-related deaths among young people may signal a future epidemic. continued

Something tells me that the root cause of youthful drinking is not "happy hour" discounts. Although, come to think of it, I do most of my imbibing when there are drink discounts at pubs and restaurants. But I'm older and cheap.

Vatican 'forgives' Lennon for 'more popular than Jesus' remark

Not from the Onion.

This one from the Onion is right on.

"American Tune" by Paul Simon

Did anyone happen to catch Paul Simon on the Colbert Report last week?

He may have lost a little hair....... but nothing else -- SIMON STILL ROCKS!


You can watch the interview with Simon that preceded the song here




Here's a video of Paul Simon singing American Tune from 1975



Here are the lyrics from Songmeanings followed by a reader's comment (interpretation) of the song's meaning

Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I'm alright, I'm alright
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far a-way from home, so far away from home

And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's alright, it's alright
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what has gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the a-ge's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest

A Comment from the songmeaning discussion:

Yes, the music of "An American Tune" is in a sense a "flagrant rip-off," since it's at least 400 years old, which is when it turned up in a love song by the German Baroque composer Hans Hassler. And =he= probably stole it from an old Bavarian folk song.

It was next stolen by no less a personage than Johann Sebastian Bach as a motif for his "St Matthew Passion," and soon became a utiltity tune for singing many different hymns in the Protestant church.

So it was a favorite of the Pilgrims when they came to America, and eventually was used by the American labor movement for some of their marching songs.

And that was why singer-songwriter Tom Glazer chose it for "The Whole World Around," a song he wrote for the folk group The Weavers (which included Pete Seeger), later popularized as "Because All Men Are Brothers" by Peter Paul & Mary.

As the saying goes, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal outright."

So we have to assume that Simon had his tongue in his cheek when he call the song "An American Tune," since like most Americans, the song is an immigrant.

Paul Simon began thinking about writing the song in the early 1970s during the preparations for the American Bicentennial in 1976. He was planning something upbeat, with a reference to the American Moon Landing in 1969

But by 1972, Watergate happened, the economy was in a tailspin, and the antiwar movement and civil rights movements had become increasingly violent. And he and Art Garfunkel stopped performing. There was a lot of talk about the "decline of the American Empire," and some people were wondering if we would even make it to the Bicentennial in one piece.

There's a story that Simon actually had the dream, which is spelled out clearly in the song, of hovering high above New York Harbor, watching the Statue of Liberty sail away over the horizon. And when he woke up, the song wrote itself.

The point of the song, I think, is the same as that of Arlo Guthrie's "Patriot's Dream." We can't give up on the struggle for freedom, even when times are hard and things look hopeless.

Hmm. Might be time for another cover of this one.

Beware of the Cute

And I mean it.

Giant pandas are cute, from cubs all the way to full-grown adults, but they are still wild animals. A man snuck into a zoo in Guilin, China and found out the hard way when he went to hug the panda and the panda started biting him.

You can read all about it here.

Many things that we consider "cute" are actually quite nasty. Koalas, for example. They look rather cute with their placid eyes, bootleather noses and Einstein-like tufts of fur sticking out of their ears.

But try to pick one up. That's when you find that those huge curved claws on their paws have uses other than clinging to trees and they wet you down with strong eucalyptus-scented urine.

So the next time something looks so gosh-darned cute (or kyoooot) you just feel the overriding urge to pick it up and cuddle it, be warned.

Snow

It's that time of year again when you just love seeing the snow falling softly among the evergreens. It's quiet; an occasional deer walks by; the birds are eating at your feeder; you're all cozied up nice and snug in front of the fireplace with your BFF, drinking Hot Toddies; not a care in the world.

Yeah, you think about how nice seeing all that snow is.

Somehow, those heavy snows and shoveling and slipping and falling and skidding from last year seem so far away...

Try to Remember...


Click on the image to enlarge.

Break the Wind, Break the ... Law?!

Okay.

Student arrested for 'passing gas' at Stuart school

Saturday, November 22, 2008

STUART, Fla. (AP) -- A student at a Florida school has been arrested after authorities say he was "passing gas" and turned off his classmates' computers.

According to a report released Friday by the Martin County Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy "continually disrupted his classroom environment" by intentionally breaking wind. He then shut off some computers other students were using.

The Spectrum Junior-Senior High School student was arrested Nov. 4.

A school resource officer placed the boy under arrest after he confessed about his behavior, according to the report. He was charged with disruption of school function and released to his mother.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

*********

People have passed wind throughout the ages (according to a famous story, the Earl of Essex accidentally farted in front of Queen Elizabeth I and was so embarrassed he went away for seven years), and farting is one of the quintessential methods of generating humor. Joke books and plays from as far back as the Roman Empire and earlier show that.

In school passing gas is the occasion for shame, embarrassment and of course laughs, but this is the first time I've EVER heard of it being the cause of arrest.

This is political correctness and sensitivity run amok. Farting is a bodily function and in some cases is inescapable - people have to vent noxious gases overboard.

Comments?

Madam Secretary

Despite the popular uprising on the left, against all the hysteria going on among the pundits and the Media, and in spite of disapproval and disheartening of his own inner circle over Hillary's appointment as Secretary of State, President-Elect Barrack Obama is sticking to his guns in doing just that.

NBC confirms that the Secretary Of State post is offered to Hillary Clinton, and she will accept it. The announcement will be made official after Thanksgiving Holiday.

For all the naysayers who doubted his resolve or executive spine, President Elect proves that he has the right stuff to be Chief Executive.

So far, all the appointments show his thrive for excellence of the new administration. I wish him well! He will need all the competent people in this country to deal with the tremendous task he is set to accomplish.

Challenging times enable Presidents to achieve greatness.

Casual Friday Cat Blogging/Caption This

Kitteh with 2 faces born in Perth Australia


It is reported that it also mews out of both mouths simultaneously.

What a turkey!

I saw this video on the news last night and almost couldn't believe what I was watching.

Sarah Palin pardoned a turkey yesterday at a turkey hatchery. After that she gave a press conference right in front of a man who was killing and draining the blood out of turkeys. You have to watch this. (they blurred the really gory parts.)

Obligatory Friday Sex Post

This was rather interesting:

Man caught with penis in pasta jar ... near Nobbys Beach
Stephen Ryan
November 20, 2008
A man caught near Nobbys Beach with his penis in a pasta sauce jar led police on a 20 kmh car chase, Newcastle Local Court heard yesterday.

Police drew their weapons when they suspected Keith Roy Weatherley, 46, was armed.

Instead, they found him partially clothed with his genitals in a jar, a police statement said.

Weatherley, of Promontory Way, North Arm Cove, attracted attention parked in a no-stopping zone before noon on October 26.

Police believed Weatherley was doing something with his hands in his lap and thought that he might have a weapon.

Weatherley saw the police and drove away, despite them flashing their lights.

The chase lasted five to 10 minutes, with a top speed of just 20 kmh, before Weatherley was stopped at Centenary Drive, Newcastle. He refused to leave the car.

Four officers used batons and capsicum spray to remove him.

They found a 750-millilitre jar around his penis and noted that Weatherley attempted to continue "pleasuring himself in between bouts of wrestling".

A search of his car uncovered pornography, a home-made sex aid, women's stockings and a Jack Russell terrier.

Weatherley pleaded guilty to offensive behaviour, resisting police and disobeying a police direction.

Magistrate Elaine Truscott asked Weatherley, who represented himself, why he behaved the way he did.

He said he resisted police because he was trying to make himself "decent".

He was fined $600 for offensive behaviour and convicted of the other two offences without further action taken.

The Herald, Newcastle

*******

My only question is this - I can see the pasta jar, the "homemade sex aid," and all that.

But a Jack Russell terrier?!

Clean Coal Isn't

Gee! it looks like somebuddy's advertizing's been fibbin' to us again! Imagine that?
You betcha!
Remember all those neato keen "Clean Coal" commercials we all were forced to sit through during the recent De-lection Campaign? Well, it looks like they were pure carbon dust. Yup!

Clean Coal maybe really isn't!

Auto Bailout: North Vs South

This kind of stuff just pisses me off.

Editor's note: This post is not to inflame a north-south war at the blog. It is the politicians who are working with the corporatists to bust up unions and exploit southern workers.

Should taxpayers in Alabama be required to bail out automakers whose plants are concentrated in Northern states like Michigan and Ohio?

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R- Ala., told reporters Wednesday, “I can not imagine a real justification for a worker in Alabama who does not have any health insurance at his company to be taxed to maintain a Cadillac health care plan for somebody in Detroit.”

Well tough titties. Perhaps auto workers in the south ought to unionize and tell their congresscritters to F--- the hell off for not fighting for them to make more money. I read that they make about $12/hr and get no healthcare benefits in southern auto plants. Are they proud that they make shit wages and are among the working poor (and sick)? You can make more working in a supermarket in NY and you get bennies. I'm not defending the big 3, but I am tired of reading how the blame should go to the auto workers. The CEO's flew their corporate jets to DC to ask for money. Their salaries and bennies are lavish while the autoworkers live firmly in the middle class. If anyone should be punished and blamed, it should be the executives. Over 3 million jobs are at stake.

UPDATE: Speaking of the auto industry, today Michigan Democrat John Dingell was voted off his post of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and replaced with Rep Henry Waxman of California. Dingell fought tightening fuel economy standards for the auto industry and his wife is a lobbyist for GM.

"The ascension of Waxman, a wily environmentalist, recasts a committee that Dingell has chaired since 1981 with an eye toward protecting the domestic auto industry in his native Michigan," Politico noted Thursday. "The Energy and Commerce Committee has principal jurisdiction over many of President-elect Barack Obama's top legislative priorities, including energy, the environment and health care."

UPDATE 2. Speaking of union busting, read this story by David Neiwart at C&L.

Racism Alive and Well In America continued

Editor and Publisher has been chronicling anti-Obama incidents from web pages of smaller daily or weekly newspapers around the country, often from small towns. It's not just racial slurs we are talking about, it's kids talking about assassinating the president. This must be what they hear at home.

Read Chilling Reports by Students: Classmates With Guns Talk of Shooting Obama -- And Racism in Wasilla, Alaska

It's heartbreaking.

Another New Policy for the Obama Administration to undo

Bush must be getting BJ's from the coal people because the EPA is pushing through new air quality rules "that would make it easier to build coal-fired power plants, oil refineries and other major polluters near national parks and wilderness areas," according to this story in the Washington Post. As usual, new air quality rules would actually weaken the clean air protections that are already in place. Most of the EPA's regional administrators are outraged by this decision. Read the short article for the details.

I'm not sure that Obama knew about the new EPA rules, but Obama seeks immediate action to curb emissions

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama said. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious."

He repeated his campaign promise to create a system that limits carbon dioxide emissions and forces companies to pay for the right to emit the gas. Using the money collected from that system, Obama plans to invest $15 billion each year in alternative energy. That investment - in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as advanced coal technology - will create jobs at a time of economic turmoil, he said.

"It will ... help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced," Obama said.

Obama's plan will force companies to pay for emitting green houses gases. "As a result, alternative energy technologies should become more cost-competitive with fossil fuels."

Everyone in my family including moi will be lining up for one of those well paying green jobs that can't be outsourced.

Political IQ

What if electoral campaigns would require the candidates to take an IQ test?
It would be a really great idea, considering all the dumb asses serving in the US Congress.

• During a television debate against incumbent South Carolina Sen. Fritz Hollings in 1986, candidate Henry McMaster challenged his opponent to take a drug test. "I'll take a drug test," Hollings said, "if you'll take an IQ test."

Read more here

I served as a county committee member locally for three years. I've never seen so many stupid people running politics locally.
Tell us what you think!

Prognosticative Breakthrough!

If you ever wanted the true answer to any question you could ever think of, here’s the place to get that timeless knowledge!

Just click the link and ask your question!

But be prepared for reality! You may not like the answer you get!!
(Hint! It ain't 42!)

Life, the Universe and Nearly Everything

The Love Doctor

"I never had a father. Mother got me on the National Health - she had an obliging doctor, you know."
- Spike Milligan, The Goon Show: Confessions of a Secret Senna Pod Drinker



Many countries have a national health care system. I'm not exactly certain this kind of service is covered, though:

A CENTRAL COAST [New South Wales, Australia] doctor and his girlfriend had sex in his surgery up to 80 times during their five-month relationship in 2004, a court heard yesterday.

Read on ....

Stuck by a Rut

I read this interesting tidbit a few days ago and feel the irrational need to share it with you:

November 15, 2008 - 2:33pm

Gilbert Genn in the emergency room after the buck attack. (Photo courtesy of Gilbert Genn)

Michelle Basch, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON -- A Maryland lobbyist was attacked by a deer outside his home and says the buck repeatedly stabbed him with its antlers, before he was able to wrestle the animal to the ground.

Gilbert Genn, a former state delegate from Montgomery County, says the bizarre incident occurred Thursday, as he left his Gaithersburg home to walk his dog, Yuffie. When the deer appeared on the front lawn of his home, his chocolate labrador ran to chase it off, but the buck didn't budge.

"[Yuffie] started circling it, and the deer didn't run. After a couple of seconds, I realized this was going to be a serious situation, because the deer then put its antlers down and was getting ready to charge Yuffie, who was barking at her," Genn said. "At that point I tore down the driveway screaming 'Yuffie get away.'"

But it was too late. The deer cut the dog off from his owner and went into attack mode. Before he knew it, Genn found himself face to face with the wild animal.

"It came right at me, from about 10 feet away. I tried to run at an angle, but it caught me flush in the back right leg, impaled me with its weight, knocked me to the ground. It started to come right at my face with its antlers."

The buck impaled Genn in the chest, but in the tussle he managed to land a swift kick to the animal's underbelly, causing it to momentarily abate. Genn said he then screamed for his wife to get the dog. As his wife approached the dog, the deer rammed Genn for the third time.

"It impaled me in the groin area. At that point, literally, I took the antler and pulled it out of me."

Genn said his mind flashed to the tragic death of "Crock Hunter" Steve Irwin and he realized he had to prevent getting stabbed in a vital organ. Genn then grabbed the deer by the horns and pinned it to the ground for a couple of minutes, until the animal tired out. He said he then released the animal and quickly ran the other way.

He sustained injuries to his leg, chest, and groin.

"I looked down and already my blue sweat pants from my groin area on down had turned purple, so I knew I was pretty badly injured and needed some medical attention. It was a pretty frightening experience."

But Genn did not go straight to the hospital. He tended to his groin injury with a paper binder clip, cotton and disinfectant, so he could make it to a long-planned meeting with Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch in Annapolis, close to 40 miles away.

"There was no way I could miss this meeting," Genn said.

The lobbyist, who served as a Democrat in Maryland's House from 1987 until 1999, joked that the attack may have had political ramifications.

"Not to get too partisan, but I'm convinced it was a Republican deer, because it happened right where we had our Obama sign. And all the deer could do was attack, attack, attack. So it had to be a Republican deer."

Only after the meeting in Annapolis did Genn get himself to a hospital. He's now doing fine, following the attack, though he has been getting rabies shots as a precaution.

Genn said he also spoken to county animal control officials, who note that deer can be very aggressive during the rutting season, when they mate.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All rights reserved.)

***

I have only a one-word comment to this.

Ouch.

Harry Reid = A Weak Reed

You don't use a weak reed to prop yourself up or give you any support; chances are that bugger will bend, snap and splinter and cut your hand up like nobody's business.

When the new Democratic majority took power in the Senate in 2006 I (along with many others) expected things to slightly improve. By "slightly improve" I mean that the Senate would insist more on its Constitutional prerogatives and fend off the Bush Regime's more egregious assaults on the rule of law and common decency.

Instead I was treated with the spectacle of watching Harry Reid (D-NV) whimper and roll over faster than a Nevadan hooker at the prospect of scoring some john's gambling winnings by taking it up the ass. On virtually every subject.

Which brings me, mercifully, to the subject of Joseph Lieberman (CT-Quisling).

Instead of actually punishing Lieberman for Party disloyalty or at least giving him a wedgie, the Democratic Senate Caucus is allowing him to sail on virtually unscathed, losing a relatively unimportant subcommittee chairmanship and giving what was probably a facile, insincere apology written for him by a Republican staffer.

It makes me wonder, particularly in light of the win by Anchorage Mayor Begich over incumbent Ted Stevens. That puts the Dems to within two seats of a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority, with the Minnesota and Georgia races still in contention.

If the Democrats can pull 60 seats in without Lieberman caucusing with them, I say cut his ass loose and good riddance. Then throw the pasty-faced wad an anvil when he runs for re-election in 2010.

In the meanwhile, I seriously advocate the Democratic caucus picking someone other than Harry Reid for the majority leadership. I've heard tell that Reid was once a boxer - how the hell did he win (if he ever did)? Conciliate them to death?

Democrat Mark Begich Wins Alaska Senate Seat

Ted Stevens is not the first convicted felon to win election to the Senate after all.
He is still the longest serving Republican in Senate history.

Democratic caucus: bunch of weenies

Democrats voted today for LIEberman to keep his Chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee and of an Armed Services subcommittee, but removed him as a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

I don't about you all, but this reeks. What's the matter with Harry "Joe Lieberman is a Democrat, he's a part of this caucus" Reid?

Consumers close their wallets

From the CS Monitor.com:
The consumer is in no mood to spend.

With only a few weeks to go before the holiday season officially kicks off, retailers are saying this is the worst consumer environment since World War II. Big box retailers are fighting for survival, department stores are preparing massive promotions, and some stores are asking manufacturers to take back their products even before Thanksgiving.

An unenthusiastic consumer has wide ramifications for the US economy because 70 percent of the nation's production of goods and services is oriented toward consumption...

And whose fault is this?

More on torture

Yesterday I posted that Obama assured America that there would be no more torture and no more Guantanamo.

"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture," Obama said Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." "Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world."

It was good news but today I read that there would be no investigation into the prosecution of those who ordered the torture nor the torturers themselves. Obama advisors and Sen Patrick Leahy said that there was no sense in going backward- that we should look forward. There is also the possibility that bush will preemptively pardon all the war criminals. Stay tuned for more on that.

Like others, I don't see how we can move forward and regain moral stature in the world without investigating those who dragged the US into abyss.

There is talk that the top candidate for the CIA may be John Brennan who served under George Tenet. With Tenet we discovered that prisoners were being waterboarded. Critics say that John Brennan's appointment would not mean change. This is hearsay at this point so I will reserve comment.

See:
Obama advisers: Bush era war criminals will walk
ACLU: Bush may 'sabatoge' Obama, force 9/11 'mastermind' trial

Hillary Clinton to Accept Obama's Offer of Secretary State Job

Hillz and Barry Sitting in a Tree...

Breaking News

These two lovebirds were meant for each other from the very start, here.

The Guardian has learned today that Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration.

"Obama's advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton's foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem. Clinton would be well placed to become the country's dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialised in foreign affairs and defence. Although she supported the war in Iraq, she and Obama basically agree on a withdrawal of American troops."

Whoever said the Democrats don't know how to unite?

-2Truthy

The Bible's Buried Secrets -- A NOVA special -- airing on PBS Tuesday, November 18th

From the PBS/Nova website: An archeological detective story traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible (watch a preview)

And from Reuters/Hollywood Reporter via yahoo news -- New PBS series exposes Old Testament fairy tales:

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Bill Maher, on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," frequently refers to the Old Testament of the Bible as the Book of Jewish Fairy Tales. The description might anger the pious and the fundamentalists, but guess what? Maher's close to the truth.
A visually stunning two-hour special edition of "Nova" examines decades of archaeological studies that contradict much of what is in the Bible. The entire Exodus story is debunked, as is the idea that the Israelites were monotheistic following the contract made between God and Abraham. It turns out idol worship was common through the reign of King David and right up to the Babylonian exile.
Is the Bible the word of God? Only if God dictated it to dozens, maybe hundreds, of different writers, each of whom wrote and modified stories using different patterns of language over a period of centuries.
To be sure, writer-producer-director Gary Glassman does not dismiss the Old Testament as a collection of fairy tales. He asserts that the stories, though provably false in many cases, were intended to give identity to the Israelites, a group likely made up of former Canaanites, nomads and runaway slaves. Also, the Bible provided the Israelites with a moral framework.
The special, narrated by Liev Schreiber, is not likely to sit well with those who believe that the Bible, despite its internal inconsistencies, should be interpreted literally. Then again, science and religion have had a long history of conflict until, ultimately, the former prevails.

"A Collection of Writings of Unknown Date and Authorship Rendered into English From Supposed Copies of Supposed Originals unfortunately Lost."

~The Bible Unveiled, M.M. Mangasarian, 1911; Chicago: Independent Religious Society

Tom Friedman's Flatlined, Flat World Sucks and We're Not Gonna Take it Anymore

America for Sale: And what We Can do about it

Hey Tom, how’s that whole “world is flat” thing working out?

Not so good…Former billionaire Tom Friedman has watched his net worth plummet from $3.6 billion to less than $24 million, and now he wants all Americans to fuel up those outdated SUV’s and go spend borrowed money from China that they don’t really have on inferior goods they don’t really need in any flat, hot, smelly, and overcrowded shopping center they can find “to go shopping to save the economy.”

Flatworlder Thomas “The World is All about Me and other Elitists Only” Friedman’s world is flat broke now, and his fall from the billionaire’s club is a testament to the greed induced downside of the free-market fundamentalism he's been preaching for so long. While he has raked in millions of dollars in “best sellers” and commanded up to $50,000 in speaking engagement fees to stomp an insider cronyism profits over people message to gullible American audiences for far too long, he has reaped what he has sown. As Vanity Fair’s Peter Newcomb reports:

“But based on the bad news coming out of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties [GGP], it is no wonder Friedman is feeling crankier than usual. That’s because author’s wife, Ann (née Bucksbaum), is an heir to the General Growth fortune. In the past year, the couple—who live in an 11,400-square-foot mansion in Bethesda, Maryland—have watched helplessly as General Growth stock has fallen 99 percent, from a high of $51 to a recent 35 cents a share. The assorted Bucksbaum family trusts, once worth a combined $3.6 billion, are now worth less than $25 million.”

Going shopping is, of course fine – providing one has a good paying job to afford the nation’s former pastime. But the hidden little secret that best-selling authors like Friedman won’t tell you is that for over the past fifteen years, corporate America and the beltway have been busy selling off American white collar jobs to Indian citizens willing to work here for a fraction of the pay, eliminating job opportunities for American citizens and lowering wages in the process. Guess who thinks this wholesale sell out of the educated white collar workforce is just swell? President-elect Barack Obama. The Great American white collar labor shortage myth has been propped up by elitist corporate greedsters who view Americans as objects of “trade” to eliminate employment opportunities for local citizens in favor of importing cheap labor.

Today Citigroup announced another cut of 53,000 jobs in addition to the recent 23,000 jobs this year with rival JP Morgan set to slash thousands more jobs. As Obama says, “we are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression” so why would he want to see this country’s citizens replaced by foreign workers? Progressives need to embrace the myth of the Great American Labor Shortage and take the president-elect to task on one of the two most critical issues affecting the welfare of our citizens: jobs and access to quality healthcare.

Where are our ethics? Is the soul and spirit of the “progressive” movement one of elitist groupthink that blindly aspires to be just like the sociopathic corporate executives who pine for imported cheap labor in order to ensure profits for themselves and their cronies? Progressives need to unite against this war on America’s middle class and demand a stop to the legalized importation of cheap labor to take our jobs. True progressives need to demand a stop to legalized corporate welfare policies that enrich executives of insurance companies and corporations whose mantra is profits over people.

We don’t need to keep shopping for any more cheap crap. We need to start making stuff here again, and to start valuing our own neighbors to put the spirit of community back into our own communities first. How abundant are the destructive, inhumane forces of so called “free-trade” labor agreements when they seek to destroy employment opportunities at home in exchange for lucrative labor deals that only serve elites of our country and those of third world nations? As countries across the globe struggle with their own deteriorating economies, the only thing we have left in our own is our collective goodwill. I don’t doubt the lack of integrity in people across this country, but I have my reservations about the controlled direction our media are taking to silence the message as they gatekeep a few One World information elites who feed them.

As China’s President Hu Jintao said last week: “Beijing's priority is to "put our own house in order" and ensure domestic stability. Will America’s President-elect, Barack Obama change to put the welfare of Americans first or will he follow through with his allegiance to corporate welfare practices first? Will Obama quit “shushing baby boomers and stop telling them to “get over themselves” and start putting us first?

After eight years of criminal lies and neglect, now wouldn’t that be something?

-2Truthy

Radical, Rational or Practical?

Tongue in cheek? (for those who don’t understand demented humor).

OK. How’s this for solving the “bailout crisis?” Since everyone in power (and out) is in someway responsible for our current situation (either actively or by implication and ignorance), I suggest we hold a nation-wide lottery for Current and Retired:
Businessmen, Federal, State and Local Congressional Representatives and Senators, Cabinet Members, Lobbyists, Political Advisors, Governors, CEOs, Upper Level Management, Lawyers, Union and Religious leaders, Media Pundits (with extra picks from Fox News) and non registered, eligible age voters.
Each month, every Thursday, 100 “winners” from the nation-wide pool would be selected. These would be escorted by local authorities and presented to the nearest local town square or equivalent each Saturday where they would then be shot, in public. The event would be broadcast live on C-Span at 2:00 P.M. Eastern - 11:00 A.M. Pacific. Those unfortunate selectees would be left to lay in public until the next Thursday’s choices, who would be required to remove their predecessors to the proper facilities then ready themselves for their turn the following Saturday. (Any advertising profits would go 100% to senior citizens).
The lottery would continue, each week, with another 100 selected from the pool of participants with the same Saturday actions until the remaining lottery entrants get the idea, change their ways and straighten out the country. As a bonus, 100 additional winners would be selected during the weeks of National Holidays.
This should serve as an effective stimulation for the surviving participants to very quickly enact policy to benefit the public.
Each month the public would vote, (straight up or down) by email whether those remaining then acted in our best interest. Less than 50% would ensure the next month’s lotteries. Over 50% would delay the lotteries for at least one month.
As an added opportunity for the general public, a nationwide betting pool for $1.00 per chance would be instituted on who the next 100 would be. Winners would be provided with tax free status for the remainder of their lives.

Suggestions are welcome!

House Quest 2008 (file under 'tired and frustrated')

So, as David Letterman quoted McCain, after McCain bailed on a scheduled appearance back before the election... The market is 'cratering'.

When the market 'craters' it generally means, among other things, that houses will plummet in value. And when that happens, we end up with people being forced into foreclosure and oftentimes Chapter 7 protection, because the second mortgage is never covered by the proceeds of a short sale, or a public auction. I would hate to be a secretary or paralegal for a bankrupcty attorney right now; they're booked solid from what acquaintances have told me. Thank heavens that option is available!

The upside is of all this spells a crapload of housing available. Or there's supposed to be. Over the course of three weekends I've swung by and done exterior inspections of roughly sixty houses that are upside down in value and bank-owned. One can pull these up at realtor.com, at trulio and zillow, and as I've recently (finally) learned, at redfin.com as well.

And about three of these houses I've seen are actually really truly for sale. The rest? The offer's been accepted and escrow will be closing.

Please forgive my indulgence and let me kvetch about this momentarily. The silver lining is that at least in this region, homes are not going to remain empty for months at a time. This means greater security and greater assessed values in neighborhoods over time because empty homes will no longer be broken into and vandalized. But I have to bitch for a moment because the farking realtors are not keeping would-be buyers abreast of what is actually happening with all of these homes ostensibly for sale.

Even the website for the kindly realtor who has taken me under her wing does not list up-to-date info on whether an offer's been accepted by the bank. No, she has to look that stuff up for me. I finally started finding that stuff myself on redfin, which also notes how many days a property has been on the market. She's busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest because the market is exploding, er, cratering.

I took a look at a property that was newly listed yesterday, and today someone's made an offer on it. Huh?

Back to the drawing board.

This week in Science:

G_Speak: media wall with full gesture control.




Want to become a permanent “Couch Potato?” It’s not that far away. Imagine being able to sit in your room and control literally everything you can see and do?
We may never see Saborlas again!


Laser Fusion Power finally here?




Maybe we won’t be needing all that OPEC Oil after all. No need to fight with the Arabs anymore…just the good old American Utility Companies…
like CON-Fusion Edison!

Obama tells CBS he will close Gitmo

Barack Obama was on 60 Minutes last night and assures us that he intends to close Guantanamo and will make sure that America doesn't torture. Hallelujah!

CBS: There are a number of different things you can do early on pertaining to executive orders.

OBAMA: Right.

CBS: One of them is to shut down Guantanamo Bay. Another is to change interrogation methods that are used by U.S. troops. Are those things that you plan to take early action on?

OBAMA: Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.

Thank God. I was one of those kids who grew up thinking that America was a great country and would always do the right thing. These last 8 years especially made me realize that I must have been living under a rock for all my life. My expectations are a lot lower now after these years of tasting fascism with every breath. I'm getting older now and would rather be pleasantly surprised at steps in the right direction than always pissed off when things don't live up to my high and exacting expectations. I've long given up on America being that shining beacon on the hill for the rest of the world, but if Obama wants to work to make America shine, then I am all for it and will be more than pleasantly surprised when things get brighter around here.

P-E Obama's first weekly internet chat. Doh.......he forgot to say "God Bless America"

Meanwhile, Back at the Wars ...

Sure, I know it's fun watching the right wing turn in upon itself, killing off its weaker members and generally carrying on like hapless victims, but there are Larger Concerns facing us.

Let's start with Iraq.

The Iraqi Cabinet approved the new status of forces agreement with the United States after PM al-Maliki and Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani both gave it the green light. Twenty-eight of the 37 cabinet ministers gave it the go-ahead; the other nine didn't vote No, they just didn't show up. The measure calls for the complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities in 2009 and complete withdrawal from the country by 2011.

It still needs to be approved by the entire 275-member Parliament, and the Sadr Party and other nationalist elements are still rather cheesed by the idea of waiting even that long for the US occupation to end.

That's not to say that all is sweetness and light in Mesopotamia; far from it. Bombings continue in Baghdad and other cities, and people are still getting killed. The Parliament finally passed the provincial elections law, but tensions are increasing in the city of Kirkuk (which may become a major flashpoint between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds).

And now to Afghanistan.

Two US soldiers were wounded and one soldier in the UK's Royal Gurkhas Regiment was killed in separate attacks and operations in southern Afghanistan. Thirty militants were killed in operations down in Helmand Province, and a leading militant was captured alive.

Meanwhile relations with Pakistan along its border with Afghanistan continue to remain a very sore spot. Pakistan decried yet another missile attack by a suspected US-controlled drone aircraft in Waziristan that killed eight suspected militants. Anti-American sentiment in that part of the country and in the rest of Pakistan are rising, and President Zardari repeated his call to stop the missiles, saying that it wasn't exactly making his job any easier.

I have a question: Who was the bright fellow who actually suggested moving materiel for our troops through the Khyber Pass?!

Afghanistan doesn't have a coastline, so no ports; its infrastructure is somewhat primitive so there are few highways (although there used to be one connecting it with Uzbekistan which, while not exactly a friend, was a primary staging area when we invaded in 2001), which leaves the only real route into the country. And let's not go into Afghanistan's other neighbor ... Iran.

Unfortunately the Khyber Pass is in one of those restive northwest border provinces that is giving shelter and support to the resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. Things are getting rather nasty there, and several supply convoys have come under attack. On Tuesday a convoy of 13 trucks (12 carrying wheat and one toting Humvees for US forces) was hijacked by about 60 to 70 militants.

So Pakistan has closed the Khyber Pass until things improve a bit, security-wise, and there's a traffic jam as trucks wait for the green light. Which could take a while.

And that's where we are so far.

Sunday Humor Corner

The week's best invented words, courtesy of The Star (Toronto):

INDOGNATION, n.:
what a pet canine displays toward its owner after being picked up at the kennel. (Bob Blasko, Wyevale, Ont.)

ROVERINDULGENCE, n.:
indulging your pet to the point that it has a better wardrobe than you do. (verbotomy.com)

GIGGLE, n.:
a group of young girls. (Jo-Anne Christie, Beaumont, Alta.)

CRANKXIOUS, adj.:
being so anxious over something, it makes one cranky. (Shirley Dudeck, Niagara-On-The-Lake)

AIREOKE, n.:
playing air guitar in public. (www.wordspy.com)

UNPROTECTED SLEEP, n.:
risking not waking up for a job, class, or other daily task by turning off your alarm clock and going back to sleep. (www.urbandictionary.com)

SNEEZURE, n.:
"a fit of several sneezes in a row." (www.alphadictionary.com)

KNEEPIT, n.:
the area behind the knee. (www.unwords.com)

COFFEE, n.:
"the person upon whom one coughs." (www.thesandiegocoast.com)


Any ideas for next week's invented words?

Benedict XVI Tells It Like It Is

Practically since the founding of the first colonies in New World, Americans have had a sort of anti-Catholic bias.

Allow me to explain.

Many of the first immigrants to America were staunch Calvinist Presbyterians, nicknamed "Puritans" by their fellows in England; others included Anglicans and Quakers, Anabaptists and Lutherans - none of whom had much use for the Pope of Rome and Catholics in general. The reasoning behind this goes back to the religious wars in the wake of the Reformation and the feeling that Catholics took their orders from a "foreign potentate" - i.e., the Pope.

When the KKK was in its heyday in the 1920s, Catholics were Number Three on their Most-Hated List, right behind African-Americans and Jews.

Senator John F. Kennedy, campaigning for President, had to go off the trail and deliver a speech explaining that he would be his own man and would not truckle to any foreign ruler (even one shorn of his temporal power, as the Pope was).

But now we come to the present day, Pope Benedict XVI, and this little piece of yummy goodness:

Pope says Catholics in politics must follow faith

The Associated Press
Saturday, November 15, 2008; 1:01 PM

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI is encouraging Catholics who get involved in politics to stay true to their church's teaching.

Benedict says it is necessary that a new generation of Catholics in politics be "coherent" with the faith they profess.

He also recommends that they act with moral rigor and work passionately for the common good.

The pope urged Vatican officials in a speech Saturday to be vigilant about the evangelical education of Catholics who get so involved in society.

Benedict recently said religion and politics should be "open to each other."

The Vatican is particularly attentive to political action about abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.

© 2008 The Associated Press

"Open to each other." If you yoke religion and politics together in the same cart you create a vehicle that basically destroys everything in its path, leaving hurt feelings and victims of everything from excommunication to physical violence in its wake. We've already seen Catholic bishops and priests in this country mixing politics with the pulpit - saying that citizens who vote Democratic shouldn't be eligible to receive Communion; and we've seen the Mormon Church get so heavily involved in depriving an entire segment of the population the right to marry that I seriously believe that the LDS lose their tax-exempt status.

There are reasons the Founders decried the establishment of a state religion, and now we have actual Americans wanting to turn their backs on that dictum. If you vote for a progressive candidate or support reproductive choice, that is a matter between you and whatever deity you worship.

It should not be a matter for tired old men in an increasingly ossified Church.

Here endeth the lesson.

Do you think I could get a job in the Obama Administration?

From the NYTimes:

For a Washington Job, Be Prepared to Tell All

A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.

The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.

Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.

The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”

(Liz - can you help me out here -- I'm desperate)

Here's the entire 63 question questionnaire

and from 23/6 (Political Comedy - Unfair and Unbalanced): Unfortunately for any potential cabinet members, 23/6 has turned up an additional page of questions that will need to be included in any application

A Little Humor

With a major Hat Tip to The Rude Pundit:

Sarah Palin!

Read the whole post, and start the day with a chuckle.

marijuana reform: baby steps

For your perusal

Marijuana 2008 Ballot Initiatives
On November 4, 2008, MPP [Marijuana Policy Project] and allies across the country passed nine out of 10 marijuana-related ballot initiatives ... and also defeated a bad initiative.

Gotta hand it to Massachusetts for the most progressive attitude.

Concerning the First Dog

Probably one of the most human traits of george bush was his affection for his dog, Barney. I always got a kick out of the pictures of him with the dog as he traveled around the country. Barney was the one reason that I never pictured the president as pure evil (only part evil).

So imagine my dismay when I read over at Americablog that Barney is a serial biter. It makes me wonder just how well he is taken care of. I wonder if george raised Barney the way his mother raised him. How very sad.

Please President Obama

I know you have a lot on your plate right now – and that you said your first priorities will be the rescuing of our economy and achieving energy independence. Laudable undertakings – and necessary…..but please sir – please don’t forget health care reform. I fear it will get pushed to the bottom of that formidable priorities list – buried under the weight of undoing BushCo depredations. Our country is indeed in crises – no argument there. Only a blind person could miss that. And you are the one responsible for the clean-up. It is to you we all look, our hopeful hearts in our eyes, praying you’ll be a combination of FDR and Kennedy. Fix it, we cry; expecting you to pull New Deal rabbits out of invisible hats. It’s an almost impossible task. So when you spoke recently of the difficulties we all face – that as Americans we will need to be patient and make sacrifices – I understood. We should not expect miracles. Rescuing America might take years. You have set an ambitious agenda. Achieving such lofty goals may eat well into your second term. Gotcha.

Well I’m prepared to make those sacrifices, Mr. President – I am. I’d say we all are. But if you don’t address health care reform soon (and by that I mean immediately upon assuming office) - I may not be around to take advantage of such reforms when they arrive. You see - I’m sick. I’m sick, and I can’t afford the doctor. Oh – my husband has insurance (for what its worth) – but what used to be considered good insurance has dwindled of late. What it covers and what we still owe is now so out of whack - doctor visits have to be balanced against grocery bills. Hell - I am still paying off tests I had done last June – and I cannot afford the further exploration and possible surgery those tests indicated I need.

And that’s not the end of it – not by half. Our insurance has once again been downgraded. That means out of pocket expenses for next year have risen to six thousand dollars. I don’t have six thousand dollars, Mr. President. I don’t even have six hundred. And if my husband gets laid off (his company recently sent out emails telling everyone that three thousand employees can expect goodbye letters before Thanksgiving) - there will not even be enough to pay for the medication I so desperately need to just get through the day (chronic pain is one of my illness’s consequences). I spend sleepless nights worrying about that, you know – about that, and about what I’ll do if my husband loses his job. What if there’s no insurance? If I cannot afford my medication? And what happens if, on top of that, we also lose our home?

I’ve been homeless before, you know – 25 years ago. It was hard enough then: The fear. Being hungry. Listening to drunks and crazies tear apart the shelter – wondering if I should take my chances sleeping under the overpass with all the passed-over Vets (Vietnam back then. I’m sure they’ve been replaced by Iraqi and Afghani Vets now). The shame of interviewing for work wearing the same stained clothes and worn out shoes as the day before. I really don’t think I can handle it now - especially sick. I mean - the pain’s bad enough on its own - but I can hardly walk any more. Navigating the sea of obstacles betwixt my bedroom and my office is an exodus worthy of Leon Uris’s attention. So how on earth could I manage living on the streets? The answer is: I don’t know – I really don’t; but it frightens me half to death thinking about it. Like many other Americans, my husband and I are balanced on the edge of a financial knife – just one paycheck away from oblivion. Homelessness is terrifying when you’re healthy. I cannot even imagine such a circumstance now. What I do know is – I’m not likely to survive it.

So please, President Obama – please give a thought to immediate health care reform. I believe, as an American citizen, I have a right to adequate medical attention. It shouldn’t be predicated upon my (or my spouses) ability to pay. My life is as important as yours, Mr. President. Grant me access to the same care you enjoy as a servant of the people. I would really like to be able to vote for you once again, you know. But without help, I’m afraid any future support I might give may be in spirit only.

The (Pie) Face of Intolerance

A Nation of Stooges
"I don't Care who Started it..."

America the Illiterite (sp)

One of the greatest things about our right to freedom of speech is that some people get to call other people a big fat mofo if somebody else doesn't think like they do. Or better yet, how about a pie in the face? Why stop at civility when there are fundamental illusions on the line?

This week, Chris Hedges explains in his article entitled "America the Illiterate" how we are living in a country of “two Americas” where one of them cannot differentiate between lies and truth:

“They do not require cognitive or self-critical skills. They are designed to ignite pseudo-religious feelings of euphoria, empowerment and collective salvation. Campaigns that succeed are carefully constructed psychological instruments that manipulate fickle public moods, emotions and impulses, many of which are subliminal. They create a public ecstasy that annuls individuality and fosters a state of mindlessness. They thrust us into an eternal present. They cater to a nation that now lives in a state of permanent amnesia. It is style and story, not content or history or reality, which inform our politics and our lives. We prefer happy illusions. And it works because so much of the American electorate, including those who should know better, blindly cast ballots for slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness of candidates. We confuse how we feel with knowledge.”

Here's to raising the country's discourse above the sixth grade level.

Happy Friday!

-2Truthy

Hillary: Sec of State?

It's been confirmed that Hillary met with Obama about a role in the new administration. Why would she want to give up a career as a Senator for a short lived position in the WH? Maybe she doesn't. No word as to what they discussed. The MSM is all over it trying to guess what will happen.

UPDATE: Governor Bill Richardson of NM met with Obama too.
He'd be excellent too.

News of the Weird ...

Drive Carefully Edition.

I'm not even going to comment on this:

Husband's coffin kills wife on way to cemetery
November 13, 2008 - 9:52AM
A Brazilian woman was killed by her husband's coffin on the way to the cemetery to bury him, police said.

Marciana Silva Barcelos, 67, was in the front passenger seat of the hearse when the coffin slammed into her neck during a traffic accident.

She died instantly.

Her husband Josi Silveira Coimbra, 76, died of a heart attack while dancing at a party on Sunday.

The events took place in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

AP

Arr, Mateys!

Most people view pirates like this, thanks to the fact that in this part of the world they're part of history:



Unfortunately, in parts of the Indian Ocean near Somalia pirates are very real, very now, and very dangerous.

Which brings me to this little news article: The Royal Navy's Type 22 frigate, HMS Cumberland, encountered a stolen Yemeni dhow at sea, and when they sent Marines to investigate the pirates aboard opened fire.

No injuries reported among the British Marines and sailors; three dead pirates and the rest taken prisoner.

Huzzah, and a tot of rum all around!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

I have had a lot of fun over the past several years blogging and commenting here at BlondeSense. However, I find myself increasingly out of step with many of the opinions of some of my co-bloggers. While I don't believe that we all must be lockstep in our opinions, I find myself in the awkward position of disagreeing vigorously, and yes, sometimes being embarrassed, by some of the blog's content.

For our fearless leader, BlondeSense Liz, I have nothing but the utmost respect. She is, in my humble opinion, one of the best commenters around on the intersection between politics and religion, a great writer, a terrific wit, and a keen intellectual. In other words, one of those damned East Coast liberal elites we hear so much about. Heh. Most importantly, she's a really kind and caring person. Thanks, Liz, for letting me share your space. I've had a great time.

Best wishes to all.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then

Boehner Demands Fed Identify Recipients of Loans
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- House Republican leader John Boehner called for the Federal Reserve to disclose the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers and the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Boehner, in a prepared statement, also asked the Federal Reserve to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request seeking details about the loans...

Bloomberg News requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.
whole story

It's nice to see Republicans calling for oversight and transparency

h/t farang

and to think I used to like this guy

Dennis Miller: Liberal women hate Sarah Palin because ‘she has a great sex life.’

On the O'Lielly Factor: "She’s a great dame. People are fascinated by her because the Left hate her. I think the Left hate her — mostly women on the Left hate her — because to me from outside in it appears that she has a great sex life, all right? I think she has non-neurotic sex with that Todd Palin guy. … I think that snow mobile looks like mechanized foreplay to me and that’s why people are fascinated."

Miller, as usual, is off the mark.
Who gave a shit about her sex life other than Faux News Pundits? Who's jealous that she snagged Todd? gag me with a spoon.

It's time to tax the hell out of churches

I found yet another reason I am glad to be excommunicated from the RCC. Jesus must be rolling over in his...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein. continued

54 percent of US Catholics chose Obama over "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran."

Arkansas: Worse than Prop 8

Via Fish out of Water

On election day, Arkansas voters passed this proposition by 57%

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
Section 1: Adoption and foster care of minors.
(a) A minor may not be adopted or placed in a foster home if the individual seeking to adopt or to serve as a foster parent is cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage which is valid under the constitution and laws of this state.
(b) The prohibition of this section applies equally to cohabiting opposite-sex and same-sex individuals.

Conservatives who came up with this hatred stated that unwed partners are not fit to adopt or foster a child on the grounds that children must be placed in homes with a mother and father (traditional family values and all that). This comes after the wise Arkansas supreme court threw out a ban on gay couples adopting a child in 2006. This current proposition figures out a way to "blunt the gay agenda." I was wondering just how many stable homes many of us were brought up in... by a married couple.

You can read the whole proposition here.

I did a little back up research and discovered that Arkansas, land of traditional family values and christian conservatives has one of the highest divorce rates in the whole country! Here in Gomorrha, the divorce rate in 2004 was 3/1000 marriages. Over in Sodom or Taxachusetts as it's sometimes called, the divorce rate is only 2/1000. In Arkansas, the rate was more than double that of Gomorrha and more than 3 times the divorce rate of Sodom at 6.6/1000. Furthermore, there are more children up for adoption and foster care in Arkansas than there are qualified and willing families to take them in.

So much for "family values." It has not been stipulated what happens to adoptive children who are living with gay parents will be taken away and put in orphanages. Will this force the government of Arkansas to get inside people's lives to see just what the living arrangements are? What if one spouse in a "traditional" marriage turns out to be gay, like Ted Haggard? Will the children be ripped from their homes? How far can something like this proposition go?


References
U.S. divorce rates for various faith groups, age groups, & geographic areas
U.S. STATE DIVORCE RATES, RANKINGS, WAITING PERIODS, AND RECONCILIATION COUNSELING LAWS [including 2004 data]

Racism hits home

I don't know what to make of all the stories of the overt racism I've been reading about. It appears that it's time to address that racism that is still alive and well in the good old USA. I hope it can be done peacefully.

I guess I have been living in a bubble because while I know that some of my acquaintances are not happy that a black man is president, they haven't dared to say out loud (to me anyway) that they wish anything bad to happen to him. What is upsetting is that most of the appalling behavior and garbage talk I have been reading about in the news is being perpetrated by children. And we all know where children learn their hatred.

Here's the latest offering: Idaho students chant 'assassinate Obama' on school bus: Report This has taken place in Madison Country, Idaho which is 98% white and overwhelmingly Mormon.

Here on very integrated Long Island, some shocking stories have been in the news lately too about redneck white trash in Suffolk County.
Ku Klux Klan literature dropped at Islip Terrace homes
Racial, sexual graffiti found on cars near Mastic homes
A group of teens murdered an Ecuadorian man in Patchogue.

My heart is broken. I had so hoped we were beyond this.

Sheesh

Ted Stevens is now losing the election in Alaska... but then again there are 40,000 more votes to be counted. If Stevens wins, he'd be the first convicted felon ever elected to the Senate.

Comment: We have more people in the Town of Hempstead where I live than in the whole state of Alaska. We have our election shit together.

It is now being reported that the race between Sen Norm Coleman and Al Franken in Minnesota will take another month to be recounted. Beware that there might be a court challenge to the recount. And that wouldn't be very democratic, now would it?

I've Changed

I've chosen a new blogging name: Old Dominion Blue.

Liz, if you could change the template, that would be great.

Thanks to everyone for playing Name That Blogger. And thanks especially to Moopaw for coming up with the new moniker.

-- The Blogger Formerly Known As Red State Blues

Conspiracy Theorist Thursday

I was hoping I would/things would change after the election. I really thought that I/we would breathe a little easier now. FINALLY, I might sleep through the night -- at least a full 8 hours once or twice a week anyway.

Didn't last long. I guess I am a true blue conspiracy theorist. My head is spinning out of control.

In order to preserve what sanity I have left (and spare you -- my friends), I will only bring this up once a week.

Fair?

Did you know that CONSPIRE means "to breathe the same air?

I'll try to lay off Obama and give him a chance (but never on a Thursday)

A fabulous read for all:
Sparing Obama Criticism Isn't Doing Him (or Us) Any Favors - by Tom Engelhardt

Additional reading from Dissident Voice for this here Thursday --

Confessions of a Conspiracy Theorist

Responding to a Conspiracy Theorist’s Confessions

HIV Patient Cured

Doctors in Germany say a patient appears to have been cured of HIV by a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a genetic resistance to HIV.

The result is expected to encourage further interest in gene therapy as a treatment for Aids.

Roughly one in 1,000 Europeans and Americans have an inherited genetic mutation, which prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells.

Fabulously good news for today.

Now that's playing nicely!.......so when are humans going to figure this out???

Stuart Brown describes Norbert Rosing's striking images of a wild polar bear coming upon tethered sled dogs in the wilds of Canada 's Hudson Bay.




The photographer was sure that he was going to see the end of his dogs when the polar bear wandered in.














The Polar Bear returned every night that week to play with the dogs.


(h/t Peter of LoneTree)

Happy Birthday Neil Young

-Happy Birthday, Mr. Weird-

A SONG ALONE

by Neil Young

"No one song can change the world." But that doesn't mean it's time to stop singing. Somewhere on Earth a scientist is alone working. No one knows what he or she is thinking. The secret is just within reach. If I knew that answer I would be singing the song. This is the age of innovation. Hope matters. But not hope alone. In the age of innovation, the people's fuel must be found. That is the biggest challenge. Who is up to the challenge? Who is searching today? All day. All night. Every hour that goes by. I know I am. My friends write to me don't give up. I am not giving up. I know this is the time for change. But I know that it's not a song. Maybe it was. But it isn't now. It's an action, an accomplishment, a revelation, a new way. I am searching for the people's fuel. Will I find it? Yes. I think so. I don't know why I may have been chosen to help enable a discovery of this magnitude. I know I can only write a song about it when I find it. Until then I can write a song about the search or spend all my time looking. But a song alone will not change the world. Even so, I will keep on singing." -NY

-2Truthy

Dennis Kucinich's Sister Dies on Veterans Day

Army Veteran Beth Ann Kucinich, youngest sister of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, died Veteran's Day at Veteran's Hospital in Cleveland, after a battle with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Beth was 48 years old. Her family was at her side throughout the three-week ordeal, as she struggled to survive while on life support. Beth served in the U.S. Army at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. A talented musician as well as an artist, she sold many of her works of art to her fellow veterans at the Brecksville Veterans Center. Her specialty was drawing famous cartoon characters for friends and loved ones on special occasions. "Our brother, Perry passed away last December. Beth Ann never got over Perry's sudden passing. The two had been inseparable. She talked about Perry constantly and she longed to be with him," said her eldest brother Dennis.

Link

bishops in a tizzy

US Catholic bishops have their panties in a twist over the election of a Democrat to the White House. The bishops plan to forcefully deal with Obama. Democrats after all, in their eyes, are sworn baby killers and nothing else. Abortion is still the top issue for US Catholic bishops and it's no secret that they are against birth control... so what the hell do they want? Do they want Obama to ban sex too? Or do they think that an unwanted pregnancy is sufficient punishment? It seems that way when you analyze it.

Why didn't the bishops pressure bush to ban abortions when he had the congress and supreme court in lock step?

54% of Catholics voted for Obama. It appears that the message the bishops were sending didn't get through to the flock.

"Edwards speaks about Obama, Clinton but not affair"

That's the AP Headline.
My headline would have read:
"Maybe Vera Baker can move back to the United States from Martinique."

So Many Douchebags, So Little Time

Yet another AIG resort junket makes the news. Have they no shame? Where do I sign up for my bailout?

Even as the company was pleading the federal government for another $40 billion dollars in loans, AIG sent top executives to a secret gathering at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week.

Reporters for abc15.com (KNXV) caught the AIG executives on hidden cameras poolside and leaving the spa at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, despite apparent efforts by the company to disguise its involvement.

"AIG made significant efforts to disguise the conference, making sure there were no AIG logos or signs anywhere on the property," KNXV reported.


A hotel employee told KNXV reporter Josh Bernstein, "We can't even say the word [AIG]."

A company spokesperson, Nick Ashooh, confirmed AIG instructed the hotel to make sure there were no AIG signs or mention of the company by staff.

"We're trying to avoid confrontation, keep our profile low," said Ashooh. "Some of our employees have been harassed." (continued)

Has anybody here seen my old friend Jenna? Can you tell me where she's gone?
When is she due and is she still pregnant?

Inquiring minds are sorta curious!

Another Veteran's Day Post

A Veteran's Day post from The Minstrel Boy, over at The Group News Blog.

Veteran's Day

President-elect Barack Obama and Major Tammy Duckworth (USA-ret.) laying a wreath at the Soldier's Field Memorial in Chicago, Illinois:



"As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain."

Paul Craig Roberts Says It Also:

BUSINESS AS USUAL
From Counterpunch:
If the change President-elect Obama has promised includes a halt to America’s wars of aggression and an end to the rip-off of taxpayers by powerful financial interests, what explains Obama’s choice of foreign and economic policy advisors? Indeed, Obama’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff is a signal that change ended with Obama’s election. The only thing different about the new administration will be the faces.

Rahm Emanuel is a supporter of Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Emanuel rose to prominence in the Democratic Party as a result of his fundraising connections to AIPAC. A strong supporter of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, he comes from a terrorist family. His father was a member of Irgun, a Jewish terrorist organization that used violence to drive the British and Palestinians out of Palestine in order to create the Jewish state. During the 1991 Gulf War, Rahm Emanuel volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. He was a member of the Freddie Mac board of directors and received $231,655 in directors fees in 2001.

Sounds like the kill-crazy warmongers among the American population will be appeased.

Douchebags of the Week

TRICARE- The Pentagon's Military Health System for active duty members.

TRICARE does not pay for rape kits. Women in the military are twice as likely to be raped as their civilian counterparts. They are more likely to be raped than killed in active duty. In a West La VA Healthcare center, it was reported that 41% of women said they were sexually assaulted while in the military and 29% said that they were raped.

It's not easy to get anyone to do anything about it though.

In July, a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing subpoenaed Kaye Whitley, director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to explain what the department is doing to stop the escalating sexual violence in the military. Her boss, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, ordered her not to appear.

Whitley was finally made available to the committee on Sept. 10, but only after having been threatened with a contempt citation.
...
finally, she had to admit that in 2007 there were 2,688 sexual assaults in the military, including 1,259 reports of rape. Just 8 percent (181) of those cases were referred to courts martial, compared to a civilian prosecution rate of 40 percent. And almost half of those cases were dismissed without investigation.
...
As far back as 1995, Reuters reported that "Ninety percent of women under 50 who have served in the U.S. military and who responded to a survey report being victims of sexual harassment, and nearly one-third of the respondents of all ages say they have been raped."

Furthermore, the Pentagon acknowledges that 80 percent of military rapes are not reported in the first place, suggesting that the actual number, if it were known, would be astronomical.

I recommend reading the whole article and letting your congresscritters know that you know what is going on.

-----------

Speaking of douchebags, read The New Trough by the fabulous Naomi Klein for everything you wanted to know about how private contractors cashed in on the bailout.

Oh Gawd! It is to laugh.

To paraphrase HAL from 2010:
All these examples are yours. Use them.

A new word added to the Urban Dictionary.

Hahahahahehehehehohohohoh!

The Bush Legacy

Seriously... they want to leave a legacy. They want to screw us.

Bush Rolls Back Regulations

Having promised to "sprint to the finish" of his second term and "to remain focused on the goals ahead," President Bush is "working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules" aimed at protecting workers, consumers and the environment, the Washington Post reports. "The administration wants to leave a legacy," said Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, "but across the board it means less protection for the public."

Indeed, the Bush administration is implementing over 90 new regulations which "would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo." The wide array of new regulations includes proposals to undercut outpatient Medicaid services, weaken the Endangered Species Act, and allow increased emissions from older power plants.

In some instances, the administration has allowed federal agencies to circumvent public feedback methods by limiting the period for public comment, "not allowing e-mailed or faxed comments or scheduling public hearings." Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama, meanwhile, "have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies." The kind of regulations they are looking at are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget.

Read more on how Bush will cut back on medicaid, gut endangered species and allow for an increase in pollution.

a one, an a two...



Dancing hexapods

Irony Ahoy!

This is just too damn funny:



Six Christian sects have varying claims upon the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and it can get kind of silly. A ladder that's been sitting on a ledge since the 19th Century can't be moved because no sect can decide who has jurisdiction over it, and the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches are squabbling over who has authority to permit repairs to the roof they both use for their ceremonies.

The brawl you see in the clip is between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks.

I expect to see things like this in the First Church of the WWE, not in a church. But it's certainly enough to raise a smile on my face on a Monday morning.

Trojan Horse, Anyone?

Two words:

Fucking. Wankers.

Those who thought that the $700 billion bailout plan was A Bad Idea must be feeling a soupcon of vindication today, as it was revealed in today's Washington Post that Treasury Secretary and Economic Czar Hank Paulson slipped by the entire legislative process and repealed a tax law that Congress passed into law - back in 1986.

The change to the tax code gives banks a $140 billion windfall. I bet Paulson, former Goldman-Sachs CEO, must be feelig quite pleased with himself (as must be the Randite Republicans who wanted the change made for 22 years).

Lord knows the banks must be happy, as well as the CEOs of the companies that helped push bad paper on people (and who are STILL getting their fat bonuses that have nothing to do with their actual performance in the job).

You know, it's almost axiomatic that as people age they tend to get more conservative. I, however, defy ordinary prediction and have been drifting steadily leftward since first developing a political awareness in eighth grade.

This news is almost enough to make me consider raising the Red Flag.

RIP Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after a concert in Italy. She was 76.

In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world — jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon — and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.
"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and disclocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," Mandela said in a statement.

He said it was "fitting" that her last moments were spent on stage. continued

This is really good: Visit Iran

Check out Jane Stillwater's blog and her visit to Iran. Not at all what you expect. "Iran never disappoints" vacationers.

hat tip to farang who is now trying to keep me cheered up with some good news for a change of pace

The Party is Over

No, not the celebration party.
The Party I am talking about is the "looting of the treasury party", the "Wall Street orgy", the government handout party to Haliburton, Blackwater, the HMOs, the Pharmaceutical Industry, the religious right, Exxon-Mobile and all the Oil Magnates.
The party of the "haves and the have mores" whom Bush called his base.
Above all the Grand Old Party is over. Besides the turmoil, the dissension, the infighting and the "jumping of the ship" trends, the GOP has lost all the demographics of this electorate. "The Math" as Karl Rove was talking about doesn't add up. "Be careful what you wish for" has come true. Karl Rove was talking about delivering a one party majority for the next fifty years to come. I think he succeeded; not the intended Party, but the opposite one.
Now, there are conservative pundits who claim that this country is center-right, but the electoral Map says otherwise.
Here is a Map published by The New York Times, election results county by county:




I would call this CRMA (Center-Right My Ass) You cannot stop progress. Progress can have temporary setbacks, missteps or timely halts, but all those make Progress a greater force on the march into the future. It is the law that governs the Universe.

How weird is that Polls work after all. The MSM has bought into the idea that Polls don't work in these modern times, because people are dishonest with the pollsters. It's so not true. It worked in all the election cycles before and after Karl Rove. Does that make one think, what happened in the last two election cycles when polls did not reflect the final results?

And last, if a friend, family member or acquaintance tells you that they voted for McCain, ask them: "how does it feel to be a loser?"

Rebuilding GOP on basis of "sanctity of marriage"

This is rich.

According to this story at Raw Story, Rep. Mike Pence was on Faux News:

When asked by Chris Wallace what "conservative solutions" the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like "the sanctity of marriage" will remain the backbone of the Republican platform.

"You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage," Pence said.

Everyone knows that the 'sanctity of marriage' is anti-gay and 'sanctity of life' is anti-women for conservatives.

If anyone with a brain and an ounce of empathy wanted to actually uphold the sanctity of life, they'd be more interested in the sociological reasons behind so many abortions in this country in the first place and try to do something about it other than pay lip service to banning it, which they will never do. God forbid if you bring up birth control, then they go into a litany of how birth control is evil. If you bring up the economic issues that are behind many abortions and the fact that there still is no adequate childcare for working women, they change the subject. Furthermore, the sanctity of life should be a seamless garment meaning that the sanctity of life should pertain to all life at all stages and for all people, including those residents of sovereign nations that you invade and blow up for false reasons. So feh on the conservative bullshit-go-round. They don't value life unless it's inside a woman, but not the woman herself. It's almost as if they view a fetus as a punishment for those who dare to have sex.

If you're talking about smaller government, then the government ought to get out of people's bedrooms. We simply cannot afford that. Imagine all the expense of spy satellites and extra police force to make sure that people aren't fornicating? Sheesh. Why not just get to the root of the abortion issue and make this country one where having a baby isn't such an economic disaster for parents. And we all know how the free markets touted by the conservatives has worked out. Grow up already!

If one values the sanctity of marriage, you would think that there would be an attempt at understanding why there are so many divorces in this country, particularly among Republicans and red state denizens. One should start with the crumbling heterosexual unions across this fabulous land of ours before worrying about homosexuals who want to make their unions legal. Why so many divorces anyway? Could it be that many were forced into marriage a la the Palins? Most of those marriages are doomed from the start. Could there be financial problems that break up families? Perhaps looking into the lousy job situation in the country and poor child care services would help marriages last. Why not add birth control education to the abstinence only education for those who can't wait until their union is sanctified? Nothing like a crying baby born to teenagers to take the love and devotion out of a relationship. No one is arguing that marriage shouldn't be a sacred union. Why not think of ways to help people make their marriages last? Or just STFU.

If the Jeso-fascists who are behind all this sanctity of marriage baloney would take a look in their bibles, they would learn much to their dismay that Jesus was totally against divorce and ordered that divorced people do not remarry until their previous spouse was dead and buried. He also said that one should take the log out of their own eye before they started pointing at specks in their neighbor's eye. So before you worry about what gay people are doing, you ought to take a look at what a fine example of heterosexual marital bliss you are setting for everyone else.

How simply naive in this day and age to think that you can solve the only so called ''social problems'' like abortions and bad marriages by simply telling people not to have sex or blaming the homosexuals. Silly twits.

Recession?

Do you remember early 2001 when Bush couldn't say it enough times, "We inherited a recession from the previous administration"? He couldn't say that we were in a recession enough. I remember thinking that he would bring one on with all the talk about recession.

Now you can't even get the WH to say that we are in a recession even though we most certainly are in a recession.

I hope that Obama remembers to tell Americans during his first months in office that the recession is something he inherited from the previous administration.

--------

In other news, the conservatives are planning to use Newt Gingrich as their spokesmodel and hero for their agenda. I suppose that they don't remember how much his presence at Bob Dole's side in the 90's hurt his chances for election. Novakula calls him the "Moses" of teh conservative movement. Fine. Whatever. I remember clearly thinking years ago that Gingrich's contract for America was something that would set us back 500 years. I don't think American's are interested in something like that. We voted for change and we want it.

Transition team working to reverse bush era actions

According to the NY Times, while the bushistas are scurrying to enact a series of post-election regulations that would hinder, rather than help Americans who need it, like a new rule that would narrow the scope of services provided to poor people under Medicaid at a time when people are losing their jobs or their healthcare insurance or both, The Washington Post reports that "Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team."

Obama's team says that many of these bush administration actions and orders were overtly political and set up solely for the Republican agenda. He will reinstate Clinton policies that were upended during 8 years of the bushistas. He will also embrace new environmental safeguards.

The bush administration last year denied California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. Obama will overturn that decision. Obama's team doesn't want politics to trump science. Greenhouse gas emissions will now be considered when studying environmental impact of their actions.

The transition team will also seek new guidelines for the Food and Drug Adminstration. I hope this means that we will reconsider Chinese imports.

The bushistas are rapidly enacting new rules and keeping the transition team on its toes.

I would have to say that I'm pretty excited about it all.

See Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions
and New U.S. Rule Pares Outpatient Medicaid Services

Palin blamed by SS for Obama death threats

It is no wonder that people felt such hatred for Barack Obama after they listened to the vitriol spewed forth by Sarah Palin about his supposed terrorist allies. Her behavior was completely irresponsible and it is time that politicians are made to face the music about allegations they make about their opponents. From the Telegraph:

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

When you have a campaign with nothing to run on, you can only do one thing: criticize your opponent as much as possible and instill fear in the voters. The right wing is good at that. I'm still surprised to this day that the McCain/Palin ticket got so many votes. Just goes to show you that fear mongering works wonders.

For your enjoyment...

YIKES! This Rahmbo dude has quite the background.......

President Elect Obama has started building his team. Rahm Emanuel will be The White House Chief of Staff.




From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Hiring Emanuel shows Obama's hand
There are a million stories about the 49-year-old, profane, pirouetting, ballet-trained Emanuel.......

Friends from childhood include Wendy Cohen, a senior policy adviser for the Illinois attorney general, who remembers when the Emanuel clan bought the house across the street in the affluent suburb of Wilmette in the late 1960s.

"I have a memory of when they moved in, the dog ran away and the three boys" -- Rahm, Ari and Ezekiel -- fanned out like "roadrunners . . . feudal lords . . . they were loud and warm with hearts of gold," Cohen said.

That kind of affection may not be shared by members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, who have felt Emanuel's razor-sharp elbows in their ribs.

Personal Life:
Rahm Israel Emanuel (Hebrew: רם עמנואל‎) was born in Chicago, Illinois.[30] His first name, Rahm, means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew,[31] while his last name, Emanuel, means "God is with us." According to his father, his son is the namesake of Rahamim, a Lehi combatant who was killed.[32] Rahm’s surname was adopted by his family in 1933, after Rahm’s paternal uncle, Emanuel Auerbach, was killed in a skirmish with Arabs in Jerusalem.[33] His father, the Jerusalem-born Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician and former member of the Irgun,[32] a staunchly nationalist Zionist terror militia active in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1931 and 1948. His mother, Martha Smulevitz, worked as an X-ray technician and was the daughter of a local union organizer.[6] She became a civil rights activist; she was also once the owner of a Chicago-area rock and roll club.[33] The two met in Chicago in the 1950s.[34] Emanuel's older brother, Ezekiel, is an oncologist and bioethicist, and his brother Ari is a talent agent in Los Angeles who inspired Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage.[6] Emanuel himself is the inspiration for the character Josh Lyman on The West Wing[35]. Emanuel is a first cousin of Howard Stern Show writer Benjy Bronk.

Career in finance

After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel left the White House to become an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella, (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until 2002.[9] In 1999, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office. Emanuel made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker, according to Congressional disclosures.[9][10] At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.[9]
Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton in 2000. He resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for congress.[11

Controversies

Some Palestinians were angry over Obama’s appointment of Emanuel as Chief of Staff, especially after his father Benjamin Emanuel was interviewed by the Hebrew daily Maariv in an article entitled “Our Man in the White House.” He stated: "Obviously, he will influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why shouldn't he do it? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floor of the White House." [39]
[edit]Works

yadda yadda yadda

Peter.....

I really wish you didn't send this story to me.

I was just starting to feel a calmness that I haven't felt for a long time.

Didn't last long, did it?

Just give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves

My favorite reading today is Palin in spotlight as Republicans turn on each other
It appears that the right wing is divided among the 'elites' and the trash-- those who want nothing to do with Palin and those who thinks she's the Mooses moo.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is worse than I thought," Limbaugh told listeners. "What the Republican party, led by disgruntled and failed McCain staffers, is trying to do to Sarah Palin, is unconscionable ... There are country-club, blue-blood ... Republicans who want nothing to do with a firebrand conservative [who] can fire up people." He added: "We're going to be taking on two things here [over] the next four years: Obama, and our own party establishment."

What's most amusing is that wingnuts are boycotting Faux News because the leaks about Palin's abhorrent behavior were reported by Faux first. How dare they report something that might be true? It hurts to be awoken from la la land. The rest of us only had to listen to what came out of her mouth to label her as a whacko and the rest of the dirt that came out this week was only icing on the cake.

What I took away from the above article is that truth isn't the name of the game. Facts don't matter. All that matters is how things are supposed to be perceived and no one better reveal what's behind the curtain. But we already knew that. It's a big show.

I'm not going to worry about what the right has to say about Obama because the left is already on the job. I'm somewhere in the middle, but enjoying the hell out of the wingnut's meltdown.
.

Hunting Season? Americans are Up in arms

Obama's Election Sparks Gun Sales
While shoppers are cutting back on almost everything, sales of one item are suddenly soaring -- guns. Buyers across the country are snapping up firearms at a record pace

At 9 a.m. today, the counter was already crowded at Cheaper Than Dirt, a discount gun and ammunition store in Fort Worth, Texas.

"Everyone is here for the same reason: Buy it now or you're not going to have a chance in the future," said Charlie Street, a gun owner.

At Cheaper Than Dirt alone, more than $100,000 in guns and ammunition have been sold every day since Election Day. Buyers are stocking up before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Is the Secret Service taking note of this?

"Election Day, people wake up and say, 'Obama, oh my!'" said Dewayne Irwin, owner of Cheaper Than Dirt. "It's the knee-jerk reaction but it's good for business."

Business is so good that Irwin spent the morning furiously calling suppliers to find more guns.

"You can't find an AK-47 from a distributor anywhere in the nation," Irwin said, looking at his computer and checking on inventory.

AK-47's? Who knew American peni were so short?

Sales are brisk across the West. Background checks for new gun owners jumped 15 percent last month, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

Colorado just set a record for the highest number of background checks for new gun owners, nearly 1,500 in a single day, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Obama says he supports the right to bear arms with reasonable restrictions. But that has not been enough reassurance for some people or enough to quell the spreading fear among gun owners..

Good Lord, and people thought that the lefties were paranoid of the government. Turns out that the NRA urged people to go out and buy guns when Obama was elected. The reason assault weapons are so popular is because Obama has talked about renewing the expired federal ban on them... or so they say that's the reason. Gawd forbid you come face to face with a wild deer in your backyard.

(Delayed) Obligatory Friday Bank Failure Post

"Regulators shut banks in Texas, California"
"Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.

"The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17."

Complete List: Where else? The Bank Implode-O-Meter!

All together now, And a 1, and a 2:
"Unhappy days are here again;
The skies above are gray again..."

Bullies Get Brain Scanned

... and it appears that they may actually enjoy seeing someone else in pain.

Of course this comes as no surprise to those who have been bullied or watched Fox News.

LIEberman wants you to forget that he was a traitor

Senator Joe LIEberman backtracked after he spoke about his future with Harry Reid: "Partisanship should take a back seat to doing what ... was best for our country. But the election is over and I completely agree with Obama that we must now unite to get our economy going and to keep the American people safe."



UPDATE: Harry Reid wants to put LIEberman's fate to a Democratic Senator vote on November 18th. Find out how you can get involved with giving LIEberman that push out the door that he so desperately needs.

Thought for the Day

Karl Rove dreamed of a one party system. He should be careful of what he wishes for.
-----

Spewing over at Faux News, Rove is claiming now that Obama is too liberal for this "center-right" country and he tricked them into voting for him by running a center-right campaign. I laugh because Faux News spent the better part of their broadcasting accusing Obama of being a socialist and the most liberal member of the Senate.

Evo Morales: DEA Complicit in Drug Trade

Bolivian leader Evo Morales plans to present proof to Barack Obama that the US DEA has actually encouraged drug trafficking. The DEA was asked to leave the country and did not.

Throughout the 1990s, the DEA in Bolivia "bribed police officers, violated human rights, covered up murders, destroyed bridges and roads," said Quintana.

Morales earlier Thursday said that after a 1986 operation in Huanchaca National Park, it was determined that the largest cocaine processing plant "was under DEA protection."

He also charged that the DEA had investigated political and union leaders opposed to neoliberal economic policies, which he said amounted to political persecution.

I hope Evo Morales will be safe.

Question of the day

Is it cool to be American again?

I'm sure some (most) of us radical progressives(!) felt that there was something about the "YouBetcha" female moose that was unsettling but couldn't quite define. I felt that she was totally a fraud and secretly a Leona Helmsley/Joan Crawford with a 457 H&R, 500 grain steel-jacketed moose killer and baby seal clubber.
She seemed the type to gleefully smile while she killed your dog all the while telling you that she's just doing what her people want. Now we find that in addition to being totally devoid of any form of common sense or intellect, she has the personality of a psychotic and is also a pathological liar (requirement to be a fundie?).
Too bad Hitchcock is dead; Ms. Bullwinkle would be a star!


These are presented for your enjoyment. I know I enjoyed them.
From Huffington Post and AmericaBlog.


Palin didn't know Africa is a Continent


Now that the 2008 election is over, reporters are spilling all the juciest, and previously off the record, gossip from the campaign trail. Much of it is about the infighting between Palin and McCain's staff, as Newsweek's treasure trove of post-election gossip reveals.
However, perhaps one of the most astounding and previously unknown tidbits about Sarah Palin has to do with her already dubious grasp of geography. According to Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency," in part because she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA, and she "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."
Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw "tantrums" over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears.


Palin Once Greeted McCain Staff Wearing Only a Towel


The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner | November 5, 2008 11:07 AM
From Newsweek's Special Election Project comes the real Sarah Palin. She met staff members in a towel:
At the GOP convention in St. Paul, Palin was completely unfazed by the boys' club fraternity she had just joined. One night, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter went to her hotel room to brief her. After a minute, Palin sailed into the room wearing nothing but a towel, with another on her wet hair. She told them to chat with her laconic husband, Todd. "I'll be just a minute," she said.
She raised William Ayers before the campaign signed off on it:
Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.
And she spent far more on clothes than was reported:
NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family--clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.
Finally, Steve Schmidt (who reportedly picked Palin as VP) would not let her speak on election night.
McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign, and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech Tuesday night, but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.


FOX: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent, she thought it was a country


Smith: Now that the election is over, Carl, tell us more about those reports of infighting between Palin and McCain staffers.

Cameron: I wish I could have told you more at the time but all of it was put off the record until after the election. There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lack the degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency. We're told by folks that she didn't know what countries that were in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that being the Canada, the US, and Mexico. We're told she didn't understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country just in itself ... a whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgeability. She got very angry at staff, thought that she was mishandled.....was particularly angry about the way the Katie Couric interview went. She didn't accept preparation for that interview when the aides say that that was part of the problem. And that there were times that she was hard to control emotionally there's talk of temper tantrums at bad news clippings......

Notwithstanding that there is to be an avalanche that will continue for many days now we're told of story upon story of the foibles of Sarah Palin.
Via Huff Post:
According to Fox News Chief White House Correspondent Carl Cameron, there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency," in part because she didn't know which countries were in NAFTA, and she "didn't understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series, a country just in itself."
Why don't the Republicans just pick Gumby next time.

More from Greg Mitchell:
Carl Cameron talking to Bill O'Reilly just now on Fox reveals that McCain aides were truly "shocked" at the lack of knowledge Sarah Palin displayed once they were stuck with her. He said that, in the most startling shortcoming, she actually "thought Africa was a country, not a continent." This led, among other things, to her asking how, in that case, South Africa could be a separate country. She also could not name all of the countries in North America, he said, not even the NAFTA partners. And she did not know many of the basics of civics and local/state/national duties.

That explains, he said, why tensions erupted as McCain aides were truly alarmed by all of this -- yet Palin wanted to speak out freely. So in the closing week or so, they reveal, she took to yelling and screaming at aides over her press clippings, even "tossing papers" around. She was so out of touch she actually refused coaching before the Katie Couric interviews, then yelled at staffers for not preparing her better or warning her off the interviews.

Thursday morning humour(less).

Read this if you haven’t eaten yet. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Wall Street Journal Online

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace
By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO
WSJ

“Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them.”

“The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.”

I just don’t know why all you people just can’t get along with such a wonderful guy! After everything he’s done to help this country…it’s people…oh, please. Make him stop! The tears! I can’t see the keybsofjerd….

What really went on behind the scenes

Great article over at Newsweek about the special election project which was kept under wraps until today. Hackers and Spending Sprees.

Obama's computer system was hacked by a foreign entity.

Newsweek also reported that Sarah Palin's shopping spree was much more extensive than was previously reported. She spent tens of thousands on the First Dude's clothes as well. Turns out that McCain hardly ever spoke to Palin and his aides didn't tell him how much she was spending on her clothes for fear he would be greatly offended. The GOP should be getting the bills shortly and will find out exactly how much she bilked them for.

There were grave threats to the Obama's and that information was given to them by the Secret Service around September and October. It is suspected that Palin's nasty rhetoric at rallies had something to do with it. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle asked a top campaign aide.

The night before the last debate, the McCain campaign was already writing off any chance that he could win the election. The McCain campaign did not sign off on Palin's attack of Obama's so called association with Ayers. McCain didn't want Rev. Wright brought up either.
Sarah Palin met with McCain staffers wearing only a towel in her hotel room.

There's a lot more in the article Hackers and Spending Sprees.

I'm not sure that Gov. Palin understands the damage she did to the American people with her lies, half truths and vitriol. We are still a nation divided thanks to her and of course, John McCain. Today millions of Americans are afraid of Barack Obama and think that we elected a terrorist. The vitriol spewed by the McCain campaign will take some time to subside. It's very sad.

I don't know how lovely and gracious I can be when I meet McCain supporters who want to tell me that I elected a Muslim terrorist socialist commie Marxist un-american black person. I don't know if I can hold back from replying that they are fucking morons without a clue or an original thought. The real America is in the diverse communities across this land mass and I am sick of it being suggested otherwise. Stubborn narrowmindedness is not a virtue of Americans and it never was contrary to what those who live isolated lives in sheltered communities think.

While I was terrified of a Sarah Palin vice presidency, it wasn't because of anything that the Obama campaign said about her or even what the media said about her. It was simply because of what she said and did. She was her own worst enemy and John McCain's too. So much for his judgement. I was very happy to see her cry on television today. I'm sorry, but I was. Because of her, we came very close to having another 4 years of failed bush policies.

I also read today that McCain didn't allow Palin to speak at the concession speech last night. Hmmm.

UPDATE: While folks were celebrating in Chicago last night, police picked up a man during a routine traffic stop and found weapons in his car along with a laptop open to a page warning of possible riots in Chicago if Obama won the election. Gee, I wonder why people hate Obama?

UPDATE II: Via Americablog
Palin thought Africa was a country. She didn't know the countries in North America nor did she know what countries were involved with NAFTA. She threw temper tantrums and hissy fits when she read what the press had to say about her and pissed off McCain aides. She refused coaching for her Couric interview and then berated staffers afterwards for not coaching her. There's more.

Oh Well........

Here's the ballot question --Shall the City change the name of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the George W Bush Sewage Plant?



Looks like it's a NO vote on the renaming of the Sewage Plant in San Francisco.

Bush Defended from Malodorous Tribute in WSJ


Proposition R
Renaming the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant
City of San Francisco
Ordinance - Majority Approval Required
Fail: 63,879 / 30.86% Yes votes ...... 143,087 / 69.14% No votes

Disability Alert!

Residents of many states throughout the Union, this blogger included, have been absolutely devastated by the tidal wave of prosperity* sweeping across the land today. Yup. I might be outta commission for a while.

* Liz, is there any way we kin git synonymchek on the blog as well as spellchek? Maybe I really wanted to write "AUSTerity"--seems the European and American markets took a real shit today.

The Whole World Was Watching

What did they have to say about it?

The late "Badger" Bob Johnson, coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins used to say,
"It's a great day for hockey!"

It ain't too bad for some other things, either.

Change You Can Believe In

After almost four years of blogging and commenting, I can no longer be Red State Blues. The Old Dominion now has two Democratic senators, a significant Democratic House delegation, and a Democratic governor; and we now have voted for a Democratic President.

So, help a former red state girl out here. I am now accepting suggestions for a new blogger name. Please leave yours in the comments.

Mass. voters decriminalize marijuana

Good for them. Waiting for it to happen in my state.

Cindy Sheehan Outpolls Republican in California's 8th District

House 8 County Results 473 of 473 Precincts Reporting

Party Candidate V% Votes
D Nancy Pelosi* 72% 126,073
I Cindy Sheehan 17% 29,951
R Dana Walsh 9% 16,149

Everybody O.K.?

TWIST by Xavier Rudd

Everybody going to paddle out together,
any kind of weather
because everybody's ok
Everybody going to kick back together,
Speak about each other
because everybody's ok
Some people going to twist up together,
Help to feel better
because everybody's ok

CHORUS:
from looking far and wide I can see we're ok
When there's people all around,
just searching for some shade
and a little bit of food just to see the next day
because the fields have dried up and the money never came
Can you sing to your creator, give tobacco to a tree
Or some flowers to your mother,
cause she gave you what you need


Everybody can you lay back together, stargaze together,
because everybody's ok
You know your children going to help you feel better,
If your close to each other
because everybody's ok


CHORUS

Everybody can you sway to the music,
let the spirit choose you,
because everybody's feeling ok
So everybody can you sway to the music,
let the spirit choose you
because everybody's feeling ok

2008 Election Liveblog

Okay, I've had my supper (leftover homemade macaroni and cheese casserole with ham, onions and peas - yum!) and I've settled in to switch back and forth between the Internet and NBC, a pad and pen in hand.

7 PM: And - we're off! We start with Kentucky for McCain and Vermont for Obama. Slow start, but it's early days yet.

8 PM: Holy shit. Two states McCain counted on - New Hampshire and Pennsylvania - just went to Obama. I can hear the machinery starting to creak into life on the Million-Pound Shithammer.

8:30: Okay, the bulk of the New England states went for Obama, as they were predicted to do, with McCain taking the Deep South, including Alabama and Georgia.

9:30: The Million-Pound Shithammer's gears start to shift, meaning that it's going to be a hard night for the Republican ticket. Ohio's gone to Obama, and I'm sure McCain's starting to feel like he really shoulda stayed in bed.

9:49: 200 to 90, with a lot of territory left to cover. Virginia, North Carolina and Florida haven't been called yet. I'll post this now, and update as things go on. I plan on staying up until the polls close in Hawaii (about 1 AM Easterm).

UPDATE 1 - 10 PM: Tom Brokaw looks drunk or at least distracted as Brian William asks him a question. The scenes from Grant Park look like someone will start tossing a beach ball around any second. The Phoenix Biltmore, on the other hand, looks like there's a wake atmosphere starting to crank up. Texas, Utah and Mississippi for McCain, Iowa for Obama. 207-135 is the count and the amount, and thank you again for playing Dialing for Votes.

I've been flipping back and forth to various sites to collect more info.

UPDATE 2 - 10:45 PM: Nebraska didn't split, and McCain picks up 5 EV. Still waiting on Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, all of whom are about 90% complete on their reporting. NBC's Chuck Todd points out Orange and Pinellas Counties in Florida as areas that went to Bush in 2004 but now show Obama majorities. I imagine McCain might start fantasizing about stuffing Palin into a wood chipper, beehive hairdo first.

UPDATE 3 - 11 PM: NBC has called the election.

Join with me now in congratulating Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America. We wish him well, and Goddess bless America.

Idaho went to McCain, but California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii went into the blue, giving Obama 284 electoral votes to McCain's 146.

11.12: Virginia goes to Obama. 297 EV. The Shithammer falls, with a resounding cacophony of metal, crushing all in its path. The 70,000 or so in Grant park are partying.

11:19: McCain's out in front of the cameras to concede. Fairly classy, but the crowd's not helping. Pledges to work with Obama to fix things, and asks the supporters to help him as well. No sign of Palin yet.

11:25: 333-156, as Florida and Colorado go blue. Arizona went red.

11:30: Ah, there's Palin, with her brave smile pasted securely into position as McCain calls her a hard campaigner. Wraps up by thanking his supporters. "Americans never quit; we never surrender." Well said.

11:36: Still waiting on North Carolina, Indiana, Montana, Missouri, Nevada and Alaska, but I shall crack open my vodka and drink a toast. Prosit!

Presidential Results

This will go live when polls close on the east coast.

2001 - eight years later!

Hey Peter,
For us old geezers...and some of the new young geezers.

W. Benton Overstreet / Billy Higgins
Ethel Waters 1921 and Billie Holiday 1930s, Vaughn Monroe and others later

There'll Be Some Changes Made

They say don't change the old for the new
But I've found out that this will never do
When you grow old don't last long
You're here today and then tomorrow you're gone
I loved a man for many years gone by
I thought his love for me would never die
He made some changes that would never do
From now on I'm going to make some changes too
For there's a change in the weather
There's a change in the sea
So from now on there'll be in change in me
My walk will be different, my talk and my name
Nothin' about me is going to be the same
I'm goin' to change my way of livin'
If that ain't enough
Then I'll change the way that I strut my stuff
'Cause nobody wants you when you're old and gray
There'll be some changes made today
There'll be some changes made

They say the old time things are the best
That may be very good for all the rest
But I'm goin' to let the old things be
'Cause they are certainly not suited for me
There was a time when I thought that way
That's why I'm all alone here today
Since every one these days seeks something new
From now on I'm goin' to seek some new things too
For there's a change in the fashion
Ask the feminine folks
Even Jack Benny has changed jokes
I must make some changes from old to new
I must do things just the same as others do
I'm goin' to change my long, tall
daddy for a little short fat
Goin' to change the number where I live at
I must have some lovin' or I'll fade away
There'll be some changes made today
There'll be some changes made today

World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'

That's the story at Yahoo News.

I too hope for a less arrogant America, but the arrogant ones may still win if people get tired and exasperated at the polls. What's positive though is that the rest of world is hoping that America, the country will shine again and that's something I think that everybody wants, even the ignoramuses who think Sarah Palin is all that. It's been pretty embarrassing to be American for the past 8 years and also watching McCain/Palin rallies. I hope that we can put an end to that divisiveness and arrogance once and for all.

Voting was a piece of cake here on Long Island as usual. There are always enough voting booths and the lines are separated by neighborhoods. No one hassled us for voting cards or ID. I wish it could be the same everywhere. Maybe it's time to make federal laws so that everyone can cast their vote easily and quickly with no fear of foul play. It took me less than 30 seconds to vote.

Something I thought of last night when I was at the ATM machine-- If Diebold can make ATM machines that never screw up, how come they couldn't make accurate voting machines? I've never had my banking messed up by electronic banking, not even online. Isn't that strange? And how come most of Europe votes with paper ballots and it works out? Why aren't Americans freaking out that we can't trust our votes to count across the country? What century is this?

How was voting by you? How are you feeling about the election?

Some tunes for Election Day - courtesy of Locust St.

Monday, November 03, 2008



Here's the Link - have a listen
The Impressions, This Is My Country.
Woody Guthrie, This Land Is Your Land.
Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin'

Obama takes the lead in NH

Tiny Dixville Notch in northern New Hampshire is the first place to vote on election day. They haven't voted for a Democrat since 1968. So it was a given that they'd go for McCain.

Well stop the presses! Obama won Dixville Notch in a landslide victory of 15 to 6!
In Hart's Location, another small NH town, Obama won a landslide victory of 17-10 with 2 write in votes for Ron Paul.

Sad News for Obama

Can you imagine a sadder thing? Barack Obama's grandmother passed away today, one day before the election. How very awful.

UPDATE:

TPM: The wackos on the right are enjoying this.

Americablog: Disturbed, Desperate Republicans filed FEC complaint against Obama today for visiting his dying grandmother

Can you imagine Obama supporters being cruel if McCain's mom were to pass away? I think not. It goes to show you what vile evil scum are many McCain supporters.

Headline of the Hour:

Can Obama win popular vote but lose election?

Hey! Johnny Boy is going to Roswell Today!!

Roswell, New Mexico




ido alwatta bushdoo!

Election Forecast

No, I'm not going to give you my guesses on who will win the Presidency, how many seats the Democrats will pick up in the Senate and House, or who will win various gubenatorial races around the country.

I mean the Election Day weather forecast.

In my neck of the woods, here it is: mostly cloudy, with a moderate chance of some light showers, with temperatures in the low 60s.

Not bad, not bad. It certainly won't be the deciding factor in keeping people away from the polls.

How about where you live?

Just wondering

Obama holds an outstanding lead in the polls and a high popularity rating. The polls could be wrong though and McCain could win thanks to voter manipulation and/or voter stupidity once again.

How nervous are you that we could be in for another 4 years of failed bush policies via a McCain administration? Would Obama concede before all the votes are counted like Democratic winners before him? What will become of Joe LIEberman? Will he fade away like Frist, Delay, Hastert, et al?

What's up with Joe the f*cking plumber being the spokesperson for that campaign? Do you think Americans anywhere buy that nonsense spewed forth by him? Who's more terrifying: Joe the Plumber, Joe Sixpack or Sarah Palin?

Do you think that the conspiracy theorists are relieved that the elections will most likely be held tomorrow after all or are they still thinking the worst with one day left?

How are you feeling on this last day before the big day?

I just had to laugh

Spiegel has a photo gallery of bush's funniest moments.
I suppose if I wasn't so pissed off at his administration 99% of the time, I would find the man mildly amusing. Will the next president give us so many reasons to play "Caption this?"

See also BATTERED AND BRUISED America Looks Beyond the Bush Warriors at Spiegel. It's always interesting to see how we look from across the Atlantic.

"Impeachment is off the table."

Even our nearest neighbor is turning the proper color for Tuesday.

John McCain on SNL

John McCain was hilarious on SNL last night. Tina Fey as La Mooseburger was fab too.
You can watch it at HuffPo.

Be Careful What You Pray For

Religious Americans are praying and fasting as we move closer to election day. They are praying that Christians will get up off the couch and go out and vote (for McCain/Palin) because they stand for the "sanctity of life."

"We have just days to pray that someone who upholds the sanctity of life and marriage between one man and one woman will win," said Pam Olsen, co-pastor with her husband of the International House of Prayer in Tallahassee, Fla.

Olsen, who personally supports Republican John McCain, is organizing a marathon of prayer, fasting and Bible reading at the Capitol starting Saturday until the state's polls close.

"The outcome is up to God," she said.

This is going on country wide.

If there really is a "God" up there and he really does value the "sanctity of life" and he really can sway the electorate, which candidate do you think he'd pick? I don't have a clue although I think that the God of Jesus would choose the candidate who is less likely to bomb the shit out of sovereign nations... but then again the Old Testament God would probably choose McCain.

What would an Obama win say to all the religious zealots? Will they be convinced that God chose Obama and leave the presidency in "God's hands" as it were?

REPOST: Saturday Food for Thought

Message from Liz: I though that these two articles below suggested by Walt were excellent especially The Triumph of Ignorance because during election time most people with critical thinking skills are completely baffled by the anti-intelligent religious zealots that predominate the political atmosphere. Was it always like this? How did the ignorant get so powerful? Could religion hold the key?
---------------------------

From Egypt: That's America, Folks!

From India (via England): The Triumph of Ignorance: Why do morons succeed in US politics?

Sorry Honey.......we've got to rethink this college thing

I can't bear another college open house. No. 2 will be graduating this year and has hopes of going off to college this Fall.

You all know how long I've been searching for a job. I've stayed home for 20 years raising 3 kids. Was making close to 50k when I stopped working in 1989. My difficulty landing a job that pays more than 20k probably has something to do with my resume. Just guessing. My "Recent Experience" section reads: Just a Mom

I'm college edumacated and blah blah blah....... and I wouldn't change a thing about staying home and raising kids. You know how I feel about having at least one parent at home to raise children. (I did work many part time jobs around their schedules for the past 20 years)

I'm just starting to feel a bit overwhelmed at the moment because I really thought that we'd be able to make it work (sending the kids to college) once I went back to the 40-50 hour work week. Use all my salary for 8 - 10 years and pay for our kids college tuition so we/they wouldn't have to take out any loans. Hubby and I had been there, done that. We each paid about $85 a month for ten years when we were first married. Seemed like a lot at the time, but just a drop in the bucket compared to the figure I just gave my daughter (100k loan @ 8% interest for 20 years is a approx. $800.) I thought that I would be able to change the locks once the kids were out of the house!! Guess not. I told her that if she wanted to come back home after she went away to college and pay off her loan, she was more than welcome. ($800 was the amount per month of our first mortgage). She will apply for scholarships to try to get that figure down, but this year, across our nation, the current 2009 high school graduating class will be the LARGEST in our history. College endowments probably aren't fairing too well in this market. So, a lot of their "scholarship money" might not be spread around to too many students. The competition is fierce -- you can imagine.

I hear all kinds of stories about college grads not even getting jobs.

I now read this from THE DAILY RECKONING, my "second" favorite financial guys (The Dark Wraith is my FIRST and #1 main financial man!). It's by Bill Boner: Disappearing on the Pampas. I feel like a college education (i.e. a $100,000 loan) is very risky at the moment. I'm starting to think that a $100,000 small business loan would be a better way to go. But then I look at this beautiful, bright girl who wants to do everything, go everywhere, and experience everything, I say GO FOR IT!! But then I think about all those hangovers and think - hmmmmm - not worth $800 a month for 20 years!! PLUS......she tells me that when she has kids she wants to stay home like I did so they wouldn't have to go to day care. I'm afraid to tell her that she won't be able to afford them unless she works 5 jobs!! I almost feel like telling her not to have children (blogging has a way of putting our current world into perspective), but I won't. I do tell them not to have kids unless they are 100% ready, willing and able though.

Maybe things will turn out fine. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much. They already call me "Debbie Downer" all the time. I should just shut my mouth - things always have a way of working out.....right?

Here's Mr. Bonner's Daily Reckoning - in full today. I'll provide just the link next week when it shows up under archives.

Disappearing on the Pampas
Paris, France
Friday, October 31, 2008

---------------------

*** Consumers are guarding their wallets…look for unemployment to keep going up…

*** Globalization doing the moonwalk…what conditions await the next president…

*** The Bank of Bernanke will do what it promised to do…questions from dear readers…and more!

U.S. consumers cut back sharply," says the front page of today's International Herald Tribune.

"Decline is biggest since '80; data show a shrinking GDP."

Well…what did they expect?

We are in an especially cheerful mood here at the Paris headquarters of The Daily Reckoning. Why? Because everything is happening as it should. God is in his Heaven. The Queen is on her throne. And the Big Boom is turning into a Big Bust.

As predicted in this space, many times, consumer spending is falling hard. But what else could it do?

Let's look back over our shoulder to see how we got to this place.

The feds goosed up the slumping economy in 2002 with history-making inputs of new cash and extra-easy credit. What followed was an once-in-a-lifetime bubble in housing…which lifted up the entire world economy. Americans bought things they couldn't really afford with money they didn't really have. And the whole world rejoiced.

But when housing prices got so far out of whack that the average person couldn't dream of buying the average house, something had to give.

Housing began to fall…taking the mortgage-backed speculative finance business down with it.

At first, few people took it serious; so it took a long time for homeowners to react. But they had to cut spending sooner or later.

In an economy that is nearly 80% based on consumer spending, less spending is bound to cause a recession.

And when businesses take in less revenue, their stock prices are sure to fall.

All that has happened, just like it should.

But what should happen next?

First, we should begin to see some shocking unemployment numbers. It takes time to prune payrolls, but we should be seeing the deadwood on the ground very soon. And then some green wood. Good, young employees will be cut along with the baby boomers.

A new hotel opening in Las Vegas put out a call for employees. It got 67,000 applicants for 500 jobs. And American Express said yesterday that it will cut 7,000 employees.

Unemployment is officially at about 6% now. It will pass 10%…and keep going up.

Then, we will begin to see a big increase in bankruptcies, defaults, and foreclosure. Even after layoffs and cutbacks, businesses will be unable to pay their bills. Laid-off workers will find it tough to find new jobs; they will declare bankruptcy too. Corporate bonds will become worthless. Billions in automobile and credit card debt - along with mortgage debt - will become uncollectible.

What else will happen?

Globalization will walk backwards. This time, there will be no need for Misters Smoot and Hawley. Mr. Market will do their work for them. Global trade will collapse as the consumers of first and last resort - Americans - stop spending.

We've already seen this happening in the capital equipment area. Volvo got orders for 41,970 of its big trucks in the 3rd quarter of 2007. In the 3rd quarter of 2008, meanwhile, Volvo got a total of 155 orders.

As Mark Gilbert reports at Bloomberg, if no one buys trucks, you don't have to ship trucks. Shipping rates are collapsing too. Now it barely costs 10% as much to ship a truck as it did at the beginning of the year.

It's a "descent into Hell," says Michael Bloomberg himself, describing what waits for the next U.S. president.

*** So, you see, dear reader, what MUST happen DOES happen. Sometime it takes longer than you expect. And often it doesn't happen exactly the way you expect. But it is a relief to know that gravity still works…what goes up still comes down. 'Regression to the mean' is another old law still in force; when things become extraordinary, you can bet they will go back to normal sooner or later.

But what does this mean for stocks? And what about gold? The dollar?

Hey, you're asking a lot from a free publication. But what the heck…we'll make some guesses and remind the reader that he is likely to get no more than he paid for:

Stocks typically regress to the mean, along with everything else. The 'mean,' depending on