politickybitch

Climate change? What climate change?

2012-01-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

Police: At least 9 dead in Florida in multiple crashes
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 29, 2012 -- Updated 1652 GMT (0052 HKT)

"(CNN) -- At least nine people were killed in a series of overnight accidents in northern Florida, blamed on poor visibility from smoke from a nearby brush fire, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office said..."

At least 9 dead from wrecks on I-75
Posted: Sunday, January 29, 2012 11:07 am | Updated: 11:59 am, Sun Jan 29, 2012.
By Emily Morrow, Alligator Staff Writer | 0 comments

"...Traffic is being diverted from I-75 to us U.S. 441, which reopened at 10 a.m. this morning after a brief overnight closure due to similar accidents."

Biodiversity and land Use principals/leads: Susan Cameron Devitt, Jennifer Ruth Seavey Contributors: Tom Hoctor, Reed Noss, Corrie Rainyn, Martin Main, Odemari Mbuya

"...Florida’s abundant and unique biological resources are at particularly high risk for climate change impacts because of its low topography, extensive coastline, and frequency of large storm events. Climate change is already making large sweeping changes to Florida’s land- scape, especially along the coasts. The drivers of this change are both physical and biological in nature. Changes in air and water tempera- ture, freshwater availability, salt water intrusion, ocean acidification, natural disturbance regime shifts (e.g. fire, storms, flood), and loss of land area have already been observed in Florida..."

State Of The Union Addresses Past: A Look Back At A History Of Forgotten Promises

2012-01-28T10:42:00.001-08:00

In a pay to play system it's surprising that politicians lie to their constituents?

Bwaaahahahahahhaha
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I missed all but 2 minutes of the GOP debate last night.

2012-01-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

Last Night's GOP Debate Was Like Bad 1950's-Style Science-Fiction
Richard (RJ) Eskow
Posted: 01/27/2012 1:00 am

"The GOP presidential candidates continue to play their parts in an implausible story of a world that could never exist, acting out nonexistent conflicts while delivering dialog that insults the intelligence. That's not because they're stupid. It's because they think you are..."

Dudn't look Iike I missed much.

update stolen from OB Rag on FB Jan 29 2012

bleh

2012-01-26T19:32:00.001-08:00

I don't give a crap today.

Kappa Beta Phi ASSHOLES

2012-01-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

Yup, us little monkeys look up into the tree and that's what we see are assholes.
(hat tip to Ted over at They gave us a republic)

JANUARY 20, 2012, 9:52 PM INVESTMENT BANKING | WALL STREET
A Raucous Hazing at a Wall St. Fraternity
BY KEVIN ROOSE

"...The Occupy movement was fodder for several after-dinner skits. In one, a documentary filmed during the protests, James Lebenthal, a bond specialist, joked with a protester whose face was appeared to be tattooed.“Go home, wash that off your face, and get back to work,” Mr. Lebenthal told the protester.Reached through his daughter on Friday, Mr. Lebenthal declined to comment..."

I'm thinking these dickheads could learn something from Dr. Robert Sapolsky.

Moyers!!!!

2012-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

David Stockman on Crony Capitalism from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

Sick of Romney

2012-01-21T08:53:00.000-08:00

but this was interesting:
FRIDAY, JAN 20, 2012 12:00 PM PST
The roots of Bain Capital in El Salvador’s civil war
"Romney tapped El Salvador's wealthy families, including one linked to right-wing death squads..."

For some reason every time I see an article that mentions El Salvador I'm reminded not only of the social structure of Latin America which is notoriously plagued by vast inequality (possibly leftover from it's European colonial past) but I'm also reminded of one of the nastiest gangs in the Americas:

January 1st, 2008
El Salvador: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)
"...Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known as MS-13, formed in Los Angeles during the 1980s when refugees of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war settled in Southern California and fell into life on the streets...."

El Salvador Fears Ties Between Cartels, Street Gangs (part 3)
by JASON BEAUBIEN
Part 1 and Part 2

And even MS-13 are not as big as M18 or Mara-18 or 18th St
(different name, same shitheads)

"..The 18th Street gang grew by expanding its membership to other nationalities and races, and it was among the first multiracial, multiethnic gangs in Los Angeles. It's considered to be the largest transnational criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California. .."

Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe the gangs? They terrorize and intimidate people here, especially newer immigrants from nations whose justice systems are grossly corrupt (mordida).

and finally, unrelated, but I like this:

FRIDAY, JAN 20, 2012 1:19 PM PST
Reid bows to online protest
Protest against SOPA derails the Senate bill favored by the majority leader
BY NANCY SCOLA

I'm trying to stay interested in politics

2012-01-19T23:33:00.000-08:00

but I'm so disgusted that it's difficult. Lately, with everyone talking abbout the Republican (clown car) primaries, it's even less important. I"m worried about my loved ones surviving and I seriously doubt if a Republican throwing his hat in the ring for a prez run has been able to relate to that thought since WWII.

Funny, those blurbs

2012-01-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't read a book straight through in a couple of years now, mostly because my first love of reading came with reading fiction and I have been reading non-fiction books about politics and the economy for the last ten years. I have a half dozen books going and I can't seem to finish any of them, but this morning I picked up Russ Baker's Family of Secrets and read the blurbs on the back. I never noticed this one:

"(Baker) is a man on a mission, desperate to stop the methods of stealth and manipulation that...reflect a deeper ill: the American public's increasingly tenuous hold upon the levers of its own democracy." -- San Diego Union-Tribune

Which frankly made me grin at the irony.

First, the source of the blurb, the U-T, basically two Copely newspapers since 1928 merged in '92 then sold to an investment company in Beverly Hills in Feb '09 and resold to one of the biggest local developers in San Diego last year. I have never been able to read the Republican right-wing birdcage liner.

Second, the blurb itself, keyword "democracy." Bwaaaaah hahaha, in San Diego?

It wasn't until 2006 that San Diego tried to wrest power away from the city manager by voting on the "strong mayor" initiative. Uh huh, so the people think they are turning the power over to the Republican ex-chief of police Jerry Sanders. Socially, there was a big deal over him talking about his gay daughter, taboo in a county that is basically one big military base.

Fiscally, and in terms of transparency, it's
just
been
more
of the
same old shit.

Yep, whenever I take a racing dive into the sewage fest that is San Diego politics and then try to 'splain it to others, this song comes to mind:

SOPA Blackout:

2012-01-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

SOPA blackout Facebook, Amazon, Twitter Consider SOPA ProtestBy Stephanie Rabiner on January 11, 2012 5:49 AM | No TrackBacks"What would you do without Google? Or Facebook and Twitter? What if you couldn't rely on secondary sources like Wikipedia or buy things on eBay or Amazon?If you're predicting a personal Armageddon, you better think of a backup plan soon. Rumor has it the net's biggest companies are planning a full-blown SOPA blackout..."

Why is the Media Ignoring SOPA?

Margin Call

2012-01-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

The movie.

Oh... My..... God....

Less than a half hour into the movie after this kid who can't be 30 spits out the line "Look at these people, wandering around with absolutely no idea of what's about to happen," I was up and screaming at the screen "You gotta be fucking kidding me! You arrogant little pricks have no idea who knew before 2008 that things were going to come crashing down around our ears!" Then I thought, Jeeeeezus, who wrote this fucking thing?

So, after finishing the movie my thoughts were very different. I loved it, and the cast was outstanding. I still don't have any sympathy for traders, speculators and investment bankers on Wall Street though. When it comes to "sympathy" for those assholes, the word is in between "shit" and "syphillis" in the dictionary.

"Redevelopment," just another word for greed

2012-01-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

So, I've been suspecting for a while now that the apartment complex that I live in would be razed and redeveloped. Part of the complex has already been redeveloped and the rent almost doubled, and although the new apartments have amenities like AC and washer/dryer hook ups, they are smaller and the landscaping is considerably uglier and the echo from the concrete is obnoxious, as is the traffic noise.

There are disabled, fixed income and poor people here who have their rent subsidized by the government, many of them because this was a complex that ran on HUD subsidies for decades. There was an article in the piece of shit local paper that was basically an advertisement for the new places a few years ago, but they fucked up by putting numbers in it. New developments should have unit numbers at 10% for low income and the numbers in the article ran at 8.2%. These greedy motherfuckers got rich being slum lords and sucking on the government tit. Before they took a bath on the real estate bubble my rent went up 24% in 4 years, and that was after rents doubled in San Diego over a ten year period. The housing market took a major shit, but MY rent did NOT go down.

Well it probably won't be more than 2 years now that the grass and trees (that change color in the fall, rare in San Diego) will be gone and we just got a shitload of new rules to follow until they boot us out and raze our apartments. Probably one building at a time, so whoopeee, we get to listen to construction noise, deal with the critters that come down the sewage lines when old buildings are razed and fight with overworked maintenance workers too!!! I also want to know if we po peeples ovah heah can git us some water on the grass mo than once a month if we's able tah foller them new rules?

And I wonder if the high priests of greed, deception, and corruption know who I am?

My friend relocated to another state and in spite of the weather acclimation, I would need to do, it looks like survival would cost much less money there. Even though I was born and raised in this city I am surely more and more disgusted every day.

If you are curious at all, Paradise Plundered by Kogan, Erie, and Mackenzie and

And Under the Perfect Sun, by Mayhew, Miller, Davis can clue you in.

Update: I complained, and got approximately 1 minute of water, turned up full blast, so that now the windows need to be cleaned and the Christmas lights are not coming down today, they are all wet. So, I check the laundry room to see how crowded it is and it's too fucking filthy to use. Gawd I hate these fucking fucks.

Standing Up for Consumers

2012-01-04T11:22:00.001-08:00

I was so hoping that Obama would do this. I know you will fight for ordinary Americans Mr. Cordray.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I could fkn care less what Iowans think

2012-01-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

Iowa caucuses: GOP presidential hopefuls making final push before Tuesday voteBy Karen Tumulty, Published: December 31, 2011

US politicians get richer despite recessionAs Americans continue to lose homes and jobs in a stagnant economy, politicians have gotten richer.Last Modified: 30 Dec 2011 21:33

Obama Signs Defense Bill Despite 'Serious Reservations'

2012-01-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

Three myths about the detention bill

BY GLENN GREENWALD

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/16/three_myths_about_the_detention_bill/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I have a headache.

2011-12-30T11:49:00.001-08:00

I'm not prone to them and this one is going on 4 hours now.

I've been reading a copy of TIME magazine's Year in Review 2011 this morning with it's 6 page spread on the killing of Osama binLaden and it's photograph of the 9/11 memorial waterfall. I can't even find a picture of the waterfall that is close to looking like the one in the magazine. Frankly, the picture looks like a big, square toilet bowl and as that thought pased through my mind so did another:

That looks like the big, square toilet bowl that Osama binLaden wanted this country flushed down and the fucker may be dead, but we are well on our way to making his dream come true.

It's also where most of the stories in this silly magazine and their lack of context, or sometimes misleading scenarios belong. I watched this year happen and I read a lot. I do not mindlessly eat up all that large corporate media feeds me, so I rolled my eyes a few times as I skimmed through this thing.

That is all, carry on, lol

Surrendering 2011: Rendition and Methane

2011-12-29T08:16:00.001-08:00

This is not a fun article to read, but it NEEDS to be on the front page. It is sooooo much more important than the Bachmann, Gingrich, Snooki, whoever clown car parade we are overwhelmed with on a daily basis.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ron Paul

2011-12-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

I wish I could get Granpa to investigate him further, but I don't think he will. Frankly, I am irritated with Granpa's bigotry, but I put up with it because he's old and stubborn and nothing I say is going to change his mind anyway. I still fight with him on it, it's who I am.

Here is Paul on abortion, on his website in his own words.

To which I would respond "Hey, you myopic, crusty old fart, there are 7 billion fucking people on this planet and "3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease."

And here he is on education .
Just read the responses. It's incomplete and vague enough to be interpreted many ways.
Since I have a kid who just spent 16 years in the public education system it makes the alarm bells go off in my mind.

I don't much care for glibertarians, I find them narrow-minded, intellectually lazy and generally pretty selfish and self-centered people.

If ya don't like beans...

2011-12-27T20:29:00.000-08:00

Ya aint never tasted mine.

Oil Trades Near Six-Week High on Iran Threat to Crude Transport

2011-12-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2011, 9:40 PM EST "..Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- "Oil traded near the highest level in six weeks after Iran threatened to block crude transportation through the Strait of Hormuz, increasing concern that global supplies will be curbed amid shrinking U.S. stockpiles.
...Oil for February delivery was at $101.54 a barrel, up 20 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:12 a.m. Singapore time. It rose $1.66, or 1.7 percent, to $101.34 a barrel yesterday, the highest settlement since Nov. 16. Futures have climbed 11 percent this year after increasing 15 percent in 2010..."

Sam's Exchange: The Irony of Iranian Sanctions
18:26 20/12/2011
Biweekly column by Sam Barden
"...Of course the biggest loser out of sanctions on Iranian oil is Europe. Europe currently imports about 900,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil. Europe has not been able to agree a ban on oil imports, and is unlikely to. The biggest importers of Iranian oil in Europe is Spain, Italy Greece and Portugal. Any sanctions on Iranian oil would cripple these already struggling economies..."

China’s Frustrated Iran Diplomacy
December 26, 2011
By Willem van Kemenade

"...The next step was the publication in November of a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran’s “progress” toward a nuclear device, including computer modelling of a nuclear warhead, testing explosives in a large metal chamber and studying how to arm a Shahab 3 medium-range missile with an atomic warhead. However, the report was considered too weak by Russia and China to justify more sanction..."Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011Medvedev: Test of much-heralded new missile done

I just had a really long talk with my friend

2011-12-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

And she is amazing. I am truly blessed to have been able to keep in contact with her for the last 17 years. Her patience, kindness and inner strength are inspiring and I love her dearly.

stuck in my head

2011-12-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Yep, I KNOW Christmas is over.

I like Michael Franks' version a little better, but I'm partial to Michael Franks.

Philippines Floods 2011: Bodies Found Far Away From Ravaged Villages, Coastline

2011-12-26T09:15:00.001-08:00

Here is some interesting reading from the US Dept of Forests:

A Student Guide To Tropical Forest Conservation

http://www.fs.fed.us/global/lzone/student/tropical.htm

I find it interesting is that no major studies on tropical forests are cited from the last 20 years on this page
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Christmas, 2011

2011-12-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

My friend sent me this this morning:

"It's thankfully Christmas morning.

The Mall Wars have ended. The doors in some stores close on Saturday, 24th Dec, at Midnight. The security staff put away their pepper spray canisters, and the maimed and the injured shoppers limped out of the cavernous Big Box stores to their cars with carts laden with Chines imports.Now TV and the Internet News blurbs will have to start talikng again about things that really matter. Like which celeb couple has split, and which up-and-coming starelet had a wardrobe malfunction.

MERRY CHRISTMAS....

If you can still remember what it's all about"

And I replied to my friend:

Ahh, my dear, I do remember. I tried to relieve the stress by agreeing months ago with friends and family to NOT exchange presents. This morning I couldn't believe the feeling of peace and wonderment that today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and Jesus was a good dude.

May you also have a peaceful day of quiet reflection,

nunya

And then I found something else worth reading in my inbox:

SATURDAY, DEC 24, 2011 1:00 PM PST

#occupychristmas

"Throughout much of history, the holiday was a celebration of rebellion against authority. It's time to reclaim it..."

"...But there is also something different going on this year. A popular hashtag on Twitter is #OccupyXmas. In Portland, San Francisco and elsewhere, carolers dressed in Santa suits and elf outfits have been singing a new song. It goes in part like this:

Arrest ye merry bankermen
All profiting today
You crashed the whole economy

Yet nothing did you pay …"

Taibbi is so awesome!

2011-12-24T12:09:00.001-08:00

Taibbiblog

A Christmas Message from America's Rich
Posted Dec 22, 2011

As apalling as some of these quotes from the filthy rich are, I'm not really surprised. You'd be amazed at some of what came out of the mouths of some of the entitled little bitches I grew up with, and I wasn't anywhere near to rich and neither were they. Much closer to lower middle class.

The 10 Most Annoying Pop Christmas Songs of All Time

2011-12-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Why do pop artists have to get involved in Christmas?
December 23, 2011 |

Photo Credit: paparutzi at Flickr.

I am rolling on floor, laughing my ass off. Merry Christmas y'all!!!

Media Matters: 2011 Highlight Reel

2011-12-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

December 22, 2011 12:59 pm ET by Jon Salvia

Media Matters 2011 year in review

U.S. Troops Charged After Fellow GI, Hazing Victim Danny Chen Found Dead in Afghanistan

I found these two tidbits of news, but I looked for hours on HuffPo for something worth reading and I couldn't.

nexpensive Solar Cell Paint One Step Closer After "Major Advance" in Research

2011-12-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

Matthew McDermottTechnology / Solar TechnologyDecember 22, 2011 treehugger

"Not the actual paint...TreeHugger has covered paint-on or spray-on solar cells on a number of occasions. The idea isn't new by any means. But some researchers from the University of Notre Dame say they have made a "major advance" towards making an inexpensive solar paint. They've called it (be prepared to groan) Sun-Believable...."

Mary J. Blige- Enough Cryin' (Live)

2011-12-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

MLK parade bomber sentenced to 32 years in prison

2011-12-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS Associated Press

I love the mainstream media, it just cracks me right the fuck up.
A google news search using the term "terrorist plot" with the date parameters 1/17/2011 to 1/21/2011brings up :

Why only Hindus confessing: RSSTNN Jan 18, 2011, 05.37am IS

Report Says Militants in Pearl Killing Still at Large
By JANE PERLEZPublished: January 20, 2011

Yemen Sentences American-Born Cleric in Absentia By ROBERT F. WORTHPublished: January 18, 2011

Fresh torture allegations raised over third British man held in Bangladesh
Chemist from Stockport was allegedly mistreated, raising further concerns about possible UK complicity in tortureIan Cobain and Fariha Karim in Dhaka
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 June 2010 12.15 EDT

Suicide bombings kill at least ten people in central IraqPOSTED JANUARY 19, 2011 BY BNO

You have to use the search term "bomb plot" with the same date parameters in order to bring up any articles on the MLK parade 2011 bomb plot.

Because, you know, American non-muslim, white supremacists are not "terrorists!"

They are just "bomb plot" ters.

roflamo.

Holiday musing

2011-12-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

I've been avoiding the newZ stuff lately because frankly, most of it is stupid:

Fox and Sarah Palin Freak over White House Christmas Card.
Wed, Dec. 21, 2011

Instead, I have been watching an even sillier show that lasted 1 season called "The Event." Silly, exciting and about aliens that look like us and crash landed in Alaska 66 years ago during WWII and have been held in a prison made especially for them ever since then...

So my creative little mind starts wondering "Hey, maybe Molly McMooesturd stumbled onto some super-duper secret government installation in Alaska and that is why the goofy bitch is in the newZy reports all the time?"

Hey, it's not any crazier than the thought of Sarah Palin, a major flaming turd queen, as a presidential candidate, and it might explain why she's not a simple footnote in history yet. You got a better idea? Come on, I could use some larfs today, :)

The Unfathomable Cuts in Housing Aid

2011-12-20T11:09:00.000-08:00

Patrick Markee
December 14, 2011
This article appeared in the January 2, 2012 edition of The Nation.

"...Back in May another 21,000 people had applied for a shot at 5,000 spots on the Dallas Housing Authority’s waiting list—still better odds than in nearby Plano, where 8,000 people applied for only 100 available housing vouchers..."

CDC: Nearly One in Five U.S. Women Raped, One in Four Attacked

2011-12-19T11:27:00.000-08:00

By Dyanna Quizon, Esq.
Findlaw
on December 16, 2011 3:09 PM

*sigh*

Avoiding the news

2011-12-18T18:37:00.000-08:00

Watching all kinds of stuff on Netflix. I never had cable tv so there is lots of stuff for me there. I flew through a show that was filmed in 2010 in San Diego called Terriers.. I remember reading posts on the OB Rag and thinking that it was great that it's set in OB, but I didn't expect much from it. I like some shows about private investigators and I don't like some of them. Anyway, I hope they figure out a way to get another season going because I love it.

My friend told me about these guys who do "Bad Lip Reading" on YouTube and they make me laugh.

"Michele Bachmann": a BLR Soundbite

Wikileaks: Bradley Manning military hearing bias row

2011-12-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

16 December 2011 Last updated at 18:35 ET
Bradley Manning is accused of leaking 720,000 diplomatic and military documents

Is the US government at war with whistle blowers?A military officer overseeing the hearing of the US Army analyst accused of leaking government secrets has rejected a request to recuse himself.

"...Lt Col Almanza is a former military judge who now works for the Department of Justice, which has its own investigation into Wikileaks. His refusal to accept all but two of 38 defence witnesses meant the defence could not adequately make their case, Mr Coombs said..."Continue reading the main story

China's Christian Bale PR Nightmare

2011-12-16T14:11:00.001-08:00

"Chinese quota on foreign films, which restricts distribution of imported movies to 20 a year"

Jeez, no wonder it's easy to find Chinese websites where you can upload or stream gazillions of pirated American movies and shows.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Death Penalty Use Plummets to 35-Year Low

2011-12-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

By Andrew Chow on December 16, 2011 5:50 AM | Findlaw

Good, now let's get rid of it completely since it's a big frigging waste of taxpayer money to keep dragging these people into court on appeal after appeal and those who cause the most death in this country and overseas never get indicted anyways.

Citigroup's CEO's Monster Pay Package While Cutting Jobs. America's New Capitalism

2011-12-15T11:33:00.001-08:00

Pandit may be in trouble with the rich, and for that he might have to pay the consequences:

Citigroup Deal Haunts Pandit as Saudis Claim $383 Million

December 06, 2011, 8:49 AM EST

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-06/citigroup-deal-haunts-pandit-as-saudis-claim-383-million.html
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Court Yard Hounds - It Didn't Make A Sound

2011-12-15T10:12:00.001-08:00

My favorite song on this CD is "Well Behaved" but I still can't find a decent sounding video on YouTube.

Indefinite Detention Bill No Longer Faces Veto Threat From White House (UPDATE)

2011-12-15T09:05:00.001-08:00

"...Opponents of the indefinite detention provisions have argued that, although it is true Americans have been held, the Supreme Court has not ruled on the validity of those detentions..."

This Supreme Court will avoid that like the plague, as it has nothing to do with the freedom of THEIR base to make money.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Twelve Republican Days of Christmas

2011-12-14T18:30:00.000-08:00

Karl Frisch December 14, 2011 (they're pretty funny)

Break it down, Jon and Lawrence

2011-12-14T16:47:00.000-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Exclusive - Lawrence Lessig Extended Interview Pt. 1

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

And here be de proof, although I do like my senators, my house rep is a tool.

Cloture on the Nomination of Richard Cordray, of Ohio, to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

Motion to Proceed to S. 1944; A bill to create jobs by providing payroll tax relief for middle class families and businesses, and for other purpose

To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide that major rules of the executive branch shall have no force or effect unless a joint resolution of approval is enacted into law

2011-12-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

Online Filter bubbles

Sorry about the spiders, Maine

2011-12-14T11:02:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011

"BATH, Maine (AP) - A Navy shipbuilder in Maine says it had to fumigate a warehouse and part of a warship because a shipment of parts from the West Coast contained about two-dozen venomous black widow spiders...."

We have brown widows also.

News Networks Regularly Promote Anti-Gay Family Research Council On Air

2011-12-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

December 13, 2011 3:20 pm ET — Media Matters

grrrr

Russia Protests: Thousands Rally Against Vote Fraud, Putin

2011-12-10T08:44:00.001-08:00

"Putin in turn criticized Clinton and the United States for allegedly instigating protests and trying to undermine Russia."

How does that work when approximately 4.9% of Russians speak English?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Saving Our Democracy

2011-12-09T11:09:00.001-08:00

I love Senator Bernie Sanders!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Chilean Glacier Recedes Half-Mile in Just One Year

2011-12-09T09:48:00.001-08:00

Stephen Messenger
Science / Climate Change
TreehuggerDecember 8, 2011

"While the powerful impacts of global warming can be seen in various forms throughout the world, few places have experienced observable changes as dramatic as in Chile's Southern Patagonian Ice Field..."timelapse video

Karzai good for pipelines

2011-12-08T12:49:00.001-08:00

Karzai Afghan "President for Life?" Bad for Democracy, Good or PipelinesJohn Daly Thursday Dec 8, 2011

Jon Huntsman: Climate Change Science 'Not Enough' For US Action

2011-12-06T16:29:00.001-08:00

Awww, come on, nobody looked at his family's business interests and saw this coming?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tomgram: William deBuys, The Parching of the West

2011-12-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Posted by William deBuys at 6:02pm, December 4, 2011.
TomDispatch
"...While that Arizona-California relationship guarantees full employment for battalions of water lawyers, a far bigger problem looms: climate change. Models for the Southwest have been predicting a 4ºC (7.2ºF) increase in mean temperature by century’s end, and events seem to be outpacing the predictions..."

Feds Uncover 32 Tons of Pot in CA Tunnel

2011-12-04T10:41:00.000-08:00

By Cynthia Hsu on December 1, 2011 11:19 AM
Findlaw Blotter

Federal authorities discovered a cross-border tunnel loaded with 32 tons of marijuana this week in San Diego, California. Several arrests were made in connection to the drug tunnel, in what is likely one of the biggest marijuana busts in U.S. history....

Could a Late Jon Huntsman Surge Spell the End of Mitt Romney?

2011-12-02T10:31:00.001-08:00

Romney and others are indebted to Vulture banksters --

http://www.gregpalast.com/romney-advisor-threatensbbc-investigative-reporter/

Huntsman is the GOP Trojan Horse- Mr. De-regulation for business and a school voucher advocate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Huntsman,_Jr.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I always thought Adam Carolla was a d*ck

2011-12-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

Adam Carolla Rails Against Occupy ‘Ass Douches’ In Rant: ‘F**king Self-Entitled Monsters’
AUDIO (Dude's voice seriously grates on my nerves)
by Jon Bershad | 12:05 pm, December 1st, 2011

He sounds like he's talking about the top 1%, except he's using the right wing AssDOUCHE meme of the top pays all the taxes for the bottom earners. I would love to meet a dude raised in LA that didn't make me want to leave the room immediately. Some people try to lump San Diego in with LA, but believe me, that 2 hour drive opens up a completely different world.

These kinds of headlines just crack my ass up

2011-12-01T13:41:00.000-08:00

'Sheriff of the Year' Busted in Meth-Sex Ring
By Stephanie Rabiner on December 1, 2011 5:58 AM | No TrackBacks

Pregnancy discrimination

2011-11-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

Pregnancy Discrimination Still a Problem
By Stephanie Rabiner on November 23, 2011 3:02 PM

When my boss and co-worker found out I was pregnant all of the sudden I was helpless. It was amusing to me. I did physical work and one day I could do it and the next they felt the need to help me. I'm not quite sure how to add this, so I'll just throw it in there. One of my co-workers will always have a special place in my heart because he helped me lose my irrational fear of black men. He was the cook and a kind and gentle soul who would ask me "What are we feeding the baby this morning?" and fix me whatever I wanted for breakfast. I'll always be grateful for that sweet, shy man who was kind to me and my baby.

Soon I was not getting any assignments and had to look for something else, and the next company didn't have any problem with me hauling my ass up a ladder to bring down boxes as large as I was. Until I started to show, that is, then it was unemployment again, which was fine actually because I was sick of trying to hide my pregnancy, and disability paid a little bit.

The child's father started pushing me to go back to work 2 weeks after the child was born and I had to tell him that the doctors all said that 6 weeks was necessary to to heal enough to be up and on my feet all day. He had agreed to pay the rent, but he never could on time even though he cleared three times the rent and he was paid monthly, which I learned years later. My job was to cover everything else except 1/2 the childcare, which he also never paid on time, so I did. I knew that I couldn't stay with that narcissistic asshole when he complained that his meal was too small. I shot back that if he paid his half of the childcare that his meals would be bigger. I cleared $150 a week and the childcare was $95 a week. I left him when the kid was 4 months old and never even considered living with his selfish ass again.

The kid is just finishing up the last few classes for a bachelor's degree. You would think that some things had changed in all that time.

Hmmmm.

The Global Occupy Movement Challenges the Transnational Corporate Class Propaganda Machine

2011-11-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

Daily Censored Nov 19, 2011

Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan Asked To Sit Out Supreme Court Health Care Case

2011-11-26T14:23:00.001-08:00

I can't believe the nerve, the gall, the chutzpah of "conservatives" in service to business and banking interests in this country.

They better have really good securtity because I know I'm not the only only one who has had it with this CRAP.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Stream - Thanksgiving Day or "ThanksTaking" Day?

2011-11-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

I watched "Black Robe" again yesterday. My mother was showing me old family photos years ago and I asked her who the indian woman was? She told me to watch that movie. Then she said something about my great grandfather getting in trouble with his wife for spending too much time trying to help the local indians on their reservation. Who the hell knows?

Shootings, pepper-spray attack mar Wal-Mart Black Friday sales

2011-11-25T07:44:00.000-08:00

November 25, 2011 | 6:39 am

Wow. Just wow.

And some good news:

AT&T braces for T-Mobile deal collapse

Why haven't other Amish communities confronted Mullet?

2011-11-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

Hate Crime: Feds Charge Amish Beard-Cutting Suspects With Civil Rights Violations

Bergholz Amish Bishop Arrested by FBI

The revolution will not be won by soothing women with honeyed voices.

2011-11-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

And that includes these two

Arianna Huffington
Pepper-Spraying Occupy: An Assault on Our Democracy
Posted: 11/21/11 08:23 PM ET

Linda P.B. Katehi

I think they should both go back to their patriarchal train wreck and do what they do best; soothe, but fight? Negotiate? Don't make me laugh.

Greek Uprising Shaped California Educator in Pepper-Spray Storm
November 22, 2011, 12:16 PM EST Bloomberg Businessweek.

Guess what's missing from the above article?
Greek military junta of 1967–1974 oy hint, hint

Amazon Warrior Women

Occupy protests will change the dialogue. The 1% cannot hide their use of thugs any more

2011-11-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland
Caught on Camera: 10 Shockingly Violent Police Assaults on Occupy Protesters
Probably 97 percent of police act professionally toward protesters. But the other 3 percent are armed and dangerous, and know that they're unlikely to be held accountable.

A Children’s Treasury of American Cops Brutally Attacking Citizens
By KEN LAYNE (Wonkette)
1:38 PM NOVEMBER 19, 2011
How did America’s heavily militarized security guards for the 1% spend the work week?

This Is What Revolution Looks Like

Posted on Nov 15, 2011

AP / Seth Wenig
Occupy Wall Street protesters rally in a small park on Canal Street in New York on Tuesday.
By Chris Hedges

Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis

The Villain Occupy Wall Street Has Been Waiting For

2011-11-17T11:06:00.001-08:00

"...You would think that a former partner at the investment bank Solomon Brothers, which originated mortgage-backed securities, a man who then partnered with Merrill Lynch in the high-speed computerized trading that has led to so much financial manipulation, would have some sense of his own culpability...."

Umm, no I woudn't think that. Certainly not after finding out that many wealthy and powerful people are friggin sociopaths!

http://preview.tinyurl.com/7upvla4
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Europe in the grip of drug-resistant superbugs

2011-11-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

By Reuters
Thursday, November 17, 2011

"...K. pneumoniae is a common cause of pneumonia, urinary tract, and bloodstream infections in hospital patients. The superbug form is resistant even to a class of medicines called carbapenems, the most powerful known antibiotics, which are usually reserved by doctors as a last line of defense...."

Shit. Didn't smallpox from Europeans friggin wipe out a huge portion of Native Americans a few hundred years ago?

Wall Street is Just an Address

2011-11-17T08:57:00.000-08:00

opednews.com

by Greg Palast and the Palast investigations team at Zuccotti Park Wall Street, Occupy Portland, Occupy Oakland, and Kinshasa, Congo

exclusive for OpedNews.com

Justices Scalia, Thomas Dine With Firm Arguing Against Health Care Law In Supreme Court Case

2011-11-15T08:25:00.001-08:00

Wow, Scalia and Thomas are corrupt. Surprise surprise.NOT
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

How neoliberalism created an age of activism

2011-11-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Decades of neoliberal economic policies have concentrated wealth and are now spurring a global backlash.
Juan Cole Last Modified: 15 Nov 2011 13:21

"...Whether in Egypt or the United States, young rebels are reacting to a single stunning worldwide development: the extreme concentration of wealth in a few hands thanks to neoliberal policies of deregulation and union busting..."

I got nuthin' but Tbogg cracked me up with this

2011-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

It’s A 300 World After All
By: TBogg Saturday November 12, 2011 10:15 am

"Completely and Utterly Fail in an Earthquake" :

2011-11-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

The Fukushima story you didn't hear on CNN
by Greg Palast
November 10, 2011
"I've seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level.
Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant:
Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could "completely and utterly fail" during an earthquake.

"Utterly fail during an earthquake." And here in Japan was the quake and here is the utter failure.

The warning was in what the investigations team called The Notebook, which I'm not supposed to have. Good thing I've kept a copy anyway, because the file cabinets went down with my office building ....

WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWER 1, FIFTY-SECOND FLOOR
NEW YORK, 1986

[This is an excerpt in FreePress.org from Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Fraudsters, to be released this Monday. Click here to get the videos and the book.] ..."

Debunking The Right-Wing Meme That The Obama Administration Is Anti-Business

2011-11-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

Some men do the most amazingly stupid things

2011-11-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

PA Man Injected Semen Into Co-Workers Yogurt, Gets 2 Years in Prison
By Stephanie Rabiner on November 9, 2011 5:44 AM | No TrackBacks

Frankly, I think that men who seem to be thrilled with the infamous cum shot on the face should have it done to them before they are allowed to do it to someone else. It shows disdain, and a lack of respect, but it's nothing compared to putting it in someone's food, and I'm glad these disgusting pieces of shit went to jail.

Duggar Family Expecting 20th Child: '19 Kids And Counting' Mom Pregnant

2011-11-08T10:12:00.001-08:00

There are 7 billion people on the planet now, and without huge amounts of cheap energy supplies the earth can support around a billion and a half.

If each of the Duggars' children grows up and has familes HALF the size of the one they grew up in that means the Duggar grandchildren wil number 200. And if the next generation cuts their family sizes in half again there will still be 1000 great-grandchildren.

Hmmmm.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions And America's Misguidedly Dismissed Countervailing Option

2011-11-07T13:04:00.001-08:00

"...As for "the threat of a belligerent Iran", very precise interests - sections of the industrial-military complex, the Republican party as a whole, the Israel lobby, the majority of corporate media - have been cheerleading for a strike on Iran for years...."

The Pentagon-Arab Spring love story

By Pepe Escobar

Nov 2, 2011http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MK02Ak01.html
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Charges dropped against first reporter arrested at Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

NOVEMBER 4, 2011 11:17 AM
Columbia Journalism Review

Multiple Missteps Led To Drone Killing U.S. Troops In Afghanistan

2011-11-06T12:53:00.001-08:00

Do you really think the people who make money selling these drones care about a few casualties?

Northrop Grumman profit up nearly 50 percent

April 23rd, 2009

http://www.armybase.us/2009/04/northrop-grumman-profit-up-nearly-50-percent/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Yeah, so who took over these Bozo's jobs?

2011-11-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Top Farc rebel leader Alfonso Cano killed in Colombia
SATURDAY 5.11.2011 | 14:25

The Irish Times - Saturday, November 5, 2011
How the 'merchant of death' was snared

Stiglitz nails it again

2011-11-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Globalization of Protest
Joseph E. Stiglitz
2011-11-04

"NEW YORK – The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt, and then to Spain, has now become global, with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America....

...The rise in inequality is the product of a vicious spiral: the rich rent-seekers use their wealth to shape legislation in order to protect and increase their wealth – and their influence...."

So what happened in Oakland yesterday?

2011-11-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Occupy Oakland General Strike Nov. 2, 2011

Busted! Occupy Oakland police infiltrators exposed on video.
OCTOBER 30, 2011 BY JEREMY BLOOM

Michael Moore To Visit #OccupyDenver Thursday Afternoon (VIDEO)

2011-11-03T08:46:00.001-07:00

WOOOOOT!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

New shoes

2011-11-02T12:02:00.001-07:00

Yup, I got new dirty-filthy-hippy-commie-liberal socialist shoes.

Winter time in San Diego just means I have to wear socks with my Birkenstocks.

My favorite thing about Birks might be that they call a wide shoe "normal", "for normal, sturdy feet" (kind of funny because an arch as high as mine is not "sturdy," it needs support, and those silly foam arch supports you can buy to put in other shoes are a fucking joke if you have feet like mine.

Birkenstock calls what is normally a women's width (a B is a normal women's width) "narrow", "for slim, slender feet," which totally makes me giggle since some asshole shoe salesman told me he "might have some boxes in the back" that would fit me. The fucker, as if I hadn't endured enough torture finding shoes that fit a EE width with a high instep and arch and and a decidedly NOT wide heel. My swim coach used to call me "paddle-foot," nice if you are a duck, but humliating for a teenaged girl.

I wear a boys size and boys shoes are crap for women's feet. Eeek, women's shoes are crap for women's feet, which sort of helped me to give up on women's shoes, the painful, ridiculous things. I made the mistake as a young adult of buying a pair of women's work shoes that were too narrow and after 2 days they pinched a nerve and it took six months for the feeling to come back in two toes. When a shoe salesman says to me, "Oh, they'll stretch," they get a murderous look and a good talking to from me. They usually walk away, hanging their head in shame.

I bought my first pair of Birks 28 years ago, and I have one pair that is 13 years old and has been re-soled 3 times and I have 2 pairs that have had the footbed liner replaced. My other shoes haven't been outside their boxes in years.

Why isn't this toad completely irrelevant?

2011-11-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Rove Misses Security Experts' Assessments Of Climate Change

I saw these and I just couldn't resist using them this morning. I saw the video of Rove and thought of this one:

And some of the commenters at Huffington Post really need to be sprayed:

Sons of Anarchy

2011-10-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Yep, I watch it. I really wanted to not watch it, and I thought the main characters were reprehensible creatures for the first six shows I watched. I almost gave up, but then I grew to care about the characters and now I watch it, albeit a year behind because I refuse to pay for basic or extended cable.

I might not even have noticed the articles on the Hells Angels deaths if I didn't watch it. I may be a bit rough in my speech patterns and use vulgar language in my blogposts, but biker gangs scare the crap out of me now and they always did. No doubt that the good people who helped me as a teenager (a gazillion freaking years ago) had secrets from their distant past that we all want to stay buried, then and now. Now, now, I said secrets, not bodies.

Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street's bank: the real story

2011-10-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

When Goldman got huffy at a credit union honouring OWS and pulled its anniversary dinner funding, much more was at stake

(Greg Palast on Democracy Now since blogger felt the need to NOT display my other post, this one links to the Guardian UK.)

Republishing Victoria Jackson parody because Blogger has problems

2011-10-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Victoria Jackson Goes to Occupy Wall Street

Jebus, what a dipshit she is. I really admire this guy's patience with her, "inane" was far too kind a description of her questioning. She is contitutionally incapable of doing anything but annoying anyone with half a brain and good hearing. I would love to duct tape her and force her to listen to this interview. I wonder if even she can stand the sound of her voice?

And here's the parody.

Oh yeah, RepugnantThuglican debate here.

See "For Colored Girls"

2011-10-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

"For Colored Girls
2010 R 133 minutes
Tyler Perry (Madea's Family Reunion) directs his own adaptation of the Obie-winning stage play by Ntozake Shange, constructed as a series of poetic vignettes that collectively explore the lives of modern African-American women."

So, there is the above description of the film and then there is the amazing experience of watching the film. I'm not much of a theatre goer, so some of it felt a little weird at first. Still, I have never seen such an awesome (in the true sense of the word) cast. They were, powerful and mesmerizing. The end of the movie was more beautiful than I have ever seen in a film before.

Columbia Journalism Review article link, must read

2011-10-29T08:22:00.000-07:00

The Myth of Income Equality, Courtesy of AEI

"This post by James Pethokoukis, who recently hopped over to AEI from Reuters, shows how to combine the worst tendencies of Slate (contrarian shtick), Business Insider (misleading, hyped headlines), and think tanks (paid-for spin), and puts it in internet-friendly listicle format..."

I love the graphs and charts and what Ryan Chittum does with them, lol

What the fuck is wrong with blogger?

2011-10-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Why aren't my posts showing up? Or showing up with the comments linked to the wrong post? Or showing up with duplicate "add to any" links?

22 posts show up, 32 are listed for the month of October.

44-51 arrested at Occupy SD

2011-10-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

By R. Stickney, Kelly McPherson
NBCSanDiego.com
updated 2 hours 28 minutes ago

If I felt better I would be protesting

2011-10-17T11:43:00.001-07:00

Update, October 18, 2011 11:00 AM
Olbermann interviews St. Shamar Thomas.
Physically, I've felt like crap this week. I am sorry I missed this last weekend:

hat tip to ThePoliticalCat

sniff, sniff, never had Marines bring happy tears to my eyes before, lol.

Love these two messages

2011-10-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

A Global Day of Action for Occupy Wall Street
The latest dispatches from Mother Jones reporters at protests in New York and other US cities.
—By the Mother Jones news team
Sat Oct. 15, 2011 12:05 AM PDT

Occupy Streams

2011-10-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Live Occupy streams WORLDWIDE

Chief Lansdowne in candid interview during raid on Occupy San Diego on 10/14

2011-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

(I don't know what happened, I wasn't there, but Frank knows what happened)

by FRANK GORMLIE on OCTOBER 14, 2011 Day of Tension and Pepper-spray Ends in Compromise for Occupy San Diego at Civic Center Plaza

Police Macing at Occupy San Diego

I AM NOT MOVING - Short Film - Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-15T10:38:00.000-07:00