The United States Supreme Court make up

is a right-wing Bush created Frankenstein nightmare that might end before I die, but I doubt it.


Court: Suspects must say they want to be silent By JESSE J. HOLLAND (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that suspects must explicitly tell police they want to be silent to invoke Miranda protections during criminal interrogations, a decision one dissenting justice said turns defendants' rights "upside down."


JUNE 1, 2010, 12:38 P.M. ET.Supreme Court Says Suspects Must Disclose Intent to Remain Silent

...Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent longer than the majority opinion, argued that the majority misread precedent and reached beyond the facts of the case to impose a tough new rule against defendants.

"Today's decision turns Miranda upside down," Justice Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. "Criminal suspects must now unambiguously invoke their right to remain silent—which, counterintuitively, requires them to speak."...


Wow.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, if I ever get arressted and interrrogated I have to open my mouth and tell them I am going to remain silent.

Good thing I've watched enough cop shows and movies to know that I HAVE a right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer, eh?

Fuck me.

Anyone else wonder just how far pretzel logic can go in this fucked up world?

The Death of Capitalism
Written by Solomon Comissiong Daily Journal (Opinion), Politics May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

is an increasingly bitter pill for me to swallow.

I see the cover of this book now.

Memorial Day, for a father whose son was killed in Iraq
Andrew J. Bacevich
May 31, 2010
To many, it's the start of summer or a day off from work. But as American wars come and go, more families experience Memorial Day in a deeper and more tragic way.

Phillippe Cousteau To Bill Maher: Even Before Oil Spill, The Oceans Couldn't Take Any More (VIDEO)

Mmmmkay Philippe, I like to see someone speak out in language that might get through to right-wing fucktards, but you're on the wrong show for that.


The sanity of envrionmentalism I tried to teach my Econ 101 instructor in 1999 got through to him. I'm not sure I ever completely wrapped my head around the business double-speak (the bullshit) that most business courses employ in order to remain positive and churn out hungry little capitalists for big business to use and then throw away like so much trash. The lengths they go to when they try to explain the term externalities, yeesh, there's probably some internal BP memo with that word on it somewhere.

BP Director On The Defensive: 'Cutting Corners' Is Not The Way We Do Business (VIDEO)

Ummmmmm?

Witness: BP took 'shortcuts' before well blowout
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
By GREG BLUESTEIN and MIKE BAKER Associated Press Writer

Bwaaaah hahahahahaha

my head hurts

I do my geeky learning in "fits and starts." Usually when my computer has a 'fit' and 'starts' acting up (ar ar). By then I've usually killed the damn thing and only the geeky brother can bring it back to life, inheriting it in the process. Then he repeats the procedure for fun a few times - kill, reanimate, kill, reanimate, woot.

I thought I was good about protecting my computer, but it seems that no matter what kind of Internet security program I pick, some nasty bug gets through and I'm out and about freaking computer shopping again. At least this time I backed my shit up and virus checked it. That may be a good sign. I keep hoping that it's a hardware problem, then I'm covered. Strictly conjecture, though, because who knows when they will even get to my computer to diagnose it in the geek pit.

It's a wonder I venture out onto the net at all. Scary shit out there.

BSOD...Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

Yup. You Geeks know what I'm talking about.

The Blue Screen of Death.

This is a loaner I'm typing on right here. Somehow I didn't get a keyboard with it and I decided it was easier to go buy one since my two year old computer was so ancient that it's ps2 connector is now obsolete.

Unfortunately the 3 year "service contract" doesn't cover software, so I hope the problem is hardware. Another place is bad with hardware and you can buy software service. Oy. I'm afraid the Geeky dad is getting old and I'm afraid of the Geeky brother, he's a bit tetchy.

Yes, BadTux I'm ready for a Mac.

Unfortunately I need to make sure that my kid's Mac gets her through her last year of college first.

*sigh*

Anyway, I hate futzing around with the 'puter till I gets comfortable with it, but at least I got the loaner and I probably won't want to go back to the nightmare called Vista. God that OS is a piece of shit.

Banksters. *sigh*

Banksters Create New Fake "Consumer" Group
Submitted by Lisa Graves on May 26, 2010 - 1:59pm.

Quote of the day

The bankers are playground bullies who are used to getting their way and think that if they’re not getting their way, someone must be cheating them.

Written by James Kwak
May 26, 2010 at 10:15 am

Read the whole article here.

Border Security

President Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border
By Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Well Alrighty then!

That ought to keep out a few hardworking Messicans! It WON'T keep out these deadly, murderous scumbags.

Heh, I'm not the only one thinking that way:

McCain gets political win on border troops

And while Obama is helping get some more Nat'l Guardsman killed, we supply the assault weapons, and the drug market. And then there is NAFTA



Unrelated, but interesting to me:

Witness: BP took 'shortcuts' before well blowout
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
By GREG BLUESTEIN and MIKE BAKER Associated Press Writer

Broke. Damn Broke.

Update may 26, '10 by ,Simon Johnson who I trust after watching him be interviewed by Bill Moyers last year.

EU countries:

The Road To Economic Serfdom

US:

Arizona Graduation Speech Criticizing Immigration Laws Elicits Boos, Jeers

"What's your take? Was Soto's speech inappropriate, or was the audience out of line? Weigh in below. "
This is for Arizona to sort out.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

I can't help but wonder if the recent local case factored in?

The Supreme Court's Decision About Sexually Dangerous Federal Prisoners: Could It Hold the Key to the Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance?
By MICHAEL C. DORF
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

...Under a program first adopted in the late 1940s and most recently modified by a 2006 federal law , some prisoners who are otherwise eligible to be released because they have served their sentences may be held–potentially indefinitely–as "sexually dangerous" upon two conditions: First, clear and convincing proof must be presented to a court that, by virtue of a mental disease or defect, the prisoner would have serious difficulty refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released. Second, it must be the case that neither the state in which the prisoner is confined nor the state in which he was tried (if that is a different state) is willing to accept custody over him...."

I can't help but wonder if they thought of the recent case here of John Gardner. The fucker did 5 years for attacking a 13-year old and was released back into an area very close to me and my daughter was 16 at the time. It is still hard for me to look at a picture of Amber Dubois' mother without crying. Amber was on her way to school to buy a lamb for 4-H when Gardner got her.

Fascinating

I've been watching the first three years worth of "The Tudors" and Martin Luther is mentioned in one of the shows. Dudes lived at the same time and did things that changed history. Henry VIII wasn't exactly thrilled with Luther at first.



So naturally I get curious about Luther, so I stream this on Netflix. It's 4 bucks here, or it may be available in your library system. One of the scholars in it says "Martin Luther was probably the first propagandist."

Heh.

I would go so far as to say he changed the history of Western Civilization. Was the man perfect? OH Hell No, but he was a brave man who stirred up the shit when it needed to be stirred up .

Piece it together

I've only been reading non-fiction since September 12, 2001, which is why I get a bit impatient with article titles like Chris Hedges' Why the Enlightened Liberal Class Is Complicit in the Country's Downward Spiral.

I just roll my eyes and think "Duh, no shit, buddy! Who is NOT complicit?"

See, I've been trying to figure out what is behind the news for years now. I take it in now with 4 authors' writings in mind; John Perkins , Naomi Klein , Greg Palast and most importantly, Chalmers Johnson .




Why?

Because these 4 authors not only understand shit that I don't, but they can explain the who, what, where and why it is important for me to understand what they write.

Here is a great new interview with Johnson that I happened to miss while I was attempting to escape into TV series on Netflix.

I spent all day with a friend

We watched ate bad TexMex (is there any other kind?) walked on the beach, then ate bad Chinese and watched Wanda Sykes.

My faith in humans is restored, lol



I don't even want to know what happened today, as Wanda says "I don't give a fuck."

Friday squirrel blogging

Here is a pic from before the idiot with the weed-eater drove me nuts for 3 days straight and made this place look bleak again. There is a new litter of critters, which brings me back to population concerns.
Mojo has a population forum.
Why Is Population Control Such a Radioactive Topic?

I found this 20 minute video fascinating.

PBS Frontline The Carbon Hunters:
On the trail of the climate's hottest commodity
Watch Video & Share Your Reaction

Let's say I have been living in the Brazilian rain forest for more generations than I can document.

Then let's say some big American corporation wants to pay me, and everybody else who lives in that particular part of the forest a dollar a tree per year if I protect the trees, so that the big American corporation can continue to pollute.

I have kids to feed and the Pope was still sticking his nose into my (70% Catholic) country's business three years ago.

Then let's say an illegal logging operation wants to pay me a thousand dollars a tree.

Have we done the math yet?

Now back to being the non-hypothetical, non-Brazilian me.

I bought a table cloth and six cans of spray paint and looked at my husband in disgust when he asked my why I didn't just buy a new kitchen table set. Spray paint bad? Yes. Brand new furniture worse in my opinion? Yes. Pfffft. Men are so stupid sometimes.

These two stories caught my eye today

A Cartoonist Faces Backlash, in Sweden and the U.S., for Depicting Mohammed as a Dog:
The First Amendment Lessons
By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, May 13, 2010

"Jihad Jane" Deserves a Lengthy Sentence, and Artists Who Draw Mohammed Need Avid Police Protection

Timeline of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy


NPR Erases Domestic Terrorism
Submitted by Anne Landman on May 11, 2010 - 3:05pm.

"...he story completely ignored the fact that the United States has a long history of domestic terrorism committed by home-grown, home-radicalized terrorists. If, as Raston calimed, the U.S. does "seem largely immune to homegrown terrorism," then what, exactly, were the Ku Klux Klan, the assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the Symbionese Liberation Army (which committed robberies, murder, kidnapping and extortion), Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Oklahoma Federal Building, the murder of Dr. Bernard Slepian in his home by anti-abortionists, the bombing of the Olympics in Centennial park (the first of four bombings by anti-abortionist Eric Rudolph), the Columbine High School massacre, the murder of Dr. George Tiller in his church by another anti-abortion religious fanatic, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, the airplane intentionally flown into the Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas, the Hutaree Militia and...? Need I go on? ..."

Population. It's a problem

The Last Taboo — By Julia Whitty

May/June 2010 Issue

(Mother Jones)
What unites the Vatican, lefties, conservatives, environmentalists, and scientists in a conspiracy of silence? Population.


Yeesh, at least somebody has the nerve to write about it. If more people read this kind of stuff the doofs would quit asking my why I DON'T want to be a grandmother. Would I be a bad one? No, I'm not a bad mom, nor was I completely ecologically illiterate. In fact, I've always recycled because I was poor, I couldn't afford new stuff. I used cloth diapers when diaper service was affordable and the kid never got butt rashes.

Anyway, people like these dumb fuckers who just keep squirting them out are stupid.



I don't have any patience left for with stupid people, especially bible-thumping fucktards. My disgust is amplified when the idiots are politicians who restrict access to family planning in this country.

Euro’s Crisis Has American Fingerprints

Posted on May 11, 2010 By William Pfaff

"...Europe now has Sarkozy and the French government, which put this deal together while the Germans gnashed their teeth. He insisted that a self-governing currency was as dangerous as a market left totally free to regulate itself, expected to do so in the interests of all because it infallibly pursued the interest of each—otherwise known as the Reagan-Greenspan-Ayn Rand-School-of-Chicago fantasy. Now the world has Dominique Strauss-Kahn running the IMF, Jean-Claude Trichet running the European Central Bank, and Sarkozy performing a miracle in Brussels...."

* MAY 12, 2010, 10:35 A.M. ET
3rd UPDATE: Greek Unions Call New Strike Amid Economic Woe

"...On Wednesday, Greece was due to receive its first EUR5.5 billion disbursement from that loan package, and the government has formally requested another EUR14.5 billion to help meet debt and cash needs this month..."

Got that? Not a bailout, but a loan package. Wait and see what happens to the Greek people while the Chicago Boys banksters profit from the misery in Greece.

got nothing today

Go visit Bildungblog, I usually laugh there. This made me laugh.

Cancer, Chemicals, and Corporations

Published on Friday, May 7, 2010 by Empty Wheel
by Marcy Wheeler

I knew a bit about this 10 years ago when curiosity got the best of me and I looked at cancer clusters and industries in those areas.

Fracking: As Safe as Coca-Cola!
— By Kate Sheppard
| Tue Apr. 13, 2010 11:10 AM PDT

Oh yeah, Happy Mother's Day.

Mothers: ending war is the source of Mother’s Day. War is illegal. Mothers: demand justice, peace
May 7, 11:38 AMLA County Nonpartisan Examiner
Carl Herman

Cinco de Mayo

Updated May 06, 2010
California Students Sent Home for Wearing U.S. Flags on Cinco de Mayo
By Joshua Rhett Miller
- FOXNews.com

"Administrators at a California high school sent five students home on Wednesday after they refused to remove their American flag T-shirts and bandannas -- garments the school officials deemed "incendiary" on Cinco de Mayo...

...Volokh said the students and their parents likely have a winning case on their hands if they decide to take the matter to court..."


Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees
By George Kiriyama
NBCBayArea.com
updated 14 minutes ago

"...But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

Observances
(In) Mexico
Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday limited primarily to the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday in other parts of the country.[17] For the most part, the celebrations combine food, music, and dancing.

(In) United States
Cinco de Mayo performers at the White House

In the United States Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico.


Hispanic students leave school, march to show support for Mexico
More than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched through Morgan Hill yelling "We want respect!" and "Si se puedes!" At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff's vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white and green and carrying Mexican flags.

The crowd - mostly high school students - left school Thursday morning after the story of four students who were sent home because they wore American flag T-shirts went viral on TV and online...

..."They yelled 'dumb white bitch!' at me," Jennifer said. "Police were everywhere, so I asked them if they were going to do anything, 'that's why we're here' they said."

Jennifer said one teenager threw a rock at her husband's car while he was driving through downtown. She said he filed a police report immediately after...


Yup, to me Cinco de Mayo is an excuse for idiots to drink beer and dumb kids to skip school to proclaim their allegiance to a country that doesn't even celebrate the fucking holiday.

Cagle gives me another belly laugh

Yes,funny cartoon, but a true tragedy, and an avoidable one:


Feds let BP avoid filing blowout plan for Gulf rig
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and RICHARD T. PIENCIAK Associated Press Writers

Sex, Lies and Oil Spills
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University
Posted: May 5, 2010 10:19 AM

What caught my eye this morning

Uprising In Greece As Rage Against “Austerity” Flames, Fin Reform Compromises

Unharnessed anger: Incumbents win in NC, OH, IN
By LIZ SIDOTI and DEANNA MARTIN (AP) – 1 day ago
"...Turnout was exceptionally light in North Carolina and Ohio, a possible indication that voters' anger over economic woes, high unemployment and Congress wasn't influencing elections."

By Brad Friedman on 5/4/2010 10:19PM
Butler County, OH, Election Website Servers 'Under Attack' on Primary Night, Says Elections Director
ALSO: 89 of Cuyahoga County, OH's ES&S precinct-based op-scan systems failed in pre-election testing...

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well
Wednesday 05 May 2010
by: Greg Palast, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

"I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)...

"...What's so insane, when I look over that sickening slick moving toward the Delta, is that containing spilled oil is really quite simple and easy. And from my investigation, BP has figured out a very low-cost way to prepare for this task: BP lies. BP prevaricates, BP fabricates and BP obfuscates..."

Scuse the cynicism

Nigeria's president Yar'Adua dead

Wonder who the CIA will pop into his place?

We need the .oil

I saw this coming

* EUROPE NEWS
* MAY 5, 2010

Greeks Protest New Austerity Measures
Civil Servants Walk Out as Unions Gird for General Strike; Germany's Schäuble Warns That Strife Could Derail Bailout

If you didn't, you haven't read Naomi Klein's the Shock Doctrine.

Fucking fucks.

What I suspected

* Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010
. Recession, enforcement driving illegal immigrants to leave U.S

"...Roughly 300,000 fewer immigrants came to the country each year between 2005 and 2008, an almost 40 percent drop annually, according to the center...."

"...In 2005, 4.5 percent of undocumented men were unemployed, compared with almost 6 percent of U.S. born workers, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated. That trend has reversed, with 6.5 percent of undocumented workers unemployed in 2008, compared with 5.6 percent of U.S. born workers, a situation that's undoubtedly worsened with the downturn. More than half the undocumented work force worked in service or construction, two sectors hit hard by the recession..."

The whole article is well worth reading.

AZ SB 1070

S.B. 1070

Read it. Tell me what it is you find offensive from the text of the law.

Arizona's immigration law called necessary
Sylvia Allen
Friday, April 30, 2010
"...Rancher Rob Krentz was shot to death on his ranch over a month ago and the shooter fled into Mexico. His family suspects a drug smuggler is responsible..."

More Americans favor Ariz. law
By ANDY BARR | 4/29/10 3:59 PM EDT
Politico

Why Law Enforcement Officials Should Hate Arizona's Racist New Law
Arizona's draconian anti-immigration law will create a chilling effect in the very communities police officers rely on to fight crime.

"...Weinblatt agrees that "politicians are tapping into a vein of public sentiment, particularly in the Southwest."..."

Tucson cop first to sue to block AZ immigration law
By Brian J. Pedersen Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:24 am

Making it illegal to be illegal
Published: Friday, April 30, 2010 1:16 AM MDT

"Arizona is in the national – and international – spotlight after the passage of the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, more commonly known as Arizona SB1070.

The law, oversimplified as an “anti-illegal immigration” measure, has generated heated debate, raised concerns about its implementation and enforcement and landed the state on the “hit list” of critics who advocate boycotting Arizona, its businesses and its people as a form of protest against the law’s passage.

Wow. All because Arizona made it a state crime for anyone to be in the state illegally. All because Arizona made it a state crime, and not just a federal crime that it already is."

Thank God for chick flicks

I loved PS I Love You.

The US military macheen

3 US Military Generals, Admirals: "Climate Change is Threatening America's Security"
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 04.29.10

Military: Global Warming may Cause War
Associated Press | April 17, 2007

The Pentagon Is America's Biggest Polluter
The U.S. has a grossly corrupted health protection system.
May 12, 2008 |

The U.S. Military's War on the Earth
The Department of Defense can already level the globe with bombs -- now it's also the world's largest polluter.
March 13, 2003

God, it must suck syphlitic dick to be a Pentagon spinmeister.

I don't want to know

Our society is killing our children, opening a Pandora’s box for its future
Written by Danny Weil Education Apr 27, 2010

"...We are literally driving our children in this country insane with commercialization, rampant individuality, loss of public space, popular culture, corporate media, poor diets, homelessness and pharmaceutical drugs. Looking into the face and minds of many of our children in this country should mirror back at us the monstrous policies we operate under and what it has done to us, as adults. It should show us with clarity the sickness that pervades the society and the institutional madness of the gravediggers we call ‘leaders’..."


It's not just our children. I had a short conversation with a total stranger today and we both ended up agreeing that in order to function sometimes the thought for the day is "I don't want to know."

Yeah.

In order to not walk around with balled up fists and a sneer on my face I have to ignore the shenanigans of the Lloyd Blankfein s in the world, and some days it's just too painful to remember how frightened my daughter was to go to school after some of the school shootings made national news.