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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Headlines - Wednesday June 30
Republicans and Future Problems
Republicans keep working themselves into a lather over the possibility that Medicare and Social Security may be in financial trouble. Social Security is projected to be out of money in 27 years and the GOP is chomping at the bit to try and kill it off now.
But here is the thing: There are a whole gamut of long-term problems facing both this country, if not humanity in general, and for the vast majority of them, the Republicans/conservatives don't give a shit. Let's run down a short list:
Climate change.
Rising sea levels.
Ocean acidification.
Environmental degradation from oil and gas drilling.
Growing scarcity of fresh water.
Deforestation and desertification.
Overpopulation.
Disappearance of amphibian populations.
Mass extinction of species.
Persistent chemical pollution of the food chain.
Overfishing and the collapse of fish stocks.
For all of them, conservatives either issue a mighty yawn or they, the Chamber of Commerce and the affected industries scream that "the science is not proven", relying on the obstructionism trailblazed by the tobacco industry.
But only when they spy a chance to dismantle the social safety net which keeps old people from starving to death or dying quickly of preventable illnesses, do Republicans rouse themselves to bleat about the future.
Because, when you drill down to the core of conservative beliefs, they want to make this country into a modern feudal state where there are vast amounts of serfs, a tiny professional class (since serfs don't need the services of doctors, lawyers and accountants) and a class of rich oligarchs who run everything.
The real mystery is why so many people who are in the economic classes that are being targeted by the conservatives for extinction reliably vote for them.
But here is the thing: There are a whole gamut of long-term problems facing both this country, if not humanity in general, and for the vast majority of them, the Republicans/conservatives don't give a shit. Let's run down a short list:
Climate change.
Rising sea levels.
Ocean acidification.
Environmental degradation from oil and gas drilling.
Growing scarcity of fresh water.
Deforestation and desertification.
Overpopulation.
Disappearance of amphibian populations.
Mass extinction of species.
Persistent chemical pollution of the food chain.
Overfishing and the collapse of fish stocks.
For all of them, conservatives either issue a mighty yawn or they, the Chamber of Commerce and the affected industries scream that "the science is not proven", relying on the obstructionism trailblazed by the tobacco industry.
But only when they spy a chance to dismantle the social safety net which keeps old people from starving to death or dying quickly of preventable illnesses, do Republicans rouse themselves to bleat about the future.
Because, when you drill down to the core of conservative beliefs, they want to make this country into a modern feudal state where there are vast amounts of serfs, a tiny professional class (since serfs don't need the services of doctors, lawyers and accountants) and a class of rich oligarchs who run everything.
The real mystery is why so many people who are in the economic classes that are being targeted by the conservatives for extinction reliably vote for them.
###
Kagan fends off GOP efforts to portray her as a liberal activist.
How have we allowed 'liberal' to become a dirty word?
Update: Could Congress pass a law requiring Americans to eat vegetables and fruits three times a day?
– inbred idiot and Senator (redundant?) Coburn, Oklahoma.
###US Still Neglecting The Mess They Made In Vietnam
The United Nations has launched a $5 million project to clean up Agent Orange contamination at a former U.S military air base in Vietnam, the world body said Tuesday.
###
Matt Taibbi: Lara Logan, You Suck
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Monday night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow laid out a rather startling set of numbers: In the past three years, BP has netted $58.3 billion in profit, yet has spent only $29 million (0.05% of the profit) on safer-drilling research. Over the same period, BP hasn't spent one penny on researching how to respond to any type of oil spill, much less one as huge as the breach currently fouling the Gulf.
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GOP Patriotism: NO Dinero For Homeless Veterans
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked for unanimous consent to approve a $3.4 billion bill to help homeless women veterans and homeless vets with kids. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell objected on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is taking a stand against any measure that adds to the deficit.
That people being hurt by this recession are actually considering handing the keys to Congress back to these dark-hearted, greedy, venal, heartless bastards is just mind-boggling.
###
Pornography for Conservaturds.
How does any thinking person take the Republican party seriously when you cannot tell the difference between one of its campaign ads and a Saturday Night Live skit. This is embarrassing.
###
There the teabagger stood, holding in her right hand her greatest enemy: the microphone.
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Family Values
According to Sharon Angle, God wants fathers to rape their daughters. Or at least he wants daughters to bear their fathers' children. That's what they call family values in her neck of the woods:
On the other hand, Angle seems to see conception by rape and incest as something God purposefully directed and so the results of which are something the birthing vessel must embrace. That's a very disturbing point of view no matter where you come out on the issue.
Harry Reid, on the other hand, must be thanking the Good Lord every night for "interceding" and providing him with Sharon Angle as an opponent. He must feel that God definitely intends for him to win re-election.
According to Sharon Angle, God wants fathers to rape their daughters. Or at least he wants daughters to bear their fathers' children. That's what they call family values in her neck of the woods:
MANDERS: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?The truth is that she is being more consistent than most allegedly "pro-life" people. If you genuinely think that abortion is murder then you can't justify "killing" the blastocyst or fetus just because of the way it was conceived.
ANGLE: Not in my book.
MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?
ANGLE: You know, I'm a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.
On the other hand, Angle seems to see conception by rape and incest as something God purposefully directed and so the results of which are something the birthing vessel must embrace. That's a very disturbing point of view no matter where you come out on the issue.
Harry Reid, on the other hand, must be thanking the Good Lord every night for "interceding" and providing him with Sharon Angle as an opponent. He must feel that God definitely intends for him to win re-election.
Update: Mario Piperni has this to say:
So, in Angle's little, little mind, God has a plan and if that plan involves you getting raped by your sick uncle then shut up and accept the ensuing pregnancy.
ME: Sharron…
SHARRON ANGLE: Yes, Mario?
ME: On behalf of every woman who has ever gotten pregnant by rape, FU and your perverted interpretation of faith.
###
Republican's America = Your Worst Nightmare
What do you have to look forward to when Republicans finally do take over the reins of government? This. And it ain't pretty.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) believes that a "political rebellion" akin to the American revolution of 1776 is brewing, that the Social Security retirement age should be raised to 70, and that the Wall Street reform bill currently moving through Congress is comparable to "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."
In an explosive interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the GOP leader also charged that Democrats are "snuffing out the America that I grew up in." He added, "Right now, we've got more Americans engaged in their government than at any time in our history. There's a political rebellion brewing, and I don't think we've seen anything like it since 1776."
[...]
Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he'd favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.
"We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we're broke," Boehner said. "If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke? We just need to be honest with people.
Honest? The hypocrisy is astounding. Cut down on Social Security but extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich is what this guy is saying. Why is it that honesty is something which the middle class and poor need to deal with but the rich are exempt? The same people who didn't give a damn for deficit spending during the eight years of insanity and abuse under Bush have now made this their number one priority. And they're asking to be taken seriously. Really?
Why not get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan, wars which cannot be won under any conditions, and then they would not have to worry about finding funds to pay for them? Is the trillion already spent on those two pointless wars not enough?
Imagine a Sarah Palin White House with Boehner and McConnell in charge of the House and Senate respectively and know that there is no terrorist organization in existence which could be more destructive to America than what these fools are capable of doing.
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So it is the Democrats messaging that completely sucks or are they just complete, gutless cowards? You know they are in bad shape when they can't even pass this mild "reform" because they're too afraid to fight the GOP who can't stop supporting Wall Street's bad behavior. Either way, they suck. Why do we vote for these people?
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Is John Boehner a) racist; b) sexist; c) homophobic; or d) all of the above?
"They're snuffing out the America that I grew up in," Boehner said.
Indeed we are.
The America that John Boehner grew up in was an America where African-American males were only farm hands or factory laborers, not as politicians, judges or American presidents. Women were housewives, secretaries and elementary school teachers, not Speakers of the House of Representatives. Gay men and lesbians were either deep in the closer or they were routinely being beaten by the cops, they weren't getting married or raising families. Hispanics were maids and lettuce-pickers, not entrepreneurs and TV stars.
I suspect that Boeher was engaging in the old GOP trick of dog-whistling to the racists.
But Boehner is right about one thing: The America he grew up in is gone and, if the GOP doesn't smarten up, so will his party. Maybe not in this election or the next, but his batshit racist base is aging out and when they do, the Grand Old party will go the way of the Whigs.
The America that John Boehner grew up in was an America where African-American males were only farm hands or factory laborers, not as politicians, judges or American presidents. Women were housewives, secretaries and elementary school teachers, not Speakers of the House of Representatives. Gay men and lesbians were either deep in the closer or they were routinely being beaten by the cops, they weren't getting married or raising families. Hispanics were maids and lettuce-pickers, not entrepreneurs and TV stars.
I suspect that Boeher was engaging in the old GOP trick of dog-whistling to the racists.
But Boehner is right about one thing: The America he grew up in is gone and, if the GOP doesn't smarten up, so will his party. Maybe not in this election or the next, but his batshit racist base is aging out and when they do, the Grand Old party will go the way of the Whigs.
###
The Road to Serfdom.
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A progressive Budget Calculator
Not to be outdone by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Deficit, the Center for Economic Policy Research has a new budget calculator out that lets you put more liberal policies into play and see what happens to the debt level in 2020. I got us below 60 percent (the magic number, at least according to some budget hawks) by ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a Medicare-like public option, adding a modest carbon tax, adding a financial transactions tax, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, increasing the cap on taxable earnings for Social Security, converting the mortgage-interest deduction to a 15 percent credit, and letting the estate tax return on schedule.
Oh, and I did all this while adding $2.1 trillion in infrastructure, R&D, and education spending, and increasing the generosity of Social Security benefits. I am a budget genius!
Gee. You'd almost think the deficit debate was a cover story for Republicans to slash social spending.
###
"The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation's working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced hours at work or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey." Nearly of half of the survey's respondents said "they are in worse financial shape as a result of the downturn, which destroyed 20 percent of Americans' wealth."
...
Let's add another 11 million by rewarding bad behavior
On Thursday, President Obama will deliver an address at American University to "make the case for providing a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million people who live in the U.S. illegally." Obama met with lawmakers this week to discuss a strategy for passing immigration reform, "possibly during a lame-duck session of Congress after the November election."
###
Financial regulation to pass .... Now? How about now?
Financial regulation was dead yesterday, but today it is alive again, just like Jesus! And speaking of things or people who are like Jesus, we have Scott Brown to thank for this turn of events. All Barney Frank and his fellow Sadducees had to do to win the love of Brown and the New England RINO ladies was take out the tax on big banks and hedge funds, raise the FDIC's reserve ratio, and end TARP early. Those sound like incredibly minor details that can be just added in last-minute negotiations, surely. MORE »
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If I had my druthers ....
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Yet another painfully predictable consequence ignored by people who think drilling for oil in the Gulf is a good idea. "The effects of growing Tropical Storm Alex has halted part of BP's oil clean-up attempts in the Gulf of Mexico. Activities such as skimming, dispersant flights and controlled burning have all been suspended because of strong winds and high waves. But the main methods of oil capture at the spill site is continuing despite the weather. Tropical Storm Alex is expected to strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil have leaked every day since the Deepwater Horizon rig sank in April. A containment cap placed over the leaking pipe is collecting up to 25,000 barrels a day and sending it to two surface ships. And a relief well being drilled to staunch the flow is on target to be finished by early August, a senior BP executive has said."
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Completing Him Challenge, Week 3, Praying for Him
This is week three in the Completing Him Challenge over at Women Living Well.
This week is about praying daily for our husbands. I really enjoyed this inspiration! I pray every week for my husband in church. After services I light a candle just for him and pray. I usually pray for things such as his safe commute to work (he's currently commuting 3 hours per day!). I also pray that he will make wise beverage choices (keep him off the soda), and I usually pray for his understanding.
I like Women Living Well's idea to pray daily for our husbands and I plan on excepting this challenge. Every time I look down and see my wedding ring I will pray for my husband. What a way to spend everyday sending good vibes to the man I love!
Completing Him Challenge, Week 3, Praying for Him
This is week three in the Completing Him Challenge over at Women Living Well.
This week is about praying daily for our husbands. I really enjoyed this inspiration! I pray every week for my husband in church. After services I light a candle just for him and pray. I usually pray for things such as his safe commute to work (he's currently commuting 3 hours per day!). I also pray that he will make wise beverage choices (keep him off the soda), and I usually pray for his understanding.
I like Women Living Well's idea to pray daily for our husbands and I plan on excepting this challenge. Every time I look down and see my wedding ring I will pray for my husband. What a way to spend everyday sending good vibes to the man I love!
Headlines - Tuesday June 29
Pensacola Beach, Florida before British Petroleum:
This is what it looks like now.
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But squirrels and cops are terrorists
Some new heart wrenching video footage of the oil gusher: http://www.americablog.com/2010/06/some-new-heart-wrenching-video-footage.html
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h/t Andy: Funny, positive, informative and very entertaining newsletter you can subscribe to here.
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Betty Bowers: 
Not one tightly spooled tornado or sizzling bolt of lightning has decimated even an inch of crepe paper during this year's tawdry Gay Pride parades. Clearly, the Lord is too preoccupied with despoiling Florida's lovely, white sand beaches with unwanted, brown oil. And, honestly, it doesn't take someone with an almost-high-school education to see a divine anti-immigration metaphor at work! His eye is on the sparrow -- even if it now looks like a blackbird.
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GOP invites rebuked religious right general, who says he speaks with the holy spirit, to testify at the Kagan confirmation hearings.
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Bob Herbert is the latest to weigh in on the opportunity squandered by the Obama Administration as a result of its mad love affair with the Pentagon and Wall Street, forsaking all others.
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Dispatch from the "Holy Shit!" file.
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Citing SB-1070 and the fact that they are above the law, Latinos withdraw applications for top University of Arizona position.
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After Obama eats hamburgers with Medvedev, Russian spies caught all over America
Monday, June 28, 2010
Beware of the Replacers
There are so many things replacing the family these days - especially Mom and Dad. The family is our foundation, our earthly heaven, and, in my opinion, it is only through cultivating healthy families that we can save the world from poverty, war, violence, greed, crime, and environmental destruction.
"A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight." Prov 11:1
We should all beware of anything replacing the family but these things are so darn sneaky! I'm hoping this post will help you become a "Replacer Sleuth" seeking out, exposing and abandoning those goods and services designed to replace members of your family - even you!
Ever since modern humans felt they could through away our Mother in Heaven, it seems moms have been most under attack by the Replacers. Cribs, strollers, bouncy seats, play pins and the like have all been created to replace the arms of Momma. Abandon these things if you can, and if you cannot, use them with intention and in moderation. A healthy baby, is a baby in his or her mother's arms.
Day care, nannies, babysitters, schools, after care centers, etc all replace Mom's love, presence and attention. But mom can't be around 24/7, you may say, what about doctors appointments when Mom doesn't want to drag all of her children to the waiting room? Well, that's where grandmother's come in! If Mom isn't the one being replaced, grandma's, aunts and older sisters are!
Children are no longer trained in domestic arts, reading, writing and math by their mothers. They are shuffled off to government run institutions where they compete with classrooms full of 30-40 children for the attention they should be getting from their mothers. After school children come home to be educated and entertained by the TV.
When Mom goes to work she is often a Replacer herself, caring for children, doing secretary work, nursing ill people, caring for the elderly, teaching school children, crafting home items or toys, decorating, arranging flowers, sewing or designing clothes, cooking, serving meals or cleaning. What a backwards world we live in where Mom doesn't simply serve her own family in this function.
Mom isn't the only one being replaced though. Dad is also under attack by the Replacers. Where once fathers homesteaded land or worked from small family shops, our industrialized society has sent Dad far away, all day long. Son's rarely learn the family trade at their father's feet. Dad's five day a week absence is a mystery to many small children.
In Dad's spot is the TV for moral authority and guidance. Instead of learning about virtue, hard work, family values and love, today's youth are being raised with the moral standards of MTV and self-obsessed reality TV programming. The father-son hunt or gardening project has been replaced by video games.
"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence." Heb 12:9
So many good fathers are struggling to make ends meet in the corrupt corporate world which pays them nothing and respects them less. The government then steps in with food stamps and welfare money that some families desperately need to survive - but now the government is putting food on the table, not Dad. How humiliating for the hard working father that his family must be dependent on the system for support instead of on him.
Money itself replaces the role a father should play in his families life. Money becomes the the deciding factor in what the family can posses not the sweat of the father's brow or the creativity of his craftsmanship. A father can no longer use his intellect to trade, work or barter for his families needs, they are all placed in a limiting box with a huge dollar sign on the side.
Getting the family back on a healthy track is noble crusade and a difficult task. Where are you sleuthing out Replacers in your life? Can you think of some I may have missed? What can we do about it?
Beware of the Replacers
There are so many things replacing the family these days - especially Mom and Dad. The family is our foundation, our earthly heaven, and, in my opinion, it is only through cultivating healthy families that we can save the world from poverty, war, violence, greed, crime, and environmental destruction.
"A false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight." Prov 11:1
We should all beware of anything replacing the family but these things are so darn sneaky! I'm hoping this post will help you become a "Replacer Sleuth" seeking out, exposing and abandoning those goods and services designed to replace members of your family - even you!
Ever since modern humans felt they could through away our Mother in Heaven, it seems moms have been most under attack by the Replacers. Cribs, strollers, bouncy seats, play pins and the like have all been created to replace the arms of Momma. Abandon these things if you can, and if you cannot, use them with intention and in moderation. A healthy baby, is a baby in his or her mother's arms.
Day care, nannies, babysitters, schools, after care centers, etc all replace Mom's love, presence and attention. But mom can't be around 24/7, you may say, what about doctors appointments when Mom doesn't want to drag all of her children to the waiting room? Well, that's where grandmother's come in! If Mom isn't the one being replaced, grandma's, aunts and older sisters are!
Children are no longer trained in domestic arts, reading, writing and math by their mothers. They are shuffled off to government run institutions where they compete with classrooms full of 30-40 children for the attention they should be getting from their mothers. After school children come home to be educated and entertained by the TV.
When Mom goes to work she is often a Replacer herself, caring for children, doing secretary work, nursing ill people, caring for the elderly, teaching school children, crafting home items or toys, decorating, arranging flowers, sewing or designing clothes, cooking, serving meals or cleaning. What a backwards world we live in where Mom doesn't simply serve her own family in this function.
Mom isn't the only one being replaced though. Dad is also under attack by the Replacers. Where once fathers homesteaded land or worked from small family shops, our industrialized society has sent Dad far away, all day long. Son's rarely learn the family trade at their father's feet. Dad's five day a week absence is a mystery to many small children.
In Dad's spot is the TV for moral authority and guidance. Instead of learning about virtue, hard work, family values and love, today's youth are being raised with the moral standards of MTV and self-obsessed reality TV programming. The father-son hunt or gardening project has been replaced by video games.
"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence." Heb 12:9
So many good fathers are struggling to make ends meet in the corrupt corporate world which pays them nothing and respects them less. The government then steps in with food stamps and welfare money that some families desperately need to survive - but now the government is putting food on the table, not Dad. How humiliating for the hard working father that his family must be dependent on the system for support instead of on him.
Money itself replaces the role a father should play in his families life. Money becomes the the deciding factor in what the family can posses not the sweat of the father's brow or the creativity of his craftsmanship. A father can no longer use his intellect to trade, work or barter for his families needs, they are all placed in a limiting box with a huge dollar sign on the side.
Getting the family back on a healthy track is noble crusade and a difficult task. Where are you sleuthing out Replacers in your life? Can you think of some I may have missed? What can we do about it?
Headlines - Monday June 28
h/t Fred:
Oldie but goodie Morford: The Hippies Were Right.
###
That buzzing you hear is our collective alarm clock ringing. Wake the fuck up.
As the oil disaster caused by the gusher in the Gulf enters its third month, the painful truth is that the response to the crisis is faltering and falling down all over the place.
BP has never been an honest partner. They have lied at every step of the way. Remember when they assured the world that only a thousand barrels a day was spilling - well, they weren't off by just a smidgen...they were lying their bloody asses off and using toxic dispersant a mile below the surface, even after being ordered to stop using it, in an effort to hide the amount of oil gushing into the ocean.
From the outset they have been allowed to control reporters' access to their crime scene and sought to control the narrative - and been quite successful at doing so.
Rachel Maddow and Mother Jones have been the rare exception and gone after the story relentlessly.
It's a story that needs to be told. It is one of greed and reckless disregard that led to the deaths of eleven individuals, multiple unique cultures and ways of life, thousands of birds, turtles, dolphins, etc - and the unique ecosystems of multiple marshlands, wetlands and barrier islands.
It is a story of incompetence, dishonesty, and willful disregard for what is best for the Gulf versus what is best for the futures of craven, venal, politicians like Bobby Jindal who points fingers at everyone else but only deploys a thousand of the six thousand National Guard troops he requested and has been authorized to mobilize as the Commander in Chief of the Louisiana National Guard, even as booms go untended and do more harm than good in delicate wetlands.
It is a story of the people of the Gulf Coast losing hope and giving up. Of boat captains choosing to stay ashore rather than go out and and use their vessels for skimming operations because they aren't being told the truth about the toxicity of the petroleum they are being exposed to, all the while they are told not to wear masks and protective gear because BP doesn't like how that looks to the press that manages to get through and get part of the story.
It is a story of scrambling to put a good face forward when important people visit then going back to doing nothing, or at least nothing right, as soon as the important person leaves and takes the cameras and reporters with them.
It is a story of a country that had ample warning to deal with it's energy problems and chose to ignore them and party like it was 1969 and they had never heard of oil embargoes or energy crises.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost and it is ugly.
Well guess what? It is going to get uglier unless we pull our heads out of the sand.
It is a story that needs to be told, because this is it, folks. This is our wake-up call, and if we don't open our eyes and get up NOW, we miss our ride to the future.
Speaking of the future, by the way, I don't understand the resistance of the fossil fuel industry to renewables. Do they think we're just going to conjure those future systems up with magic wands? No, of course not! The development and testing and installing is going to take...energy. That we will have to get from...wait for it...fossil fuels. They are in no danger of losing their market. Frankly, I have been gobsmacked that such a versatile and chemically unique thing as oil was just burned up for energy ever since I took Organic Chemistry as an undergrad. That said - if we use up our energy and don't use part of it to build what's next, future generations are doomed thanks to our selfish stupidity, and they will not view us kindly. It is actually conceivable that the Third Reich may fare better in a hundred and fifty years than late 20th-early 21st century western, industrialized society if we don't get our shit together. After all, what is a few million lives from one part of the globe? A big deal at the time, sure. A big deal still today, in fact. But when you stack it up against killing entire swaths of the planet? They will look like pikers compared to us.
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Reagan Revolution Home To Roost -- In Charts.
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LA Times: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has moved to stop a legitimately disturbing trend: welfare recipients using state-issued debit cards withdrew welfare payments as cash from casino floors. Since October 2009, welfare recipients have withdrawn more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash on casino floors.
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Almost all Valdez workers are dead
Via Shannyn Moore, CNN reports that the average life expectancy for an Exxon Valdez cleanup worker is 51 years. Most are dead.
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It's great to see the New York Times finally coming around to report on Bobby Jindal's ridiculousness -- and it only took weeks of Rachel Maddow exposing his roid rage grandstanding and nonsensical, ineffectual ideas (like the stupid sand berms) to get to this point. But we're here and it's about time.
Here's a rundown of Louisiana and Bobby Jindal oil spill failures, via Jed Lewison:
1. The state's oil spill coordinator's office has had its budget slashed by 50% over the last decade.2. Last year, Jindal cut funding from the state's oil spill research program.
3. The state's oil spill contingency plan's include "pages of blank charts that are supposed to detail available supplies of equipment like oil-skimming vessels." A plan for a worst-case scenario was labeled "to be developed."
4. Before Jindal decided to attack the Federal response, state officials signed off on all Coast Guard response plans.
5. Jindal, who raged at the Federal government for not having enough boom, requested three times as much boom as the state's plan had called for -- and 50% more boom than existed in the entire nation.
And he's only deployed 1,053 out of 6,000 available National Guard troops. But he's doing a lot of yelling and helicoptering! That's just as good as troops, no?
We might know more, but Bobby Jindal has sealed the state's oil spill response records.
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Because police investigations are so much worse than covering up and enabling child rape ....
PZ Meyers: Ol' Ratzi is quite upset at the Belgian raids on Catholic church offices — he's calling them "deplorable", a "moment of sadness", and is calling in the Belgian ambassador to the Vatican for an angry dressing-down.
He's doing everything all wrong. Here's what he should be doing: he should be calling the actions of priestly sex abusers deplorable and wrong, and insisting that the church will do everything in its power to correct the deep problems that have led to these awful acts. Then he should announce that the church will cooperate fully with all legal secular actions — and the Belgian raids were fully authorized by the Belgian state — in getting down to the heart of the matter, and go even further, offering to open up all relevant records to inspection. Then I might be convinced that the church is sincere in its pursuit of justice for all, not just its priests, but also its parishioners.
But then, I'm an atheist. Ignore me. I'm kind of enjoying the spectacle of the Catholic church putting on the indignant act of a guilty criminal caught red-handed and insisting that the police shouldn't be working so hard to catch them.
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Skippy's environmental news stories.
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In the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling limiting the scope of a key federal anti-corruption statute, white-collar defense lawyers are salivating at the chance to challenge some of the biggest public corruption cases in recent memory -- from Gov. Don Siegelman in Alabama to Gov. Rod Blagojevich in Illinois to New York state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno to the myriad figures in the Jack Abramoff saga. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/supreme_court_honest_services_fraud_ruling_corrupt.php?ref=fpa
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Theda Skocpol explains how congressional Republicans are intentionally holding up economic recovery until they can get back into office.
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Another Fox moment of idiocy
In the simple-minded, bash-anything-Obama world of Fox News, the following is deemed to be razor sharp, inquisitive commentary.
"The President took a matter of hours to pick a commander in Afghanistan so why is it taking months to plug the leaking oil?" – Brian Kilmeade Fox and Friends
…and five million idiots watching Fox stood up straight, scratched their heads in unison, grunted, shoved another ten Doritos into their face and asked, "Yeah, how come?" Then they burped, took a deep mind-numbing sniff of their armpits and slouched back into their rocking chairs. Life was good.
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Does religion kill off brain cells?
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Great news: CIA director: there may be less than 50 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.
And h/t Dick: Karzai holds secret talks with top militant.
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Lowest bidder wins! Even if they're murderers, torturers and con men. "The head of CIA has defended awarding a large contract to the controversial security company formerly known as Blackwater. The director of the CIA, Leon Penatta, said the company's bid was US $26m less than its nearest rival. The contract, worth $100m, is to provide security at US consulates in the cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. Blackwater guards allegedly opened fire on unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007 killing 17 people. In the wake of the killings, the company rebranded itself Xe Services. The company ended its operations in Iraq in 2009, in line with a ban by the government. The US government said in January 2009 that it would not renew the company's task orders."
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While they're cutting programs and services because we're broke, it seems like our endless wars will get every dime they demand:
As we are told that austerity is needed in government and we'll have to get less, it is becoming quite clear where our spending priorities lie.And everybody seems okay with that. In a time when over 10% of us don't have jobs, when the rich don't pay taxes, and the economy is on the brink of collapse, we see nothing wrong with spending tens of billions of dollars chasing a buncha goat humpers through the mountains in a place where history shows we cannot win. We're a nation of cowardly chickenshits.
We're going to be need another $33 billion for Afghanistan this year. So what's that, another couple dozen alleged Al Qaeda to chase around and ultimately toss around missiles at?
...
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h/t Fred:
Did you know that the words "race car" spelled backwards still spell "race car"?
That "eat" is the only word that, if you take the 1st letter and move it to the last, spells its past tense, "ate"?
And if you rearrange the letters in "so-called tea party Republicans," and add just a few more letters, it spells: "Shut the fuck up you free-loading, progress-blocking, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, violent, hypocritical douchebags, and deal with the fact that you nearly wrecked the country under Bush and that our new president is black."
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Polar Bear in Training to Become Area Rug
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Well, if the media persist in calling Sarah Palin a rock star, she's going to continue to behave like one
...except omitting the talented musician part and leaving just the demanding, preening, petty, self-aggrandizing beeyotch part:
Yup, she's just an ordinary mom. Just like all those who can't put food on the table because they've lost their jobs. You know, those "spoiled" people that Palin pick for Nevada Senate Sharron Angle talks about.
And they wonder why we call them idiots?
More at Palingates.
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The smell of hypocrisy in the morning
The governors of Gulf Coast states, most of whom have been relentless promoters of offshore drilling, issued proclamations urging people to pray for the Almighty to step in and stop BP's underwater gusher.
Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal has been kvetching about the ofkshore drilling moratorium and Haley Barbour has been complaining that the moratorium is "worse than the oil spill". That is when he hasn't been telling people that they should be coming to visit Mississippi because there's no oil there.
I've visited Mississippi. As far as I can see, the only reason to go to Mississippi is because an Interstate highway goes through it. Mississippi's main function in life is to give Georgians the ability to point and say "their schools are worse".[1] But I digress.
There is something deeply hypocritical about encouraging deep-water drilling and then, when it goes wrong, crying "who could have foreseen this ever happening" and then praying to G-d to "save us" from our own folly. Unlike a hurricane,[2] this is not a natural disaster or, as the insurance weasels put it, an "act of G-d". This disaster is 100% man-made and was caused by BP, a corporation whose culture encouraged disregarding safety protocols at every possible opportunity.
So, Barbour, Jindal and Perry, grab your log, surf's up!
Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal has been kvetching about the ofkshore drilling moratorium and Haley Barbour has been complaining that the moratorium is "worse than the oil spill". That is when he hasn't been telling people that they should be coming to visit Mississippi because there's no oil there.
I've visited Mississippi. As far as I can see, the only reason to go to Mississippi is because an Interstate highway goes through it. Mississippi's main function in life is to give Georgians the ability to point and say "their schools are worse".[1] But I digress.
There is something deeply hypocritical about encouraging deep-water drilling and then, when it goes wrong, crying "who could have foreseen this ever happening" and then praying to G-d to "save us" from our own folly. Unlike a hurricane,[2] this is not a natural disaster or, as the insurance weasels put it, an "act of G-d". This disaster is 100% man-made and was caused by BP, a corporation whose culture encouraged disregarding safety protocols at every possible opportunity.
So, Barbour, Jindal and Perry, grab your log, surf's up!
[1]The unofficial state motto of Georgia is "Thank the Lord for Mississippi and Alabama".
[2] Even with hurricanes, man-made fuckery makes things worse. The destruction of the coastal marshes in Louisiana has made that state far more vulnerable to hurricanes and much of that destruction was caused by cutting channels to make things easier for the oil drillers.
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Beer Diplomacy 2
AFPNotorious beer drinker and problem solver, President Carebear sees if lightening will strike twice, and shares a beer with UK King or whatnot, David Cameron, who is not the former king, Gordon Brown. It should be noted that while Obama offered Cameron an excellent beer, Cameron offered Obama a hobgoblin:
…Seated in dark leather chairs, with the G8 and G20 logo serving as a backdrop in the small room, Obama and Cameron satisfied a wager they had made on the U.S-Britain soccer match. 'Since it ended in a tie, we're exchanging, by paying off our debts at the same time, this is Goose Island 312 beer from my hometown of Chicago,' Obama said, holding a yellow-tagged bottle of beer. Cameron then handed his beer to a smiling Obama. 'This is Hobgoblin,' he said. 'I advised him that in America, we drink our beer cold,' Obama quipped. 'He has to put it in a refrigerator before he drinks it, but I think that he will find it outstanding.'
First the Brits try to destroy the Gulf of Mexico, beloved watery place where Bubba Jindal shakes-down America Chicago-style, and now they are releasing their beer goblins on the Carebear. Why do they hate America?
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Libya will allow BP to begin drilling in its offshore deepwater region next month, despite the massive Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, the head of Libya's National Oil Co. said Sunday.
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Thanks to Wonkette for saying what so many think…
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In his New York Times column, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman warns we are in the early stages of a "third depression." "This third depression," he writes, "will be primarily a failure of policy" as the world's leading governments obsess "about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending."
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They also announced they will extract oil from deep ocean reserves without using oil rigs or drills, because that's more feasible than cutting deficits in a recession without killing growth. "Leaders at the G20 summit in Canada have reached agreement on a deal to cut national budget deficits without stunting economic growth. Summit host Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the group's richest members should halve their deficits within three years. Correspondents note that every major G20 country had already committed to that target before the summit. Proposals for a global levy on banks have been dropped, Mr Harper said. Instead, that will be left to individual countries. Agreement was also reached, says the BBC's economics editor Stephanie Flanders, on an explicit commitment to agree new minimum levels of capital for banks in time for the next Summit in Seoul in November. Precise figures will not be reached until then, she says. The group of 20 leading and emerging nations had been split over the pace of budget cuts US President Barack Obama warned against fast and deep budget cuts, fearing damage to global growth."
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Are ya scared yet, punk? Are ya?
Step One: Encourage horrific gambling by banks to send the economy into a tailspin and destroy millions of middle-class jobs.
Step Two: Prevent Democratic leaders from restoring those jobs through a sufficiently large stimulus, then prevent Democratic leaders from relieving the resulting suffering with extended unemployment benefits.
Step Three: Terrorize the citizenry with threats of further disaster unless they agree to destroy the remaining shreds of their social safety net by eliminating social security and slashing domestic spending.
Brilliant! And working like a charm.
Daniel Dayen at Firedoglake:
The America Speaks meetings held in 19 cities across the country today (Saturday), funded to the tune of $1 billion dollars by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, were a study in how subtle messaging and deficit hyping can mold and shape opinions that move the public toward right-wing solutions about slashing social spending. Despite an insistence of neutrality, organizers of this series of town hall meetings allowed their agenda to show through, particularly in their presentation of options for how to deal with the nation's fiscal future. But attendees in Los Angeles and around the country weren't totally buying it in the first half of the meeting.
Digby concludes:
Dday also concurs with my earlier impression that this was a very slickly designed program to steer people worried about the economy toward cuts in the safety net, which we all know is the real purpose of this thing. (It's amazing what a billion dollars can do...) The people who attended were mostly earnest, decent citizens who are legitimately worried about the future of this country. And they are being led very methodically into a belief that the biggest threat to that future is government spending on social programs.
Fight the fuckers with facts: click here for the facts on Social Security, and here for the facts on the deficit.
Lunch on the Rocks: Some thoughts on Plein Air Competitions
"Lunch on the Rocks"
12x12 oil Available $250
Cedarburg 2010 is officially over. Saturday at 8am (after 10 painting and traveling back and forth days) I knew I had spent the last of my energy when I could not even think about standing in the middle of 100,000+ people attending Strawberry Festival on a steamy hot morning and "painting the festival". So I did the next best thing...I purchased a carton of strawberries and found a somewhat quieter shaded spot and proceeded to paint what ended up being my lunch. Our paintings needed to be turned in at 2pm and the awards ceremony was a 5pm. There was no place to really rest in between. I attempted to go out to dinner with some wonderful friends but this "fibro" girl ran smack into a wall of exhaustion. Home I went...in bed by 10pm...up at 10am...checked e-mail, ate breakfast and back to bed for 2 hours after which (beginning to feel human again) I had to drive back to Cedarburg (about a 35 minute drive) to pick up my unsold work.
I have been struggling to get reacquainted with my oil paints after a winter of pastels and I finally felt some things coming together this week...much to my relief. I was somewhat pleased with my over all results in painting. Some painters I trust had good stuff to say about my work and I truly hope they were not just being nice. Ken Auster who's workshop I have taken says "You are good when your peers say your good". I like that...as a gauge. And although I did not sell a thing or take home any awards and I will probably pay physically for this week...It was all still very worth it! For me nothing beats painting in the open air with a bunch of truly great artists whom I respect and the challenge of capturing what I see before me on a blank canvas!
Have palette knife will travel!!
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