9.18.2010

We are shocked

Mason Tvert: Big Alcohol Fueling Opposition to California Marijuana Initiative

According to a recently filed campaign finance report, the campaign to defeat a marijuana legalization initiative in California is receiving substantial funding from the alcohol industry.

Blankee



Photo: Phil Compton

Grim

Ohio school installs all-carrot vending machine

 

Catching up

9/11, the war on terror and human rights abuses in their name - latimes.com

The story of how the Bush-Cheney administration rushed to make torture an instrument of national policy in its "war on terror," and of how it created an international gulag in which to abuse prisoners, is well known. Less remarked on — for reasons that do nobody credit — is the fact that President Obama and his administration have embraced the secrecy and usurpations of power that made possible the Bush-Cheney betrayal of American values.

Also didn't inhale

Christine O'Donnell: 'I Dabbled into Witchcraft' but 'I Never Joined a Coven' | Video Cafe

 

9.17.2010

On the sill


Send in the clowns

Elizabeth Warren To Lead Search For New Consumer Chief, Could 'Pull A Dick Cheney'

Warren backers hold out hope that she remains on the short list of nominees for the permanent job, but CBS News reports that, "It is highly unlikely that Warren ... will eventually be nominated to be director of the bureau." According to CBS, Warren "is no longer on the list" for the long-term position.

Glass


9.16.2010

But it's reformed uninsurance now

Number of uninsured Americans hits record high - Health - Health care - msnbc.com

In a reflection of the battered economy, the number of people without health insurance rose sharply last year to 50.7 million — an all time high — according to
data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

That pushed the rate of uninsured Americans to 16.7 percent last year from 15.4 percent in 2008, when there were 46.3 million uninsured. It was one of the largest single year increases since the Census starting tracking the figure in 1987.

 

Except here...

AppleInsider | AT&T on track to launch LTE 4G network by mid-2011, expand HSPA+

AT&T, the exclusive carrier of Apple's iPhone in the U.S., plans to launch its fourth-generation high-speed wireless network by mid-2011, and will continue to expand its speedy HPSA+ 3G network this year.

...where we will continue to use smoke signals until the end of time.

Republicans!

"I think you're an ass": Conservative media finally discover their colleagues are frauds | Media Matters for America

Dude, what did I tell you the other day about the mid-term's brand new and highly enhanced entertainment quotient? Woohoo!

Bring it!

Calder, Chicago: There's an app for that


Yes, you've seen this before as a color photo (most of the surrounding Federal plaza is pretty much black and white anyway) but I've been playing around with an app that allows selective coloration - more accurately, selective desaturation - of photos and no, you probably can't make me stop so there will be more like this, no doubt.


Honey in my dreams

I had honey in my dreams the other night (OK, hey, no tittering) so yesterday at the grocery store I bought some. Good! Had some on toast for breakfast. Also on the kitchen counter. And look! - a little spot right here on my mouse. Everywhere, in fact, more or less.

Note: Next time buy the squeezy bear.

What's wrong with these guys anyway?

Elizabeth Warren to Unofficially Lead Consumer Agency - NYTimes.com

The decision, which Mr. Obama is to announce this week, would allow Ms. Warren, a Harvard law professor, to effectively run the new agency without having to go through a potentially contentious confirmation battle in the Senate. The creation of the bureau is a centerpiece of the Wall Street financial overhaul that Mr. Obama signed in July.

Obama puts Warren sorta maybe kinda pretty much in charge of the consumer protection bureau, WTF? He's running scared this time because the bankers don't like her? The bankers aren't supposed to like her. Or the bankers' minions. 

I don't know, maybe I'm just not understanding this, but it sure looks to me like the Democrats had a bigger majority in both houses of Congress this past term than the Republicans had during any of W. Bush's terms and I don't remember them having all that much trouble getting what they wanted done, do you? 

What I'm thinking is the D's don't want Warren running the protection bureau either, they just want to pretend they do until the election's over. 

9.15.2010

Cyd Charisse (And some guy. Whatever.)

Quick! Let's compromise!

Hoyer: No Bright Lines For Democrats On Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich | TPMDC

Democrats will not rule out compromising with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer....

"I'm always, as you know, prepared to discuss alternatives so that we can move forward," Hoyer told reporters.

 

No, your memory is not playing tricks on you

Character Above All: Jimmy Carter Glossary
Christ said, "I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery."
Yes he did say that. No, Jimmy Carter, I mean. You can look it up (that would be old-guy talk for "click"). And Jimmy Carter was not a wakadoodle from Delaware. He was a Commie do-gooder, as everybody knows. Also he got attacked by a bunny rabbit, or something. Whatever. I liked Jimmy Carter. Still do.

That Delaware dingbat, not so much. Yet. One thing's for sure, though - the entertainment value of this year's mid-term election has just gone way, way up.

And it was already pretty high.

The Party of Tea

Wait! We almost forgot the Mexicans!

Or maybe we should say Islamo-Hispanics. Wow! That is scary!

Sinister Mexicans Taking Over America With the So-Called ‘Metric System’

The liberal New York Times has a wacky “human interest story” about Interstate 19, which runs from Tucson to the danged fence. “Distance along I-19 is measured in kilometers, just as it is in Mexico,” they say cheerfully, as if that weren’t a sentence that should chill you to your very core.

9.14.2010

Probably belongs on the list

Wall Street's Mercenaries Ride Donkeys | War Is A Crime .org

Robert Scheer's new book "The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street," is not yet another account of how we got robbed or "why the economy imploded for dummies." If you're like me, you just didn't need another lesson in how swapped collateralized debt obligation derivative tranches didn't really make the pie higher. Scheer's book is something else: a straightforward broad-view account of the past thirty years focused on who did the robbing.

Here's the short answer that Scheer provides: Reagan announced the robbery but couldn't pull it off. Clinton robbed us blind. Bush Jr. and Obama drove the get-away car, with Obama disguised as a security guard.

And there is, of course, much more.

Eeeek!, says Microsoft

Microsoft Changes Policy Over Russian Crackdown - NYTimes.com

The security services in Russia in recent years have seized computers from dozens of outspoken advocacy groups and opposition newspapers, all but disabling them. Law-enforcement officials claim that they are investigating the theft of Microsoft’s intellectual property, but the searches typically happen when those groups are seeking to draw attention to a cause or an event. Allies of the government are rarely if ever investigated for having illegal software on their computers.

9.13.2010

Wait. What?



Guilt? Really? What I'm thinking is, mmmm, shake sounds good!

So the next time somebody tries to tell you everybody in Georgia is nuts, you can just say...

County Sues Farmer, Cites Too Many Crops - News Story - WSB Atlanta

DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call “Cabbagegate.”

In the tradition of Nobel

The Raw Story | Congress to be told of $60-bln US-Saudi arms deal

US President Barack Obama's administration will soon notify Congress of plans to offer advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth up to 60 billion dollars, congressional sources said Monday.

Biggest arms deal ever? Could be.

9.12.2010

Where are our leaders, you may ask

Capitol Hill workers owe IRS $9.3m in back taxes - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3 million in overdue taxes at the end of last year, a sliver of the $1 billion owed by federal workers nationwide but one with potential political ramifications for members of Congress....