A place to enjoy good music, drink in some knowledge, and watch a little sports. Where there is always food for thought, topped with choice grillings of right wing talking points.
Showing posts with label just plain stupid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label just plain stupid. Show all posts
Why is it that when it comes to guns and gun control, the conversation disintegrates into stupid and stupider? I remember sometime back in the 1980's, I actually stopped being friends with this guy that, despite his outer presence of passivity, was a full blown second amendment gun rights blow hard. Yeah, I do base continuing friendships on whether my belief system is compatible with the other person. I lost it when he kept on repeating the mantra "bullets don't kill people, people kill people." I yelled at him to get out of my fucking house, and that was the last time I ever spoke to him. And he was a fun guy to be with, and we were even lovers at one point in time during out five year relationship. Another one bites the dust over my hard stance. But, I digress.
As if being a lunatic about guns isn't enough, this past week's episode on the Piers Morgan show had to take the cake for the most absurd train wreck of an individual ever.
The long version:
The shorter version:
This man is totally nuts and seriously unhinged. Jon Stewart did a fantastic segment that actually put the crazies into perspective.
"So this isn't really about the constution ... it's about how periously close some people in this country feel they're living to a tyrant's rule.
Holy shit! No one's taking away all the guns. But now I get it. Now I see what's happening. So this is what it is. Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. ... because a few of us remain vigilant of the rise of an imaginary Hitler"
Bankers pull the strings
on world governments to solidify their power. Companies are harming you
and ducking responsibility. Antidepressants are "suicide mass murder
pills." President Barack Obama is using drones against Americans.
And the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, was engineered by the government.
Now, he's attacking CNN
host Piers Morgan, depicting the British native of being a "red coat"
out to step on Americans' rights and calling for his deportation.
Wow! I am watching Fox News, Sean Hannity to be exact. The spin on the election two days after is mind boggling. First off, Sean likened the Obama win to a football game where the Democrats were guilty of all kinds of penalties and fouls, and he actually stated that "Obama" could have cared less that he was "cheating" in the football analogy, because in the end, the "win" was worth it. What a bunch of fucking bullshit. Is this where they want to actually go? Then Sean and his guest, Bill Cunningham, decided to actually make the case that Mitt Romney really wasn't the kind of candidate they could get their minds around because, after all, he was certainly no Reagan. They basically threw Romney under the bus! That sentiment was followed by allegations that the Democrats, and Obama specifically, lied and smeared Romney. Pulleeezzeeeeeee. The person and party that lied were Romney and the Republicans. Romney couldn't tell the truth about any topic even when he tried, for goodness sake.
Then you have the new meme apparently started by Rush Limbaugh, and that is the claim that Romney lost because 3 million Republicans stayed home and did not vote!
Todd Akin, Missouri’s Republican Senate candidate, sparked controversy with a claim, made in a TV interview posted Sunday, that victims of “legitimate rape” very rarely get pregnant because their bodies prevent them from doing so.
Speaking to Charles Jaco on the Jaco Report on St. Louis’s Fox station, Akin was answering a question about allowing abortions in the case of rape. He said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Holy shit! Where do these white, old Republican men come up with these beliefs? If a woman can "shut down" a pregnancy, why, oh why, did we come up with birth control? And what the fuck, for the gazilionth time, is a "legitimate rape?" You mean, according to these, again, white, old Republican MEN, there is a LEGITIMATE RAPE?
I'm post menopause, and I believe I can speak for most women, that finally, after having to wonder every FUCKING MONTH OF MY ENTIRE LIFE SINCE PUBERTY HIT, (or after I was having sex, to be more accurate), I do not have to worry if I may be preggers. Try living with that your whole adult life, you morons.
Who knew I could just "will away" my pregnancies, just like wishing people into the "cornfield."
This video has been making the rounds lately, and I believe it was about a year ago. Notice how disgustingly smug Paul Ryan is as he cracks a joke at the expense of the elderly gentleman.
This is a 71 year old man who has paid into Social Security and unemployment insurance all his working life (well, so he says ... but let's just assume it to be a fact or else he would not have taken the stand he did) and his complaint is about the "new age" politicians that keep wanting to cut/gut his Social Security and end unemployment as we know it. The constant drumbeat of the right wingers in re-labeling these services as "welfare" and "hand-outs" when they are, in fact, money taken out of working people's pay checks and put away for that rainy day, makes me sick to my stomach. And ironically, there are actually stupid people out there that believe this rhetoric ... until, of course, it comes to THEIR Social Security and unemployment benefits. In fact, it is even more ironic that many of our old farts in Congress actually get their Social Security and other government benefits (like health care), but continuously refuse to give up theirs while they say the rest of the American population MUST give up theirs. Bull shit.
And notice how the police or security guards treat the old man for just saying what he wants to say, and you can hear them yelling at him to "get on the ground." For god's sake, what is wrong with our country that a 71 year old man is not allowed to voice his opinion and has to be taken away in handcuffs, no less?
It is a sad state of affairs if our "elected" congressmen (including those that previously served but are not currently in office) feel that the best way to handle mass murderers is for everyone to be armed and for everyone to shoot to kill the perpetrator.
All I can say is that these people, these gun advocates, are the STUPIDEST FUCKING PEOPLE on this earth. Blame the victims for not shooting back. What fucking country are we living in and what era? The wild, wild west, where everyone had a rifle and six shooter? But even back then, you would most likely have had to leave your guns at the door for entry into a facility that had entertainment or showed some type of cinematic feature.
These are the assholes that if they actually were in the same situation would be the first one stepping over children, women and old ladies to get their white old fucking asses out the door and not be shot. I guarantee that none of these people would put their lives on the line for any of the little people. NONE of them would fire at the shooter, as suggested above. They are lily livered chicken shit cowards.
This is truly disgusting. And people want to know why I am "checking out" of politics as it is being played out these days? Just read the above quote from MR. PEARCE. The garbage I have read since the shooting has got to be of the lowest caliber of stupidity and asinine ideas it makes Monday quarterbacking of a Sunday NFL game look like genius activities.
Lose the guns, stupid people. When are you going to learn? Guns very much do kill people. End of story.
While Cinemark does have a no firearms policy, it is highly unlikely that someone would have been able to take down the alleged gunman. He was heavily armed, in full protective gear, threw tear gas before he opened fire, and was in a dark, crowded theater. Armed law enforcement officers responded within 90 seconds, and in that time he injured or killed 70 people.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / July 13, 2012)
So, apparently chalk drawing on the street is now a matter of terrorist security such that the LAPD had to come out in full riot gear during the monthly L.A. Artwalk.
Occupy L.A. activists and their supporters accused Los Angeles police of overreacting Thursday to chalk protesters during downtown's monthly ArtWalk, which set the stage for the violent run-in that resulted in 17 arrests.
Cheryl Aichele, 34, an informal leader of Occupy L.A., said police were aggressive early and made their first arrest shortly after 7 p.m. "within 10 minutes of getting where we wanted to be."
"Police were pushing us -- I got pushed into a garbage can -- then we were being pushed into the street," Aichele said. "They would do all these intimidation tactics -- all before 9. They would come in and snatch somebody and pull them away. Or they'd push us. Or yell at us."
One of the guys she saw got arrested "was just walking by, took some chalk and drew a heart and wrote 'police' in it."
"We were being peaceful," she said. "In our meeting beforehand, we said our goals were: Have fun. Stay safe. Speak out. Stand up. Reach out. Make friends. Chalk."
Peter White of the Los Angeles Community Action Network said he was present at 5th and Spring streets as a legal observer and believed the heavy police presence played a role in the conflict.
"I firmly believe it was an over-saturation of the police earlier in the evening, the sort of aggressive behavior earlier, that bled into things that happened later in the night," White said. On Thursday night, people began amassing and drawing and writing with chalk at 6th and Spring streets.
I am ambivalent about politics of late. Somewhere between 2005, when I had started up my blog, and was very passionate about the slow take-over of our democracy by the “right wingers,” and today, where seven years of outright lying, a lackadaisical news media, and a misdirected and ill-informed public, I’ve given up. Literally. With the promises made by a presidential candidate in 2008, who won (in my mind) with overwhelming support, and the follow-up of consistent failure to keep those campaign promises, coupled with a very real embrace by said president of certain ideologies that are antiethcal to the very nature of our democracy (i.e., renditions, killing American citizens abroad without warrants, trials, and the like, deporting more people out of this country than Bush ever did, failure to properly and timely embrace the GLBT issues that he ran on, etc., and not to mention the very same reliance on the banking industry that his opponents also embrace) have molded me into a non-believer in today’s version of our democracy.
This is a fully corrupt nation, with zero regard for the 99% of those that make up this country, work hard, and have tried to believe in the greatness of America. Instead, we have countries disparaging America based on the hypocrisy of its ideology vs. the practice. We prop up dictators, deal with our enemies, and wage wars on innocent people and nations. We are trillions in debt and yet not a single legislator on any level of government is taking up the mantle and running with the torch for the American people.
I had a guy tell me yesterday at my local watering hole that it is the corporations like GE, the oil companies, and others, that “pay the majority of taxes” in this country. I literally almost fell off my bar stool. I told him he really must stop watching Fox news, stop reading the Wall Street Journal, and for goodness sake, turn off talk radio. You will not get the truth from such areas, and that is why you, my friend, are ill informed.
It is hard to stand for truth and justice when there are so many politicians that have jumped on the bandwagon of corrupt methods of gaining and maintaining their free ride in government. “Can I please have some more” is the cry of the populace with the answer from the politicians being “hell fucking no” even as they cash their social security checks, get their federally funded (or state mandated) insurance coverage that is denied to anyone not in politics, and tell the average worker to go fuck themselves. Hell, the thought that the 1% think it’s okay (for example, Scranton, PA) to cut police and firefighter’s pay to minimum wage ($7.25), even after a court ordered the mayor NOT to do that, is just to mind boggling for me. The 1% are clearly not aware that to live in today’s America, minimum wage just does not cut it. And to believe that the majority of Americans want to suck off the teat of the government (the only people the suck off the teat of government ARE the politicians) is preposterous. A decent wage, the ability to put a roof over you and your family’s head, and raise your children with a decent education, has now gone the way of a “dream” and is actually, according to many politicians, no longer a “right” for Americans. The only “rights” that these politicians believe in is their right to pillage and destroy the America I grew up in, and turn our government into a corporate owned subsidiary. One person, one vote? Got rid of that. Power to the people? Got rid of that. A decent working wage? Got rid of that. Home ownership for the average American? Got rid of that. Where a corporate executive can work one day, retire, and take home $44 million in severance, bonuses, etc. (think Duke Energy’s CEO Bill Johnson), while there are millions and millions of people (including many Iraq war veterans) who are literally homeless, on the streets, with no real income in sight, as well as the rampant starvation of our children, I get sick to my stomach. And to top it off, a great deal of this rhetoric is pumped up by the false assertion that these politicians and their supporters are merely following Christian (read “bible”) themes, which totally distort the reality of what “Jesus” actually preached (according to some relevant history that seems to be methodically erased from the propaganda of what current Christianity means to this country).
Many of our elected officials are boneheads and seriously stupid. Deranged and empowered by corporate fueled laws and rights that come hand-in-hand with corporate money, it is time for me to check out. The power of the people, or the lack of it at this point, will be demonstrable in the 2012 elections, when it becomes obvious that millions of people will be disenfranchised as voters, where gerrymandering has resulted in lopsided and illegal power grabs, and where many more millions like me will simply fail to show up to cast our worthless vote.
Good-bye America. I will dream of your resurgence in the future. I only hope I live long enough to see the second Revolution and the fight to regain the rights that constitutionally belong to the American people.
Imagine this: You're in line to get in to your favorite bar. You're stopped by the bouncer at the door who asks to see your ID... and your Facebook account? In the U.K., the practice is becoming increasingly common.
According to the BBC, bars in England are worried over fines for admitting underaged drinkers — often as high as $8,000. For U.K. bouncers, checking a patron's Facebook profile is a good way to weed out fake IDs. In a few short moments, the bouncer can verify a person's name and date of birth. It's not a replacement for checking a person's identification, but an extra, optional verification step.
What is it with everyone's obsession, from employers and now to bars, with one's Facebook account? I have one, but thank goodness it is in Carrie Cann's name. Not going to get much real information on me, eh?
I haven't blogged at all about the Trayvon Martin killing. There are so many senseless murders of people of color that go on daily, that not all of them rise to the level of media prominence that this particular murder has.
But the "hoodie" aspect of this is just bullshit. First off, disgraced, stupid, ignorant and basically a very bad reporter, Geraldo Rivera's comments about the "hoodie" being "responsible" for Trayvon's death just proves my theory about the stupid people.
But I finally had to weigh in on the NRA's adopting a "hoodie with a gun pouch" as shown above.
“We want concealed carry to fit around your lifestyle — not the other way around. That’s why we developed the NRAstore exclusive Concealed Carry Hooded Sweatshirt."
I am beginning to seriously think about buying a gun, but no bullets, just so I can confuse the shit out of many people. The "open carry" laws just piss me off enough that if I could pull it off, I'd plop my gun at my local bar just for the sheer shock value. I'll probably get killed, but hey, what a way to go, eh?
Wow. Getting fired in Florida for wearing an orange shirt to work. The Sunshine State, home of the orange! Isn't that like getting fired in Hawai'i on a Friday for wearing an aloha shirt?
They weren't wearing sagging pants or revealing clothing. But dressing in an orange shirt is apparently enough to get fired at one Florida law firm, where 14 workers were unceremoniously let go last Friday.
In an interview with the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, several of the fired workers say they wore the matching colors so they would be identified as a group when heading out for a happy hour event after work. They say the executive who fired them initially accused them of wearing the matching color as a form of protest against management.
[snip]
The law offices of Elizabeth R. Wellborn, P.A. offered "no comment" to Sun-Sentinel reporter Doreen Hemlock, but four ex-employees tell the paper they were simply wearing their orange shirts to celebrate "pay day" and the upcoming Friday group happy hour.
In light of the Darrell Issa hearings on women's birth control, where his now infamous panel lacked any women to discuss women's birth control ... Second City brings you this gem:
A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.
"I can't imagine how anybody could maintain under the circumstances that your appointment and your service is valid," Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) told Cordray at Tuesday's hearing. "And I can't imagine then … how the actions you are taking will be upheld, and I think that's a very, very serious consequence for our nation."
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: "There's no question there's going to be constitutional challenges" to Cordray's appointment.
Cordray said he and his staff have discussed the potential for legal challenges to the appointment by businesses affected by any new rules. But Cordray said it wasn't clear whether those challenges would succeed and that he believed the appointment was valid.
"I have been appointed as director," Cordray said. "There may be issues about that … but I now have legal obligations I'm supposed to carry out for this bureau. I'm going to do that."
The Republicans are all up in arms about this particular recess appointment. I find their complaints to be incredibly bogus when one first considers how many recess appointments Bush made, and second, how we had endure the fucking idiocy of John Bolton's recess appointment as the American representative to the United Nations. The man with the most reckless mouth in history at the UN (shaking head).
Republicans need to shut the fuck up. They are running in circles nowadays, and quite frankly, the rhetoric is just not convincing too many outside of the viewers of Fox News (all three million of them, in a country of 350 million people). Yawn .....
The level of assault on women's reproductive rights is so substantial (see this piece on how a high level cancer organization Susan G. Komen known primarily for the Race for the Cure, the best-funded breast cancer organization and known internationally for the pink ribbon, and their choice to now defund Planned Parenthood's breast cancer screenings) I thought that it was funny in Virginia, with the ultra Republican bill making women hear fetal sounds, etc. before having an abortion, that state Sen. Janet Howell (D) has decided to "level the playing field."
On Monday Howell expressed her disdain for legislation requiring the ultrasound by proposing an amendment she described as a simple matter of fairness. Her amendment said that before being treated for erectile dysfunction, a man would have to undergo a digital rectal exam and a cardiac stress test.
“We should just have a little gender equity here,” Howell said.
High five, sista!!!! It's about time the men start having to take responsibility for their impregnation of women, voluntarily or not.
A Massachusetts woman who flew home from Las Vegas this week says an airport security officer took her frosted cupcake because he thought its vanilla-bourbon icing could be a “security risk.”
Rebecca Hains told ABCNews.com today that a Transportation Security Administration agent at Las Vegas- McCarran International Airport confiscated her cupcake, saying the frosting sitting atop the red velvet cake was gel-like enough to violate regulations.
How about we just be allowed to fly, but can't take anything with us? Will that work? Sheesh. Frosting. Terrorist threat. I've stopped banging my head on the keyboard a year ago. Things in this country are so totally bullshit and batshit crazy that it's not worth the headache.
Ok, who does not find this not only funny, but totally ridiculous?
INDIANAPOLIS — Oh, say can you . . . sing?
And, more importantly, can you sing it the "right" way -- the way one Indiana lawmaker thinks the national anthem should be sung?
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, has introduced a bill that would set specific "performance standards" for singing and playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities.
The law also would cover private schools receiving state or local scholarship funds, including vouchers.
Performers would have to sign a contract agreeing to follow the guidelines. Musicians -- whether amateur or professional -- would be fined $25 if it were deemed they failed to meet the appropriate standards.
As if there weren't more important things for this country to focus on, like JOBS? Who the hell gives a fucking god damn shit whether one sings the anthem "correctly?" And, more to the point, who decides what is correct? Would Jimi Hendrix's version qualify as not correct, despite it being one of the classics? How about Marvin Gaye's famous version? Would that be correct?
It's stuff like this that will continue to feed the fire of the Occupy/99% movement. I cannot think of anything more crass than fireman (regardless of whether they are on the payroll or volunteers) just standing around and watching a house burn down because someone didn't pay $75 bucks for a "fee" for the service of these firemen. SHAME ON YOU.
October 2010 firefighters refuse to assist video:
Current video of firefighters again watching a home burn down over $75 dollars.
Heartless bastards. This is the Republican answer. Austerity on the backs of the least likely to handle it. You can bet your bottom dollar that the 1% have their own controlled firefighters ... a profession one used to be proud of, now bought and paid for.
Wonder how that would have been portrayed on "Rescue Me." Would Tommy Gavin let a measly $75 stop him from saving a house from being burnt down? Yeah, we all know THAT answer .... NOT!
I am flattered! You've been spending quite a bit of time this week reading my blog and my archives! Thanks for giving me the hits. Of course, I also have your IP address and other interesting computer data information that you leave every time you pop" in and "visit." Plus, I know every page you look at, how long you stay on the page, what time (work, of course, so I hope you have a billing rate for reading blogs!), your browser, your operating system and even the resolution of your screen/monitor! You'd be surprised how much more I know about you than you know about me! Love the link to Super Lawyers! LOL!
With all this talk about making government and public sector jobs go away to cut the deficit (whether it be state or federal), along with the equally absurd notion that the private sector either will, or can, take these jobs, I have to weigh in here from my perspective with my job. In the legal field, the court system and all the employees are what would be considered government or public sector oriented. Over the years, the lack of funds for judges, clerks, secretaries, etc. in Los Angeles, forced the court system last year and part of this year, to shut down one day a month. No work, but no pay either. So, that just all alone created a backlog. Then having to lay off judges, forced the smaller pool of judges to hear a larger pool of cases, thus increasing their caseload, thus increasing the wait time for lawyers on even simple matters such as Case Management Conferences (which were quick and easy, and are still quick and easy, except when you close 20 courtrooms in the county, you have to wait two hours before you get to your ten minute Case Management Conference). Letting go of the clerks has increased the wait time for those Judgments lawyers desperately need for their clients, for without the judgments, you can't collect on what you won. Same with the wait time for Writs, Abstracts, defaults, etc. Although, in some cases, even if it takes the default clerk a week to get to your particular request for the default, it will still be "stamped" defaulted the day it was submitted. Still ... what used to be a one day turn around, became two to four weeks, and then four to six weeks! Laying of sheriffs, that delays the levy process, or the lock out process if you've just won your unlawful detainer action to evict the non-paying tenant at your property. I literally had to beg a clerk in San Bernardino, who informed me they can only hand out five eviction notices to three sheriffs one day a week! For all of SAN FUCKING BERNARDINO COUNTY! Since it was the holidays, and although I hate to kick someone out of their house during the holidays, in this particular case the defendant had beat us twice in court (never let your boss tell you he's going to serve the documents -- always insist on using a licensed process server as I have consistently reminded him). Finally, when on the third trial we actually win since the occupants had been by that time literally staying in the apartment for free for close to six months, I am told that I have to wait two more weeks until after Christmas because she has booked all of her sheriffs for the maximum five lock outs! Fortunately, she sort of understood that the owners were going to lose another two weeks of rent, so she consulted with her boss and got one fucking extra day in during that two week dry spell, and my lock out was one of them.
Adding to the misery is the increase in the number of people representing themselves because they simply cannot afford a lawyer, which has resulted in most courts having a self help area where the judge sends them to assist with obtaining and filling out the proper documents. The lines for the self help filings are longer than the ex parte lines on any given day! Jury trials -- when was the last time there was a raise for a juror, especially if you are sitting for a two to four week trial? My girlfriend was summoned to a jury pool, and it turned out to be the one for the Michael Jackson doctor case -- she was recused, but she told me about the 30 page questionnaire she had to fill out, which I thought was rather odd, but then that would be standard for any high profile case.
My point is, even though I personally think some of these clerks, judges, secretaries, etc. are overpaid and are too stupid to do the job, and remember I said SOME (don't get me started on the court in Compton, I actually had the head clerk there call me and ask me to apologize for something I put on a "buck slip" [that's the cover sheet that is attached to the documents the attorney service picks up every day to file in the various courthouses] and I mentioned that this filing in Compton would be difficult because the clerks there don't know their brains from their asses!) I asked her if my default was going to be entered any sooner if I apologized and she said no, so I just hung up on her! But, a lot of the clerks are very helpful.
The delays also affect cases negatively. I have a case that my office for plaintiff and the other office for defendants are so acrimonious toward each other that we requested and was granted what is called a discovery referee, so the court doesn't have to actually hear every single motion relating to discovery issues. Yet, I only this week got the signed Order on the recommendation of the referee that he submitted in JUNE! Four fucking months! All that does is delay trials, cost our clients needles wait time (and sometimes more money, but not always). I mean, it's only a $40 fee to hear a motion to compel, and maybe a few hours to write it up (we don't charge the high fees a lot of lawyers do, we stay between the $250 and $350 per hour range), and generally 15 minutes to argue the thing. The discovery referee charges a gazillion dollars to both sides to do basically the same thing, and instead of getting a ruling from the bench on the day of the motion, with the referee, I end up waiting four months for an order that allowed me to FINALLY get documents from some banks that the defendants didn't want us to see!
The problem with the backwards logic of cutting back on public sector jobs is that the growth in population mandates growth in the public sector! More students need more teachers, not less. More litigants need more judges and the judiciary, not less. More people means we need more cops. More people means that we need more firemen. More people means that those services that are generally offered from the public sector must increase, not decrease. It seems logical to me, and I have experienced it first hand waiting in court half a day for a 20 minute hearing. I really hate to bill a client for something like that.
How do YOU feel about it? Bumped to the front page for more Republican idiocy.
Update: New DNC Ad.
And after the booing, he actually says this: "I would say any type of sexual activity has no place in the military." WTF? Now our military is to be celibate? Tell that to the young men and women being recruited by the military to go serve and protect our country! Sign up for four years, but oh, by the way, you are not allowed to have sex!
What is it with these people and sex?
And lest you think our court system is justly run, take a listen to Chief Judge Edith Jones of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tell her fellow judge to "shut up" and literally asks him if he "wants to leave?" I mean, people, wake up! The idiots are taking over everywhere. Justice is being silenced.
I know I saw this on Rachel Maddow's show, but I just have to put it up. The idiot is asked a question concerning a "what if" with respect to say Pakistan's nukes go missing, and this is what constitutes a reply?
I've played it over and over, and I still have not got a clue as to what the hell this guy is trying to say. And he wants to be President??????
Tar balls washed onto Gulf of Mexico beaches by Tropical Storm Lee earlier this month show that oil left over from last year's BP spill isn't breaking down as quickly as some scientists thought it would, university researchers said Tuesday.
Auburn University experts who studied tar samples at the request of coastal leaders said the latest wave of gooey orbs and chunks appeared relatively fresh, smelled strongly and were hardly changed chemically from the weathered oil that collected on Gulf beaches during the spill.
The study concluded that mats of oil — not weathered tar, which is harder and contains fewer hydrocarbons — are still submerged on the seabed and could pose a long-term risk to coastal ecosystems.
A round of applause for the POTUS and all his good work with BP! Screw the environment, and the people who used to make a living in the Gulf region.
I'm going to have to lift this entire post by John Aravosis from AMERICAblog ... it's fitting, and I won't do it justice but cutting and pasting bits of it.
Then [GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry] was asked: "To what extent do you view America's continued protection of Israel as a theological priority?" He answered:
Well, obviously, Israel is our oldest and most stable democratic ally in that region. That is what this is about. I also as a Christian have a clear directive to support Israel. So from my perspective, it's pretty easy. Both as an American and as a Christian, I am going to stand with Israel.
Whoa. That's something George W. Bush never did. Bush never said he had a Christian duty to stand with Israel, because to say such a thing would have been stupid and dangerous. By framing U.S. foreign policy in terms of a religious alliance between Christians and Jews, Perry is validating the propaganda of Islamic extremists. He's jeopardizing peace, Israel, and the United States.
And of course, what Perry doesn't tell his Jewish audience is that his "Christian duty" is to keep Israel in existence long enough for Jesus to come back and kill 2/3 of the world's Jews.
So, Perry's desire to save Israel is a lot like that Twilight Zone episode about the alien book titled "To Serve Man." Humans thought the book was an alien blueprint for all the neat ways the extra-terrestrials were going to bow down and aid humanity. It ended up being a cookbook.
This little tidbit caught my eye, courtesy of the rix mix.
BAY MINETTE, Alabama --
Non-violent offenders in Bay Minette now have a choice some would call simple: do time behind bars or work off the sentence in church.
Operation Restore Our Community or "ROC"...begins next week. The city judge will either let misdemenor offenders work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sunday for a year.
If offenders elect church, they're allowed to pick the place of worship, but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department. If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the offender's case will be dismissed.
CHURCH? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm not a Christian and I don't go to church. What about the millions who are not Christian in this country? Why is church an option to serving out a criminal conviction? Why is the option of serving your sentence at YOUR particular house of worship not offered? Why is it confined to only Christian churches?
I think I've made my point ... again. But don't fret. Here is the ever increasingly popular Elizabeth Warren's video. You go girl!
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" viewers that divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer's is justifiable because the disease is "a kind of death."
Very Christian of you, Mr. Robertson. Just toss out the old garbage. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
As it turns out, Paul was not speaking purely in hypotheticals. Back in 2008, Kent Snyder — Paul's former campaign chairman — died of complications from pneumonia. Like the man in Blitzer's example, the 49-year-old Snyder (pictured) was relatively young and seemingly healthy* when the illness struck. He was also uninsured. When he died on June 26, 2008, two weeks after Paul withdrew his first bid for the presidency, his hospital costs amounted to $400,000. The bill was handed to Snyder's surviving mother (pictured, left), who was incapable of paying. Friends launched a website to solicit donations.
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) voted for over $120 billion to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, funds that were used to construct and repair schools, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure.
Now, Cantor is opposing President Obama’s proposal to spend $30 billion to modernize 35,000 American schools. Reuters has the story:
U.S. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Monday he will not support President Barack Obama’s proposal to renovate U.S. schools as part of the administration’s bill to spur job growth.
He added that Obama should focus instead on cutting federal regulations that he says kill U.S. jobs…
We asked Berry why the change of heart. “We had time to reconsider. It was simply a mistake."
Berry then read from a prepared statement, which said Rendon would be paid her full salary until another position opened at the company.
Fox 29 asked Berry if the Aviation Institute Of Maintenance would pay Rendon until she can reapply, and then decide if they would give her the job back after it received her application.
"Yes, that's what the letter states,” Berry said.
We then asked if the offer was not the same thing as giving Rendon her job back.
"No, it's according to our policy and procedure,” Berry said.
Despite a widespread belief that contracting out services to the private sector saves the federal government money, a new study suggests just the opposite — that the government actually pays more when it farms out work.
The study found that in 33 of 35 occupations, the government actually paid billions of dollars more to hire contractors than it would have cost government employees to perform comparable services. On average, the study found that contractors charged the federal government more than twice the amount it pays federal workers.
C&L's explanation of the killing of the United States Postal Service ... just read it!
A Wisconsin state employee has been fired after he revealed that a Department of Transportation official had instructed workers to not notify citizens that IDs necessary for voting could be obtained for free. [snip]
"While you should certainly help customers who come in asking for a free ID to check the appropriate box, you should refrain from offering the free version to customers who do not ask for it," Krieser told Division of Motor Vehicle employees.
Sheesh.
I've got more, but to lighten it up, and show that Americans are not as nasty as the politicians ...
