Thursday, April 25, 2013

25 April - Blogs I'm Following

Quebec-USA-45019 juillet 2012Quebec-USA-45019 juillet 2012 (Photo credit: nobilefamily)
English: President Obama had called on the two...English: President Obama had called on the two former Presidents to help. During their public remarks in the Rose Garden, President Clinton had said about President Bush, ‘I’ve already figured out how I can get him to do some things that he didn’t sign on for.’ Later, back in the Oval, President Bush is jokingly asking President Clinton what were those things he had in mind. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: "Former Presidents George H. W. ...English: "Former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton film a public service announcement encouraging the American people to make cash donations to the tsunami relief effort through www.usafreedomcorps.gov in the White House Library Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005." (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lorenzo Received by the Liberal Arts Processio...Lorenzo Received by the Liberal Arts Procession - Botticelli (Photo credit: Scott MacLeod Liddle)
1pm MDST

Signs from Saturn - have a look!

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Dr. John v. Kampen) at - 7 minutes ago
Link: http://youtu.be/VMYGG4lR4T4 When you go outside to watch Saturn (in a binocular or telescope) mind the rare lunar elliptical halos that occur these days. Although still rare they are more often spotted these days for unknown reasons ('ice age is coming'?). All reasons to throw a glance at the skies when you intend to turn in for the night. Enjoy a good weekend, John

Land Pics

Southern Man at Southern Man - 11 minutes ago
These were shot mainly to use up the rest of the film in the disposable camera used for the Worlds of Fun photos and will serve as "before" photos. Hopefully there will be an "after!" The Woodshop, Barn, and Trailer. Same view from a slightly different vantage to show Southern Man's impressive collection of brick and stone. This washout will one day be a lovely garden pond. Southern Man is a little obsessive about collecting, cutting, and stacking firewood. No, he does not yet have a fireplace. A couple of boats that he's had for nearly twenty years. They've yet to be on the ... more »

Bill Clinton At George W. Bush Library Opening

Jay Allbritton at Jay Allbritton - 15 minutes ago
So many easy jokes that I could drop here. Not doing it. The whole Election 2000 through Inauguration 2009 period still makes me mad. Good thing we have a former president who can go to crap like this and yuck it up so we don't have to. Every president gets to have a party and a library, so cue the Big Dog. Here's G.W. Bush's speech. President Clinton is now on twitter, where he tweeted out this picture of the five surviving presidents. Congratulations George and Laura on opening @thebushcenter. Proud Hillary and I could be here. twitter.com/billclinton/st… — Bill Clinton (@billcli... more »

Worlds Of Fun

Southern Man at Southern Man - 28 minutes ago
The Church Of The Nazarene will once a year rent out amusement parks for Nazarene Night. Southern Man has been to many down south at Six Flags but with Teen Daughter living up north he went to Worlds of Fun with her this year. There's nothing like an evening at an amusement park with a pack of middle school aged girls. After driving seven hours to get there Southern Man went straight for the Go Karts. Teen Daughter and friends in the Old Time Cars. In line at the Timberwolf. The Mamba. Teen Daughter was worn out by eleven so Southern Man took her home (nabbing a Missouri g... more »

The Liberals' Renaissance in Quebec.

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 38 minutes ago
Quebec's federal and provincial Liberals appear to be enjoying something of a renaissance. The *Toronto Star's* Chantal Hebert figures the Trudeau Libs now give Mulcair's New Dems' Quebec-centric power base a serious challenge. *In an ever-expanding forest of positive polls for the Liberals, the latest CROP snapshot of Quebec public opinion stands out but not necessarily for the usual Justin Trudeau-related reasons.* ** *...the poll suggests that Quebec is undergoing a Liberal revival, with both the federal and provincial parties in first place in voting intentions at 38 per cent.*... more »

The Sad Death of Off-the-Record

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 55 minutes ago
One of the very useful bits of education I had as a grad student were the frequent visits from politicians, other political actors, and journalists to small lunch seminars hosted by Nelson W. Polsby's Institution of Governmental Studies. Some of them didn't depart from their normal talking points, but most of them spoke reasonably openly. Many of them also spent the day hanging out in Nelson's office, or stuck around for tea at the IGS later in the day. Some would also make guest appearances in undergrad classes, or otherwise share their time. Again, some of them were basically a wa... more »

Viking Moses - Crosses

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 1 hour ago
Viking Moses - Crosses. YouTube Video Description - [Channel: ThePerse23]: without love life is gone without life love goes on and on so take me in your arms bring me back with ivory horns and break me in your arms break my pride in all its forms without love life is gone without life love goes on and on crosses 'side the road cross his eyes, cross his nose cross his little toes crosses stand in rows and rows without love life is gone without life love goes on and on This song was included in a limited release album called The Golden Apples of the Sun. This album is a compilation of indi... more »

Society of Ob-Gyns Wants Boys Vaccinated for HPV

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 hour ago
Canada's Society of Obstetricians & Gynecologists has set the cat among the fundamentalist pigeons this time. They want all Canadian provinces to follow Prince Edward Island's lead and make HPV vaccination available to boys as well as girls. HPV, or human papillomavirus, is generally considered a disease transmitted unknowingly by infected males to females. There's a mistaken belief that males are unaffected by HPV and that the virus only plagues females. Not so. HPV can cause a variety of cancers in males also. Because HPV is sexually transmitted it gets plenty of straight-la... more »

Why Does the F-35 Have Just One Engine? Blame It On Those Damned JarHeads.

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 hour ago
A huge limiting factor of the F-35 is that it has just one engine. In a vast, sparsely populated country with extreme weather (yes, that would be Canada), twin-engine reliability is a huge bonus. One engine goes out - from a bird strike or mechanical failure, whatever - and you've still got one to let you limp back to the barn. The F-35's vastly more capable big brother, the F-22, has twin engines. So why just a single, massive jet engine for the F-35? There is an answer. When the F-35 was conceived it had to be designed to suit a lot of potential users. It was supposed to re... more »

Photos O'odham Solidarity Project Spring Gathering 2013

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 hour ago
. .  . . O'odham Solidarity Project Spring Gathering 2013 The award-winning Waila band Papago Warrior, featured at the Native American Music Awards and winner of Mul-Chu-Tha Battle of the Bands, donated three hours of music for the spring gathering on the border. O'odham youths, up and coming photographers and videographers, documented the band. Video interview with

US Unveils Iraq WMD "Curveball-Style" Lies Vs. Syria

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 1 hour ago
As NATO terror front collapses in Syria, US attempts to justify intervention by drumming up familiar WMD lies. *Image: From Independent's "Man whose WMD lies led to 100,000 deaths confesses all: Defector tells how US officials 'sexed up' his fictions to make the case for 2003 invasion." In retrospect, the corporate-media has no problem admitting the insidious lies that were told to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq - the lead up to the war was another story. A verbatim repeat of these admitted lies are being directed at Syria amidst the West's failure to overthrow the gov... more »

Wild Bill: Obama is an enemy of freedom...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 hour ago
*summed up well by Wild Bill.*

Europe's Dynamic Genetic history

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 hour ago
The unexplained period of genetic turnover surely coincides with the emergence of Bronze Age technology which certainly spread village to village by a natural apprenticeship program. This brought in the advanced technology as well as the genes. A similar thing happened during the Middle Ages with the movement of Judaism which brought improved commercial skills. That also explains how these shifts actually take place. Skilled young men move onto the next attractive community and provide skills while marrying directly into the community itself. It is not an invasion becau... more »

How Canada Dominates African Mining

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 hour ago
This writer comes from an anti development mindset and is quick to bite on whatever flimsy grounds can be drummed up. Yet the core narrative is correct. Canadian mining has become a global force in wealth creation and job creation in the whole resource extraction industry. In fairness, it is essentially unbeatable and this will continue simply because it is now completely global. Observe that 90% of all exploration and development capital is raised in Canada. Without that component, the rest is rubbish. Thus the trend continues. Mining expertise always needs to be imp... more »

Chinese Bubble

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 hour ago
Without question China is seriously in need of a credit crash and a long period of consolidation during which consumer finance is properly funded and established throughout society. Right now the money creation is flooding the top end of society which merely promotes gross speculation. This is surely a repeat of the South Seas Bubble. Smarter is to subsidize credit throughout to massively increase demand. That has yet to happen and it should have happened four years ago. The bull is satiated and needs to rest a long time in order to digest its excess. In the meantime gro... more »

Driverless Cars Imminent

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 hour ago
What is truly eminent is the capacity to step out of your door and have an automated electric vehicle immediately pick you up and then travel at a rapid clip to your destination. Freeways will naturally operate at close to one hundred miles per hour. Better yet, roads will become lanes and street parking will evaporate as the vehicles will rarely park there except to pick up and drop off. It will be valet service 24/7. Our urban space can become vastly more civilized and generally comfortable. Fumes will become a distant memory. There will certainly remain a culture deter... more »

Crunching the F-35 Numbers. It's Anything You Want.

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 hour ago
There's one thing F-35 pilots won't be seeing as much as they'd like - the inside of an F-35. Instead they'll be spending a good deal more time pretending to be inside an F-35, in a simulator inside some cavernous hangar. Now how the balance between actual stick and rudder time and simulator time is struck will depend on a lot of factors, some of them political. One of the big political issues of the day, at least to prospective purchasers and operators of the F-35 light attack bomber, is the cost of operating the warplanes. Some critics seem to think they'll be very expensive ... more »

What Has The Republican Party Done To The American Economy

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 2 hours ago
Is this just too simplistic? The Republican Party nihilists crashed the economy with their ideologically and greed-driven Austerity Agenda under Bush and then obstructed every effort President Obama and the Democrats have made to fix it. I mean, there are nuances-- like Obama's own inherent conservatism and misplaced belief in Austerity and compromise-- but, in effect, that sentence describes what's happened to the American economy since 2000. Yesterday the *NY Times* editorial board took a shot at focusing in on one catch-all aspect-- sequestration-- and explaining why it's a dis... more »

A Stark Choice (A Reply to PLG)

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 2 hours ago
Purple Library Guy spaketh thusly: If I thought that the collaboration thing was both necessary and sufficient to get proportional representation, I'd certainly support it. I'm skeptical for tactical reasons. At a minimum, I'd like to see non-Conservative parties get together in a sort of joint policy development process and come up with an electoral system they all support, up front, and craft a bill that they all will commit to. Then maybe it might be worth talking about collaborating in the election to get in and pass that bill. Until you've got at least that, there are some seri... more »

da Vinci

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 2 hours ago
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talen... more »

Political Fights - Marquis Of Queensbury Rules VS A Kick In The Nuts ........

leftdog at Buckdog - 2 hours ago
*(How some Liberals & New Democrats would like to conduct a Political Fight) * *(How Conservatives actually conduct a Political Fight)* * **Quess who's winning .........* [image: Progressive Bloggers]

As the fourth “annual” fund-raising drive turns!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 2 hours ago
*THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013* *We survey The One True Channel and the public schools:* What will MSNBC be like in the coming years? How about Salon? We think it’s important for liberals to badger the news orgs which are starting to define the liberal world. We’re going to try to be more polite about the work we see at such outposts. But liberals need to fight for better performance from these entities. If you agree with us on that point, we will ask you to impoverish yourself as part of our fourth or fifth annual fund-raising drive. After some fifteen years! In the coming year, we wi... more »

Bruce Melton : Calling all Earthlings

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 2 hours ago
Alien beings emerge from “What Was Once Lake Buchanan” as the water level falls. Photos by Bruce Melton / The Rag Blog. Calling all earthlings: Climate change communications may as well be from aliens Relative to most of the 20th century, Austin’s January highs and lows were not 2.9 and 1.4 degrees above normal, but 9.9 and 10.4 degrees above normal! By Bruce Melton / The Rag Blog / July 25,

Even the EPA Sees the Keystone XL Pipeline as Threatening the Ogallala Aquifer

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 2 hours ago
Washington Post: EPA wants State Dept. to rework analysis of Keystone XL pipeline By L. Bernstein and J. Eilperin (2013, April 22), http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/epa-wants-state-dept-to-rework-analysis-of-keystone-xl-pipeline/2013/04/22/1c6e9812-ab9f-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html [Excerpted] The Environmental Protection Agency objected Monday to the State Department’s latest review of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, suggesting that more work must be done before the Obama administration can determine whether to approve the 1,179-mile northern leg of the pr... more »

They Needed Extra Space for the Popup Books

jurassicpork at Welcome Back to Pottersville - 2 hours ago
Every Thursday on Twitter, there's a popular hashtag, #throwbackthursday, in which users are encouraged to do a little time warp and bring attention to people, fashions and events from a bygone era. Since right wingers keep colliding with irony and bathos, it should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the biggest news items of today happens to be George W. Bush opening the doors of his presidential library at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Therefore in the spirit of #throwbackthursday, let's do a little time warp of our own and pretend we're in the salad day... more »

The Importance of Carbon Capture to the Climate Debate

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 2 hours ago
Dan Sarewitz and I have a piece just out in The Atlantic on the importance of carbon capture to the debate over climate change. Here is how the short piece starts out: Today, more than 85 percent of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels. Despite centuries of growing use, these fuels remain abundant. Powerful economic and political interests are organized around the fossil-energy system, as are complex social arrangements (consider, for example, the dependence of rapidly expanding cities on conventional electrical grids). These realities have made a mockery of the 20... more »

Breaking: A striking report from Dagestan!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 2 hours ago
*THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013* *A portrait of life lived in tribes:* A few days ago, we read something which almost made us feel sorry for poor Joseph Stalin. How many different peoples can one man be asked to subjugate? That was our question after reading a detailed Wall Street Journal profile of the Tsarnaev family. Anzor Tsarnaev is the father of the alleged Boston bombers. As it turns out, he crossed an ethnic line when he married his wife: CULLISON (4/22/13): Back in the 1940s, Anzor Tsarnaev's parents were deported to Kyrgyzstan from their native Chechnya after Josef Stalin's re... more »

U.S. believes Syrian government used some chemical weapons: Hagel

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 2 hours ago
A gal can't even have lunch in peace [image: http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/17e/news/world/article11543103.ece/ALTERNATES/w220/web-hagel-syria-0425.JPG] *This is ominous................* "U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday said the U.S. intelligence community believes the Syrian government has used sarin gas on a small scale against rebels trying to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. “This morning the White House delivered a letter to several members of Congress on the topic of chemical weapons use in Syria. The letter ... states that the U.S. intellige... more »

George Bush interviewed by Diane Sawyer...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 3 hours ago
*remember when our presidents acted like gentlemen in public? And first ladies were actually ladies?* Hey, maybe Obama can "bust a move" and Mooch can wiggle like a hoochie-mama at the Bush Library dedication today.

CONFIRMED: Both FBI & CIA Watched Boston Bombing Suspects for Years

Land Destroyer at Land Destroyer - 3 hours ago
FBI & CIA now admit to putting Boston bombing suspect on 2 "watch lists," directly contradicting previous public statements. CIA most likely sponsored suspect's trips to meet US-backed terrorists in Chechnya, Russia. *April 25, 2013* (LD) - It is now confirmed that Russian investigators contacted the FBI at least as early as 2011 in regards to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and again just 6 months before the Boston attacks. Additionally, it is now revealed that both the FBI and CIA had Tsarnaev on at least 2 terrorist watch lists, contradicting previous FBI state... more »

Labeled Kids Art Supplies Buckets

Debra Hawkins at Housewife Eclectic - 3 hours ago
[image: Kid art supply organization] I live in my craft room. Seriously, I do. I would say I spend at least half of my waking hours in that room each day. Whether I am blogging, sewing, painting, or creating something completely random, it is all done in my craft room. When I was first planning my craft room, I had so much I wanted to fit in, a sewing table, my computer, fabric, there wasn't a lot of room to spare, but I know I needed a kid's corner. As much time as I spend in my craft room, I really wanted my four-year-old to be comfortable too. I didn't want to spend all of our t... more »

Adrian Dix interview with Bill Good, live streamed..NOW

Grant G at The Straight Goods - 3 hours ago
http://www.cknw.com/nwelection/index.aspx The Straight goods Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Kauilapele's Blog: Rachel Maddow on 4-24-13… “A Lesson in How to ‘Push’ Disinformation”… (and Why I Have Stopped Watching Rachel, and Pretty Much Anyone Else, on MSNBC)

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 3 hours ago
* * *I don't often watch MSNBC since Dylan Ratigan left the TV network but I did see this episode yesterday when Rachel was promoting a novelized version of the 9/11 report and a comic book version of it. I was stunned! Here's the woman that did fantastic job exposing the corruption of the Bush administration, now flogging that administration's Casus Belli. So much for my estimation of Rachel Maddow's intelligence... -AK* http://kauilapele.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/rachel-maddow-on-4-24-13-a-lesson-in-how-to-push-disinformation-and-why-i-have-stopped-watching-rachel-and-pretty-mu... more »

Tom Hayden : Earth Night

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 3 hours ago
Is 'Earth Night' coming? Image from Wikimedia Commons. Earth Night Al Gore wrote in 1992, 'the maximum that is politically feasible still falls short of the minimum that is truly effective.' Making it 'politically feasible' to tackle extreme climate change remains the task two frustrating decades later. By Tom Hayden / The Rag Blog/ April 25, 2013Monday, April 22, 2013, marked the 43rd

IA ALEC State Chair -" ALL House and Senate - Members of ALEC"

2old2care at Because I Can - 3 hours ago
OOPS in Iowa IOWA DEMS – better ask the accounting department if accounting paid for Dems to be ALEC members this year. The accounting department should immediately verify which legislators were made members of ALEC by the state automatically paying ALEC dues Why ... Cause the DEMS opted OUT- - - - OOPS in Iowa My emphasis Rep. Greg Forristall ignored a request to release information about the May 2-3 meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he will serve as Chair of the Education Task Force, according to correspondence released by Progress Iowa tod... more »

RED AND BLUE WITH RACE ALL OVER: Sirota’s point was easy to state!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 3 hours ago
*THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2013* *Part 3—Why did he state it so strangely:* Shortly after the Boston bombing, David Sirota wrote a column at Salon with a slightly peculiar headline: “Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American,” that slightly odd headline said. Sirota’s piece is still being mocked on Fox. But in its essence, his column was built around an obvious and simple idea—an idea which is easy to state. It’s easy to express the concern which lay at the heart of Sirota’s column. In today’s Washington Post, E. J. Dionne describes a basic concern he felt when he lear... more »

Give Me a Boilin' Hot Cup of Joe

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 3 hours ago
Ol' Joe is in the hotseat in the House of Commons today. The New Democrats plan to grill NatResMin Oliver over his remarks smearing leading climate scientist James Hansen. Oliver who is openly inimical to parts of the country, including the entire province of British Columbia, accused the former head of NASA's Goddard Space Laboratory as "always crying wolf" for his opposition to the Athabasca Tar Sands and the Keystone XL pipeline. Slackjaw Joe is also on record as claiming that he heard somewhere that the whole business of global warming is less than true. That is a remarkable ... more »

Norman Pagett and Josephine Smit : Can We 'Downsize' and Survive?

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 4 hours ago
Sewers under construction, north bank of the Thames looking west. Image from End of More. The end of more: Can we 'downsize' and survive? We continue to delude ourselves that 'downsizing' will somehow allow us to carry on with our current lifestyle with perhaps only minor inconveniences. By Norman Pagett and Josephine Smit / The End of More / April 25, 2013 "Healthy citizens are the

Mohawk Nation News 'Brown Face, White System'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 4 hours ago
BROWN FACE, WHITE SYSTEM Posted on April 25, 2013 by admin MNN. Apr. 25, 2013. Beware Injun Conferences where we have to listen to Indian Act or Federal Indian Law sell-outs spout the glories of colonialism. They are the “Finder’s Fee Indians”. The speakers are mostly band or tribal councilors, or those who are trained to conduct treason against

Burning Bridges

plthomasedd at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 4 hours ago
Deborah Meier and Elliott Witney have been attempting to bridge differences about ideology and practices associated with Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools, a “no excuses” view of children, poverty, education, and the world. I admire Meier’s patience and diligence in this discussion and strongly reject KIPP and other “no excuses” schools as racist and [...]

Part 3- Boston Bombing : NATO, Oil and the battle for Chechnya

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 4 hours ago
Continuing on from Part 1: *Boston Bombing: NATO- Taking the fight to Russia via Georgia/Chechnya ??* Where I first introduce the premise of taking the battle to Russia to further the agenda of destabilization. For multiple reasons. Bolstering that narrative with: *Pt 2- Boston Bombing: NATO, Oil and the Battle for Chechnya* Hoping to make it very clear, here in this installment, the third, that the Boston bombing frame up has a clear beneficiary in the NATO global war, pipelines, control of resources and geopolitical destabilization. We are going to start, again, with the words of... more »

Untitled

New Orleans Ladder at New Orleans Ladder - 4 hours ago
*Survey: Americans nationwide willing to shell out personally to save our coast ~Bob Marshall, The Lens* *New Mississippi "personhood" amendment drive to begin* *Eight New Orleans Fairgrounds Horses Aim Towards Kentucky Derby* *Jazz Fest poster captures essence of Aaron Neville ~Dean Shapiro * **~Hat Tweet @lunanola ~Today at LA Music Factory @ 210 Decatur: One Mind Brass Band @ Noon; Smoking Time Jazz Club @ 1 PM; Billy Iuso @ 2 PM! Johnny Sansone w/ Anders Osborne, Stanton Moore, & Robert Mercurio @ 3 PM! Dukes of Dixieland @ 4 PM, @*Bonerama* @ 5 PM, and Hot 8 Brass Band @ 6 PM!... more »

Fouad Ajami’s Flawed Argument For The Iraq War

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 4 hours ago
Fouad Ajami is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, and a long time commentator on Iraq. For the last several years he has argued that the Middle East’s autocrats gave rise to Islamist terrorists, and that was what led to 9/11. Because Saddam Hussein was a perfect example of that type of dictatorial rule he advocated that he be deposed to stop future terrorism. This was an idea based upon changing the entire Middle East and North Africa, not necessarily taking on those that were directly responsible for attacking America. Ajami shared many ideas with the neoconservatives, and ... more »

ALEC Legislators Plagiarizing Legislation

2old2care at Because I Can - 5 hours ago
Making the rounds this morning is a great article on *CommonDreams* by Jim Hightower. I* recommend reading the whole thing *– I just wanted to pull out his wisdom in the article about ALEC. *'Factory Farms' Aren't Farms: They Are Concentration Camps for Animals* Gagging on 'Ag-gag' laws Oddly, each of these state proposals is practically identical, even including much of the same wording. That's because, unbeknownst to the public and other legislators, the bills don't originate from the state lawmakers who introduce them. Instead, they come from a Washington-based corporate front ... more »

Another great image a la #cpsboycott, racism in chicago

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 5 hours ago
Self-explanatory. Filed under: CHALK FACE: General News & Commentary Tagged: chicago, closures, cps boycott, testing

O'odham Solidarity Project: Voices on the Border

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 5 hours ago
O'odham Solidarity Project: Voices on the Border A supporter of the O'odham Solidarity Project shares her feelings and insights after spending time with Tohono O'odham in their ancestral homeland. She describes the reality of the system in the United States and what it means here. She reacts to learning of the militarization of O'odham homelands, the constant abuse of O'odham by US Border

Guest Post By Jay Stamper, Who's Running For The Senate Seat Lindsey Graham Is Occupying

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 6 hours ago
*Profiles in Courage and Cowardice -by Jay Stamper* I’ve given a lot of thought to the courage of the Marathon runners who ran toward the blasts and then kept on running to donate blood to the injured. I've also thought about less courageous moments. In the days following the bombings, Lindsey Graham suggested that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a U.S. citizen, should be denied Miranda rights and tried as an enemy combatant in a military court. Graham must have been thinking that our anger and disgust at a horrific crime would make us forget about the Bill of Rights. Thank God he was wrong. ... more »

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 6 hours ago
Happy Birthday to Christopher Newman, 58. Nope, I never heard of him, either. But he was on the crew -- assistant director or some such on...ready? Match Point; Sense and Sensibility; Much Ado; Brazil; Return of the Jedi; The Great Muppet Caper; and Supermans II and III. Also, Rome -- and he's a producer on Game of Thrones. And lots more. That's not bad! Enough to even mean we should forgive whatever contributions he had to, alas, The Phantom Menace. Good stuff: 1. Sean Trende on the possible electoral effects of passing immigration reform. 2. Okay, there are lots of good reasons... more »

Government By Distraction

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 6 hours ago
Bill S7 is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. Its provisions for "preventative detention" and forcing people to answer questions are unlikely to pass a Supreme Court challenge. But the bill passed yesterday amid all the yelling and screaming about political attack ads. Susan Delacourt writes in *The Toronto Star*: While the stage had been set in Ottawa for a debate over whether MPs are free to speak their minds, a new wave of ads created a battle over the freedom to wage partisan advertising wars instead. Liberals are crying foul at yet another set of looming Conservative attac... more »

Funding ALEC - Tax dollars should not be used

2old2care at Because I Can - 6 hours ago
Three great 20 second audio clips to listen to on the following link. These comments are after the SD House passed a half a million dollar travel bill for legislators in SD - which included travel to ALEC meetings AND paying the dues for EVERY South Dakota legislator, EVERY legislator. *Each clip is priceless audio:* *>>>>HERE<<<<* ALEC South Dakota tax dollars should not be used to fund a partisan organization like this very partisan ... not how you spend public tax dollars Anti-public education, anti-worker, and I think anti-rural America ... They do not need to exist on South D... more »

DRESSING UP A WARM CRIMINAL

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 6 hours ago
The George W. Bush presidential library extravaganza is a disgrace to law, morality, justice, and truth. The man should be tried and put behind bars as a war criminal - right alongside of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Colon Powell and the rest of the crooked bastards. Obama will now go and proclaim all the great things Bush did which is disgraceful and demeaning to all those innocents who Bush and company had killed. It indicates how the corporate oligarchy works - good cop and bad cop - but in the end they all protect one another. Just like the mob - it's a crimina... more »

The Left’s Top 6 Boston Bombing Lies | FrontPage Magazine

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 7 hours ago
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/excusing-jihad

Won’t Let You Opt Out? Try All “A” Day

ontogenyx at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 7 hours ago
It is heartening to see the testing boycotts in Chicago, Portland, Seattle and elsewhere, and yet there is so much more to do to bring down the high stakes testing that has turned our schools in profit centers for corporations, while killing learning and teaching. So boys and girls, if your parents are skittish about [...]

A Message From Move To Amend Anouncing New Hampshire and Maine Speaking Tour

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 7 hours ago
* * * PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE WIDELY: David Cobb, a fiery speaker and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring New Hampshire and Maine to give his talk "Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule." David will be traveling with Daniel Lee, a member of the Move to Amend Exec Team and Affiliate Coordinator of Move to Amend Los Angeles. This presentation is part history lesson and part heart-felt call-to-action! All events are free and open to the general public. Move to Amend finances these tours, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Click the li... more »

Smash Facebook!

Phil at A Very Public Sociologist - 7 hours ago
In my experience, anarchists are either the funsome tricksters of revolutionary politics; or the most terribly po-faced, super serious folk going. There is no happy medium. So I can't quite decide if Anarchists: We need to talk about Facebook is serious polemic bemoaning the lack of revolutionary responsibility, or a wind up. The argument runs like this. Anarchist collectives have expended enormous reservoirs of labour and resource constructing a parallel architecture of tough-to-crack servers and hard-encrypted email facilities. And yet, to their dismay, rather than hang out at th... more »

Breakfast time

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 8 hours ago

5 Scientifically-Supported Tips for (Nearly) Instant Happiness by Elizabeth Renter

Stranger in a Strange Land at Stranger in a Strange Land - 8 hours ago
Source: https://www.facebook.com/TFarmacy#!/TFarmacy 5 Scientifically-Supported Tips for (Nearly) Instant Happiness by Elizabeth Renter Natural Society, 23 April 2013 Some people are naturally happy. You probably know one, or maybe you *are*one. These people are quick to smile or offer the “bright side” when encountered with a friend who needs a boost. Minor setbacks are seen by this crew as just that—minor, rather than the serious life-changers that otherwise unhappy people experience. And while there is no true scientific formula for achieving happiness, there are indeed ways to ... more »

Lawyers may be sued by someone other than client for trial conduct:

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 8 hours ago
Amato v. Welsh, 2013 ONCA 258 is a pleadings case. Accordingly it needs only to find a proposition of law is tenable. That said, it is a very important decision holding a lawyer may be sued by someone other than the lawyer's client for things said or done during trial. Whether this will open the floodgates to litigation, especially in a family law context, will be seen. Disappointed family law litigants often complain the other lawyer was wrongfully in cahoots with their client - many doubtful law society complaints are seen in this context: [83] Notably, in *Demarco*, Kreve... more »

chemtrails - PHOTO OF THE DAY - non-persistent contrail in a chemtrailed sky

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET - 10 hours ago
it's about 0920 hours on Thursday 25th April 2013, and here's a lovely example of a 'normal' non-persistent contrail from a commercial jet heading north to south at cruising altitude in a just CHEMTRAILED SKY in the wider shot, below, the skylong white line indicated from A to B (west to east) has just been laid down, literally FIVE MINUTES AGO as I watched. both planes were at cruising altitude: explain.

April Taxcast from Tax Justice Network

Kenneth Thomas at Middle Class Political Economist - 10 hours ago
This month's Taxcast from the Tax Justice Network highlights the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' major data dump from leaked documents, the agreement of the Group of 20 that automatic exchange of tax information should be the global standard, the imminent collapse of banking secrecy in Luxembourg (yes, you read that right!), and phantom foreign direct investment into India. Enjoy the podcast!

How to combat World Hunger

Not a sheep at Not a sheep - 11 hours ago
Sam Kinison had his own views on combatting world hunger.

An apologia for firewalls

Luboš Motl at The Reference Frame - 11 hours ago
*Anniversaries*: there are lots and lots of birthdays and deathdays of mathematicians who influenced physics today, including Felix Klein, Siméon Denis Poisson, Andrey Kolmogorov, and Felix Berezin. A decade ago, I would enthusiastically read many or most papers authored or co-authored by Joe Polchinski who would be a fountain of crisp, creative, and perfectionist physics. I may have voted for him as the world's #1 most clearly thinking physicist. Sadly for me, I unregistered from the club of regular readers of his papers after I looked at several important places in this new AMPS... more »

Untitled

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 11 hours ago
Art by Banksy

How the GOP's Disinformation Campaign Could Tarnish Obamacare

Marc McDonald at BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com - 12 hours ago
*BY MARC McDONALD* Like many progressives, I've never been a big fan of the Affordable Care Act. After all, in many ways, it's really nothing more than a warmed-up revision of the Heritage Foundation/GOP health care proposal from the 1990s. However, given the awful state of the current bloated, inefficient U.S. health care system, Obamacare is bound to be an improvement (if only because it's impossible for the system to be much worse than it is now). And if Obamacare improves access to health care for millions of Americans, it will pose a big problem to the GOP in elections for year... more »

Kryon

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 12 hours ago

DZHOKHAR'S DOUBLE?

Anon at aangirfan - 12 hours ago
*3* *on cap * *7** on cap* *Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or his double?* *Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or his double?* *Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or his double?* * ** **Dzhokhar in hospital, allegedly* * ** **The real Dzhokhar* * *The Boston police chiefs are total liars, reportedly. *"Two unnamed U.S. officials have told the Associated Press that the surviving suspect in the Boston bombings was unarmed when police captured him hiding inside a boat in a neighborhood back yard.* "The report contradicts the Boston police department's own account of Dzhokar Tsarnaev's capture on Friday - after *commissi... more »

dream - very smooth space potato - enormous asteroid tears through the Earth

Mike Philbin at FREE PLANET - 12 hours ago
yup, had the MASSIVE ASTEROID dream, no idea what it means, but it was big, and it sorta raced through like this: NOBODY KNEW NOTHING.

Your moment of Zen

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 12 hours ago
Bleeding hearts.

Jerry Looked Up At Him At One Point and Said, "You See, Comedy Is What We're Really About. The Music, Yeah, This Music Thing Is All Well and Good, But Comedy Is What We're Really About."

When the events in our world get just too unbelievable for words (like this week's). Some of us turn to the memory of that echoing chant "GRATEFUL DEAD! GRATEFUL DEAD! GRATEFUL DEAD!" for comfort and enlightenment. Rolling Stone has done us a good turn in this month's issue. Thank you, Bob and Phil. And Jerry, most of all. Furthur Keep the Dead Alive at Historic New York TheaterQ&A: Bob

Is the United States the best country in the world? Not even close. Among the 29 countries evaluated by UNICEF, the U.S. ranks from between 23rd to 27th in all six categories considered (the 27th being in education).

David L Griscom at Cherchez la Verite - 13 hours ago
------------------------------ *UNICEF: U.S. kids worse off than many of their Western counterparts* Posted by Caitlin Dewey and Max Fisher on April 18, 2013 at 11:48 am Data source: UNICEF American children are on average worse off than children in Western Europe and barely better off than their counterparts in the Baltic states and the former Yugoslavia, according to a recent report from United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the welfare of children in developed countries. The report, which compares kids in 29 Western countries, measures well-being across f... more »

Hegel On God, Religion, And Eckhartian Mysticism

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 14 hours ago
Related: *Glenn Alexander Magee - Goethe the Alchemist*. Below is an excerpt from Glenn Alexander Magee's book, *"Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition."* 2001. Cornell University Press: Ithaca. Pg. 224-27. "In the *Philosophy of Right*, Hegel states that "The content of religion is absolute truth, and consequently the religious is the most sublime of all dispositions" (Knox, PR 270; 165-66). Speculative philosophy, Hegel insists, is not hostile to religious belief: "nothing is further from its intention than to overthrow religion, i.e., to assert that the content of religion cannot *... more »

20 Tips for adding value to our lives

Small Footprints at Reduce Footprints - 15 hours ago
Our last SURVEY asked the question, *"Were you raised green?"* It was a close race but the winner was "Yes". The comments were interesting. In most cases people shared that they grew up in families where common-sense principles were taught ... things like conserving resources, planting food, and avoiding waste. I had the sense that regardless of when they officially began living green, their early lives paved the way. One comment suggested that green living is cultural. After a little research, I was surprised to learn that green-living is a middle-class trend. So could it be tha... more »

Ugly On The Outside

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 15 hours ago
There are some good things about getting older. Being less swayed by the superficial is certainly one of them. I've heard more than a few people remark that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is handsome. I've heard people say they thought Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are pretty. When I look at Dzhokhar, Sarah and Michele those aren't the attributes that come to mind. Rotted evil is. Politics industry trade rag, *The Hill* announced their 10th annual "Most Beautiful" List and they're opening it up to the White House, Cabinet departments and executive agencies. In the past it has mostly been a... more »

Diné Hada’ Asídí: A Peaceful Revolution against the Internal Enemies

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 15 hours ago
Navajo child protests at Salt River Project in Tempe, Ariz. Diné Hada’Asídí Navajo Vigilant Ones A Navajo People’s Public Interest Organization   We need a Peaceful People’s Revolution against the internal enemies Censored News NGS: It’s All About Water (Today’s ‘Blue Gold’) and Disloyal Insiders Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is not Navajo, but uses our coal, water, land, and

Thursday Morning Linkage

Josh Busby at Duck of Minerva - 15 hours ago
If last’s week Thursday morning linkage was Africa-themed, this week’s links are China-related and inevitably harken back to the events in Boston: Laurie Garrett, as she is wont to do, wonders if this recent bird flu outbreak in China is “the big one“ Beijing air is so bad they are canceling recess, kids at grave Continue reading

Right Wing Fringe Group To Harass J&J About Dumping ALEC

2old2care at Because I Can - 16 hours ago
*Conservative Group to Urge Johnson and Johnson to Rethink Its Decision to Stop Working with Mainstream Conservative Group at Behest of Left-Wing Extremists Also Will Ask Health Care Giant to Endorse Plan to Repeal ObamaCare's Medical Device Tax* *New Brunswick, NJ / Washington, D.C.* - Today, at the annual meeting of Johnson & Johnson shareholders in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the National Center for Public Policy Research plans to criticize Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky's decision to stop working with a respected, 40-year-old national organization of supporting state legisl... more »

"A Look to the Heavens"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
“This beautiful, bright, spiral galaxy is Messier 64, often called the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its heavy-lidded appearance in telescopic views. M64 is about 17 million light-years distant in the otherwise well-groomed northern constellation Coma Berenices. In fact, the Red Eye Galaxy might also be an appropriate moniker in this colorful composition of narrow and wideband images. *Click image for larger size.* The enormous dust clouds obscuring the near-side of M64's central region are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star... more »

Crabs in a Bucket"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 16 hours ago
"*Crabs in a Bucket"* by Sarah Robinson "When I was a little girl, I lived very close (and hour and fifteen minutes) to the Florida panhandle beaches. Which meant we spent a TON of time there. Early evening was one of my favorite times to walk the beach with my mom and my older brothers. We were all clean and fed and slightly sun weary but still desperate to be outside. So, we would grab flashlights, dip nets and a bucket and search the ocean’s edge for crabs. We would catch a bucket full in an evening and drag them back home where my mom or my grandmother would cook them up i... more »

Canadian KXL Minister - Not Very Neighborly

2old2care at Because I Can - 16 hours ago
From Rw Story - snips *Canadian official attacks U.S. climatologist James Hansenover Keystone pipeline* By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian Wednesday, April 24, 2013 20:37 EDT Canada’s natural resources minister, Joe Oliver, rarely bothers to hide his dislike for critics of the country’s carbon-heavy tar sands or the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. But it still came as a surprise to hear Oliver lash out at one of America’s pre-eminent scientists, climatologist James Hansen, during a visit to Washington DC. The charm offensive evidently did not apply to Hansen. In remarks made... more »

Memes galore

Roobin at THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR - 16 hours ago
The advice animal periodic table... in case you were wondering.

Abbott & Costello Predicted This

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 16 hours ago

To support the end of overtesting, consider putting your facebook profile on pause @dianeravitch

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 16 hours ago
Courtesy of Jean Schutt McTavish. Put your profile on pause to boycott test-driven education. Filed under: CHALK FACE: General News & Commentary Tagged: boycott, facebook profile thumbnail, pause, testing

Round up of links from the student #CPSboycott today. Congrats!

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 17 hours ago
Pretty shameless, but I must first plug our special radio episode today with veteran Chicago arts educator Ellen Gradman, live from the events downtown. Then, a Yahoo News article in which Mark Naison and I are quoted. We also have a piece from Common Dreams and Huffington Post. Look for a special episode with student [...]

Dirty Wars

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 17 hours ago
Jeremy Scahill's Dirty Wars video trailer http://dirtywars.org/

“How Do We Humans Ever Make Good Decisions?”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 17 hours ago
*“How Do We Humans Ever Make Good Decisions?”* by Jim Taylor, Ph.D. “It’s a wonder that good decisions are ever made by the species known as Homo Sapiens. The reality is that the cards are stacked against us whenever we are faced with choices, especially when the decisions are of consequence. Think about all of the horrendously bad decisions that have been made in recent history and how obviously bad they look in our rear-view mirrors. The Iraq war, securitizing mortgages, Congress not voting for background checks on gun purchases, another season of The Bachelor, the list goes... more »

Judy Gumbo Albert : Writing for the Hell of It

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 17 hours ago
Yippie Girl: Judy Gumbo Albert on the cover of the Berkeley Tribe, 1970. Image from Babylon Falling. How to bug a Yippie Girl: Writing for the hell of it My 1960s and '70s had been a Dostoyevskian drama of love, honor, loyalty, and betrayal embedded in the American revolution of my time. By Judy Gumbo Albert / The Rag Blog / April 24, 2013 Listen to the podcast of Thorne Dreyer's April 13,

DPP Job Opening

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 17 hours ago
*Hillside near Houli.* From several venues... one of the DPP departments is interested in a researcher. Contact Jerome Keating (jkeating@ms67.hinet.net), he'll forward the email along. *Here are the specs:* *--a MA degree in public policy(international relations, foreign affairs, etc)* *--fluent in English (mainly) or Japanese (with excellent writing skill)* *--NGOs(Taiwan/international) experience* *--under age of 40* *--a minimum starting salary of $NT 40,000* _______________________ [Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links ... more »

MORE Questions About The Boston Marathon Bombing.......

Big Dan at Big Dan's Big Blog - 17 hours ago
This goes with my last post *Questions About The Boston Marathon Bombing*. (Big Dan: YOU have to be a MORON to believe this "OFFICIAL STORY". There's no hope for you. Just watch some more TV and then go back to sleep...you'll believe ANYTHING!) *Was Boston Bomber Radicalized at U.S.-Sponsored Workshop?* *Tamerlane Tsarnaeva recruited via the Georgian Foundation. One of the organizers of the terrorist attack in Boston, studied at the workshop held in conjunction with the Georgian special services Americans* It sure looks like the older brother was taken alive (and then killed?) in ... more »

Last year the OCJ took in 560,000 new criminal cases

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 17 hours ago
And 2,000,000 provincial offences.

TV Watch: Newfangled ways of measuring time (1): From "Nurse Jackie" 5/1 to 5/2 (and "Mad Men" 6/2 to 6/3)

KenInNY at DownWithTyranny! - 18 hours ago
*The new All Saints ER doctors: Carrie Roman (Betty Gilpin) and Ike Prentiss (Morris Chestnut)* *by Ken* For any readers who noticed my recent disappearance, let me say that it: (1) was planned and (2) seems to have achieved its objectives with great success. I'm back home with a new knee that already seems to be working better than the original-equipment one, though that's not saying much. It's an oddity of our times, though, that when the spring TV-season announcements were made, it occurred to me almost at once that I would be home for the Season 5 premiere of *Nurse Jackie*, a... more »

7 charged with smuggling bladders of endangered fish to China

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 18 hours ago
[image: This March 2013 image provided by the US Attorney's Office shows Totoaba bladders displayed at a US border crossing in downtown Calexico, Mexico. Seven people have been charged in a scheme to sell the bladders of an endangered Mexican fish considered a delicacy for use in Chinese soup, US prosecutors said on 24 April 2013. Photo: US Attorney's Office via AP] By Elliot Spagat 24 April 2013 SAN DIEGO (AP) – Seven people have been charged with smuggling bladders from an endangered fish in what authorities said Wednesday may be a growing international practice in which the bla... more »

Musical Interlude: Afshin, “Prayer of Change”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 18 hours ago
Afshin, “Prayer of Change” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9oZ5A548Ak

Woman must remove niqab to testify

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 18 hours ago
A Muslim woman must remove her niqab before testifying against two men accused of sexually assaulting her three decades ago, an Ontario judge ruled Wednesday. The decision by Justice Norris Weisman comes after years of legal wrangling, pitting the accused's right to a fair trial against the complainant's freedom of religion. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where a split decision effectively sent it back to the lower court. While Judge Weisman wrestled with the implications of making the woman — who can be identified only as N.S. — choose between her religious conv... more »

MAINE DRONE SURVEILLANCE BILL HEARING ON THURSDAY IN AUGUSTA

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 18 hours ago
I've just learned that the Maine state legislative* drone bill (LD 236)* is being discussed again tomorrow *(Thursday)* by the Judiciary Committee in Augusta at *1:00 pm on the 4th floor* of the capital building. It would be very important to come to this work session if you can or at least to contact members of the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary to let them know you demand that the police must have warrants before doing drone surveillance of citizens in Maine. It appears that Maine's Attorney General Janet Mills (a Democrat) is pushing hard to *gut the warrant requireme... more »

Stephen Harper Is Running Scared, Soiled Underwear

Grant G at The Straight Goods - 19 hours ago
* *Stephen Harper is running scared, his underpants are soiled, Justin Trudeau, the newly appointed leader of the third place Federal party has Harper and the Cons freaked out, polling data has Justin Trudeau winning a minority Government if an election were held today..Justin is a phenomenon, Justin Trudeau has starting running his own ads to counter Harper`s childish antics, a polite ad, a non-personal ad..Justin Trudeau is taking the new winning approach to politics, ala Adrian Dix.. Stephen Harper is so bland, so old, so boring, a pathetic corporate bootlick.. Anyone who def... more »

Unions Mobilizing against ALEC in OKC

2old2care at Because I Can - 19 hours ago
*Good job - Good job!!!* The Florida House of Representatives seems to be taking all its legislative cues from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Not only can the *debate over workers’ pensions be traced back to ALEC*, but the controversial organization can also be linked to efforts to *prohibit local governments from implementing laws that extend to paid sick leav*e. The Florida House passed a sick leave bill last week, Bill 655, which would also* invalidate initiatives by local governments to mandate living wages for worker*s. Wisconsin, Louisiana and Mississip... more »

Jocelyn Pook - Libera Me

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 19 hours ago
Jocelyn Pook - Libera Me.* **Lyrics:* Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda: Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra. Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira. Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra. Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriae, dies magna et amara valde. Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day, when the heavens and the earth shall be moved, when thou shalt come to ... more »

The Law of Detachment

Brian Kelly at AMERICAN KABUKI - 19 hours ago
*The Law of Detachment* April 24, 2013 D also added her 2 cents worth on this post here. It's easy to forget that misery is self inflicted. A friend once sent me an article called "NATO Living"...Not-Attached-to-Outcome. When we can BE in this state, we allow situations to play themselves out without paying any energy by way of worry into how it will unfold. No expectations. When we are free from attachments, the idea of disappointment seems to fade into the wind. Having Faith all will work out exactly as it is supposed to is the ultimate key to inner peace. "It is not that we... more »

Healing Energy Streams Flow from Portal to Portal…

        AMERICAN KABUKI at AMERICAN KABUKI - 19 hours ago
* * * * *Healing Energy Streams Flow from Portal to Portal…* by ÉirePort Healing energy streams flow from portal to portal as Gaia balances with Hue-manity and humanity (smaller h) energies. Light Workers called to portal adjustments are encouraged to follow healing energy flow within, as this aligns with the Gaia Healing energy streams, and will lead each to their Gaia healing portal center. As Hue-manity aligns, and more and more of humanity (smaller h) begins to align, with these healing energy streams, and accepts those processes within themselves, Gaia rests in the resulting ... more »

DEPORTED FROM JEJU ISLAND

Bruce K. Gagnon at Organizing Notes - 19 hours ago
Emily Wang from Regis Tremblay on Vimeo. Regis Tremblay writes: Taiwanese peace activist, Emily Wang, is being held by Korean Immigration and is to be deported for opposing the construction of that massive naval base in Gangjeong village, Jeju Island, South Korea. The base will serve the purposes of America's "pivot to Asia" and will not ensure the security of South Korea or S. E. Asia. After a casual visit to Gangjeong Village, Emily discovered the struggle opposing the construction of the base and her conscience demanded she remain. While there, Emily discovered an amazing abil... more »

Syria is hoping to clinch more financial aid from from allies...

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 20 hours ago
Found this interesting. Reuters picks it up today, but, it appears to be older news from Syria Syria hopes to clinch more financial aid from its allies Russia and Iran soon, but still has enough foreign reserves to pursue its war on rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, the central bank governor said. Speaking at the bank's headquarters, hit by a car bomb on April 8, Adeeb Mayaleh said: "We are expecting much more support from friendly countries... Yes, financial support from Iran and Russia and it could also be from other friendly countries. "Discussions are going on. W... more »

Bachmann (MN-Nut Job) Promoting Fanaticism

2old2care at Because I Can - 21 hours ago
*Mixing up her extremist religious beliefs with STATE business.* *This is probably a result of her spending the past weekend with fanatics and extremists. * (My emphasis throughout) *Bachmann Enters Into Congressional Record Support of Event Likening Homosexuality With Terrorism* by David Badash on April 23, 2013 Republican U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann* has entered into the Congressional Record* an announcement of support for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting event to be held on September 11. Joseph Farah, America’s top birther and the founder of World Net Daily, now j... more »

Kierkegaard On Man's Relation To God

Saman Mohammadi at The Excavator - 21 hours ago
Related: * * *Kierkegaard On Socratic Ignorance*. *Kierkegaard On "Man."** * *Kierkegaard On Socrates And The Immortality of The Soul.* *Kierkegaard On God's Love.* *Kierkegaard On Passion.* * Kierkegaard On Martyrs of Truth.* *Kierkegaard On Truth*. *Kierkegaard On The Difference Between "Popular" And "Philosophical."* *Kierkegaard On Religion And Doubt.* * Kierkegaard On Imagination.* *Kierkegaard On Objectivity And Subjectivity.** * *Kierkegaard - God Is Love.* Below is an excerpt from, *"The Soul of Kierkegaard: Selections from His Journals."* Edited by Alexander... more »

Reinhart/Rogoff Gets the Colbert Treatment

Kenneth Thomas at Middle Class Political Economist - 21 hours ago
Via Paul Krugman, Steven Colbert takes on Reinhart and Rogoff. Also be sure to check out his interview with Thomas Herndon.

German tax enforcement paying dividends

Kenneth Thomas at Middle Class Political Economist - 21 hours ago
I have long advocated that the United States should follow Germany's example of aggressive pursuit of tax evasion, in particular its practice of paying informants for account information from secrecy destinations like Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The German Parliament's upper house (Bundesrat) rejected a deal in November that Prime Minister Angela Merkel was willing to sign with Switzerland that would have allowed German account holders to pay tax anonymously. (As I reported on April 12, automatic exchange of information is rapidly becoming the standard to which even Luxembourg wi... more »

Decades of Threats and the Delusions of Shimon Peres

Nima Shirazi at Wide Asleep in America - 21 hours ago
Chuck Hagel meets with Shimon Peres at the Israeli President's office in Jerusalem on April 22, 2013 (Photo Credit: UPI/Menahem Kahana/Pool) Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said today that American and Israeli "threats have no value and at the same time, show their aggressive nature, and reveal their deceitful and misleading claims," adding that any Israeli strike on Iran would be the

Ending Jail Overcrowding in LA County-- Guest Post from Los Angeles Sheriff Candidate Lou Vince

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 22 hours ago
Last month we heard from LAPD Supervisor and LA County Sheriff candidate Lou Vince about the prisoner abuse scandal in the L.A. County jails under current Sheriff Lee Baca. For years, Sheriff Baca has been in denial about the >troubling events taking place in his jails. As Vince noted in his guest post, a major factor in the scandal is the overcrowding of inmates in the county jails in California today. As he promised, he has penned the following guest post to explain what he would do to reduce overcrowding. If you like Vince’s solutions, be sure to visit his website-- LouVince.co... more »

BOSTON BOMB MYSTERIES SOLVED? LINK TO CIA

Anon at aangirfan - 22 hours ago
On 23 April 2013, a body was found "in India Point Park in Providence Harbor", near the Wyndham Garden Providence Hotel, *Rhode Island.* Is the body that of Tamerlan Tsaraev? Tamerlan's wife's family is from Rhode Island. "The body appeared to be a male in his twenties and had 'been in the water for a while,' said Commander Thomas Oates of the Providence Police Department... "The Rhode Island medical examiner's office is trying to determine if a body pulled from a river is missing Brown University student Sunil Tripathi, who was erroneously linked on social media to the Boston ... more »

Long way from the Appalachian Trail

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 22 hours ago
This is so sad I almost feel sorry for the guy. Now abandoned by the national party and with his opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch effectively ignoring him, Mark Sanford is reduced to debating a cardboard photo of Nancy Pelosi. Why is he debating Pelosi instead of a cardboard Colbert Busch? Hell if I know. It's true, Pelosi is an all-purpose villian, especially reviled by cons, but she's not running for Congress in South Carolina. TPM has a short video clip of the sorry spectacle at the link. Has to be seen to be believed. [photo via]

Watching you remember

Sophia at AMERICAN KABUKI - 22 hours ago
Welcome to our 4th day. We are right between the beginning and the end of this Quest. Consider unconditional self love. Do you have it? What is stopping you? The words “but” and “if” and “when” and “almost” have no place in a sentence with Agape. You either do or you don’t. You can’t be a little bit pregnant. You can’t be a little bit Agape. It is the same with Freedom. You can’t be partially Free. Either someone else pulls your strings, or they don’t. You know now, the Truth. The “other” only shows up as a reflection of your state of BEing. ... more »

RAG RADIO / Thorne Dreyer : Yippie Pioneers Judy Gumbo Albert and Nancy Kurshan 'Tell It Like It Was'

thorne dreyer at The Rag Blog - 22 hours ago
 Judy Gumbo Albert, left, and Nancy Kurshan, photographed in Hanoi, January 2013, were our guests on Rag Radio April 13, 2013. Rag Radio podcast: Sixties activists and original Yippies Judy Gumbo Albert and Nancy Kurshan Judy and Nancy discuss their recent trip to Vietnam and reminisce about their experiences in the Sixties, the legacy of the Yippies, and their lives and work in the ensuing

Judges, Please

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 22 hours ago
The good news, as I discussed in the earlier item, is that the Senate is getting better at processing judicial nominations. The bad news? They're running out of nominations to process. Not because all the vacancies are filled. No, it's because the promised increased pace of judicial nominations still hasn't materialized. There remain around 60 spots without any nominee, including 11 at the appellate level. And including three spots, still, on the DC Circuit. It's true that some of this is the Senate's fault, with (mostly) Republican Senators blocking home-state selections (and Democ... more »

Mohawk Nation News 'UN Chicanery'

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 22 hours ago
UN CHICANERY Posted on April 24, 2013 MNN. Apr. 24, 2013. Canada is not a constitutional democracy. They follow their corporate by-laws, not the rule of law. Like every corporation their duty is to provide ever-growing dividends to the shareholders. In the case of Thahoketoteh of Kanekota, the Federal Court of Canada refused to answer the constitutional question about Section 109 of the BNA

Alo and Здравейте! ('Hello' in Romanian and Bulgarian)

Craig at Is the BBC biased? - 23 hours ago
During my lunch hour at work on Monday, I clicked into the BBC News website and saw the prominently-featured headline *Few planning to migrate to UK - poll*, concerning a *Newsnight* survey about possible immigration to the UK from Romania and Bulgaria from 1 Jan 2014. The headline had changed to *Polls: No indication of huge Romanian-Bulgarian influx *by the time I'd got home, but you can still see the original headline on the link provided by anticipatory piece posted the night before. Having read the BBC article and its 'nothing to worry about, folks!' headline, I then clicked... more »

We’re asking for your overwhelming support!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 23 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013* *These issues are worth pursuing:* What will MSNBC be like in the coming years? That is a very important question. For our money, Hayes and Maddow have done a good job reporting on the Boston bombing. Hayes seems to be moving to a discussion about the explosion in Texas. There is a great deal to discuss about both topics, and about many others. It would be an enormously helpful thing if these people developed strong cable news programs. As readers will know, we’ve often been critical of Maddow’s work. She still can’t stop the incessant clowning, but a ... more »

The problem with surveys of us the people!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 23 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013* *This just in concerning background checks:* Everyone and his great uncle has mentioned the fact that 90 percent of the public supported expanded background checks on gun purchases. The polling seemed quite clear. Then, the gun bill got voted down, in a Senate vote where 55 senators would have supported the background check provision. Today, Pew and the Washington Post have released a new survey of public opinion. Respondents were asked this question: *What word best describes how you feel about the Senate voting down new gun control legislation that in... more »

Rabbit hole...

Roobin at THROUGH THE SCARY DOOR - 23 hours ago
The Boston bombings are proving a strange fascination. They are being investigated by federal prosecutors. Their abiding metaphor, at least in public, seems to be “rabbit hole”. The only man who could have unravelled their mystery, who could have said why the bombings happened, is dead. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, seems to have been the instigator of these acts. He is described as being “self-radicalised”. The evidence of his internet browsing and mosque attendance shows a man who became attracted to a hard line, literalist interpretation of islam around three or four yea... more »

The Daily "Near You?"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 23 hours ago
Anadarko, Oklahoma, USA. Thanks for stopping by.

Here Are Your Options Re: Cable

Jay Allbritton at Jay Allbritton - 23 hours ago
If cable companies were honest... how might those commercials sound? If you don't want to simply go the raw internet route, one way to circumvent your imperial television overlords is with a Roku. I don't personally have one, but I hear good things. The latest version is reviewed by CNET:

We’re asking for your overwhelming support!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 23 hours ago
*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013* *These issues are worth pursuing:* What will MSNBC be like in the coming years? That is a very important question. For our money, Hayes and Maddow have done a good job reporting on the Boston bombing. Hayes seems to be moving to a discussion about the explosion in Texas. There is a great deal to discuss about both topics, and about many others. It would be an enormously helpful thing if these people developed strong cable news programs. As readers will know, we’ve often been critical of Maddow’s work. She still can’t stop the incessant clowning, but a ... more »

"Ubuntu"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 23 hours ago
"An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?'' 'Ubuntu' in the Xhosa culture means: 'I am because we are'." "How many of you knew this?" - Found in a group ch... more »

Satire: "People Believe Something on Twitter for Some Reason"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 23 hours ago
*"People Believe Something on Twitter for Some Reason"* by Andy Borowitz WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)— "Federal investigators said today that they were “baffled” as to why millions of people chose to believe something they read yesterday on Twitter, a social-media site that has falsely reported the deaths of more than seventy-five thousand different celebrities. “It’s mystifying,” said one investigator working on the case. “One theory we’re considering is that people who spend time on Twitter eventually lose their capacity for critical thinking and become sheep.” The Syr... more »

"How It Really Is"

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 23 hours ago

Raid On Protest Site In Hawija, Iraq Leads To Armed Retaliation

Joel Wing at MUSINGS ON IRAQ - 23 hours ago
Iraqis have been demonstrating in several cities since December 2012 to protest what they see as marginalization by the central government. On April 23, 2013, security forces raided a protest site in Hawija in Tamim province looking for militants that attacked an army checkpoint a few days beforehand. The operation quickly turned violent with several people killed and wounded, and dozens arrested. Immediately, there were retaliatory attacks in surrounding areas, and some leaders of the demonstrators started talking about taking on the security forces, which they claimed were under ... more »

English as the Official Language of the European Union?

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 23 hours ago
There's a move afoot to have English declared the common language of the European Union and it's a German who is pushing the idea. Here *The Guardian *gives a pretty clear reason why a common language might be helpful when representatives of the constituent nations sit down to parlay. *Money talks, especially in Brussels. A billion euros are usually "mil milhoes de euros" in Portuguese, or a thousand million. In Spanish, likewise, "billón" means a million million, so billion is "mil millones de euros". Confusingly, "billion" translates as "milijarde" into Croatian, or "miljard" in... more »

Americans Settling In to Reality of Terrorism

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 23 hours ago
The American people might just be getting terrorism fatigue after more than a decade of efforts by their politicians and media to keep them in a heightened state of anxiety. How long can anyone do that and stay sane? What price has already been exacted of them by those who have manipulated them since September, 2001? *A majority of Americans say occasional acts of terrorism are "part of life", and many doubt the government can do much more to prevent them, a new poll finds.* * * *About three-quarters of Americans said they agree that "occasional acts of terrorism in the US will... more »

TEST ONLY of YouTube TV: Thor trailer and more...

address-withheld@my.opera.com.invalid (Dr. John v. Kampen) at - 23 hours ago
Link: "https://www.youtube.com/tv?vq=medium#/watch?v=7p7rocHEecE" or: http://youtu.be/7p7rocHEecE *The question is*: can you see this on your device? There are a few 'new' embedding codes around for YouTube clips. For instance: Original: src="http://youtu.be/7p7rocHEecE" Opera: [VIDEO=http://youtu.be/7p7rocHEecE width=620 height=375][/VIDEO] but: 240p: &vq=small 360p: &vq=medium 480p: &vq=large -- with best sound 720p: &vq=hd720 Hence code becomes: http://youtu.be/7p7rocHEecE&vq=large YouTube TV: https://www.youtube.com/tv?vq=medium#/watch?v=7p7rocHEecE The above... more »

Blocking HIV Reservoirs

arclein at Terra Forming Terra - 1 day ago
This is a huge step closer to eliminating the HIV virus. We know the key protein and we know that we have to turn it of to win. This is at least a clear pathway. The disease itself is now well controlled but certainly not cured. Eliminating these reservoirs opens the door to an outright cure. This will ultimately be described as one of the greatest battles in medical science but also one of the most productive in terms of new science. I do think that we are in the homestretch with HIV. This is not the only route now. *Discovery may help prevent HIV 'reservoirs' ... more »

“Loving Your Servitude”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
*“Loving Your Servitude”* by James Quinn “The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure ... more »

12 fotos gratis de rosas de colores - Flowers

José Luis Ávila Herrera at FotoFrontera - 1 day ago
*Nota:* Click aquí para visitar nuestro Banco de Imágenes Por favor visite nuestra página oficial: www.fotofrontera.com

Long time GOP intern caught in creepy cyber-stalking scandal

Libby Spencer at The Impolitic - 1 day ago
This kid, who apparently aspires to be a professional political intern, has worked with a lot of big name Republicans, including most recently Mitt Romney. It seems when he wasn't busy fetching coffee and pizza for his boss, Adam Savader, 21, was attempting to extort nude photos from random women he mostly knows from school. Savader is a political science student at SUNY Farmingdale who’s interned for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan as well as Romney. He’s charged with illegally obtaining nude pictures of 15 women and threatening t... more »

Adrian Dix Rocks BC Liberals With Shrewd Business Announcement!

Grant G at The Straight Goods - 1 day ago
Absolutely brilliant, Adrian Dix has announced a blue-ribbon panel to look at the financial situation of both BC Place and the Vancouver convention center. As you know both of those entities bleed money every year, they both lose money on the operational side...And there is also the capital debt of $1.2 billion dollars, interest on that debt is in the range of $40 million dollars per year.. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/bc-election/says+will+sell+Place+cover+PAVCO+debt/8288356/story.html Add up the operational debt, the interest payment and these two entities cost the BC taxp... more »

Tinariwen, from the Sahara Desert, in Tucson

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 day ago
Censored News Music Video: Saharan Desert band Tinariwen in Tucson, in concert with Dine' band Sihasin (Hope) with the incredible sounds of healing and a borderless world. From the Sahara to the Sonoran Desert Also: Censored News Video: Sihasin sings AIM song, in concert with Tinariwen, at Hotel Congress, April 23, 2013. http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/04/

It's a "No Lose World" Once You Have Captured the Political Process

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
The Great Recession of 2008 devastated broad swathes of the population of the developed world. Foreclosures, unemployment, insolvency, homelessness, the gamut of economic misery. For most but not for all, not for some. A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that the first two years of the recovery were Manna from Heaven for those who had already cemented their capture of both economic and political power, the richest of the rich. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the United States. *During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth ... more »

Drones Cause 'Growing Hatred of America' Senate Panel Informed

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 1 day ago
Drones cause ‘growing hatred of America,’ bipartisan Senate panel told By Ernesto Londoño, Published: April 23The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/drones-cause-growing-hatred-of-america-bipartisan-senate-panel-told/2013/04/23/4863b1f8-ac6e-11e2-a8b9-2a63d75b5459_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines [Excerpted] A bipartisan panel of senators held a spirited and unusually public debate Tuesday afternoon about the legality and unintended consequences of America’s targeted killings overseas, a forum convened amid growing calls for stronger oversight of the... more »

Two Informative and Provocative Fukushima Links for Today

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 1 day ago
Natural News: Massive, uncontained leak at Fukushima is pouring over 710 billion becquerels of radioactive materials into atmosphere, http://www.naturalnews.com/040058_Fukushima_radioactive_nuclear_leak.html#ixzz2ROa31hhu Optimal Prediction: Xenon detected by CTBTO, blamed on North Korea.

New Paper on Privatizing Europe, Entrenching Neoliberalism

Majia's Blog - 1 day ago
Majia here: Europe and other western countries are in the process of 'dispossessing' their populations through cuts to education and social-welfare, while failing to cut government spending in substantial ways on bank bailouts and militaries. Liz Alderman of the New York Times Reports (4/17/2013) that More Children in Greece Going Hungry [Excerpted] ATHENS — As an elementary school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: child... more »

“Extras”

noreply@blogger.com (CoyotePrime) at Running 'Cause I Can't Fly - 1 day ago
*“Extras”* by Eric Fry “Beware the government that provides “more.” Fear the government that provides “extra.” “More government” always means more of something, but not always more of something a productive individual desires. More government means more rules and regulations, more agencies to enforce the proliferating rules and regulations, more taxes to pay for the proliferating agencies that enforce the proliferating rules and regulations. Before long, “more government” begins to feel a lot like “less” — less opportunity, less liberty, and certainly less after-tax income. ... more »

Open Thread

jurassicpork at Welcome Back to Pottersville - 1 day ago
Another age-old mystery solved, courtesy of Welcome Back to Pottersville. Today happens to mark the fourth anniversary of the last day I ever worked at a fulltime job. It was on this day in 2009 when I worked on a Friday and when I went back to work on Monday the 27th, I got the axe just before I would've punched in. This seemingly endless skein of joblessness is still largely inexplicable to me, although I have lots of theories as to why this has happened. As I've been screaming for years, outsourcing, spearheaded by the US Chamber of Commerce, plays a big part in it... more »

Muslims in America...

Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner - 1 day ago
*not such a good idea. * H/T *1389 Blog* And now, via *Terry at Nox and Friends*, take a gander at the following article and ask yourself how a man whose legs have been blown off (picture at following link) has not died from blood loss. Note also that he was being transported in a wheelchair. Hmmmmmmm, odd conveyance for a person with both legs blown off. Was there no stretcher handy? When I first saw the picture the above two questions popped *immediately*into my mind. They also popped right out of my mind as I was a bit shocked. Now I'm asking those questions again... ... more »

How Do You Like Your Odds?

The Mound of Sound at The Disaffected Lib - 1 day ago
A decade ago, Britain's Astronomer Royal, cosmologist Martin Rees, wrote "*Our Final Hour, A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century - On Earth and Beyond*." In it he makes compelling arguments that, with bio-terror and bio-error and similar man-made hazards that confront us today, mankind has a no better than 50/50 chance of surviving this century. Lord Rees is convinced we are now on the verge of a *post-humanity* era that will see mankind undergo various forms of geo-engineering of our minds and bodies, v... more »

A Coup for Parliament or a Recruiting Tool for CHP

noreply@blogger.com (fern hill) at DAMMIT JANET! - 1 day ago
As we know, Warwara's Wank ended with a further wank, this one about Free Speech. The long-awaited Speaker's decision on his point of privilege over having his member's statement (S.O.30) snuffed by the CON Whip was announced yesterday at around 3 p.m. Here's Kady O'Malley's story filed at 4:57 p.m. If backbench MPs want to the right to speak freely in the House, they're going to have to start standing up to be counted -- even if it means ignoring the speaking lists prepared by the party whip to compete against their caucus colleagues for the attention of the speaker. That, it se... more »

EMILY's List Up To No Good Again-- In L.A... And In Hawaii?

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
Sen. Brian Schatz, City Councilman Eric Garcetti-- too progressive for EMILY's List On election day eve, late summer 2008, long after mail-in ballots had been sent in, EMILY's List sent out a bizarre message to its members in Tennessee. They withdrew their endorsement from the corrupt, conservative Democratic woman they had recruited and backed all year, Nikki Tinker, a cog in the Harold Ford political machine who was taking on progressive incumbent Steve Cohen, a 100% pro-choice ally. Tinker, was the quintessential candidate of the new EMILY's List: conservative, Blue Dog, corrupt ... more »

Tentative Report Card on Senate Reform

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
The Senate just voted unanimously to confirm Jane Kelly, nominated by the president for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is how it's supposed to work! Kelly was nominated on January 31 of this year for a brand-new opening, with Michael Malloy taking senior status. A circuit court spot filled in under three months? Well done, Barack Obama and the Senate! So, two things. One is that everyone has given Harry Reid a lot of grief over Senate reform, but it sure seems to me that things have been steadily improving. That's five circuit court vacancies filled this year so far. It leav... more »

thwap's mail-sack and (maybe) etc.,

thwap at thwap's schoolyard - 1 day ago
Back when blogs used to be a more hep, groovy and "with it" kinda scene, they used to attract more idiots. So I really filtered the old comments section. As a result, I've gotten a couple of emails from people not registered with google. Here they are - - - "Kip" writes: Good evening Thwap, I read and enjoy your posts regularly. I'm not a *Party* supporter: democracy needs to work toward acceptance of the fact that *one person/one vote* means, well, *one person/one vote*, and we need to openly acknowledge that our current party based systems do not allow for that. I was going to... more »

Prosthetic and double amputee were used to fake legs blown off by Boston Marathon Bombs.

Jason Leewig at Our Manmade Disasters - 1 day ago
Another confirmation that prosthetics were used in the staged inside job. — with Alfred Lambremont Webre III, Cherie Martin, Lisa Elkins Goodman, Michael Edward, Michael Roseand Peter Stewart. If Sandy Hook, 911 and Aurora shootings had all been planned and orchestrated by the same evil forces, then it stands to reason that the Titanic was deliberately set on a "suicide collision" course into the dangerous ice bergs zone to pave the way for the Federal Reserve system a year later. America is suffering today for that "Titanic Plot" 100 years... more »

VIDEO Sihasin in concert Tucson: AIM song

brendanorrell@gmail.com at CENSORED NEWS - 1 day ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPQ853bz2Q Dine' band Sihasin welcomes Saharan desert band Tinariwen to the Sonoran Desert, and home to Tohono O'odham and Yaqui, live at the Hotel Congress in Tucson on April 23, 2013. Jeneda and Clayson Benally's new band is on tour and will be at the Gathering of Nations this weekend. Jeneda and Clayson spoke for hope and unity during the incredible concert,

Presentation on Weather Risk & Climate Change

noreply@blogger.com (Roger Pielke, Jr.) at Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog - 1 day ago
Here in PDF is a handout of a presentation I gave earlier this week to the Intermediaries and Reinsurance Underwriters Association 2013 Spring Conference. Here are the questions and answers that I presented in the talk: Anyone with questions or comments please send them along (again, the link to the handout is here in PDF). If you'd like to reuse any of the figures in the talk, just drop me an email, I am happy to share. Thanks to the IRUA for an excellent conference and stimulating discussions.

DZHOKHAR IS INNOCENT

Anon at aangirfan - 1 day ago
New surveillance images from Boston show chilling images of 'Red Bull and Doritos'. *dailymail.* *Tamerlan Tsaraev attended the same school as actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.* Friends describe Dzhokhar Tsaraev as a mild-mannered pot-smoker, and seem genuinely shocked that he could have been involved in violence. *Dzhokhar* According to Dzhokhar's Twitter account, *Dzhokhar dreams of cheeseburgers, jokes with friends about getting high, finding girls and watching the fantasy saga "Game of Thrones" on TV. * The day after the bombing, he tweeted: 'I'm a stress-free kind of gu... more »

Record floods hit U.S. Midwest – ‘We have seen some of the worst flooding damage to neighborhoods and homes across our state in Illinois history’

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: Flooding inundates a road along the Mississippi River north of Clarksville, Missouri, on Sunday, 21 April 2013, in a handout photo from the Missouri governor's office. Photo: Handout / Reuters / Landov] By Doyle Rice 23 April 2013 (USA TODAY) – A rainy Tuesday added to flooding misery in the Midwest, as bloated rivers and streams continued to rise across the region. Floodwaters rose to record levels along the Illinois River in central Illinois on Tuesday, while in Missouri, six levees north of St. Louis were overtopped by the surging Mississippi River, though mostly farmla... more »

Nation starting to realize new era of American innovation never gonna happen

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: Illustration of a wind farm, a high-speed train, a domed colony in the desert, and a PV solar power plant. Sources say they have been misled into thinking America was on the verge of an exciting and bold new technological frontier. Graphic: The Onion] WASHINGTON, 22 April 2013 (The Onion) – After nearly a decade of promises that the nation was on the brink of a technological, economic, and scientific golden age, citizens across the country confirmed Monday they are now realizing a bold new era of American innovation is just flat-out not gonna happen. Citing the fragile ec... more »

The Preston Manning Centre for Building Buildings

Alison at Creekside - 1 day ago
Covert cell phone video catches a Calgary developer homebuilder referring to buying the campaigns of development-friendly local candidates. In his speech to 150 Calgary industry nobs in November, his remarks about Preston Manning, who also attended and spoke at the meeting, appear at the 1:54 mark: "... keeping in mind, in order to bring Preston on board, 11 of us put up 100 thousand - so $1.1-million. So it's not like we haven't put up our money you know, and we are also going to be there to put up it again and yet we're also supporting the candidates." Hey, those Manning Centr... more »

2013 has eighth warmest start on record, despite cooler-than-average winter in much of Northern Hemisphere

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: Selected significant global climate anomalies and events, March 2013. Graphic: NCDC] Global Highlights - The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for March 2013 tied with 2006 as the 10th warmest on record, at 0.58°C (1.04°F) above the 20th century average of 12.3°C (54.1°F). - The global land surface temperature was 1.06°C (1.91°F) above the 20th century average of 5.0°C (40.8°F), the 11th warmest March on record. For the ocean, the March global sea surface temperature was 0.41°C (0.74°F) above the 20th century average of ... more »

"This Criminal Code is not holy book"

James C Morton at Morton's Musings - 1 day ago
A Montreal man accused of plotting a terrorist attack against a VIA Rail passenger train denounced the Canadian Criminal Code in a Toronto courtroom Wednesday during his second court appearance. “This Criminal Code is not holy book,” Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, told the court as he stood in the prisoners’ box at Old City Hall. After Justice of the Peace Susan Hilton cautioned him he was on the record and he spoke with duty counsel, Esseghaier continued to comment on his detention, saying the code could not be relied on. “Only the Creator is perfect,” he said. “It doesn’t matter in this ... more »

Japan: Cold War Rising Update

Majia's Blog at Majia's Blog - 1 day ago
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning (4/24/2013) that 'Japan Leader Charts Path for Military Rise' page A7 [Excerpted] Mr. Abe has, in recent days, talked more openly about returning to his life's goal of rewriting Japan's 66-year-old-pacifist constitution.... On Tuesday, tensions intensified around a collection of islands in the Wast China Sea claimed by both Japan and China, while Mr. Abe told parliament he wouldn't hesitate to use force to defend the territory currently controlled by Japan.... Specifically, Mr. Abe now says he wants to revise Article 96, the section tha... more »

The absence of the intelligentsia!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013* *James Gleick chats with Dowd:* James Gleick started out at the New York Times, then moved upward from there. He spent ten years at the Times, then began writing highly-regarded, widely-praised books on scientific topics. As such, he is part of the intelligentsia, to the extent that we have one. That’s why it’s instructive to see Gleick’s presence in today’s New York Times. Over the weekend, Gleick wrote a piece for New York magazine about the way information spread concerning the Boston bombing. He noted the failures of cable news and the shortcoming... more »

Wednesday Links / Open Thread

Karen Garcia at Sardonicky - 1 day ago
Horror in Bangladesh: a substandard building that housed several clothing factories supplying American retailers has collapsed, killing at least 70, injuring hundreds and trapping hundreds more. Employees had noticed a crack in the building, but were forced by bosses to enter and start working anyway. A fire in another Bangladeshi clothing factory killed more than 100 people only five months ago. Walmart, of course, sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil and knows nothing, nada, zilch about its outsourced slave labor camps. The devastated tiny town of West, TX is already being ... more »

The 10 things Americans care about more than the environment

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: An Indian child paints during an awareness event organized by the Aakalpan Artist Society commemorating Earth Day in Allahabad. Photo: Sanjay Kanojia / AFP / Getty Images] By Will Oremus 22 April 2013 (Slate) – Environmentalists like to think that the public is in their corner—that it’s only the pernicious influence of Big Oil and Big Coal that keeps Congress from passing a carbon tax or Obama from nixing the Keystone Pipeline. They’re right that most voters care about the planet, insofar as they’d prefer not to see it trashed, all other things being equal. But all other... more »

Boston blasts won't revive US-Russia reset: How will it affect Syria?

Penny at Penny for your thoughts - 1 day ago
*M K Bhadrakumar from Asia Times* *excerpted:* Any event that impacts on the United States' "homeland security" would have worldwide repercussions. The repercussions of the Boston Marathon bombings are most expected on the United States' ties with Russia. The US-Russia security cooperation has taken a beating in the recent year or two even as the "reset" in the relations ended and a period of cold-war style distrust and acrimony developed between Moscow and Washington. However, it is too big a surmise to make at this point that a resetting of the moribund US-Russia "reset" is under ... more »

What would the Koch brothers do to the Los Angeles Times?

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: The Los Angeles Times Building and 2nd and Spring streets downtown. Photo: Getty Images] By Harold Meyerson 23 April 2013 (Washington Post) – On May 21, Los Angeles voters will go to the polls to select a new mayor. Who will govern Los Angeles, however, is only the second-most important local question in the city today. The most important, by far, is who will buy the *Los Angeles Times*. *The Times* is one of the eight daily newspapers now owned by the creditors who took control of the Tribune Co. after real estate wheeler-dealer Sam Zell drove it into bankruptcy. Others ... more »

Falling Yen Fallout

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 1 day ago
The falling Japanese yen is having a complex effect on Taiwan, with some industries feeling nothing while others are getting pinched... (FocusTaiwan ): ...Since the beginning of this year, the yen has fallen 14.72 percent against the U.S. dollar. The magnitude of the depreciation during the period of April 4-19, in particular, hit almost 7 percent on the back of more fund injections from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to boost the economy. .... Acer Inc., the world's fourth largest PC vendor, agreed with the argument of little impact from the yen's weakness, *saying as Japan is not the maj... more »

The palpable racism of school closures

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
There I said it. School closure policies are racist. Not necessarily bigoted, but indeed racist. Look up the difference. Filed under: CHALK FACE: General News & Commentary Tagged: chicago, new york city, public schools, racism, school closures

RED AND BLUE WITH RACE ALL OVER: Red and blue fight about black, white and Muslim!

bob somerby at the daily howler - 1 day ago
*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013* *Part 2—Murky, inane, unhelpful:* Last week, before the photos emerged, no one knew who had committed the terrible Boston bombings. Murky, unfocused, unhelpful work soon appeared from the leaders of both major tribes. Red and blue were quickly fighting about concepts like black, white and Muslim. Let’s start with some murky, unfocused work which emerged at a red tribal site. Newsbusters is one of the many sites maintained by the Media Research Center, a long-standing conservative press critique site. Over the years, the MRC has produced a ton of horribl... more »

Federal court backs EPA regulation of mountaintop removal

Jim at Desdemona Despair - 1 day ago
[image: A mountaintop removal mining site at Kayford Mountain, W.Va., with Coal River Mountain, left, in the background, 18 September 2008. Photo: Jeff Gentner / Associated Press] By Neela Banerjee 23 April 2013 WASHINGTON (Los Angeles Times) – A federal appeals court unanimously backed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate a controversial form of coal mining called mountaintop removal, overturning a lower court decision that barred the agency from stopping a large coal mine in West Virginia. The ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to set o... more »

At the Chalk Face on #blogtalkradio: A primer of sorts

Chalk Face, PhD at @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER - 1 day ago
We have to brag a little bit. The weekly radio show makes us unique because it supports the commentary we do, and vice versa. We work our BEE-hinds off to bring everyone stories and conversations that don’t get covered, related to education and public schools. In addition to our weekly shows at 6PM EST on [...]

Formosa: The Fleeting Prussian Possibility in the 19th century.

Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan - 1 day ago
*Shuimen town, Pingtung, morning.* From *The Prussian Expedition in the Far East (1860-1862)*, Bernd Martin ( link): The French Baron Gros even encouraged the Prussian envoy to annex the island of Formosa as a Prussian colony. The French seemed very keen on having the Prussians as their allies in colonial adventures in Southeast Asia. While French troops were to invade the kingdom of Cambodia the Germans should occupy Formosa and thus hinder both the British and the Chinese from interfering with France's colonial acquisitions. The idea of Formosa as a German colony under Prussian ... more »

Nerd-Inflected Wednesday Linkage

Daniel Nexon at Duck of Minerva - 1 day ago
The difference between pets in Diablo III and Torchlight II. Blah blah blah Game of Thrones blah blah credible commitments blah blah blah prisoners’ dilemma. Taylor Fravel says that China hasn’t abandoned no-first use. Pavel Podvig demolishes “SDI ended the Cold War” claptrap. Key graf: “The evolution of the Soviet attitudes toward SDI suggests that Continue reading

time has come

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 1 day ago
Ladies and Gentlemen, There really isn't much reason to beat around the bush, I imagine. By now you have noticed the manipulation and bias within the media. You've watched as your government has sold you down the river. Corporations have buried their money into your politics and now influence the decisions of your government. The banks continue to grow more ruthless and unethical in practice. All in the name of profit. Your future, your children’s future...it means nothing to them. The only desired outcome is maximum profit, obtained with the least possible expense. And whether y... more »

war is obsolete

Oberon at GlobaLove Think Tank - 1 day ago
"It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete. It is a matter of converting the high technology from weaponry to livingry." - R. Buckminster Fuller

Freedom

Sophia at AMERICAN KABUKI - 1 day ago

ALEC Legislators Appropriating Your $$$ to Fund ALEC

2old2care at Because I Can - 1 day ago
"Appropriating " Taxpayer Dollars to Fund ALEC A better word might be STEALING A post of of South Dakota should be a wakeup call to every American. While your state legislature is cutting funds to schools and other social programs - how much are they budgeting to spend on ALEC? Is this happening in YOUR state - and you just don't know about it, cause you haven't bothered to check? Note the following: Today the Executive Board of the South Dakota Legislature decided to spend some of that money on sending members to the entirely pro-corporate, anti-democratic meetings of the Americ... more »

NRA And K Street Lose A Powerful Senator-- Max Baucus Won't Run For Reelection

DownWithTyranny at DownWithTyranny! - 1 day ago
Helping the GOP filibuster background checks for the NRA made his reelection untenable Max Baucus was certainly planning to run for reelection. His Glacier PAC has been collecting money from the special interests he serves and his campaign warchest already had $3,594,923 on hand by January 1 this year. Known as the Senator from K Street, last time Baucus ran (2008), special interest PACs contributed $4,959,391. Since then, he's further ingratiated himself to the big money groups that give the most, particularly the Medical-Industrial Complex and the banksters, who have contributed, ... more »

Harper's Time Has Passed

Owen Gray at Northern Reflections - 1 day ago
The Liberals have answered the first of the Conservative attack ads against Justin Trudeau. That ad blew up in their faces. As Michael Harris wrote earlier this week: In a word, instead of defining their political enemy, the Conservatives have defined themselves. Through years of incumbency, the Harper crowd has become an increasingly grumpy cabal of aging incumbents full of spite, malice and, of late, a bloated sense of entitlement. The Senate housing debacle shows how comfortably the party has settled into the easy chair of power. With each display of bad manners and bad judg... more »

Read Stuff, You Should

Jonathan Bernstein at A plain blog about politics - 1 day ago
Happy Birthday to Bruce Kirby, 85. Third-most-common Columbo occasional actor, despite not (unless I missed one) being a Cassavetes guy. Excellent, whether in sitcoms or cop shows. The good stuff: 1. I rarely link to editorials, but I think the NYT gets points to something important here. One of the real hallmarks of the current group of Republicans is passing policies and then blaming Barack Obama and the Democrats for them; it's unusually irresponsible, but they keep going back to it. 2. Negative recruiting: very difficult to study. Reporters Greg Bluestein and Daniel Malloy loo... more »
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