Thursday, May 31, 2007

I-Yi-Yi

Yi-Yi. Via First Draft's Holden, we get this really frightening depiction of our moron-in-chief.

What's more, there is not much real give in the administration's policies. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other American diplomats met Memorial Day weekend with the Iranians in Baghdad (a good first move but limited, since the Iranians have most of the power because of our incredible stupidity in Iraq). But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny

Emphasis in the original link.


Yep

Don Rumsfeld went to war to prove that he could achieve any military result with 3 marines, an armed aerial drone, and his left pinky. He stayed in Iraq because George Bush told him to and because he still needed to prove his awesomeness.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Big News

On The Twins front.

Standing Up, First Time

Not So Special



After all.

"We're finally now getting a sense that our solar system is not a rarity," said Geoff Marcy, who led the California and Carnegie Planet Search team that made many of the discoveries.

What will the wing-nuts tell the children? Emphasis added, happily.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Another Example



Of how I'm generally correct about things.

Not anymore. Modern marriage, sociologists Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian have shown, is really about two people setting themselves apart -- not just from the larger community, but from other relatives, including parents and siblings. The sociologists are not talking just about the starry-eyed couples of June, who have eyes and attention only for each other, but also married couples generally.





http://plus.maths.org/issue33/features/stickland/istock_prison.jpg





Powered by ScribeFire.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Goddamn I'm Hip

Via FDL. I too like this video/song. It was funny, something I need, since I took 3 needles today, both knees & a shoulder. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to drag my sorry ass out to a bluegill lake & catch some sunnies, or not, given the forecast.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

About Time



Will Bu$hCo take his lame brain off cutting brush at his ranch & support this needed initiative?

A once-radical suggestion hit the mainstream Wednesday when a coalition of 90 environmental groups said it is time to lock saltwater vessels out of the Great Lakes until Congress requires the ships to sterilize their contaminated ballast water.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Dust To Dust



I wonder how Christy Todd Whitman feels about this news?

New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, has for the first time directly linked a death to exposure to dust from the destruction of the World Trade Center.



In a letter made public yesterday, Dr. Hirsch said that he was certain “beyond a reasonable doubt” that dust from the twin towers contributed to the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones, 42, a civil rights lawyer who was engulfed on Sept. 11 as she ran from her office a block away from the trade center.


Particularly since she said this:

"We are very encouraged that the results from our monitoring of air quality and drinking water conditions in both New York and near the Pentagon show that the public in these areas is not being exposed to excessive levels of asbestos or other harmful substances," Whitman said. "Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breath and their water is safe to drink," she added.

Emphasis added.

The courageous, moderate ReThug & ex-head of the EPA also refuses to talk about it with Congress.

The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, who knowingly lied and signed off on falsified scientific research on the toxicity of the air in the aftermath of 9/11, has refused a request by Rep. Jerrold Nadler that she testify before a congressional hearing on the federal government's response to be tabled later this month.

Emphasis added.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

More Of What I Did Today, Photog Edition

I also took some pics today. I hope you enjoy.

Bumblebee for Shutterwi.



Yellow/Tiger Swallowtail & Lilacs



Tiger/Yellow Swallowtail & Lilacs #2



Yellow/Tiger Swallowtail & Lilacs #3



Tiger/Yellow Swallowtail & Lilacs #4



To find out more about Yellow/Tiger Swallowtails, go here. To find out more about lilacs go here. There is nothing quite so sweet as a lilac bush in bloom. It's beautiful & the aroma is something that calms the bejesus out of me.

Here's more on lilacs, poetry edition. The Wasteland. This poem was written by T. S. Eliot. It was a poem every college freshman read, at least the college freshmen at UW-Madison in 1967. Here are the first few lines.
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

& here are the first three stanzas of a poem, When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd, by one of the few great poets America has produced, Walt Whitman.
1

WHEN lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;
Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.

2

O powerful, western, fallen star!
O shades of night! O moody, tearful night!
O great star disappear’d! O the black murk that hides the star!
O cruel hands that hold me powerless! O helpless soul of me!
O harsh surrounding cloud, that will not free my soul!

3

In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle......and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.

What I Did Today, Among Other Things


So, we're sitting with a severe thunderstorm watch right now. I spent the day killing one large tree. It was a big maple that had either split at an extremely young age, or, two saplings decided to truly love each other by exchanging cellulose. Whatever happened ended up like many love stories, the tree(s) decided to split. The side I killed was already half dead, but not dead enough since the chunks I had to lift were really heavy. Go check out my weather.
National Weather Service Forecast Office - Duluth, MN


Here's a pic of the felled tree.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Big Error




Looks like there was a huge mistake a couple of thousand years ago. Given the track record of certain televangelists, it does make sense. But still, who knew?

Scientists report virgin shark birth in Omaha


Or maybe it's just a realization that everything is virgin, everything is a god.



Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Son-of-a-Bitches



This whole we don't have a veto proof Congress whine is just to much. The Democratic Party is an abject failure. What does the leadership of the party think happened last November? Apparently, nothing. Here are the words of a real patriot & he's from my home state, Wisco.

The Democratic leaders’ concession infuriated one of their own, Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, who failed last week in his attempt to win passage of a measure that would have cut off money for the war next spring.



“I cannot support a bill that contains nothing more than toothless benchmarks and that allows the president to continue what may be the greatest foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history,” he said. “There has been a lot of tough talk from members of Congress about wanting to end this war, but it looks like the desire for political comfort won out over real action. Congress should have stood strong, acknowledged the will of the American people, and insisted on a bill requiring a real change of course in Iraq.”


Emphasis added.



http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/lapdog.JPG



Lap dogs, indeed.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Just Great



One more thing to worry about, or, not worry about as the case may be.

Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men's minds decline more than women's, according to the results of a worldwide survey.

The image “http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j124/rv_conal/crybaby.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Tarpon In The Great Lakes?



It may happen quicker than anyone ever thought. The worst part of the whole thing, however, is this:

All while Exxon continues to pour millions of dollars into the coffers of conservative think tanks which seek to deny that global climate change is occurring. All while the Bush administration continues to mount a diplomatic offensive to prevent any global action on steps to reduce carbon emissions and other green house gases.

That paragraph has these two links to follow: here, (warning: it's a Fox News link so a shower may be needed after clicking through) & here.



Meanwhile:



http://www.worldproutassembly.org/images/africa_parched_earth.jpg





http://cache.wonkette.com/images/thumbs/a015b5f12f1e5b00f094390008d45b1e.jpg







Powered by ScribeFire.

It's My Birthday


But there was no boat in the driveway. Again.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Here's Some Help



We all have people in our families, both biological & extended, who, for some reason, just didn't pay much attention in Jr. High civics class. They also didn't pay much attention to Miss Dr. Science, either. Well, here's some help for us - & it includes pictures (charts, actually), so let's hope they paid some attention in reading class.



Miss Dr. Science



http://www.new-goddess.com/BlackWidow6_01.jpg





I wish, here's a more accurate image from my life:



http://z.about.com/d/womenshistory/1/0/A/E/maria_mitchell1.jpg







Powered by ScribeFire.

Isn'tThis The Truth?

Mike Luckovich has it right.









Powered by ScribeFire.

Just Once, Please Answer A Question

BuShCo & his favorite poodle, Tony Blair, met at the White House this a.m. &, of course, they both decided that they were correct about Iraq. Anyone with a working brain knows how false that conclusion is, christ, it's like blaming the low water of Lake Superior because Shutterwi hasn't posted in a week. The Bu$hCo/Blair Magical Mystery Tour continues unabated (although it's not as good as the orig, just way more lethal).



http://www.cottageviews.com/album%20covers/Beatles%20-%20Magical%20Mystery%20Tour.jpg



Today, Bu$hCo was asked this fair, straightforward question:

“Sir, did you send your then Chief of Staff and White House Counsel to the bedside of John Ashcroft while he was ill to get him to approve that program,” she asked, “and do you believe that kind of conduct from White House officials is appropriate?”

Here's how the moron in the White House answered (& I use that word loosely):

“Kelly, there’s a lot of speculation about what happened and what didn’t happen. I’m not going to talk about it.” He added, “I’m not going to move the issue forward by talking about”[it].



Now think about this. Digby quotes Atrios talking about what would have happened if Clinton, or, frankly, any Democrat would have answered like that. Digby says:

Bush's answer (like most of Gonzales' ) is entirely unresponsive and should be greeted with howls of protest from the press and relentless pounding from the punditocrisy. This isn't some "investigation" about which Bush has "promised" not to comment, as he has claimed with previous scandals. This was a direct question about whether he ordered Card and Gonzales to go over to Ashcroft's room in the ICU to get him to sign off on a program that he had already said he would not sign off on.

Again, think about it. I know, you have thought about it, you've wondered how we got to this point. Why has this country descended into a sticky morass of neo-Fascism? I'd like to be easy & lazy here, you know, blame the voters. The voters actually did the right thing in 2000, they elected Al Gore. Again, to anyone with a working brain, that election was stolen, clear & simple. This is not to suggest that the country is/was starkly divided. What it does suggest, however, is that the ReThugs will stop at nothing to win. We saw it again in 2004 in Ohio. In that state, the vote was rigged for Bu$hCo & Kerry did not fight fiercely enough or well enough to show the country what happened. & Bu$hCo won't answer a question that leads directly to heart of the of American values. He is a tiny, vicious, stupid man.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Deep, Cold H2O

More science, folks. It appears this new discovery will help in understanding evolution. This kind of stuff is so cool.
Scientists have found more than 700 new species of marine creatures in seas once thought too hostile to sustain such rich biodiversity.

Groups of carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans and molluscs were collected.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, could provide insights into the evolution of ocean life in this area.

Dr Katrin Linse, an author of the paper and a marine biologist from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said: "What was once thought to be a featureless abyss is in fact a dynamic, variable and biologically rich environment.

"Finding this extraordinary treasure trove of marine life is our first step to understanding the complex relationships between the deep ocean and distribution of marine life."

Antarctic
'TREASURE TROVE' of marine life found in deep waters off Antarctica.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

OK, The Surge, Is It Working?



Let's look at the ticker:



First, we have this awful news:

Elsewhere in Iraq, scores of new deaths were reported, including at least 40 people killed by a bomb that exploded Tuesday in a market in a remote town north of the capital, and two deaths in a highly coordinated mortar barrage on the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

It's awful in a second way as well. The paragraph quoted above occurs 15, count them, 15 paragraphs into the story. Go count them yourself, if you want to. In fact, I encourage you to go & county them.



Second, in the Emerald City, mortar rounds keep falling. & please remember that this Green Zone is supposed to be the most secure area in all of Iraq. Most of the world & most Americans know Bu$hCo is the little man inside the big war machine doing his evil best to destroy this great country of America & the world, but when, when will Congress get the effing picture & do its job?

Mortar rounds crashed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone on Tuesday — the second such barrage in a 12-hour span — and gunmen ambushed Shiite travelers as part of attacks that killed at least 44 people nationwide.



One of the mortars hit within 100 yards of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office, an Iraqi official said. The U.S. military reported no casualties in the two attacks since late Monday.


& of course, our Commander-in-Chief, our Decider, our Commander Guy, still needs help. Can't this moron do anything by himself, except falling off his bicycle?



The image “http://www.knowledgedrivenrevolution.com/Profiles/Bush_GW/Multimedia/Bush_Bike_Accident.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.







Powered by ScribeFire.

Quit, Already



Nobody, nobody in the Bu$hCo cabal will accept any responsibility for anything they have done. What is wrong with these people?

"Mr. Wolfowitz will not resign under this cloud and he will rather put this matter to a full (board) vote than to capitulate on his integrity," his lawyer Robert Bennett told Reuters.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Just A Hoax



I hope Imhofe chokes on this news.

While much of the world has warmed in a pattern that scientists have linked with near certainty to human activities, the frigid interior of Antarctica has resisted the trend.



Now, a new satellite analysis shows that at least once in the last several years, masses of unusually warm air pushed to within 310 miles of the South Pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across a California-size expanse.




 




Powered by ScribeFire.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Morale Lifter



Another top enemy type guy bites the dust. WTF Is It Now?!? gives us a laugh.

Mullah fucking Dadullah? Have they run out of names? GAAAAAHHHHH!!!




Powered by ScribeFire.

There Is No Such Thing



as a compassionate conservative.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed an updated budget Monday that would cut some Californians from the welfare rolls and suspend cost-of-living increases for blind, elderly and disabled people while selling off the state's student loan agency for an estimated $1 billion.

He needs the money because

...higher spending for prisons, have eaten up the $2 billion reserve in the original budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

What a man, no money for you, blind guy, we have to build more prisons.  Emphasis added.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Why Roman Catholicism Only Matters To The Rich & The White



How stupid does the pope think people are? Apparently really stupid.

Outraged Indian leaders in Brazil said on Monday they were offended by Pope Benedict's "arrogant and disrespectful" comments that the Roman Catholic Church had purified them and a revival of their religions would be a backward step.



In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.



They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity, he said.


Purified them to death, wait, silently purified them to death. What a heartless, stupid bastard.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Just Too Stupid


This is what happens when government abdicates its responsibility. No one should be able to build in any floodplain.
About 28,000 homes have been built and more than 6,000 acres of commercial and industrial space developed on land that was underwater in 1993, according to research by Nicholas Pinter, a geologist who studies the region at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Building is happening on flood plains across Missouri, but most of the development is in the St. Louis area, and it is estimated to be worth more than $2.2 billion. Though scientists warn about the danger of such building, the Missouri government has subsidized some of it through tax financing for builders.


Powered by ScribeFire.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Just Kiss My Ass

Well, That Last Upbeat Note Didn't Last Very Long



Fish kills at Lake Winnebago. This is not good.

The Lake Winnebago system supports North America's largest self-sustaining population of lake sturgeon and boasts the world's oldest program to manage their population, which began in 1903.



"We didn't expect to find the virus in the Winnebago system first," she said. "We expected to find it in Lake Michigan first.


Emphasis added.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Do You, Mr. Jones?



Just great news. It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be an American.



The image “http://www.wildsalmon.org/images/library/leaping.salmon.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

J.B. Van Hollen - Dolt For God

Just unbelievable.

"We're a party of God, we're a party of faith, we're a party that will do the right thing and represent the people," Van Hollen said at the close of his remarks that touched on the party's support for gun rights and opposition to abortion.

Yep, that Jesus guy was a big gun fanatic. I mean, what the hell is someone supposed to do in the desert for 40 days but do some varmint shooting. I'll bet that's where Mitt learned to be a life-long hunter. Via Cheese-O-Sphere.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Progress On The Home Front

Theresa Sparks has become the president of the San Francisco Police Commission. However, her head won't get too big since

she's "just another San Francisco trans-woman with the uncanny ability to get myself into trouble."




Powered by ScribeFire.

Bernard Gordon, R.I.P.

Another courageous person moves on. Obit here.



Bernard Gordon, one of the younger screenwriters blacklisted during the McCarthy era whose proudest moment late in life was the protest he led against the honorary Oscar awarded director Elia Kazan, has died. He was 88.



Gordon, who wrote for years under a pseudonym but saw many of his film credits restored, died Friday at his home in the Hollywood Hills after a long battle with bone cancer, said his daughter, Ellen Gordon.



When Kazan stepped onstage in 1999 to accept an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, many in the audience withheld their applause. Outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, hundreds of demonstrators noisily protested, holding signs bearing such messages as "Don't Whitewash the Blacklist," a result of the campaign Gordon helped orchestrate.



In 1952, Kazan had denounced colleagues as onetime communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Gordon had been subpoenaed to appear before the committee but was never called to testify. The exiled screenwriter was forced to work abroad. He made more than 20 films, including penning the scripts for "The Thin Red Line" (1964) and "Battle of the Bulge" (1965).


Ironic, eh?



Powered by ScribeFire.

More Bees, Wisco Edition

More bad news on the mystery of the disappearing bees.

Germantown's Werner can offer the scientists and Congress few clues or insights.



He lost 700, or 54%, of his 1,300 colonies of honeybees - each hive containing up to 30,000 bees - in December and January while the insects were in Florida for the winter.



Millions of adult worker bees flew off to collect flower nectar and never returned, said Werner, owner of Indian Summer Honey Farm.



They did not set up new hives elsewhere. He believes they might have become disoriented and couldn't find their way home, dying outdoors. No dead bees were found at the hives.



Ranum, in Darlington, and Palmer, in East Troy, were opening hives in early spring 2006 and were surprised to find many of the boxes empty of bees.



"It was like something had vacuumed the bees out of there," said Palmer, owner of East Troy Honey. "The bees were missing."



Ranum lost 240 of 300 bee colonies a year ago. Some of the losses were due to mites, but he could not explain why at least 120 of the hives were empty, he said.



This spring, he and other Lafayette County beekeepers lost a total of 1,200 colonies, and a large percentage of those losses came from sudden disappearances, according to Ranum. He is the third-generation owner of Ranum's 1887 Brand, a honey label.



A small number of bees die each winter, said Palmer. A year ago, however, only four of his 26 colonies survived. Most hives had been abandoned, and no other insects would go near the boxes, he said.


Emphasis added.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Bee Buzz

No one is still quite sure what's going on with the bees.

Scientists are working hard to understand the sources of a staggering decline in honeybees in as many as 27 U.S. states and countries in Europe and Asia this winter, said Cornell associate professor of entomology Nicholas Calderone.



Entomology professor Nicholas Calderone speaks with reporters at the Dyce Honeybee Laboratory off Freese Road new Cornell, May 10. (Credit: Lindsay France/Cornell University Photography)



In the United States, half a million to a million colonies out of a total 2.4 million colonies have died this winter. Both tracheal mites (Acarapis woodi) and varroa mites (Varroa destructor) have threatened the bee industry since the 1980s, causing similar catastrophic die-offs to bee populations in the winters of 1995-96 and 2000-01. The mites feed on U.S. honeybees and act as a vector for a number of bee viruses, though varroa mites are especially deadly. While many bees this year exhibit symptoms of mite damage, about 25 percent of the deaths this year cannot be attributed to mites or any other known honeybee pest, Calderone said.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Resurrection

Friday cat blogging makes a comeback. Here we have Tipitina at the patio door.

What Liberal Media?

Good job, CBS So much for freedom of speech. You Must Kowtow. To. Bu$hCo. All. The. Time.



Powered by ScribeFire.

J.B. Van Hollen's Ethical Lapse

This is no surprise to anyone from the northern part of Wisco. Van Hollen, being a ReThug, is an ethical lapse.

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said the meeting gives the perception of a cozy relationship between the two -- when they are on opposite sides of the open records case.

(Ya think? Ed.)

....

Regardless, Kaiser said lawyers, even the attorney general, should take care to abide by ethical rules.

(Ya think? Number 2. Ed.)







Powered by ScribeFire.

Gunflint Trail Fire

The national news is reporting on the fires in California & Florida & Georgia. We have our own problems here in the relatively far north. The Ham Lake fire is causing all kinds of trouble along the Gunflint Trail in MN.

As trees exploded into giant balls of flame on the ridges above the north shore of Gunflint Lake, authorities ordered people to leave their homes, cabins and resorts from Cook County Road 92 westward along the 60-mile dead-end trail, including residents on Gunflint, Loon and Sutton lakes.





Gunflint Lake fire





Powered by ScribeFire.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Bu$hCo Looked Into His Eyes

His eyes, his soul, what does it matter?

I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul....

But now, a few years later, a lot of lost American rights later, Putin's soul speaks. & I bet Bu$hCo wishes he had another look, since the Russian is being extremely frank.

President Vladimir V. Putin seemed to obliquely compare the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech on Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.







Powered by ScribeFire.

More From The Minneapolis MayDay Parade 2007

Another Interested Attendee & The Woman On The Other End Of The Leash Was Fine As Well




Wonderful Wolf Puppet





Resistance







Water Blue Face



The Object Of Barb's Disaffection


Reminder Of A National Disgrace

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

I'm Not Religious...

...but amen to this.
Roberts was one of four journalists invited to the dinner, the others being David Gregory of NBC; Steve Holland of Reuters, and Richard Wolffe of Newsweek.

Will Bunch blogs for the Philadelphia Daily News: "The kind of people you won't find on a list like this are everyday Americans, plumbers and accountants and bus drivers and secretaries, the folks who pay the taxes and raise the young men and women who are fighting and dying to support the U.S. (and British) gambit in Iraq. Those who do attend these affairs, on the other hand, are the closest that America comes to producing its own royalty.

"That said, why in the name of God are four working journalists among those attending this state dinner -- not as reporters with a notebook or a camera but as guests munching on Dover sole and dancing into the night with America's own brand of dukes and earls? . . .

"Reporters -- whether they work in Washington, D.C. or a small mountain town in Washington State -- ought to be the voice of the kind of people who don't get invited to white-tie affairs, the handymen and school teachers, not the politicians and billionaires."

& they wonder why no one has any respect for journalists anymore. When will they learn, or at least figure it out? Emphasis added.

Protecting The Homeland?

Er, not so much.

The potential impact of the equipment shortages became apparent over the weekend when a tornado devastated Greensburg, Kan. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that the state's National Guard couldn't respond as quickly as it should have because much of its equipment is overseas. About 300 Kansas National Guardsmen have been sent to Greensburg.



"Fifty percent of our trucks are gone. Our front loaders are gone. We are missing Humvees that move people," Sebelius told NBC's "Today" show. "We can't borrow them from other states because their equipment is gone. It's a huge issue for states across the country to respond to disasters like this."



That problem is likely to worsen in the event of a major hurricane, which generally affects a much larger area than a tornado does. Guard officials in hurricane-prone states say they're ready, but only if they can get help from other states. That will slow critical response times, emergency managers say.


& listening to the commanders on the ground? Er, er,er, not so much.

Guard and other government agencies have been warning of the problem for months.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Carey Bell, R.I.P.

Obit here.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Sunday, May 06, 2007

May Day Minneapolis 2007











Interested Onlooker

Why I Hate ReThuglicans, Part 4,999,654

Drowning in a sea of hate & indifference.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, declined to explain why it didn't act sooner on warnings about any of these unsafe children's products. In refusing to answer questions about Magnetix, the agency cited a provision of federal law that protects manufacturers' reputations.



That law gives manufacturers great sway in how government officials regulate children's products. Combined with skimpy budgets and reduced staffing, the provision undermines the agency's power.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Good Age

& good to see/hear.

Fog Of War

So much for the fog of war, it appears they're doing it on purpose. At least a good number of them seem to have no ethical backbone. Maybe some of us need to reexamine the line about honoring the warrior, but not the war.

More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a fellow soldier.

Not much honor displayed here.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Just Don't Forget



Or forgive.

Heckuva Job

The lowest ever. How's that surge working for you? Thought so.

It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ‘08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our poll, and a point lower than Gallup recorded for his father at Bush Sr.’s nadir.


Emphasis happily added.



Powered by ScribeFire.

The More Things Change...

LAPD is still an awful cop shop. & as racist as ever. When will these boneheads get it - Peace Officer is the most important term in their job description.

He noted that in one tape he saw police fire a rubber round at a boy who appeared to be 10 and "toss him aside like a piece of meat."




Powered by ScribeFire.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Question Of The Day

So, my loyal four readers, should I adopt the Chesapeake Bay Retriever pictured below? His litterer was placed in a shelter in MN & he is the largest of the male pups. He also appears to be the cutest, a valuable trait when dealing with Mrs. coldH20. Let me know, since I need to secure $275 for the adoption, actually, quite reasonable since he's neutered & vaccinated already.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Good Grief

Just unbelieveable.

“The question is, ‘Who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders?,’’ Mr. Bush said. “As you know, my position is clear – I’m the commander guy.”

Good night.  Start the jokes, the Photoshopping now.





Powered by ScribeFire.

More Bees

More on bees. Again, what's more important to America - fighting a vanity war for Bu$hCo or doing basic research on what's killing the bees & directly killing our food supply. This is what happens when the country elects a moron who only thinks science is useful for snowflakes.

Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.



Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.



In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


Go read the rest of the piece & weep that Bu$hCo is in charge. He just doesn't give a shit.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Ed Garvey Writes

This idea of leaving this country is something that I've sort of half-joked about for awhile now. I guess I wish it was all joke, but Bu$hCo & his ReThug minions have made me reconsider what this country stands for, what it means to be an American. Being an American at this stage means that we, as Americans, support torture, support the jailing of people, without charge, indefinitely, are happy to deny habeus corpus to whomever we feel like denying it to. The list could go on & on. It's more than disheartening, but it makes for sad thoughts in the middle of the night, or on some highway a noon in northern Wisco.

High on the list of reasons for the potential move was their concern that their grandchildren would have to serve in Iraq -- 10 years from now.



"What would you do if we remain involved in combat for 10 more years, and your grandkids were drafted?" asked an exasperated participant discussion. (All quickly agreed that a draft is essential in a democracy. The current lack of shared sacrifice fuels the irresponsible warmongers.)

....

Every one of them had plunged into elective politics on their own or in support of candidates at all levels, served mostly in the public sector or in medicine and had that American post-World War II "can-do" optimism all their lives. We are always "just one election away" from a better country. They belong to the generation of "if only JFK, RFK, and MLK had not been killed," we would have a sensible U.S. Supreme Court and no war.



Now that optimism has disappeared, and "can't do" has replaced "can do." Elections have become auctions, and the ability of middle-class Americans to influence the outcome of national elections is about the same as it would be for one of them bidding on a Picasso at Sotheby's. The money boys have taken over, and they are delivering a defective product. Incumbents, as our Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice said in 1873, are "the feudal serfs of corporate capital," not "educated and patriotic free men (and women)."

....

We have lost our democracy. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce selects, trains, and funds our Supreme Court winner; AT&T pours money into campaigns, and they will get what they want from these cheap dates; the occupation in Iraq along with the surge continues; and good people give up on government and consider Canada.


Emphasis added.





Powered by ScribeFire.

Even Texans Think Bu$hCo Is An Idiot

It's good to see that there are minds that work & understand in Texas. This whole wall thing was just abhorrent from its inception. How can any ReThug claim building a wall will make for more freedom? It does prove one thing however, irony is dead in the hearts of these racists.

Officials from southern Texas on Wednesday criticized a federal plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration, calling it a "wall of shame."



They said the wall would hurt the economy and the environment and was an affront to both Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in southern Texas, where economic and cultural ties to Mexico are deep.



"This wall would do damage to those of us living on both sides of the wall," said State Sen. Eddie Lucio from the border city of Brownsville. "This is a wall of shame that we neither want nor welcome.



"Texas is connected to Mexico by 23 bridges. Through these bridges we maintain our centuries-old friendships and blood ties with Mexico, as well as the trade and tourism which benefits this state and the entire United States of America."



My emphasis.



Powered by ScribeFire.

Well,

how long do you think it will take before the corporate, capitalist dickwads start selling this? & the poor will not be able to afford it.




Powered by ScribeFire.

Tom Poston, R,I.P.

Christ, everybody's dying.



http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/wfaa/04-07/0501poston.jpg





Powered by ScribeFire.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Sons (& Apparently Daughters) Of Bitches Keep Jumping Ship

Another ReThug Bu$hCo lowlife leaves this miserable excuse for an American Administration. Good riddance & I hope the next door that is opened for this person is a prison door.

Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.

....

MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.



MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups.


My emphasis. Via Raw Story.


Powered by ScribeFire.

Evolution & Sexual Organs



I know, I know, some of my readers just hate this science stuff, but, too bad. Here's an interesting piece of the evolution of duck sex organs. & yes, it seems fitting since I saw my first ever wild Canvasback drake yesterday. One thing in the article made me slap my forehead while exclaiming "Ya think?" Here is the paragraph.

Dr. McCracken, who discovered the longest known bird phallus on an Argentine duck in 2001, is struck by the fact that it was a woman who discovered the complexity of female birds. “Maybe it’s the male bias we all have,” he said. “It’s just been out there, waiting to be discovered.”

Awfully male of you, Dr. McCracken. No jokes please.  My emphasis.





Powered by ScribeFire.