Weepin' Willie Robinson, R.I.P.

Obit here.

But early yesterday morning at about 12:30, after a night out, he took a taxi back to the home, walked into his room, and lit a cigarette.

13 - 3

Packers 34 - Lions 13

We won, again.

The Dead

Here are a few that I gave some sort of crap about.

Norman Mailer - Known as a controversial and prolific novelist with a great influence on America literature, he died Nov. 10 at age 84.

Oscar Peterson - His genius made him one of world's greatest jazz pianists. His career began in the 1940s and continued until his death this month.

Kurt Vonnegut - Author or "Slaughterhouse Five," based on his experience in Dresden during WWII, and other books, he died April 12 at the age of 84.

More from here.

Molly Ivins, 62, Texas political columnist.

Frankie Laine, 93, hit-making crooner.

Calvert DeForest, 85, Larry (Bud) Melman on "Letterman."

Tom Poston, 85, virtuosic comic actor.

Ingmar Bergman, 89, master filmmaker.

Tom Snyder, 71, pioneer of late-night television.

Joey Bishop, 89, last of the Rat Pack.

Jeez Louise

Get a real death. Another example of the utter stupidity of sports.

Good Job Bu$hCo

Things aren't working out very well in Pakistan, are they?

The Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated near the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday. Witnesses said Ms. Bhutto, who was appearing at a political rally, was fired upon by a gunman at close range, quickly followed by a blast that the government said was caused by a suicide attacker.

Just Bullshit

I not against people working decent jobs, with decent wages, with decent benefits, with decent working conditions, but $7 an hour to pay your property taxes is just bullshit. As I look forward, from my pre-geezer status, everything looks pretty dim, pretty sad, pretty non-pretty. Again, as I've said numerous times before, this is not the country I imagined as a 20 year old.

The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes.

"People shouldn't have to sell their house, move away to a place with less taxes, leave behind their family and friends," said Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.

He envisions retired doctors mentoring schoolchildren, retired accountants helping with the town's finances, retired lawyers offering their services for a discount. But there are plenty of less-skilled jobs that need doing, he said.

"It's not like we're going to see grandma running the snowplow," he said. "There are lots of things people can do for the town and it wouldn't cost us that much to pay them."

My emphasis.

No Surprise Here

Just more of the same old, same old. I know it's the xmas season & all, but I really hate Dick "Dick" Cheney. & the auto companies as well. I was thinking about buying another Dodge diesel in a couple of years, but maybe I'll just sell the horses & get a Honda. Or maybe just ride the horses to town. That will really slow down my life, or something.

Merry Xmas, Again

You're right, no boat.

Marc Broussard

Oscar Peterson, R.I.P.

Obit here.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Xmas Eve

Well, the trip to The Cities was uneventful. I'll post some pics of the trip tomorrow, or later tonight. Hope all who read this have a good xmas eve & if you get a boat, screw you.

The Packers Looked Awful

But here are some pics of the storm we are having way north of stinking Chicago.

The coldH2O home. Yep, lots of snow today.

The horses, there are two of them now.

One out-of-place & sad robin. No worms around here.

Same robin, same tree.

View of the back yard.

My Feelings Exactly

Lucy Mae does a coldH2O imitation.

Pre-snowstorm Visitors

It rained all day yesterday, & this poor little rooster got to thinking it was spring.

The object of all his fancy displaying.

Best Health Care In The World?

Not if you are insured by Cigna Healthcare. In the richest country in the world, the only person who matters is the shareholder.

A grieving family is blaming an insurance company for the death Thursday of a 17-year-old leukemia patient, who died hours after the company reversed course and agreed to pay for her to receive a liver transplant.

Evidence? What Evidence?

noneheroicvet, one of my loyal four readers, alerted me to this in a comment below. Read the comment, read the piece here.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Oh My

I think I have a new favorite xmas song. Don't ask why I didn't find this before, let's just say I'm not as hip as I think I am. No news there.

This Is How To Start A Wednesday Morning In December

driftglass over at C & L brings us this:

President Gore, Meet President Kerry

Amy Goodman has an interview with Harvey Wasserman, author of the book What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election. You, my loyal four readers, ought to go & read the whole thing. Here are a few highlights if you are a ReThug & lowlights if you are a normal person.

I mean, the servers for the computation of the Ohio vote count were in the same basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee that houses servers for the Republican National Committee.
....
found that every single method of voting, pretty much, except for, you know, marking paper ballots, was corrupted in the 2004 election.
....
We are guaranteed certain that John Kerry won Ohio in 2004.
....
in the inner city, people went in, and they hit touch-screen machines, and they pushed “Kerry,” and “Bush” lit up.
....
ballots disappeared.
....
But the 2004 election was stolen. There is absolutely no doubt about it. A 6.7% shift in exit polls does not happen by chance. And, you know, so finally, we have irrefutable confirmation that what we were saying was true and that every piece of the puzzle in the Ohio 2004 election was flawed.

Fuckers.

Good News

NJ does a great thing. Now, if only TX would quickly follow.

Jeez Louise

Welcome to my nightmare.

Powered by ScribeFire.

I Think I'd Marry Him

But he's already taken. His spine inspired me to praise this Democrat & actually will cause me to vote for him if he's still on the ballot in Wisco's primary. I like his white hair as well.

In his closing speech Dodd vowed to filibuster again in January if telecom amnesty is still part of the FISA legislation. This speech should be watched by every student, every member of Congress as well as all Americans who value their civil liberties. No matter which presidential candidate you support, you can’t get around the fact that this is what REAL, American leadership looks like. Bravo Senator Dodd, BRAVO!

First Round Bye

Packers 33 - Rams 14

Good game. We're 12 - 2. Hard to believe. Fun.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Finally

The spineless Democrats can't make Bu$hCo back down, but the small country of Papua New Guinea did. Note to Democrats, that's how it's done, now do it for fuck's sake.

''We seek your leadership,'' Kevin Conrad told the Americans. ''But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please get out of the way.''

The U.N. climate conference exploded with applause, the U.S. delegation backed down,....
....
India sought to amend the document to strengthen requirements for richer nations to help poorer with technology to limit emissions and adapt to climate change's impacts.

Dobriansky objected. ''We are not prepared to accept this formulation,'' she said, setting off loud, long boos in the hall.

Next, delegate after delegate took aim at the United States. Dobriansky's intervention was ''most unwelcome and without any basis,'' the South African said. ''We would like to beg them'' to relent, the Ugandan said. Then Conrad delivered his sharp rebuke of U.S. ''leadership.''

America's isolation was complete. No one spoke in support. And Dobriansky capitulated, withdrawing the U.S. objection, to general applause.

My emphasis. Feeling safer?

Slacker

I apologize to my loyal four readers about the dearth of posting the last couple of days. I actually had to work & am finally realizing that xmas is only 11 days away & I haven't finished all of the HANDMADE GIFTS I am making. I know that I do not deserve any sympathy, so I won't ask or beg or demand or slink off into the corner to pout. So, if you're inclined, go here tonight for some good times, if you know what I mean, but only if you have broadband.

Just Because

I just go nuts at xmas. Via virgotext.

Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

You did good. Keep it up.

"The future is knocking at our door right now," Gore said, paraphrasing the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen during a regal, 90-minute ceremony in Oslo's ornate City Hall.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Holiday Ice?

Moulin Rouge? Or just really good plumbing? Seriously, when will Bu$hCo understand just how bad this is? But, of course, we don't want to hurt our juggernaut of an economy.

"The amount of ice lost by Greenland over the last year is the equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps, or a layer of water more than one-half mile (800 meters) deep covering Washington DC," said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Absolute, Complete Theft

Read Tbogg everyday. He's good. & funny. But today I am going to steal his whole post, YouTube included. At the end of the post, I'll post the links he used, since they won't cut & paste.

IraqRidge
By: TBogg Monday December 10, 2007 10:57 pm

Who would have ever thought that when we invaded Iraq, that our little experiment in democracy building would yield massive fraud and embezzlement, jacked-up sociopaths paid with tax dollars roaming the streets and killing innocent civilians, American soldiers committing rape and murder, bribery in Congress, torture, well-connected American corporations covering up even more rape and assault on their own employees, and even more cover-ups involving fraud and graft by the very investigators who are supposed to guard against these things?

I really don't want to hear the the menu of food metaphors, such as "one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel' or "you have to break a few eggs to make a Freedom omelette" as an excuse for this. And I don't care how many schools the soldiers paint; they will never be able to whitewash the blood from the hands of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, Douglas Feith that stains us all.

Links:

"massive fraud and embezzlement" - here.

"killing innocent civilians," - here.

"in Congress" - here.

"torture" - here.

"more rape and assault" - here.

"more cover-ups" - here.

"committing rape and murder," - here.

Click on all of these links & despair as to the kind of country we have become under Bu$hCo & Cheney. Fuck.

Torturing Son-of-a-Bitch

Read about a self-admitted war criminal. I guess he's not too scared of being identified by the enemy, is he?

Go here to contact Dave Obey, the 7th District Congressman in Wisco. Those of my loyal four readers who live in the district are encouraged to contact him. Be advised that he requires that goddamned extra 4 digits in your zip-code.

For those other of my loyal four readers who live in Wisco, you can contact our Senator Feingold here. & our illustrious Sen. Kohl, who might actually do something, but don't hold your breath, here.

Support The Union

I'm not going to give you a long piece on why we need to support the screen writers. Just know that not every Hollywood writer lives in an overly expensive house with a stupid little dog that would be better suited being tied to a couple of size 2/0 treble hooks & cast over some good musky habitat. Go here to send a letter or letters to your favorite teevee show producers exhorting them to settle with the writers. Remember loyal four readers, I love my teevee & if you love me you'll do this. Thanks in advance.

Packers Rule

Packers 38 - Raiders 7

Injury? What injury? Plus, the Pack's running game looked really good & just when they need the running game.

What's Bu4hco's EPA Good For?

Absolutely nothing. Apologies to Edwin Starr.

Atrazine, the second most widely used weedkiller in the country, is showing up in some streams and rivers at levels high enough to potentially harm amphibians, fish and aquatic ecosystems, according to the findings of an extensive Environmental Protection Agency database that has not been made public.
....
The federal government first approved atrazine in the 1950s, but it came under increased scrutiny in the late 1990s after Tyrone B. Hayes, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California at Berkeley, did a series of studies -- first for chemical companies and then on his own -- that indicated that tiny amounts of the pesticide de-masculinized tadpoles of African clawed frogs. The European Union declared it a harmful "endocrine disrupter" and banned it as of 2005, but the EPA decided to allow its continued use after determining that the agency lacked a standard test for measuring the hormone-disrupting effects of chemicals.

My emphasis.

Enough To Go Around

Our rulers are all bastards. As mentioned here, the Democratic leadership enabled, really enabled, Bu$hCo's destruction of the Constitution. How can these sons-of-bitches sleep at night? This is why Democrats continue to lose, they really think they are ReThug Lite. I'm glad The Twins are visiting, or else this would be another version of The Lost Weekend. I mean, what else is there to do?

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

John Lennon

It was 27 years ago today, & Howard Cosell, while broadcasting a Monday Night Football game, announced John Lennon's murder. Sad.

Rehab?

No, no, no. Mr. West did OK, as well. & he's from the midwest, don'tcha know?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Son-Of-A-Bitches, Part 1,232,233

The CIA again proves that it is a criminal, renegade organization whose only concern is, apparently, covering its own ass. This is the country we've become since the Supreme Court of the United States of America gave the 2000 election to Bu$hCo, against the clear decision of the citizens of this once great country.

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.

Justice, For Once

This is good.

I Just Love

The Big Lebowski.

That is all.

Almost

The Twins are almost walking.

Surprise, Surprise

Doctors don't report colleagues errors. Here's the biggest laugh line of the article:

Berwick said that most physicians are not trained to handle difficult situations involving colleagues.

Trained to do the right thing? I always thought that "do no harm" meant not letting others do harm. These stats are disturbing. Maybe we all need to ask our docs if they will report misconduct on the part of their colleagues.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Fucking Up Is Really Fucking Down

& is isn't very sexy. First, read the NIE Report on Iran's nuclear bomb development. Second, read Hadley's words & please, please, don't throw yourself off the nearest ore dock.

In a Monday afternoon briefing with reporters, Hadley added that the estimate was "good news" and said it proved that the White House had been right to fear Iranian nuclear ambition.

The Iranians stopped their development program 5 years ago, before this wonderful strategy was even developed. Sounds a lot like the WMD Saddam possessed prior to our invasion of a sovereign country. Jeez Louise. From Raw Story.

UPDATE:

I agree with BooMan, if you vote for Hillary Clinton, you just have not been listening. She will, frankly, be more of the same.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton questioned rival Barack Obama's political courage on Monday, accusing him of dodging difficult fights and ducking the Senate's recent vote on a resolution to get tough on Iran.

Ratcheting up her attacks one day after a newspaper poll showed Obama moving narrowly ahead in the state, Clinton said Obama voted "present" in the Illinois state senate on seven abortion-related issues and twice on issues of gun violence, rather than take a stand.

"A president can't dodge the big fights, can't find political cover, or have words speak louder than actions," she said at a campaign stop in Clear Lake, Iowa.

"I've heard a lot of talk about turning the page," she said, using one of Obama's slogans, "but what about the action to back it up?"

Clinton also ridiculed his criticism of her Senate vote to label an Iranian military unit a terrorist group, which Obama has called a way to clear the path for a rush to war on Iran. Clinton, a New York senator, noted Obama did not return from the campaign trail to cast a vote on the resolution. "He decided to play politics and claim that the vote he missed, a vote for diplomacy, was really a vote for war," she said. "Well if he really thought it was a rush to war, why did he rush to campaign and miss the vote?"

War On Drugs

Anyone with a brain has long know the War On Drugs has been & is a dismal failure. More here.

[A]fter U.S. drug agents began systematically busting up the Colombian cartels - doubt was replaced with hard data. Thanks to new research, U.S. policy-makers knew with increasing certainty what would work and what wouldn’t. The tragedy of the War on Drugs is that this knowledge hasn’t been heeded. We continue to treat marijuana as a major threat to public health, even though we know it isn’t. We continue to lock up generations of teenage drug dealers, even though we know imprisonment does little to reduce the amount of drugs sold on the street. And we continue to spend billions to fight drugs abroad, even though we know that military efforts are an ineffective way to cut the supply of narcotics in America or raise the price.

All told, the United States has spent an estimated $500 billion to fight drugs - with very little to show for it. […]

My emphasis.

Powered by ScribeFire.

One Of My Man Crushes

Continues to do good stuff.

Consider how easy it would be to be snarky or cynical about some of the details in this project-- constellations, puh-leez!-- had Pitt, (or his staff), despite good intentions, made a hollow remark or an egregious oversight that made locals cringe. Such blunders would seem almost inevitable given his high hopes and ambitions. I mean, making the lower 9th into a pink art project for touring? Seriously? Yet, Pitt has been nearly "tone perfect" throughout the process. He's doing stuff, without annoying New Orleanians. That's no small feat! I have no criticism or cynicism about his Pink Project. None at all. I can only say, truly: "Great job, Mr. Pitt. I'm proud that you call New Orleans home".

Powered by ScribeFire.

Yeah, U Rite

I have a Harley, goddamn it. This is pretty clever, however. It rhymes & I suck. With apologies to Coco Robicheaux.

Jesus

Just listen to the tone of the comments in this from Robert Chapin, head of a panel considering the safety if bisphenol A. For that reason alone I would question the panel's conclusions.

The panel rejected academic studies that found harm - citing inadequate methods. But the panel accepted industry-funded studies using the same methods that concluded the chemical does not pose risks.

Powered by ScribeFire.

J.B. Von Hollen, As Corrupt As They Come?

Well, he is a ReThug.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Speaking Of Food

Or Lutherans &, well, you know what they eat. Here's another bit of truth from Patriotboy. Heehee.

The God damned lutefisk-eating bastards breed like rabbits. They've overrun the whole upper Midwest and turned it Lutheran. If we'd shipped them the moment they arrived, Minnesota would be as Baptist as an illicit hand job behind the Piggly Wiggly.

Think about it. No more hot dishes. No more "you betchas." No more Garrison Keillor. If you want to sell that ethnic cleansing plan of yours, you got to bring up the Swedes.

Now, For Something Completely Different

While it was a brave person who first ate the oyster, it was a starving lunatic who first ate the possum.

From this essay. & it came via SeattleTammy.