Wednesday, November 25, 2009

You Really Need To Carefully Read Those Stolen Emails



An iceberg reaches Macquarie Island, 930 miles southeast of Tasmania, Australia, on Nov. 16
Australian Antarctic Division / Eve Merfield / AP


This Is The Institution That Is Directing Health Care In America?

How far we've fallen as a nation.
"I do not exaggerate," Roosa told MacDonald on Tuesday. "People have died waiting for this case to end."



Monday, November 23, 2009

Well, This Ought To Work

Yeah, that's the ticket. This creepy loser will not make the BCS smell any better. The BCS & the contrived way it crowns a champion actually deserves a dickward like Fleischer.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Play On Words, My Ass

The Wall Street Journal has always been a paper of lies & deceit, of apology for the continuing excesses of capitalism. & the editorial page has long been a bastion for the supremacy of white men. The headline for a recent editorial proves, once again, just how far the paper will go in protecting the privileges of the wealthy, white, the thugs of America.


Thursday, November 19, 2009

Amur Tiger Time

It's been awhile since I posted on my favorite animal, the Amur tiger. The new news is, of course, not good.  As much a fan I am of indigenous cultures, I have an increasingly difficult time accepting the murder of Amur tigers for health potions that do not work.
These “cures” have never been proven to be


File:Panthera tigris altaica 13 - Buffalo Zoo.jpg


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Thanks In Advance

Ya'll really need to go here & sign the petition. Then, copy the link & send it to everybody you know, including Uncle Bubba. It appears Stupak (M-Moronville) & the rest of his Blue Dung Posse need to be led into the light & into salvation & away from their patronizing, women hating ways.


Friday, November 13, 2009

Just Absolute Bullshit

This is such a tortured argument that I wonder how much the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce may have paid this panel to come to the finding that what Gableman did is protected by the First Amendment, the notion that the lies Gableman told were objectively true. To use an expression Gableman & other stupid wingnuts use, this defies common sense.


More here.

I Told You So

Any caring person, interested in the health & vibrancy of urban life has every right to yell I told you so. This isn't just about the evil government taking private property, it's about corporations bullying local officials & then, after the dirty work has been done, walking away from the community.


Thursday, November 12, 2009

Sean Duffy, Candidate For A Congressional Seat...In Milwaukee?

I guess those of us who know Sean Duffy best, his constituents in Ashland County, Wisco, refuse to fund his bogus campaign, so he must go elsewhere.
The candidate that Block is throwing the fundraiser for, Sean Duffy, is currently a District Attorney, so we can probably rule him out as the person to ask the important questions about the fundraiser. We can also rule Sean Duffy out because he is the same DA that passed the buck when One Wisconsin Now asked him to investigate Michael Gableman's apparent use of a state phone to raise campaign funds. Earlier this year OWN brought up an entirely new line of questions related to Duffy's refusal to investigate Gableman's calls. Naturally Duffy never answered or addressed any of those questions so we can't expect him to give any reliable answers regarding the fundraiser today.

Since the event is being held in Milwaukee, perhaps the Milwaukee County DA could render an opinion on the situation or perhaps the Milwaukee press could ask a few questions about whether any important lines are being crossed with this fundraiser.
The person throwing the fundraiser for Sean Duffy, Mark Block, fits right in with Duffy's other buddies. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has this bit of Block's biography.
Americans for Prosperity’s state director is Mark Block, a top fundraiser for President George W. Bush, who masterminded a plan to illegally funnel money into the 1997 reelection campaign of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox from wealthy, out-of-state backers of school voucher programs. Block was fined $15,000 and banned from consulting and volunteering on state campaigns until 2004.
Sounds like he could have been sitting the the Ashland County, Wisco, DA's office the day that Sean Duffy refuses to talk about.  Now, that's the kind of man we need in Congress to replace Dave Obey.
Obey grew up as a Republican. However, he was so angered after seeing one of his teachers falsely branded a Communist by backers of Joseph McCarthy that he became a Democrat in the mid-1950s, sometime between the ages of 16 and 18.
Smart guy. My emphases.


Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Typical

The worst thing about this wounded deer is that the ReThug Pawlenty left before the search was over. I wonder if there is some sort of law or regulation in MN about fair chase? Pawlenty surely doesn't understand the concept, or morality, of fair chase, that's for sure. This episode is enough, IMNO, to eliminate him from any presidential talk. What a tool.


Where's Bob Dole When You Need Him?

I suppose they will fix it now.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Rump, But Not The Roast

Paul Krugman.
The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.



Sunday, November 08, 2009

Bart Stupak, You Deserve This

This guy makes me ashamed to be living 30 west of the UP. What a moron. Anyway, I'm stealing, in totality, Tbogg's great post about Stupak, stupidity, sexism, & stupidity, there I've said it again.  Go do what Tbogg says, or the Basset Hounds will be loosed.

Bart Stupak, who is apparently a congressman from some horrible depressing dying part of Michigan, does not seem to understand that abortion is a legal medical procedure in the rest of America that isn’t horrible, depressing and dying. So he would like to eliminate the part of the public option that would cover this procedure for poor women, and if his plan also makes it tougher for not-poor women to get this legal medical procedure, well, that gives him a boner too.

Since the Democratic leadership won’t stand up to him (because they are the Democratic leadership, after all) please go make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Bart Stupak’s name here.

Also. Please have Planned Parenthood send a thank you card to Bart Stupak:

Congressman Bart Stupak
2268 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Any amount, no matter how small, will do.

Thank you.


Saturday, November 07, 2009

Saturday Science

Wolves, really old wolves.

17.5%

Time for a great big stimulus for the regular folks in America. The banks had their day, now it's time for fixing up the national parks, the local waysides, historic buildings, the list is long, but all the things that need fixing are essential for a vibrant & strong America. The hell with Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, & Boner. Oh, & to hell with Stupak & the rest of the Blue Dogs if they want to continue to make their camp with the Rethugs & wingers. Stupak ought to know better, he's from the UP, after all. A day's drive from the bridge to Ironwood would be a case study in things that need to be fixed. We know how to create the jobs, what we need, apparently, is a President who cares enough to not worry about some fake bipartisanship. Those ReThugs don't give a damn about the country, they only believe in standing in the school house door.


Thursday, November 05, 2009

Tweet, But Not Twitter

I sure hope we still have lots of room for people like William Belton to roam around this world.


Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Man, I Just Wish It Would Stop, Episode #340,987

Kudos to the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel for continuing to investigate the toxicity of BPA.
A new test conducted for Consumer Reports magazine found bisphenol A leaching into food from nearly all cans, including those marked "BPA-free" and "organic."
You can click the link in the Milwaukee paper's article, or click HERE to get to the Consumer's Reports study. &, of course, the governments, local*, state**, national***, will probably continue to dither around, giving the chemical industry a breaks & cover. Just sad & dangerous.
Now Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods we tested contain some BPA. The canned organic foods we tested did not always have lower BPA levels than nonorganic brands of similar foods analyzed. We even found the chemical in some products in cans that were labeled "BPA-free."
*Suffolk County, New York; Chicago have passed regulations banning the sale of baby bottles with BPA.
**Minnesota has banned baby bottles with BPA; Conneticut has banned it completely; Massachusetts has warned its citizens about the danger of BPA.
***Canada banned the baby bottles last year.
(At least the babies are protected in a few areas.)

Michael Gableman, Wisco's Great Disgrace

More on the moron, here.

No Snows Of Kilimanjaro

Hemingway's The Snows Of Kilimanjaro may soon be more than just a great short story, it may become an example of a sad history. The history of a species smart enough to finally understand global warming, but unable to act fast enough, decisively enough, to end the coming disaster. Those among us who deny the reality of global warming apparently value money over human life. So much for this biped species.
Eighty-five percent of the ice cover that was present in 1912 has vanished, the scientists said.
& let's not forget that it is easy to mess with the evidence, as the Austrians have done in this case. Given the fact, as pointed out by Lonnie Thompson, that the phenomenon of glacial ice melting in the mountains of the tropics is widespread, how can you suggest it is only a lack of moisture problem? &, with further research, it may well be found that the so-called lack of moisture is also a product of man-made global warming. My emphasis.  BTW, you can buy Hemingway's book here. Go buy it, for Christ's sake.

Febuary 17, 1993 (top photo)

February 23, 2000 (bottom photo)

http://www.edupics.com/changes-in-snow-accumulations-on-mount-kilimanjaro-t14371.jpg


Monday, November 02, 2009

Gableman Is A Crook?

"It would be irresponsible not to speculate." Of course, the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce is now calling in its chits after electing Ziegler & Gableman to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. The Sheboygan paper has it right, as does the blog, the illusory tenant.


Sunday, November 01, 2009

Science, Damnit, Science

A husband & wife team has discovered a new species of dinosaur.


(Credit: Illustration by William Parsons)

The new dinosaur, a species of ankylosaur, is documented in the October issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. Ankylosaurs are the biological version of an army tank. They are protected by a plate-like armour with two sets of sharp spikes on each side of the head, and a skull so thick that even 'raptors' such as Deinonychus could leave barely more than a scratch.



Sports Beat

Favre wins huge, very huge. For the 21st time in his career Favre throws 4 touchdown passes. More here. & more here.