Wednesday, September 29, 2010

It's Hard To Get Too Enthusiastic When Faced With Numbers Like These

Milwaukee is now the 4th poorest city in the country. I'm going to thank almost 16 years of Tommy Thompson for that figure. This is the end result of the ReThug idea.
Milwaukee emerged as America's fourth-most impoverished big city in 2009, as the Great Recession rippled across the city and state, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

Milwaukee's poverty rate reached 27%, up from 23.4% in the previous year. Only Detroit (36.4%), Cleveland (35%) and Buffalo (28.8%) had higher poverty rates among cities with populations greater than 250,000. Milwaukee was ranked 11th in 2008.

An estimated 158,245 Milwaukeeans lived in poverty last year. For a family of four with two adults and two children, the poverty threshold was an annual income of $21,954.

What's more, nearly 4 in 10 children in Milwaukee were considered poor, meaning an estimated 62,432 children lived in poverty last year, up from 49,952 in 2008.

Minneapolis & St. Paul didn't do much better. I suppose the TeaBagger Pawlenty can be given the credit for this.
Poverty and joblessness rose sharply in many Twin Cities suburbs last year, according to U.S. census estimates released Tuesday, along with a rise in what advocates call the "new poor'' -- families whose financial stability has crumbled in the economic recession.
****
Child poverty in Dakota County more than doubled, to 8.2 percent in 2009,....
****
Anoka County saw a 41 percent increase in food assistance cases from January to July this year....

It's happening in America, folks. Disgusting & embarassing. My emphases.


Monday, September 27, 2010

Stupid Worthless Refs

Crap. What the hell was with the penalties? They set a record for most penalties, a record over 50 years old. Jeez Louise.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Chequamegon Bay Smallmouth Bass Fishing Government Regulations At Work

This article in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a great example of how stiff regulation can produce a thing of beauty & fun & grace & truth. As my friend Roger La Penter of Angler's All said:
"This is close to perfect smallmouth habitat," LaPenter said, noting the maze of sloughs, rocky points and other structure that makes Chequamegon unique. "It didn't take too much to know that if we gave them a chance they would come back."
The regulations, started in 1994, are severe - one fish per day, & that smallmouth must be 22", yes, 22" long or longer. Let just say that this regulation has been successful, since the average size of a smallmouth bass in Chequamegon Bay is just under 18". That's a nice smallmouth. My only complaint with this article is Mr. Brosdahl's depiction of a fish he caught as a "pig" - he clearly didn't mean that in terms of a pig's intelligence, a pig's taste at the table - no, he meant it as a macho, pejorative - the fish was fat, big, whatever. I find it really offensive when people do this sort of thing & I wish "professional" fishermen would refrain from using descriptive language like this. It does nothing to aid the regular, non-fishing public in looking kindly on us, the outdoor sportsperson. It's much like the two bear hounds that bounded up on my deck this morning. One was at least friendly & let me pet it, but if I could have found the owners of these dogs, I would have ripped them a new one for not having their dogs under control. I hunt birds with a pointing dog, but I have real problems with bear hunters using dogs. I'll get into that at some later time. Just remember, loyal four readers, that the moron TeaBaggers would want to eliminate the fishing regulations in regards to the Chequamegon Bay smallmouth bass. & we all know how well voluntary regulations work, they don't.


J.B. Van Hollen - What A Dipshit


http://brynz0rz.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/picard-facepalm.jpg?w=497&h=327


Again, J.B. Van Hollen shows his true colors when it comes to law enforcement, blame the victim. Christ on Ritz crackers, what else to do we, as Wisco voters, need to know to dump this guy onto the ash heap of ReThug history? Thanks again to anonymous for the tip.


http://www.gifbin.com/bin/1232550426_worf%20face%20palm.gif


Saturday, September 25, 2010

Sports Beat - College

UW wins large.

I was also extremely happy about this result. Touchdown Jesus, my ass. LMAO.

Music Beat

Cosimo Matassa's J&M Recording Studio named Rock and Roll Landmark. Story here.

Land Of The Free? No, Land Of J. Edgar Hoover

Not so much. More here. Apparently, to the President Obama's administration, if you are against the war, in other words, you have been correct in your assessment of our incredibly criminal & misguided foreign adventures, you are a terrorist. Nice country we live in, eh? So much for being a beacon of freedom to the world.
Ted Dooley, Kelly's attorney, called the raids "a probe into the political beliefs of American citizens and any organization anywhere that opposes the American imperial design." He said the warrants cited a federal law making it a violation to provide or conspire to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations.
So much for peace. Nice job, FBI, J. Edgar would be very proud of you.

UPDATE:
& now this. I'm feeling safer already. Thanks for nothing President Obama, looks like Bu$hCo made quite an impression on you. WTF are you doing?
"The idea that courts should have no role whatsoever in determining the criteria by which the executive branch can kill its own citizens is unacceptable in a democracy," the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights said.

"In matters of life and death, no executive should have a blank check," they said.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Sean Duffy, By Those Who Know Him Best



Hat tip to anonymous. Duffy's inability to do his job seems a ReThuglican trait.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Exactly

This is, dare I utter the word(s) groovy, cool, right on!? This notion that somewhere there exists a population of righteous moderates is & has been baloney for about as long as it has existed. It's just a smokescreen for people to hide behind when they think they have a business to protect, a reputation to protect, in other words, people who may actually glimpse the truth now & then, but are scared to death to proclaim it.
There’s no inherent virtue in political “moderation.” The “moderates” weren’t the ones who were right about whether we should have marched into Iraq; it was the so-called extremist peaceniks who had it right from the start. The “moderates” aren’t the ones who are right about the priority we should be giving to the threat of global climate change; again, the people who are correct on this issue are labelled as “extremists.” And contrary to Jon Stewart’s foolish assertion, while it may be “moderate” to reject charges that the Bush Administration committed war crimes, it’s also wrong. Because in fact they committed war crimes. (Nor are the current administration’s hands much cleaner on this score, and those who point this out continue to be marginalized.)



My emphases.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

OK, My Loyal Four Readers

Time to think, act, & do locally. Thanks to "anonymous" you have the chance to further expose the ReThug, TeaBagger, plus other anti-democratic forces who are attempting to suppress the vote in Wisco. & of course, the vote they are trying to suppress is ours. Go here to save Wisco from these worthless bastards trying to keep some of us from voting. I, of course, have already done so & nothing has happened to me yet. Of course, I haven't awakened from tonight's sleep yet, but I expect to do so. & while I know it's economically tough out there for all but the wealthy, see if you have a bit to spare for this good cause. Thanks in advance, you're the best four around.


No Surprise Here

Van Hollen has a penchant for protecting his friends who've been caught driving drunk. So why shouldn't he apparently cover-up for a fellow ReThug & political ally? This is why Van Hollen must be defeated. We don't need our top cop to be against making it harder on drunk drivers, making it easier for gun nuts, & deciding it's OK for boys to be boys, as long as they are doing it to women. not fellow boys.
In contrast, State Attorney General JB Van Hollen prefers to coddle first offenders.

Van Hollen offered this excuse, “There are a great number of people--people I know personally--who have first offenses,” he said recently. “I don’t consider them criminals, and I wouldn’t want them to be tagged that way for the rest of their lives for having made what can legitimately be called a “mistake.” ( 1/17/09 Journal Sentinel)



Dismas Becker, R.I.P.

Article here.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sports Beat II

Packers win - 34-7 over the hapless Bills. I wound up listening to the game via the Bills flagship radio station, since no Wisco radio station streams the games on the Internets. Some BS about contractual obligations. In the future, my loyal four readers, find out the flagship station of the opponents & then stream the game from them. Nice job NFL. What total losers. Anyway, the sports beat in Wisco is very happy this weekend. No one better mention baseball. I did notice that commenter nonheroicvet watched Favre lose for the second time this year, too bad.


Sport's Beat - College

Wisco Badgers barely win, 20-19. The Badgers blocked a PAT with about four minutes remaining. Not too impressive for an 11th ranked team.


ReThugs Aren't So Good With Money, Especially Taxpayer's Money

Take Florida, for example.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink pushed the state to sue big banks, which she said dumped tainted investments on Florida.

Gov. Charlie Crist demanded a no-holds-barred investigation and named four Wall Street firms that he suspected took advantage of the state.

Attorney General Bill McCollum wondered if there had been fraud and promised help with an investigation.

But no bank was prosecuted, no lawsuit was filed and there was never a full accounting of a financial debacle that could cost Florida governments and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

****
The securities Wall Street "dumped" on Florida? The records show the state was anything but an innocent dupe; it was an eager partner.
****
''Florida can't say it got snookered," said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and securities law expert, when told what the documents said.

"They were chomping at the bit to buy risky securities. … These weren't lambs being led to the slaughter. They weren't fooled. … They seemed to go along quite happily."

& yet it is the Democratic Party, the left (professional or not), & we DFH who are so profligate with the taxpayer's money - oh yeah, Social Security, Workman's Comp., Medicare, etc.


After Further Review

I just had to point out the following gems from the piece linked to in the previous post:
Military officials say privately that they worry the hearings will draw further attention to the case, with photos and other evidence prompting anger among the Afghan civilians whose support is critical to the fight against the Taliban.
Oh, cry me a river military officials, you're "worried", eh? Well, you worry while people are dead & their friends & family are grieving. Fuckwads.
According to charging documents, an Afghan named Gul Mudin began walking toward the soldiers. As he approached, Cpl. Jeremy N. Morlock, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, threw the grenade on the ground, records show, to create the illusion that the soldiers were under attack.
Wassila, home of you know who. I wonder, & it would be irresponsible not to speculate, if he acted under orders from the ReThug's Vice-Presidential candidate in 2008? Interesting.
Military police caught wind of the final killing a few days later, but only by happenstance.
Crack military intelligence on display here.

Sorry about this.

http://www.foodmayhem.com/uploaded_images/butt-crack-740634.JPG

But I just couldn't help it.




Why There Is No Such Thing As A Just War

Sick, just fucking sick. & don't give me that crap about a few bad apples. This is just the latest in a long string of criminal acts by the sacred, holy military.
Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.

The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed.

I emphasized all of it, although it won't matter to the military masters.



Pearl Jam On The Late Show w/ Letterman

Saturday, September 18, 2010

ReThuglican Family Values

Another in a long line of ReThug family values that are not shared by the liberal/left/DFH wing of the human race. Three marriages in 16 years end in divorce, that's another example of family values. No wonder the guy's a ReThug.


& Not A Mention Of His Wisco Roots

Oh, how sad. But...
“We have to keep refreshing Las Vegas,” he said. “Thousands of people turn 21 every day. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a Lady Gaga museum in 10 years.”

http://www.surfende-schule.de/unterr/englisch/joel/strophe1/liberace.jpg

or

http://www.sugarscape.com/userfiles/19_01_09-lady-gaga_2.jpg

I'll let you be the judge.


Friday, September 17, 2010

Don't Jack Off, She's Probably Watching

Good take, in fact, the best, most truthful, funniest take on Christine O'Donnell I've read.
Seriously now, she was a crackpot when she rose on primary morning, and she's a crackpot now, and she will be a crackpot whether she wins or loses in November.

****

O'Donnell is a creature of an age in which politics have no meaning beyond performance art.

****

She is what politics produces when you divorce politics from government. She is what you get when you sell to the country that nothing government can do will help, and that the government is an alien thing, and that politics is nothing more than the active public display of impotent grievance.

****

She is what politics produces when we abandon self-government for self-gratification.



Poverty

Embarrassing , just plain embarrassing.
The percentage of Americans struggling below the poverty line in 2009 was the highest it has been in 15 years, the Census Bureau reported Thursday, and interviews with poverty experts and aid groups said the increase appeared to be continuing this year.

With the country in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, four million additional Americans found themselves in poverty in 2009, with the total reaching 44 million, or one in seven residents. Millions more were surviving only because of expanded unemployment insurance and other assistance.

And the numbers could have climbed higher: One way embattled Americans have gotten by is sharing homes with siblings, parents or even nonrelatives, sometimes resulting in overused couches and frayed nerves but holding down the rise in the national poverty rate, according to the report.



My emphases.

Make Me Almost Want To Buy Three German Shepards, I Already Have The Seltzer Make, Almost



Thanks to G the vet for this one.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Betrayal Of The First Order

Personally, I'm glad he's dead. Now, if we could only resurrect a dress-clad Hoover to make up some disavowal story while really tap dancing - that would be something. Oh, & we could take that criminal's name off the federal building named for him.  It's too bad Withers was convinced or coerced into doing the things he did.
That photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. riding one of the first desegregated buses in Montgomery, Ala.? He took it. The well-known image of black sanitation workers carrying “I Am a Man” signs in Memphis? His. He was the only photojournalist to document the entire trial in the murder of Emmett Till, and he was there in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel, Dr. King’s room, on the night he was assassinated.

But now an unsettling asterisk must be added to the legacy of Ernest C. Withers, one of the most celebrated photographers of the civil rights era: He was a paid F.B.I. informer.

On Sunday, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis published the results of a two-year investigation that showed Mr. Withers, who died in 2007 at age 85, had collaborated closely with two F.B.I. agents in the 1960s to keep tabs on the civil rights movement. It was an astonishing revelation about a former police officer nicknamed the Original Civil Rights Photographer, whose previous claim to fame had been the trust he engendered among high-ranking civil rights leaders, including Dr. King.

It is an amazing betrayal,” said Athan Theoharis, a historian at Marquette University who has written books about the F.B.I. “It really speaks to the degree that the F.B.I. was able to engage individuals within the civil rights movement. This man was so well trusted.”

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/oliphant/vc007266.jpg

My emphases.




Sunday, September 12, 2010

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Nine Eleven Post

OK, the obligatory post about 9/11: The Kid called as I watched, live, the second plane hit the Trade Center building. Here's what I said:




Now, that was not meant to show disrespect for the dead & dying in those buildings, but was just a true assessment of my feelings about consequences for the actions of the USA. It had nothing to do with America deserving the attack. it was just a realization that we, as a country, have a lot to atone for & since we're not particularly good at atoning, things like the destruction of the buildings & the deaths of over 2,000 people ought to surprise no one. Since that day, we have seen a great decline in the "greatness" of our country. Our individual liberties have been greatly curtailed, our communications have been compromised, our belief in ourselves as a moral good have been proven false (rendition, torture, Guantanamo), it's not much fun being an American these days, or being a parent or teacher.


Irwin Silber, R.I.P.

He's dead. I often thought that there was a point in a person's life where she grew up & no longer needed to listen to folk music. I might be wrong about about that. Although I might be right about that.


Thursday, September 09, 2010

OK, My Loyal Four Readers

I really need you to take ACTION regarding these genetically altered salmon, or Frankenfish. Noticed I capitalized ACTION, I know, I don't mean to scream at you four, but this is something very close to my heart. Salmonids are the most beautiful of all fish, & IMHO, the best tasting. This stupid company altered these magnificent fish so that they eat all the time, therefore grow large fast. If you notice in the message you will be sending, these fish contain a bunch of bad stuff, the least of which is that they are not real salmon. I certainly support alternative methods of feeding the world, but this sort of "research" is just beyond the pale, why do this? Ah yes, the free market to develop shareholder value. I want these guys to stop fucking with the natural life of these fish, all fish for that matter. So my loyal & beautiful & intelligent & moral & well, just great readers, do your part to keep wild salmon wild & these frankenfish an idea on a scifi writer's desk.

What's next?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1370/1004637156_97884c51f5.jpg


Or?

http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/281789-2751-23.jpg


Or?

http://www.vectomega.com/images/home/right/franken-fish.jpg


Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Michael Moore - Less Fat

This is a nice piece. Rahn Emmanuel has not done a very good job of being Pres. Obama's chief of staff. Rahm must think he is a ReThug, someone to counter that socialist Obama. WTF? Now, we have Mr. Rahm saying "Fuck the UAW." I don't know about you, but the UAW is a pretty important American institution. Here's some of Michael Moore take in a letter he sent to Mr. Rahm.
Before there were unions, there was no middle class. Working people didn't get to send their kids to college, few were able to own their own fucking home, nobody could take a fucking day off for a funeral or a sick day or they might lose their fucking job.
****
Did you know that back when I was a kid if you had a parent making a union wage, only one parent had to work?! And they were home by 3 or 4pm, 5:30 at the latest! We had dinner together! Dad had four weeks paid vacation. We all had free health and dental care. And anyone with decent grades went to college and it didn't fucking bankrupt them. (And if you ever used the F-word, the nuns would straighten you out in ways that even you couldn't bear to hear about).

Then a Republican fired all the air traffic controllers, a Democrat gave us NAFTA and millions of jobs were moved overseas (hey, didn't you work in that White House, too? "Fuck the UAW, baby!"). Unions got scared and beaten down, a frat boy became president and, like a drunk out of control, spent all our fucking money and our children's money, too. Fuck.

Saint Alzheimer's Ronnie sure did start the decline of America.  It's OK to bust the national treasury if you're a ReThug.  Or, a Democrat who thinks like a ReThug-lite.  & we've all discovered what that kink of beer tasts like.  My emphases.  NOTE:  It is true that Clinton did not bust the treasury, in fact, he left Bu$hCo a nice little budget surplus.  We know what happened to that.  Compassionate conservative?  -   hell no.


Monday, September 06, 2010

New Stuff About The Amazon

Not this you perverts.

http://www.azzato.org/images/movies/amazons4.jpg



But this:
Along the Xingu, an Amazon tributary in Brazil, Michael Heckenberger of the University of Florida has found moats, causeways, canals, the networks of a stratified civilization that, he says, existed as early as A.D. 800. In Bolivia, American, German and Finnish archaeologists have been studying how pre-Columbian Indians moved tons of soil and diverted rivers, major projects of a society that existed long before the birth of Christ.




The Tea Baggers Are A Car Wreck For The ReThuglicans?

You be the judge. IMHO it couldn't happen to a better bunch of dickheads.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFwl5w3Pc601N49qOzFUaR-IcKHILykAsFsYreueiTjhkKnhtwwaZIJcxpSocEPwTzDrfYxWLvceU9VHwQS6s1oP3yKYwIU5WtyU5V9xLe0gODak2FkV_ZJ9ewLWTxZA6tyPhJrw/s400/moran.jpg


Sunday, September 05, 2010

ReThugs Don't Know How To Govern

Here's another great explanation of how ReThugs govern - they don't. In this case, Pawlenty wants to be the TeaBag President, with Bachman as his running mate, I suppose. Maybe not, maybe he'll drag ol' Dick "Dick" Cheney out of intensive care long enough to fuck up the country one more time, start a couple of wars without end (or justification), & shoot someone in the face. I have fairly deep roots in MN, my mother's family is from there & The Kid's family lives Minneapolis. I worry, however, when their fellow Minnesotans elect someone so craven, so uncaring, so stupid as their governor. What were you guys thinking?


Sports Talk

OK, it's September & I can do a bit of concentration on sports, well, football anyway. The Badgers won yesterday, 41-21. They played the powerhouse University of Nevada-Las Vegas.


Saturday, September 04, 2010

Labor Day 2010

Here's why we have unions:
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

The Pullman Strike.

The Bisbee Deportation.



Via the lovely & talented Roy Edroso. Go read the post, there's some truly unknown facts about the labor movement via the idiotic & really bad cheerleader Michelle MalKKKin. Truths like this:
* Miners are also known for getting stuck in holes and dying in a deliberate attempt to drum up support for Big Government, whose resources are wasted in getting them out. Comes the day of the Randian superlegislators, miners will not get such handouts, and will be required to pull themselves out of their so-called "cave-ins" (reminiscent of the "love-ins" of the 1960s) by their own bootstraps.
Of course, there are many other examples of brave women & men & children -
The Ludlow Massacre, where the Colorado National Guard, under the employ of the Rockefellers, murdered 19 people.

1941 Strike at River Rouge Plant.
The are many many more examples. With the Intertubes it's easy to find them & fun too. Anyway, have fun, hope the weather where you are is fine, & remember, if you like this or any other weekend, thank a union member.


Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Oh, Right

The war is over. Sorry about the late notice. No more rationing (yay, butter & meat), no more Victory Gardens, no more ration stamps & coins, all the gasoline we want; wait, wait, don't tell me, yes, that was WWII.  That's right, we made no sacrifices for BushCo's war, did we?  Well, except for this.