Asshat Chronicles, Continued

Just quit Norm, just quit. It appears Norm Coleman's quest to become a second term corrupt U.S. senator took another hit today. Looks like Coleman just wants to keep wasting taxpayer's money. No surprise from a ReThug like Coleman.

But the campaign may have broken a state law that requires prompt disclosure of a security breach, a law professor said.

Heartless, Stupid, Clueless = Rick Perry, e.g.

& hypocritical. Reject help for the working people of your state, make a big, blustering speech, then accept most of the money the evil Pres. Obama & the Democratic Party voted to sent you. These bastards are all pieces of work since none of their representatives in the House voted for the stimulus bill & only three ReThug senators, actually four (LIEberman, of course). Rick Perry is just a dick.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he turned down $555 million of federal stimulus funding that would expand the state's unemployment benefits, saying the money would have required the state to keep paying for the expanded benefits after the stimulus money ran out.

Perry, an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill, did accept most of the roughly $17 billion slated for Texas in the plan. But he turned down the unemployment benefits because he said it would require the state to increase the tax burden on Texas businesses.

****

Moments after Perry said he would reject the money, the House Senate Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding voted 5-1 in favor of a motion encouraging the Legislature to make the necessary changes to enable the state to receive $555 million. Republican Rep. Jim Pitts, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was among those voting in favor the motion.

*****

The governor's decision comes despite warnings from Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken that the state's unemployment compensation trust fund could be operating at a deficit by October. Pauken told lawmakers recently that insolvency might not be not far behind.

My emphases.

Time For A Diaper Change I Suppose

Another example of why the ReThuglican Party is becoming a small, regional (the South), anti-American political rump organization, made up of backward thinkers, whoops, there is no thinking going on in ReThug circles, just just the attitude that they are entitled to not be bothered by the law. After all, the law is just a quaint collection of rules meant only for the riff-raff, i.e., everyone except ReThugs. It was just another airport accident that has unfairly befallen a sitting U.S. senator from the stupid part of the room.

Bu$hCo's Legacy Part 1,396

Babies with cancer.

More than half the baby shampoo, lotion and other infant care products analyzed by a health advocacy group were found to contain trace amounts of two chemicals that are believed to cause cancer, the organization said yesterday.

I know it's only March, but this may be the understatement of the year:

"Our intention is not to alarm parents, but to inform parents that products that claim to be gentle and pure are contaminated with carcinogens, which is completely unnecessary," said Stacy Malkan, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which is calling for the government to more strictly regulate personal care products such as shampoo, lotion and makeup.

My emphasis.

Woo Woo

John Stewart is just destroying Jim Cramer. This is just about the best interview I have seen on the Daily Show.  Cramer is such a tool.

Good, But Now It's Time For The Big Boys & Girls To Get Some Quality Behind Bars Tims

Rethuglican Sen. Thad Cochran, from that wonderfully progressive state of Mississippi, number one in fat, is shocked, shocked I tells ya, that his employee of 29 years is guilty of corruption. She's also guilty, IMHO, of knocking a few more slivers from the bedrock of the nation.  Cochran, of course, is not under investigation.  It pays to be a cracker from Mississippi.

Use The PayPal

The Kid is doing a walk this spring for the March of Dimes. Go here to donate. Remember, I may be under the influence of someone else's blood right now, but I am getting grumpier by the day so, loyal four readers, whip of the credit card or use the PayPal, you will be so glad you did. Let's be forward thinking & donate when & where we can, but in this case how can a sane person resist this?

The cutest twins in the history of the world, Lucy & Marigny, bookend the kids in the stroller.  Now if that isn't a reason to be supportive, I don't know what is?  BTW, L & M spent their first six weeks in the NICU, getting big & ready to come home. 

Another Mea Culpa & A Grotesque Explanation

As my loyal four readers have noticed, I haven't blogged much the last few days. Well, I was in the hospital, so there, for those of you who thought I was off lolling in the po'boy drenched dives in New Orleans. Unknown to me & to the world at large, I had an ulcer in my stomach. Said ulcer decided to, oh, start bleeding sometime last Tuesday or Wednesday. I spent the better part of Thursday (3/5/2009) early a.m. on the bathroom floor, unable to get up. About 4:00 I managed to crawl into the living room, locate my cell phone, & call Mrs. coldH2Owi, who was sleeping upstairs. I wasn't about to tackle the stairway. Well, she came down & we decided I needed to get the the ER. We drove on up & after a few tests, a lucky canceling of a dose of heparin, a male physician's index finger up my ass, & a small sip of water, it was decided that I needed a helicopter ride to Duluth. The ER did begin a blood transfusion since my hemoglobin was down around 7.5, (A normal level for me would be 13.5 to 16.5 g/dl) believe me when I say that is not a good number & I was whiter than the ReThuglican Party, including its nominally black chairman.

Structure Hemoglobin

I got the Life Flight & wound up in Intensive Care after a bowel movement red as a tiger's tongue & the subsequent inability to get back to the bed on my own. That is about as close as I've ever come to passing out, I didn't like it. I wound up with about 9 pints of blood being transfused, which is a lot given the total amount of blood in a human body is 10-12 pints. The ulcer was the culprit, it began to bleed & to decorate everything in red. An extremely tall doc came in, pushed a tube down my throat & burnt the end of the artery that was bleeding. All was to be well, but, alas four readers, she did not end the bleeding with the flame less heat. My, yes, I will take ownership of my ulcer, although Bu$hCo & that bastard Dick "Dick" Cheney need to accept some of that property as well, continued to bleed through the night & the next morning. She, the tall doc, brought her team back in, gave me something to forget it all, pushed the tube down my throat, re-cauterized the damn bleeding ulcer, & put five stainless steel clips on the thing to keep it from bleeding. The clips, while apparently guaranteeing a non-bleeding ulcer, also condemned me to another day of eating sumptuous plastic glasses of ice chips. So, I'm home now, feeling a little weak but at least I'm not dead. That's a good thing, I guess. Since stress seems to be a major culprit, I tested clean for Heliobacter Pylori, I implore my loyal four readers to be nice to me, at least fake it, OK? You may also send me money for my boat, so that I may spend many a stress-free day on the water, encouraging smallmouth bass to hammer the chartreuse flies I'd be throwing at them. Ahhh, I feel the stress sloughing away already &since the weather is about to do a major winter number on us ­

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Night Night

Heavy Chance Slight Chc

Snow Snow Snow

Lo 6 °F Hi 11 °F Lo -6 °F

- I beseech you, my loyal four readers, to have a little sympathy.

Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil (live: 06/10/2007)

Oh, my.

Macho B, R.I.P.

Thanks to Shutterwi, this sad news comes my way.

Macho B was the only jaguar known to be living in the United States; he had been photographed repeatedly since 1996 in southern Arizona. Three other jaguars, at least one of them thought to have been killed in Mexico, have also been recorded in the United States since 1996, but none are known to be living now.

Macho B

My emphases.

Not Good, Not Good At All

Looks like Pres. Obama has a huge problem, the economy, & he has NO ONE who can or will do the job of fixing the problem. Nationalize banks? Hell, yeah. Frankly, even someone as economically ignorant as me understands that to nationalize does not equal going to hell. I must confess, however, I don't believe in hell & I been a big-time fan of nationalization of lots of stuff since, er, um, 45 years ago or so.

And we have the spectacle of James Baker — James Baker! — attacking the Obama administration from the left, calling for temporary nationalization of zombie banks as part of the recapitalization process.

The sickening feeling of drift — the sense that policymakers are refusing to face hard facts, and are dithering while the world economy burns — just keeps getting stronger.

The fact that the Bu$hCo fix-it snake, James Baker slithered under the door to criticize Pres. Obama, & then be correct in his criticism makes me pissed off, royally. It's too bad, since Pres. Obama understands that he won. Caution, the last link to the pretty worthless Wall Street Urinal. Yeah, yeah high school for sure, I don't really care since it really is a urinal. My emphases.

Is This A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing?

Who knows? I remember when Nixon's criminal acts caused the Dow to tumble from 800 to 600. I'm not an economist nor have I even had a modicum of economic experience, but 800 to 600 seemed like real money to me; today, I have no idea what 7000 even means.

A staggering $61.7 billion in quarterly losses at insurer American International Group Inc. touched off fresh fears about the health of the nation's financial system.

We, I mean all of us normal, liberal folks, are going to dump another $30 billion or so on AIG, that's in addition to the $150 billion we've already dumped into this company (?) that is too big to fail (?). Man, I only need a hundred thousand to make sure I don't fail. Maybe, $34,000.

I Remember Seeing This On The Teevee

The brain, funny what it sometimes remembers.

"You're eating," the man said, "with your left hand."

Farm?

It's not. At least in my book.

When expansion plans are complete, Rosendale Dairy will milk 8,000 dairy cows. That's enough to fill 11 tanker trucks of milk a day and produce more waste than the City of Green Bay.

Antoinette K-Doe, R.I.P.

NOLA obit here.  & on Fat Tuesday morning, no less.

Relatives and friends, citizens and government officials of the City of New Orleans and all musicians are invited to attend the Funeral Services at St. James Methodist Church of LA, 1925 Ursulines Ave. on Saturday, February 28, 2009 for 11:00 a.m.

More here.

In her final appearance, Antoinette K-Doe sold out St. James Methodist Church.

& more here.

Outside there was controlled chaos on Ursulines Avenue as the jazz funeral procession slowly formed behind two dozen members of a brass ensemble drawn from the Treme and Red Hot brass bands, among others.

A pair of Mardi Gras Indians, in full feathered regalia, joined the mix. So did at least two women dressed as Baby Dolls, in honor of the Treme Mardi Gras marching organization that Antoinette K-Doe helped revive.

In the lead was an antique-style, glass-walled hearse carriage pulled by two white mules. Once the coffin was inside, the marchers set off past onlookers crowding the narrow strip of Ursulines neutral ground.

NYT's obit here.

Antoinette Dorsey, a cousin of the singer Lee Dorsey, was born and reared in New Orleans. After marrying Earl Fox, she moved to Buras, in Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans. She had no children of her own, but she said that she and her husband took care of 27 foster children over the years. She worked as a seamstress and as a welder’s helper on offshore oil rigs.

My emphases.

U2

I love this band.

"...because when you become a comfortable, reliable friend, I’m not sure that’s the place for rock ’n’ roll.”

U2 - Get On Your Boots - Live at The Brit Awards 2009