Honoring the faith of our Jewish friends, we wiss them a blessed Day of Atonement
Sep 182010
Sep 072010
Republicans leaders love to wave their little Constitutions about, but the things they use it to defend and the policies they propose indicate that, if they have ever read it at all, they are hell bent on using it as toilet paper. To expose their lies, I recently posted a series of articles including the entire Constitution, all its Amendments, and my commentary explaining each Article and Amendment, with emphasis on how Republicans ignore it at best and try to trash it at worst. It was very well received, and I received multiple requests to put it in some more permanent form. I have collected the entire series into a single forty two page file in PDF format. You may download it free of charge.
Clicking the link will open the file in your browser. Use the file menu to save it. Or right-click the link and choose ‘save target as’ to download it without opening it.
To get it, click here.
Sep 062010
Every labor day, I post an article on the importance of the labor movement, and this year is no different. I think mine is an excellent article. But One Fly has posted a piece so remarkable, that I have moved my own article to the number two position for the day.
…In this country there are not many who know why we celebrate this holiday but the story told below explains and we should all take pause now and then and remember those who came before us whether it’s this or any number of other stories of people who sacrificed so our country could be a better place to live in.
Remembering the Haymarket Martyrs…
Inserted from <Oak Creek Forum>
Please click through and read this most excellent piece. It will open in a new window, so when you you’re done, I hope you will scroll down and read mine too.
Aug 312010
As Earl barrels down on the east coast, I feel concerned for those of you who are in its path. Please take care. I love you guys.
On a lighter note, shouldn’t all hurricanes still be named after women? 😉
Or better yet, how about calling all of them hurricane Lisa. 😀
Aug 242010
Every once in a while, it’s nice to take our minds off of politics long enough to appreciate beauty.
A 22-year-old Mexico woman won the Miss Universe pageant Monday night after donning a flowing red gown and telling an audience it’s important to teach kids family values.
Jimena Navarrete of Guadalajara was first contestant to answer an interview question onstage and the last of 83 standing in the headline-grabbing pageant on the Las Vegas Strip.
"I want to give my parents a big hug," she said at a news conference after the pageant. "There was a lot of effort and a lot of sacrifice."
The train of her single-strap dress floated behind her like a sheet as she walked during the evening gown competition. Before that, she smiled in a violet bikini as she confidently strutted across the stage.
Asked by Olympic gold-medal figure skater Evan Lysacek how she felt about unsupervised Internet use, Navarrete said the Internet is important but parents need to be careful and watch over their kids.
"I do believe that Internet is an indispensable, necessary tool for the present time," she said through an interpreter. "We must be sure to teach them the values that we learned as a family."
First runner-up was Miss Jamaica Yendi Phillipps, while second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell…
Inserted from <AP/Google>
As soon as my tongue peels off my keyboard, I’d like to congratulate Miss Navarrete. Also, considering that Arizona lies between Las Vegas and Mexico, I hope that she takes the long way home. Jan Brewer is probably having a hissy fit over this, making Arizona a dangerous place.
Aug 212010
Beach writes a blog that is largely political, and quite astute, especially since he hails from the one of the reddest states there is, but on days when I’m too busy to read them, he puts up short stories that are so good that I find myself unable to stop reading. You can find him here.
Congrats, Beach!
Aug 212010
Yesterday I oopsed! I spent a longer time at the grocery store than I intended and bought more. The result was that I was carrying a heavier load than normal, and my oxygen bottle ran out just before I returned home. Lugging a heavy load up a double flight of stairs was no fun. I was wheezing so hard, I feared I might cough up my own butt. After some recovery time, I attached the huge backlog of comments and replied to all. Today my plan is to visit the blogroll. The only other major item I have on tap is to play with a software utility I agreed to review here in return for a free copy of the software.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 4:04. To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Business Week: Continued weakness in housing construction sent the Oregon timber harvest to near historic lows last year, the state Department of Forestry said Friday.
The timber industry is huge in Oregon, so the GW Bushwhacking of the housing market is one of the principal reasons our unemployment is a point above the national average.
From Alternet: Xe, the private security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, has agreed to pay a 42 million dollar fine for violating US export regulations. [weapons smuggling]
It’s chump change. This represents less that 5% of annual revenues.
From Daily Kos: Rasmussen, Arkansas Senate, 500 LVs, 8/18 (July numbers)
Boozman: 65% (60%)
Lincoln: 27% (35%)
Rasmussen polls are notoriously skewed right, but even they couldn’t produce results like this. My prediction that it would cost us the seat, if Backroom Blanch, DINO extraordinaire, won the primary, is proving correct.
Cartoon: homegrown today
Enjoy your weekend!
Aug 142010
Seventy five years ago today FDR signed the Social Security Act of 1935, passed over Republican opposition, into law. That makes this birthday good for seniors, but some forget that unemployment insurance was part of the Social Security Act, making it good for workers too.
Seventy years ago today, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the law that created the Social Security system, but this year’s great debate over the program’s future has all but left behind President Bush’s goal of maintaining the system’s solvency through the baby boom’s retirement.
Instead, the battle lines have shifted to a House Republican plan to establish private investment accounts out of Social Security’s cash surplus, a plan that even its advocates say would do nothing to improve the program’s financial outlook.
Opponents of private accounts will be out in force today, with 131 events celebrating Social Security’s anniversary, including birthday balloons on the Mall and the distribution of 50,000 "birthday cards" laying out opposition to the latest version of a Social Security restructuring. On Friday, James Roosevelt kicked off events at a rally in front of his grandfather’s memorial.
Bush administration officials are also fanning out this weekend to make the case that the nation can best honor the program by accepting the president’s prescriptions for its future… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
Did you notice anything unusual there? That’s because the article is exactly five years old. Republicans were trying to prevent Social Security in 1935, were still trying to kill it in 2005, and are still trying today. Rachel Maddow has multiple examples.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
There were exceptions. I was only 12 when he left office, but I liked IKE. He was right about the stupidity of those trying to undo Social Security. He warned us about the military-industrial complex. Was he right about that, or what? I hope he was right about the Republican demise as well.