Thursday, January 28, 2010

LOL OF THE DAY - PART DEUX



A gem from Tweety that I missed in my stream of consciousness post last night.

I was trying to think about who he was tonight, and it's interesting. He is post-racial by all appearances, you know. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. He's gone a long way to become a leader of this country and past so much history in just a year or two. I mean, it's something we ought to think about....

Obama's goal in life has been achieved.

H/T to Athenae at First Draft. FD is a gold mine today.

LOL OF THE DAY!



From TPM.

As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office [Mary Landrieu], getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25.
....

But his father, the elder James O'Keefe, told the AP "I'm confident this was poor judgment ... but not much more." James and Deborah O'Keefe live in New Jersey, the state where Moore ordered the younger O'Keefe to remain while out on bond.

From Mothra in the comments at First Draft:

What I can't believe is that any ACORN person actually thought this guy was a pimp.

I'm thinking no rot in jail time for the kiddies. Fines, probation, something like that. Of course, I could be wrong.

H/T to Adrastos at First Draft.

AWWW...NOAH AND GRANDPA TIM


See more at To See And To Follow.

"OPERA AT THE MARKET"



13 November 2009 : an ordinary day at the Central Market of Valencia. Suddenly, beautiful classical music starts sounding over the market stores of fruits and vegetables : fragments of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" are sung by professional opera singers ! Look at the faces and reactions of the buyers and customers, amazed before such magic and divine music, and by the confidence of good taste. Some are even moved into tears...

Thanks to Paul (A.), who adds "made some cry". Gave me chills.

ENOUGH FLUID

I try not to cry about everything I've
done wrong she said, because I don't get
enough fluids as it is already.


Me too.

From StoryPeople

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

HURRICANE WARNING!!!

Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico…

Hurricane Whodat is predicted to make landfall on the Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST). This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the Brettigfǻvren. Livestock, in particular young horses, will be in severe danger of being decimated. Predictive damage estimates are unavailable at this time, but they are expected to be significant.

All interests in and near the Miami area are advised to prepare for a storm surge of catastrophic proportions as Hurricane Whodat begins to arrive in approximately 10 days.

Next advisory 07 Feb 2010 at 0300Z (10:00 PM EST).


Thanks to Eddie in Florida (not in Miami).

STATE OF THE UNION SILLY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The words in italics are mine. The rest are snippet paraphrases of Obama's speech.

Waiting for the SOTU. I'm not hopeful. The president may prove me wrong.

Michelle Obama looks terrific.


The worst of the storm has passed. ???

Americans want a chance to get ahead.

I have never been more hopeful about American's future than I am tonight. ???

Everyone hated the bank bailout.

A fee on the biggest banks to get taxpayers money back.

Harry Ried yawns on camera. Wait, Harry, the speech just started.

Jobs are our first priority.

The house explodes in applause. Whew! We can look away from health care reform.

Build high speed trains.

Stop giving tax breaks to companies who ship jobs overseas.

Everyone loves investment in safe, clean nuclear power plan, investments in offshore oil, gas, and clean coal.

Double our exports over five years. ???

I want to live in the country that Obama talks about. How can I get there?

Give our young people a world class education.

Ten grand tax credit for 4 years of college. Student loans forgiven after 20 years, ten years those who work in public service.

Still need health care reform. Even the Republicans applauded!

She (Michelle) is the best.

Health care reform is a complex issue.

If anyone has a better plan, let me know.

Bush inherited a surplus and left a deficit.

Government budget freeze, but not in defense, Medicare, Medicaid, SS.

Defense needs a freeze.

Pay as you go.

Republican administration policy in previous 8 years - extended tax cuts to the wealthy, deregulated....

Didn't pay for two wars, cut taxes on the wealthy - brought on huge deficit.

Obama is in fantasy land on Afghanistan.

All combat troops out of Iraq by August of this year, so that's something.


Secure all nuclear weapons in four years. ?

Finally, he will push getting rid of DADT. Finally. Can he do it with a stroke of his pen?

Chris Matthews wonders who Obama is. Thinks Obama's gotta be frustrated that he reaches out to Republicans, and they don't respond.

Me: Give it up, already, Mr. President!

Me and Howard Fineman agree! If the presidency was about speeches, the jackhammers would be working on Mt. Rushmore.

But, he needs to win something in legislation. Duh.

Slacktivist

From Fred at Slacktivist:

Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.

Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you're so very angry.

You should be angry. You're getting screwed.

I think you know that. But you don't seem to know that it doesn't have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that's screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.

So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.

I urge you to read the entire post at Slactivist, but I quote from points No. 12 and 15:

12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year's raise. And next year's raise. And pretty soon it won't stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.
....

15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you're going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you're going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.

Sounds about right to me. I'll never figure out why people vote and advocate against policies that promote their own self interest. If their positions were conscience positions about helping those who are worse off than they are, I might understand. But the tea-baggers advocate for and vote for the interests of the corporate fat cats who are screwing them over.

Amazing!

Thanks to Cathy for sending the link.

WHITHER VITTER'S VENDETTA AGAINST ACORN?


From Think Progress last year:

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is the self-proclaimed “most outspoken critic of ACORN.” Following the release of incriminating videos showing ACORN workers giving advice to undercover conservative activists inquiring about how to start a brothel and not get caught, Vitter and other Republicans called for investigations and audits of the organization.
....

Vitter’s outrage over the latest ACORN scandal seems extraordinarily hypocritical, in light of what he went through in 2007:

A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to David Vitter while he was a House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican now in the Senate, acknowledged Monday that his number was on the woman’s call list and apologized for a “very serious sin.”


Vitter, of course, kept his federal funding, and remains in the Senate.



COMMENT: Yes, to the great misfortune of the people of Louisiana, Vitter remains in the Senate. The word around in Senate circles is that even his Republican colleagues don't much like Vitter because of his lack of collegiality. Of course, the senators who don't care for Vitter won't say so publicly, because the Republicans hang together and don't criticize each another, except behind closed doors.


From Media Matters also from last year:

Today, in light of mounting questions challenging the credibility and the legality of the ACORN surveillance videos, Media Matters for America calls on Andrew Breitbart to release the full, unedited, and unauthorized footage shot at various ACORN locations across the country -- including locations where the two filmmakers may have been rebuffed. ACORN has said that the surveillance effort failed in "at least seven other locations," including Philadelphia, where ACORN filed a police report against James O'Keefe, and the ACORN worker says that she asked him to leave.

"Given the increasing number of questions about the credibility of these tapes and the people behind them, there is no reason that anyone should accept this footage at face value," said Eric Burns, President of Media Matters. "Anyone committed to responsible journalism would have already released all the unedited tapes in their entirety."



COMMENT: Even more so now than last year, because "filmmaker" James O'Keefe and his associates, the "telephone repairmen", have been arrested for allegedly participating in "a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans....", we should be permitted to see the full unedited ACORN tapes of the "filmmakers" to view the sort of editing that took place.

Lots of other links at Media Matters, if you want to know more.

STORY OF THE DAY - READY TO JUMP

getting ready to jump as high as she can
just because there's only so long you can
sit politely & listen while people talk
about any old stuff that comes into their
heads



From StoryPeople.