Monday, February 2, 2009
And I Quote
"The real leader of the Republican Party in America today is a corpulent drug addict with an AM radio talk show, Rush Limbaugh."
~ Paul Begala,
~ Paul Begala,
Hey, Paul just say it plain ... he is a fat junkie. Oh, and don't forget 'boy raper'. Just the kind of sleaze one would expect to lead the party of sleazeoids.
Rigged red-light cameras net $170 million for crooked authorities
A red light camera system in Italy cheated drivers out of $170 million dollars in fraudulent fines.
More than 100 people, including police officers, are being investigated as part of the fraud ... it is now claimed the lights were rigged to change from yellow to red in three seconds instead of the regulation five or six seconds.Instead of an average 15 fines a day in some places, the figure jumped to more than 1,000.
More about the system, made by KRIA, here.
Hate crime suspect charged with more attacks
A New York teenager awaiting trial in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant has been accused of seven other attacks on Hispanics.
Jeffrey Conroy is charged with murdering Marcelo Lucero.
Today, he pleaded not guilty to a new indictment involving at least seven other assaults.
Conroy and six fellow students are charged with assaulting Hispanics over 14 months in the Patchogue-Medford area of eastern Long Island.
Five of the teens pleaded not guilty last week; the seventh is due in court tomorrow.
All previously pleaded not guilty to hate crime and other charges in the November 8, 2008 stabbing.
Lucero's death has prompted a U.S. Justice Department investigation.
Jeffrey Conroy is charged with murdering Marcelo Lucero.
Today, he pleaded not guilty to a new indictment involving at least seven other assaults.
Conroy and six fellow students are charged with assaulting Hispanics over 14 months in the Patchogue-Medford area of eastern Long Island.
Five of the teens pleaded not guilty last week; the seventh is due in court tomorrow.
All previously pleaded not guilty to hate crime and other charges in the November 8, 2008 stabbing.
Lucero's death has prompted a U.S. Justice Department investigation.
FEMA gets decent marks for its ice storm response
Things are done better now with a 'new sheriff' in town ...
FEMA has been under the microscope since the shrub's botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which Barack Obama and other Democrats made a favorite topic on the presidential campaign trail.
FEMA was reorganized and strengthened after that, and it has avoided the onslaught of negative feedback Katrina generated.
The agency hasn't been tested the same way it was after the hurricane, however.
Governor Steve Beshear raised Kentucky's death toll to 24 today, meaning the storm has been blamed in at least 55 deaths nationwide.
And while it also knocked out power to more than a million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast, it's still considered a medium-sized disaster, the kind FEMA has traditionally been successful handling.
The Kentucky disaster will be closely watched, said Richard Sylves, professor of political science at the University of Delaware, particularly because Obama hasn't yet named the top FEMA officials, many of whom must go through Senate confirmation.
"If it's perceived not to be handled very well, or if there's a sense that there's insensitivity at the federal level to the plight of people suffering, I imagine the people President Obama has appointed to senior positions in FEMA will be grilled in their confirmation hearings," said Sylves, who has written four books on federal disaster policy.
Beshear asked Obama for a disaster declaration to free up federal assistance Thursday, two days after the storm hit, and Obama issued it hours later.
Trucks loaded with supplies began arriving at a staging area at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday morning, said Mary Hudak, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
On Saturday, Beshear ordered all of the state's Army National Guardsmen into action to distribute supplies, many of which came from FEMA.
Beshear has consistently praised Obama for the attention he's devoted to what Beshear calls the biggest natural disaster to hit his state.
"We have had tremendous and quick response from President Obama and his administration," Beshear said.
"I don't think any of our folks that have dealt with disasters before ever recall as quick a response as we got last Wednesday."
Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, based in Lexington, Ky., said that from what she's heard, FEMA's response has been very good so far.
Her group represents emergency management directors from all 50 states.
"The governor's declaration request for an emergency was turned around very, very quickly by FEMA and the White House," said Sheets, who just had her power restored today after four days without it.
"And President Obama has spoken with the governor of Kentucky on several occasions throughout the event."
Sheets said she hadn't heard any complaints so far about the federal response.
"FEMA and the Kentucky National Guard are doing everything they can to get things back up and running," Senator Jim Bunning said.
By Monday, FEMA officials were checking in on supply distribution points in some rural areas.
FEMA official Don Daniel stopped by to ask emergency management officials in Grayson County, who had criticized FEMA's absence late last week, what they needed.
More generators, they told him, to keep essential services such as hospitals and water supplies running.
"If they need more, they'll get them," Daniel said.
"That need has to be met."
FEMA was reorganized and strengthened after that, and it has avoided the onslaught of negative feedback Katrina generated.
The agency hasn't been tested the same way it was after the hurricane, however.
Governor Steve Beshear raised Kentucky's death toll to 24 today, meaning the storm has been blamed in at least 55 deaths nationwide.
And while it also knocked out power to more than a million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast, it's still considered a medium-sized disaster, the kind FEMA has traditionally been successful handling.
The Kentucky disaster will be closely watched, said Richard Sylves, professor of political science at the University of Delaware, particularly because Obama hasn't yet named the top FEMA officials, many of whom must go through Senate confirmation.
"If it's perceived not to be handled very well, or if there's a sense that there's insensitivity at the federal level to the plight of people suffering, I imagine the people President Obama has appointed to senior positions in FEMA will be grilled in their confirmation hearings," said Sylves, who has written four books on federal disaster policy.
Beshear asked Obama for a disaster declaration to free up federal assistance Thursday, two days after the storm hit, and Obama issued it hours later.
Trucks loaded with supplies began arriving at a staging area at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday morning, said Mary Hudak, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
On Saturday, Beshear ordered all of the state's Army National Guardsmen into action to distribute supplies, many of which came from FEMA.
Beshear has consistently praised Obama for the attention he's devoted to what Beshear calls the biggest natural disaster to hit his state.
"We have had tremendous and quick response from President Obama and his administration," Beshear said.
"I don't think any of our folks that have dealt with disasters before ever recall as quick a response as we got last Wednesday."
Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association, based in Lexington, Ky., said that from what she's heard, FEMA's response has been very good so far.
Her group represents emergency management directors from all 50 states.
"The governor's declaration request for an emergency was turned around very, very quickly by FEMA and the White House," said Sheets, who just had her power restored today after four days without it.
"And President Obama has spoken with the governor of Kentucky on several occasions throughout the event."
Sheets said she hadn't heard any complaints so far about the federal response.
"FEMA and the Kentucky National Guard are doing everything they can to get things back up and running," Senator Jim Bunning said.
By Monday, FEMA officials were checking in on supply distribution points in some rural areas.
FEMA official Don Daniel stopped by to ask emergency management officials in Grayson County, who had criticized FEMA's absence late last week, what they needed.
More generators, they told him, to keep essential services such as hospitals and water supplies running.
"If they need more, they'll get them," Daniel said.
"That need has to be met."
Treasure hunters claim historic warship found
Deep-sea explorers say they have solved "one of the greatest mysteries in naval history" with the discovery of what was "the world's mightiest and most technically advanced warship" when it sank in 1744.
The HMS Victory -- the predecessor to a historic British flagship of the same name -- was found "far from where history says it was lost," Odyssey Marine Exploration said in a news release.
The find in the English Channel exonerates Adm. Sir John Balchin, one of "the greatest admirals in English history," because it shows that the ship went down in a violent storm, not due to any mistakes he made.
They did not specify the ship's exact location. Maritime lore said the ship went down in the northern part of the Channel Islands, south of England near the coast of France.
Stories about treasures -- including gold -- that may have been on the ship have existed ever since its disappearance.
This HMS Victory was a predecessor to the historic British ship that took the same name and which served as Admiral Nelson's flagship in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
In court papers seeking exclusive salvage rights, Odyssey says the wreck site "consists of cannons and other unidentified objects. Odyssey believes that potentially valuable cargo may be located at or near the site."
The papers were filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, where Odyssey is based, seeking exclusive salvage rights.
There were nearly 1,000 people aboard -- "900 sailors, plus a complement of marines and 50 volunteers drawn from the noblest families of England," Odyssey said in information about the ship released together with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find.
Based on reports from the time, there may be as much as four tons of gold on the ship, Odyssey and the Discovery Channel said.
"Additional research indicates that there were large quantities of both silver and gold coins aboard. ... Research suggests that this prize money will also likely be located at the wreck site.
"... However, no coins have been located at the site to date, and no accurate assessment as to their value can be made prior to location, recovery and analysis."
The potential treasure also comes in another form -- bronze weaponry. "The site's anticipated ordnance collection" includes "the single largest collection of bronze cannon in the world" and "the largest consignment of bronze guns ever manufactured and preserved today," Odyssey said.
Two cannons have been recovered -- "a 12-pounder featuring the royal arms of George II" and a "42-pounder bearing the crest of George I," it said.
"The huge 42-pounder recovered is the only known example of a gun of this type and size currently in existence on dry land. The only other artifacts recovered to date were two small brick fragments that were brought into U.S. federal court in order to file an admiralty arrest of the site."
Admiralty arrest is a step mandated under international maritime law.
The discovery could set up a legal battle with the British government.
If it really is the HMS Victory, "her remains are sovereign immune," the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement on its blog.
"The wreck remains the property of the Crown. We have not waived our rights to it. This means that no intrusive action may be taken without the express consent of the United Kingdom."
In its statement, Odyssey said it "has been cooperating closely" with the ministry, and "all activities at the site have been conducted in accordance with protocols agreed with the Ministry and Royal Navy officials."
The ship has deteriorated to the point that recovering it is impossible. "A plan is being developed for an archaeological excavation of the site, and artifacts will be recovered in accordance with a scientific project plan, which will be submitted to the Ministry for review and approval."
The company has proposed that it be paid "with either ... a percentage of the value of the collection that has been recovered, conserved and presented to the UK government, or a percentage of the coins or other artifacts that the government decides to (sell)."
The ship was found nearly 62 miles "from where the ship was historically believed to have been wrecked on a reef near the Channel Islands," Odyssey's statement said.
"Having discovered it in deep water far from where history says it was lost has served to exonerate Admiral Balchin and his officers from the accusation of having let the ship run aground on the Casquets due to faulty navigation," said Greg Stemm, Odyssey's chief executive officer, in the statement.
Odyssey said the "prevailing belief" about the ship's fate was that it had "smashed into the Casquets, a group of rocky islets" north of Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands.
But the evidence, Odyssey's statement said, suggests "the ship sank as the result of a violent storm and suggests that the design and construction of the ship contributed to her loss."
Odyssey released press materials about the ship in cooperation with the Discovery Channel, which chronicled the find and will be showing it in a program this week called Treasure Quest.
"The English Channel is a treacherous place to navigate," Discovery Channel President John Ford said.
"The ship was returning from Portugal and got caught up in a storm. And despite being judged unsinkable at the time, sort of like the Titanic was, this very, very large ship went down in a storm and vanished without a trace."
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B
The Andrews Sisters singing in a scene from the 1941 Abbot and Costello film "Buck Privates"
Cockfighting raid in NC nets 73 arrests
More than 70 people have been arrested in a cockfighting ring that secretly gathered in central North Carolina to watch a $40,000 tournament so gruesome that one of the roosters splattered blood on the investigators' search warrant.
Deputies didn't expect to find so many people crammed into three chicken houses that had been cleaned out to provide hidden parking spaces and a cockfighting pit, Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid Jr. said.
Authorities arrested 73 people, ranging in age from 16 to 79, and charged them all with cockfighting and cruelty to animals, both felonies.
Reid said several others escaped after fleeing a back door during the raid Saturday afternoon at the site about 15 miles southeast of Asheboro in the center of North Carolina.
"I had no idea it would be this large," Reid said. "I've raided these things before and (if) you get 20 or 25 people, you've got a big crowd. I thought that this was unreal."
He described a grisly scene: About 20 birds were already dead, eliminated early from a deadly tournament.
A fight was ongoing when deputies arrived, and one of the combatant roosters jumped up onto the betting table and spattered blood onto a search warrant that investigators were serving.
Photos of the scene show a building strewn with feathers and debris, including several dead birds and a pile of empty beer cans dumped together in a corner.
Makeshift benches surround a plywood ring, where the body another rooster is lying.
The tournament's grand champion, Reid said, was slated to win $40,000.
He named the ringleader as 33-year-old Barry Ritter.
Reid said Ritter was charging $25 to watch the event at a facility he owned with his father, who was not among those arrested.
"I think it was used at one time to raise chickens," Reid said. "Now it is being used for cockfighting.
They had a rural area.
They thought nobody would catch them there.
But I think we've sent a message that we will not tolerate this in our county."
The sheriff's office said investigators also seized 73 vehicles, two firearms and cash.
They also found cocaine and marijuana at the scene.
Much of the crowd was Hispanic, and Reid said authorities were still checking the immigration status of those arrested.
The county's animal control officers took possession of 130 live roosters.
John Goodwin, manager of animal fighting issues for The Humane Society of the United States, said North Carolina still appears to have a large number of cockfighting rings even though the state passed law in 2005 making it a felony.
Goodwin visited the state last year to help educate law enforcement personnel about cockfighting rings, and he said similar efforts around the country have increased attention on the rings.
He said the Humane Society is focused on passing felony laws in a number of other states that haven't yet done so.
"If you can win a $40,000 prize, what kind of deterrent is a $200 misdemeanor penalty going to be?" Goodwin said.
We don't hold no truck with cockfighting in North Carolina and the sooner these rednecks learn this the better. Wilkesboro a few months ago, now Asheboro!
Deputies didn't expect to find so many people crammed into three chicken houses that had been cleaned out to provide hidden parking spaces and a cockfighting pit, Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid Jr. said.
Authorities arrested 73 people, ranging in age from 16 to 79, and charged them all with cockfighting and cruelty to animals, both felonies.
Reid said several others escaped after fleeing a back door during the raid Saturday afternoon at the site about 15 miles southeast of Asheboro in the center of North Carolina.
"I had no idea it would be this large," Reid said. "I've raided these things before and (if) you get 20 or 25 people, you've got a big crowd. I thought that this was unreal."
He described a grisly scene: About 20 birds were already dead, eliminated early from a deadly tournament.
A fight was ongoing when deputies arrived, and one of the combatant roosters jumped up onto the betting table and spattered blood onto a search warrant that investigators were serving.
Photos of the scene show a building strewn with feathers and debris, including several dead birds and a pile of empty beer cans dumped together in a corner.
Makeshift benches surround a plywood ring, where the body another rooster is lying.
The tournament's grand champion, Reid said, was slated to win $40,000.
He named the ringleader as 33-year-old Barry Ritter.
Reid said Ritter was charging $25 to watch the event at a facility he owned with his father, who was not among those arrested.
"I think it was used at one time to raise chickens," Reid said. "Now it is being used for cockfighting.
They had a rural area.
They thought nobody would catch them there.
But I think we've sent a message that we will not tolerate this in our county."
The sheriff's office said investigators also seized 73 vehicles, two firearms and cash.
They also found cocaine and marijuana at the scene.
Much of the crowd was Hispanic, and Reid said authorities were still checking the immigration status of those arrested.
The county's animal control officers took possession of 130 live roosters.
John Goodwin, manager of animal fighting issues for The Humane Society of the United States, said North Carolina still appears to have a large number of cockfighting rings even though the state passed law in 2005 making it a felony.
Goodwin visited the state last year to help educate law enforcement personnel about cockfighting rings, and he said similar efforts around the country have increased attention on the rings.
He said the Humane Society is focused on passing felony laws in a number of other states that haven't yet done so.
"If you can win a $40,000 prize, what kind of deterrent is a $200 misdemeanor penalty going to be?" Goodwin said.
*****
We don't hold no truck with cockfighting in North Carolina and the sooner these rednecks learn this the better. Wilkesboro a few months ago, now Asheboro!
Go Daddy wins a Super Bowl advertising gamble
The Go Daddy Web site's "enhancement" ad with Danica Patrick was the most-watched commercial in the Super Bowl.
TiVo Inc. made that determination by combining the number of people who watched the ad live and went back to see it again on their digital video recorder.
Placing the ad in the game's final few minutes was a huge gamble that paid off for Go Daddy Group Inc.
If it had been a lousy game, much of the audience would have drifted away, but the gripping finish between Pittsburgh and Arizona kept fans watching.
Todd Juenger, general manager of TiVo's research department, says eight of the 10 most-watched ads came in the second half.
TiVo Inc. made that determination by combining the number of people who watched the ad live and went back to see it again on their digital video recorder.
Placing the ad in the game's final few minutes was a huge gamble that paid off for Go Daddy Group Inc.
If it had been a lousy game, much of the audience would have drifted away, but the gripping finish between Pittsburgh and Arizona kept fans watching.
Todd Juenger, general manager of TiVo's research department, says eight of the 10 most-watched ads came in the second half.
And here it is ...
Now what?
Poor Burma farmers may turn to growing opium
Rising prices for opium in Southeast Asia and the global economic downturn may trigger a surge in the cultivation of the illegal drug in Bruma, which until recently was in sharp decline, U.N. drug experts said.
Nearly all the world's opium comes from Afghanistan but military-ruled Burma is the second biggest source, accounting for almost 5 percent of global production.
In 1999, the country set out to become opium-free by 2014 and the campaign made considerable strides, with the amount of land cultivated for opium plummeting from 322,000 acres in 1998 to 53,000 acres in 2006.
A United Nations report released today however said that the amount of land being cultivated climbed to 70,400 acres last year, mainly due to rising prices.
"Rising opium prices may make it more attractive for farmers to revert back to opium cultivation, especially if no alternative sources of income are available," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, said in the report, which called for more international assistance.
The strong increase in the price of Burma's opium was due to reduced production and continued demand from China, Australia and other countries in the region.
Weak prices for legal agricultural commodities make the situation more difficult, as does the soft global economy, said an experts at a news conference to release the report.
"We would expect that with the global financial meltdown many people will be unemployed," said Gary Lewis, also from the U.N. agency.
Most will try to earn their living legally, "but when those options are exhausted they will turn quite naturally to other means to survive. Some of those will involve trafficking in illicit and narcotic products."
Burma in 2008 is estimated to have produced 410 tons of opium, involving the work of 840,000 people and $123 million in revenue for those farming the poppy plant.
Prices being fetched for Burma's opium contrast sharply with falling prices for the crop in Afghanistan, where most of the world's opium comes from and where several years of overproduction has created a glut.
The average price paid to farmers in Burma for the 2008 opium harvest was $137 per pound, up from the 2007 average of $120 per pound.
In Afghanistan, the average price in November 2008 was $55 per kilogram, down sharply from early 2007 when it was above $100 per kilogram.
Dramatic differences in the price of opium between regions and sometimes even within regions or countries is not unusual.
The region of Southeast Asia where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet, known as the Golden Triangle, produced more than half of the world's opium in 1990 and one-third in 1998.
Nearly all the world's opium comes from Afghanistan but military-ruled Burma is the second biggest source, accounting for almost 5 percent of global production.
In 1999, the country set out to become opium-free by 2014 and the campaign made considerable strides, with the amount of land cultivated for opium plummeting from 322,000 acres in 1998 to 53,000 acres in 2006.
A United Nations report released today however said that the amount of land being cultivated climbed to 70,400 acres last year, mainly due to rising prices.
"Rising opium prices may make it more attractive for farmers to revert back to opium cultivation, especially if no alternative sources of income are available," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, said in the report, which called for more international assistance.
The strong increase in the price of Burma's opium was due to reduced production and continued demand from China, Australia and other countries in the region.
Weak prices for legal agricultural commodities make the situation more difficult, as does the soft global economy, said an experts at a news conference to release the report.
"We would expect that with the global financial meltdown many people will be unemployed," said Gary Lewis, also from the U.N. agency.
Most will try to earn their living legally, "but when those options are exhausted they will turn quite naturally to other means to survive. Some of those will involve trafficking in illicit and narcotic products."
Burma in 2008 is estimated to have produced 410 tons of opium, involving the work of 840,000 people and $123 million in revenue for those farming the poppy plant.
Prices being fetched for Burma's opium contrast sharply with falling prices for the crop in Afghanistan, where most of the world's opium comes from and where several years of overproduction has created a glut.
The average price paid to farmers in Burma for the 2008 opium harvest was $137 per pound, up from the 2007 average of $120 per pound.
In Afghanistan, the average price in November 2008 was $55 per kilogram, down sharply from early 2007 when it was above $100 per kilogram.
Dramatic differences in the price of opium between regions and sometimes even within regions or countries is not unusual.
The region of Southeast Asia where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet, known as the Golden Triangle, produced more than half of the world's opium in 1990 and one-third in 1998.
Heavy snow in Britain
Shops, schools and courts shut down and long trails of commuters trudged through the streets looking for scarce taxis or ways to work after more than four inches of snow fell overnight.
"We're not in Russia here," said Guy Pitt, a Transport for London spokesman.
"We don't have an infrastructure built for constant snow."
Heavy snow continued Monday afternoon, with more forecast for the evening along with rain and sleet overnight, which could lead to hazardous icy conditions Tuesday morning.
Massachusetts repugican official pleads to money-laundering
The former vice chairman of the Massachusetts repugican party has pleaded guilty in a scheme to launder illegal drug money for a client of his law practice.
Lawrence Novak entered his plea on two counts of money laundering today just before he was due go on trial in federal court in Boston.
He also entered a so-called Alford plea to a single count of obstruction of justice - meaning he maintains his innocence on that count but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to likely win a conviction.
The 57-year-old Novak was arrested in 2005.
Investigators said he offered to launder drug profits for one of his clients.
Novak's sentencing is scheduled for May 13.
Lawrence Novak entered his plea on two counts of money laundering today just before he was due go on trial in federal court in Boston.
He also entered a so-called Alford plea to a single count of obstruction of justice - meaning he maintains his innocence on that count but concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to likely win a conviction.
The 57-year-old Novak was arrested in 2005.
Investigators said he offered to launder drug profits for one of his clients.
Novak's sentencing is scheduled for May 13.
Illiteracy and religion
Recently, the illiteracy rates of American states was released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). A comparative of the two sets of data reveals an interesting trend. While the most religious states in the US are closer to the US illiteracy average, the less religious states fall well below the illiteracy average.
In other words ... the more religious - the more illiterate.
In other words ... the more religious - the more illiterate.
Health News
Some health news:
Household chemicals may be linked to infertility
At least some types of cancer are worsened by stress
UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching is not only a con, but is dangerous to your eyes and skin
Placebos can also benefit patients who do not have faith in them
Implant makes cells kill cancer
Household chemicals may be linked to infertility
At least some types of cancer are worsened by stress
UV light-enhanced tooth bleaching is not only a con, but is dangerous to your eyes and skin
Placebos can also benefit patients who do not have faith in them
Implant makes cells kill cancer
Items in the news
Andrew Card, White House chief of staff during the early years of the shrub-cabal catastrophe, thinks the Obama administration is insufficiently respectful of the office
of the President... because they don't require suit jackets be worn by everyone in the Oval Office.
Washington Monthly
The shoe statue in Tikrit, honoring shoe-tosser Muntazer al-Zaidi, has been removed, apparently by police.
Associated Press
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Washington Monthly
The shoe statue in Tikrit, honoring shoe-tosser Muntazer al-Zaidi, has been removed, apparently by police.
Associated Press
The snake's new head
The repugican party has named its new National Chair, one Michael Steele. He's black, which has its repugican PR opportunities, but he must be comfortable with the repugicans' traditional bigoted politics or they'd never have chosen him. When he was running for Chair, Steele specifically distanced himself from the smears that he might be even vaguely sane. "I'm proud to say I'm a conservative, have been, always will be. So this notion that I'm a moderate is slightly overblown and, quite frankly, a lie."
So it's going to be more of the same, more troglodyte repugican leadership.
I think that'll be fine for the dwindling ranks of the repugican party, and that is fine with me.
*****
So it's going to be more of the same, more troglodyte repugican leadership.
I think that'll be fine for the dwindling ranks of the repugican party, and that is fine with me.
More at CNN.
Mormon Schormon
Mormon officials have reported some $180,000 in in-kind contributions to the anti-gay Proposition 8 in California.
Individual Mormons gave upwards of $20-million.
It's not what Jesus would do, but maybe it's what Joseph Smith would do?
Individual Mormons gave upwards of $20-million.
It's not what Jesus would do, but maybe it's what Joseph Smith would do?
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
RE: those shipments of contaminated peanuts from Peanut Corporation of America
The factory was apparently crawling with salmonella since at least June 2007, but shrub-cabal FDA inspections were so incompetent that nobody noticed or gave a damn.
Obama's people say that a criminal investigation is now underway.
You want to know what is so outlandishly funny about all this, the President of Peanut Corporation of America is on the advisory board that sets peanut quality standards for the US Department of Agriculture.
Obama's people say that a criminal investigation is now underway.
You want to know what is so outlandishly funny about all this, the President of Peanut Corporation of America is on the advisory board that sets peanut quality standards for the US Department of Agriculture.
More Associated Press
Pfizer Lawsuit
A lawsuit against Pfizer for using Nigerians as unknowing guinea pigs in drug tests has gotten a green light from an American judge.
This means the case will be heard in an American court, not in Nigeria.
This means the case will be heard in an American court, not in Nigeria.
More in the Washington Post.
Another one for the good guys
President Obama signed an executive order on Friday, reversing anti-union rules imposed by the previous administration, and preventing federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses involved in anti-union campaigning.
"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said. "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."
"We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests," Obama said. "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution," he said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."
Read more: Associated Press
It is no coincidence
"It's not coincidental that 1928 was the last time that the top 1 percent took home more than 20 percent of the nation's income."
Read more in the Washington Post.
Items in the news
One bank that's not asking for a bailout is Michigan's University Islamic Financial Corp., the Sharia-compliant, federally insured institution that's making an honest profit without any handouts. They don't charge interest, because that would violate Islamic Law.
Associated Press
As US banks were collapsing, they increased their hiring of foreign workers at top-salary jobs.
Associated Press
There's still no meaningful oversight for the bank bailout program, which the Washington Post continues to laughably assert amounts to a mere $700-billion.
Washington Post
Associated Press
As US banks were collapsing, they increased their hiring of foreign workers at top-salary jobs.
Associated Press
There's still no meaningful oversight for the bank bailout program, which the Washington Post continues to laughably assert amounts to a mere $700-billion.
Washington Post
B.A.D. to the Bone
And it's not just that Delaware Destroyers song either!
Let us introduce you to:
Cafe Philos
Jon Swift
(some of you may note one of the links above is not what some claim to expect from this blogger ... oops they got that one wrong.)
Let us introduce you to:
Cafe Philos
Jon Swift
(some of you may note one of the links above is not what some claim to expect from this blogger ... oops they got that one wrong.)
Bizarre sports videos
Over at Redux, user Skidmark compiled a video playlist of "Bizarre Sports in the World." The videos include the likes of Chessboxing, Bog Snorkeling (shown), and Buzkashi, "a bizarre kind of polo in which players on horseback must grab a headless goat." "Bizarre Sports in the World" Amazing House of Bones
“Restored and remodeled by the Spanish modernist architect Antoni Gaudi in the years 1905–1907, Casa Batllo is now one the most overlooked buildings by the tourists who visit Barcelona. Although it is a museum now, Gaudi designed it for for a wealthy Barcelona Aristocrat. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality.”
From Unusual Things.
Getting water is child's play
“In Africa, The kid-powered Playpump solves critical water issues during recess.
If we get thirsty here in the U.S., we just turn the tap on and let it run till it’s nice and cold—even in the wilderness, all we have to do is drop in a tablet and take a sip. But the truth is that over one billion people worldwide don’t have the same access to clean water. Over 6,000 people per day die from drinking water filled with chemicals, bacteria, and disease.
PlayPumps wants to change that: By installing 4,000 of their patented water systems around the world, parched people in impoverished places like Africa could soon simply just turn the tap like us. The best part? Their pumps work by utilizing the power of children at play.
The process is simple: Kids on a playground spin a multi-colored merry-go-round with their hands. This hand-pushed merry-go-round drives an underground pump that pushes water into a 2,500-gallon storage tank on stilts above ground. The water filters in the tank, and users operate a tap connected to the tank, which they can use to fill bottles.”
Read more at The Daily Dirt.
Judges jailed for taking bribes from private juvenile prisons to send kids to jail
Two senior Pennsylvania judges have been sentenced to seven years in prison for taking bribes from juvenile detention centers -- in exchange for the bribes, the judges turned in guilty verdicts for the teens who appeared before them and sent them to 'juvie', thus enriching the operators of the kiddie gulag. For this, the judges received $2.6 million in kickbacks.
First, the judges helped the detention centers land a county contract worth $58 million. Then their alleged scheme was to guarantee the operators a steady income by detaining juveniles, often on petty stuff.Many of the kids were railroaded, according to allegations lodged with the state Supreme Court last year by the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, an advocacy group.
In asking the court to intervene in April, the law center cited hundreds of examples where teens accused of minor mischief were pressured to waive their right to lawyers, and then shipped to a detention center.
One teen was given a 90-day sentence for having parodied a school administrator online. Such unwarranted detentions left "both children and parents feeling bewildered, violated and traumatized," center lawyers said.
"Very few people would stand up" to the Luzerne judges, according to the law center's executive director, Robert G. Schwartz.
Urban Archeology
Mummified Soviet-era East German flat unearthed
An architect in Leipzig discovered a perfectly mummified pre-Berlin-Wall-fall East German flat, filled with Soviet-era "products" in a state of dessicated perfection:It appears the inhabitant of the humble flat fled in a hurry and shrivelled bread rolls still lay in a string bag.Grocery brands from the Socialist state filled the kitchen...
A wall calendar showed August 1988 and an empty bottle of Vita Cola, Marella margarine, Juwel cigarettes and a bottle of Kristall vodka were in the kitchen.
Plastic crockery and aluminium cutlery completed the picture of a bygone state.
The only foreign product to be found was a West German bottle of deodorant.
A zinc bath stood upright against a wardrobe. There was no toilet in the flat - the occupant used one on the landing.
According to Mr Aretz, documents and letters in the flat suggest the occupant was a man aged 24 who was in trouble with the East German authorities, and who left in a hurry some time before the Wall came down in November 1989.
France to give free newspaper subscriptions to 18 year olds
The latest move from French President Sarkozy is to bail out newspapers by giving kids free daily newspaper subscriptions on their 18th birthdays, which is supposed to instill "the habit of reading the press."
Sarkozy also announced a ninefold rise in the state's support for newspaper deliveries and a doubling of its annual print advertising outlay amid a swelling industry crisis.Sarkozy argued in a speech to publishers that the measures are needed because the global financial crisis has compounded woes for a sector already suffering from falling ad revenues and subscriptions.
Another one from China
China's labor unrest worse than suspected
Independent researchers have published findings about China's labor unrest, saying that it is much more widespread than it ever has been before, and that the state is cracking down on independent union organizers who seek to ameliorate the dismal wages and working conditions, with torture and intimidation: [A] growing number of economists say the unrest proves that it is not the exchange rate but years of sweatshop wages and income inequality in China that have distorted global competition and stifled domestic demand. The influential Far Eastern Economic Review headlined its latest issue “The coming crack-up of the China Model”.Yasheng Huang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said corruption and a deeply flawed model of economic reform had led to a collapse in personal income growth and a wealth gap that could leave China looking like a Latin American economy.
Richard Duncan, a partner at Blackhorse Asset Management in Singapore, has argued that the only way to create consumers is to raise wages to a legal minimum of $5 (£3.50) a day across Asia – a “trickle up” theory.
The instability may peak when millions of migrant workers flood back from celebrating the Chinese new year to find they no longer have jobs. That spells political trouble and there are already signs that the government’s $585 billion stimulus package will not be enough to achieve its goal of 8% growth this year...
A legal advocate for migrant workers, Xiao Qingshan, told a tale of violent intimidation by the state in collusion with unscrupulous businessmen.
On January 9, Xiao said, 14 security officers from the local labour bureau broke into his office, confiscated 600 legal case files, 160 law books, his computer, his photocopier, his television set and 100,000 yuan in cash.
“That evening I was ambushed near the office by five strangers who forced a black bag over my head and then threw me into a shallow polluted canal,” he said. His landlord has since given him notice to quit his rented home.
Xiao said he was defying bribery and threats to speak to the foreign media because he wants international businesses to know what is really happening in “the workshop of the world”.
A couple from China
China's work-related deaths drop below 100,000
China's work-related deaths fell below 100,000 last year for the first time in more than a decade, amid an increased government focus on accident prevention, state media reported today.The State Administration of Work Safety reported that the number of deaths dropped to 91,172 for 2008, a 10.2 percent decline from the previous year, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
China's vast work force, an estimated 800 million people, has fueled decades of export-driven growth, turning their country into the factory for much of the world.
But safety standards continue to lag behind those in developed countries.
Many factories and mines have little or no safety equipment, while worker training is also weak.
China's latest figures indicate that 11.4 workers die for every 100,000 on the job.
In comparison, the United States said last year that there were 3.7 fatal injuries for every 100,000 workers in 2007, the most recent numbers available.
The government has been focusing on workplace safety in recent years, and last year was the first time since 1995 that the work-related death toll was under 100,000, Xinhua said.
In particular, China has sought to focus on safety in its coal mines, which are the deadliest in the world.
In 2007, coal mine accidents claimed 3,770 lives in China.In 2008, the number of coal mine fatalities were reduced by 15.1 percent to about 3,200,
That is a vast improvement from 2006, when about 4,500 people died in numerous mine fires, floods and other disasters.
Officials said safety improved because of government efforts to close illegal mines and improve worker safety.
China shut down 1,054 small coal mines last year.
Government figures show that almost 80 percent of the country's 16,000 mines are small, illegal operations.
China to try critic of government's quake response
A Chinese court today abruptly scheduled a trial for an activist who criticized the government's response to last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake, giving his lawyer only one day to prepare and prompting him to mount an immediate legal challenge.Huang Qi's lawyer Mo Shaoping said the judge told him Monday that the trial would start Tuesday morning, leaving less than 24 hours for Mo to look through the indictment and build a defense against the charge of possessing state secrets.
"This is a totally illegal process," Mo said. "They are intentionally creating difficulties."
He said the law requires that the defendant be informed 10 days before the trial starts, while lawyers need to be told at least three days ahead.
His assistant has gone to the Wuhou District Court to see if the trial date can be changed.
"If it cannot be changed, we will lodge a strong protest because this is unfair and it deprives Huang Qi of his right to a defense," Mo said.
According to Mo, the judge said he had difficulty reaching Huang's lawyers and family.
Both Mo and Zeng Li, Huang's wife, said their telephone numbers and addresses are recorded in court documents.
"I've been trying to reach the court for weeks but no one would give me the time of day," said Zeng.
She said she was also told of the trial Monday morning and was not sure if she would be allowed to attend.
Huang, one of the country's most outspoken dissidents, posted articles on his Web site 64Tianwang.com criticizing the government's response to the May 12th quake after visiting affected areas and meeting parents who lost their children.
While independent reporting was allowed right after the magnitude-7.9 temblor, access was shut down within days and public complaints by parents who blamed corruption and shoddy construction on school collapses that killed their children became an extremely sensitive issue.
Zeng said Huang's arrest was a result of his work in the quake zone.
"This is because he went to the disaster area a couple of times.
He reported on the shoddy schools and reported about the appeals of the parents of the students.
So he was arrested and charged with possessing state secrets," she said.
The ill-defined charge is often used to clamp down on dissent and send activists to prison.
Human rights groups said Huang was forcibly taken away by three unknown men on June 10th and police informed his mother six days later that he had been detained.
Zeng said police told Huang in October that if he stopped his activist work, he would be released.
Mo said police made no mention of the earthquake in their indictment proposal, adding that he was not allowed to reveal the contents of the document.
Earlier this decade, Huang, 45, served a five-year prison sentence on subversion charges linked to politically sensitive articles posted on his Web site.
Since his release in 2005, Huang has supported a wide range of causes from aiding families of those killed in the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing, to publicizing the complaints of farmers involved in land disputes with authorities.
The Festival of Imbolic
Today is Imbolc.
A Celtic Connection:
Spring is Coming!:
Imbolc is a holiday with a variety of names, depending on which culture and location you’re looking at. In the Irish Gaelic, it’s called Oimelc, which translates to “ewe’s milk.” It is a precursor to the end of winter when the ewes are nursing their newly born lambs. Spring and the planting season are right around the corner.
A Celtic Connection:
Serpents in the Spring
Although Imbolc isn't even mentioned in non-Gaelic Celtic traditions, it's still a time rich in folklore and history. According to the Carmina Gadelica, the Celts celebrated an early version of Groundhog Day on Imbolc too – only with a serpent, singing this poem:
Thig an nathair as an toll
(The serpent will come from the hole)
la donn Bride
(on the brown day of Bride (Brighid)
Ged robh tri traighean dh’an
(though there may be three feet of snow)
Air leachd an lair
(On the surface of the ground.)
(The serpent will come from the hole)
la donn Bride
(on the brown day of Bride (Brighid)
Ged robh tri traighean dh’an
(though there may be three feet of snow)
Air leachd an lair
(On the surface of the ground.)
Among agricultural societies, this time of year was marked by the preparation for the spring lambing, after which the ewes would lactate (hence the term "ewe's milk" as "Oimelc"). At Neolithic sites in Ireland, underground chambers align perfectly with the rising sun on Imbolc.
Our Readers
Some of our readers today have hailed from:
Penang, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Mission Viejo, California, United States
Lille, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France
Apopka, Florida, United States
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Penang, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Mission Viejo, California, United States
Lille, Nord-Pas-De-Calais, France
Apopka, Florida, United States
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Daily Horoscope
Today's horoscope says:
Your motivation is good, the path ahead is clear.
This is good.
Your motivation is good, the path ahead is clear.
This is good.
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