CAROLINA NATURALLY

Sunday, November 29, 2009

America's fastest-recovering cities

Cities with diverse industries and moderate changes in home value are bouncing back first.

Top 5

Also:

Details Emerge In Lakewood Police Shooting

Four Washington police officers slain

The search continues for the man who fatally shot four officers at a coffeehouse.

Suspect may be wounded

Also:

Details have begun to emerge in the Lakewood police shooting that took place earlier today at 8:15 AM on Sunday morning. Four police officers, three men and a woman, were "ambushed" at a coffee shop in Lakewood, which is in Washington state, 40 miles south of Seattle and 10 miles southwest of Tacoma.

Full Story

Worst credit-card mistakes you can make

For the first time, FICO reveals how mistakes damage your credit score.

What can cause a 200-plus drop

Also:

US Food Stamp Program Expanding by 20,000 People Per Day

The program is expanding by about 20,000 out-of-work and underemployed people a day, the Post reported, noting the growth has been swift in once-prosperous communities effected by the housing bust.

“It’s time for us to face up to the fact that in this country of plenty, there are hungry people,” Concannon said.

Food stamp stigma fading fast

Should Food Stamps Be Used To Buy Organic Food?

From Treehugger:

grocery cart photo

Grocery cart undecided. Image credit:Keith B. Evans, at Simple Gallery.

Washington Post has covered the rapid growth of Food Stamp use in recent months.

While the Reagan-era stigma attached to public aid in the form of "Food Stamps" seems to have faded in the face of spreading US unemployment, people are thinking and writing about what is, and is not, appropriate food to buy with taxpayer support.

Farm-market use is a possibility, per the WaPo report: "Participants apply locally to receive an electronic card that is used like an ATM card to buy food at most grocery stores and some farmers markets."

A knee-jerk answer to the rhetorical question posed by this headline would be 'no,' that Food Stamp credits should not go for organic food, which is widely seen as a luxury. In the real world, this simplistic answer can be either misleading or wrong, cost wise.

Article continues: Should Food Stamps Be Used To Buy Organic Food?

Student Caught Biking Drunk Banned from Cycling for 15 Years

From Treehugger:

bike drunk banned from cycling photo
Image: Bild

Americans are still reacting to the news that a man got away with only a four-month jail sentence after shooting a bicyclist in the head in cold blood, in front of his three-year old child. In Germany, the web is buzzing about a sentence equally extreme, on the opposite end of the spectrum. Christopher-Felix Hahn, a student of theater science in Gießen, has learned he is banned from riding a bike, skateboard or any other "unlicensed vehicle" on the streets -- for fifteen years.

Article continues: Student Caught Biking Drunk Banned from Cycling for 15 Years

Liars and Fools

Liars and Fools today are:

Lush Dimbulb "jokes" that the military should take President Obama into custody.
Not likely your moron, however you might want to watch your ass when the come for you.

Gun Nuts lies Claiming Obama administration will issue ‘no guns’ decree.
This is news? Gun nuts are always spewing such garbage.

Pastor Wiley Drake says Christians should stop praying for PresidentObama's death until he's convicted of treason.
OK, we can agree with this - after Drake is convicted of treason we can "pray" for his death.

'Bin Laden was within our grasp'

A report released by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blamed the shrub administration for failing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden when the al Qaeda leader was cornered in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountain region in December 2001.

The report, released Sunday, said the situation in Afghanistan presented greater problems today because of the failure to nab bin Laden eight years ago.

Bin Laden had written his will, apparently sensing he was trapped, but the lack of sufficient forces to close in for the kill allowed him to escape to tribal areas in Pakistan, according to the report.

It said former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top U.S. commander Gen. Tommy Franks held back the necessary forces for a "classic sweep-and-block maneuver" that could have prevented bin Laden's escape.

Full Story

Teabaggers are so stupid ...

Pathetic, really pathetic.

The Bronx tops food stamp list

Bronx County, NY with a 13.3% unemployment rate, has joined Hidalgo County, TX as the US counties of their size with the greatest share of people receiving food stamps at 29%.

Nationally, 1 in 8 adults and one in 4 children are using food stamps, according to data collected by the New York Times.

The Bronx tops food stamp list

Roman Catholic Church continues to lobby government

Trying to push their policies on the governments, Catholic bishops continue their attempts to convince lawmakers they're serious about abortion and same-sex marriage.

Full Story

Again, who gives a shit what catholic bishops have to say about anything?

Wingnuts consider a suicide pact

Some people can't stand prosperity, my father used to say.

Today, he might be talking about wingnuts, who, in the midst of declining support for President Obama's hope-and-change agenda, are considering a "purity" pledge to weed out undesirables from their ever-shrinking party.

Just when independents and moderates were considering revisiting the repugican tent.

Full Story

Obama orders review of crashers

President Barack Obama has ordered a full review into how a Virginia couple managed to make their way into the White House for last week's state dinner without an invitation, even getting so far as to meet the president in the official receiving line, according to a White House official.

Three days after a pair of Virginia socialites and reality TV wannabes crashed the administration's first state dinner, the White House acknowledged for the first time Friday that they met Obama himself at the event – raising even more questions about whether the breach could have posed a security risk.

Full Story

Iran approves building 10 uranium enrichment sites

The Iranian government approved a plan tonight to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities, a dramatic expansion in defiance of UN demands it halt the program.

Full Story

Buzzing flies more likely to wake men than crying babies

However for women, whether or not they are mothers, there is no other noise more likely to stop them sleeping than that of a wailing infant, according to scientific tests measuring brain activity.

Buzzing flies more likely to wake men than crying babies

Daily Riddle

Imagine you're in a room with no windows and no doors, how do you get out?

Stop imagining!

And I Quote

Misery no longer loves company.
Nowadays it insists on it.

~ Russell Baker

Murderous moose suspected in Swedish death

Swedish police say they've cleared a man who was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife after deciding the culprit was most likely a moose.

Full Story

Swiss ban mosque minarets

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets on Sunday, barring construction of the iconic mosque towers in a vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

Swiss ban mosque minarets

Collect Call Indeed

Woman shocked by cost of collect call

A hairstylist who accepted a customer's quick collect call had no idea it would cost more than $45.

Price explained

Also:

Why one town may get 100s of new jobs

One car company's decision may turn around a hard-hit California city.

See what the jobs would help build

Also:

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is Electronic Greetings Day.

Daily Almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2009.

There are 32 days left in the year.

Today In History November 29

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Nottingham, England, United Kingdom
London, England, United Kingdom
Grenoble, Rhone-Alpes, France
Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Laval, Quebec, Canada
Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada
Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Cote D'Azur, France
Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

as well as Argentina, Scotland, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You've been so good for so long that it's high time you did something a bit naughty!
Call up one of your more mischievous friends and make a plan together.
Expanding your horizons is highly favored, so a road trip could be in order.
If you're in the mood, take the wheel and point yourself toward something you've never explored.
What you find at your destination will appear fairly bland -- but after a few introductions, you'll be thrilled with your discoveries.

This is gonna be good!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

The Military Budget Is Bleeding Us Dry. It's Time We Addressed That.

From Crooks and Liars

You know, between the crooks, the politicians and the payoffs, this issue shouldn't be a third rail anymore. Democrats need to decide which we can afford: Shoveling trillions of dollars into the military-industrial-congressional complex (and the pockets of defense donors), or rebuilding this country's economic and social infrastructure. David Sirota:

In 2000, the Pentagon admitted it has lost -- yes, lost -- $2.3 trillion. In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a subsequent Department of Defense study said it was only $1 trillion. To put such numbers in perspective, contemplate what those sums could finance. $1 trillion, for instance, could pay the total cost of universal healthcare for the long haul. $2.3 trillion would cover universal healthcare plus the bank bailout plus the stimulus package.

Obviously -- obviously! -- these points are no cause for alarm and certainly no cause for defense spending reductions, right? All they must prove is that the archconservative Cato Institute, William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, National Journal employees and Pentagon officials are secretly America-hating liberals. And -- obviously! -- so are two of the most aggressive neoconservative hawks ever to hold government office, Sen. John McCain and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. After all, they’re the ones who issued those scathing statements about wasteful defense spending in the pop quiz above. That means they’re actually terrorist-appeasing lefties, right?

Really, how could anyone other than traitorous communists see the data and then consider backing the mildest Pentagon spending cuts? I mean, come on -- in a country whose paranoid conservative movement now makes a dead-serious ideology out of Stephen Colbert wisecracks, how dare any red-blooded American even think of pondering basic budgetary facts?

Of course here's a typical wingnut reaction:

Lost in all the typical liberal hyperventilating over increased defense spending during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is just how low current defense spending compared to the last 45 years.

Oh, well then! Quit yer griping!

Ho hum. Just another would-be domestic terrorist found with a bomb-making lab. Nothing to see here, just move along

From Crooks and Liars:

Gee, for some reason, this story hasn't managed to make it out of the local news and into the national headlines:

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio – Following a pipe bomb explosion Monday night, police and federal law enforcement officials are trying to figure why a Center Avenue man turned his apartment into a bomb factory.

Police said no charges have been filed against Mark Campano, 56. Police found 30 completed pipe bombs in his apartment along with components to make more, plus 17 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Campano is in an Akron hospital with injuries received when one of the bombs exploded.

As police and federal authorities puzzle over Campano's past and what he planned to do with the bombs, a former neighbor said Campano often railed against the government.

Barbara Vachon lived next door to Campano at the Center Park Place Apartments for several years and said he was a big reason she moved.

"He was always trying to get me and another neighbor to listen to anti-government tapes and watch anti-government videos," said Vachon. "I would never watch them. He was some kind of radical, and he didn't believe in the government."

She said there were other warnings.

"There were a few times I heard minor explosions from outside the apartment building, and he would scream that he had hurt himself," she said. "I never knew what he was up to."

Vachon said Campano seemed to be most active at night.

"There was a steady stream of creepy visitors going in and out of his apartment," she said.

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms is also investigating the case.

Of course, if this had been a Muslim extremist caught with such an arsenal, we'd be getting talk-show panels on Hannity featuring Michelle Malkin ranting at length about the threat of Islamic jihad, blah blah blah. Not to mention chatty discussion on Fox and Friends and Morning Joe.

But instead, because he's just a white anti-government extremist, hey, let's just give it a big shrug.

Holiday spending on the rise

The $10 billion spent in stores this Black Friday is up slightly from last year.

Online sales are soaring

Also:

How to fight holiday weight gain

A few simple steps can help you avoid those extra holiday pounds.

A proactive approach

Also:

How to pick the perfect digital camera

These guidelines can make shopping for a new camera less overwhelming.

There's more than megapixels

Also:

Health issues the healthy should watch for

These key areas should be monitored even by those with a clean bill of health.

Cancers that strike young adults

Also:

Most popular cars of 2009

The most searched-for brands reflect the strengths and failures of the industry.

5 of the top 10 share one trait

Also:

Fresh claim for fossil life in Mars rock

The 1996 claim that a meteorite contains microbe fossils from Mars has been boosted by the rejection of a non-biological explanation for the minerals.

Fresh claim for fossil life in Mars rock

Early Snowball Earth may have melted to a mudball

If the icy tropics of 700 million years ago were covered in dust, this could have helped melt the ice.

Early Snowball Earth may have melted to a mudball

Please don't pass health care reform, lest we be healthier and have more

From wingnut economist Greg Mankiw:

Put simply, the healthcare reform bill would make the United States more like western Europe. That may mean more security about healthcare, but it also means that future generations of Americans will likely spend more time enjoying leisure.

*****

Oh, Yeah - Like we wouldn't want that to happen, now would we!?

Arctic ice conditions much worse than satellite images suggested

For some reason, the deniers in the US can't recognize that there is a problem.
Ignorance is truly bliss for the teabaggers.

University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding, but the thick, multi-year frozen sheets have been replaced by thin ice that cannot support the weight of a polar bear.

"Polar bears are being restricted to a small fringe of where this multi-year sea ice is. As we went further and further north, we saw less and less polar bears because this ice wasn't even strong enough for the polar bears to stand on," said Barber, who returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea in September.

Boost your Social Security benefits

These strategies will help you make the most of your Social Security benefits.

Tips for married and single people

Also:

Health Care Hell in America

The day after Thanksgiving, Blue Cross 'members' get a " Love Letter " in the mail from the crooks at Blue Shield of California.

A notification to announce that as of 1-1-2010 :

"Blue Shield will no longer reinstate policies that are canceled for nonpayment of premiums. This means that if your premiums are not paid in full and received by the due date, your policy will be canceled and you will need to re-apply for coverage."

In other words - fuck you.

Banks, world leaders play down Dubai debt threat

World leaders expressed confidence in the global economic recovery on Friday despite fears about a debt default by Gulf emirate Dubai, while major banks played down their exposure to the debt.

Banks, world leaders play down Dubai debt threat

Science News

Colossal star seen by Herschel

The death throes of the biggest star known to science have been observed by Europe's new space telescope, Herschel.

Caged 'cavemen' go on display at Warsaw zoo

Visitors to Warsaw's zoo are being greeted by two "Homo sapiens" peering out from a cage - humans in animal skins trying to spark interest in man's caveman ancestors.

Full Story

Tow truck driver arrested for illegal tow

Police say a tow truck driver purposely moved a woman's car from a legal parking spot to an illegal spot so he could tow her and collect money.

That driver, Jeremy Lee Blaine, is now charged with a crime.

"Where does it say you can't park here?" we asked Shannon Whitlowe outside a Family Dollar store in Gastonia.

"There is nothing right there that says you can't park here," she said.

Whitlowe admits the place where she parked isn't the most clearly defined parking spot.

But, there are no yellow lines or words screaming "no parking" here - like there are an aisle away - and she was just going to be a minute getting medicine.

"I had a sick child," Whitlowe said.

By the time she came out her car was gone.

Folks who work in the area say the tow truck driver camps out behind corners, waiting for a wrong move.

"The minute you walk in the store, they take off with your car and I think it's wrong," Whitlowe said.

So do police.

They arrested CRS Towing tow truck driver Jeremy Blaine and charged him with obtaining property by false pretense.

That's after a witness told police Blaine hooked up Whitlowe's car and allegedly moved it to an illegal spot, then took a picture of it there as if that's where he found it.

We asked police, what's the purpose of the picture?

"It would be to justify the means of the action which is, you know, shady," said Gastonia Police Sergeant Trent Conard.

Conard thinks greed is a reason for the illegal tow.

"They're preying upon people that, you know, times are rough on everybody and people don't need to be spending 100 dollar tow bills to get their cars out when they were legally parked to begin with," he said.

It's not thepolice department's first run in with local tow truck companies.

Conard says some companies put their signs up on city utillity poles, which is against city ordinance.

The signs get taken down.

Then, drivers say towing companies tell them too bad, they "were" there.

In fact, police say arguments over signs, locations and legalities are getting worse.

"And we're not going to put up with it," Conard said.

Whitlowe had to pay to get her car back from the towing company, even though police say the tow was illegal.

"It was 100 dollars cash and they would not let me pay by check or debit," she said.

The driver is due in court Monday.

Saturday Jam

Today's Saturday Jam is all about the Sun:

Walking On The Sun

Smash Mouth

Walking On Sunshine

Katrina and the Waves

Steal My Sunshine

Len

President Obama's Weekly Address

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Thursday, November 26, 2009

For centuries, in peace and in war, in prosperity and in adversity, Americans have paused at this time of year to gather with loved ones and give thanks for life’s blessings. This week, we carry on this distinctly American tradition. All across our country, folks are coming together to spend time with family, to catch up with old friends, to cook and enjoy a big dinner – and maybe to watch a little football in between.

As always, we give thanks for the kindness of loved ones, for the joys of the previous year, and for the pride we feel in our communities and country. We keep in our thoughts and prayers the many families marking this Thanksgiving with an empty seat – saved for a son or daughter, or husband or wife, stationed in harm’s way. And we say a special thanks for the sacrifices those men and women in uniform are making for our safety and freedom, and for all those Americans who enrich the lives of our communities through acts of kindness, generosity and service.

But as much as we all have to be thankful for, we also know that this year millions of Americans are facing very difficult economic times. Many have lost jobs in this recession – the worst in generations. Many more are struggling to afford health care premiums and house payments, let alone to save for an education or retirement. Too many are wondering if the dream of a middle class life – that American Dream – is slipping away. It’s the worry I hear from folks across the country; good, hard-working people doing the best they can for their families – but fearing that their best just isn’t good enough. These are not strangers. They are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Their struggles must be our concern.

That’s why we passed the Recovery Act that cut taxes for 95 percent of working people and for small businesses – and that extended unemployment benefits and health coverage for millions of Americans who lost their jobs in this turmoil. That’s why we are reforming the health care system so that middle-class families have affordable insurance that cannot be denied because of a pre-existing condition or taken away because you happen to get sick. We’ve worked to stem the tide of foreclosures and to stop the decline in home values. We’re making it easier to save for retirement and more affordable to send a son or daughter to college.

The investments we have made and tough steps we have taken have helped break the back of the recession, and now our economy is finally growing again. But as I said when I took office, job recovery from this crisis would not come easily or quickly. Though the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we’re still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we’re losing. And no matter what the economists say, for families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.

So we’ve made progress. But we cannot rest – and my administration will not rest – until we have revived this economy and rebuilt it stronger than before; until we are creating jobs and opportunities for middle class families; until we have moved beyond the cycles of boom and bust – of reckless risk and speculation – that led us to so much crisis and pain these past few years.

Next week, I’ll be meeting with owners of large and small businesses, labor leaders, and non-for-profits from across the country, to talk about the additional steps we can take to help spur job creation. I will work with the Congress to enact them quickly. And it is my fervent hope – and my heartfelt expectation – that next Thanksgiving we will be able to celebrate the fact that many of those who have lost their jobs are back at work, and that as a nation we will have come through these difficult storms stronger and wiser and grateful to have reached a brighter day.

Thank you, God bless you, and from my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.