The repugican Obstructionism Is The Real Scandal That’s Plaguing Washington

There are a variety of adjectives to describe repugicans in Congress since Americans elected an African American man to lead the Executive Department, and setting aside sheer racial animus, some apt descriptors are total incompetence, inability to perform, and blatant ineptitude that easily inform the state of the repugican cabal. They have, though, been very proficient at obstructing the President from their minority position and it is a sure sign they have nothing but contempt for the American people, the government, and particularly President Obama as they have done absolutely nothing for over four years except prevent the government from operating for the people. Their obstructionism won them the distinction of the worst, least effective Congress in the nation’s history, and instead of reeling from the harsh assessment, they have seized on the phony scandals over the past weeks to focus attention away from the fact that as public servants and the people’s representatives, they are absolutely worthless and have no intention of governing. Instead, they have, and will continue to, spend every waking moment obstructing the government and continue their crusade to discredit President Obama by playing up false scandals. The real scandal plaguing Washington is repugican obstructionism and their apparent glee at having phony scandals to cover the fact they lack any agenda to govern absent tax cuts for the rich and defaming the African American in the Oval Office.
In what should be evident to the American people, the next several months, and possibly years, will be a gross repeat of the past four years of government inaction on the issues that matter most to the American people. The repugicans promised to focus entirely on jobs nearly two-and-a-half years ago that have produced no jobs, and their total lack of interest in immigration reform or addressing gun safety measures will be amplified as they celebrate spending all their time on Benghazi, the I.R.S., and more attacks on the Affordable Care Act. The mainstream media has been complicit in focusing on phony scandals instead of the repugican cabal’s lack of a coherent agenda to help economic recovery or the American people, and there has been no better example than the rapidly decreasing national debt that has been supplanted with persistent coverage of Benghazi, the I.R.S., and government seizure of journalist’s phone records that is a direct result of repugican policy under the shrub junta. In fact, all of the phony scandals can be laid at the feet of repugican ineptitude and economic malfeasance to thwart the President’s attempt to govern. As journalist Dan Rather opined on Thursday, “And no wonder they’re slapping high five behind closed doors. President Obama must feel like he’s Gulliver tied down, every time he turns around he can’t really move in any way. It raises the question: Can he get anything done in this second term as president with the repugicans playing this obstructionist role?”
The phony scandals repugicans will spend the next few months on shine a light on their inaction and not, as they hope, the President’s alleged scandal-ridden Administration. The alleged cover-up of the tragedy in Benghazi shifts attention from repugicans’ refusing to appropriate more funding for security at embassies despite requests from the State Department, and media is remiss to ever point out that repugicans never investigated or charged the shrub junta for lax security during several embassy attacks around the world during the shrub’s tenure pretending to be president. However, the shrub was a white man, and that fact alone gives repugicans cover for ignoring the danger inherent in the shrub’s cowboy diplomacy that put “brave American heroes’” lives in jeopardy. Still, after eight months of repugicans’ transparent obstruction and blatantly dishonesty inherent in their Benghazi investigations, it is painfully obvious they refuse to accept the truth or  disclosures they demanded, and received as the White House released nearly 100 pages of emails and documentation answering their questions. Their persistent investigations, hearings, and threats of new investigations are deliberate tactics to avoid governing and obstruct the President from continuing the nation’s economic recovery.
The repugicans tasked car thief and House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa with holding investigations into the alleged Benghazi scandal and phony outrage involving I.R.S. investigators who did their due diligence in scrutinizing political activists’ illegal applications for 501(C)(4) “social welfare” tax exemption, instead of investigating Karl Rove and Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity’s illegal applications meant to conceal their dark money donors. The idea that the President, or anyone in his administration ordered the IRS to target conservative groups is insane on its face, especially since it was the shrub’s appointee that ran the IRS. Subsequently, while repugicans are busy attempting to tie the White House and the President to using the I.R.S. to steal the 2012 election, they conveniently will avoid spending one minute on job creation or admitting new revenue from the fiscal cliff tax increases are bringing the nation’s debt down by $231 billion in a very short period of time.
The other alleged scandal repugicans and Democrats are weighing in on is a controversy about the Justice Department’s subpoenaing journalists’ phone records in an investigation into leaks about a terrorist operation. It was repugicans who designed the intrusive Patriot Act, but since Barack Obama is President, they are crying foul in spite of his Administration investigating itself, and despite Attorney General Eric Holder previously recusing himself from the case, some repugicans called for his resignation. It is political theatre for repugicans to avoid doing the real work they were sent to Washington to do that they have determined is destroying President Obama.
In a recent PPP survey, Americans said they want, and expect, Congress to focus on the economic recovery and jobs, immigration reform, and gun safety legislation and not phony scandals like Benghazi or the IRS doing its job. The repugicans in Congress are incapable and frankly incompetent to make any substantive progress on job creation will instead spend the next several months on hearings, investigations, and ransoming the rapidly approaching debt ceiling, and obstruct this President, and the government from doing the business of the people. It has been their practice for four years and now that they have three active and phony scandals, their treasonous obstruction will take on a new measure of severity. All the while, the American people will continue suffering gross incompetence and an ineffectual government that defines the repugican cabal since the people elected an African American president.
There is no doubt repugicans hate this President, but their deliberate obstruction of government informs that their animus extends far beyond the African American in the White House. The repugican ineptitude and obstruction is approaching anti-American criminality, and their obstruction of the President’s nominees, efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and time spent on phony scandals informs they hate this country, the people, and the Constitutional mandate for governance they swore to uphold as part of the jobs whether they are in the minority or not. The real scandal the American people have been, and will continue, suffering over the past four and a half years and well into the foreseeable future is that repugicans lack any coherent agenda that does not include tax cuts for the rich and deregulating their corporate sponsors. Coupled with their animus toward President Obama and grasping at fabricated scandals, they have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they truly hate America every bit as much as they hate this President and if their ineptitude is not criminal, then it is certainly treasonous.

And I Quote

Saudi Woman Climbs Everest

Saudi Woman Climbs Everest in First

A Saudi woman, Raha Muharraq, on Saturday reached the summit of Everest, the world's highest peak, in a first for the muslim kingdom where women's sports are severely restricted.

Jumping the Goat's Horns

Svolværgeita, a 490-foot pinnacle of Fløyfjellet mountain in Norway, was first climbed in 1910. You might think that's pretty late, but the summit is a near vertical ascent.
Because of its shape, the top is called the Goat's Horns. Climbers who reach the top sometimes try to leap between the two horns. Would you do it?

More

Competitors Likelier to Choose Red if High Testosterone

Competitors Likelier to Choose Red if High Testosterone

Why do so many sports players and athletes choose to wear the color red when they compete? A new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests [...]

The Wizard of Id

CCTV captures moment ghost calls time at bar

Video footage has emerged which appears to show the bell in the clubhouse at Exmouth Rugby Club ringing of its own volition.

The CCTV shows spooked bar staff giving the bell a cautious berth as it springs to life mid-afternoon.

But bar manager Frank Bright, known as Marv, is less than convinced. "The bell ringing on its own is pretty odd, I'll give you that," he said, "And one of the girls was quite freaked out.

YouTube link.

"But I'm a bit more level-headed and I'm sure there's some way to explain it; I just can't put my finger on it at the moment."

Chinese Government Commands Chinese Tourists To Be Polite

The Chinese have now surpassed Americans and Germans as the world's top international spenders and are becoming one of the most significant global tourism markets. As the throngs of Chinese tourists venture out into the big wide world, the Chinese government has some words of advice for them, " Be polite!"

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang has called on his nation's tourists to improve their behavior, stressing it was important to project a "good image of Chinese tourists," official state media outlet Xinhua reported. 

The Internet is saddened by this command. Scuffles between Chinese tourists and the locals of the country they are visiting make for wonderful content.

More

Zimbabwean university lecturer jailed for calling Robert Mugabe 'a rotten old donkey'

A lecturer at a government university in Zimbabwe has been jailed for three months for labelling veteran President Robert Mugabe "a rotten old donkey," lawyers said on Saturday. Chenjerai Pamhiri, 38, a lecturer at Great Zimbabwe State University in Masvingo city, was convicted and jailed by a magistrate on Friday, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said.

Prosecutors alleged that Pamhiri, while doing his shopping at a local supermarket last week, shouted that Mugabe was "dirt which should be discarded, a rotten old donkey". He is also said to have urged people not to vote for him in elections expected sometime this year. Police arrested him as he left the supermarket.

"We received the shocking news of the conviction and sentencing of Pamhiri and we have promptly moved in to assist him," Kumbirai Mafunda, spokesman for the human rights lawyers, said. "Our lawyers will file an appeal against the conviction and sentence and a make a separate application for bail pending appeal."

Arrests for slandering Zimbabwe's long-time president and breaching the strict public order law are common and those found guilty usually get away with light sentences, fines or are ordered to do community service. Mafunda said rights lawyers have recorded over 60 such cases since 2010.

A bible bashing accusation lands woman in jail

A woman from Kings Mountain, North Carolina was arrested on Saturday and charged with assault inflicting serious injury after beating another woman with a bible, according to arrest warrants.

Evelyn Mills Moore, 57, of Saddlebrook Court in Kings Mountain, struck another woman "numerous times about her body with a closed fist and striking her with a bible about her left arm," the warrant states.

The attack caused numerous abrasions on the other woman's head, face and arms, according to the court document.

Moore was charged with a second assault charge inflicting serious injury after striking a man with her fist causing numerous abrasions on his head, face and arms and a knot near his right eye. Moore is being held at the Cleveland County Detention Center with a $105,000 bond.

Woman allegedly threatened neighbor with plunger over offensive odor

A Massachusetts woman upset by a foul odor emanating from her neighbor's house is in hot water after allegedly threatening to hit the neighbor with a plunger. In Lowell District Court on Monday, Irene Cohen, 44, was released on personal recognizance after pleading not guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.

Lowell police stated in court documents that at 6:31pm  they were called to a report of an argument between neighbors. When police arrived, a female neighbor allegedly told police Cohen attacked her with a plunger. The neighbor said Cohen was angry due to the foul odor caused by some plumbing work.

During a confrontation with the victim, Cohen allegedly began to yell at her and spit in her face, then picked up the plunger, raised it above her head, and threatened to hit her with it. The victim described Cohen as "wildly out of control." The victim ran back inside her house for fear of being hit.

Cohen allegedly admitted to police she argued with the victim over a foul odor Cohen believed was her neighbor's fault. Cohen alleges that during the argument, the victim spit in Cohen's face and called her a racist name. Cohen denied using a plunger, which police noted was leaning against the fence next to Cohen. She told police she picked up the plunger to move it, but never used it in a threatening way. The victim denied spitting in Cohen's face.

Daily Comic Relief

These Coins could rewrite Australian history

by Barbara Barkhausen

 

Mcintosh points on map to the general area where coins were found. 

Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an "X" might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia's history.
Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, plans an expedition in July that has stirred up the archaeological community.
The scientist wants to revisit the location where five coins were found in the Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1000 years old, opening up the possibility that seafarers from distant countries might have landed in Australia much earlier than what is currently believed.

Back in 1944 during World War II, after Japanese bombers had attacked Darwin two years earlier, the Wessel Islands - an uninhabited group of islands off Australia's north coast - had become a strategic position to help protect the mainland.
Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg was stationed on one of the islands to man a radar station and spent his spare time fishing on the idyllic beaches.

 
Ancient coins from the Kilwa Sultanate.

While sitting in the sand with his fishing-rod, he discovered a handful of coins in the sand.
He didn't have a clue where they could come from but pocketed them anyway and later placed them in a tin.
In 1979 he rediscovered his "treasure" and decided to send the coins to a museum to get them identified.
The coins proved to be 1000 years old.
Still not fully realising what treasure he held in his hands, he marked an old colleague's map with an "X" to remember where he had found them.
The discovery was apparently forgotten again until anthropologist McIntosh got the ball rolling a few months ago.
The coins raise many important questions:
How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach on an island off the northern coast of Australia?
Did explorers from distant lands arrive on Australian shores way before the James Cook declared it "terra nullius" and claimed it for the British throne in 1770?
We do know already that Captain Cook wasn't the first white seafarer to step on Australia's shores.
In 1606 a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon reached the Cape York peninsula in Queensland, closely followed a few years late by another Dutch seafarer Dirk Hartog.
And the Spaniard Luiz Vaez de Torres discovered the strait between Papua New Guinea and Australia, which was later named Torres Strait in his honour.
However, none of these explorers recognised that they had discovered the famed southern continent, the "terra australis incognita", which was depicted as a counterweight to the known land masses of the northern hemisphere on many world maps of the day.
McIntosh and his team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers say that the five coins date back to the 900s to 1300s.
They are African coins from the former Kilwa sultanate, now a World Heritage ruin on an island off Tanzania.
Kilwa once was a flourishing trade port with links to India in the 13th to 16th century.
The trade with gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian stone ware, Persian ceramics and Chinese porcelain made the city one of the most influential towns in East Africa at the time.
The copper coins were the first coins ever produced in sub-Saharan Africa and according to McIntosh have only twice been found outside Africa: once in Oman and Isenberg's find in 1944.
The old coins might not be of monetary value, but for archaeologists they are priceless, says McIntosh.
Archaeologists have long suspected that there may have been early maritime trading routes that linked East Africa, Arabia, India and the Spice Islands even 1,000 years ago.
Or the coins could've washed ashore after a shipwreck.
When Isenberg discovered the copper coins he also found four coins that originated from the Dutch East India Company - with one dating back to 1690 raising memories of those early Dutch seafarers that stepped on Australian shores well before Cook.
McIntosh wants to answer some of these mysteries during his planned expedition to the Wessel Islands in July.
And it's not only about revisiting the beach that was marked with an "X" on Isenberg's map.
He will also be looking for a secret cave Aboriginal legends talk about.
This cave is supposed to be close to the beach where Isenberg once found the coins and is said to be filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era.
Should McIntosh and his team find what they are looking for, the find might not only be priceless treasure, but relics that could rewrite Australian history.

Words that the Internet Gave Us

The Interweb isn't all lolcats and fail memes, in fact it has given us a few new and very interesting words. Tom Chatfield wrote about them in his new book Netymology:

2. Hashtags
In 1920s America, the # sign served as a shorthand for weight in pounds (and they still call it the pound sign). It was first brought to a wider public thanks to its adoption by telephone engineers at Bell Labs in the 1960s as the generic function symbol on their new touch-tone phones – and if you're looking to sound clever, you could call it an "octothorpe", the tongue-in-cheek term coined at Bell to describe it. It's on Twitter, though, that hashtags have really come into their own, serving as a kind of function code for social interaction #ifyoulikethatkindofthing.
8. Meh
There's a special place in my heart for the supremely useful three letters of "meh", which express an almost infinitely flexible contemporary species of indifference. In its basic exclamatory form, it suggests something along the lines of "OK, whatever". As an adjective, it takes on a more ineffable flavour: "it was all very meh". You can even use it as a noun: "I stand by my meh." Apparently first recorded in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, some theories trace meh back to the disdainful Yiddish term mnyeh. Its ascent towards canonical status, though, embodies a thoroughly digital breed of boredom.
9. Cupertinos
Also known as "auto-correct errors", a Cupertino error occurs when your computer thinks it knows what you're trying to say better than you do. The name comes from an early spell checker program, which knew the word Cupertino - the Californian city where Apple has its headquarters - but not the word "cooperation". All the cooperations in a document might thus be automatically "corrected" into Cupertinos. Courtesy of smartphones, Cupertinos today are a richer field than ever – a personal favourite being my last phone's determination to transform "Facebook" into "ravenous".

Tom has a few more examples over at The Guardian.

Scientists capture first direct proof of Hofstadter butterfly effect

Scientists capture first direct proof of Hofstadter butterfly effect

A team of researchers from several universities – including UCF –has observed a rare quantum physics effect that produces a repeating butterfly-shaped energy spectrum in a magnetic field, confirming the longstanding prediction of the quantum [...]

Random Celebrity Photo

Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946)

Facial Reconstructions Of Famous Historical Figures

Why look at a painting of a historical figure when you can come face to face with one? Forensic facial reconstruction using scans of skeletal remains allows researchers to create 3D models of the face through a combination of science, history, and artistic interpretation. The results may be somewhat subjective, but they're fascinating anyway.

Here are 10 facial reconstructions of famous people.

Cambrian Fossil With Scissor-Like Claws Is Named For Johnny Depp

If you discovered a new species of prehistoric arthropod fossil with scissor-like appendages, what you you name it? Name it Kooteninchela deppi, in honor of the actor who played Edward Scissorhands!

“When I first saw the pair of isolated claws in the fossil records of this species I could not help but think of Edward Scissorhands,” says researcher David Legg, who conducted the research into the fossil as part of his PhD at Imperial College London, in a statement. “Even the genus name, Kootenichela, includes the reference to this film as ‘chela’ is Latin for claws or scissors. In truth, I am also a bit of a Depp fan and so what better way to honour the man than to immortalise him as an ancient creature that once roamed the sea?”

Kooteninchela deppi scoured the sea floor for other animals to eat. It is thought to be an ancestor of modern scorpions, centipedes, and crabs. More

X-ray Tomography on a Living Frog Embryo

X-ray Tomography on a Living Frog Embryo

Classical X-ray radiographs provide information about internal, absorptive structures of organisms such as bones. Alternatively, X-rays can also image soft tissues throughout early embryonic development of vertebrates. Related to this, a new X-ray method was [...]

Random Photo

Rescued dog found nursing kitten

A dog found lost and hurt in South Carolina was discovered to be caring for a tiny, nursing kitten. When Anderson Animal Control Officer Michelle Smith climbed down a steep embankment in Anderson to rescue a yelping dog, she saw a black-and-white Shih Tzu- mix curled in a tangle of bushes and briars. But when she blinked and looked again, she spotted a tiny kitten nestled next to the dog, suckling milk from her.

"I didn’t know what to think," she said. "I was shocked and surprised and then of course, awww." The dog and kitten received the same reaction when Smith took them to the animal shelter. Volunteers marveled at the way the dog, which is at least 5 years old, looks out for the 5-week-old kitten. Jessica Cwynar, director of the shelter, says such behavior is natural for mammals.

"It would be like one of us seeing a neglected or abandoned child and taking it under our wing," she said. Cwynar said the dog likely experienced a surge of hormones that induced milk production. "She’s producing some, but not all that (the kitten) will need nutrition-wise," Cwynar said. Volunteers are feeding the kitten tiny bottles of milk, a meal her canine mother likes as well.

YouTube link. Original video.

The dog’s striped collar and clean fur means that someone is likely missing her. "She is someone’s pet because she has been groomed and has been well taken care of," Cwynar said. There is already a long line of would-be foster and adoption candidates for the pair, but Cwynar hopes that the dog’s owner comes forward and is willing to adopt a kitten. If that happens, the animal shelter will verify the dog’s ownership through veterinary or grooming records.

Coyote pup saved after close encounter with cactus

A coyote pup in Arizona is on the mend after suffering an unpleasant encounter with a cholla cactus this week. Sun City West resident Gwen Maxwell said she went for a walk on Tuesday morning when she saw what she thought was a small puppy across the street. Maxwell said the animal crawled under some bushes, and eventually disappeared.

Training Honeybees to Find Land Mines

In Croatia, unexploded mines dot the landscape and still kill people who find them. But a new animal is being trained to locate them for us: honeybees.

Nikola Kezic, an expert on the behavior of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day in a large net tent filled with the buzzing insects on a grass field lined with acacia trees. The professor at Zagreb University outlined the idea for the experiment: Bees have a perfect sense of smell that can quickly detect the scent of the explosives. They are being trained to identify their food with the scent of TNT.

“Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied,” said Kezic, who leads a part of a larger multimillion-euro program, called “Tiramisu,” sponsored by the EU to detect land mines on the continent.

Several feeding points were set up on the ground around the tent, but only a few have TNT particles in them. The method of training the bees by authenticating the scent of explosives with the food they eat appears to work: bees gather mainly at the pots containing a sugar solution mixed with TNT, and not the ones that have a different smell.

It may be quite some time before the experiment reaches actual land mines. Training a few bees is completely different from training an entire colony. More

Dove builds nest in traffic light at Cuckoo Corner

A dove has built its nest in front of a red traffic light in Essex.

The bird moved into its new home at Cuckoo Corner in Southend, despite the lights having anti-bird spikes fitted.

The RSPB said the light would provide heat for the collared dove.

Frank Varga, RSPB officer, said: "It's happy and using the deterrent to support its nest, so well done."

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

If we all did this they would learn their lesson very quickly ...

Carolina Naturally is read in 191 countries around the world daily.

Oh, sure that scale is accurate! ...

Today is Weights and Measures Day

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

325   The Ecumenical council is inaugurated by Emperor Constantine in Nicea.  
1303   A peace treaty is signed between England and France.  
1347   Cola di Rienzo takes the title of tribune in Rome.  
1520   Hernando Cortes defeats Spanish troops sent against him in Mexico.  
1690   England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of James II.  
1674   John Sobieski becomes Poland's first king.  
1774   Parliament passes the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts close the port of Boston.  
1775   North Carolina becomes the first colony to declare its independence.  
1784   The Peace of Versailles ends a war between France, England, and Holland.  
1799   Napoleon Bonaparte orders a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt.  
1859   A force of Austrians collide with Piedmontese cavalry at the village of Montebello, in northern Italy. 1861   North Carolina becomes the last state to secede from the Union.  
1862   President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to settlers in the West.  
1874   Levi Strauss begins marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.  
1902   The U.S. military occupation of Cuba ends.  
1927   Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York for Paris.  
1930   The first airplane is catapulted from a dirigible.  
1932   Amelia Earhart lands near Londonderry, Ireland, to become the first woman fly solo across the Atlantic.  
1939   Pan American Airways starts the first regular passenger service across the Atlantic.  
1941   Germany invades Crete by air.  
1942   Japan completes the conquest of Burma.  
1951   During the Korean War, U.S. Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first jet air ace in history. 1961   A white mob attacks civil rights activists in Montgomery, Alabama.  
1969   In South Vietnam, troops of the 101st Airborne Division reach the top of Hill 937 after nine days of fighting entrenched North Vietnamese forces.  
1970  100,000 people march in New York, supporting U.S. policies in Vietnam.

Non Sequitur

Real Time

From Raw Story...

Maher: repugican cabal has moved beyond obstruction to treason

By David Ferguson

On Friday night's edition of "Real Time with Bill Maher," host Bill Maher and guests filmmaker Michael Moore, commentator S. E. Cupp and New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin discussed the obstructionist repugican Congress and its mission to take down the president by taking down the country. Moore opined that the repugican cabal is a "squealing dinosaur" whose time has come.

Maher began the segment by talking about how prices among top health insurers are falling since the implementation of Obamacare.

"They did a test and they put, you know, what insurance would cost if you were a 40-year-old, non-smoker and instantly, the two highest priced insurers went down," Maher said.

"This is the heart of Obama," he said. "This is the heart of capitalism. I'm wondering why the people who love the free market so much are not for this."

"And what about trying to repeal it for the 37th time?" he went on. "Is that a wise use of our time and resources? At some point, obstruction becomes, um, I dunno, treason."

He went on to list how repugicans are blocking the nominations of a new head for the EPA, a chief circuit court judge for the city of Washington, D.C. and dozens of other government posts that are going unfilled because repugicans won't let any of Obama's nominees get voted on in Congress.

"At some point," Maher said, "it becomes more about hating him than loving our country."

"No, they hate America," said Moore. "I think that's really what it is."

He went on to say that "repugicans and wingnuts," as much as they profess to love this country, "they hate it. They hate the government, they hate the people."

A repugican Senator worries Obama will create Hitler

The repugican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa tweeted decided that Saturday morning would be a good time to tweet about Hitler. Seriously.
As Lisa M notes:

I have one question for Grassley.
How can President Obama create Hitler when he is Hitler?

There’s Drudge comparing President Obama to Hitler.

And the tea party comparing President Obama to Hitler.

And more tea party.

 

And the time Drudge compared Obama doing a photo opp with kids to Hitler using kids in photo opps.

Okay, two questions: Does this mean Governor Cuomo is making a grab for Poland?

The truth hurts

NYPD wrongfully seize SD card

And even then they seize the wrong SD card

Photography is not a Crime shares the story:

New York City police officers arrested a woman who was video recording them from a public sidewalk as they conducted some type of “vehicle safety checkpoint.” The officers apparently stole a memory card from a camera, which turned out to be the wrong one, allowing us to view the video.

Nutella Lawyers Hate That Fans Love Nutella

Sara Rosso loves Nutella. In fact, she loved it so much that seven years ago, the hazelnut chocolate spread superfan founded World Nutella Day, a celebration of all things Nutella.
Over the years, the event grew from a few food bloggers posting recipes to thousands of participants Tweeting, pinning recipes on Pinterest, making songs, poems, and short films.
It's not surprising, because, as you know, yummy Nutella goes with everything. Well, almost everything. There's one thing that doesn't mix well with Nutella and its fans: lawyers.
Sara Rosso wrote on World Nutella Day's website:

On May 25, 2013, I’ll be darkening the World Nutella Day site, nutelladay.com, and all social media presence (Facebook, Twitter), in compliance with a cease-and-desist I received from lawyers representing Ferrero, SpA (makers of Nutella).
Seven years after the first World Nutella Day in 2007, I never thought the idea of dedicating a day to come together for the love of a certain hazelnut spread would be embraced by so many people! I’ve seen the event grow from a few hundred food bloggers posting recipes to thousands of people Tweeting about it, pinning recipes on Pinterest, and posting their own contributions on Facebook! There have been songs sung about it, short films created for it, poems written for it, recipes tested for it, and photos taken for it.
The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I’ve had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero, SpA., and with their public relations and brand strategy consultants, and I’ve always tried to collaborate and work together in the spirit and goodwill of a fan-run celebration of a spread I (to this day) still eat.
I have hope that this is not a goodbye to World Nutella Day forever, for the fans’ sake, and hopefully it will live on in one form or another in the future.

Nutella dissing its fans? Now that's just plain nuts: More.

Reality is ...

Top UK government officials tamper with inquest into Brit assassinated by Russian spies in London, suppress evidence

Marina Litvinenko, widow of Alexander Litvinenko (a British citizen who was assassinated in London by two former KGB agents who poisoned him with radioactive polonium) has accused the British government, Secretary of State William Hague, and PM David Cameron of sabotaging the coroner's inquest into her husband's death. Hague and Cameron intervened in the coroner's hearing to seal key evidence that implicated the Russian government in Litvinenko's killing.
Sir Robert Owen, who is leading the inquest and who has seen the material, characterised it as "documents that examined whether UK officials could have done more to prevent his murder." 's widow says that this is part of "a secret political deal with the Kremlin." This comes against a charm offensive by the UK government to increase Russian investment in Britain.

The former Labor government severed all contacts with Russia's FSB spy agency in 2007 after concluding it had played a leading role in Litvinenko's assassination. Putin is the agency's former chief.
Mrs Litvinenko added: "This is a very sad day, a tragedy for British justice which has until now been respected around the world, and a frightening precedent for all of those who have been trying so hard to expose the crimes committed by a conspiracy of organized criminals who operate inside the Kremlin."
In his ruling (pdf), Owen said the inquest scheduled to take place later this year might now result in an "incomplete, misleading and unfair" verdict.
The coroner said he would consider inviting Theresa May, the home secretary, to hold a public inquiry instead. The inquiry could hear the sensitive evidence buried by Hague in secret sessions.

Alexander Litvinenko widow accuses William Hague of sabotaging inquest

The Canadian government turns the national science agenda over to incumbent big businesses

Apparently the wingnut government has decided that government research labs should be concentrating on science in the public interest ... oops, I mean, science in *industry's* interest. A major overhaul of national science policy requires these labs to begin "Conducting collaborative R&D projects with private industry, sharing the costs and the risks."
Notice, that's research in the service of *existing* industries. So government labs can help the current rich get richer, but may not create whole new industries. An applied mathematician might describe this as: you are allowed to climb toward the top of the hill you are on now, but not allowed to jump to other hills which may reach much higher. ...And your applied mathematician consultant would tell you that this is not a way likely to find a global maximum, merely a local one. Maybe the Conservative government should listen to some scientists before ruining science policy.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of wingnut government attacks on science in Canada, which has included muzzling scientists and shutting down the Experimental Lakes Area -- "Canada's LHC," the world's leading site for critical research on freshwater systems.

Research council’s makeover leaves Canadian industry setting the agenda 

Alabama city destroying ancient Indian mound for Sam's Club

City leaders in Oxford, Ala. have approved the destruction of a 1,500-year-old Native American ceremonial mound and are using the dirt as fill for a new Sam's Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart.{C}A University of Alabama archaeology report commissioned by the city found that the site was historically significant as the largest of several ancient stone and earthen mounds throughout the Choccolocco Valley. But Oxford Mayor Leon Smith -- whose campaign has financial connections to firms involved in the $2.6 million no-bid project -- insists the mound is not man-made and was used only to "send smoke signals."
"The City of Oxford and its archaeological advisers have completed a review and evaluation of a stone mound that was identified near Boiling Springs, Calhoun County, Alabama, and have concluded that the mound is the result of natural phenomena and does not meet the eligibility criteria for the Natural [sic] Register of Historic Places," according to a news release Smith issued last week.
In fact, the report does not conclude the mound is a result of "natural phenomena" but says very clearly it is of "cultural origin." And while the University's Office of Archaeological Research does not believe the site qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places, the Alabama Historical Commission disagrees, noting that the structure meets at least three criteria for inclusion: its "association with a broad pattern of history," architecture "embodying distinctive characteristics," and for the information it might yield to scholars.
The site is also significant to Native Americans. The Woodland and Mississippian cultures that inhabited the Southeast and Midwest before Europeans arrived constructed and used these mounds for various rituals, which may have included funerals. There are concerns that human remains may be present at the site, though none have been found yet.
United South and Eastern Tribes, a nonprofit coalition of 25 federally recognized tribes from Maine to Texas, passed a resolution in 2007 calling for the preservation of such structures, which it calls "prayer in stone." Native Americans have held protests against the mound's demolition, and last week someone altered a sign for the Leon Smith Parkway that runs past the development to read "Indian Mound Pkwy."
A local resident named Johnny Rollins told the Anniston Star how his Native American grandmother taught him that when she died he could "go to that mountain" to talk to her:

"It seems like it's taking part of you away," he said of the demolition. "I always felt I had ties to that there."

Since the media began reporting on the site's demolition, city officials have revised their story and are now claiming that dirt from the mound is not being used as fill, despite earlier statements to the contrary. But eyewitnesses say they have seen workers hauling dirt from the mound to the Sam's Club development.
"I mean really, I went there, saw the giant trucks deliver the earth straight from the mound to the construction site, and I still can't believe what they are doing," writes the seventh-generation Alabamian behind the blog Deep Fried Kudzu. She shared the photo above showing roads for construction vehicles now cut to the top of the mound and has other photos and her story of visiting the site at the website.
'More prettier' than an Indian mound
Deepening the development's controversy is how the contracting has been handled. The force behind the project is Oxford's Commercial Development Authority, a public board that uses taxpayer money to lure businesses to the area. The CDA owns the land where the mound is located.
Alabama law exempts CDAs from bid requirements, which means contracts can go to whomever the board chooses. A recent Anniston Star investigative series about the CDA  revealed among other things that the group has awarded nearly $9 million in contracts since 1994 but has taken bids for none of them.
The newspaper also detailed the financial ties between the CDA, firms it does business with, and Mayor Smith's political campaign.
For example, the $2.6 million contract for preparing the Sam's Club site went to Oxford-based Taylor Corp., with the money for that coming in part from the sale of city property to Georgia-based developers Abernathy and Timberlake. Taylor Corp. owner Tommy Taylor, who has received thousands of dollars in city contracts for non-CDA work, donated $1,000 to Smith in 2004 and $1,000 in 2008, while Abernathy and Timberlake donated $1,000 to Smith's re-election campaign in 2004, the paper reports.
The Anniston Star also found that the CDA paid engineering firm Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood of Montgomery, Ala. $45,000 in engineering contracts for the Sam's Club project, with part of that money paying for the archaeological study. The firm contributed $500 to Smith in 2004.
An Alabama Ethics Commission official said the relationships could violate state law "depending on facts," but the mayor said he's done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, the controversy over the damaged mound's fate rages on. After getting an earful from alarmed preservationists, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) forwarded their concerns to the state Historical Commission -- but said his office has no intention of getting involved. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Tommy Taylor contributed $1,000 to Riley's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, while Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood contributed $1,500.
For now, it appears Oxford officials are pressing ahead with the project. As Mayor Smith said in its defense, "What it's going to be is more prettier than it is today."

The ship graveyard ... ahem ... salvage yard

"This is the biggest ship graveyard in the world - where huge tankers and cruise liners are scrapped on the shorefront by teams of laborers using little more than hand tools. The job is considered one of the most dangerous in the world with workers earning a pittance of just £2.25 a day. But amazingly there is no shortage of willing recruits."

The truth be told

Death, be not infrequent

The oldest person in the world died this year. But don't worry if you missed the event. The oldest person in the world will likely die next year, as well. In fact, according to mathematician Marc van Leeuwen, an "oldest person in the world" will die roughly every .65 years. 

‘Brainstorm’ device could wirelessly detect brain bleeding

‘Brainstorm’ device could wirelessly detect brain bleeding

New technology developed at the University of California, Berkeley, is using wireless signals to provide real-time, non-invasive diagnoses of brain swelling or bleeding. The device analyzes data from low energy electromagnetic waves that are similar [...]

Vintage behind-the-scenes photos at the American Museum of Natural History

From the American Museum of Natural History's excellent photo archive. Seen above, a millipede installing a model of a man in "The Forest Floor" diorama, 1958. 

What People Eat For Breakfast Around The World

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, keeping us healthy and sharp. But breakfast foods vary wildly from place to place. Take a look at some classic breakfast choices from countries around the world.