Gifts from my granddaughter

Sometimes it is good to have nine year old granddaughter because you get things like is in your inbox:

Friend: calls your parents by mr.... and mrs.

Best friend: calls your parents dad and mom.

Friend: has never seen you cry

Best Friend: has always had the best shoulder to cry on

Friend: never asks for anything to eat or drink

Best friend: opens the fridge and makes herself at home

Friend: asks you to write down your number.

Best friend : they ask you for their number ( cuz they can't remember it)

Friend: borrows your stuff for a few days then gives it back

Best friend: has a closet full of your stuff

Friend: only knows a few things about you

Best friend: could write a biography on your life

Friend: will leave you behind if that is what the crowd is doing

Best friend: will always go with you

Chatter

In today's installment of our long running segment "Chatter" we find that as predicted by almost everyone in the world who predicts such things ... that the wing-nuts are retreating to 'their' forums and leaving the open forums where the conversations have turned to cooperation and progressing forward.

As I have read through several forums I read on a steady basis I have noticed this as well, with one exception of a supposedly 'open' forum that has consistently proved itself to be a wing-nut forum with the same hatred and venom that are to be found on the avowed wing-nut forums staining its threads. This has increased in the last two days since President Obama took control from the usurper.

Unfortunately, we will have to endure the wing-nuts blathering on about me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, that they have for the last 100 years and the hate and bile they spew for everyone not of their dogma.

Fortunately, we will not have to endure the wing-nuts blathering on about me, me, me, mine, mine, mine, that they have for the last 100 years and the hate and bile they spew for everyone not of their dogma.

Huh, you say?

How can both statements be true?

Good question.

They both can be true because the wing-nuts have been pushed back into their fetid swamps and under the rocks which beneath they slithered from, and therefore well will not have to endure their mewlings unless we are brain-dead or slip on a bar of soap when tuning the radio dial and it lands on one of those obscure stations that still will be trying to air their hatred.

For the rest of the world we will be looking forward, moving forward, not forgetting the past nor dewelling in it either.

News of Guantanamo's closure welcomed worldwide

Former detainees, human-rights advocates and government officials around the world welcomed President Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, saying it helped restore their faith in the United States.

Ambulatory Abe

Pinky and the Brain

Man arrested for shouting complaints about "Arab types" on Turkish Airlines flight

From the "There is always some stupid and ignorant one in the crowd " Department:

An "American of German origin" was kicked off a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to New York for standing up and shouting loud complains about all the "Arab types" on the plane:

Daniel Sussman Pincus, whose age and hometown were not given but who was described in one report as an American of German origin, shouted his complaints as the flight was preparing to depart Monday.

PLANE CRAZY

Obama adminstration brings back the Freedom of Information Act and transparency in government

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Marcia Hofmann has a report card on transparent government measures undertaken by the Obama administration on its first day in office. The news is pretty damned good: they've reversed Ashcroft's restrictions on Freedom of Information Act requests as well as changes to the Presidential Records Act, and have adopted general principles on transparency and open government.

According to Obama's memo: "All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA."

This statement is almost certainly meant to address a controversial memo issued by John Ashcroft in the wake of 9/11, which ordered agencies to disclose information only after considering all possible reasons to withhold it, and assured them that government lawyers would defend their decisions in court unless they had no "sound legal basis." Many open government advocates believe Ashcroft's policy effectively gutted the FOIA over the past several years. Today's memo doesn't explicitly reverse that policy, but directs the incoming attorney general to issue new FOIA guidelines to agencies "reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency." This is a big step in the right direction.

The memo doesn't stop there. It goes on to say: "The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and down by their Government. Disclosure should be timely."

On Day One, Obama Demands Open Government

We have our country back and out of the hands of despots!

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You're pretty good at finding buried treasure.

True, Very true!

Liars and Fools

Today's Liars and Fools:

Faux News' Chris Wallace: Is Obama even President?

Hannity hates the right to counsel

President Obama Halts the Insane One's "Midnight Regulations"

President Obama ordered all federal agencies and departments on Tuesday to stop any pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting last-minute Bush orders in their tracks.

"This afternoon, Rahm Emanuel signed a memorandum sent to all agencies and departments to stop all pending regulations until a legal and policy review can be conducted by the Obama administration," the White House said in a statement issued just hours after President Obama took office.

The review is a tool commonly used by a new administration to delay so-called "midnight regulations" put in place by insane former presidents between the election and Inauguration Day.

Full story here.

Moment of Silence Law Ruled Unconstitutional

“A federal judge has ruled unconstitutional a law passed by the Illinois legislature requiring the state’s schools to require a moment of prayer or reflection on the day’s activities.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman ruled Wednesday the law crosses the line separating church and state under the Constitution. He says in his ruling that the statute is a “subtle effort” to force students at “impressionable ages” to think about religion.”

Full Story in The Daily Herald

Net-based pressure forces UK government to cancel plans to make MPs' expenses secret

The vote on concealing British MPs' expenses has been cancelled by the government!
(This was a proposed law that would have made MPs' expenses a secret, not available through Freedom of Information requests)

Over 7000 people joined a Facebook group, they sent thousands of emails to over 90% of all MPs.
Hundreds of thousands of people found out about the story by emails, blogs, by visiting TheyWorkForYou to find something they wanted to know, reading an email alert, or simply discovered what was going on whilst checking their Facebook or Twitter pages.

Almost all of this happened, out of nowhere, within 48 hours, putting enough pressure on Parliament to force change. mySociety also asks if you want even more transparency in parliament that you join the Free Our Bills campaign."

Blimey. It looks like the Internets won

Biology lecture "gig posters"

The UNC Chapel Hill Biology Department creates sharp "concert posters" for their distinguished lecture series. Each poster is 9" x 22" and hand screenprinted by The Merch, a Chapel Hill design group.
They make you want to go to a lecture.

See some here

Son of a preacher man

Dusty Springfield

Science News

New fault could mean major Arkansas temblor

A previously unknown fault in eastern Arkansas could trigger a magnitude 7 earthquake with an epicenter near a major natural gas pipeline, a scientist said today.
Haydar Al-Shukri, the director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said the fault is separate from the New Madrid fault responsible for a series of quakes in 1811-12 that caused the Mississippi River to flow backward.

Acres of cotton fields cover the fault west of Marianna, about 100 miles east of Little Rock, but stretches of fine sand mixed with fertile soil gave away the fault's location. Liquefied sand bubbled up through cracks in the earth, while ground radar and digs showed vents that let the sand reach the surface.The fault, likely created in the last 5,000 years, sparked at least one magnitude 7 earthquake in its history. Such temblors cause massive destruction in their wake.

"This is a very, very dangerous (area) at risk of earthquake," Al-Shukri said. "When you talk about (magnitude) 7 and plus, this is going to be a major disaster."

Hundreds of earthquakes occur each year, including several in Arkansas. Most Arkansas earthquakes occur in the state's northeast corner in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, but Al-Shukri said the Marianna fault was not connected because it was too far from the temblors caused by that zone.

During the winter of 1811 and 1812, a series of three earthquakes with magnitudes of around 8 struck the zone and much smaller temblors continue to hit today.

The presidential oath of office

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Isn't nice to have someone who understands and believes in the oath of the President of the United States serving as a legitimately elected President!

Manhattan Project plutonium has been inside a rusting safe in a pit in WA since 1943

Manhattan Project plutonium has been inside a rusting safe in a pit in WA since 1943

Researchers have found the oldest ever sample of weapons grade plutonium - inside a beaten up old safe at the bottom of a pit.
The plutonium was the first batch produced as part of the Manhattan Project, but predates the first nuclear weapon test - Trinity - by seven months.

The potentially dangerous find was made at Hanford, Washington State, the site of a nuclear reservation, established in 1943 to support the US's pioneering nuclear weapons program.

Hanford made the plutonium-239 for Trinity, the first ever nuclear weapon test, on 16 July 1945. Just three weeks later, more Hanford plutonium was used in the nuclear strikes on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But sloppy work by the contractors running the site saw all kinds of chemical and radioactive waste indiscriminately buried in pits underground over the 40 years Hanford was operational, earning it the accolade of the dirtiest place on Earth.

In 2004, clean-up work uncovered a battered, rusted, and broken old safe containing a glass jug inside which was 400 millilitres of plutonium...

Earliest weapons-grade plutonium found in US dump

Judge OKs 1st suspension in Gitmo cases

A military judge has agreed to President Obama's request to suspend the Guantanamo war crimes trial of Canadian Omar Khadr.

It is the first in a series of delays sought by Obama as his administration reviews the legal system for prosecuting alleged terrorists.

The written order came today in the Khadr case.

He is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.

Army Col. Patrick Parrish, the judge in the case, issued a written order granting the 120-day suspension without a hearing.

Obama administration moves to suspend Gitmo trials

Military judges will consider whether to halt the Guantanamo war crimes trials after President Obama ordered prosecutors to request a 120-day suspension during a review of the system used to try suspected terrorists.

The motions, filed just hours after Obama's inauguration, will be heard in the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and of Canadian Omar Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002.

"It has the practical effect of stopping the process, probably forever," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's defense lawyer.

Obama has said he will close the military detention center in Cuba, where the U.S. holds about 245 men, and he had been expected to halt the widely criticized war-crimes trials created by the shrub and the cabal in 2006.

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Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

Do what you already promised, and gain a nice benefit.

Cool!