At ease…

At ease… 28 September 2009

Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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Two Australian red kangaroos lie in the sun at Sydney Wildlife World. The red kangaroo is the largest living marsupial and Australia’s largest native land mammal, well adapted for Australia’s dry interior. An Australian psychologist had to be rescued from her office after a “frantic” kangaroo crashed through the window and leaped around the room, toppling furniture, reports said.
[Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images]

It def beats this horrific photograph. Swung thru the air, upside down, suspended from a helicopter… and at the end of the ride is a breeding station. I can see it in a rescue situation, but otherwise….

As for the “news”… what to say.

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1. marisacat - 28 September 2009: ugh… I caught the middle of the night rerun of MTP. Geesh. Bill C at the start, then Jim Webb and Kyl of AZ and now Paterson.

My god they are all doing so badly. Barely functional. Rote. Dead, asleep. Not present.

What a country.

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 28 September 2009: Watada Discharged

The Army grants the officer’s resignation under “other than honorable conditions.”

First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned military officer to refuse deployment to Iraq because he believed it was an illegal war, has won his three-year legal battle with the Army.

With little fanfare the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash., accepted the resignation of the 1996 Kalani High School graduate, and he will be discharged the first week in October.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: I read too that, along with “other than honorable”, the mil is not disclosing jsut what classification of discharge it is.

gah.

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catnip - 28 September 2009: That took long enough, didn’t it? No wonder the military so-called “justice” system has NFI how to deal with detainees/suspected terrorists. It takes forever to deal with what’s going on in its own ranks.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: Speaking of which… this just popped up in my inbox, the latest from Dahr Jamail:

[B]ishop, who served a 13-month deployment to Iraq and was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, was court marshaled by the Army for his refusal to deploy to Afghanistan. Given that he had already filed for CO status, many local observers called his sentencing a “politically driven prosecution.”

By holding Bishop incommunicado, the military violated Bishop’s legal right to counsel, a violation of the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, according to his civil defense attorney James Branum.

The Sixth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts, and reads, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

Attorney LeGrande Jones, who practices in Olympia and was designated by Branum as the local counsel for Bishop, was also denied access to Bishop, on the grounds that Jones was on an unnamed and unobtainable “watch-list,” which constitutes deprivation of counsel. . . . . . .

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Madman in the Marketplace - 28 September 2009: oh, fighting for our freedoms, indeed. Until they won’t KILL for them, then all bets are off.

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3. catnip - 28 September 2009: Two Australian red kangaroos lie in the sun at Sydney Wildlife World.

Eat your heart out, Burt Reynolds.

So, where are all of the cries of racism! over this?

Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has called US President Barack Obama “tanned” again and this time made a wisecrack about Michelle Obama’s skin colour as well.

Mr Berlusconi told a Milan rally of conservative supporters that he was bringing greetings from the United States from “What’s his name? Some tanned guy. Ah, Barack Obama!”

Shortly after Mr Obama’s election in November 2008, Mr Berlusconi raised eyebrows by saying the victor was “young, handsome, and even has a good tan”.

This time, Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul who began his career as a cruise ship entertainer, also made a jab at the First Lady.

“You won’t believe it,” he said, “but two of them went to the beach because the wife is also tanned”.

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BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: Oh Silvio. He’ll have em both in bed before long.
Then Al Rogers’ll put up the porno @ dailykos.

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BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: LOL. And frankly, judging from HuffPo’s
hillarious pic atop that venerable online Party Organ of theirs..

Obama seems game, a little frisky….
Becoming Progressively undressed, even.
Silvio!
He’s in bed with everybody else, so why not Burlesque-oni?
Could be fun.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: I’ll just say, he better get a flag tattoo over his heart… if he plans to take that shirt off…

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catnip - 28 September 2009: Al Rogers seems to be awol from dkos. Maybe he choked on his pom poms.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: Berlusconi is such a tired jokester… but imo that is what he is. But ti is tired. Elderly even. I think both Sarko (quite some commentary around from that quarter in the past few days as well…) and Berlusconi like to bait Ob. I mean, who else would see right thru the game the US is running but other “leaders”.

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4. CSTAR - 28 September 2009: 24 suicides at France Telecom since February. Gah

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CSTAR - 28 September 2009: February 2008, that is. Don’t want to exaggerate.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: I have read the silly protests from France Telecom that it is not out of line with national statistics. Gee, wouldn’t one think it should be LOWER? A good job with what once was a better than average (by far) employer? But from what I read not such a hot employer anymore…

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5. BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: JNF Hedger CEO plunges to death in Atlantic City.
Love how they’re putting it like it’s an Escalator Prolllllem .

Caesars Escalator Death
Second Death From Fall At Ceasars

Updated: Monday, 28 Sep 2009, 8:12 AM EDT
Published : Monday, 28 Sep 2009, 6:44 AM EDT

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – A hedge fund executive fell to his death from an escalator at the Pier Shops at Caesars.

James Vellanti died early Sunday morning and police continue to investigate.

Police were called to the mall, which is connected to the casino by a sky bridge, at 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

Vellanti lived in Clinton and was chief operating officer for the hedge fund JNF Asset Management LLC in New York. His age was not available.

JNF Asset Management?
Good luck getting the real story on this motherfucker.

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6. catnip - 28 September 2009: Gadhafi’s on Larry King tonite. Larry’s having a fun week. Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Bubba…

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7. catnip - 28 September 2009: Viral Sculptures

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 28 September 2009: Public water and charter schools

I’m guessing that Arne Duncan does not drink from public water fountains. I do (when I can find a working one). And that may be the fundamental difference between Arne and me.

Public fountains are disappearing because the concept of public is disappearing.

Public water fountains are not dangerous (unless cooties are real). Tap water is safe, and the spigots are designed to prevent contamination.

The rise of bottled water here in the States shows how a public institution can be demonized and replaced by a much more expensive privatized solution.

If you can put down the alcohol wipes to look at the numbers, though, you’ll learn that tap water is safe, and that the government standards for tap water are higher than the standards required for the commercial stuff.

Charter schools are like bottled water–they’re believed to be superior, and their standards are less stringent that their more public counterparts. (Yes, I know that charter schools are part of the public school systems, but they are not public in the sense that they equally accept all students. This difference matters.)

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: Don Fisher who jsut died, The Gap King… and The Downtown San Francisco Parking King… and The Local Modern Art King… was a lot of the money behind the “Kip” charter schools.

It bleeds money off the public school system… not that lots of other things do not. Slow but sure, being killed off.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 28 September 2009: Hoosier Grandmother Arrested for Purchasing Cold Medication

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: thank god she did not also purchase hydrogen peroxide. It’d be 50 years, no parole, a terrist. Fer sure.

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10. BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: Dealbook
Big Merger Deals Signal Restored Confidence
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN 3 minutes ago

A flurry of mergers in the last month suggest that the most senior ranks of corporate America may have a more optimistic outlook on the economy than some people thought.

Well OKAY! ALL’s WELL! As of 3 Minutes Ago!
Some felllah named Sorkin with the fuckin lede on the NYT says so!

That The most senior ranks of Corporate America have a –> “”””more optimistic outlook on the economy than some people thought””!!!

WHATEVER THAT MEANS! Whoever “Some People” Are!!
Who Knows?!? It’s All Prolly Good News in Palookaville Too!
I know, I know. The lede at the NYT. What was I thinking?
But Is it too much for me to expect that they fake it? LOL.~

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: I really thought the Dow would manage to get to 10,000 by……… Wednesday? October 1, when ever that is………

Cuz the Dow loves people out of work.

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BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: The cutbacks are everywhere.
In fact, I now can’t afford to post a “Market Update” without a tie in
along other lines…It’s rough, but here goes..

Market Update / Fall Decorating Ideas / Relationship Advice.

Jobs in the Pumpin Placer Sector Have fallen.
Sophisticated Market Watchers Bleak,
Noting sparse Gourd Placements at Clinton Home.

Pumpkins lonely, cold, perhaps aware of distance in the home.

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: Pumpkins await full employment. Coming soon. Check back.

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BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: Former Obama Campaign Workers seeking relief
take it as a positive sign, mistake Two Small Pumpkins as
Patronage Overture/ FoodBank donation meant for them. Offer thanks, then Divide Gourds 60,000 ways to Sunday, while professing it
a “nice lunch”.

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BooHooHooMan - 28 September 2009: Bowers, Hamster blog about it . ala Harlem Vittles with Bill.
Meant for Them. Plentiful and delicious.
Fishes and Loaves You Can Believe In. But A Pumpkin Story.
And Orange. Coverage cross-posted on FishTitter and Loafster.
Sort of a Daytime Starving Cinderella Eats Pumpkin Pieces Piece.
Grateful Orange carved smilies all around….after the brawl for scraps among toothless porch ornaments of one sort or other…

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marisacat - 28 September 2009: Pumpkin flavored popcorn. They distribute free 3-D sun glasses too!

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11. marisacat - 29 September 2009: So. very. shocking.

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Senate Finance Committee Votes Down a Government-Run Public Health Plan [3:00 p.m. ET]

For more on this and other breaking news go to ABCNews.com: http://abcnews.go.com?nwltr=bn

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catnip - 29 September 2009: Can I have some of that pumpkin flavoured popcorn now please? 🙂

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: only if you permit a promotional photo of you in the 3-D sun glasses.

We need to remember the popcorn era.

gah. what a mess we are in.

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catnip - 29 September 2009: Have to add that Kucinich was blasted (by slinkerwink et al) for a diary he wrote at dkos saying the public option wasn’t going to happen. Score one for Dennis.

A lesson in politics. The Kucinich Prediction: Here’s what’s going to happen …

1. House will make a big deal about keeping/putting a public option in HR3200 because it competes with insurance companies and will keep insurance rates low.

2. The White House will refer to the President’s speech last week where he spoke favorably of the public option.

3. The Senate will kill the competitive public option in favor of non-competitive “co-ops”. Senate leaders like Kent Conrad have said the votes to pass a public option were never there in the Senate.

4. The bill will come to a House-Senate Conference Committee without the public option.

5. House Democrats will be told to support the conference report on the legislation to support the President.

6. The bill will pass, not with a “public option” but with a private mandate requiring 30 million uninsured to buy private health insurance (if one doesn’t already have it). If you are broke, you may get a subsidy. If you are not broke, you will get a fine if you do not purchase insurance.

This legislative sausage will be celebrated as a new breakthrough and will be packaged as health insurance reform. However, the bill may require a Surgeon General’s warning label: Your Money or Your Life!

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: First thnig I heard when I woke was Hatch crowing.

As if the poor lame thiing known as “Public Option” ever had a chance.

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catnip - 29 September 2009: I heard Grassley this morning during the hearing. His line was that the public option would lead to single payer which would eventually (paraphrasing now) lead to communism.

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: well the Dems, of all stripes, were all over the country using the line of “vote for incrementalism!”… “we are your friends!”… AND ”Public Option will eventually lead to Single Payer!!… Believe us!”…

etc. The R grabbed that bullshit and used it.

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12. marisacat - 29 September 2009: Losing as you Lose. With friends like these… etc.

Poor Old Tired MM bought into that incrementalism, I am your friend and vote for Obama stuff.

Controversial liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday issued a warning to Democrats who have been cool to President Barack Obama’s call for meaningful health care reform: Get on board or prepare to lose your seat.

“To the Democrats in Congress who don’t quite get it: I want to offer a personal pledge. I – and a lot of other people – have every intention of removing you from Congress in the next election if you stand in the way of health care legislation that the people want,” Moore told supporters of women’s groups and unions gathered at the headquarters of the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “That is not a hollow or idle threat. We will come to your district and we will work against you, first in the primary and, if we have to, in the general election.”

Democrats have started to take for granted the support of women, unions and low-income workers, according to Moore, who is promoting “Capitalism: A Love Story,” a documentary about the financial collapse due for wide release Friday. . . . . . . . .

He’ll be used til he is useless… then invited to shut up and obey, like Babs Streisand. Great Revolutionary she was, with commanding multimillion dollar views of the Malibu Colony coast.. A Clinton hanger on, basically.

White meat liberals meet black xtian Dem conservatives, meet old time Southern White Whatevers.

A party made in hell.

Gah.

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: gee… don’t make me laugh TOO hard.

“When the majority use this film to organize with, get active with, get involved,” Moore predicted, “it will make what happened at those town hall meetings in August look like a Disney film.”

“Somebody – somebodies – have to light the spark. That’s why we’re all here today.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27703.html

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catnip - 29 September 2009: Well, he’s going to have a hard time convincing the conservadems who vote for those blue dogs to change their minds. Some of those blues are institutions in their states. And if push comes to shove, they can always pull a Lieberman and run as Indies to save their seats.

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: Bloooooooooooooooo=Boll Weevils.

And Bill C and Rahm actively courted them, all over the fucking country. Well this shitty lousy party calls Shumer a fucking LIBERAL.

They ran a fucking member of the Ohio (or Indiana, I forget now) RIGHT TO LIFE… and managed to keep it a secret from the coasts. Unless one was online.

(think I woke iwth a head ache or something, LOL)

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13. catnip - 29 September 2009: Brrreaking: The Dems lose another fundraiser. Norman Hsu sentenced to 24 years.

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14. catnip - 29 September 2009: Bat Loose in Congress lol

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15. catnip - 29 September 2009: This looks like a job for BHHM.

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16. marisacat - 29 September 2009: Mongiardo in KY… a dud every time the Dems have run him. Still a dud.

[I]n the recording, which was placed on YouTube by someone using the name “senrace2010,” [Lt Governor] Mongiardo is heard saying he is so frustrated with [Gov.] Beshear that he is “close to saying f— it all. I do not need this job. I do not need the U.S. Senate.”

Mongiardo is also heard saying that Beshear, who has endorsed Mongiardo, will be remembered as the state’s “worst” governor and that a “blowup” is coming….

In the recording of Mongiardo, he is heard saying “the only difference between (former Republican Gov. Ernie) Fletcher and Beshear is Beshear has not had a blowup yet. But it is coming.”

Mongiardo is also heard saying he has “zero loyalties with Beshear” and criticizes Beshear for raising funds for his 2011 re-election campaign while Mongiardo is trying to raise money for his U.S. Senate campaign next year.

“He (Beshear) is screwing me every way possible … and what do I get out of it … We finally begged him to show up for one in Northern Kentucky. He is not going to lift a finger, he is not going to do a damn thing, he is just going to show up and his name is going to be on the … listen there is no love.”

hmm I think we got it, Trouble in KY!

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17. marisacat - 29 September 2009: America! just view us as a cookie dispenser. Really!

Cookies for Sudan

As the Washington Post notes, Scott Gration’s carrot-heavy approach to Sudan really doesn’t sound much like Obama’s campaign-trail tough talk:

“We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration, who was appointed in March. “Kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.”

UPDATE: White House pushback.

By Ben Smith 10:02 AM

I so buy that. Not. As we arm some proxies.

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catnip - 29 September 2009: Where are the flowers and candies?

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catnip - 29 September 2009: And ponies. Kids and countries like ponies too.

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18. catnip - 29 September 2009: Oh puhlease.

Michelle Obama vows to strike Olympic gold for Chicago

WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to “take no prisoners” as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid.

“It’s a battle — we’re going to win — take no prisoners,” the first lady said with a smile at a roundtable discussion with reporters in the White House State Dining Room.

Well, if they do take prisoners they’ll always have Gitmo to stick them in.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 September 2009: Pat Buchanan on Morning Joe opined this morning that the only reason they were going was that they had it “wired” that Chicago was a done deal, that politically they wouldn’t have risked it otherwise. The old racist does seem to have a knack for the behind the scenes stuff.

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: Kristol says Ob will swing by Af-PakLand.

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: hmm apparently she somehow sat next to the wife of Lula da Silva… I guess at the G-Gaga… and they agreed to fight to the death in Copenhagen. After they had a friendly hug session whereever they were.

I think Rio should get the games. S America has never had them. let America and her wars and plutocrats and oligarchs and corp royalty subside.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 29 September 2009: too many commies down there to be allowed to celebrate international competition.

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19. marisacat - 29 September 2009: Oh that “people powered” conflab of flab… known as Democracy for America (formerly Dean for America) tells me the Public Option is not dead.

Not dead. Not dead. it’s not dead!, I guess til the Dems say it is. Or soemthing…

Email snip:

The good news is that Senators Bill Nelson and Tom Carper voted yes on Senator Schumer’s public option amendment. While that amendment still lost 10 to 13, these two Senators have never stated public support for any version of a public option before. So while the media is bound to claim a public option dead once again — they’ll also be wrong — once again, because support for passing healthcare reform with a public option is actually growing.

But make no mistake about it. If Senators Baucus and Snowe had voted for the amendment, all five healthcare reform bills in Congress — every single one of them — would have a public option in it. Instead, today we have a failure of leadership and Senator Baucus showed the way.

We’ve raised over $90,000 to plaster Montana with our heart wrenching ad featuring Bing Perrine and his family. But it’s not going to be enough to win. We need to make sure there isn’t a single Montana voter who doesn’t see this ad.
. . . . . .

SEND MONEY NOW! LATER TOO!

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20. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 September 2009: Fools for Empire

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: On that point, which I will analyze in additional detail shortly, I draw your attention to the discussion in “Played for Fools Yet Again” of how Digby, as just one example out of many, completely falls into the trap of debating what the “intelligence” allegedly proves. I emphasize again that when you enter into this debate on the terms selected by those who are intent upon increasing the power and wealth of the ruling class, you will always lose in the end. Even if one grants the “good intentions” of those who challenge the latest claims offered by our rulers, although one wonders how many times the same pattern can be repeated without people understanding how this game is played if the truth genuinely concerns them, the final result is unchanged: if war is necessary to the achievement of the ruling class’s goals, then war it will be, as it has been and is so often.

hmmm I’d rather have the gory old fairy tales… Grimm’s, Etc…. The old witch putting the wee chilluns in the stew pot. The sexual predator of the Wolf and LITTLE Red Riding Hood…

Instead we get serial wars.. and so on

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 September 2009: Vatican: Clergy Sexual Abuse Blown Out Of Proportion

According to The Guardian, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN, issued a statement saying “that rather than paedophilia, it would ‘be more correct’ to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males.” Actually, ephebophilia is an attraction to adolescents, period. These instances just happen to involve men and boys because of that whole women being ineligible for ordination thing. But hey, who among Vatican spokespeople can resist an opportunity to conflate ordinary gay men with sexual predators?

Tomasi:

“Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90% belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17.”

Oh, that’s much better. Psst, the age of consent in Italy is 16, when one of the participants is more than 3 years older and has some kind of influence over the other. Across Europe and South America, it ranges from 13 to 18. In North America, 15 to 18. Shall I go on, or can we just agree that even in many exceedingly Catholic countries, “Only 10-20% of our child rape victims were younger than 11!” is not fucking comforting? And come to think of it, neither are all the 11 to 13-year-olds, at the very least?

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marisacat - 29 September 2009: wonder what Sullification has to say about this.

When so called “liberal” women and gay men figure it out……………………….. IT WILL BE TOO LATE. Too late now…

The “old” story used to be that the commies lied about the priests. Now they are just gay, or sexual libertines left over from the 60s.

yeah right.

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22. marisacat - 29 September 2009: neue….

Cover-up…

…………… 😆 … 🙄 ………….

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