Whelmed Nation.

Whelmed Nation. 23 July 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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Farne Island puffins have been fitted with satellite tracking devices to monitor their behaviour after a sudden population collapse surprised scientists [Photograph: /Mark Pinder]

Still whelmed, overwhelmed… I see Angelina Jolie is in Iraq. Sure to help! Speech at the Council on Foreign Relations upon her return. Apparently Michael Jackson met his “secret love child” at a Tunisian hotel. I can see MJ stories going on ’til the end of this century, two more stories popped up just while I was at the Telegraph…. And… the Henry Louis Gates unfortunate meeting with Cambridge cops – Harvard Campus Police were there as well – has more chapters than the The Holy Bible. I think we will b beaten to death with these bible stories as well… after all, God is in the mix!

I am sure the puffins are gossiping… I’d love to hear what they are saying, for a change…

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1. CSTAR - 23 July 2009: At the supermarket checkout counter I saw a tabloid headline “video of Michael Jackson’s death”…

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moiv - 23 July 2009: They must have come across it on YouTube.

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2. CSTAR - 23 July 2009: What’s all this kerfuffle about red and blue pills? The blue one or the red one?

According to Wikipedia

In the movie, a Redpill is the term used to describe a human who has been freed from the Matrix, a fictional computer-generated world set in 1999. Bluepill refers to a human still connected to the Matrix.

“If there’s a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that’s going to make you well?”

This seems to be an infelicitous use of this metaphor. Also isn’t the blue pill viagra?

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marisacat - 23 July 2009: i thought he walked into a ton of mud puddles last night….

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brinn - 24 July 2009: I call bullshit on wiki — never once in any of the Matrix movies was the term ‘redpill’ or ‘bluepill’ ever used….

Yes, Laurence Fishburne’s character offered a CHOICE of blue or red to Neo in the first one, but as we were beat over the head with in the 2nd and 3rd ones….it is about CHOICE, not labeling….

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brinn - 24 July 2009: PS Please don’t take the above as a defense of Obie, in any way shape or form, or the Matrix movies for that matter! Although I loved Colbert’s use of the whole stupidass mess last night:

“OmiGOD! Heathcare reform is the matrix!! A dystopian future filled with chaos and leather trench coats! Floor length leather trench coats!!! ….[please see video if you missed it — outloud belly laughs I had]

Sure, the first part of you healthcare would be AMAZING! But, trust me, the next two parts would suck!”

very funny: http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=239580

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: oh don’t worry… I think he was trying to be ”professor” or something, tell us a story so we could learn, etc… it backfired overnight.

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3. marisacat - 23 July 2009: Amy had someone on from CREW, who filed the injunction to force the WH to release names of Big Fucking Health Execs Who Noodled with Obama Admin to the Public. Yes that would be Obama WH. Change… 😆 you know!

AMY GOODMAN: I want to just talk about some of the names, as they’ve released this, naming some of the healthcare executives who have made multiple trips to the Obama White House.

Richard Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital Association, has visited the White House eight times since Obama took office, beginning on February 3rd, two weeks after Obama’s inauguration. [and it was AHA that stiffed our Only Begotten Son, he swore he ad agreements with them and a day later they said NO, and it was Ubdenstock, in fact iirc… oh but look! Over there! Baucus took money!]

Former Congressman Billy Tauzin has visited five times, now head of the drug industry lobby, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA.

Dr. James Rohack, president-elect of the American Medical Association, has visited four times, as has Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group.

Other healthcare executives who have made multiple visits to the Obama White House include Jeffrey Kindler, CEO of drugmaker Pfizer; Stephen Hemsley, chief executive of UnitedHealth Group; George Halvorson, head of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan; Richard Clark, CEO of the Merck pharmaceutical company; Jay Gellert, CEO of Health Net; and Rick Smith, senior vice president of PhRMA, which Billy Tauzin heads.

it’s a line up! Send them to Jersey!

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4. marisacat - 23 July 2009: oh no. On Nightline Ob is going ot reveal his ”new and deeper spirituality”. Apparently it all has great “meaning”

Lemme out of here! Obviously a Date Night is soon to come. DIVERSION!

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marisacat - 23 July 2009: he discussed it to a backdrop of photos of MO and kits.

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marisacat - 23 July 2009: oh and to photos of Joshua Dubois his Religio director. Who sends him a daily religious meditation, via the BlackBerry.

And I STILL wanna know if when he, DuBois, preached at a Pentecostal church in Cambridge if he did it in TONGUES.

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5. CSTAR - 23 July 2009: Via kevin drum:

High Frequency Trading

Powerful computers, some housed right next to the machines that drive marketplaces like the New York Stock Exchange, enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense.

Some free market. And now Robert Hormats, a vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, has a top economics post at State. AS Max Keiser said, this is a coup.

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marisacat - 23 July 2009: out-manned, out-womaned and out-gunned. To steal from either August Wilson or Ishmael Reed.. I forget which wrote the play. Wilson I think.

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6. marisacat - 23 July 2009: ”Top Aides are leaving Ensign” …

LV Sun… this must mean something!

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Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: I guess his parents didn’t hand out enough money.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: I had not thought of that!

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7. marisacat - 23 July 2009: This is bad news. I had thought, last summer, that one thing he MIGHT do was to actually, at some point, close Gitmo. Only because it was such a Big Promise. One of the biggest. Not that the other bases and prisons and renditions would shut down, Oh no… but this tells me they may do nothing.

The Washington Post:

The Obama administration has declined requests from U.N. human rights investigators for information on secret prisons and for private interviews with inmates at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.N. officials said, dampening their hopes of greater U.S. cooperation on human rights issues.

The rebuffs are the latest instances of the U.S. government resisting international human rights organizations’ efforts to learn about Bush administration practices. In June, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton turned down a request from the top U.N. anti-torture official for a meeting in Washington to discuss practices at secret CIA detention centers and at Guantanamo Bay, despite the administration’s avowed commitment to being open to greater scrutiny by the United Nations. [transparenceee to a certainteee! –Mcat]

Two U.N. human rights researchers, Martin Scheinin and Manfred Nowak, separately requested visits to the Guantanamo Bay facility in recent months and were turned down. “They said, ‘We are trying to close down the institution. For the time being, we don’t see it as a priority,’ [does not even make sense] ” Scheinin said U.S. officials told him. “It was not a ‘no, no.’ It was a diplomatic ‘no.’ Let’s say dialogue will continue.”

…

The U.N. team probing secret prisons plans to publish a major report this year. The project will review the broader history of clandestine detention centers, starting with their use in Latin America from the 1970s onward, then delving into the Bush administration’s secret detentions and scrutinizing other countries suspected of still using such prisons.

The investigators will pursue the fate of scores of suspects who were not sent to Guantanamo Bay, including Mustafa Setmariam Naser, a dual Syrian-Spanish citizen who is thought to have been transferred to Syria, said Joanne Mariner, director of the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch’s terrorism and counterterrorism program. “They are interested in bringing to light some new cases,” she said.

…

Nowak said he wants to conduct private interviews with 14 “high value” detainees who were transferred from secret CIA prisons in 2006. But he also expressed concern about prevailing conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where a Yemeni detainee, Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih, apparently committed suicide last month. “I do think there is a genuine willingness by the Obama administration to tackle these issues. I just feel it is already taking a fairly long time to really change,” Nowak said.

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8. catnip - 24 July 2009: Obama Complains About the News Cycle but Dominates It, Worrying Some

WASHINGTON — It has become his common lament. Challenged about difficulties with his economic or legislative programs, President Obama complains about the tyranny of “the news cycle,” pronouncing the words with an air of above-it-all disdain for the impatience and fecklessness of today’s media culture.

Yet after six months in office, perhaps no other president has been more attuned to, or done more to dominate, the news cycle he disparages. Mr. Obama has given roughly three times as many interviews as George W. Bush and held four times as many prime-time news conferences as Bill Clinton had by comparable points in their terms.

In the past four days, Mr. Obama gave “exclusive” interviews to Jim Lehrer of PBS, Katie Couric of CBS and Meredith Vieira of NBC. He gave two interviews to The Washington Post on one day, one to the editorial page editor and one to news reporters. He held a conference call with bloggers. His hourlong session in the East Room on Wednesday night was his second news conference of the day. And on Thursday, he invited Terry Moran of ABC to spend the day with him for a “Nightline” special.

The all-Obama, all-the-time carpet bombing of the news media represents a strategy by a White House seeking to deploy its most effective asset in service of its goals, none more critical now than health care legislation. But longtime Washington hands warn that saturation coverage can diminish the power of his voice and lose public attention.

About 24.7 million viewers tuned in Wednesday, according to Nielsen ratings, some 4 million fewer than watched his last evening news conference in April and 25 million fewer than saw his first in February. Mr. Obama’s focus on health care produced what Chuck Todd of NBC described as a “snoozer conference,” a line the Republican National Committee happily adopted.

…

Past presidents have been more exclusive in giving exclusives, believing they would have more impact. In their first four months, Mr. Clinton gave 11 interviews and Mr. Bush gave 18, compared with 43 by Mr. Obama, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential communications scholar at Towson State University. That has accelerated in recent days as Mr. Obama popped up in venues like“Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN and “Dr. Nancy” on MSNBC.

“In part, he is omnipresent because news organizations want to carry news about him, his goals, and his initiatives,” Professor Kumar said. “If he does not use the space he has available to him, he risks ceding it to his critics.”

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said the current news media world left little choice. “You worry about overexposure maybe very deeply in the back of your mind,” Mr. Gibbs said. “But the way the media is structured these days and the fact that it is so segmented and split up means that in order to get something to go through, you’ve got to do multiple platforms.”

Surprised to learn that Gibbs has anything going on “very deeply in the back of [his] mind”.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: Fox won the night, they ran something or other, and it beat Obster.

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9. catnip - 24 July 2009: Cambridge cops news conference slamming Obamalama and asking for an apology. Popcorn!

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: So entertaining: Mr Obama Regrets. The furor. I really do think Obama, one, wanted a diversion (he got one!) and two, wanted to help his friends, Gates and Ogletree. One of the cheaper and smaller public uses of the pretzel’s bully pulpit. Mr Obama managed to build a mini Waterloo, all on his own.

Masterful, really.

The White House today said that President Obama “regrets” the furor his remarks on the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr. have caused, as the lawyer for the cop who arrested the black Harvard University professor said the officer may sue Gates for defamation.

Sgt. James Crowley and Obama respond to the ongoing debate.”I think he would regret if he realized how much of a overall distraction and obsession it would be,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

When asked if the president would apologize to the officer, as some police unions have demanded, Gibbs would only say that the president understands that the job police officers do is hard and that he has great respect for them.

Gibbs added that he did not expect Obama to have anything else to say about the incident. […]

Yes I so want a racial issue blown to the high heavens over Gates, a national courtier. So valuable a battle.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: 😆 at the end fo the article is Donna Brazile.

“Obama is the president for all American not just black Americans,” Brazile said. “He has enough on his plate as commander in chief — two wars, an economy in the tank — that he should not necessarily become the healer in chief.”

Guess she did not listen to the speeches. That is EXACTLY what he promised he was and would be.

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10. catnip - 24 July 2009: New phrase: eco-imperialism

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11. catnip - 24 July 2009: Irish law makes it illegal to speak blasphemy

If you visit Ireland after October, you’d better watch what you say about God.

A blasphemous slip of the tongue could cost you 25,000 euros under revamped legislation that will soon be signed into law.

Blasphemy is an act of challenging or offending a religious belief.

…

The bill states that a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if:

* He or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion.
* He or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.

The bill puts the onus on a defendant to prove that a reasonable person would find genuine literary, artistic, political, scientific, or academic value in the matter to which the offence relates.

Ah, the Dark Ages…such a misunderstood time!

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AlanSmithee - 24 July 2009: Well, you can see why the English wanted to hang on to the place so desperately. What’ll they bring back next? Primogeniture? Droit de Seigneur?

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Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: marrying your first cousin to preserve the line?

🙂

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: as Israel enacts laws that you may not speak ill of the occupier. Struck mention of the “naqba”…

And we are right behind them.

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12. wu ming - 24 July 2009: the latest iteration of california’s budget is finally getting close to done, and it’s looking wretched. an unabashed punishment of the voters for shooting down the politicians’ bullshit initiatives last special election, IMO, just as sitting on their hands w/ angelides in 06 was punishment for not electing the new dem silicon valley big money candidate westley.

to make it worse, the dems manage to pass all the GOP cuts and coastal oil drilling and bankruptcy-inducing robbery of local and city governments and absurd borrowing tricks that’ll have us back in an unforeseen emergency session/special election in 5 months or so, and the GOP votes no en masse after all their demands are met, laughing all the way to the bank, certain that come election day, they can grandstand on sacramento dems stealing local govt revenue, that they sagely voted against.

every time they do this, it makes the case all the more stronger that the dems really, really do not want to be the majority party. how fucking pathetic do you have to be to be taking dictation from a party that can’t win more than 34%?

when you outsuck the national dems, you’re beyond hope. california will be where the sucker’s bounce’s back is broken, and the new round of sliding begins. we clearly haven’t suffered enough yet.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: they collude. collaborate. connive. partake. hide behind.

It is a simple reality of faking out the base. Divvying up the electorate.

Arnold, imo, was sent to do a job. On a mission. And Dems helped every step of the way, beginning with the Recall. And day by day. To the Re Election. And now.

Watch Cali go down, watch Texas rise. Same plan that was behind the energy battles of 00/01. Of which Arnold was a participant. Same objective. Same goal. Same outcome.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: oh, here is another thing, if you think Obster is not a FULL PARTICIPANT in the current goings on with Arnold, you would be wrong.

Cali is a template.

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wu ming - 26 July 2009: the recent economist cover certainly tried to make that CA-TX comparison explicit.

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marisacat - 26 July 2009: i’ll check it out, thanks for the tip….

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13. catnip - 24 July 2009: Paging brinn: Christian right aims to change history lessons in Texas schools

The Christian right is making a fresh push to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas with the state’s education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.

Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state’s history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America’s moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.

Opponents have decried the move as an attempt to insert religious teachings in to the classroom by stealth, similar to the Christian right’s partially successful attempt to limit the teaching of evolution in biology lessons in Texas.

One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that “there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature”, that “there is a creator” and “government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual”.

Barton says children should be taught that Christianity is the key to “American exceptionalism” because the structure of its democratic system is a recognition that human beings are fallible, and that religion is at the heart of being a virtuous citizen.

I’m all for blaming Christianity for American exceptionalism – not for those reasons though.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: it DID made us exceptionally good at committing genocide.

There, I said it so you don’t have to!

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14. marisacat - 24 July 2009: Poor Ob. Still talking, he’s joined the press gaggle room…. Think he jsut threw Gates under the bus. (the police have yet to release the audio record, btw)

Guess the cops knocked on Ob’s door and someone told him to punt.

What a sad joke it all is. He’s weak.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: .. and now he is insisting he had every reason to step into a local issue.

And still talking. And talking. And talking. Quite the performance.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: Brrreaking the broken news.

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Obama Calls Cambridge Cop in Attempt to Defuse Controversy Over Gates’ Arrest [2:40 p.m. ET]

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

Maybe pretzel could take a few days off… and leave us all the hell alone.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: Maybe pretzel could take a few days off… and leave us all the hell alone.

Ramen.

I heard someone yesterday say that the only people who are “post-racial” in the US are the Obamas in the WH.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: And then he inserted himself in a testosterone pissing match (one good description I have read of the mess in the yellow house that Harvard owns) …

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15. BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: You’re not going to believe this Danielle, but…

36 Hours in Martha’s Vineyard
By DANIELLE PERGAMENT
Published: July 26, 2009

THE Democrats are back in power, which means Martha’s Vineyard is on the political radar again. The Kennedys have been coming since there were actual vineyards, Chelsea Clinton is reportedly tying the knot on the island and — oh, didn’t you hear? — the Obamas are on their way. But part of the Vineyard’s appeal is how easily it shrugs off snobbery, unlike other fancy playgrounds.

…after reading the gist of your first graf , Dear…
I found that I had inexplicably slipped into a breezy sundress and discovered myself wandering goo-eyed across the expansive lawn of our ancestral manse, past the acre-sized bed of day lilies leading past the dune grass to our private beach the size of Rhode Island. With an exquisitely clear pitcher of lemonade. For the help setting up the Day Tent.

You want breathless? We got breathless in Jersey.
Would you like lunch. We have lunch in New Jersey.
Boiled, Sun Baked Skunk.
Grilled.

RetrOOOOOOhGMAB.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: All I ask is that they go on vacation. No public endeavors. At all. From any of them.

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BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: Daddy (Ob)… Aunt Nan… Uncle Harry
what to do …what to do about summer vacation….

Daddy is going to be upset.
“Damn it we’re going on vacation”, he says.
“We must.” say Mommy too. Besides,
Mr. Emanual and Mr. Axelrod say so.
“Don’t you want to get our summer pictures taken?”, they say

Geh. The pridictable “Historic” (do-over) summer photo op ..
The VERY TOP of the Agenda for August.
All that predictable scheisse: football on the lawn,
sailing, definitely a picture of Dad sailing,

All those delusional , conflicting metaphors
speaking of commanding a carefree life…
Available to anyone. easy as pie…
a bucket of steamers in a $1000 /s.f. fishing shack…

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: Listening to Gibbs in the gaggle. Absolutely amazing.

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BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: The REAL Vacation?

Newport Light.

The accommodations ? Grand but not obviously so…
….but the cigarettes? DEFINITELY. And def not show-ey.

I’ve smoked every combustible material known to man except cigarettes.
But I’d have som sympathy for the guy if he either wore a patch on his forehead or, midway through a crawling reply to a Tapper question, he just came out and said “Mind If I smoke?”, whipped out the Zippo without waiting for reply, and fired up on National Television…
I mean something,-ANYTHING – …slightly authentic…

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: Maybe Laura could lend him some.. I heard she smoked Menthols.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: I found that I had inexplicably slipped into a breezy sundress

I’d pay good money to see that. 😉

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BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: LOL.

Hey speaking of funny I

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16. catnip - 24 July 2009: POLITICO Breaking News:
—————————————————–

In a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room, President Obama said he has spoken to Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley. “In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically,” Obama said.

Let’s rewind, shall we?

He said “the Cambridge police acted stupidly”. Maybe “maligning” has a different definition in his dictionary.

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17. BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: Whoops- I was going to say you and moiv had some rollicking posts in the last thread LOL. Moiv “fetus doll in the vending machine” and the “matching handbag with the man ” was a treat.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: it was a great thread!

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BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: Well I’m certainly glad you are happy!
With Evil Pot Cultivaters on The LOOSE out there!
And a Financial Earthquake about to
fracture off the entire State of Cali along the San Andreas Credit Default Line hurling it in a ride-able (we’re told)
repo wave towards Cheena.

Under the New Recovery program, after collateralizing all you heathens out there to partially satisfy our Obligations to Beijiing, we here in Eastern MississipoLobamia are planning to raise money at Neutered ‘Roots Nation !

How? Why Harvesting all those Neutered ORGANS from the multitudes in attendance! Not to mention from all the Joe Trippi and Pwoggie Blog sockpuppets to pay our debt of course!

Win/Win!

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: open season on growers… and I would guess on smaller medicinal pot dispensaries – and growers… it is the message sent already… they carefully went after a small new dispensary in SF a few months ago… one of the poorer little operations… Carefully went after the smallest of the medicinal growers a few months ago (a lot of single women, mothers, I read)… in which district I forget now I posted about it at the time, and about Emmalyn’s in SF, the dispensary.

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18. marisacat - 24 July 2009: Here is a laugh… even the tonsil pullers are “disapointed”

We, too, are in favor of evidence-based medicine that supports quality patient care. President Obama’s statement highlights the complexity of medical decisions like this. However, the AAO-HNS is disappointed by the President’s portrayal of the decision making processes by the physicians who perform these surgeries. In many cases, tonsillectomy may be a more effective treatment, and less costly, than prolonged or repeated treatments for an infected throat.

For the past several years, the Academy has been developing clinical guidelines based on evidence and outcomes research, including ‘Quality of Life after Tonsillectomy,’ a January 2008 supplement to the journal Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. We are in agreement with the President’s statement that physicians, patients, and hospitals should make the decisions, based on the evidence, about what’s best for patient care.

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19. catnip - 24 July 2009: Check out the big pout. lol

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: when the NYT reported a few days ago that MO would be stepping into the health care issue, they topped it with a really, and I mean REALLY, bad photo of her from June, at a health care function. It said volumes… These are writers and editors who, when recapping her bio for readers after the 17 pt win in WI, helpfully neglected to mention she worked in the Daly operation in Chicago. Helpfully “reported” but hid, at the end of page 3 in a muddled telling, her stifling an offered free innoculation of the HPV shots for young women in South Side Chicago… as part of her “diversity job” at University of Chicago Hospital.

Good Luck Obamas!

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catnip - 24 July 2009: So it’ll be MichelleCare, will it? That ought to go over well.

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20. catnip - 24 July 2009: This president can make me cry with no effort (13+ / 0-)

I know, i know, it’s super embarrassing.

“He wanted to know if i can get the press off his lawn. I told him that i can’t get the press off MY lawn” – Barack Obama.

by blackwaterdog on Fri Jul 24, 2009 at 01:03:49 PM MDT

*
* [new] God, I thought it was just me. (4+ / 0-)

Listening to him in the press conference the other day, I was just on the verge so many times, because his judgment, his temperament, his precise communication… it all just oozes presidential comportment.

I am so glad this man made it to the Whitehouse.

Nothing says “fancy” like feathers.

by LeanneB on Fri Jul 24, 2009 at 01:25:32 PM MDT

* [new] You should see the video of (3+ / 0-)

His statement to the press now. It’s magnificent.

“He wanted to know if i can get the press off his lawn. I told him that i can’t get the press off MY lawn” – Barack Obama.

by blackwaterdog on Fri Jul 24, 2009 at 01:37:35 PM MDT

I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: gotta love it when pretzel says, look at me I am weak. Rejoice. And weep wildly for the weepers will inherit nothing. Write my words down.. I am The Way and The Word.

Can this get droolier?

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catnip - 24 July 2009: Every time I see comments like that, I’m reminded of this JC Superstar song.

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21. marisacat - 24 July 2009: gah.

In twin interviews with Bloomberg, GOP Senator Grassley and Blue Dog Rep. Ross say they foresee a health bill by year’s end.

And they would be calling the shots.

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22. Intermittent Bystander - 24 July 2009: Puffins are wonderful creatures . . . I saw lots and lots of them at Witless Bay, a few years back.

😉

Because of their shape, they have to work extra hard in flight. Picture footballs with very speedy flippers.

It’s true. The whole world needs a vacation right about now.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: oh I did not know that about them in flight.. their bodies DO look very over weighted in the breast area….

I imagine them saying, Magda, I brought you a nice smooth stone.. don’t you like it? Bruno, a smooth stone? Bring me a fish!

Something like that… 😉

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Intermittent Bystander - 24 July 2009: LOL!

Heading out for vittles myself right now, but will stop by with additional puffin lore later.

BTW – Loved the baby elk and dogmother photo at the link a couple of posts ago. . . the correspondence in coloring and fur must have lent itself to the bonding; the dog’s expression seemed to speak volumes.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: oh wasn’t that a great one!? I loved it too.. that was a nice gallery. Very sweet….

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catnip - 24 July 2009: dead link for Witless Bay. (Ironic?) 😉

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Intermittent Bystander - 24 July 2009: It is an intriguing name, eh?!

http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/parks/wer/r_wbe/

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catnip - 24 July 2009: The Witless Bay Ecological Reserve contains four islands—Gull, Green, Great, and Pee Pee—that teem with bird life during the seabird breeding season.

No comment. 😉

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: Is Pee Pee the smallest? For the sake of its feelings I hope so. I mean, up against “Great”.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: 😆

I had to look up the history because you just never know why those Newfies do anything. (They are a different breed – no doubt about that.)

linky

Folklore states that one of the original European inhabitants of the area was a Captain Whittle and his family from Dorsetshire, England. The area was originally named after them, Whittle’s Bay. Upon the death of Captain Whittle, his widow and her children decided to return to England. Hence, the remaining settlers referred to Whittle’s Bay as Whittle less Bay and eventually, Witless Bay.

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Intermittent Bystander - 24 July 2009: Thank you for that, herbal one! I never knew the name’s origin, and I was there!

Mind you, I was kinda distracted by all the birds and whales and rollicking sea on our boat, while there – you can’t actually land on the birdie islands, they’re that protected – not to mention the effects of the previous night out singing, dancing, and drinking with my sis and a whoooooole lot of very jolly, very amiable strangers in St. John, during a big music festival.

As you say, a different breed – and like the puffins, pretty darn adorable in their uniqueness!

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BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: good thing they didn’t name the province after Whittle considering the island ..and all™. LOL
The world would be merciless with people from
Pee Pee, Whittle, Canada.

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23. marisacat - 24 July 2009: Shields on PBS Lehrer is admitting how FULLY scripted the pressers are. Even to answers to the questions anticipated… they do a “pre briefing” I guess based on the back and forth emailing with media as to questions. The only guestion is how scripted was the answer…. did everyone OK “stupidly”.

Good Luck Obamas!

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catnip - 24 July 2009: I was watching the pundits on Wolfie’s show a while ago and they were saying how wonderful it was that Obamalama is just a “regular guy”. Ummm…so was dubya. And that wasn’t so wonderful after all.

All things to all people all of the time.

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24. catnip - 24 July 2009: Meanwhile, Hillary called Zelaya “reckless” today because he’s not keeping to the US imperialist script.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: he theatens the constitution… and he is denying (she all but said) a “peaceful” resolution that suits the US of A.

Coo coo Coup!

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Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: but the USA had NOTHING to do with the coup … nosireebob.

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25. Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: Artist takes $190,000 out of bank because they won’t give him a mortgage

Roger Griffiths, a successful artist is Mapua, New Zealand, lost it when Westpac, the bank he’d been with for 25 years, declined to give him a NZ$80,000 (7,466,385.08 North Korean Won)mortgage because, as an artist, he doesn’t have a regular income. He does, however, have a ton of property, a gallery show in NYC, and NZ$190,000 (301.471664g of platinum or 81,051.56 Burmese Khat) on deposit with Westpac. Which he promptly withdrew. In twenties. And then he deposited it with his local, community-oriented credit union, the Nelson Building Society. As Griffiths points out, Westpac is happy to lend to cigar-chomping loony industrialists like Lane Walker Rudkin Industries, who took Westpac for NZ$110,000,000 (10,860,852,632.40 Nigerian Nairas) in bad loans.

“They can lose $110 million with LWR but turn down a normal customer who has never missed a loan payment,” he said. “If they don’t have the trust in me after 25 years, there’s a problem for Westpac.”

Having decided to withdraw his money, he then decided to make it hard for the bank by requesting payment in $20 bills.

He said the Nelson branch told him it did not have that amount and he would have to also go to other branches at Stoke, Richmond and Motueka. However, he insisted the bank have the money ready to collect at 9am today. He then took it to the Nelson Building Society, saying he would rather deal with NBS because it was part of the community.

His message to Westpac: “If you don’t support the community, the community won’t support you.”

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: oh I love it!

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Intermittent Bystander - 24 July 2009: What a great story . . . The $20-bill brainstorm definitely reflects an artistic sensibility!

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26. Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

How about this for a New Rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit. It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn’t do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn’t used to define us. But now it’s becoming all that we are.

Did you know, for example, that there was a time when being called a “war profiteer” was a bad thing? But now our war zones are dominated by private contractors and mercenaries who work for corporations. There are more private contractors in Iraq than American troops, and we pay them generous salaries to do jobs the troops used to do for themselves — like laundry. War is not supposed to turn a profit, but our wars have become boondoggles for weapons manufacturers and connected civilian contractors.

Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason — who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you’re going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that’s where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That’s why America has the world;s largest prison population — because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line.

And finally, there’s health care. It wasn’t that long ago that when a kid broke his leg playing stickball, his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, the nun put a thermometer in his mouth, the doctor slapped some plaster on his ankle and you were done. The bill was $1.50, plus you got to keep the thermometer.

But like everything else that’s good and noble in life, some Wall Street wizard decided that hospitals could be big business, so now they’re run by some bean counters in a corporate plaza in Charlotte. In the U.S. today, three giant for-profit conglomerates own close to 600 hospitals and other health care facilities. They’re not hospitals anymore; they’re Jiffy Lubes with bedpans. America’s largest hospital chain, HCA, was founded by the family of Bill Frist, who perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it’s not a right, it’s a racket. The more people who get sick and need medicine, the higher their profit margins. Which is why they’re always pushing the Jell-O.

Because medicine is now for-profit we have things like “recision,” where insurance companies hire people to figure out ways to deny you coverage when you get sick, even though you’ve been paying into your plan for years.

When did the profit motive become the only reason to do anything? When did that become the new patriotism? Ask not what you could do for your country, ask what’s in it for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

If conservatives get to call universal health care “socialized medicine,” I get to call private health care “soulless vampires making money off human pain.” The problem with President Obama’s health care plan isn’t socialism, it’s capitalism.

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27. Madman in the Marketplace - 24 July 2009: The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar.

The Fox Guarding the Chickens

If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.

This month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA. He is now America’s food safety czar. What have we done?

The Milk Man Cometh

While Taylor was at the FDA in the early 90’s, he also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST) — injected into cows to increase milk supply.

The milk from injected cows has more pus, more antibiotics, more bovine growth hormone, and most importantly, more insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is a huge risk factor for common cancers and its high levels in this drugged milk is why so many medical organizations and hospitals have taken stands against rbGH. A former Monsanto scientist told me that when three of his Monsanto colleagues evaluated rbGH safety and discovered the elevated IGF-1 levels, even they refused to drink any more milk — unless it was organic and therefore untreated.

Government scientists from Canada evaluated the FDA’s approval of rbGH and concluded that it was a dangerous facade. The drug was banned in Canada, as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But it was approved in the US while Michael Taylor was in charge. His drugged milk might have caused a significant rise in US cancer rates. Additional published evidence also implicates rbGH in the high rate of fraternal twins in the US.

Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.

Taylor’s disclaimer was also a lie. Monsanto’s own studies and FDA scientists officially acknowledged differences in the drugged milk. No matter. Monsanto used Taylor’s white paper as the basis to successfully sue dairies that labeled their products as rbGH-free.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: When he shoots he scores! Ob man…

Interestingly I landed on something a couple of days ago… I think they may be getting ready to slaughter a load of the nation’s dairy cows. To raise the price of milk… something they have done before… I let whatever I was reading get away from me… will google and see if I can find anything.

Food, Ag… we live in wondrous times…………

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28. BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: Oh Gad.
Jersey Dems – all five of them not arrested yesterday – apparrently have pulled the plug on Corzine. Any day now, vultures are sure to land on Corzine’s numb skull and start picking at his flesh.

NYT –

Reeling from a widespread corruption scandal that has ensnared some of his closest allies, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey struggled on Friday to assure his supporters that he can survive the blow and stabilize his campaign.

No more personal appearences for you Jon.Politico says Oblama sent out – get this –
an e-mail blast for Oblama supporters in Jersey to support Governor Goldman Tool. How Personal. At least Ob didn’t forget to write.

In a show of support for embattled New Jersey Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, President Barack Obama sent an email message to Corzine supporters Friday, calling the governor “a great leader” and “a partner” in working to improve the economy.

“Last Thursday, I visited Holmdel, NJ to stand with a great leader for New Jersey—your governor, Jon Corzine,” read the message. “Now more than ever, we need leaders with the strength to make tough decisions and the courage to do the right thing—leaders who bring people together for a common purpose, and fight for the most vulnerable among us. Jon is one of those leaders.”

Corzine a “Great Leader.” okaaay.
No begging letter tho. Just the Peppy Preppy routine
Again from Politico.

The email, which was sent to the “Corzine ‘09” mailing list, does not include a fundraising appeal, though it does encourage readers to volunteer for the Corzine campaign. According to Sean Darcy, Corzine’s communications director, the list has over 165,000 recipients.

Yeh – I’m sure that will go over well with AA ward heelers in Newark, Jersey Cityhey’ll love it over in Trenton and Camden, too – now that Obama just laminated his black lips to a White cop’s asssss.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: I read about the email blast, Ob For Corzine. And I laughed.

To be frank I think Ob’s lips are laminated to the bus, the one he throws people under. What a shame that Skip Gates and his interlude with 10 cops and assorted neighbors who gathered AND his friends in high places!… has risen to the biggest race issue in the US. What a fucking shame.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: The kossacks are making my head explode.

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marisacat - 24 July 2009: they need hankies — and diapers.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: They’re so predictable. Obama says or does something and they rave like screaming banshees. Obama backs away singing kumbaya and they all say he’s so “brilliant” – so “masterful” – so “refreshing” – such a “real man”. And they all say what a shining example he is while they continue to act like screaming banshees – even though he’s told them to simmer down. It’s the same damn cycle every single time.

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catnip - 24 July 2009: I see Digby is getting blowback in the comments of her latest post. Obama is infallible according to these blogging shills – even when he steps right into the middle of an issue with his foot firmly planted in his mouth, it’s everybody else’s fault. Bunch of codependents.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: I haven’t read her in a couple of years.. I will swing by…

On another note, women dare to say a truth or two about Obama, and, while it may not sound like it, they are coming at him from The Left… Moyers had two women on tonight on Health Care (or No Health Care) … pretty funny! [The second half of the show was on specific call outs for murder, from Shock Jocks. Too late!, I would say.]

MARCIA ANGELL: So– well, it can– the failure can show up before he’s out the door. And then he’s got a real problem. He was right in his press conference, when he talked about cost as the central issue. And he said, if we don’t control cost, not only will the health system continue to disintegrate, but it’ll drag the whole economy down with it.

What he has essentially advocated is throwing more money into the current system. He’s treating the symptom and he’s not treating the underlying cause of our problem. Our problem is that we spend two and a half times as much per person on health care as other advanced countries, the average of other advanced countries. And we don’t get our money’s worth. So, now he says, okay, this is a terribly inefficient, wasteful system. Let’s throw some money into it.

BILL MOYERS: Into the same system?

MARCIA ANGELL: Into the same system. That’s his problem. The other problem, in the press conference, was that he was trying to mobilize public support for a bill, and we don’t know what that bill is.

TRUDY LIEBERMAN: I want to get to that point, because he’s been vague right from the very beginning on this point. We have not known exactly what the Obama health plan has been. Even though the headline writers, and the press has been talking about his health care overhaul for months. And so, I like to step back and say, “Well, what exactly is he talking about? What exactly does he mean?” And he has not been clear on that.

BILL MOYERS: You said he’s been AWOL, A-W-O-L–

TRUDY LIEBERMAN: Yes.

BILL MOYERS: –on details.

TRUDY LIEBERMAN: He has been out to lunch on this. And I think that’s a deliberate strategy on the part of the White House.

MARCIA ANGELL: Yes.

Earlier tonight I heard him say it now will nto get done til the end of the year. Which is what Grrassley and Ross (Bloooooooo Dog) told him, via their interviews with Bloomberg. Pretty much a death knell.

AND the thousand pages that so far constitutes a working doc on Health Care Reform are downloadable… the Dems won’t bother, but the Republicans WILL.

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29. BooHooHooMan - 24 July 2009: Back to the Gubernatorial DeathWatch in the Times –

Top Democratic lawmakers were even discussing in private the possibility of replacing Mr. Corzine on the ballot this November, and candidates for other offices were talking about breaking publicly with him to maintain their own election viability. Mr. Corzine has trailed his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, in double digits in some recent polls.

With Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, who has made no secret of his interest in the governor’s office, waiting in the wings, another potential Democratic candidate emerged on Friday, as Representative Frank Pallone Jr. let it be known he would step in should Mr. Corzine bow out.

So what’s Jon to do?
He FREAKS is what he does. LOL.
And runs to find himself a “74 year old Jewish Grandmother”.
– his peeps on the NPR affil NJN News are touting her as
-wait for it –

MAVRICKEY

LMAO!
Seventy.
Fuckin .
Four.
And hack from waaaaaay waaaaay back .
And – Whoops! Where’d my money go?1?? —
A MADOFF VICTIM too. Catch her fuckin Bio –

A 74-year-old grandmother, <—LOL
Loretta Weinberg was Corzine's campaign co-chair when he made his first bid for public office as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2000. She was also an early supporter of Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Weinberg also had several key endorsements, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and received the blessing of the Bergen County Democratic Organization and some key party leaders who have fought with her in recent years.

She served in the State Assembly for fourteen years until her election to the Senate in 2005. A former Teaneck Councilwoman and Assistant Bergen County Administrator, Weinberg served as Assembly Majority Conference Chair and as Chair of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.

Earlier this year, Weinberg revealed that she had lost her life savings – more than $1 million – as a victim to Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme. She had her money invested with Beverly Hills financial planner Stanley Chais, who had invested her entirely with Madoff, whom Weinberg says she had never heard of before the scandal became public.

Corrupt old hack. A lotta Bullshit floating around too about how “for years” she has worked for reform in the system. All those “years” and not a drip of success,huh? And the Madoff “Victim” Status .–
They think it’s a plus?
.”She had her money invested with Beverly Hills financial planner Stanley Chais,”

Like clubbing a baby seal.
Corzine must be doin blow or something.
Nobody can be that fucking stupid, that fucking aloof , can they?
Did they think they’d play to Seniors? That they’d somehow be immune form attack? Lot of Kerry in this fucknut.

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30. catnip - 24 July 2009: Popcorn! Lots of it! Buttered!

House healthcare talks break down in anger

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders.

In advance of a subsequent press conference called by House leadership, Blue Dog liaison Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) said the healthcare bill should be staying in committee.

“I expect the committee process to proceed,” Cardoza said.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.

“I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations.

“Mr. Waxman has decided to sever discussions with the Blue Dogs who are trying to make this bill work for America,” Melancon said.

Although those Blue Dogs were supposed to be headed back into another meeting of the Energy and Commerce Democrats, their anger was visible.

If the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the only hope for passage of the bill in the House will be to go straight to the floor, an option leaders shied away from endorsing but said was an option.

But the Blue Dogs issued dire warnings to leaders contemplating that approach.

“Waxman simply does not have votes in committee and process should not be bypassed to bring the bill straight to floor,” Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.”

Melancon said there would be 40-45 “solid no” votes from the 52-strong Blue Dogs, among other problems throughout the caucus. And Melancon said there are more Democrats who will vote against the bill.

“If they try to bring it to the floor, I think they’ll find out they have more problems than the Blue Dogs.”

A leadership aide said no decisions have been made on how to proceed.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: And Rahm and Bill worked so hard to put in many new Blooooooo Dogs. Nuuuu Blooooooooo Dogs.

Serves them right. Shit they even owkred VERY VERY hard to put in a Right to Lifer member up in Ohio.

Good Luck Obamas!

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31. marisacat - 25 July 2009: HA! I don’t know if wu ming is around but I am listening to Leland Yee who is one of the least bad (but weak!) on KGO radio and boy, loser time. Big time.

Nothing, nobody in charge. And Arnold cosy with the WH.

An absolute plan for utter disaster.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: motheroffuckinggod!

A caller on Soc Sec Disability and some state aid (total income a little over 800 dollars a mo), hwo has had 50.00 a month deducted from her state aid, asked for information on possible state aid for food.

Leland told her to be proud of California and be brave.

UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE.

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32. marisacat - 25 July 2009: gnu thred…

LINK

……………………. 🙄 ………………

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33. Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: OK – Belated Atlantic puffin lore here! And yes, Marisa, they do gossip amongst themselves! Plus, they sound different depending on where they live.

Puffins talk in their underground burrows. In Iceland they nest in the soft earth in underground tunnels. So the sound one hears them make in their soft earthen rooms is a soft growling-moaning. If you sit quietly on the grass, you’ll hear them talking underground in their nest.

Puffin chicks, the little dark gray fluff-balls of down, stay hidden underground. You canc’t see them, but you can hear them. They call out with their peep-peep-peep, telling their parents they’re hungry.

However in Maine, and many places in Canada, they nest in rock crevices in granite ledges. Their rooms have hard walls. Their voice reverberates off these hard rock walls so the sound one hears is more like a chain saw.

Sound samples and more here.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: oh thanks for that, IB…

I also saw a segment a couple of weeks ago, at a preserve in Namibia, of cheetahs… that was just amazing… they chirp, like birds. It was fascinating.

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34. Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: Puffin wings really do work like flippers, underwater, and their feet – splayed out – play a role in underwater steering, too. Supposedly the birds can flap as much as 400 beats a minute in the air. They spend most of their time at sea, and usually only come ashore to hatch and raise the chickadees.

Some basics from a Maine website:

Feeding habits: Dives from air or surface, swims rapidly underwater using wings like other alcids [auks], catches small fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans, which it swallows underwater, but when feeding young, can carry up to 30 small fishes at one time, crosswise in bill owing to round tongue and slight serrations on interior of upper mandible which help it hold fishes.

Other names: Common puffin, bottle-nose, coulterneb, Labrador auk, large-billed puffin, pope, sea parrot, tammy norie.

More, from Audubon:

Atlantic Puffins may live to be more than 30 years old; they do not usually breed until they are at least 4 years old. Like other puffins, they migrate to breed on offshore islands, and nest within large mono- and multi-species seabird colonies. Courtship begins shortly after the puffins arrive, and includes billing and displaying with nest materials. [Look, Magda! Here’s some nice grass!] Mating occurs on the water. The birds are primarily monogamous. They lay a single white egg with faint lilac markings, in a nest lined with grass and feathers at the end of their underground burrow, which may be up to 8 feet long. In the Gulf of Maine, nearly all puffins nest in deep rock crevices. Both sexes dig the burrow, incubate eggs, and care for the young, raising one chick per pair per year. The chick, or puffling, hatches after about 40 days and feeds on fish delivered by the parents. Pufflings fledge about 6 weeks after hatching, and fly or swim off to sea, usually at night. By dawn, they are seldom seen near nesting islands. The nocturnal fledging reduces the risk of predation by gulls.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: ha! in terms of the ”flippers”, they sound like penguins who have convinced themselves they can flyyyyy..

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Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: Wiki says their similarities to penguins (both in body style and color) is an example of convergent evolution. They’re from genus Fratercula (Latin: little brother), which is probably a reference to their black and white “robes.” Beak is brightest during mating season . . . I think it actually sort of molts off, thereafter.

But having seen them tear through the air – again, like a flock of barreling footballs – I’m convinced they’ve got sky AND sea conquered, too! Great skimmers and plungers, emerging with the fishies hanging out each side of their face.

I wonder what’s up with the shape of their eyes?

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35. Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: More puffin info in the mod burrow!

Their lives at sea continue to be quite mysterious, it seems. They travel far, and the young ‘uns, once fledged, simply don’t come ashore for several years.

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marisacat - 25 July 2009: with those details it is terrible to think of them in captivity.

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Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: Absolutely. As I mentioned, you can’t even touch a boat to shore in Witless Bay, so as not to disturb them, and apparently the big colonies there are stable.

According to Audubon’s conservation status report, their numbers have increased massively since “near-devastation” in the 1800s and early 1900s, from hunting, egg-gathering, and habitat .

Oil spills do get ’em at sea (maybe that’s the cause of the population fall at your link), and fishing nets, too. Their numbers rebounded in Newfoundland (where’s they’re the official provincial bird) after overfishing of cod, etc., caused moratoria on commercial operations.

Very interesting birds!

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36. Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: One last link, in case anyone wants to check out a puffin cam, or adopt a puffin! {Send money! At least they’re NOT Dems, which can neither fly NOR swim!}

http://www.projectpuffin.org/

😉

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37. marisacat - 25 July 2009: gnu…

LINK

………………. 😆 ……………….

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Intermittent Bystander - 25 July 2009: Another fine beak!

(And even while immortalized in millions of lawn ornaments worldwide, less heinously commodified than the one at #32!)

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