Just a thread… 30 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.59 comments
Kolkata, India: A 24-day old giraffe calf and its father at the Alipore zoo [Bikas Das/AP]
well… actually, there is something to add, I see the two at Rutgers have been named…
Molly Wei and Dharun Ravi
Locals, they had gone to HS together in NJ…
The accused were classmates at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North in Plainsboro, N.J.
If convicted of the third degree offense of transmitting or distributing the images they could face up to five years in prison each under state law. A fourth degree conviction for collecting the images could mean up to 18 months in jail, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
hmm considering they planned this, did it TWICE:
Ravi allegedly broadcast that encounter but investigators would not say what video site it was posted to.
A few days later Ravi allegedly tweeted to his 150 followers telling them to “chat” him on iChat, an instant messaging sight with live video feed, the Star-Ledger reported.
“Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again,” Ravi wrote Sept. 21.
… is there no FIRST DEGREE of something to charge them with?
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Not… 28 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.54 comments
A sign in South Bend, Indiana caused a few red faces. The embarrassing spelling error on a digital billboard meant to promote South Bend public schools has been pulled down, but it was up for five days. A spokesman for Blue Waters Group, the company responsible, said: “The message was proofed by four people and the typo got by all of them” [CHRIS MURPHY]
…to be too rude, but why not leave it up?
I mean, just how interesting is South Bend Indiana, anyway?
I read that, in some big flap on over teens dying in cars, there is a parent pushing a law, named of course for his [dead] daughter, to allow driver’s permits only at 16, licenses at 18. NO driving alone at night – must be accompanied by parent or adult!… and only one person under 18 in the car with the teen driver.
All would be tied to the Federal Highway funds too… if the law passes and states don’t adopt…. kiss the cash Good Bye.
Also: no phoning at all, of any kind by teens in cars….. I think texting gets you the firing squad.
God forbid there be anyone 30 lbs overweight or an open bag of potato chips in the car. {There outta be a law!]
I think that means a double firing squad. Which, of course, just means that the State really really loves you and your child.
Remember: the State suffers. For you.
Sunday 26 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems.54 comments
When Sergio Amiti took his wife on a romantic break to Capri last month, he did not expect to find a seagull stealing their breakfast from a table on the balcony overlooking the sea [Sergio Amiti/Exclusivepix]
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Oh just for laughs… apparently some big profile of Axelrod will post online tomorrow in The New Republic… but a couple snips were in the Mike Allen email.
They came, they failed, but no, it is Washington that deeply disappointed them.
“Them” being the Chicago boys, Axelrod in particular, who (I guess) massed outside DC, made their assault with their long guns, astride their mighty steeds…
and fell face down.
Obama, and the white boys behind him, did fine by their masters… but I still think he was supposed to keep a lid on the populace, keep patting them down, saying he loved them. Mesmerise them with his few talents.
Something like that…
“Obama and Axelrod both believe in changing Washington for its own sake. ‘It’s in the president’s nature, it’s also in David’s nature,’ says Stephanie Cutter, a senior White House aide. … [vomit worthy, truly —Mcat]
Whatever his tendency to fall in and out of love with politicians, there’s no evidence Axelrod has soured on Barack Obama. Quite the contrary-he is said to take enormous pride in the president’s legislative accomplishments. ‘When Obama rejects Axe’s political advice, David’s attitude is not like, “Why isn’t he listening to me?”’ says one administration official. ‘It’s more like, “This is why I love this guy. He’s willing to follow his heart even when the short-term politics are not with him.”’
Instead, the source of Axelrod’s disillusionment these days is Washington itself … As long as he was a civilian, Axelrod could blame the pace of change on the flawed politicians he helped elect. He could always move on and invest his hopes in someone else. But now that he’s serving in government, it’s clear that the problem isn’t so much flawed people-though, like anyone, Obama has his flaws-as a ferociously stubborn, possibly irredeemable system. For an idealist like David Axelrod, that may be the most terrifying thought of all.”
Posting tomorrow: http://www.tnr.com (ugh… if anyone could stand to read it.)
I don’t think the narrative makes any sense at all, but seems to be the cover story in process: Washington failed the miniature pols and fixers from Chicago. It wasn’t them, oh no. Couldn’t be them.
Well whoops.
I am reminded of the crew that utterly blew the Olympics bid, made a public spectacle of pretzel and pretzel consort (in a dress that did not fit, no less)… and acted like no one noticed the amateurish play.
And the big fat fail.
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Meanwhile over at the Right Wing Ranch this tidbit surfaced… bet this was quite the fascistic little hoe down:
NEW YORK — Even among the gays, the right is on the rise.
The broad surge in the conservative grassroots made it as far as PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s grand apartment overlooking New York’s Union Square Tuesday night, where about 150 backers of the conservative gay group GOProud gathered to laugh at Ann Coulter’s red meat riffs on Democrats, blacks, and the Obamas at a fundraiser organizers touted as “Homocon.”
GOProud is the tea party of the gay rights movement, with well-tailored dark suits in place of revolutionary war garb. The event, complete with lithe young men in black “Freedom is Fabulous” t-shirts guiding guests to the elevator, marked a new high tide in the shift of the Republican Party away from “social issues” and toward a broader complaint about Democratic management of the economy, national security, and the idea of America. GOProud is an explicitly gay group that isn’t particularly focused on gay rights, and Coulter’s speech – full of conservative red meat, and only the occasional Judy Garland joke – reflected its focus.
The gay right is thriving at a moment that the mainstream gay rights movement faces a profound crisis. ….
Hardly surprising, hardly different than things have been, just more out in the open.
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Artists 24 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.49 comments
Great bowerbirds are known for their dramatic and elaborate constructions with decorative objects such as pebbles, bones, and shells to attract a mate.
But researchers have discovered a new dimension to these showy structures: males of this species build staged scenes that make themselves look larger or smaller than they actually are.
Scientists believe great bowerbirds are the first known non-human animals that create scenes with altered visual perspectives for viewing by other individuals [Michael & Patricia Fogden/Corbis]
Looks to me as tho the great bowerbird has devised a triumphal bower for himself and his mate.
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3 on a line… 23 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems.88 comments
Finalist for the Natural World group: Sandor Zsila’s picture titled ‘Argument’ which shows three Collared Aracari birds on a branch.[EPOTY.ORG / SPECIALISTSTOCK / BARCROFT MEDIA]
Took me a minute to find the third bird, he (or she) is on the left, facing away… as in: I am so not here, guys.
Tho possibly… the one in full open winged display is fending off the one on the right.
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Bloggers are so cute when they get all whupset. IIRC Susie Madrak is a sometime Dem consultant. Or whatever the word currently in use is…
Send the slave ship for them, closer to election 2010 and again in 2012, they will climb right on.
The fucking lot of them.
September 23, 2010
Categories:
Blogger throws metaphors at Axelrod
Top Obama adviser David Axelrod got an earful of the liberal blogosphere’s anger [whupset in Aisle 3!! – – Mcat] at the White House moments ago, when a blogger on a conference call directly called out Axelrod over White House criticism of the left, accusing Axelrod of “hippie punching.”
“We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but you won’t be seen with in the light of day,” the blogger, Susan Madrak of Crooks and Liars, pointedly told Axelrod on the call, which was organzied for liberal bloggers and progressive media.
The call seeme to perfectly capture the tense dynamic that exists between the White House and the online and organized left: Though White House advisers in the past have dumped on the left, anonymously and even on the record, Axelrod repeatedly pleaded with the bloggers on the call for help in pumping up the flagging enthusiasm of rank and file Dems.
“You play a great role in informing people about the stakes of elections,” Axelrod told the bloggers. “One of the reasons I was eager to expend time was to enlist you.”
I admit, I had not heard “hippie punching” before.
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Democratic cover… 21 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Afghanistan War, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.53 comments
Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan: Afghan women wait at a polling station to cast their ballot in parliamentary elections [Mustafa Quraishi/AP]
IOZ had a few good lines on what we use democracy for:
Here is one of the Cohens–I can never keep them straight–making one of the requisite, occasional pitches for democracy that are required of major American opinion columnists. Suffice to say that the persistent confusion of an organizational structure with a moral category is the problem here. It gives rise to all sorts of additional weirdness.
For instance, because democracy is a categorical moral good, a country like Russia, when its government acts in some manner that some or other Times-sinecured domehead thinks is morally dubious, becomes less democratic. (Alternately, a country like China, when it, whatever, lets someone look at porno on the internet, or loosens travel restrictions, or embraces the stock market, becomes more democratic.)
These estimations have very little to do with the procedural features of any country’s government. I mean, is Russia really less democratic than the United States? I don’t know. Is the United States less corrupt than Afghanistan? By what measure?
Yup!
… then this at the close:
And speaking of gangland hits, there’s this gem:
The lingering wars waged partly in democracy’s name in Iraq and Afghanistan hurt its reputation, however moving images of inky-fingered voters gripped by the revolutionary notion that they could decide who governs them. Given the bloody mayhem, it was easy to portray “democracy” as a fig leaf for the West’s bellicose designs and casual hypocrisies.
Yo, democracy is “a fig leaf for the West’s bellicose designs and casual hypocrisies.”
And, as one wag around the netteries said in the midst of Mosquerias a Go Go (or, no go) and Quran burning:
Surely everyone knows by now, the legally approved method of disposal of a used Quran is Hellfire Missile, launched from Nevada?
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Morning ablutions 20 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.90 comments
Amateur photographer Meta Penca took some pictures of a female brown bear seemingly doing her early morning yoga stretches at Ahtari Zoo in Finland. The display went on for over 15 minutes to the delight of visitors [META PENCA / BNPS]
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Tender morsels 18 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Italy, UK.41 comments
Choirboys attend a mass lead …
Choirboys attend a mass lead by Britain’s Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Pope Benedict XVI, unseen, at Westminster Abbey, in London Friday,Sept. 17, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI is on the second day of the first-ever state visit by a Pope to Britain.… Read more »
(AP Photo/Max Rossi, Pool)
😆
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FFS 16 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.35 comments
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day (Image Credit: Molly Norris 2010)
I heard about this about mid day today, but I gather it has been steaming and simmering since May 20, when a Seattle cartoonist for an alternative press, in response to the furor over the image of Muhammed in South Park, drew the above cartoon….
a S A T I R E.
Now… what ensues is a bit murky, by my reading.
Before you can say Praise the Prophet, an unconnected person, in Canada, has up a Facebook page, that the Seattle cartoonist, Molly Norris, has to declare she has no part of…
The Canadian is visited by the Royal Mounteds… told to take down the page and cease and desist… and told not to talk to reporters…
Bit by bit, Molly Norris ends up losing the details and realities of her life. Her name, her job, her life as it is lived daily… Has to issue an apology to any and all (Muslims) withdraw and assume another identity… at the insistence, it seems of the FBI.
Molly Norris has moved and changed her name, the Seattle Weekly said Wednesday, after U.S.-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al Awlaki placed her on an execution hit list. Awlaki — who was linked to the botched Times Square bombing and cited as inspiration for the Fort Hood massacre and a plot by two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers — reportedly called Norris a “prime target” for assassination and that her “proper abode is hellfire.”
“You may have noticed that Molly Norris’ comic is not in the paper this week,” Seattle Weekly Editor in Chief Mark Fefer wrote Wednesday. “That’s because there is no more Molly.”
“The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, ‘going ghost:’ moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity.
“She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program — except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab,” Fefer wrote. …
The US born cleric, with whom we so wish to go to media and drone war, al Awlaki… his name gets spread around as the source (at his website) of the death threat(s)….
THAT part I find murky, as he is our newest bestest bestest enemy…
However, take a look at the cartoon at the top.
When CBS News reported on this tonight (leaving Awlaki’s name out of it, btw) they ALSO, in deference to Muslims who might be offended, BLURRED the little cartoon faces.
Do you see Muhammed up there anywhere?
Near the teacup maybe?
Or the talking cherry?
So where is Muhammed?
But CBS got out their little blur-it stick… What a fucking looney world.
As a secular woman I don’t respect any religion, all the hierarchies are just pains in the ass. And, most particularly, the various “people of the book”, the desert religions, the Abrahamic traditions are in the realm of utter nuts.
Basta
Laugh… 14 September 2010
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.115 comments
Blue tailed damselfly [Eddie Nurcombe/BARCROFT]
This damselfly just made me laugh – she comes with her own attached opera glasses…
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Marisacat 