$2.38

I didn't fill up today, having done that when they dropped the price to $2.47, and one tank lasts a couple of weeks, but I have been keeping an eye on prices, just for the heck of it.

Veterans for Obama

I was a bit hasty in assuming that the Obama campaign hadn't given out [sold?] Veterans for Obama signs -- I saw a few while I was driving around town this morning.

The cats all prefer dog food...

...and the dog is holding out for cat food. I'm tempted to just build a trough in the living room and fill it with both. That way, everybody can eat whatever the heck they want.

For the record

The lemmings were pushed over those cliffs.

Gasoline $$ update

Today I pulled into a gas station just as they were changing the sign from $2.57 to $2.47.

An informal poll, of sorts

Florida has early voting [I'm waiting until The Day] and the lines have been long whenever I drive by this past week. The lines are never long in my precinct, and I just plain like my polling place.

So, apropos of not much, I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods and [sort of] count campaign signs.

My immediate neighborhood, mostly white, is more or less working, with small pockets of solidly middle class -- McCain/Palin signs outnumber the Obama08 signs, maybe 3:1.

My former neighborhood, approximately the same economic range but about 50/50 black/white has almost no signs, but I did see a few Obama bumper stickers.

The slightly more prosperous neighborhoods around me, solidly middle class and up to the lower tier of upper middle class, again mostly white, have more Obama08 signs, about 2:1.

The definitely ritzy-schnortzy upper middle class would-be-gated-if-it-could-be-gated neighborhood just up the street is ALL white and has ALL McCain/Palin signs.

One of the poorest neighborhoods in town, almost all black, has few signs, but none of them were for McCain.

One of the poorest neighborhoods out in the county, also mostly black, has very few signs, but none of them were for McCain either.

Lots of active-duty and retired military here, but not a lot of Veterans For McCain signs. I wonder what the place would have looked like if the Obama campaign had given out Veterans for Obama signs.

Sarah Palin stopped by here a few days ago; reportedly 10,000 people from 4 counties showed up and fell in love with her.


Lots and lots and lots of signs for local elections, which is heartening, but an awful lot of them are for Republicans, which isn't a huge surprise. This place has long been of the Blue Dog and Dixiecrat stripe, so when Newt Gingrich invited them to turn Republican, they did.

Things to do in Denison, IA

a walking tour of homes built around the turn of the [last] century

UHC, Medicare For All, and some other definitions

In response to caseyOR’s question, what is UHC? I thought I’d try to answer without getting too geeky or wonky.

####################

UHC

This abbreviation is variously used for both Universal Health Care and Universal Health Coverage.

The word coverage is used in this context to mean health insurance coverage.

Insurance is basically a useful way to pay for catastrophic things that happen to us — whether the house gets blown away by a hurricane, or someone in the family gets cancer, or some idiot T-bones the car when they run the red light. At its most basic, insurance is when a group of people all agree to put a little bit of their money ahead of time [insurance premiums] into one pool, and as people who belong to that group get hit by something huge that they couldn’t afford to pay for on their own, they can draw out what they need from that pool.

Universal health coverage just means that every single member of a population has health insurance.

Health care, on the other hand, is the sum of all the actual services you get from doctors, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, dentists, psychologists, etc. You can pay for these services with insurance, or with your own money, or with your taxes, or with some mixture of insurance, taxes, and cash.

Universal health care means that every single member of a population can get these services, no matter what their circumstances [employed, unemployed, rich, poor, healthy, sick, old, young, etc].

####################

Single-Payer and Multi-Payer

Single-payer just means that only one entity — be it a government or a private insurance company — takes in all the insurance premiums [or taxes] and pays all the doctor bills [and hospital, and dentist, etc].

Canada’s Medicare, our Medicare, and Australia’s Medicare are all single-payer insurance systems that are run by the respective national governments. The difference between us and them is that their Medicare systems are universal — covering every single person living in their countries — while our Medicare system only covers old people.

Multi-payer means that several entities — usually lots of different private insurance companies — take in insurance premiums and pay the bills. Our current health insurance system is a multi-payer system. Most people who have health insurance get it as a benefit provided by their employer [or their spouse’s employer, or their parent’s employer, etc] but some of us have to buy our own health insurance, usually because we’re self-employed or we work for a company that’s either too poor or too cheap to provide it as a benefit.

Our multi-payer private health insurance system here in the U.S. does NOT provide universal coverage, simply because not everyone can afford it. This is basically because our insurance companies are blood-sucking leeches.

Lots of countries have multi-payer private health insurance systems — France, Germany, Switzerland are some examples. These countries all have universal coverage because their governments basically force the private insurance companies to make their insurance plans both affordable and open to anyone who wants to join. And the companies may be private, but they’re non-profit [we used to have a lot of these here in the U.S. but now we have very few]. Additionally, these countries all provide generous help to poor people who otherwise couldn’t afford the insurance premiums.

The difference between our country and all the other multi-payer countries is that their private insurance companies are all so heavily regulated by their respective governments that to us they LOOK like they’re government-run. Don’t let the U.S. insurance industry scam you — they whine loud and long about the onerous burden of regulations here, but even though we have lots and lots and lots of regulations, those rules are all tilted to favor the insurance companies, not us real people.

####################

Medicare and Medicare For All in the U.S.

Medicare is our government-run, single-payer insurance system to pay for health care for old folks. Medicare-For-All is the short name of the National Health Insurance bill introduced by John Conyers — HR 676 — that would expand our current Medicare system to cover all of us. PNHP [Physicians for a National Health Program] has an excellent FAQ on single-payer and HR 676.

Paying for it — can we afford to do this? Short answer — Yes.

Right now, if you’re employed [let’s forget about the self-employed and the few who make very humongous salaries for the moment — they’re special cases] you and your employer together pay 15.3% of your gross salary/wages to Social Security and Medicare. You pay 1.45% to Medicare and 6.2% to Social Security [this deduction usually shows up on your pay stub labeled as FICA taxes, but people also call it ’payroll taxes’]. Your employer pays an additional amount equal to 1.45% of your gross salary/wages to Medicare and an amount equal to 6.2% of your wages/salary to Social Security.

Under HR 676 — Medicare For All — your FICA taxes would go up. The amount going to Social Security would still be 6.2% of your gross wages, but the total amount going to Medicare would be 4.75% instead of the present 1.45%. Likewise, your employer would still pay 6.2% to Social Security, and would also pay 4.75% to Medicare.

This sounds like a huge increase in taxes, but overall, most people — both employees and employers — would end up paying much less than they are now. Under HR 676 you don’t have to worry about insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, or other out-of-pocket expenses — it’s all been paid for ahead of time in your taxes. You just walk into any doctor’s office, any clinic, any hospital, any lab, any dentist, any optometrist, any pharmacist, any health care provider, get what you need, and walk out [we hope]. The provider then bills Medicare for the services, or medicines, or medical equipment they gave you.

No worries about losing your insurance because you change jobs, or want to work for yourself, or worse yet, lose your job. No worries about being able to afford an expensive illness, like cancer, or a heart attack. You might still have to worry about buying food for the kids and heating the house at the same time, but you’ll always, always be able to take them to the doctor if they get sick.

####################

Socialized Medicine

Almost forgot this one. You hear the right-wingers scream socialized medicine !!! socialized medicine !!! socialized medicine !!! whenever the topic of UHC comes up. True, the Soviet union had ’socialized medicine’ and made a real mess of it, but that wasn’t the fault of socialized medicine, that was the fault of brutal and greedy tyrants who hijacked everything about their governments.

Socialized medicine actually works, and works well. It’s a basically a special kind of singe-payer — the government [the taxpayers!] owns all the hospitals and and clinics and labs and so forth, and employs all the doctors and nurses and dentists and ambulance drivers, etc. It’s probably the most cost-effective way to deliver quality medical care. The U.K. has this system. We do too, except that it’s only for veterans.

Two things to keep in mind about the VA — [1] Walter Reed is an Army hospital, not a VA hospital, and [2] yes, the Republicans, with their wars + their cuts in funding for the troops and veterans, are damaging what was once a very fine health care system — just one more reason to throw them all out of office.

It's McCain by a whisker -- so far

in Florida, as of yesterday, but my dad, who is sometimes right about these things, thinks that Colin Powell's endorsement will reverse that and give Obama the lead by Election Day.

Everything

John Singer Sargent






thanks

Small discovery

The result is edible, but lime-chipotle seasoning doesn't really work as a replacement for curry powder.

Coinkydinks

One month ago today, on Sept 13, hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, and a week later I was paying $4.11 for gas. Today I paid$3.11. One week from today, on October 20, Florida early voting starts.

update, oct 19 -- i just paid $2.73 a couple of hours ago.

Vikings vs Werewolves!

Two of my favorite beings, I don't know which side to pull for on this matchup:

Wolves of Odin

"I draw the chalk lines at crime scenes"

New favorite blog: Savage Chickens

get the wallpaper

Manchurian candidate?

It would be irresponsible of me not to speculate, but... John McCain [hearts] the Kremlin?

Over the course of the presidential campaign, John McCain has repeatedly emphasized his willingness to stand up to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as proof that only he possesses the fortitude and judgment to become the next leader of the free world. In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, McCain lashed out at Putin and the Russian oligarchs, who, "rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power...[are] reassembling the old Russian Empire." McCain rushed to publicly support the Georgian republic during its recent conflict with Russia and amplified his threat to expel Moscow from the G-8 club of major powers. His running mate, Sarah Palin, suggested in her first major interview that the United States might have to go to war with Russia one day in order to protect Georgia--the kind of apocalyptic scenario the United States avoided during the cold war.

Yet despite McCain's tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia's oligarchy--indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin's geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor. The most notable example is the tale of how McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically important country of Montenegro.

According to two former senior US diplomats who served in the Balkans, Davis and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, received several million dollars to help run Montenegro's independence referendum campaign of 2006. The terms of the agreement were never disclosed to the public, but top Montenegrin officials told the US diplomats that Davis's work was underwritten by powerful Russian business interests connected to the Kremlin and operating in Montenegro.

How do they do that?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Curmudgeon cat has never been one to do anything halfway, and this is no exception, but... how is it that I have to clean the entire bathroom after he throws up only once?

The good news, more or less, is that with new food [more expensive than the old food] and new medicine [more expensive than the old medicine] he's doing fine.

Lions, and tigers, and

storms! Oh, my!

Just because I can

Because anybody who is NOT Jeff Miller needs to be heard

Jim Bryan is the Democratic candidate running for Congress in Florida's District 01 [the panhandle, more or less]. His next two appearances will be in Chipley on Sept 24 and in Pensacola on Oct 1.

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Monday, September 22, 2008 From James E. “Jim” Bryan CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JIM BRYAN TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE IN CHIPLEY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1:00PM, IN FRONT OF THE WASHINGTON COUNTY NEWS, 1364 N. RAILROAD AVE, CHIPLEY, FL, 32428 Speaking in Chipley, in a small county at the eastern end of a District 140 miles wide, emphasizes my determination to represent every last person in District 1. I want to get my message out to the press, and will also answer questions from anyone present. My next press conference will be in Pensacola, Wednesday October 1, place to be announced. But this won’t be the last time I speak to the press in the eastern part of Congressional District 1. My main subject will be the economy of the Panhandle. In Congress, I will be a strong advocate for agriculture and manufacturing -- using (and protecting) our many natural resources, our robust transportation net of truck, rail, waterway and air, and not least, the vigor and work ethic of our work force. My hero is Democratic Congressman Bob Sikes, from Crestview, who represented District 1 from 1940 to 1972. “Uncle Bob,” as he was known to the voters, brought jobs and prosperity to the Panhandle. Like him, I will spend every minute I can with the voters; because I think knowing the needs of the District 1 will make me more effective than hobnobbing around Washington. I will also speak to the weak record of the incumbent Congressman, Jeff Miller. His main qualification, according to his web site, is that he is a conservative Republican in an area that always votes Republican. I think the welfare of America and my District are more important than party loyalty. Being a “conservative Republican” has not made Mr. Miller effective. According to the “Power Ranking” evaluation at www.congress.org, by a company (look it up) that serves professionals in government relations and even lobbyists; Mr. Miller ranks No. 412 of the 435 members of the US House of Representatives. He also ranks No. 24 (of 25) in the Florida delegation to the House. Mr. Miller’s personal score is 5.6. To compare, 50 is a representative effective score in either House or Senate. (Very top scores for leaders are about 100,) The bottom is about zero (think William Jefferson, D-LA and Rick Renzi, R-AZ, both under indictment).

from the inbox

Dear Friend,

The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt "de-leverages."

Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration's growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16,000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff?

This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real - not imaginary - growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class.

The same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves.

The double standard is stunning: their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses.

This bailout will not bring real jobs back to America. It will not bring back jobs that make things. It does not rebuild our schools, streets, neighborhoods, parks or bridges. The major product of this financial economy is now debt. Industrial capitalism has been destroyed.
In the next few days I will push for a plan that includes equity for every American in any taxpayer investment in this so-called bail-out plan. Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.
I will also insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:

1. Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation
2. Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries
3. Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down:
   a) resignations of management
   b) givebacks of executive compensation packages
   c) limitations on executive compensation
   d) admission by CEO's of what went wrong and how, prior to any government bailout
   
4. Demands for transparencey
   a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down
   b) with respect to Treasury's dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout
5. An equity position for the taxpayers
   a) some form of ownership of assets
6. Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying.
7. A sunset clause on the legislation
8. Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust.
9. A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts
10. A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts

And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure.

These are just some thoughts on the run. You will hear more from me tomorrow.

Dennis J Kucinich
www.Kucinich.us
216-252-9000 877-933-6647

Thursday's child has far to go

Original estimate to fix the car, labor + new parts: $500-700
....................................... + rebuild kit for all parts: about the same
....................................... + already rebuilt parts: $400-500
....................................... + used parts from junkyard: $300
....................................... + rebuild kit for only the essential to keep the car running parts: $200

Final cost [went with that last option]: $93 and change, parts and labor. I have absolutely the best car fix-it shop evah. Hunting down parts for a 20yo old car is the hardest part.

Look out world, I'm back behind the wheel again!

Dear Democrats:

I've sent emails to both my US Senators -- Mel Martinez the Republican and Bill Nelson the Democrat -- on various issues. Guess which one can't be bothered to send me the occasional email newsletter.

from the inbox

The next census will be taken soon! in 2010, which will affect both the redrawing of the boundaries for Congressional districts, and even whether states lose or gain districts. One thing I didn't know, governors apparently have some say in the process too, so if you're looking for a place to spend some $$ on electing some Democrats, check out the Democratic Governors Association.

Friend,

After my speech at the Democratic Convention, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) gave me some disturbing information.

Right now, the GOP is executing a plan to TAKE 38 governorships over the next three years. If they accomplish this, they will have the power to shrewdly alter election district borders and steal back Congress.

Why governors? Governors influence redistricting--the redrawing of congressional district lines, and all states redistrict in 2011 to make our government more representative. But like Texan Tom DeLay, who led the underhanded, but legal, effort to create SIX new Republican congressional districts in Texas in 2003, the GOP wants to make government non-representative--to win by making it impossible for Republicans to lose.

The DGA is mobilizing right now--before the GOP plan gains momentum--to elect Democratic governors all across the nation. 11 states are at immediate risk! Will you help us now to protect our democracy? Please donate $5 or more today:

http://www.democraticgovernors.org/EarlyStand

Democrats have a 28-state majority of governors. But 47 governorships will be decided in the next three years, starting with 11 in 2008. And the Republicans have already raised close to $30 million. Their plan is to use this massive war chest to pick up 16 new governorships and gerrymander their way to a new congressional majority.

This is not Democratic propaganda. Just read these words from a spokesman of the Republican Governors Association:

"We could feasibly see 25 to 30 congressional seats swing as the result of redistricting...The odds are, if it is a Republican in the governor's chair, the seat will end up in GOP hands."

Republican governors = manipulated districts = 25 to 30 more congressional seats in GOP hands!

This is old-school, back-room politics at its worst, and if they succeed, our democracy will suffer for years to come.

One thing is clear--the Republicans expect to lose at the ballot box for a long time to come, unless they get their 38 governors and give themselves an unbeatable edge.

So let's give them the defeat they expect and deserve starting with this year's races.

Please join in giving the DGA the resources it needs to protect our democracy.

Let's show the GOP that we take our democracy seriously. That means the American people--in every state--get to decide.

Sincerely,

Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico
Former Chair, Democratic Governors Association

P.S. Remind the GOP that we're still a democracy. Help the DGA elect Democratic governors. Please give now--11 states are at immediate risk!

Monday, Monday

The car is broken. The hot water is broken. My wallet's been stolen. One of the cats is sick. I have a migraine.




update: the cat has drugs [though he's still in a bad mood and yowling about it], nobody used the magic plastic cards in my wallet [but replacements are going to take several days to get here], the car is fixable [for about $200, an unpleasant bite but doable], quantities of caffeine [and chocolate!] took care of the headache, and i have no idea if the hot water got fixed yet, but who cares? the rest of it will be ok. oh yeah, the contract that puts food in teh kittehz dishez [and litter in their boxez] got extended for another year.

update tuesday night: hot water fixed. yay.

Invasion of the body snatchers [or something]

I finally quit reading Slate for good when they started in on their Hillary Deathwatch, though the vapidity of the XX Factor blog and Will Saletan's newfound 'i r a public intelleckshuall now!' seriosity had already killed off most of my interest. Nonetheless, I've never unsusbscribed from the Today's Papers newsletter.

today's papers
Militant vs. Predator
By Daniel Politi
Posted Friday, Sept. 12, 2008, at 6:45 AM ET

The Los Angeles Times leads with word that the Bush administration is sending Predator aircraft "equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems" to target militants inside Pakistan. This new technology was apparently a key weapon in the fight against Iraqi insurgents and now drones with this special equipment are being pulled from other areas and sent to help out in Pakistan. This is yet another example of how the Bush administration has decided to pursue more unilateral attacks in Pakistan instead of trying to cooperate with the Pakistani government.

So, next they'll be arming those drones with death rays maybe?

Mississippi mudcake

Lots of good things have come out of Mississippi [hard to believe, I know], including this little soap opera. An illegal ballot design so you can't find the special senate race, leaving off the party designations so you can't tell which is the D and which is the R if you do find it, and moving the date of the special election to favor Republican turnout.

Kewl.


Update: the sample ballot, see if you can spot the Democrat. But hey, it's not going to matter anyway --

None of the 82 counties have published their ballots, Hosemann said Friday. Only three counties - DeSoto, Lee and Yalobusha - use voting machines with paper ballots. The other 79 counties use electronic machines.

Been a bit windy here today

Ike came by the beach [that's the picnic area at the entrance to Ft Pickens, you have to park here and hike or bike the rest of the way to the fort and campground] on the way to Texas.

Troopergate

Some interesting reading in the PDFs in the sidebar to this article. Sarah Barracuda may very well have used her power as governor to fulfill a personal vendetta, but that dude strikes me as one who shouldn't be given a badge, a gun, a taser, and even a smidgen of social authority.

Update: Bryan, formerly in law enforcement himself, was kind enough take a look and opine on the situation here.

Mmmmmm... brownies

in my favorite flavor.

New favorite blog

Le Blog Exuberance

• architecture
• guerrilla garden

Do want.

Auyuittuq

Four weeks ago, tourists had to be evacuated from Baffin Island's Auyuittuq National Park because of flooding from thawing glaciers. Auyuittuq means "land that never melts".

Two weeks later, in an unprecedented sighting, nine stranded polar bears were seen off Alaska trying to swim 400 miles north to the retreating icecap edge. Ten days ago massive cracking was reported in the Petermann glacier in the far north of Greenland, an area apparently previously unaffected by global warming.

But it is the simultaneous opening – for the first time in at least 125,000 years – of the North-west passage around Canada and the North-east passage around Russia that promises to deliver much the greatest shock. Until recently both had been blocked by ice since the beginning of the last Ice Age.

for Bryan

more animals

4710

<--- dead

Yellow Sticky Notes

hapanimation

meditating bunny studio

True story

The helmet isn't mine, but I once had that bumper sticker. I came back to the office, after spending the day out in the field collecting samples of some critter or other, to find it glued to the wall of my cubicle. With alterations. My aren't-we-clever friends had taken a sharpie to it, changing the 4 to a 9 and scratching out the 5 altogether.

More accurate that way, they said.

15 days and nights of blogging for health care reform

Skylanda is guest-posting at Echidne of the Snakes --

Introduction

An argument for single-payer health care

OHP - a bold experiment in systematic reform

[to be continued]

September 10:

from the inbox ---

Dear Friends,

On August 1st, I delivered to Speaker Nancy Pelosi; a petition bearing the names of over 100,000 Americans that, like us, feel that the President must be held accountable for abusing executive power and disregarding his Constitutional obligations.

Your voices have been heard and your support continues to send a powerful message to lawmakers. That is why I call on you again to help us in a new effort to deliver 1 Million signatures to Speaker Pelosi on September 10, 2008.

Together we can:

• Urge real Congressional action to hold President Bush accountable now


• Reinstate the authority of our Constitution


• Document crimes committed by President Bush for historical account


• Facilitate post-Administration law enforcement and prosecution


• Reset the standard for the incoming and future administrations


• Demand justice for the over 3,000 who died on 9/11and whose deaths were tragically exploited to take us into an illegal war in Iraq


• Demand justice for the estimated 30,324 U.S. military personnel who have been injured/wounded


• Demand justice for the estimated 4,138 U.S. military personnel who have been killed or died


• Demand justice for the 1 Million innocent Iraqis who have died*


• Avert another illegitimate looming war – this time against Iran

We need your active participation to deliver 1 Million signatures to Congress by September 10, 2008.


Please give at least ten of your friends the opportunity to stand up for our country – the way you and I have, by inviting them to sign the impeachment petition online at www.Kucinich.us. Send your friends an email invitation to sign the petition by clicking here.

Together we can make September 10, the day before the world changed, a day we change the world!

Thank you for your active and ongoing citizenship.

Dennis Kucinich

If you glow in the dark,

you might not want to be crossing any borders.

"I'll take the insatiable lovers

over the puritanical warmongers any day."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Tour de Turtles

If you've ever wondered where sea turtles go, now you can see. Jamur is quite the world traveller. Ginger, otoh, appears to have found her idea of paradise.

New favorite blog

The Traveling Turtle Girl

Ha! Fear me!

Actually, this one's pretty far off, but I do like thunderstorms, in spite of the trouble they sometimes cause.

You Are Lightning

Beautiful yet dangerous People will stop and watch you when you appear Even though you're capable of random violence You are best known for: your power Your dominant state: performing

What Type of Weather Are You?

YouTube rocks!

Even the professorial types are figuring this out.



h/t

Some solar energy PSAs

more videos by gmoke

Puppycide, again

Puppycide: the rules
Just so we’re all clear, here…

• The police can kill the family pet with near impunity. But threaten a police dog that startles you, and you’ll find yourself in jail with a $100,000 bond.


• If the police invade your home, even on a mistake, they can kill your dog with impunity. But if an escaped police dog wanders on to your property and threatens your family, you have to just let it continue to threaten them. Shoot it, and you’re looking at a third-degree felony.

It's scary enough that in the oh-so-successful War On Drugs we have to worry about no-knock police raids at the wrong addresses, generally with SWAT teams or their ilk, but apparently it's common practice to shoot any dogs in the house. As the human companion of a largish fluffy black dog that looks very much like one of the breeds that everyone is afraid of, I don't expect my best friend to survive if my home is ever mistakenly raided. I've even considered posting a sign on the front door: Please don't shoot the dog.

Ack! -- vote NO now!

The latest outrage on my "representative's" website

Update, about 5 hours later: 720 votes, 'yes' and 'undecided' are at their same percentages, NO has gained 1%. Cool. Thanks, y'all, and keep up the good work!


Also, need help making up your mind? Bryan has done my homework for me and listed some of the reasons why we don't want, or need, offshore drilling here.

Reminder -- you still have a few hours

more Tennessee Ernie Ford

a small treasure trove

I want one of those

No, really.

and one of those...

and one of those...

and one of those...

and one of those...

and one of those...

and one of those...

new favorite blog

solarray

Pledge of allegiance

Life is a bowl of cherries

and so is laundry.

Sex on the beach

Jamaica Bay: it's where the boys are.

You coulda been a pufferfish

but nooooooo, you had to go and be a grossly bloated human instead.

[from the inbox... ]

Dear [hipparchia],

Capitol Hill is buzzing today with major developments regarding our campaign for impeachment hearings for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Just today, in what could be described as a perfect impeachment storm: 

• Karl Rove once again thumbed his nose at Congress and the American people by brazenly ignoring a lawful congressional subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives; 

• Judiciary Chairman John Conyers indicated his willingness to use the power of inherent contempt against Rove if necessary;

• Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced another article of impeachment on Bush's lies regarding the Iraq war; and

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted today saying that the House Judiciary Committee should address the issues that Kucinich raises in the House Judiciary Committee.

After years of work by so many of you, the time appears ripe to finally hold Bush and Cheney accountable.

Conyers Opens Door to Inherent Contempt for Rove

Karl Rove has simply refused to appear, as he is legally required to do. His actions, endorsed by the Bush/Cheney Administration, are a challenge to our system of checks and balances and Congress must respond to this type of outrageous behavior with appropriate severity. 

Today, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers courageously stated today that inherent contempt will remain an option for the House of Representatives so long as Rove and this Administration refuses to abide by the law.

We must now bring Mr. Rove (and other renegade Bush officials) in compliance with the law. 

This is a defining moment for Congress: Will we continue to allow legislative power to be eroded by an out of control executive branch that ignores the rule of law - or will we finally put an end to this congressional capitulation and properly force Administration officials to testify in full view of the American people?

It is time for Congress to hold Karl Rove in inherent contempt. I congratulate Chairman Conyers' positive move in this direction, and we must work to move other Members of Congress in support of the use of inherent contempt. Inherent contempt properly enables the House Sergeant of Arms to physically take custody of Mr. Rove and bring him to the House of Representatives to testify. 

How do you think a state or federal judge would react to a witness refusing to comply with a legal subpoena? The wayward witness would be arrested.  

Should the Congress of the United States be shown any less respect than any courtroom in the nation? 
Should the Congress react any differently than how any American judge would react? Absolutely not. 

We are long past the time for threats and negotiation. We must bring Mr. Rove in front of the full Judiciary Committee, under oath. No administration official - not even the President - is above the law. They cannot be allowed to redefine it at will. We must all appear when called or suffer the consequences.

Speaker Pelosi's Shift on Hearings and Rep. Kucinich's New Article of Impeachment

After stating unequivocally that impeachment "is off the table," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated to CBS News today that the House Judiciary Committee should address the issues that Rep. Kucinich's has raised in his impeachment resolution.

Pelosi's words provide genuine hope for our cause of accountability for this Administration. We must use Speaker Pelosi's openness to new hearings in the Judiciary Committee to pursue aggressively the serious allegations against Bush and Cheney relating to lies about the Iraq War, the illegal use of torture, the improper disclosure of the identity of a covert agent, the political firing of US attorneys, and on and on.

I again congratulate Congressman Kucinich on his continued leadership and work on behalf of this vital cause.

This issue now reaches far beyond the substance of the Judiciary Committee's original inquiry regarding the firing of US Attorneys for political purposes. The crisis at hand relates to our most fundamental laws and of our Constitution. It is, in many ways, more serious than the Constitutional crisis surrounding Watergate – yet the national media ignores the facts and ramifications of this renegade Executive.

Congress has a duty to protect the balance of powers. Mr. Rove, Mr. Bolten, and Ms. Miers have taken actions that severely undermine these powers, and we should not rely on a federal court alone.

The political tide begins to be turning and that is why I feel so strongly that we should aggressively push for inherent contempt for Karl Rove and impeachment hearings for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Thanks you for your work and your commitment to our constitution.

- Congressman Robert Wexler

That's it, right there

Someone once asked me what depression looked like, because for me, black dogs are all happy totems.



photo from the NYT's really good article on suicide

puppydocia

A vicarious trip to Turkey.

I am soooo jealous.

Proposed Constitutional amendment

A person is defined solely as a human being. The definition of person does not include any corporate or other fictitious entity.

h/t

Eggheads Unite!

Just discovered: Carnival of the Elitist Bastards.

Hmmm... I think I could qualify for that one....

New source [to me] of Iraq war photojournalism

Zoriah
6-23-08

Nooooooooo!

They be stealin my YouTube!

Remember Obama points?

Now you can get McCain points.

Carnage! Lechery! Now with gambling!

Obviously I haven't been getting out and about enough, because I just now noticed that sparky and dogscratcher are back, with all new river and food porn.

awwwwwwww!

When I put together what I knew of the beginnings of PUMA, I looked for the original comment that set it all off, but no luck. Not to worry, myiq2xu [was there ever a better nic than that one?] has it.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a PUMA

So, hipparchia, what do you think? Are the PUMAs primarily a GOP front org, as it appears?

--- SB, the YDS

It's a fair question to ask about an issue as potentially important as electing the next president, so I'll answer it: I dunno.

What I do know...

The PUMA un-party appears to have arisen spontaneously, on or about the 1st of June, out of a conversation here, at the pro-Hillary blog The Confluence. The Confluence was started by riverdaughter, who was goldberry, apparently after getting thrown out of dkos, which isn't terribly difficult to accomplish. I've had one of my sock puppets banned at dkos [concern troll!] and if I can do it, anybody can.

While I've only lurked very occasionally at The Confluence --- some of the commenters do seem to be terminally suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome, which is just tiring to read --- and only in recent weeks, riverdaughter and her blog both appear to be genuinely pro-Hillary and liberal [though not nearly so cool as my readers!] and have been for some time now. Additionally, I've run into Confluence contributor ronkseattle in various venues around cyberspace over the past 3 or 4 years, and he has always been reliably liberal.

Very shortly after that, murphy started Puma PAC, and Will Bower started P.U.M.A. At that point, being a bit on the solitary side myself, like many a real-life Florida panther, I mostly lost interest in actually following these people around the internet. I have, though, been quite partial to the idea, and have been spending a fair amount of time hanging out with the [mostly] uber-liberals at Corrente, keeping up especially with vastleft's blog and Sarah's manifestos there.

So, yes, Virginia, there are PUMAs and they are real and they are real liberals.

What I don't know is how much of the newly viral PUMA phenomenon is being hijacked and propagated by Republican operatives who see this as one possible means-to-an-end to sink Obama.

Certainly there are people declaring themselves Hillary suppporters who vow they was will vote for McCain before they'll ever, ever, ever vote for Obama, and unfortunately, a noticeable number of them do seem to be rather, ah, bigoted. It's quite possible they are Republicans who were, genuinely or not, crossing party lines and supporting Hillary Clinton. I mean, c'mon, look at what their own party has given them as candidates this year.

As for Darragh Murphy's assertion that that $500 contribution to McCain's primary campaign in 2000 [the one that Pandagon, and ilk, is all in an uproar about] was one of those strategic moves that politically active people try, supporting the opposition of the candidate they hate most, I find this entirely plausible. But even if Murphy really is a registered Republican, why shouldn't she, and others like her, be allowed to want Hillary for President?

But, yeah, the very virulent racism displayed by some of the self-proclaimed PUMAs is the main reason why I haven't formally joined them or endorsed them, even as I approve of their rebellious mood and actions.


Update, 7-3-2008: Darragh Murphy has been donating money to Hillary Clinton's campaign, $50 and $100 at a time [scroll down here], since March.

Old age and tyranny

will overcome youth and beauty any day of the week.

PUMAs are

Or not. I link, you decide.






additional reference


update: post title edited, h/t michael in comments

update update: post title changed yet again, as steve reminds me that rats are pretty darn kewl ackshully.

It's true, women do get more radical as they get older.

Ok, so I'm just one data point, but when I did this 2 or 3 years ago, my score was, iirc, -6.5, -6.8. Today --



Which leaves me feeling like I'm looking through the wrong end of the telescope --



I dunno, I'm thinkng his latest statement on FISA moves Obama up the authoritarian scale a couple of notches.

minor edit to add additional graphic

Talk bout American imperialism

All your personal data are belong to US.

Femi Nazis in Phoenix

So, if you're a grrrl, you can belong to the Phoenix Country Club, but you can't eat in the Mens grill room.

And if you complain about this, men will come to your house and pee on your landscaping.

New favorite blogs

• food


• satellite imagery [with bonus oil wells!]

Google has a

public policy blog.

Urban agriculture

In France, the doctors make house calls, even in the middle of the night.

All of Michael Moore's SICKO, in 13 parts, here.

Yes, kittens really do come from flower pots

Just because you're paranoid...

more on FISA

[note to self... ]

back car into parking spot, just in case.

Grandmother, may I?

go to war?

get up off the floor?

Blue Dog

more art







more videos

PUMA power

"The problem is the party itself. 2008 was the year that the party abandoned its principles. It is no longer the party of FDR and shared responsibility. Now, it is the party of wannabe rich libertarian Democrats. It is the party of the Ariana Huffingtons who, dissatisfied with their own party, have decided to steal someone else’s."

You have two assignments for tomorrow, June 19

Health care

If you live in one of the following cities:

• Atlanta, GA


• St. Louis, MO


• Albany, NY


• Boston, MA


• Baltimore, MD


• San Francisco, CA


• Louisville, KY


• Pittsburgh, PA


• Philadelphia, PA


• Harrisburg, PA


• New York City, NY


• Minnetonka, MN


• Oklahoma City, OK


• Jacksonville, FL


• Chicago, IL


• Indianapolis, IN


• San Antonio, TX


• Newark, NJ

there will be a pro HR 676 [single payer national health insurance] demonstration in your area.

Try to go [one reason why you should]. More information here.

===============================================

FISA

Quite possibly as early as tomorrow, your Congress could be voting to give your telephone company immunity from prosecution for spying on you. Call, write, fax, or email any and all of these people to object to telco immunity.

Beer!

The good news: there's gluten-free beer to be had.

The bad news: you have to go to Finland to get it.

Otoh, while you're there for beer, you could get medical care, a bear dog or two, and oh, those choirs! [h/t]

It's ba-a-a-ack!

Bonobo Handshake returns!

Rivers of blood

War, dreadful war, and Tiber flood
I see incarnadined with blood.
-- the Sibyl

As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood".
-- Enoch Powell

Whether Powell was just a racist dickhead or some dude with ears licked clean by the temple snakes, he and many others were, are, and always will be justifiably afraid of the consequences of smashing established social institutions.

Arguably, the Late Unpleasantness didn't turn out well for a lot of folks, though it freed some People of Color from at least one form of slavery, and if you're reading this, you've probably reaped a few benefits from that little tea party that some of our ancestors threw, even though it didn't turn out so well for a number of other groups.

On a lesser scale...

Several people died in the Haymarket Riot, a handful of anarchists were later executed [or committed suicide], and the cause for which the tens of thousands of workers were demonstrating -- shortening the work day to 8 hours -- wasn't immediately instituted by management, but an awful lot of workers since then are indebted to those early labor activists.

More recently, in fact mere weeks after Powell's speech, rioting in France at first only hardened the hearts of the morally conservative, authoritarian government,

 

but now, 40 years later,



France is a liberal, egalitarian society with perhaps the finest, or at least the most coveted, health care system in the world.

In light of all this, I have a modest proposal for you. Instead of working to heal the rift in the Democratic Party, now is the ideal time to part ways with the centrists and form the NFP -- National Feminist Party -- because NWP is already taken, plus there's that unfortunate W that we'd be better off without.

We'll ask Hillary to run as our first Presidential candidate for 2008, right after -- or perhaps right before would be better -- the Democratic Party Coronation of Obama, be it May 31, June 3, or the upcoming contretemps in Denver. She's got the chops, she's got the following, we'll just need to convice her to break with her centrist past and adopt a slightly more socialist [single-payer national health insurance] and populist [rescind corporate personhood] platform, but that might not be too difficult once she's no longer bound to the DLC.

Rather than the bland, homogenized, post-racial, post-feminist ideal of the Obamaites, I envision a possibly unruly but mostly like-minded assemblage of ovarians and penisians who will all be able to profess outright admiration or even envy of each others' melanin status. And while we won't have to go back to square one, the first thing I'd like to see is passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, with updates and improvements, of course.

The danger is that we'd be very unlikely to take the Presidency in 2008. Hillary's got roughly half the Democrats in the country rooting for her, but given the chance to jump off the cliff, a fair number of them will opt for safety and go with Obama. And while there's a good chance that splitting the erstwhile Democratic Party in two could leave McCain with the lion's share of votes, it's entirely possible that once a third -- and demonstrably leftist -- party is available for a yardstick to measure the other two against, many more Republicans will be comforted by, and will likely vote for, Obama's evident centrism.

History warns us that if we're the bleeding edge, the instigators of radical change, we'll be the ones to take the biggest hit, and we might even have to wait a generation or two before we become acceptable and unremarkable and society at large incorporates some of our goals. It's worth trying though, and no time like the present, and all that jazz.




original photo

Not giving up the fight

from the inbox---

Dear [hipparchia],

Last night, significant news broke that directly impacts our push for Impeachment Hearings and a possible Inherent Contempt charge for Bush Administration officials such as Karl Rove:

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has revealed in his upcoming book that:

• Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and Vice President Cheney lied about their role in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson – actions easily amounting to obstruction of Justice.

McClellan also admitted that:

• There was a coordinated effort within the Bush Administration to use propaganda to pump up the case for the Iraq war and hide the projected costs of the war from the public.

Scott McClellan must be called to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee to tell Congress and the American people everything he knows about this massive effort by the White House to deceive this nation into war.

Last week, a subpoena was issued for Karl Rove to testify before the Judiciary Committee. It appears he will take every legal action to block this subpoena. The truth is that Congress has the right – and obligation – to hold him accountable now - not months or years from now. It is long past time to pass Inherent Contempt and bring Rove, Libby and others before Congress.

We simply cannot ignore these recent developments, nor should we postpone serious inquiry until after the next election.

Your commitment to accountability for the Bush/Cheney Administration, and the support of 230,000 other Americans who signed up at wexlerwantshearings.com, has inspired and motivated me in my effort to hold impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney and Inherent Contempt for Rove and others. During the past months I have been a tireless and dogged advocate of this vitally important cause.

Many of you have written me, asking for an update on where we stand with regards to impeachment hearings. I know most of you believe - as I do - that impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney – are not only justified, but that it is our constitutional obligation to look into the serious allegations of wrongdoing that have been raised. This is especially true based on the newest revelations from Scott McClellan.

I believe that it is the duty of Congress to pursue impeachment whenever there's significant evidence of wrongdoing, be it by Republicans or Democrats, regardless of the timing of elections or the current political environment.

Some of you have written me demanding that I deliver hearings or impeachment. As hard as I have been fighting for this cause, I cannot make impeachment happen by myself. What I can do, and what I have been doing at every turn, is trying to communicate two simple messages to my colleagues:

• the serious allegations of wrongdoing and the clear-cut rationale for impeachment hearings;and
• the fact that the public will support our efforts when Congress boldly acts on the side of justice and accountability.

Unfortunately, to date, these arguments have not been enough to convince even a majority of the liberal and progressive Members of Congress to support impeachment hearings. In addition, the leadership of the Democratic Party in Congress genuinely feels that pursuing impeachment will jeopardize our congressional agenda and threaten gains in the November elections. Although I genuinely disagree with this view, to date I have been unable to convince them to change this policy.

I understand the challenges that we are up against, and I recognize the odds that we face. Nevertheless, I remain unfazed and unyielding.

This new evidence from Scott McClellan could be the tipping point – but we must move quickly. I will use the McClellan admissions to help convince my colleagues that we must hold impeachment hearings.

Regardless, I will continue to fight for progressive values and our Constitution. I will do everything I can to pursue accountability for criminal actions taken by this Administration and this Vice President. I will be a furious opponent to any expansion of this misguided war, and I will fight against the use of torture by our government and to protect our civil liberties here at home.

Most of all, I will continue my efforts to convince my fellow members of Congress and voters, that we should not be a party of passivity - but that we succeed when we present the public with stark choices that are based on the guarantees in our Constitution, and not on the politics of the moment.

I will continue - at every pass - to call for impeachment and accountability. While I wish more of my colleagues supported our movement, we must not let our discouragement lead to apathy and distraction in this important election year when we must break free from eight long years of illegalities, corporate handouts, and a tragic and devastating war.

We should not end the calls for impeachment. I will push against the crimes of the Bush Administration whenever I am provided the opportunity. I will use my role on the Judiciary Committee to take on Administration officials – like I have done with Condoleezza Rice, Attorney Generals Gonzalez and Mukasey, and FBI Director Mueller.

I have not given up our fight to hold this Administration accountable and neither can you. I am grateful for your patriotism and your support. I'll continue to keep you informed and part of the conversation.

Sincerely,

Congressman Robert Wexler

Florida wants your kids to be SMRT

A handful of Floridians have been fighting off the unIntelligent Design wackos who want your kids to actively resist learning sciece. That's not news, this fight has beeen going on for ages, but now there's a new wrinkle: we can save a lot of money, and keep Teh Kidz safe from Evilooshun, if we just stop paying for schools entirely!

It's not quite that bad yet, but according to this article in the St Petersburg Times, we're getting there. This next year will be the first time that a greater share of the public school budget will come from local property taxes than from state taxes.

Doesn't sound all that horrible on first reading, local control over schools and all that jazz, except that we've recently passed this pesky little amendment making it practically unconstitutional to pay property taxes, and in a market where property values are soaring like lead balloons, no less.

Large group feeding

Sounds like something right out of a biology textbook, and something vaguely distasteful at that: this species can be found descending on their prey in large group feedings...

What it is is a bill passed by some of the infamously compassionate conservatives that we have in abundance here in Florida to starve homeless people stop charitable groups from handing out free food to homeless people in the hopes that they'll disappear from local parks.

Among other provisions is this one:

Not more than two (2) Large Group Feeding Permits shall be issued to the same person, group, or organization for large group feedings for the same park in the GDPD in a twelve (12) consecutive month period.

Hmmm, looks like an opportunity for a somewhat sideways application of method 193. Overloading of administrative systems here. At one meal per day, 12 months = 366 days [for leap year, and makes the math easier] and each group can get two permits, so we'll only need 183 groups [plus a few more for backups] to apply for permits. This isn't an unreasonable burden, twice a year your group has to cater an informal picnic in a park.

Fortunately, there is a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this odious measure scheduled to go to trial in June. Cool. Meanwhile...

Go. Feed.


Homeless on the web [via]:
Homeless Liberation Front
street roots

Trying to reason with hurricane season

Hurricane season is almost upon us, time to stock up on bottled water, non-perishable food, MREs if you can get them, batteries, flashlights, prescription medications, pet food, bleach, etc.

And if you live in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, you'll need your papers.

Hurricane season starts June 1. In the event of a hurricane in the region, emergency officials predict more than 130,000 evacuees will leave the Valley by school bus. They will be checked for identification and citizenship before they can board.


Anyone who is not a citizen or is not a legal resident will be held in specially designed areas in the Valley that are “made to withstand hurricanes,” said Dan Doty, a Border Patrol spokesperson for the Valley sector.

470 mountains were destroyed to bring you this post

Pin this badge on your site.

Also, you might be interested in the relationship between poverty level and mine location.