Dick For Sale

wikipedia: Askar Akayev
Yes, Mr. Payne, I would like access to Mr. Dick. Mr. Cheney, I mean.

Bush Pioneer Stephen Payne is caught on tape by the Times of London selling access to Dick Cheney and other Bush Administration officials for contributions to the Bush Library. And not just to anyone. He's selling access to the exiled former president, Adkar Akayev, of Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet republic. A guy with a human rights record much like the Cheney Administration.

Will "Bush Library" come into the corporate media's lexicon as "Lincoln Bedroom" did? Don't hold your breath.


Times (uk): Stephen Payne: a hotshot lobbyist who can get you into White House
A lobbyist offered access to Dick Cheney and other US leaders in return for a donation to the Bush library

Booman Tribune: Askar Akayev Sets Up Bush Administration

Eek! A Mouse!

wikipedia

John McCain doesn't know how to get on the Internet. He said so in an interview with the New York Times.

Are you telling me they can't set up a laptop in the LapDog Express and show him the button to click to get to the 'net? That's beyond the Republican nominee to lead the country? He can't get on the internet himself? That is pathetic. It's beyond pathetic.

John McCain never crossed the bridge to the 21st century. Another reason he is completely unqualified to be President.

NYTimes: McCain interview

He said, ruefully, that he had not mastered how to use the Internet and relied on his wife and aides like Mark Salter, a senior adviser, and Brooke Buchanan, his press secretary, to get him online to read newspapers (though he prefers reading those the old-fashioned way) and political Web sites and blogs.

“They go on for me,” he said. “I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need.”

Asked which blogs he read, he said: “Brooke and Mark show me Drudge, obviously. Everybody watches, for better or for worse, Drudge. Sometimes I look at Politico. Sometimes RealPolitics.”

At that point, Mrs. McCain, who had been intensely engaged with her BlackBerry, looked up and chastised her husband. “Meghan’s blog!” she said, reminding him of their daughter’s blog on his campaign Web site. “Meghan’s blog,” he said sheepishly.

As he answered questions, sipping a cup of coffee with his tie tight around his neck, his aides stared down at their BlackBerries.

As they tapped, Mr. McCain said he did not use a BlackBerry, though he regularly reads messages on those of his aides. “I don’t e-mail, I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail,” Mr. McCain said.

Waste Not, Want Not

Library of Congress:
Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information Collection
Display of home-canned food
[between 1941 and 1945]
With the economy imploding (thanks a lot, George & Dick) everyone is looking to save money.

Britain's government is encouraging a return to Victory Gardens.

Towns in Massachusetts are doing all kinds of things to save money, including saving energy by installing solar roofs, closing buildings, and using more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Grocery shopping tips abound: here, here, here, here, here. I learned to grocery shop in Mrs. K's health class so I'm all set! Shop the exterior of the store for veggies, meat & dairy; the more processed & hence more expensive products are in the middle. Make a list using the store circular. Plan menus for the week. Stock up when pantry foods you eat often are on sale. Done!

The Boston Globe has an article today on recycling the ultimate waste: human. Ewwww.

Scrappy-Do Dustin Pedroia

Boston Globe
Scrappy-Do!

Boston Herald: Even foes get a kick out of Pedroia

Worcester Telegram: Dustin is tops since Doerr

Springfield Republican: Second to none

ProJo: Pedroia is every bit the deserving All-Star

Saturday Reading

Or did I want birth control? I can't remember.
dailykos via laughing squid

Carol Kreck, the librarian kicked out of a McCain event, speaks: McCain = Bush

McCain called the way Social Security has worked for over 70 years to keep American seniors out of poverty "A disgrace. An absolute disgrace." But it's unlikely that the television-watching public knows that, as none of the three networks covered that stunning statement. Make sure to tell your friends, because the media isn't doing their job. BBQ with sprinkles, anyone?

Guinness is becoming less popular in Ireland; the piece has this priceless description of a pub conversation:

At Davy Byrnes [pub], the conversation has moved on to whether John McCain inappropriately placated his Vietnamese captors ("He sang like a canary," Winter declares); the mass suicide and massacre of Jews in York in 1190; Stalin's execution of top army officers in the run-up to World War II; and a song by the Waterboys on a similar subject. Someone tries to remember how it goes. An argument ensues over whether the Waterboys ought to be considered an Irish band, or Scottish, or English.

KBR (the Halliburton subsidiary) electrocuted American soldiers through its grossly negligent profit-seeking behavior. Have a nice day, Dick Cheney.

Former White House Press Secretary and Fox News host Tony Snow and famed heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey have died.

A-Rod! The Musical

Act 1
July 24, 2004
NewYorker.com: Fragments from A-Rod! The Musical

hat tip to Art Martone at ProJoSoxBlog

Red Sox Rap

It's kind of .... white.

And I say that from a melatonin melanin-challenged position.

But funny.

Jacoby Rules

yahoo photos: Jacoby Ellsbury (L) of Boston Red Sox slides safely into home plate for a run ahead of the throw to Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer in the first inning of their MLB baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts July 8, 2008.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder (UNITED STATES)

That's what I named my fantasy baseball team after Jacoby Ellsbury hit .400 in the World Series last year, after starting the 2007 season in Double A. While he may not win the AL Rookie of the Year award (Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Secular Rays is also having a fantastic season, and has posted some pretty impressive numbers) Ellsbury has been pivotal to the Red Sox this season. Check out Art Martone's take at ProjoSoxBlog; he calls Jacoby "The Catalyst" (go to his original post for links to sources):

THE CATALYST: When he hits .339 -- with a .411 on-base percentage and a .489 slugging percentage -- they win. When he hits .194 -- with corresponding numbers of .257 and .248 -- they lose. And when he doesn't play, their winning percentage is .333.

While it's a truism that virtually all players hit better in wins than in losses -- that's one of the reasons teams lose individual games, because the players don't hit in them -- the numbers for Jacoby Ellsbury are particularly striking. (baseball-reference.com) (Compare them, for instance, to Dustin Pedroia's, or Manny Ramirez' or J.D. Drew's.) Steven Krasner takes a closer look at Ellsbury's importance to the Sox' offense and talks to various people about how he jump-starts the attack. And there's plenty of evidence that his down periods coincide with the team's . . . such as the recently concluded 3-7 road trip, when he hit just .225 with a .279 on-base percentage. (Baseball Musings' Day By Day Database)

All of it indicates just how important Ellsbury has become to the Sox in the short time he's been with them. And it's one of the reasons why the controversy we all anticipated if Coco Crisp wasn't traded hasn't developed. While it's true that various injuries have given the two of them adequate playing time, more than could have been anticipated had everyone stayed healthy, no one can reasonable argue that Crisp, he of the .259/.309/.410, OPS-plus 87 line, deserves to be in lineup over Ellsbury.

Economics + Whining + Barry White: Genius

hat tip to Talking Points Memo.

Messy Desks

Maybe mine isn't so bad, after all.

aol: My Messy Life: Q&A with Josh Freed

hat tip to Suburban Guerrilla.

We're All A Bunch of Whiners

So sez the loathesome Phil Gramm. That's John McCain's TOP ECONOMIC ADVISER. Don't worry, be happy! I'm rich, why aren't you?

I guess he thinks we regular folk who don't have Gulfstreams and millions are kind of bitter about the economy. The media talked about that for weeks. Do you think our whiner status will merit the same?

Don't hold your breath, kittens.

LOST

Who was Manny talking to during the pitching change on Wednesday?

Caption suggestions here.

I just like the fact that the photo frames him within the word "LOST", and looking happy as a clam. MBM.

The Many Lies of John McCain

My friend, there are more where that came from! (nudge nudge, wink wink)

See the linked posts below to read about McCain's 50 policy flipflops, his 10 gaffes this week, and get this, he lied about the dates of his divorce and his second marriage (to cover up his infidelity and the stunning betrayal of his first wife) in his own autobiography. The Rethugs have got a brass-plated liar for their candidate. Read the entire posts for all the gory details. McCain is not a nice man.

Oh, must add my favorite lie of the day. Yesterday in Pennsylvania, after 30 years of saying that while in the Hanoi prison camp he gave his captors the names of the Green Bay Packers as his squadron mates, yesterday he claimed he named the Pittsburgh Steelers. How convenient while campaigning in Pennsylvania! Will he name a different NFL team in every state he campaigns in? College teams in states that don't have NFL teams? Huggy PanderBear strikes again. Will the media pull their heads out of the BBQ trough to notice? Spread the word about the lies of John McCain, because you must do the media's job.

dailykos: 50 Flip Flops Of John McCain

Privatizing Social Security, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Tax Cuts, Judges, Torture, Negotiating With Hamas, Bush Third Term, Agents Of Intolerance, 527s, Gramm's Whiner Comments, Economic Expertise, Illegal Wiretapping, Habeas Corpus, Everglades Restoration, Gay Couple Legal Contracts, GI Bill, Military Service Exploitation, Roe v. Wade, States Rights On Abortion, ANWR, Offshore Drilling, Role of States in Drilling, MLK Holiday, Windfall Profits Tax, Filibustering of Judges, Confederate Flag, Civil Unions, Constitutional Ban On Gay Marriage, Yucca Mountain, Undue Lobbyist Influence, Abortion Exceptions, Defense Cuts, Waterboarding Mandatory Caps, Citizenship for Immigrants, Flying the Confederate Flag, Bush Tax Policies, South African Divestment, Alternative Minimum Tax, Estate Tax Repeal, NOrth Korea Negotiations, Iraq + Stay The Course, Creationism, Time of Offshore Drilling, Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration Act, Fidel Castro, Pakistan, Bush's Pioneers, Occupying Muslim Lands.

HuffPost: The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace."

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop.

4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable.

5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop.

6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. I

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians.

8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics.

9. McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.

10. McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan.

LATimes: McCain's broken marriage and fractured Reagan friendship

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Yahoo Photos
I see buyer's remorse and a lot of plastic surgery (note the widely stretched joker mouth).

Wuzz Happenin?

Today's cave, from wikipedia:
Photo by Dave Bunnell showing stalagmites, stalactites, and draperies by a pool in Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico
Today is the day the Senate sells out the Constitution. It's just the fucking constitution, after all, no biggie, just the founding source of law and order for this once-great country. Congress now has a pre-1776 mentality. King George the Tyrant can now outsource violations of the law. Smirky McConstitutionFucker can order a private entity to violate the Constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and Congress will say hey, no problem, whatever, it's OK by us, we had our spines removed a decade ago, just do it. And the private entity can invoke the Nuremberg defense: They were just following orders. Javold, Herr Bush.

Here's what Congress is going to pass:

H.R. 6304, THE FISA AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2008 (6/19/2008)

The ACLU recommends a no vote on H.R. 6304, which grants sweeping wiretapping authority to the government with little court oversight and ensures the dismissal of all pending cases against the telecommunication companies. Most importantly:

• H.R. 6304 permits the government to conduct mass, untargeted surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States, without any individualized review, and without any finding of wrongdoing.

• H.R. 6304 permits only minimal court oversight. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) only reviews general procedures for targeting and minimizing the use of information that is collected. The court may not know who, what or where will actually be tapped.

• H.R. 6304 contains a general ban on reverse targeting. However, it lacks stronger language that was contained in prior House bills that included clear statutory directives about when the government should return to the FISA court and obtain an individualized order if it wants to continue listening to a US person’s communications.

• H.R.6304 contains an "exigent" circumstance loophole that thwarts the prior judicial review requirement. The bill permits the government to start a spying program and wait to go to court for up to 7 days every time "intelligence important to the national security of the US may be lost or not timely acquired." By definition, court applications take time and will delay the collection of information. It is highly unlikely there is a situation where this exception doesn’t swallow the rule.

• H.R. 6304 further trivializes court review by explicitly permitting the government to continue surveillance programs even if the application is denied by the court. The government has the authority to wiretap through the entire appeals process, and then keep and use whatever it gathered in the meantime.

• H.R. 6304 ensures the dismissal of all cases pending against the telecommunication companies that facilitated the warrantless wiretapping programs over the last 7 years. The test in the bill is not whether the government certifications were actually legal – only whether they were issued. Because it is public knowledge that they were, all the cases seeking to find out what these companies and the government did with our communications will be killed.

• Members of Congress not on Judiciary or Intelligence Committees are NOT guaranteed access to reports from the Attorney General, Director of National Intelligence, and Inspector General.

Of course, FISA is just the tip of the government's abrogation of the Fourth Amendment; every branch, every agency, every law enforcement entity, they're all spying on us.

Tiny ray of light: Judge in Guantanamo case tells the government, no, you're not getting any more postponements, you've had these poor men in jail for six years. If you've had enough evidence to keep them in jail for six years, you're ready for trial right now. Go.

Hire these losers: Mark Penn starts a consulting company with Karen Hughes. Really.

I'm going to the studio to make pears. Reality is too depressing today.

What Happened in China in 2007?

Sounds like the only player on the USWNT who acquitted herself well in the L'Affaire Ryan/Solo/Scurry was Carli Lloyd, a smart Jersey girl. The Sports Illustrated article below (and Andrea Canales take, after that) lays out more of what really happened behind the scenes when Hope Solo was banned from the team after saying, hey, I would have made those saves. (She couldn't be charged with slander, because It. Was. The. Truth.)

I blame Greg Ryan, but clearly the rest of the team had a warped idea of "team". I mean, isn't the reason you stick together as a team that you want to win? I never understood them all going along with Greg Ryan's moronic bootball tactics. I guess there wasn't anyone on the team that understood that it was not the beautiful game they were playing. And they thought it was more important to be nice to each other than to win. Hey, put in the old goalie that can't kick the ball and hasn't played in a competitive game in six months. Take out the hot kid with two clean sheets under her belt. It's OK, we're a team! Dumb. I'm so disappointed in the juvenile attitudes of these athletes. Maybe with age will come wisdom.


SI.com: Hard Return
Her World Cup outburst violated the team-first ethos of women's sports and made her an outcast. Now Hope Solo is the U.S. goalie once again, bound for Beijing—and still trying to figure it all out

Sideline Views (Andrea Canales): The Feminine Mystique

P.S., Kristine Lilly is due on July 19th.

OMG Could He Be Any Stupider

John McCain thinks Social Security is a disgrace. I guess if you're married to a multi-millionairess, the thought of paying taxes so retired people don't live in poverty is revolting. Watch the video:



As Josh Marshall says:

People say a lot of things about Social Security -- a lot of it nonsense. But I haven't heard something like this in a long time. John McCain says that Social Security, as originally conceived more than 70 years ago, is an "absolute disgrace."

McCain told a townhall in Denver on Monday, "Americans have got to understand that. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace and it's got to be fixed."

It's really a disgrace? That's how the system was designed to operate. And it's served as financial bedrock of retirement security in this country for going on a century.

And yesterday John McBush joked that selling cigarettes to Iranians would kill them faster. Har-de-har-har.



John McCain: Four More Years of Bush. Egad.

How To Be Creative

Interesting meditation on creativity by public radio's Ira Glass:



Last night in the studio someone asked me, why are you making so many pears? This is really the answer. Making lots of work is how you get better at what you do.

Hat tip to Jeannette Zeis Vessels & Wares

He's Still Big, But He's Not Red Anymore

And there goes one of the great chants in sport.

"He's big, he's red, his feet stick out the bed, Peter Crouch, Peter Crouch"

He's big, he's blue, etc., doesn't have the same ring.

Unlike Rafa, Harry will play him. So it's a good move for Crouchie. All the best; YNWA.

BBC: Crouch agrees terms with Pompey
Liverpool striker Peter Crouch has agreed personal terms with Portsmouth and will complete his move upon passing a medical within the next 48 hours.

Updating the Blogroll

 

The Deer Lamp (always lit, on top of Grandma's TV, now on top of mine)

Added:

Tzvee's Talmudic Blog Blogrolled me, a wicked sense of humor, and my blogroll needed more from The Tribe.

Removed, for not posting enough. I still love them both, but...bloggers must post. :

Art Pottery, Politics and Food

Don To Earth Again

McCain Will Keep This Country Safe From Librarians With Opinions

ProgressNowAction

Watch this unbelievable video of a 61-year-old librarian being given a ticket for trespassing and escorted out of the line waiting to get into a John McCain rally. Her crime? She was holding up a sign that said 'McCain = Bush'.

This is what the cop tells her:

You have two choices. You can keep your sign here and receive a ticket for trespassing, or you can remove the sign and stay in line and attend this town hall meeting.

Since when is holding up a sign trespassing? This is simply suppression of free speech.

McCain hates the 1st Amendment as much as his pal Bush.

Maybe she could express her opinion to John McBush if she had a Gulfstream and had given him buckets of money.

McCain Versus The Teleprompter

The teleprompter wins every time! I can't wait to see this guy debate Obama.

Happy 4th of July

This should be our national anthem:

El Nino, Age 12

Torres makes look easy in this video of an Athletico Madrid - AC Milan youth match from 1996.

Giving Myself a Break

BBC: A boy carries bread for sale at a market in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Off for July 4th weekend.

Back in a week. Or I may throw up something while I'm at Coach Mom's, but don't count on it.

Happy 4th of July!

Gandhi's Voice

Gandhi at a prayer meeting in New Delhi in January 1948. He was killed by a Hindu extremist at a prayer meeting days later, on Jan. 31, 1948. (Associated Press)

Most of us have never heard Gandhi's voice. A rare recording of Mahatma Ghandhi speaking months before his death -- in English -- has been unearthed. It may have been the last speech of his life.

WaPo: Saying His Peace
Rare Recording of Speech by Gandhi Landed in Safe, if Unknowing, Hands

The Voice of Gandhi (audio)

Another Reason to Vote Against Private Plane McCain

"Why don't all you people just get heiress wives and Gulfstreams like I did?"

He's been trying to kill Amtrak -- affordable train travel for the rest of us, the non-private-plane crowd -- for decades.

Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: McCain's agenda on Amtrak

TRAIN TRAVEL is finally becoming a third rail of politics. The first one to fry over it might be John McCain.

For years, McCain, in the comfort of cheap gasoline for autos and airplanes, made Amtrak a personal whipping boy. Despite the fact that governments in Western Europe and Asia zoomed far ahead of the United States by supporting high-speed trains to relieve congestion, promote tourism and now as we are coming to know, save the planet, McCain has spent considerable capital in denying the passenger rail system the capital to modernize.

In 2000, when he was chairman of the Senate Science, Commerce and Transportation committee, McCain killed $10 billion in capital funding for Amtrak. He denounced Amtrak as a symbol of government waste, claiming, "There's only two parts of the country that can support a viable rail system - the Northeast and the far West."

He made these claims though Amtrak investment had the support of several notable Republicans. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi warned that Amtrak "is guaranteed and doomed to failure if we don't give it an opportunity to succeed. If you don't have modern equipment, if you don't have the new fast trains, if you don't have a rapid rail system, it will not work."

Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services during President Bush's first term, was Amtrak chairman when McCain blocked the funding. Thompson said, "The traveling public are sending a distress call to escape our nation's endless traffic jams and airport gridlock."

Although Thompson claimed "remarkable progress in turning Amtrak around," despite a past where "it was not run like a business," McCain ignored the distress call. In 2001, then-Amtrak president George Warrington said the funding of rail in America was so bad, it was comparable to similar funding in Estonia and Tunisia.

Today's Viral Video

Joe Cocker at Woodstock -- with subtitles explaining what those lyrics really were!

Last Day of Fundraising Quarter

Today is the last day of the fundraising quarter. Make your favorite Democrats look good by donating. Just reporting a great number of contributors is good. You can give $10 by midnight tonight and give your candidate a little more good press.

I'm giving to Barack Obama and Eric Massa (running to replace the Shotgun Senator, Randy Kuhl, in upstate New York's 29th District).

If you give Obama $30 or more, he'll send you a t-shirt

or this one

Or this organic t-shirt

Or if you contribute $15, you can get on of these three car magnets (guess people don't like bumper stickers any more):

5" logo car magnet

5" blue "Yes We Can" car magnet

9" "Change We Can Believe In" car magnet

This concludes the advertising part of this blog!

Google Earth Tour of McCain's Residences

hat tip to Americablog

Spain Celebrates!

And I thought the Celtics knew how to celebrate.

Beware Dow Chemical Herbicide Aminopyralid

Mass spraying of pesticides on farms, pictured here in Florida, is putting gardens at risk. Photograph: David R. Frazier/Alamy

Beware of manure fertilizers. If they come from factory farms sprayed with the Dow Chemical herbicide/pesticide aminopyralid (found in products Cleanwave, Milestone vm, Forefront r&p, and Milestone, among others) they will be contaminated. Gardeners in Britain are finding that manure from fields sprayed a year ago still contains the toxic chemical.

Dow,, the company with the lying ad tagline, we bring good things to life. In my head I always add "and we kill them." From the people who brought you Agent Orange, another toxic nightmare.

firedoglake:
Persistent Herbicide In Compost Destroys UK Gardens - Can It Happen Here?

In today's Observer, Caroline Davies describes how this year British gardeners find their fruits and veggies are stunted, deformed, and dying. The culprit: Dow Chemical's persistent herbicide aminopyralid sprayed on grazing land or fodder. The herbicide stayed in the plants the cattle ate, stayed in the cattle (and horse) poop, stayed in the compost produced from the poop, and came out the other end of the process all ready to kill food crops and home gardens.

Problems with the herbicide emerged late last year, when some commercial potato growers reported damaged crops.

[snip]

[T]he herbicide has now entered the food chain. Those affected are demanding an investigation and a ban on the product. They say they have been given no definitive answer as to whether other produce on their gardens and allotments is safe to eat.

It appears that the contamination came from grass treated 12 months ago. Experts say the grass was probably made into silage, then fed to cattle during the winter months. The herbicide remained present in the silage, passed through the animal and into manure that was later sold. Horses fed on hay that had been treated could also be a channel.

It can't happen here?

Well, the EPA has licensed aminopyralid in several products used in the US: Cleanwave, Milestone vm, Forefront r&p, and Milestone.

Observer (uk): Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser

Gardeners across Britain are reaping a bitter harvest of rotten potatoes, withered salads and deformed tomatoes after an industrial herbicide tainted their soil. Caroline Davies reports on how the food chain became contaminated and talks to the angry allotment owners whose plots have been destroyed

This Will Make Some Wingnut Heads Explode

LATimes: Guatemalan women kick aside constraints in the U.S.
Soccer, a frowned on activity in their home country, becomes a passion.

Women from countries where women are denied opportunities, given the chance, love to play soccer! And many of the women in this article are undocumented workers, a group the right loves to revile.

Watch the slideshow "Eager to play futbol" on the left sidebar of the article. It's awesome.

Poetry in Motion

[Fernando] Torres executes a perfect chip over the onrushing Lehmann to give Spain the lead
Photograph: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images

Spain defeated Germany 1-0 in the Euro 2008 final this afternoon. A well-deserved win by Spain which played beautiful attacking football throughout the tournament.

The goal came from Liverpool striker Fernando Torres who dominated the first half. Perhaps inspired by the Spanish fans who according to the Telegraph sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" before the game. The article also notes:

It was a glittering goal that echoed another final gem by a Liverpool striker, Kenny Dalglish's elegant chip over the Bruges goalkeeper, Birger Jensen, to win the 1978 European Cup.

After the game was over, Sergio Ramos celebrated in a white no. 16 shirt in tribute to his fellow Sevilla youth system friend Antonio Puerta, who died tragically at the age of 22 after suffering a heart attack during a game last year.



Guardian (uk): Viennese waltz for Spain as Torres goal wins Euro 2008

Telegraph (uk): Fernando Torres' strike wins Euro 2008 for Spain as Germany say goodnight Vienna

Independent (uk): Germany 0 Spain 1: Torres' flash of steel and skill dispatches laboured Germans

Goal.com: Player Rater

Telegraph (uk): Picture Gallery

BBC Sport: Photo Gallery

Richie Rich Cindy McCain Forgets to Pay Her Property Taxes

Newsweek catches Cindy McCain delinquent on her taxes on a La Jolla, California condo. Four years worth of delinquent. The McCains quickly sent out a check for the first three years of the four years of delinquency. Only $6,744 for three years worth of taxes. If that figure seems very low for La Jolla oceanfront property, it's probably because they've owned the property a long time and the pernicious Prop. 13 in California keeps taxes pretty close to what they were when you bought your property. People who bought their property in California in the last 10 years are subsidizing folks like the McCains who've owned their property for a long time.

I guess I will have to update my post about the McCain's lavish wealth, because I missed -- or misidentified -- this property in my prior research. An oceanfront condo in La Jolla, in addition to the $4.7 million condo in Phoenix, the four houses worth $1.8 million on the "ranch" in Hidden Valley, Arizona, the condo in Arlington, Virginia where McCain lives while the Senate is in session. While I listed them as owning two luxury condos worth at least $3 million on the beach in Coronado, California, maybe the "two luxury condos on the beach" included this one in La Jolla as well as the one the McCains use in Coronado. This blogger says the McCains own ten (10) properties. So hard to keep your houses straight when you own so many.

And she's the one who knows how to use the computer. Maybe she's channeling her inner Leona Helmsley, who famously said (before she went to the hoosegow) "Only the little people pay taxes".

I bet some little person at the trust or the accountant's office got fired for embarrassing the campaign.

If the McCains can't keep up with their $300 million fortune, why should we trust them with the federal budget?

Newsweek: Mrs. McCain, San Diego County Would Like a Word

When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona.

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. County records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain's trust, were returned by the post office. According to a McCain campaign aide, who requested anonymity when discussing a private matter, an elderly aunt of Mrs. McCain's lives in the condo, and the bank that manages the trust has not been receiving tax bills on the property. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: "The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due."

Private Plane McCain Can't Remember the Price of Gas

Private Plane McCain relaxes in his wife's plane. Price of gas? I don't remember! I don't have to remember! Maverick! Hanoi Hilton!

ThinkProgress: McCain: I ‘Don’t See How It Matters’ That I Don’t Know The Price Of Gas»

The price of gas is for the little people to remember.

Or, for the young whippersnappers.

John McCain doesn't have to remember the price of gas. No matter how badly he and Bush fuck up the economy, they'll both still be rich. Remember, The McCain Tax Plan Would Save McCain $373,429

A Cartoon for Readers

Readers of books, that is: Compulsory Reading.

hat tip to Lawyers, Guns & Money

Beware of Anonymous Sources

Well-known liar; columnist at Time magazine. Crime pays.

The press has hated Bill Clinton for years and never misses an opportunity to smear him. The blogs coined a term for the media obsession with the Clintons: the "Clinton Rules".

The anonymous sources in the article in the Telegraph (below) claiming Bill is angry at Obama are referred to variously as "campaign insiders," "loyal allies," "a senior Democrat," "a second source," "his friends," "another Democrat," and "a party strategist". The only source on the record in the whole article is Joe Klein, who wrote the venomous book about the Clintons, Primary Colors, and then lied about being its author for two years afterwards. (So Joe, if you were lying then, why should I believe you now?)

And Joe Klein isn't even a primary source, as he says "he has heard" that Clinton is bitter.

Expect to see this tissue of lies on the front pages of the major U.S. papers tomorrow, because now it's "out there".

And what kind of friends and allies would give off-the-record interviews about this kind of garbage? Not really your friends, I wager.

Journalism is dead; long live the vulturous corporate media.

Telegraph (uk): Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support

One Person's Clutter

Is another's previous collection.

First WNBA Player's Son Drafted by NBA

Cool. I saw Pam McGee win the gold medal with the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team in L.A. in 1984. (Did you know her twin sister Paula, who played with her at USC, is now a preacher?)

Nevada Appeal: McGee drafted to Washington

Former University of Nevada standout JaVale McGee was drafted No. 18 overall to the Washington Wizards Thursday night in the NBA Draft.

ESPN: Mother-son legacy a first for WNBA/NBA

Women's Hoops Blog: McGee #1

Strike A Pose

hat tip to Presto Change-o!

Kid Gloves

Private Plane McCain

That's how the media is treating John McCain. He's much richer than John Edwards, and McCain's policy positions will make McCain personally far wealthier. His base the media never see to fit to mention this.

Media Matters for America: The Edwards standard and John McCain

Exxon-Valdez -- What Really Happened

Under the Supreme Court's other big decision yesterday, he has every right to buy that gun and carry it around in DC. The actual shooting is still barred by law, I think -- you never know how far the 2nd Amendment goes anymore, do you? Is the Exxon-Valdez oil spill the equivalent of a home invasion?

This article about what really happened in the Exxon-Valdez case is important. I saw this all the time in our asbestos practice -- before the asbestos companies took advantage of the bankruptcy laws and screwed all the workers they had poisoned for decades. Lawyers for companies would say right out, this is the most you are ever going to get. You may win at trial, but we'll appeal and you know how conservative the appeals courts are. We'll win on your appeal and your clients will get pennies on the dollar. And that was happening before Bush spent seven years packing the federal courts with even more rightwing nutjobs.

Read the rest of the article to see all the promises the oil companies made to the Alaskan natives to get the use of the Valdez Port, and how all those promises were cynically broken.

GregPalast.com: Court Rewards Exxon for Valdez Oil Spill

Twenty years after Exxon Valdez slimed over one thousand miles of Alaskan beaches, the company has yet to pay the $5 billion in punitive damages awarded by the jury. And now they won't have to. The Supreme Court today cut Exxon's liability by 90% to half a billion. It's so cheap, it's like a permit to spill.

Exxon knew this would happen. Right after the spill, I was brought to Alaska by the Natives whose Prince William Sound islands, livelihoods, and their food source was contaminated by Exxon crude. My assignment: to investigate oil company frauds that led to to the disaster. There were plenty.

But before we brought charges, the Natives hoped to settle with the oil company, to receive just enough compensation to buy some boats and rebuild their island villages to withstand what would be a decade of trying to survive in a polluted ecological death zone.

In San Diego, I met with Exxon's US production chief, Otto Harrison, who said, "Admit it; the oil spill's the best thing to happen" to the Natives.

His company offered the Natives pennies on the dollar. The oil men added a cruel threat: take it or leave it -- and wait twenty years to get even the pennies. Exxon is immortal - but Natives die.

And they did. A third of the Native fishermen and seal hunters I worked with are dead. Now their families will collect one tenth of their award, two decades too late.

Paul Pierce on Jimmy Kimmel

The wheelchair was a nice touch.

What Digby Said

flickr/Library of Congress: Bain News Service,, publisher.
Florence F. Noyes as "Liberty" in Suffrage Parade
[between 1910 and 1915]

A popular refrain on liberal blogs, as Digby and her co-bloggers dday and tristero at Hullabaloo turn out some of the best analysis on the 'net.

Today you can learn that

a) the corporate media has it in for Iraq reporter Lara Logan, because she criticized their execrable war coverage; just like they demonized Ashley Banfield for the same.

b) shows the vote total for all the terrible bills Republicans voting unanimously pushed through for Bush -- aided & abetted by Democrats abandoning their party to join in -- and concludes: "The key to understanding how the elders define bipartisanship is recognizing that whatever your beliefs or principles, you "get things done" in Washington by doing what conservatives want you to do."

c) dday marvels at the crackpots being mentioned as serious candidates to run as veep with McCain, Bobby exorcism-conducting, criminal-castrating Jindal, and Mittwit "nuclear nonproliferation is a liberal position" Romney. "Good Lord these people are out of their skulls."

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack

Fans in the Hit It Here Cafe at Safeco Field in Seattle, where the menu includes Caesar salad, barbecued rack of ribs and lavender meringue.
Photo: Andrew Testa for The New York Times


NYTimes: Buy Me Some Sushi and Baby Back Ribs

NYTimes: Finding the Hits, Avoiding the Errors
A culinary scorecard for all 30 major league baseball stadiums. (interactive map)

Personally, I prefer not to eat at Fenway Park. Even thought they've upgraded the food quite a bit, the vendor is Aramark and they're terrible. They failed health inspections on opening day this year and didn't clean up their act for 19 games. The violations included "sausages thawing in stagnant water, employees handling raw burgers without changing their gloves, and rodent droppings underneath service counters." I recommend going to the game with a full stomach.

The bratzel at St. Louis's Busch Stadium looks good.

50-50 Chance of NO ICE at the North Pole This Summer

Does water have to lap at the front steps of the Capital Building before Congress takes action? (Obviously we can forget C+ Augustus, who wouldn't know climate change if it knocked him off his bicycle.)

Independent (uk): Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole
Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change

Independent (uk): Peter Wadhams: Every time I visit the Arctic, the ice gets thinner

Pierce & Garnett on ESPN

I want Kevin Garnett's earrings.

Nixonland

Nixonland by Rick Perlstein is the next political book I want to read.

Here's the Amazon.com review:

Amazon Best of the Month, May 2008: How did we go from Lyndon Johnson's landslide Democratic victory in 1964 to Richard Nixon's equally lopsided Republican reelection only eight years later? The years in between were among the most chaotic in American history, with an endless and unpopular war, riots, assassinations, social upheaval, Southern resistance, protests both peaceful and armed, and a "Silent Majority" that twice elected the central figure of the age, a brilliant politician who relished the battles of the day but ended them in disgrace. In Nixonland Rick Perlstein tells a more familiar story than the one he unearthed in his influential previous book, Before the Storm, which argued that the stunning success of modern conservatism was founded in Goldwater's massive 1964 defeat. But he makes it fresh and relentlessly compelling, with obsessive original research and a gleefully slashing style--equal parts Walter Winchell and Hunter S. Thompson--that's true to the times. Perlstein is well known as a writer on the left, but his historian's empathies are intense and unpredictable: he convincingly channels the resentment and rage on both sides of the battle lines and lets neither Nixon's cynicism nor the naivete of liberals like New York mayor John Lindsay off the hook. And while election-year readers will be reminded of how much tamer our times are, they'll also find that the echoes of the era, and its persistent national divisions, still ring loud and clear. --Tom Nissley

He was on Morning McCain on MSNBC and went toe to toe with Nixon henchman, racist Pat Buchanan. Watch the video here.

Digby loved the book.

The New York Times assigned George F. Will to review it. Guess what he thought? Read his scathing review here.

If George Will hates it, I need to read it.

A Bad Day For Democracy

 

The Senate sold out to Bush and the telecoms 80-15 on FISA. Now if the government wants to violate the Constitution, the precedent has been set. All the government has to do is outsource the lawbreaking to a third party, and then Congress ratifies it. The Nuremburg defense is now official U.S. policy. "We were just following orders."

Oh, and Obama, Clinton, and McCain all couldn't be bothered to vote. (Not surprising from McCain, who hasn't voted on anything since April 8th.)

Obama retreated from his previous promise to filibuster any bill with telecom amnesty. He said yesterday that national security trumps amnesty, whatever the hell that means. Tough on terra, I guess. :::sigh::: I always hate the race to the center after the Democratic primary is over.

The Supreme Court threw out most of the Exxon-Valdez punitive damages award to the citizens of Alaska, cutting the already cut-down award from $2.5 billion to 500 million. That's about half a day's profit for Exxon, the richest company in the world. Crime does pay.

These are the days that try liberal's souls.

Greatest Fan Outfits Ever

 

Netherlands Fans, Frankfurt, June 2006

Deutschland!

 

German Fans, Frankfurt, June 2006

I Wish I Were in Berlin Today

Turkish and German flags fly in a street in the western German city of Duisburg, on June 23. Many Turks living in Germany support not only the team of their home country, but also the German squad. Germany will play the Euro 2008 championship semi-final match against Turkey on June 25, in Basel.
(AFP/DDP/Volker Hartmann)

BBC: Electric atmosphere grips Berlin

Coach Mom & I met many kind Turkish immigrants during our sojurn through Germany at the 2006 World Cup. We also got to be in Berlin while Germany played its first game after the group stages and watched the city explode in joy and revelry after Germany won. I'd love to be there today!

A Little Light Reading

flickr: SI Neg. 77-13915. Date: 1977...A close-up of the face and hands of the statue of President Abraham Lincoln which sits in the Lincoln Memorial. Created by American sculptor Daniel Chester French, the sculpture was completed in 1920. ..Credit: Dane A. Penland (Smithsonian Institution)

This should have led every national news program: NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen testified to Congress on Monday that we have one year -- one year -- to deal with climate change. One year, or it will be irreversible and too late for the planet. One year. In 2006 he gave us 20 years, but things have gotten much worse so quickly. Here's a pdf of his testimony;

The Boston Globe reports that military contractor KBR exposed Americans in Iraq to a form of chromium -- the stuff in the wells in the movie Erin Brockovich -- and now they're getting sick. The only small justice here is that KBR has been playing games & claiming their employees were employed by a shell corporation in the Caymans so they didn't have to pay unemployment & social security taxes. As a result, these employees may be able to sue KBR directly rather than being limited to worker's compensation.

The networks are spending two minutes a week covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A near total news blackout.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge (and John McCain top adviser) lobbied for the government of Albania for two years without registering as a lobbyist. Laura Rozen asks, "curious if Ridge knows something about the strange DOD-US embassy-Albanian government-AEY-mothballed $300 million Chinese ammo weapons deal[?]" You can read all about that bizarre $300 million dollar contract being awarded to a bunch of 20-something losers here at TPM.

Surprise, surprise: The Bushies have loaded the Justice Dept. with unqualified Republican hacks, by illegally hiring on political grounds. Wingnuts in, liberals out. Dday at Hullabaloo points out that there will be a host of landmines awaiting Barack Obama when he gets to the Oval Office, crazed Regent University lawyers waiting to sabotage any Democrat.

Steny Hoyer is the Democratic sellout of the year, sez Digby. Farewell to the Fourth Amendment thanks to hack Steny.

Good News

NYTimes: Home Depot Offers Recycling for Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

In 2008, 30 Pieces of Silver Equals $8,359

Tate Britain (uk)
$8,359.

That's how much the average Congresscritter who changed his/her vote on FISA got from the telecoms.

$8,359 to sell out the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Pretty good deal for the telecoms: about 165 customers' monthly cell bills to purchase blanket immunity.

I Am A Bad Consumer

Kenichi Uchino and Family

Here's I've been feeling so pleased with myself for buying an environmentally-friendly, non-gas-guzzling Toyota Prius. Turns out Toyota is a labor-exploiting employer that uses contract workers who get paid no benefits to pad its enormous corporate profits. Should have known better. Maybe my next car should be a horse.

The National Labor Committee: The Toyota You Don’t Know
The Race to the Bottom in the Auto Industry

How would [] celebrities—and the many Prius devotees across America—respond if they knew that a full one-third of Prius assembly line workers in Japan are hired as “temps,” with few rights, earning just 60 percent of what full time workers do, and even less when benefits are taken into account? Most Americans have never heard of Kenichi Uchino, who at 30 years of age died of overwork at the Prius plant, routinely working 14-hour shifts and putting in anywhere between 107 and 155 hours of overtime a month—at least 61 1/2 hours of which was unpaid. The Toyota Company said the 61 ½ hours were “voluntary” and therefore unpaid. Mr. Uchino left behind a young wife and two children—a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Neither Toyota management nor the “company” union at Toyota lifted a finger to help his family survive. The Japanese people even have a word for being overworked to death—“Karoshi.” Toyota’s parts supply chain is also riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the human trafficking of tens of thousands of foreign guest workers—mostly from China and Vietnam—to Japan, where they are stripped of their passports and forced to work grueling hours seven days a week, often earning less than half of the legal minimum wage. Sixteen-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight, would not be uncommon. Most people have no idea that Toyota—through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation which is a part of the Toyota Group—is involved in a joint venture with the ruthless military dictators in Burma, where nearly 50 million people live in fear and want. The United Nations/International Labor Organization points to Toyota’s repression of freedom of association at its plant in the Philippines as “an illustration of how a multinational company, apparently with little regard for corporate responsibility, has done everything in its power to prevent recognition and certification of the Toyota Motor Company Workers Association” (ILO Workers Group, December 2003). Once again, the “company” union at Toyota has refused to challenge Toyota management for its ties with the Burmese dictators or its repression of freedom of association with respect for worker rights in the Philippines.

This is not to say that Toyota is another Wal-Mart. If Toyota were not in some ways a decent and very effectively run company, it would not be the largest auto company in the world. A full-time assembly line worker at Toyota has a good paying middle class job, allowing them to raise their families in decency. (Still, Toyota wages in Japan are only about 50 percent of union wages and benefits in the U.S.) And if a full time worker stays “clean,” and does not get injured on the job or fall ill, they will have a job for life at Toyota. By “clean” the workers mean not doing anything to oppose Toyota management or the company union.

[]

[W]hat do [] celebrities and the rest of us know about the labor practices and working conditions under which the Prius and other Toyota cars are made in Japan? Really nothing. Why is the commitment to protect our environment so often divorced from a similar concern to protect human and worker rights?

* Low wage temps: a full one-third, or 10,000 Toyota assembly line workers, are low wage temp and subcontract workers who earn less than 60 percent of what full time workers do. Temps have few rights and are hired under contracts as short as four months.

* Overworked to death: Mr Kenichi Uchino died of overwork at Toyota’s Prius plant when he was just 30. He was routinely working 14-hour shifts and putting in anywhere from 107 to 155 hours of overtime a month—at least 61 ½ hours of which were unpaid. Toyota said the hours were “voluntary” and therefore not paid. Mr. Uchino left behind his young wife, a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. The Japanese people even have a word for being overworked to death: “karoshi.” An estimated 200 to 300 workers a year suffer serious illness, depression and death due to overwork.

* Sweatshops and human trafficking: Toyota’s parts supply chain is riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the human trafficking of tens of thousands of foreign guest workers—mostly from China and Vietnam—to Japan, where they are stripped of their passports and forced to work grueling hours seven days a week, often earning less than half the legal minimum wage. Sixteen-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight are common.

* Linked to Burmese Dictators: Toyota—through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation which is part of the Toyota Group—is involved in several joint business ventures with the ruthless military dictators of Burma, which put revenues into the pockets of the dictators who use it to repress Burma’s 50 million people.

* Toyota criticized by the ILO: The UN/International Labor Organization points to Toyota’s suppression of freedom of association at its plant in the Philippines as “an illustration of how a multinational company, apparently with little regard for corporate responsibility, has done everything in its power to prevent recognition and certification of the Toyota Motor Company Workers Association.” (ILO Working Group, December 2003.)

* Toyota leads the Race to the Bottom: Toyota, now the largest auto company in the world, is using its size and success to impose its two-tier, low-wage model at its non-union plants across America, which will result in a race to the bottom with wages and benefits being slashed throughout the entire auto industry.

Toyota’s Profit Reaches $16.7 Billion
The American People Purchase
56,923 Toyota Vehicles Each Week
Toyota reached record profits of $16.7 billion in its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. Toyota is earning $45.8 million a day, every day of the year.

Toyota sells more vehicles in the U.S. (2.92 million cars, vans and trucks) than in Japan (2.19 million) where its sales are falling.

One third of Toyota’s worldwide sales are in the U.S. The American people purchase 56,923 Toyota vehicles each week.

Hat tip to Laura Flanders of firedoglake.

Manny Being Manny

Boston Herald: Photo by Matthew West
Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez chatted with Aidan Flaherty, 8, on Thursday.


Boston Herald: Manny Ramirez scores with young Red Sox fan
Nut allergies keep boy out of Fenway

Flaherty [the boy's mother] said she, Aidan and 3-year-old son Liam spotted the Dominican-born Ramirez, 36, about 7 p.m. Thursday after they’d been strolling the city since 8 a.m.

“We were not the most attractive people,” she said, laughing.

Flaherty said Ramirez waved off her repeated apologies for the intrusion and spent about 20 minutes with her family, even taking two baseball cards out of his wallet and signing them for her boys.

Boston Herald Inside Track

Manny Ramirez will turn over his 500th home run ball to the Franciscan Hospital for Children later this week.....The hospital likely will auction the historic ball as part of a fund-raiser.

RIP George Carlin

George Carlin on war:


NYTimes: George Carlin, 71, Irreverent Standup Comedian


Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say On Television
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits (later he added fart, turd, & twat to the list):

Read On

NYPL: Lobby card, Nazimova in Salome (1922)


Another light posting day on the blog today as I work in the studio on the first non-Euro-2008 day in weeks.

The Observer (uk) profiles the dark side of John McCain.

There's a new website leading the charge to attack global warming: 350.org, which stands for 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the air. "Prior to the industrial era, the atmosphere was at about 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Now, we are about 387 and growing at nearly 2 ppm per year."

And we need to address global warming because, as everyone who doesn't live in the White House has noticed, weather extremes have become more pronounced in the past decade or so. This post from the LeftCoaster links to a U.S. Climate Change Science Program (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) report which contains these specific projections:

* Abnormally hot days and nights, along with heat waves, are very likely to become more common. Cold nights are very likely to become less common.
* Sea ice extent is expected to continue to decrease and may even disappear in the Arctic Ocean in summer in coming decades.
* Precipitation, on average, is likely to be less frequent but more intense.
* Droughts are likely to become more frequent and severe in some regions.
* Hurricanes will likely have increased precipitation and wind.
* The strongest cold-season storms in the Atlantic and Pacific are likely to produce stronger winds and higher extreme wave heights.

The next time you find yourself seated next to a climate change denier telling you that it's not happening for x, y, or z reason, you will be happy that you read this handy guide from Gristmill: How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic

And now for something completely different: The Boston Globe has a great new photography blog, The Big Picture, which as its name suggests, contains BIG PICTURES. Really big, really beautiful images.