Breaking News

Posted on October 11, 2011 by ProudMilitaryMom

Tuned in the TV- expecting to do my share of sacrificing by watching Barky’s Kabuki monologue on the “Jobs Bill.”

Imagine how surprised I was to see Holder on the screen. (Wonder if wonder boy is mad that Holder upstaged him?) Holder was announcing that an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador on American soil has been foiled! Ties to the Mexican drug cartels too! (Damn right you are detecting a cynical tone lol. My first thought was “Here comes the Holder rehab.)

Here is the BBC link

The US says it has broken up a major terror plot in which agents linked to Iran sought to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

snip

Mr Holder described the $1.5m (£960,000) assassination plot as being “conceived, sponsored and directed by Iran”, and said Tehran would be held accountable for its alleged involvement.

snipOn 24 May 2011 Mr Arbabsiar made contact with an informant for the US Drug Enforcement Agency, under the impression that he was an operative of a Mexican drugs cartel.

Over a series of meetings, details emerged of a conspiracy that involved members of the Iranian government to pay $1.5m for the assassination of Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir on US soil.

I was holding off posting this as Hillary is supposed to give a statement shortly. I will update if she speaks.

Secretary of State Clinton just gave a very brief statement and took no questions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. is preparing new penalties against Iranians following the disruption of an alleged plot to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in the U.S.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clinton said the Treasury Department soon would put more people under sanctions. She also predicted the plot would further isolate Iran.

Madmen- they seem to be breeding like roaches.

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One Step Forward- Knocked Back Ten

Posted on October 11, 2011 by ProudMilitaryMom

Ran across this the other day and was reminded of it by HelenK while I was reading over at Rev. Amy’s. Prepare to be infuriated.

Cash-Strapped Topeka May Stop Prosecuting Domestic Violence

Funding spat has allowed offenders to walk

Cash-strapped Topeka, Kansas, has decided to stop prosecuting domestic violence casses in order to save money.
snip

But the dispute is over who would pay for it, he said.

Shawnee County has already dropped 30 domestic violence cases since it stopped prosecuting the crime on Sept. 8. Some 16 people have been arrested for misdemeanor domestic battery charges and then released after charges were not filed.

If it was men being abused domestic abuse would be a Class A Federal offense. Hope nobody has any female relations living in Topeka.
Ah well it could be worse- not that that is any consolation- here is a story from the home of Achminimind-  Iran- where it is ALWAYS the woman’s fault. And ALWAYS the woman who is whipped, stoned, imprisoned (insert barbaric punishment here.)

Iran sentences film actress to 90 lashes

An Iranian court has sentenced an Iranian actress to 90 lashes for her role in a new Australian-made film portraying social alienation, drug use and political oppression in Iran.

According to the article she appeared in the film with a shaved head! And no head scarf! AND the film is critical of Iran!

Brave young woman!

One step forward- ten steps back.

Domestic abuse rises as economy heads south

Study finds victims staying longer in bad relationships

A 2011 study finds a correlation between the lagging economy and a rise in domestic violence.

Of the more than 700 domestic violence shelters studied nationwide, 77 percent said victims they served stayed longer in abusive relationships because of the economy, according to the study sponsored by Mary Kay Cosmetics.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

What is it that Uppity says about the government naming a day or a month for some cause? Yes- here it is- Words of Wisdom!

Basically, whenever our government assigns a day, or week, or month to something, they don’t really give a crap about it, they aren’t going to do anything about it, and they assign a day to it so they can pretend it matters to them, and so they don’t have to bother with it the rest of the year.

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45,000 of the 103,000 “New Jobs” in September were Verizon employees who were on strike.

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Uppity Woman
Woot!!! Break out the champagne and  confetti!

Unemployment remains at  only 9.1%!!!! And we only spent a couple of trillion on it! Of course, that doesn’t include the people who aren’t collecting any unemployment checks.

That’s good, right?

Playing its usual statistical games, the Department of labor says 103,000 new jobs were added in September. Of course, they don’t mention that 45,000 of those jobs consist of the rehiring of 45,000 striking Verizon employees, which means 58,000 jobs were added across the entire U S of A. If the pattern is the same as usual, that number will be adjusted downward later and the corrected information will appear on page 8 of the NY Times.

…..And what great jobs they are!

Job gains occurred in construction, retail, temporary help services and health care.

Our banker would love to hire you. Let's borrow more from them!

This is good news for all those engineers who are applying for those jobs at Home Depot. 

Besides, thank goodness Christmas is coming! Where would we be without those new Walmart jobs about to open up? You know, the jobs that will go away on January 1?  China is working double-time to ship the Christmas inventory for you to sell! I’m sure this will help the 16.5% underemployed in the country. There’s always room for a second or third job, right?

Now, let’s talk about jobs lost. Nearly 4,500,000  have been unemployed “for more than a year”. That’s only 1/3 of the 14,000,000 unemployed in the USA today–not including those who get no unemployment.  Yet,  36,000 state and local government employees were laid off in September. That’s across the entire USA.  Care to see how many government employees there are in your state? Here ya go.  Please Note: “Federal employment data is not available at this time“. Seems fair, right?…… considering the information comes from the…um…the 2010 US Census. I guess they lost that data. Son of a Gun!

Tell me, would you like to take a shot in the dark as to which industry consistently has the lowest unemployment rate? Why…… it’s government. I know, I know. You’re shocked!  There was a 2.6%  government unemployment rate in that horrendous unemployment year 2009. If anybody can find a 2011 figure on this, please let me know, because the interwebs seems to have scarce information on this little issue. I know this is a coincidence and you do too. However, to put it all into perspective, 2009 was the year when 700 private-sector people applied for one janitor’s job. That’s one  janitor’s job.

But hey, considering the disparity in unemployment between government and the private sector, at least there’s less of a chance that a government employee will be competing with you for that part-time job at the Dollar Store during the Christmas season. That means your chances are better!

Aw, Barack...help out Bank Of America again, will ya?

Bank of America alone cut 30,000 jobs all by itself. I’m so glad we gave them billions in bailout money and I know you are too! Those poor babies are so hard up, they had to start charging a $5 fee to debit card users. We’d better give them another 2 billion!

By the way, if you are still doing business with Bank of America since that announcement, you truly have straw in your head. The way to punish Wall Street is not a carnival in a park with bongos, everybody p*ssing wherever they can, and people making donations and charging pizzas using Bank Of America credit cards. Doh.  If you want to punish Bank Of America, help them lose customers by the millions. Leave their credit card dormant. Too much work to switch that checking account and debit card to a local bank that isn’t owned by a bunch of fat pigs? Gee, Sorry! Bank of America sure hopes it’s too much work! So does Capital One, HSBC, Chase and Citi!

Cheer up though. Plenty of jobs at Target and Walmart will be added next month. Christmas is coming! And Barack Obama will speechify about all those “New Jobs”. I know you love when Barack Obama speechifies. It happens so seldom, right?

You Are Here.

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Lazy Sunday Open Thread

Posted on October 9, 2011 by ProudMilitaryMom

I was going to title the post- “Indian Summer Sunday Open Thread” But that would be SOOOO politically incorrect of me. Sure to start trouble. Even though it has been lovely here for the last four days and today promises yet more exquisite weather. Nope- can’t say Indian Summer. There has not been a killing frost yet. So it’s just plain old Autumn. It doesn’t even smell like fall outside. Very strange year for weather- too much rain here- not enough in the South and West. We had that cold snap that had me rushing around closing storm windows and turning on the furnace- then back up to the 70′s. I actually opened two of the storms again to enjoy this burst of “not” Indian Summer.

The daughter came by yesterday and the soil is now loaded in the first of  (please god) many raised beds. So next year I can get early crops even if it rains like it did this year!

We have a spaghetti dinner at church so I will be AWOL for a bit later on.  Enjoy your open thread and your Sunday! Here is an Autumn oldie but goodie- I love his voice and the pics are just beautiful!

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Can’t we all just get along?

Posted on October 8, 2011 by mcnorman

This is a nice break for a Saturday morning.

BTW, the film is from 2007 and has been viewed millions of times.

I wanted to share this video of a homeless man named Greg Pike in Santa Barbara with his pets family.  They work State Street every week for donations.  The animals are very well cared for.  They are a mellow bunch.  He rigged a harness for his cat so that she would not have to walk so much.  At some juncture, the rat came along.  No one wants to eat the other so the rat began riding with on the cat.    The dog will stand all day long and let you talk to him.  He will even let you admire him for a few chin scratches.

The Mayor of Santa Barbara filmed this clip and sent it out as a holiday card.  I can’t imagine a more genuine message of peace.  I hope your day is a peaceful one.


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Are They SURE That’s What They Want?

Posted on October 7, 2011 by ProudMilitaryMom

The “unofficial” list of demands posted by LloydJHart on the Occupy Wall Street forum page got me to thinking and researching. For some things on the list of demands struck me as familiar. For example:

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

Tap, tap, tap. Thinking, thinking, thinking. Where oh where have I seen or heard all these things lumped together? Think, think, think.  Some of those things (especially gender equality!) seem like wonderful things! Universal healthcare- oh yes!  But where oh where have I heard them before? So off I went searching.

And landed here

The right to work is ensured by the socialist organization of the national economy, the steady growth of the productive forces of Soviet society, the elimination of the possibility of economic crises, and the abolition of unemployment.ARTICLE 119. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to rest and leisure. The right to rest and leisure is ensured by the reduction of the working day to seven hours for the overwhelming majority of the workers, the institution of annual vacations with full pay for workers and employees and the provision of a wide network of sanatoria, rest homes and clubs for the accommodation of the working people.

ARTICLE 120. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to maintenance in old age and also in case of sickness or loss of capacity to work. This right is ensured by the extensive development of social insurance of workers and employees at state expense, free medical service for the working people and the provision of a wide network of health resorts for the use of the working people.

ARTICLE 121. Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education. This right is ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges; by instruction in schools being conducted in the native Ianguage, and by the organization in the factories, state farms, machine and tractor stations and collective farms of free vocational, technical and agronomic training for the working people.

ARTICLE 122. Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life. The possibility of exercising these rights is ensured to women by granting them an equal right with men to work, payment for work, rest and leisure, social insurance and education, and by state protection of the interests of mother and child, prematernity and maternity leave with full pay, and the provision of a wide network of maternity homes, nurseries and kindergartens.

ARTICLE 123. Equality of rights of citizens of the U.S.S.R., irrespective of their nationality or race, in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life, is an indefeasible law. Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of, or, conversely, any establishment of direct or indirect privileges for, citizens on account of their race or nationality, as well as any advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and contempt, is punishable by law.

Hmm. The 1936 Constitution of the USSR.  Well it isn’t that bad right? Those are some lofty goals no? Equal rights for women, the right to work and rest and education and health care. All good things right?

Except those my age and older know how that worked out in the U.S.S.R. Definitely not a worker’s paradise- at all. Long lines for basic things like- oh let’s see- bread, potatoes and clothing. Everybody had housing- in state built projects. Lovely. Agriculture- the State took over all the land and formed collectives. Which promptly killed production. One of the best and biggest “bread basket” agricultural areas in the world- but they could not adequately feed their people.  Factories that could not meet the government quotas. As for the healthcare- I seem to remember their “more equal than others” top party officials often used Western doctors. They also had Special stores and access to better goods for the political class. (Better goods often smuggled in from the West.) Nope- did not work out for the working class at all.

Now ask yourself- where in America can we find those same “rights” set out? Where are these protesters getting these ideas? There is an answer- and it may not be where you think.

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