A Degenerate, A Hypocrite, An Idiot and A Boring Guy Walk Into A Courtroom ...

And walk out with sores on their rectums.

Republicans, you see, despise, loathe and hate judicial activists - judges who use their position to legislate from the bench. You heard it a lot on Fox News over the years. Whenever a judge struck down a law as unconstitutional, you could count on the conservatives and Republicans and their Brain Trust* to rear up on their hind legs and howl "Judicial Activist!"

Yes, Republicans really hate judicial activists.

Unless they want a ruling in their favor.

The Virginia GOP primary is March 6, and according to that state's election laws a candidate has to file petitions by a certain date in order to get on the ballot.

The deadline came and went, and four GOP candidates immediately cried "Foul!"

They had, you see, failed to get their petitions filed. No matter, you might say; they can simply run write-in campaigns. But not so fast; Virginia election law forbids write-ins for the primaries.

So, led by Rick Perry (the Idiot), Newton Gingrich (Degenerate), Rick Santorum (Hypocrite), and John Huntsman (the Boring Guy) all trooped into the federal court system.

In search of an activist judge.

Well, guess what?

They didn't find one.

The March 6th primary will have only two names on it - Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

This ruling must make Gingrich's flabby little black heart swell with renewed hatred, as he lives in Virginia. He moved there from Georgia when he became a full-time lobbyist - er, historian.

I expect the Feeble Foursome will continue to try and get the ballot amended, so I need to lay in more popcorn.

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Here's a GOOD idea for you to post, Arianna...from Charles Hugh Smith: As Centralized Systems Devolve, The Solution Is Localism

Charles Hugh Smith OF TWO MINDS: Depending on Central State/central bank borrowing and spending to prop up the Status Quo is a doomed strategy.
I think the thread between these three seemingly disparate stories is clearly visible. I am indebted to longtime correspondent Joel M. for sending me these articles:

A Dimly Flickering Light in a Darkened Downtown. An Ohio mill town's once-bustling main street is now a ghost town; people are desperate to sell their family heirlooms to one of the downtown's few remaining businesses, a vintage shop, to raise cash.

A Fight for Post Offices and Towns’ Souls. Even as the number of family farms rises for the first time in decades in the U.S., long-standing services to rural communities such as post offices and schools are being slashed.

With Work Scarce in Athens, Greeks Go Back to the Land. As Greece’s economy plunges and unemployment rises, many Greeks are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich agricultural past as a guide to the future.

The thread that connects these stories is the devolution of centralized concentrations of control and the power of localism to fill the void.

links are available over at OF TWO MINDS


P.S. You might want to read EVERYTHING he has written, when you have time.



wt?... I just went to check out the good news huffpo, clicked on front page US, and got this...

Jmj scare me half to death this early in the morning why don't you

Big Effing Sale

by blondesense liz

Sadly the store changed the promotion since the story hit the internets

Japanese Department Store May Want to Look Up the Word ‘Fucking’

"-There should be some cool English words on these signs.
-How about "Fuckin' Sale?"
-What's that mean?
-Fuckin' means, like, really good. So it's a really good sale.
-And there's no other meaning to "fuckin'? Nothing at all that might embarrass us on the internet? Remember what happened with our Save-a-Shit-Ton promotion…"

Current TV 1/12/12 Lizz Winstead on Warren Buffett’s challenge to members of Congress: Reduce U.S. debt through their own donations

Lovely Lizz Winstead speaks...




“The Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead comments on a report from the Pew Research Center indicating that 66 percent of Americans think there are serious conflicts between the rich and poor in the United States. Winstead also analyzes Warren Buffett’s response to a GOP-led bill that would add a space on tax forms to help pay down the debt. Buffett says he’ll match all voluntary donations made by Republican members of Congress.

links to stories here at current tv

Meanwhile, In Afghanistan

What?

I do hope you didn't forget we're still at war over there.

Well, the Taliban were allowed to establish an office in Qatar back in December so that the first steps could be taken toward formal peace talks between the Taliban, the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai, and the United States. Terms were being set up.

Unfortunately, you have to admit that this is not going to make the negotiations go smoothly:



It doesn't matter that the Taliban in the video are dead.

It doesn't matter that, as the Pentagon says, the Marines in question are no longer in Afghanistan.

It doesn't even matter that no one would have heard about this if it weren't on video.

What matters is that it was done at all.

What sort of twisted, atavistic, sadistic impulse was motivating these men? It is the sort of behavior one expects of barbarians, not the warriors we see voluntarily step forward from our population.

We have been in Afghanistan over ten years now. If this is what the war is turning our sons, daughter, brothers, sisters, mother and fathers into, we need to get them all out of there now.

And rehabituate them to civilized behavior, before it's too late.

The Crying Rooms...

Remember those? The ones in the back of the church come to my mind. I figured out early on that this is where you go if you were being "bad" in church -- if you couldn't sit still, couldn't stop talking, couldn't stop crying or SCREAMING -- your parent would whisk you down the aisle and straight into that see through smoky glass room before a blood vessel popped.

Well now, it appears that an elementary school around my neck of the woods have a few of what we now call 'scream rooms'



You all know how passionate I am about education, and what a huge advocate I am for teachers. All my issues lie with the "Central Office" (the status quo). Over the past 20 years I have pretty much been in one of my kids schools on a daily basis as a parent volunteer (room mother, etc..) so when I read this story, it really made me bounce off the walls. I started following it on the hartford courant Facebook blog yesterday, pretty much sitting on my hands the whole time -- remembering that if I added my comment/opinion, whatever -- there's my name and there's my completely unfiltered response:

"I'll be right down with some padding for the walls -- problem solved!" thought I'd piss too many people off though (like I should care?!)

Then I contemplated responding: "kinda like the crying room concept in the back of the church -- I'll be right down with a crew to take down one of the walls and put up a window" -- thought that would be too snarky (like I should care?!!)

Then after reading the few comments at the hartford courant link above, (especially by one michael brown):

"Fire Superintendent Michael Frechette for failing to maintain humane conditions in the school system. Fire every teacher that used these rooms and those that knew and failed to report it. It's complete BS that an issue isn't addressed until it hits the news. Congratulations Middletown, you're in the national news now for your treatment of the children under your care. Before the excuses start flying, let's make it clear that teachers in CT make above the national average for pay yet work several less months per year than the rest of us."fire the superintendent...fire the teachers"

I thought about replying to him with this link -- Are You Tired of Highly Paid Teachers?

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).......

I am so supportive of teachers because I wouldn't touch that job today for ten times their salary. Besides, they wouldn't hire me -- I would be a huge liability. I'd have the kid in the corner with a big dunce cap on.

You all know I also have A LOT OF ISSUES with parents who can't seem to do their half in providing the other half (the teacher) with a ready, willing and able child.

It's like those parents who brought their kids to church even though they weren't ready to sit still -- there lies the problem.
I hope they can come to some middle ground here in Middletown, CT.

Startling news about Rick Santorum's Italian Relatives

by blondesense liz

From Santorum’s Communist Clan

"...On the campaign trail, Santorum often touts his grandfather’s flight from Italy “to escape fascism,” but he has neglected to publicly mention their close ties with the Italian Communist Party. “Rick’s grandfather Pietro was a liberal man and he understood right away what was happening in Italy,” Mrs. Santorum told Oggi. “He was anti-fascist to the extreme, and the political climate in 1925 was stifling so he left for America. After a few years he returned to Italy with his wife and children, including Aldo, Rick’s father, who passed away late last year. It’s a shame he won’t have the joy to see his son’s success in his bid for the White House.” She goes on to explain how the family then became pillars of the Communist Party in Italy.

The matriarch lauds her distant relative as a “masterpiece” of the family, whom she calls a man of high intelligence and integrity. “He would be a great president,” she told Oggi. “But if he wants to make it, he will have to soften some of his positions. To take a stand against homosexuality or to oppose divorce is harmful. Principles count, but in politics one must have the capacity to be open-minded.”

The Oggi piece also quotes an angry cousin who preferred to voice his dissent anonymously, remembering the time when high-ranking Communist Party members frequented the Santorum household in Riva del Garda. “There are Santorums who would roll over in their graves to hear [Rick’s] rhetoric,” he said."

Funny but not that long ago I asked some of my conservative relatives who actually fought in Europe during WWII, why they support fascist GOP candidates. Naturally they told me that Obama is a socialist. Can't fight Faux News.

Caption this

Hmm. A crocodile?

How does YOUR light shine...

New Hampshire

Well-Dressed 2x4 Wins with Less than Forty Percent; Dotty Grandpa comes in Second, Boring Guy Gets Third; Death Struggle Between Degenerate Troll and Horse-Faced Hypocrite for Fourth

Yes, the New Hampshire Presidential primary is over.

Mitt Romney won - but of course he had to; the Granite State was his backyard. If he lost in NH, he might as well go to Salt Lake City and hang up his Magic Mormon Underwear. But with 95% of the vote counted, he's only got 39.4%. Not a good showing.

Still, he's the first Republican since Gerald Ford to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, so that's got to count for something. We have to remember that Ford lost, though.

Ron Paul lived up to his supporter's faith in him as America's Blithering Grandfather and showed a strong second, about ten percentage points behind Romney.

John Huntsman posted third, and I believe one guy felt his speech was greeted with a decided lackluster amount of enthusiasm.

That left Newton Gingrich and Rick Santorum duking it out for the fourth-place position. That's not even a podium finish, guys, and only about 200 votes separate you two. Pathetic, even more than usual.

Rick Perry? You ask.

Do I have to?

::sigh:: Okay.

Perry got 1709 votes, managing a sick fifth (if we assume that The Newt and Frothy Mix are statistically tied at fourth). But like a scabies infection or a case of herpes, Perry refuses to go away.

On to South Carolina, and we see just how much damage the Palmetto State can inflict on Mitt Romney's doomed campaign.

17 cultural reasons why this European never wants to live in America

From Fluent in 3 Months
(Unconventional Language Hacking Tips From Benny The Irish Polyglot)

Warning: If you are pissed off easily, don’t read this post. Although plenty of (American) commenters agree with me, I’m also getting a flood of angry comments and hatemail, but this is my (as always) frank and honest non-watered-down opinion, take it or leave it! Read on to the conclusion to see my positive thoughts about Americans before you conclude that this is Anti-American propaganda.

If you are coming here from Stumbleupon or Facebook, please share this post with your friends if you enjoy it . You may also enjoy reading my post about the 29 life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years straight, and make sure to look around the site for some language learning tips!

Normally, after I spend considerable time in a country/city, I like to summarise my cultural experience there and tend to put a positive spin on it, as I did with Germany, Amsterdam, Brazil, and even Paris, which was actually a negative experience for me.

This time I’m not doing that.

This post is my rant about America because of all the places I’ve been, the people who always complain the most about the local country are travelling Americans. It has annoyed me so much over the years that I honestly feel like a lot of you need to hear a foreigner complain about YOUR country.

Note that I’ve actually really enjoyed my last three months in the states, but there have been too many things that confirm that this really is not the place for me.

I’m not interested in whining about foreign policy, economics or politics. This is entirely about my frustrations with day to day life in America. The United States is a huge country, and it’s impossible to generalise all 300 million of you, but the points below are my observations after spending:

3 months in upstate New York, 4 months in La Jolla/San Diego, 1 month in Chicago, 1 month in Nevada, 6 weeks in San Francisco, 1 month in Austin, 2 weeks in New Orleans, 2 weeks in Los Angeles, as well as several days among other cities like Portland (OR), San Antonio, Houston, Durham (NC) … (and visiting sites like the Grand Canyon). Over a year in total, most of which was in trying to live as a local rather than staying in tourist accommodation.

Right now I’m back outside the USA (in Peru on another language learning mission; Quechua) and I feel like it’s such an improvement in so many ways when I see things I’ve been missing over the last months travelling in the states.

While technically I’ve already “lived” in America [edit for clarity: when I say America in this post and in comments, I mean USA of course], each time was always a temporary visit. And when you read the conclusion, you’ll see that I’ll definitely be back. But when I do finally settle down it will not be in the United States and this post explains the many reasons why.

Sorry if you find this post offensive, but I expect you to because…

1. Americans are way too sensitive
continue reading

Dah dah dee dah! Laugh-in looks at the news...

 It was true then and it's even truer now!

You bet your Bippy!

The cat is out of the bag (it's a pig in that poke) ....The horse has left the barn.... The cattle have left the group. SO.....Where's the beef??

It's about to take a "bank holiday" (and go figure...I don't have ANY decorations)

That's what cattle futures trader Ann Barnhardt thinks is going to happen. She's the one who decided to shut her independent brokerage firm down back in November

I first herd about this over at jessecrossroadscafe (it's a video of her radio interview with peter schitt)

jesse writes:
"....MF Global is the fruit of moral hazard in the concentrated power of a parternship between the government and corporations.

No one seems to know anything, and yet the theft and the fraud continues.

And in this perhaps is a cautionary tale for the rest of us who might not have been affected directly by this particular episode. Even if you do nothing, say nothing, make no waves, go along to get along, when the law is owned by the lawless, eventually they will come for you and yours as well.

This is the lesson of history that we must never forget."

NOW COMES THIS -- CME FACES REGULATORY PROBE ON MF GLOBAL CME 'group' (chicago mercantile exchange) the biggest operator of U.S. futures exchanges and MF Global's regulator, said the company welcomed any probe.

You know those 147 companies that own everything?? -- Well, there are FOUR companies that control these 147 companies:

McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor’s, Northwestern Mutual, which owns Russell Investments, the index arm of which runs the benchmark Russell 1,000 and Russell 3,000, CME Group which owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and Barclay’s, which took over Lehman Brothers and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, the dominant world bond fund index. Together, these four firms dominate the world of indexing. And in turn, that means they hold real sway over the world’s money.

Here's an interesting video from youtube user silverfuturist with all the background. I think you better pour yourself a tall one for these...

(max keiser and Cenk videos available at youtube link -- also Ms. Barnhardt's site)




Ann Barnhardt and I (Warren Pollock) have an open conversation organized to provide background to this crisis, the setting of legal precedent, netting, settlement, and future trends including a potential bank holiday. We talk about MF Global as it applies to savings and commercial banking, brokerage, insurance, and commodities. We talk about numeric impossibility of solving the problem, incest between government and finance, having the victim of the crisis pay rather than the fraudster. We explain how the MF Global bankruptcy process will define how customer funds will be treated in a bank holiday. We talk about the idea of having an honest bank holiday to root out fraud vs an economic crisis which plays to looting and criminal activity of vested interest.










(decorating ideas -- Thanks sodahead!)