Spill, Baby, Spill

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Obama's "brand" is competent government, that's one reason so much is expected of him, and this particular disaster is probably the worst possible for him because he has limited choices on what he can do. That's why it's essential he give the appearance of being in charge even if there is little he can do.

A lot of this is the media's fault. I've been watching the TV coverage carefully all along and my constant question has been "Where are all the boats out there sopping the oil up?" An Obama representative was on Meet The Press this morning saying there were 1,400 boats out in the Gulf doing all kinds of things to get rid of the oil. Well, then, WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T I SEEN THAT!! Or even heard it. We see the footage of the oil hitting the marshlands over and over and over, but pictures of boats in the Gulf are few and far between.

It's been my suspicion for a while and this adds to it, that the corporate media is doing it's best to deliberately put Obama in a bad light. They ignore news that would make him look good and focus only on news that makes him look bad.

But Obama is helping them. He believes in substance over appearance so he doesn't spend much time boasting over his accomplishments when he should have everyone in the administration announcing them every second of every day. I thought he had learned that but apparently he hasn't.

Make no mistake, I am not a big Obama fan, it's clear he is just another corporatist, but there have been dozens of things that show why it's better to elect Democrats over Republicans, but few people know about it. Taxes are the lowest they have been since the 1950's because Obama has lowered them (I got an extra 20% off my taxes this year), but when the Tea Party people were polled 80% of them thought he had raised them.

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Rand Paul

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Watching the news the last few days has been hilarious. It seems that everyone is shocked and surprised at the idea that Rand Paul is against the civil rights act from 1964. I don’t know why they are surprised, there were articles on this in a Kentucky newspaper earlier, besides, this is basic Libertarianism. They want the government out of everything.

Imagine if people could do whatever they wanted on their property, which is one of the main Libertarian principles. Anyone could keep any kind of person they wanted out of their shop which operates in the public domain. In one place that is owned by a Muslim there would be no Jews or Christians allowed, or if he wanted to charge black people twice as much he could do it. Nor would he need to follow even the most basic safety needs.

Libertarians say that the free market will work these things out for themselves, someone restricting certain people from their establishment would not be able to stay in business long, or if people started dying in there people would stop shopping there. The problem with that is - people have to die first! You would think that maybe we could do something that keeps people alive - well we have, it’s called regulation.

And businesses in the South stayed open during 100 years of Jim Crow laws, so the market doesn’t always correct itself and sometimes there is a huge price to pay when there is a correction. The Libertarian view is that freedom doesn’t come cheaply, besides, they think only stupid people would get hurt and who cares about them, anyway?

The free market is a fraud, it doesn’t exist. It would be like a football game with no rules, brutal and no fun to watch. On top of that without government interference it’s the rich who are in control. Over time all the small businesses get swallowed up by the big corporations and when there are only a few places someone can work the corporations effectively have slaves who have to accept whatever ridiculous wages and working conditions they want. So in a very real sense it’s like a football game where all the rules were written by one team and only for their benefit. Any doubts who would win?

So libertarianism and smaller government is not about freedom, at least not about the freedom of you or me. It’s all about the big corps being able to do whatever they want at any cost. This is what we have seen happening because of the 8 years rule of the Bushies. The idea is that business can “self-govern” - what a joke. The banksters were self-governing when they crashed the world’s economy. British Petroleum was self-governing with that oil rig, where the spill is in the process of destroying the Gulf. They couldn’t even be bothered to have an emergency plan in place just in case anything did go wrong.

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Frank Frazetta, Master Comic Book and Fantasy Illustrator, Dies

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Frank Frazetta, the master illustrator whose brooding, epic painting style shifted the tone of comics and fantasy paperback covers forever, has died. He was 82.

He was the Grand master of comic and fantasy art, I'm sorry to see him go. I think all art in the field today was influenced by him. I rarely cry when famous people die but I'm feeling misty right now. I spent a lot of time from my teenage years on studying - and copying - his art.

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Immigration

Ed Schultz has really been raking Arizona over the coals lately for the new, racist law that is just waiting for the governor's signature. It ended up being longer than I intended so I thought I'd post it here:

ED:

This is the most complicated issue we have today and I really don't think there is a good solution. And both sides are split on it, each having reasons for and against.

For the Right, the business owners want cheap wages first, and to drive down wages in general. But the rest of them want all the brown people out of their country.

On the Left, first there is just plain old compassion for people in trouble, people who left everything and risked everything to find a better life. And we are a country of immigrants, it's just a matter of when our ancestors came here. On the other hand, they are driving down wages for all workers, and in some cases, such as construction here in SoCal, have pretty much destroyed the industry for American citizens. And if you happen to be an American born Hispanic good luck getting a decent job with a decent wage.

There is a price for Mexico, too. All the best and brightest, the strong and brave, are leaving to come up here. These are just the people Mexico needs to bring their country out of poverty. The only real solution is for Mexico to improve enough that it isn't worth it to come up here, but how does that happen when all the entrepreneurs, the risk takers, are up here?

Amnesty is a bad idea, when Reagan did it there were 2 million illegals here, 25 years later and there are 12 million of them because amnesty was great advertising.

I've worked in a business for 30 years where the entire warehouse crew is always Hispanic, most not speaking English. These are very nice people, when my wife died they all chipped in and bought a big bouquet of flowers to throw on her ashes when we spread them out at sea. There is no way for any employer to tell who is legal and who isn't. Every place I've been at was very strict about every employee having the correct ID, and all the illegals had them, it's a big business down here.

The Republicans always come up with draconian solutions that are always unworkable, and frankly, evil. That's what this law in Arizona is. Not only is it racial profiling so that any dark skinned citizen will get stopped and maybe go to jail because what citizen has "papers"? But it makes the police the enemies of immigrants, illegal and legal. None of them will call a cop if they are robbed. None of them will come forward to be a witness or even talk to a cop if they can avoid it. This means evil people will prey on them and the cops will not be able to do real police work.

Here in California a few years ago there was a big stink about illegals at ER's, getting expensive medical care the state had to pay for. The stink was so bad that illegals stopped going to the ER when they needed to and we started to get a TB epidemic. One idiot even put it on the ballot that all ER workers, doctor's, nurses and everyone else who worked there was supposed to keep an eye on everyone and call the cops if anyone looked suspicious. That's all we need, doctors and nurses moonlighting as immigration workers.

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Jon Stewart vs Fox News

He's at his best in this one, maybe the folks at Fox will learn to leave him alone.

Bernie Goldberg Fires Back

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Too Funny

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On a blog called Living Better Skeptically – The Blog of the Jackson Skeptical Society I found this great posting. He envisions Hitchens and Dawkins as cops similar to the guys in the Bad Boys movies, going after the Pope:

A busy intersection was ahead, the traffic no longer halted by the terrified police who now had no idea what was occurring.

“We’ve got half of four horsemen here, a full one-fucking third of the unholy trinity!” Richard Dawkins shouted from the passenger seat. “I told you to get a car with a sunroof! My plan required a sunroof! I’ll never hit him at this range.” Dawkins drew his sidearm, a long-barreled Colt Anaconda with the phrase “Malthusian Solution” engraved across the grip, which was inlaid with the actual shell of a Galapagos tortoise.

“Make a new plan!” Hitchens snapped. He wheeled around an old woman with a baby carriage. Dawkins leaned out the window with his .44 and fired, but the bullets hit God’s Protection – 40 mm of armoured glass and plating.

The whole story is well worth a look.

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Zinnia Jones

I love this guy! Outspoken with a real attitude and a unique style. Don't let his name and look fool you, this is a guy because you can see his Adam's apple. I hope people have heard about that small town in Mississippi that canceled their prom because one girl wanted to wear a tuxedo and bring her girl friend, what assholes! ZJ explains the whole situation, what they ended up doing, and tears them a new one.

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The Good Side of George Bush

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Of course I hated Bush and just about everything he did, but last Sunday on 60 Minutes they did a story that surprised me. It was about probably Bush’s one great success and something that was a great humanitarian deed that I don’t think won Bush many points at home. I never heard about and I pay attention to these things, so very few Americans would know it happened.

It has to do with AIDS in Africa. The Bush administration set up a program to get generic anti-retrovirals to Africans with AIDS. This has saved many lives, prevented much suffering, and has changed many minds about America for the better. A great success all around. Republicans, spending money to save the lives of poor, dark people in another country, and they sought no political points for it, amazing.

I practically cried when I heard it, because I was so glad something good came out of the Bush regime. All their actions weren’t pure evil, damaging America and the world around us. They did one thing that was simply a good, caring thing to do.

Unlike that America-hating Rush Limbaugh I NEVER want to see my president fail, because that means my country has failed as well and will usually be damaged by it. But Rush doesn’t care about America, he cares about himself, his money and conservative values and couldn’t care less if he brought America down as long as those 3 things - in that order - were preserved.

As for me, I’ll salute Bush and give him the respect he is due for this one, very great thing.

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Health Care Tax

Over on the right they are wailing over the mandate to buy insurance and how the penalty for not having it goes through the IRS and there will be thousands of new agents hired and swarming over the population to take people to jail for not paying this tax.

Total bullshit, outright and blatant lying. Here it what is ACTUALLY written in the bill:

1: “In general, the penalty provided by this section shall be paid upon notice and demand by the secretary. And except as provided in paragraph two, shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as an assessable penalty under Subchapter B of Chapter 68.”

2: “Special rules—notwithstanding any other provision of law—a waiver of criminal penalties in the case of any failure by a taxpayer to timely pay. Any penalty imposed by this section, such taxpayer shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect to such failure.”

B: “Limitations on liens and levies. The secretary shall not file notice of lien with respect to any property of a taxpayer by reason of any failure to pay the penalty imposed by this section or levy on any such property with respect to such failure.”

What does all that mean? Quite simply that there is NO penalty for not paying the tax for failure to get health insurance.

This means that even though there is a mandate to buy insurance the failure to do so will not be punished in any way, which means there really is no mandate at all.

So rest easy and don't believe Republican lies.

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Queer the Census!

Here's a video commercial for the census from George Takai and his partner, I won't bother to explain since it will be evident when you watch it:

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Beer Monster

The weirdest thing happened today, Bennet was sent an email from a movie studio with a picture of one of my old T-shirts done for STS Graphics in 1986. It’s for a TV pilot that takes place in the 80’s and they wanted to get some authentic clothes for that era. I don’t know how they found this one, doesn’t look like it’s ever been worn or washed.

To make it clear, I was working for STS back then as art director, that company went out of business in the early 90’s. One of the owners decided to re-open a screen printing shop about 5 years ago with the same name. Bennet is my step-son and also the production manager for this new STS Graphics. I work for them on a freelance basis.

What a blast from the past this was. You can see the copyright in the bottom right, which is how we know the date of the art. You can also see my signature just to the right of the beer keg running up the side. This was even done BC - Before Computers, which means all the art was done by hand.

Robert Culp

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He died yesterday at the age of 79, collapsed on the street in front of his Hollywood home.

Most people probably don’t know who he is but he lives large in my memory because he starred in my favorite TV show when I was a kid, I Spy.

When the show first came on I wanted to see it because I was already a big fan of Bill Cosby, I’d been listening to his comedy albums for years and had them all memorized perfectly, even to the point of having all of Cosby’s voice inflection down perfectly. I was really curious to see how he did as an actor since my 12 year old self thought it strange for a comic to get work as an actor.

The big buzz at the time was the idea of a black man cast as an equal to a white man, but I was so naive about racism in those days I was completely unaware of this at the time and for many years afterwards. It never even occurred to me that something was strange about a black man in a starring role.

Culp played Kelly Robinson, tennis bum, while Cosby played Alexander Scott (Scotty). From the beginning it was Culp who drew my attention even though I watched it because of Cosby. Culp was the better actor and created a character with lots of depth who I found very interesting. No other TV show or movie has done the “buddy” theme as well. The show ran 3 seasons, 1965 to 1968. I managed to find reruns on cable a couple of years ago and found I loved them almost as much now as I did then. The chemistry between the two was still obvious and the stories were still good, for the most part. Parts of it were just pure camp because of the time when it was filmed, but that just added some comedy.

I always felt sorry for Culp because after the show he fell into obscurity while Cosby went on to make TV and comedy history, I thought that was very unfair. Cosby always spoke highly of Culp, saying that he took him under his wing and taught him the acting business and made him feel at home. In 1972 the two teamed up for a movie called Hickey and Boggs where they played 2 old and washed up private eyes, especially Culp who was the older of the two. Word was that Cosby put it together to help Culp out but I don’t know if that was true or not. Don’t know if they ever appeared together again or not.

Robert Culp will always have a special place in my memory and I Spy will always remain one of my favorite shows.

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Hell No You Can't!!

I love this video, it shows who the Republicans really are, evil, strident and negative.

Waterloo

Jim DeMint was right, the health care reform bill has been Obama’s Waterloo, Good Ole Boy Jim just didn’t realize that Obama was playing the part of Wellington and the GOP were Napoleon.

Heh, heh.

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Grammar

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook and I thought it was funny enough to put here. I feel his frustration, in these days of email I communicate with most of my clients that way and am amazed at the mistakes. I'm no expert on grammar but at least I know which "there" to use when and the difference between lose and loose.

OK, folks. THEY'RE in THEIR yard over THERE. YOU'RE in YOUR yard. I'm going to go LIE down after I LAY my wallet on the table. If you have a LOOSE tooth, you may LOSE it. *** There, I'm finally got that off my chest.

Of course, it's pretty funny that he should have said "I've" in that last sentence.

When people correct my grammar and spelling I always appreciate it, we all (or most) have things we either missed or our brains twist around and can't remember. I've seen loose used wrongly so many times after 17 years on the web that there are times when I have to think about which one to use.

And I have Dan to thank for knowing when to use it's and its.

Krugman on Health Care

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On his own blog Krugman has a post called Health Reform Myths. He addresses the myths and knocks them down - easily. It's easy to do because all of the complaints the right has raised are non-existant. In other words, they are lying.

All they want to do is have Obama fail and they don't want any kind of health care reform anyway, so they lie in order to get their ignorant base all riled up over things that doesn't exist. They think they have succeeded because the polls show a majority of Americans disapproving of the bill, but the fact is when parts of the bill are broken down and polled people like all the individual parts of it.

And a lot of those that don't like it are liberals who think it's a government give-away to health care insurance companies and is lacking a public option. But Krugman says this:

For a real piece of passable legislation, however, it looks very good. It wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.

This is a reasonable, responsible plan. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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A Great Caption

One of my regular blogs that I follow is Atheist Revolution. Yesterday he had a picture on his site that was great, the best part being the caption. Go here to read it. Made me laugh out loud.

The Chilean Earthquake

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Of course we have all heard of the Earthquake in Chile. It was 8.8 in magnitude and was actually off shore of Chile, which means they also got a tsunami that did quite a lot of damage. It was the 7th strongest earthquake ever recorded.

The part that blows my mind is that it tilted the earth's axis by 3 more inches. It also increased the speed of the Earth's rotation so now our days are 1.26 milliseconds shorter. Set your alarm clock accordingly.

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Health Care Summit

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I thought this summit thing with the Republicans, Democrats and the President was going to be a farce and it pretty much was, but I was also pleasantly surprised. The one good thing about it was Obama’s performance. He was strong, decisive and in charge, it was clear he had - finally - taken over health care and was going to get it done, no more nonsense. We’ve only been waiting for a year for him to do that, with a lot of people saying he needed to grow a pair.

Well, today he did. He dominated the debate, clearly pushing the Republicans around. He called them all only by their first names, that was absolutely brilliant, McCain really didn't care for that at all. He let them know they were in the White House and he was the president and he trumps all of them. I’ve never seen him be so forceful and commanding before, good show.

And he would not let the Republicans get away with their usual talking points (lies). Every time they told their lies he corrected them, strongly. He was so strong he was barely being polite and made sure he got his point across that the Republican talking point was completely wrong. And he did it over and over again. I’ve been wanting the Democrats in general to do that for years, instead they always just let the Republicans win the propaganda war.

One part that really stood out was when one idiot Republican kept saying how Congress should have high deductible insurance plans along with Health Savings Accounts, that way they would have skin in the game and be more responsible in their health care choices, implying that it would work well for America, too. Obama said that’s easy for him to say because he makes $160,000 a year, but that idea just isn’t viable to the farmer making $40,000 a year. The IR (Idiot Republican) came back and tried to make the point again and Obama slapped him down again and did it several times. The IR came across as this rich guy completely out of touch with 95% of the American public (because he was) while, for the first time since his Inauguration, I saw Obama acting as a true, and impassioned, advocate for the working man, for the struggling middle class. Instead of a supporter of the corporations.

At the end Obama gave a little speech to the press, the gist of which was he appeared to realize that the Republicans were never going to support the health bill, that it wasn’t in their political self-interest to do so. It’s about time he gave up on his idea of bi-partisanship. I’m feeling more hopeful in regards to both Obama and health care reform than I have at any point up until now. It finally looked like he understood the situation and knew what he had to do to get things done.

Hope I’m right this time.

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DICK!

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Cheney had his 5th heart attack a couple of days ago and survived it. I get the feeling that if he died no one would be able to tell the difference, he would look and sound the same.

Dick first got his government insurance back in 1967, before his first heart attack. Isn’t it funny how Republicans LOVE their own government-run insurance plans but it’s evil to give that to the rest of us? Hahaha! Fucking funny as hell.

If Dick was an average guy like you and me he would have died by his 3rd heart attack because by then his insurance company would have refused coverage because it’s a pre-existing condition. Or else Dick would have lost everything paying for the things insurance won’t cover to the point where he could no longer pay his insurance premiums so they would have dropped him.

I bet Dick never loses a single night’s sleep thinking about those of us out here in America for whom a heart attack is fatal because we can’t pay for it.

If only we had that evil, socialist, government-run health insurance that Dick has.

That is the god-damned death panel, Sarah Palin!

Keith Olbermann said that on his Special Comment last night. He did a brilliant one on health care once again about his dad. He speaks about it the way only one who has gone through it could and I was in tears by the end of it. It was all familiar to me, hell, I even understood most of the medical terminology and procedures he talked about. Anyone who thinks this is hyperbole simply hasn’t been through it, especially with a loved one that you know is going to die, you just don’t know when.

Keith’s theme this time was the death panels the Right has been going on and on about. He had long talks with his dad about what he wanted and with his dad’s doctors, so everyone knew Keith had final say and what his dad’s wishes were. This is what those so-called death panels are, a chance to pay the doctor for having these very necessary discussions. He called these Life Panels. Keith said having all this squared away was the only feeling of comfort he had in the whole thing and that the real death panels were already happening when the insurance companies deny coverage that will save someone’s life.

I know Darcy and I - and her doctor - had these discussions, and I had fully expected for the last 16 years that someday I’d have to step in and tell them to disconnect the breathing machine and pull the intubation tube. I saw my roll as coming in to rescue her from a medical profession that is unable to let someone die when that is the better choice. Darcy’s greatest fear was being on intubation in a nursing home indefinitely.

Keith said that his out of pocket expenses were higher for HIM than they were for his dad because Dad had Medicare. The same was true of Darcy, no treatment was ever denied to her because she was on Medicare, in fact, according to her email lung-buddies it was all the people with private insurance who had nothing but problems and had to fight with those companies constantly. Let me assure you that fighting with your insurance company when you’ve just been diagnosed with a fatal disease is horrible. This idea of “socialized medicine” being a big boogie man is pure bullshit and designed to push people’s buttons, to get irrational, emotional reactions from them. Most of the people crying about socialism don’t even know what it is.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Old Lady and the Thief

I love this video, it speaks for itself no need for me to say anything about it accept YOU GO, GIRL!!

Global Warming

I am so sick of all the Right Wingnuts ranting about how the storm in Washington DC disproves global warming. Most of the time I think those people know they are lying but do it anyway because all their fortunes and power are based on a specific set of lies, the truth is their enemy. But this time I think they really are ignorant of the facts and willfully maintain that ignorance.

If anything the worst storm in Washington in living memory is clear evidence in support of global warming. The warming refers to the ENTIRE globe, not little sections of it. Whatever “weather” is happening in any one section of the globe does not speak to global “climate.”

Note the phrases Local Weather and Global Climate, two very different things.

But a really bad storm would be caused by global warming. The extra warmth puts more energy into the weather systems and also causes more evaporation of water which makes the air more humid. So what do you get with increased energy to drive the weather and greater moisture? Record snow storms in places that get snow, exactly like what is happening now.

At some future date it’s entirely possible that all snow across the globe is gone but there will be a lot fewer people around to complain about it.

The wingnuts have doomed their own children and grandchildren to live in a world where things keep getting progressively worse, where droughts and blazing heat, vicious snow storms and massive hurricanes are all the norm, making life difficult for a lot of people. And why are they doing it? For money. They don’t give a damn about their own decedents or are incapable of projecting their imaginations that far ahead.

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The United Corporations of America

The UCA is here, the Supreme Court has removed all limits on corporate spending in politics, with the exception of actually giving money directly to a candidate. But other than that, no restrictions, as many organizations and commercials that billions of dollars can buy. In small districts it would be possible for one corporation to buy up ALL available time and block all opposing views. Half our government is already bought by the big corporations, now it will become complete. Obama cab raise millions from individuals? Doesn't matter, his Republican opponent could muster up billions because we all know the Republicans only represent the corps' and not the people.

Keith Olbermann gives a pretty strong Special Comment about it. Keith is known for going over the top, but this time I think he is right on, even though it sounds like he's over the top.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Howard Fineman

This video is from the Rachel Maddow Show. It's notable because of the emotion from Fineman when discussing Obama. He clearly is angry and disappointed at Obama's shortcomings as a politician.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Obama Gets Tough

I have been a major critic of Obama from before he was even elected, he's far too conservative for me. This video shows him trying to get tough with the banks we have bailed out. It's relatively minor action but at least it's something and at least it something where Obama isn't in the back pocket of Big Money. Let's hope he does more.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hooray for New Hampshire

Eugene Robinson

Is my favorite commentator who often appears on Countdown and Rachel Maddow and he says Jim DeMint, GOP senator from South Carolina, is 'Delusional, Crazy, Nuts, Insane' I couldn't agree more and thought so long before current events. Remember that it was DeMint who said if they can stop health care it will be Obama's Waterloo.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Top Ten Creationist Arguments

Found this great video on YouTube thanks to Rick on Atheist Nexus. I thought it was an especially good one:

Simple Pleasures

Sometimes in life it's those simple things that mean a lot, for me, today, this meant a BISSELL - Little Green Compact Multipurpose Handheld Deep Cleaner - Green that I picked up at Best Buy for around $75. Best Buy is great, order something online and you can pick it up at one of their stores in a few hours, and I have one near work and another near my house.

This is a little spot cleaner, a good thing to have when you have pets. It started with a big brown spot under my computer table. Looked just like a leaf, which Aki had been bringing in the house just about every day lately. It's like she thinks they are prey that she has hunted down, she's not the sharpest cat in the kitty box. So because I thought it was a leaf I just left it for several days.

Turns out is was kitty yak (the grass in it is the dead giveaway), but because I thought it was a leaf I let it sit long enough to harden and become hard to clean. Then they did another one upstairs in the hall. Now, my place is half tile, the living room, kitchen and dining room are all tile, which I like a lot. The bedrooms and the hall are the only places with carpet. So where to the cats decide to yak? The carpet of course.

So now I'm feeling really annoyed and in no mood to clean this stuff up, so I started researching carpet cleaners, finally I settled on this little green machine for a number of reasons, being cheap was the main one. And as a cat owner I figure I'm going to need this thing for years.

So I pick it up this morning at Best Buy, bring it home and what happens? Sucker worked perfectly. How often does that happen??!! Now these annoying spots are gone and it makes me feel better about life in general, and I'm armed with a great weapon for the next time we get some kitty yak.