Ship Water to the Moon?

Tags

abortion, Barack Obama, Bush, economy, energy, environment, evangelicals, fundamentalism, immigration, Iran, Iraq, John McCain, Neo-cons, population, women's rights

This is from the Library of Congress and was taken sometime between 1890 and 1906 it is believed. Probable location is Atlantic City and it is entitled “Life guard on the Lookout.” I can but assume it is the dude at the left, but I may be wrong. What fashion mavens they were! The men appear to be barefoot, but apparently it was still considered immodest for women to go either hoseless or shoeless. I would note that there were many pictures of the shores of Atlantic City. In every one, the beaches were crowded to an inordinate degree. Most people would recoil from this much traffic at a resort area today no doubt.

 

It’s quite breezy today so far, and overcast. No doubt rains will be coming and tomorrow for sure. ( Sigh, they have arrived as we speak) We are looking at some possible breaks for several days after that. One can but hope! The Contrarian has put off plans to go to CR for the pump. Parts of the city are being evacuated, and he feels it would be unhelpful to get in the area. The worst is yet to come as far as flooding in most towns and city as I understand it.

The chicken enchiladas were wonderful. I adapted a recipe from Taste of Home which was a free copy I got. They were really good, and I’ll definitely make it again. It would have been better had I fresh homemade salsa to go with it. If anyone wants to recipe, just comment and I’ll post my version. I made the Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake this morning. It turned out quite good, and was quick to throw together. I’ll let you know how that tasted tomorrow.

Let’s get on with the news and see what’s up:

~~~&&&~~~&&&~~~

Some of you may be aware that Dennis Kucinich, little leprechaun of the House, is starting up impeachment proceedings against the dear dumb one of the Dubya fame. Now of course, Inside-Out the Beltway, doesn’t claim there is any success likely to this move, but he argues that such  a symbolic exercise is still useful and needs to be done. If only to point up the fact  the to-this-date shameful Congress has at least gone on record in some small way against the lawlessness of George and his boys. What do you think?

Wingnuts in my Church don’t pay any attention to Old Testament admonitions not to eat pork, claiming that the NT has superseded the Old. Yet when it comes to “go forth and multiply” they take that to the max and claim that God wants them to breed like bunnies. They actually think that population control is some nefarious plot to destroy God’s Church if you can believe that. Anyhow, Robert Engelman, author of More: Population, Nature and what Women want, in an excerpt from his book, argues that the solution to both environment and population problems is to empower women. Read this provocative and well reasoned opinion, then decide what you think.

More evidence of our flawed immigration policy. Increasingly, illegals are simply deported without any kind of hearing. While immigration officials claim that this only happens when detainees agree to sign off, there is strong evidence that such persons are pressured into signing and often the forms are not properly translated for them. This is simply not the hallmark of a democratic society.

As our energy crisis deepens, nobody seems willing to make the big decisions.That is nobody. I’m starting to realize that energy speculators are a major cause of this crisis, and are driving the prices up mightily. Some are starting to claim that this is at least some part of the solution, whereas drilling in ANWR and quick fixes such as tax moratoriums at the pump are not worth a lot in the long run. Blue Girl Red State  has an excellent post on the subject. Dry, as all economic stuff is, but it’s now stuff we must become increasingly familiar with if we are to make intelligent choices and lean on our congressional mouthpieces with authority.

There is a Group called the Copenhagen Consensus. They are economists who meet, and with no fanfare or remuneration, no offering of prizes or trumpeted flag waving, quietly do a what if: “What if we had 75 billion dollars to help the planet? Where would it be best spent? Britannica Blog has a report of what their latest Consensus produced.

We decided based on something Jon Stewart said the other night, to switch our mainstream news watching from ABC to NBC, not a big move I agree. There is a part 2 report from the Senate on Bush and company and the run up to the war. NOBODY like ABC or CBS even bothered to tell us. NBC did at least remark on it. It basically concludes that Bush did everything but downright lie to the American public in pursuit of his war in Iraq.By parsing some paragraphs, Bushite lap dogs have been able in the past to get away with the impression that Dubya didn’t exactly lie. But the proof is now here, and that’s exactly what he did. Which is no surprise of course to those of us who have been clear that lying is second nature to the idiot. Read the full story at If I Ran the Zoo.

Dear McGoof put hoof in mouth once again, and had his handlers scrambling to explain what he really meant, except that what he really said is what he really meant. MyDD has to the story about “when our troops can come home is “not too important.”

While most of the focus is on the two candidates for president as it should be, there will be plenty of McBush supporters who will take their turns at attempting to villify Mrs. Obama. DId you hear about the fist-bump issue yet for instance? Maureen Dowd  of the NYTimes has a good post on this nasty little business that is just gearing up. I actually welcome it, since I think Obama is going to have a field day roto-rootering these disgusting racist opportunists.

Thomas Friedman gives a wonderful analysis of Arab response to the Obama nomination.As he says, this may be dangerous stuff, since those who have strong racial bias against Arabs in general will use this as an excuse not to vote for him. But I tend to think that those folks are already firmly in the war-mongering camp of Johnny I-hate-war McMac. His experiences in Egypt give us all room to hope that we can really improve both our image and our relationship with other Arab and Muslim peoples. I found the use of the phrase, ” Do you think they will actually let him win,” deeply sad, but I suspect quite correct.

Rootless Cosmopolitan, Tony Karon, has a must read today about American Administration claims that we are “winning” in Iraq. He brings us back to earth, by telling us some of the real truth in the matter. Notice that American deaths are down, but Iraqi forces deaths have simply taken their place. Karon is a South African, living in NYC, writing for Time.

It seems that McCain is pretty gun shy these days of talking to evangelicals at all. He has at last report declined to meet with even Billy Graham. Read all about the mastermind of the meeting and his anger at the rebuff at Talk To Action today.

Susan Posner  has another installment of the Fundamentalist. Today she focuses in on the evangelical vote, will moderates go with Obama? McCain’s ongoing problems with them, and Hagee again. Don’t miss it.

Additionally American Prospect  takes a look at the Bush/neocon Iran policyand examines its failures and its myopic way of viewing the country and its leadership. Given the disastrous policies of the past, electing another of these neo-cons could be the straw that broke the camel’s back and leads us to another horrific war for no good reason.

McSame has a problem. His mouth, and his brain. The dude has actually said that the most hated and reviled of all of Bush’s folksies, the Darth Vadar of Republicanism is not someone he would consider for VEEP, but in some other capacity in his proposed admin–“hell yeah”  is his retort. Way to LOSE an election Johnny. More on this from Think Progress  here.

Christina Page for the Huffington Post also has an enlightening way for Obama to claim the moral high ground on the abortion debate. While he clearly is in favor of the right to choose, he can justifiably and proudly claim that pro-choice efforts to reduce the number of abortions have far succeeded over the right to life crowds solution of “abstinence only.” This is the way to win the pro-life vote it would seem, because a reduction in abortions is by far the main issue right?

And in a great article, Adele M. Stan and Shireen Mitchell have a fine piece on feminism and where it stands  after the departure of Hillary Clinton from the presidential race. While some say that the movement is in disarray, they say it just ain’t so. And perhaps they just might know a thing or two. See if you agree with their assessment.

Old Joe Lieberman has refused to cut his ties to Hagee even after all the allegations and admissions about the racist comments. Many have indeed wondered, but I chalked it up to simply this: Lieberman is that brand of Jewish person who takes his short term help where he can get it, and ignores the fact that Hagee is a pig. Any support for Israel will do it seems regardless of how ugly the reasoning. I find this disgusting of course, but it seems to be what makes Joe tick. But others seem to think Lieberman is working for a job in a McCain administration. Now talk about your long shots. But he learned from the master it seems. McCain of course after being treated like a vile creature unworthy to walk upon the face of the earth by Bush and Rove, swallowed his honor and supported the ticket with nary a wave at Lieberman, running as the VEEP of Al Gore. He simply put personal gain above the country. He became dishonorable at that moment. Lieberman has now done the same. Read the entire story at The Nation.

~~~&&&~~~&&&~~~

“The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.” Will Rogers

“The only time to buy these is on a day with no ‘y’ in it.” Warren Buffett

“The murals in restaurants are on par with the food in museums.” Peter De Vries

“I bought some batteries, but they weren’t included.” Steven Wright

~~~&&&~~~&&&~~~

You know, I’ll tell you, things are not good. The price of oil doubled in less than a year. Home foreclosures are at a record high. Unemployment is surging. But yesterday, we saw a ray of hope. President Bush left the country. So maybe things will get better. Jay Leno

Barack Obama said his differences with Hillary Clinton are “infinitesimal, tiny, minute, trivial and inconsequential.” When he heard this, President Bush said, “That guy knows way too many words to be president.”

CNN reports that John McCain is aggressively trying to win over the independent vote. Yeah, of course, to John McCain, independent means anyone who can make it to the toilet without help. Conan O’Brien

For the first time ever, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline is over $4, which explains the new nickname for gasoline — Starbucks for your car.  Craig Ferguson