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When our previous topic hit the 1,000-response mark, sleazy behavior by politicians was eliciting a certain amount of non-astonishment.
He's the former governor of Illinois
Who resigned in disgrace and is now on trial for numerous offenses related to his abuse of power.
What the hokie 1 said plus...
...Blago was like the uber-corrupt one -- he shook down children's hospitals and such. He and his wife were very foul-mouthed to boot.
tigerlilly
Rod Blagoyevitch was born in the same state as you and I. OUCH!
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake
I spelled sleaze wrong
It should be Rod Blagojevich
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake
Time to change...
...the subject. Please? Really, we need to get on a new tack, sailing into our 4th of July weekend.
~ Can you use ~
The 'lectric company can't help
The State of Vermont is trying to get 25% off the electric bills of people w/incomes below the poverty guideline. Their lawyer said for them, in a public hearing, mind you, that the 'Lectric Co. thinks all people in poverty smoke cigarettes and they will just use that savings to buy more cigarettes.
Of course they fell all over themselves to deny that represented their opinions or the opinions of their employees. (In the news after)
All this in the wake of a different utility in the business who shut off the 'lectric to an elderly woman on oxygen. Her equipment failed and she died. Maybe it happens every day in Chicago but we like to think that we don't do that around here.
We'd love to think.
(Sigh.......)
Have a great 4th!
Have a blast this7/4th weekend. Count your blessings, forget your troubles. and be safe.(4th of July is the deadliest day on the road, don't drink and/or text while driving)
~ Them old US Blues! ~
Husband's bd....
is the 4th of July.......when his daughter was about 3 (back in the '70's) she'd ask "why do you get fireworks for your bd & I don't?" so funny.......
I don't think
old people should eat dog food so they can afford to keep their lights on and buy their medicine. I saw an old man in the market yesterday. He was asking the guy behind the counter why he got chewy steak paying $4 a pound. The guy told him you gotta spend more money than that to get good steak. I wanted to cry and buy this guy and his wife some of the good stuff. WTF kind of country do we live in where old people who are sick get their lights turned off?
Hand me that loaded spike. I don't want to think about this anymore.
My wife's BD is the 4th as well.
She was told by her Dad when she was a little girl that the fireworks were for her! How cool was that! Have a safe and fun 4th everyone. Lamagonzo's advice is good re driving. Let's all heed it. The 4th celebrates the birth of a nation that gave us the Grateful Dead, and what's more American than that. It also pays tribute to a nation that has a long way to go to live up to its ideals as noted in some of the posts above. I try to celebrate the positive aspects without ignoring the deficits (sometimes that's hard). Let's all remember and nurture the good stuff while working to change the bad! Happy 4th of July everyone!
Call it the Yea-oh Cup
So they were picking through the packages in the mail room at the airport in Bogata the other day when they come up with this replica of the World Cup being sent to Spain. It weighed 24 pounds and was made entirely of cocaine mixed with acetone to make it mold-able
'Chi-chi, grab the yea-oh'
(Al Pacino in Scarface)
saw that too
Gonzo, on the news last night. **********************************
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.
Mark Twain
Sovereign Citizen Movement
What will they think of next department... The wing-nuts never sleep.
They have brought national attention upon themselves when one of their leaders was stopped by a policeman and his son shot and killed 2 cops in the incident about 18 months ago.
They believe the Federal government has no jurisdiction over them and they don't need driver's licenses. They also believe that when you are born the government sells futures contracts on your earnings and the Chinese are currently buying up a lot of those contracts.
The Sovereign Citizen Movement is believed to have 50,000 or so members in the U.S..
Hmmm, sort of like a hybrid cross of the militia movement and the far right wing of the Tea Party. Can't wait till they join forces with the gay nazis. Then they could start their own circus. How can people with a high school education believe these things??
~ Paranoia strikes deep ~
Tour de France
Sure have been a lot of bikes hitting the pavement in Belgium: will the tour spin past CB's place?
Tour de France
They do seem to be crashing a lot. I blame the lack of performance enhancing substances. They are not coming too near us this year...was a lot closer last year, but I stayed away. I saw it 4 years ago...in advance of the race there is a long carnival of trucks and floats from all the sponsors with music, lots of goody bags and fun and drinking. Then there is a pause and a wait. Then the race goes by in a blur. Then it is all over. I never went to a mountain stage, where you get to see more for longer.
Happy Birthday Ngawang Lozang Tenzin Gyatso!
The Dalai Lama turned 75 years old today and celebrated his birthday in his exile home in Dharamsala, a hill town in the foothills of the Himalaya in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It has been his home in exile permanently since 1959.
This Dalai Lama, the 14th of a lineage of 'tulku' in Tibetan Buddhism, has been an extraordinary leader of his people who are facing extinction on the Tibetan plateau, their ancestral land. The Chinese have imposed their version of a final solution and introduced mass migration of Han Chinese into Tibet, thus overwhelming the people and their culture.
A shadow government in exile has been set up and the Dalai Lama travels the world with a head of state status and security. He has made sure that the different lineages of Bon and Tibetan Buddhism have remained intact and insured their preservation. The important arts, crafts and cultural institutions have also been re-established in many countries around the world.
Although the tale of the Tibetan people is a very sad one it would have been horribly worse without the tireless campaigning of this Dalai Lama who has proven to be like a second Gandhi, having his people hew a nonviolent path. If you ever have a chance to meet this extraordinary human being don't pass it up.
The Torrent in the Gulf...
...continues to this day GCowgirl, about 60,000 barrels a day making this the world's largest ever spill. Spill is actually incorrect as it connotes an event that has happened. Torrent is the better descriptor here, according to linguists.
Nobody has ever cared about the cost of being addicted to oil until the Torrent started in our own backyard. Nigeria and Angola are a mess because of oil spills. Americans consume four times the amount of oil of any other industrialized country. And Americans do not believe that their consumption constitutes a co-dependent relationship with the oil companies.
Whatever, whomever. The whole thing is a giant morality play perpetrated on a grand scale. Mentally it helps to stay away from the news and just numb it from your consciousness, a luxury the Gulf Coast residents do not have.
~ It's all too much ~
Dalai Lama
Thank you for posting this, lamagonzo. What an amazing life to have been in our time and a source of inspiration amongst all the suffering the Tibetan people. I am outraged whenever I think of what has happened in Tibet but his example reminds me to act with Loving Kindness. I try but I still get really angry at times about this. Turn that anger into compassionate action I keep reminding myself.
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake
WRT codependency...
In this morning's SF Chronicle, Debra Saunders--the "token conservative" columnist, and hence arguably in showbiz as much as the information biz because that's what columnists do--has dug up apparent evidence that freeing the Lockerbie bomber was closely tied to BP getting an oil contract in Libya.
I have no strong opinions one way or another on the freeing of the Lockerbie bomber, but when Debra Saunders is bashing BP, and in such button-pushing fashion, I think we've got a bit of a sea change, as it were.
BP is now the whipping boy...
No doubt.
Now, if I could just count on Exxon Mobil to bail them out, should they ever need it, I'd buy 1000 shares at the current price of $33.50 a share.
(Chomping on my cigar like a true bottom-feeding capitalist)
Important earth-shattering newsflash
I baked a pie today with blackberries from the garden. As this is about the 3rd pie crust have ever attempted in my life-it looks like a 6 year old made it. But I don't care-it's the taste that counts.
In other news-had a brief SunshineDaydream1951 sighting today. First sign of him since 25/26 June, when he moved from Spain to Michigan. He sent me a hug on MSN messenger and then vanished again.
**********************************
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.
Mark Twain
Pies are my weakness
I like pies the way J'man likes cookies! Hope yours comes out good Lilly.
Hope you wern't shattered by the Germany loss yesterday. My wife adopted the Germans and had a major tailspin yesterday. She blamed it on the psychic octopus.
No worries
Gonzo! Was for Spain. Learned to love Spanish-style soccer after I lived there 2008/2009. My analysis is that Germany choked. They were too intimidated by the idea of Spain, and not experienced enough to handle that fast pass style. Is very hard to get past the entire Spanish team in front of the goal to score, and their goalie Casillas is very good, Ramos ran his fanny off and was EVERYWHERE, as was the defender Puyol who scored, so...**********************************
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.
Mark Twain
BP & the Lockerbie bomber...
...is not new news. It came out at the time the bomber was released from prison. A lot of people in the US who had relatives on the plane who died were furious. The talking heads made all the right sounds but it was all a show. The fix was in for BP.
If there is money to be made justice is always a casualty or a means to an end to make more money.
I think people who call for justice and vengeance need to look long and hard at the country they live in, the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons and still the only country in the world that has not pledged 'no first use'.
Yes marye
He packed up and moved-having never been there before in his life! Kudos to Bob the Brave! And we probably should all wish him luck in his new life adventure.**********************************
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean.
Mark Twain
Gonzo...nukes
First, I'll state that the world needs nuclear weapons about as much as it needs a black hole at the core of the planet. Get rid of them all, period, no exceptions. NO EXCEPTIONS!
But, it does make me insane at times that we (the US "we", and others, but especially the only country that's actually used them as weapons) have the audacity to insist, for example, that Iran should not develop such a weapon. It's the right thing to put a stop to nuclear weapon proliferation...but the wrong thing to say, well, "It's ok for us to have them, but not you!" That huge disconnect between what we say and what we do just makes me shake, gnash my teeth, and pull out what little hair I have left.
Damn, I think I just knocked out a filling!
I am so with you Al.
Telling other people they can't have what we've got is bad behavior.
Bob is in the U.S.??!!?
and when did this happen??...wow...i HAVE been out of touch!!!
Sunshine Daydreaming
Welcome to the USA, Bob!
Postage for the next vine package ought to be cheaper.
Michigan jam....
The riots in Oakland last night...
...were because a transit cop shot a bound black man dead at point blank range. The man was facing down on his stomach with his hands tied behind his back. The transit cop said he was going for his taser but pulled his gun instead.
80 people were arrested in Oakland last night for setting fire to shops and cars, there was sporadic looting. The insurrection started when the verdict was announced in LA yesterday: Involuntary manslaughter.
The victim's mother could be heard on the news forcefully stating three times "My son was murdered!".
Sometimes the public jumps to conclusions based on cell phone footage or some such but in this case we have the conclusion of a full jury trial of a cop-killing of an unarmed black man, bound, face down on the platform. What need is there for the cop to tase the guy in this position, never mind shoot and kill him? The error here is so egregious in so many ways that it was bound to provoke such a reaction.
" ...can't we all just get along?
Rodney King
I disagree, and I live here.
You have to realize that this takes place against a backdrop of there being no known case for the last 15 years in which cops were brought up on murder charges and any of them was convicted of jack. This is the first instance I'm aware of in which a jury, and an L.A. jury at that, didn't just say, he's a cop, give him a pass.
I'm really impressed with the judge and the jury on this case. The jury convicted him of manslaughter, to which he should have manned up and pled in the first place of course. AND they added a firearms enhancement which should at least double Mehserle's time.
And they delivered a verdict on very solid ground that's unlikely to be reversed on appeal. Moreover, it will be invaluable to the Grants in their wrongful death lawsuit.
In the world we live in, this verdict is an historic breakthrough of epic proportions, however much people who come into Oakland to seize the moment to loot stores may disagree.
Marye, I'm confused...
You think it is progress that the jury convicted on a lesser charge? Because they haven't convicted a cop of anything in the last 15 years? I know you live in Oakland and I understand that locals should know better than anybody else.
But, this is not a brave jury making an historic judgment here. This is a savvy prosecutor maneuvering for a conviction. Better than nothing but not justice for the mother of that man.
I disagree with violence in any form, including property damage that scoundrels do in these kind of events. There should be an avenue for these people to channel their protests but there is no way for them to be heard unless they resort to something like this. Oakland knows what happens to the leaders of black people. The Dead did a benefit at the Oakland Aud.for the Black Panthers in 1970 or thereabouts.
I guess you may be right from a longer term perspective but I'll wait till I see a trend before declaring victory.
good ol' BP
British Petroleum, or Beelzebub's Partner? Ain't no friend of mine. Plug the damn hole, please.
I think
it is huge progress that the jury convicted on something that carried prison time, would stand up under appeal, and added the firearms enhancement which at least doubles the sentence. This is essentially without precedent.
I would expect Oscar Grant's mother to say what she said, but she was not speaking from knowledge of the law (and also the family has been coopted by some really sleazeball opportunists as well, which was only to be expected). As the law is written, I do not think her son was murdered. For one thing I don't think Mehserle is bright enough to form intent. I also believe his shock in the video. He is stupid and ill-trained (the latter much attested to in the trial) and that goes bad very quickly in a volatile situation when your work culture involves pushing people around (and yes, I find a culture that rewards pushing people around reprehensible).
To convict on any of the higher charges they would have had to essentially prove intent, and based on the videos and testimony, that would have been very difficult as the versions varied wildly. It is far better for Mehserle to go down on charges that stick and send a message that this shit carries painful consequences than to have a smart lawyer get him off because he could convince an appeals court the jury was overreaching.
Also, what is not clear to non-locals was that this was not the Oakland PD. Not that the OPD doesn't have issues, but it wouldn't have hired Mehserle on a bet. This was the transit police, which tends to attract power-tripping police wannabes no reputable PD would have as a gift. (Another BART cop Tased some loser for jumping a fare gate the other week. That didn't play too well either.) I've seen a great many rants online blaming the OPD for this, but this ain't their crime.
and as with the last riots
most of the people arrested were white nonresidents who style themselves as anarchists and show up to wreak havoc whenever an opportunity presents itself. I'm sorry, but looting stores and writing on the walls of businesses "Tonight Oakland Is Our Playground" has nothing to do with justice for Oscar Grant.
Meanwhile the people who actually live here were holding peaceful gatherings elsewhere.
Yeah, I heard further commentary...
...to that effect this evening. I also heard that office buildings downtown emptied out as soon as the verdict was read and the highways were mobbed getting out of O-town.
I didn't know the anarchists had so many 'fellow travelers' these days that they could send whole battalions to Oakland at the drop of a hat... Are you sure these weren't your run-of-the-mill anarchists found in the Bay Area?
I any case don't worry. We're having a spokes meeting at the Starry Plough tonight and I'll take care of those Reds!
~ We gonna pitch a ball down to that Union Hall
Wang Dang Doodle, All night long
All night long, all night long ~
American support AZ immiugration law
OK, The American people have spoken and they agree with Az. governor Jan Brewer that we must secure our borders by imposing a final solution on immigrants. Yes, immigrants pose the greatest threat to our country and must be exterminated at all costs. Plans are to start with the obvious Mexican illegals first and then work backwards until we get rid of every last immigrant since 1492 and all their blasted progeny.
Brewer will then officially hand over the state in a ceremony to the Hopis and Navajo. Of course she'll have to do it by video feed because she'll have been deported to the Netherlands.
Won't our country be better without all those wetback Europeans sucking up the welfare? Maybe, while we're at it, we can get rid of the Indians too because we know they didn't have documentation when they crossed the land bridge across the Berring strait 50,000 years ago.
Our country would once again be safe for the real Americans, the animals like the buffalo!
oh
the professional troublemakers may live somewhere in the Bay Area. But they don't live in Oakland.
We didn't have Rodney King riots in Oakland. This was perhaps in some measure because the looting was better in Berkeley, but it is also because Getting Along is pretty entrenched in a city where there is literally no majority ethnic or racial group. We don't appreciate these twits exploiting our local tragedies for their destructive antics, especially when the local economy has plenty of troubles already.
Agreed, Marye! May peace prevail in Oakland --
Oakland doesn't need out-of-town radicals to come in and behave like privileged upper middle-class idiots destroying the hard work of small Oakland merchants. I'm behind you 1000% on that. Oakland has always been one of those places that has a myriad of cultures living together more or less in harmony. It's sad to see that things remain so on edge for the black community there that this could happen.
By the way, it's nice to note how passionate you are about the place you live in. I'm sure your neighborhood is a better place because you live there. I certainly hope that your sentiment that this conviction is progress is true. Somehow I fear the incident was so flagrant that the authorities saw they needed to do something, besides moving the trial to LA.
I was just kidding in my last post about the Starry Plough, though it was my favorite bar on theBerkeley/Oakland line, if it's still there.
The Plough
is definitely still there, and much the same as ever! My club days are pretty much behind me, but it was great to be there last year for Gans's Reptile Reunion. Fortunately for me, since essentially I don't drink, the coffee selection has improved over the years, but the place has not strayed from its roots.