Norm Coleman Returns To Senate As Non Sequitur

OK. Get these guys to agree to and the state to approve of a run off, already.
This thing can go on for another 6 to 12 months as it is with Coleman using it for photo ops and lobbying his buddies in the Senate or we could be done with it in a matter of weeks.
Of course, how likely is it that the GOP is going to agree to anything of the kind without a third party candidate (such as Barkley was) involved to bleed votes from Franken in another round of voting? It would be a massive landslide with a race only involving Coleman and Franken to the tune of a double digit percentage final count by the time the sun came up the next day.
Perhaps someone should get a court ruling on holding a run off in this situation to begin with and resolve this then move forward with having one.

I still can't believe that this is the same guy that wanted Franken to throw in the towel on the eve of the election for expediency and the "good of the state of Minnesota". And now he's the main impediment to resolving this issue by not accepting the results of the law driven recount.

No. Wait. What am I saying? It's Coleman and the GOP. I can believe double speak all too well. We've been living with it as policy for 8 years now.

Come to think about it...since when were people who aren't Senators allowed to just mosey in and visit the Senate??
Try it sometime and let me know how that works for you, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public. I'll start scraping together the bail.

About Senate Races
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Cadillac One: President Obama's New Limousine Officially Unveiled

Sheer irony.

If this were truly "one nation" standing behind the ideals of the founding fathers and the principles of democracy we wouldn't need to have our leadership carried around in armored personnel carriers like some third world, tin pot dictator.

Reality seems to have a way of creeping in and destroying the popularly distributed perceptions, doesn't it?
About Obama's Inauguration
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: You just can't make this stuff up!

It appears that the animal protection group P.E.T.A is pushing a wide ranging PR campaign or spin to rename the class of Animalia known as "fish" to something more attractive, cute and well, cuddly in an effort to raise the consciousness of people who basically see the species as sport or (more importantly) food.
And what is the fruit of these efforts from a various sub-section of highly educated college grads and learned marketing scholars???
P.E.T.A. would like us to call fish, "sea-kittens".
That's all I've got.
I mean, how much funnier could this possibly be made out to be??
Photo courtesy of the HuffPost.

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: If "a rose is a rose..."

Adolf Hitler Campbell Taken From Parents By Police

For what little is actually revealed about this story at all, you really should slip out to Huffington Post (link below) and read it for yourself. Brace yourself. There's so little who, what, where, when and why revealed it could make a journalism professor wince in pain.
But as this story plays out in the next few days, I'll be very curious to see what, (aside from the parent's choice of names for these kids) made the authorities believe a law was broken or these kids were in danger. Weird names to give your kids?
Yeah! Sure! You betcha!
But we either live in a free country established on laws or we don't. And what ever you may want to name your kids should be of no interest to the government.
It isn't as though there's nothing else happening these days that shouldn't already be occupying their attention. Or did I miss the memo on how we've established Utopian peace and prosperity?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Police Swarm Subway After Protests Over Shooting Turn Violent (VIDEO)

Oakland, CA police gear up to disburse protesters
and provoke violence in the community.

I just can't get enough stories about people being charged with "unlawful assembly".
In America, what is unlawful assembly when the first amendment of our Constitution specifically ensures assembly as a basic human right to "collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests", or more specifically implied, "the right to protest"??

We have a glut of lawyers in America to interpret laws for the common man and woman when these laws were meant to be easily understandable to all, only to have the meaning of what few laws that seem fairly clear and understandable, altered and reinvented to the point of having none of their original, intended meaning any longer.

Time to wake up people. Take that red pill.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Israel and the Hamas of Gaza: This could be going much, much better for everybody!

A large percentage of the people dying in Gaza yesterday, today and tomorrow are not Hamas militia.
It's that simple in spite of all other surrounding complexities involved with this situation.
For certain no one has been able to ascertain what percentage of the population of Gaza is militia or is responsible for lobbing rockets, (as impotent and ineffective as this still very real threat may be) into Israel for years now.
One does not use a sledge hammer to swat mosquitoes. It's hell on the windows, portraits and drapes. One does not strafe, invade, occupy, fire precision missiles or bombs into East LA, New York, Chicago or other US cities in an effort to stop the Cryps or the Bloods from mugging, maiming or murdering the citizenry or the authorities.
No one brought tanks and missiles into play in Europe to rain death upon any city to combat the organized anarchists (sheer irony, that!) who year after year congregate to disrupt the G-8 Summit held by any of the hosting membership nations of France, the US, the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy or Canada.
For all anyone knows for certain...the ratio of gang members in any other industrialized country and the percentage of Hamas militants in Gaza are very similar. The problem is and continues to be that Hamas militants are not the sole target of Israeli's superior and 4 billion per year western supplied military might. And these rising collateral damages, in a 12 mile by 12 mile bombed out ghetto over the years is reaching perfectly criminal proportions that others who have been tried for war crimes could only have dreamed of in their wildest twisted machinations.
Other means are available to Israel to find, isolate and eliminate whatever small factions of the population Hamas represents, should Israel truly care to do so.
Israel has historically proven to possess one of the most effective secret service organizations in the free world. They have successfully infiltrated whomever they wished to as far back as the Mossad can be remembered. Israel has infiltrated hostile organizations from the terrorists at the Olympics in Germany to capturing Nazi sympathizers 60 years after the fact in Argentina.
Finding and eliminating whatever small percentage of the Gaza population was responsible for firing rockets at Israel could have been accomplished long ago if a genuine modicum of recognition for the sanctity of civilian life were actually in practice today by those who claim to be living and practicing it already.
We are led to believe that Israel is better than the murderous people fighting against them. I want to believe this as much as my culture insists that I do. And it is known for a fact that Israel has the technology, finances and intelligence to show the world exactly that of themselves.
When will we get to see some tangible evidence of this rather than the slow destruction of the Palestinian state while Hamas, no matter how small and ineffective is allowed to remain an ongoing excuse for the extended occupation, further conflict and the death of civilians who are being held captive within a 12 mile by 12 mile compound by a military who has been time proven to be superior on the one side to the comparatively small and ill equipped gang of thugs called Hamas militiamen in Gaza on the other?

Biden: Obama Made Mistake Not Consulting Feinstein

The inauguration has yet to take place and the Vice President is publicly critiquing the President.

"With friends like these..." It's going to be a long, long 4 years. If anyone thinks a third party draws both sides of the aisle together to work against an incumbent, you haven't seen nothing like the Caucasian back lash from Capitol hill. A trillion dollar deficit, the economy on the skids, the stock market down for everyone at approx. 40 to 60%, two active, foreign occupations underway and a host of other national woes, and Joe thinks his best display of support for the guy that chose him as a running mate is to be the mouth piece for the disgruntled few in the Senate?? Sure ours is an adversarial form of government. But who would have thought that would come from a running mate and fellow occupant of the White House...before the inauguration???
About Joe Biden
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Franken Race: Minnesota Court Deals Coleman New Blow

Well, it appears that the guy who would be Senator on the night of the election and belly ached that Franken should accept the initial counts as accurate and "throw in the towel" for the benefit of Minnesota politics, obviously has no intention of taking his advised high road now that the tables have turned. If that isn't par for the course... And now there's the likelihood that he (Coleman) will be filing for suit, which will tie up the courts and the Senatorial appointment for several more weeks. In order to declare so much as a tie at this point, he (Coleman) would need to win the decision on 225 of those 630 ballots in question and pose the assumption that Franken would win none of them or any of the remainder. The original recount was not a matter of Franken's insistance. It was a legal mandate based on the election outcome in Minnesota. Any suit brought about by Coleman is an exercise of choice based solely on wishful thinking. Perhaps he should be publicly reminded of his earlier concerns for Minnesota politics and follow his own suggestion made to Franken in November to accept the results and "throw in the towel".
About Al Franken
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Israeli ground forces enter Gaza in escalation

Gaza...12 miles by 12 miles. A mandatory gated community. In common terms a refugee camp since the uprising inspired by the West qnd Israel's disregard for the Palestinian's democratically held election results. No one in and no one out except the Israeli military. The propaganda promoted by the western press can say what it likes to have believed. These facts above still also remain true. Along with the mystical death tolls of 400 Israeli kills to the Palestinian single digit damage from what we are led to be barrages of rocket attacks for months which, in spite of the compact living conditions in Israel, rarely if ever find a target. Hardly a cause for calling in the reserves for the purpose of self defense. This is merely an exercise in troop mobilization and deployment. Fishing in a barrel. The Israelis could have walked back in and re-occupied Gaza at any time with just their weekend team. There's a vast gulf between logic and the propaganda.
About Israel
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bushisms Over The Years

It's only fitting at the start of this new year 2009 and a new administration to look back and pay homage to the wit and wisdom of a two term president and his ability to think on his feet as well as the Idiocracy that voted for him and allowed him to serve to the detriment of what was once a great nation.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Sarah And Bristol Palin Release Statement: "Obviously Discourage" Teen Pregnancy, Situation "Isn't Ideal"

"...putting aside their own interests" would have perhaps been something best done in a more timely fashion, say during the unprotected coitus that gave way to conception.
About Sarah Palin
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bush Pardons 19 More After Questioning

Wouldn't it be rather stupid to pardon someone who hasn't been charged with anything as yet?

What will George do, create a pardon for any future charges against Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, etc.? Were the framers of our constitution possibly that misdirected?

On the other hand, if Dubbya can't pardon because there are no charges to date, perhaps someone will grow a pair and begin indicting some of these criminal minds after the inauguration.

One can only hope. Otherwise, all this talk of change is pure rhetoric.
About George Bush
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Muntadhar al-Zeidi: Who Is The Bush Shoe-Thrower?

Well, you order an invasion/occupation and a regime change in a foreign country for unfounded purposes and reasons that (allegedly) cause over 600,000 civilian deaths and obliterates that nation's infrastructure and people are likely to get a little testy when you say you're giving them a "gift".

But a 15 year sentence? Well, so much for the "liberation", free speech and democracy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Youthfulness: An American Obsession, At Any Cost

Human growth hormone and testosterone injections...to mention but a few things Dr. Life can prescribe for himself and you or I can not. Given these opportunities and the availablility to the right drugs, how many of the rest of us could and would extend our lives with a youthful appearance? Hell, for that matter, how many people could be cured of a shopping list of things and extend their lives to puberty in impoverished and starving third world villages?

Dr. Life happens to be a part of the elite few. People who are first in line for organ transplants and the most advanced surgical techniques while the unwashed masses are limited to HMOs and health care programs that won't provide any allowances for basic preventative medicines in an effort to spare the cost and increase their profit margins. But again...that's just the you and I kinda' people. And we're much, much luckier than so many others.

Well, good for Dr. Life.

While billions go without food or medicine on the planet he can somehow with good conscience remain to look like a phreak of nature and PhotoShop.

A great accomplishment for medical science. Ask any Liberian or Ugandan.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Pay Raise For Judges Tucked Into Auto Bailout Plan

It's official. There is no shame on Capitol Hill.

Read from the Huffpo article:

"The raise _ an annual cost of living adjustment, or COLA _ would bring U.S. District court judges up to par with members of Congress, who will receive an almost $5,000 boost on Jan. 1. District judges and lawmakers now earn $169,300 a year but are expected to be awarded a 2.8 percent raise next year..."

And mean while, American workers making the minimum wage (or approx. $17,000.00 per year) are lucky to get bupkiss and their taxes for generations to come will be used to pay down the more than $1 trillion in "bailouts for corporate America and COLAs for high level civil servants. Ah, the land of opportunity.
About Auto Bailout
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Now "they" want to take another $700 billion "swipe" at the economic crisis.

Real swell of these guys to "take another swipe" at the economic crisis. If they were in a batting cage at these prices they couldn't afford to swing and miss. What makes them think they can do it when the future of the country is hanging in the balance? They got it wrong in the first place with the misuse of deregulation. That's why we're in this mess. Then they missed on the first $700 billion "swipe" that was the best educated solution the economic wizards could come up with. Now they want to take another shot at it. And there's not a single check or balance to represent the American tax payer and stop them.

Listen folks. The government does not have any money but that which they get from you and I the tax payer. It's bad enough that the first $700 billion is going to take generations to put back in the treasury. (Ever try to pay off a credit card with the minimum due monthly? You could die of old age before you pay back that lousy $2000.00!!) Now, if another $700 billion bail out is approved, we're looking at society in America that exists strictly on and for the purpose of wage slavery long into the future just to pay our government back our own money and there's no guarantee that the economy will remain strong for the 100 plus years for you and I and our kids and their kids (and so on) to pick up that tab.

Consioder too, what happens if, as is likely, in another 50, 60, years or sooner the economy tanks again? Who do we talk to about defaulting on this loan? At that point with increased unemployment and prices for basics through the roof how are we the people going to keep the payments up and the interest flowing in on the debt that our leadership has decided to "take another swipe at"? Don't look at Washington for help. Remember? The government doesn't create revenue for these sort of bailouts to industry or for anything else. The government only spends our money. Hey, these guys want to bail out the same folks who charge us for using their credit cards, force us to incurr $30 bucks per check for insufficient funds on a $5 dollar check, all the while paying them late payment fees and balloon mortgages on our houses.

Why are we giving them our hard earned tax money in the first place? So they can simply keep charging us 18% interest on money we get from them? Turn about is fair play. Give them the money, but make them use any and all resultant profits to pay off the American tax payer with a market equitable interest rate just as they demand from us.

Other wise...we may as all be working again for the Pharaohs!!!

Hey, youse guys! Get me another stone block up here will ya? I gotta get this level of the pyramid done so my unborn great-great grand kids can reach the level they need to be working on.

There's a real vision of opportunity and self fulfillment for ya, isn't it??

Fun Facts From Zach's Almanac: Oh, ABC you've done it again!

Having Bush surrounded by a bunch of exceedingly happy guys in choir robes who have nothing to do with those involved in the business end of the A.P.E.C. conference and having it accompany a headline espousing that "Leaders' Predict Economic Crisis Can Be Fixed in 18 Months" is about one of the best pieces of subliminal journalism (intended or otherwise) I have seen in quite some time.
Oh, in the course of the Bush Administration, 9/11 and the Iraq Invasion and occupation, I've seen some real doozies...but this was Uber-entertaining.
Adding to the illusory photo was the caption:
"APEC leaders: "We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial... (sectors and strengthen economic growth.")"
Stop it ABC! I'm dyin' over here!
Now, take me to the river and wash me in the water!

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State?

Kissinger's record as SOS, especially behind the scenes and often unreported and his endorsement of Hillary for that same position is exactly why, I believe we should consider someone else for the position. The sort of change the people who voted for Obama had in mind will not be served by appointing Hillary as Secretary of State where her well known political allies and foreign interests will be served perhaps to a greater degree than America would be served by someone less entangled in already ongoing, personally motivated, international relationships.
About Hillary Clinton
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

How to Meditate...The Easy Way (VIDEO)

Gee, a non-pharmacological means of lowering blood pressure, increasing focus, instilling a sense of peace, tranquility and opening the mind to altered stes of perception. May we all be spared the day when the drug companies find a means to lobby against it and find a way to limit/prohibit this practice through the use of the A.T.F. in much the same way other substances and practices already are. And if it's not the drug companies that fear the loss of market and profit, then it could very well be government itself enforcing the restrictions. Because, thinking outside of the box and independently has historically ben looked down upon and persecuted. If you choose to doubt this, look at the current practice of persecution against the practioners of Falun Gong in China. Articles like this on meditation and how people can kick the anxiety of modern living without either Big Brother or the uppers and downers massively distributed by the FDA and drug companies should be front page stuff. If you wonder why it isn't, you needn't look much further than the Congress and the lobbyists they have as bed fellows.
About Video On HuffPost
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bam! Just like that!!

So Palin and the GOP would like to limit the press from covering her UN trip:
Someone please tell this person that she is not the president. She is a candidate for VP.
Did I miss the memo that states that a candidate for VP who could very well ultimately be called upon to lead this entire country gets to pick and choose exactly what the public and the press get to learn of her character, decision making abilities and qualifications for that position?? If she doesn't want to run for the office, wonderful. If she's going to run, she had better pull them together and let the public see who she is and what she's made of politically!
Does America really need a continuation of the secrecy that has surrounded the Bush White House for nearly 8 years a la Cheney and Rove??

Then there's the happy news from the world of science:
We now have an organism, a bacteria recently developed that will thrive on all those plastic water bottles that are clogging up the world's water ways. I'd like to be happy about a story like this, even when the rest of the world is smelling like a septic tank that needs pumping, but I can't. It scares me.
This is the beginning plot line for countless Sci-Fi B movies. Microbes or bacteria gets invented or discovered well intentionally to be an aid to mankind's ills brought about by his/her rampant consumerism...entity gets out of control, eats everything and then some things it shouldn't. Boy meets girl while running from the inevitable destruction of the human race and life as we know it...ultimately when the world population is dwindled down to a small fraction of itself some kid just reaching puberty stumbles on a means to rid the earth of the menace by pouring table salt on it or something. The antagonist microbes melt away like slugs on a pavement, the boy and girl adopt the little kid and then start the world anew. Long shot on three silhouettes against the sun rising on a deserted city scape. Fade to black. The end. Roll the credits. Everyone lets out a sigh of relief and leaves the theater. Hey! Got any popcorn left? No. The damned microbes ate em'!

George Michael's apology:
I suppose some of us who already know all there is to know about what's really critical to the state of our union, the current corporate bailouts and the upcoming elections have decided to move on to more urgent matters, George Michael has internationally apologized to his fans for being found in possession of some pot and some crack. The boards across the web are filled with indignant people who view this as the second coming of Lucifer. Well, George does seem to have the worst luck in public restrooms. George! Can't I suggest that you go before you leave the house and hold it?
But no problem, Michael. It doesn't detract from how you make your living. It isn't as though you're going to leave any clamps or sponges in a patient after surgery or drive a semi into a burger palace. The damned drugs should be legal anyway!
What makes anyone writing a blog or a comment on a news site believe that their self appointed opinion or indignation over George's drug possession or use is in any closer proximity to being morally accurate than his own or anyone else for that matter? Because that's what we've been told about drugs by your government??? It's a result of being brainwashed and most don't even see it! Why don't cha' sit back with a power, energy drink to wash down your alcohol, speedy little diet pills and fire up a cigarette. Our government(s) must think that's all really fine for us because that stuff is all quite legal. But really, what's the difference? A drug is a drug, a toxin is a toxin and a dependency is a dependency. Don't question the sanity of your government(s). Question George Michael instead. And it's such an easier target when you can actually pressure an apology out of someone. Maybe drugs would actually do some of us good. Get us off of our high horses.

And it appears foreign firms are going to be included in the $700 billion bail out:
I see...don't let foreigners come across the border at night because it would be too expensive for American tax payers and cost Americans jobs which no one living here wants. But hey! Lets dump hundreds of billions into foreign businesses in a corporate bail out Ponzi scheme! Someone has their head up their...well, I don't have to paint a picture here do I? And congrats to Dubbya. It's a trifecta!! He's scored a W for everyone of the powers that put him in office. Oil's happy. We now have the means to pipeline through the middle east. The international banking industry is joyous! They're getting all that free money from the tax payers and the tax payers still have to keep up their payments each month. And the industrial military complex at the tune now of $12 billion per week in Iraq and Afghanistan for 5 or 6 years is deleriously euphoric.

I could go on...but really...how much time do we all really have?
Later.