Posts from — April 2008

What do you get when you combine 10 litres of wine and a black plastic garbage bag?

In Wales you get: Drunk Darth Vader’s Jedi assault.

I first voted for President in 1964, when the major candidates were Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barry Goldwater. My vote for LBJ was predicated on his getting the Civil Rights bill passed. I was brought up down here and was all too familiar with the system and the need for justice. I was still attending segregated schools in the South in the 1960s, although Brown v. Board was decided in 1954.

There were a lot of “firsts”, like the District of Columbia getting to vote for President, but there were also “lasts”. Most people aren’t aware that that election marked the last time a Democratic candidate for President received a majority of the white vote.

CNN waits until the fourth paragraph to indicate what’s really going on: Senate Republicans block unequal pay bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Republicans blocked a bill Wednesday that would make it easier for people to sue over pay discrimination, an effort to roll back a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that limited such cases.

Republicans complained that the bill would produce a flood of lawsuits and criticized the chamber’s Democratic leaders for putting off the vote until the party’s two presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, returned from the campaign trail.

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This is for the media, as they don’t seem to have anyone capable of doing any research.

This is from the Bureau of the Census: Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2004, Table 2. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Hispanic Origin, Sex, and Age, for the United States: November 2004

Looking at the figures for people in the US, 18 years of age and over:

There are more women than men: 51.87%
Looking at only US citizens that increases to 52.21%
Looking at registered voters it goes up to 53.26%
And when it came to actually voting in 2004 it goes up to 53.51%

In summary, there are more women, a higher percentage of women are eligible to vote, even more take the time to register, and they are more apt to actually vote.

Women are not a special interest group, they are the majority you need to win an election in the US.

…that this would be another technology disaster.

The Associated Press reports that the $20 million ‘virtual’ border fence scrapped

TUCSON, Ariz. – A $20 million prototype of the government’s highly touted “virtual fence” on the Arizona-Mexico border is being scrapped because the system is failing to adequately alert Border Patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.
…
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Saint George is the patron saint of England, Georgia [the country], Bulgaria, Portugal, Catalonia, and the city of Moscow. Orthodox countries tend to celebrate George on November 23^rd.

PETA condemns George for his senseless slaughter of dragons. The YWCA condemns the condemnation and wants to know when PETA is going to volunteer to be DragonChow™

Mustang Bobby is sure to remind us that it is also the birth and death day of Billy the Bard, who was a great writer in desperate need of a spell checker.

Master Shakespeare gave all of the best lines to villains supplying low humor to those who have read the Folio, e.g. Arlen Specter quoting Iago, reputedly in support of Clarence Thomas.

Scorpio is rightfully annoyed with Senator Clinton. When asked about a hypothetical nuclear attack on Israel by Iran, the response was the US would nuke Iran, causing Scorpio to react with She What?

I would have asked the questioner what Israel had done that caused Iran to magically create an nuclear weapon it doesn’t have and attack another nation, something it hasn’t done since BEFORE GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN!

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She’s the only planet we have, if we blow it, we can’t pack up and move.

Wikipedia as a Earth Day entry, with links to other sites.

USGS Sea Level Rise animation when global climate change continues.

[People don’t believe me when I tell them moose are crazy.]

Speaking of crazy, how about a “suicider” pelican taking out one of Oz’s Aardvarks.

…it couldn’t get worse, Ellroon at Rants from the Rookery mentions that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania uses paperless electronic voting machines, so when you look at the results you can ask: “Is it real, or is it Diebold?”

Just so no one can accuse me of trying to hide it, I have had links to the Weather Underground for years. Actually there are three links right on this page. There’s the little graphic down in the Local Interest section of the left side bar, and then there are the two links under the Hurricanes portion of the blogroll.

I would hate to have anyone think I’m hiding my connections.

Oh, I don’t own a flag pin, just a few badges and medals and stuff, as well as a couple of actual flags for flying, when appropriate under the Flag Code.

It’s a good thing I’m not running for President.

😈

The Associated Press reports on another sweet-talking Republican: Lawmaker punished for Mexicans remark

DENVER – A Colorado legislator known for kicking a photographer was ordered to leave the podium of the state House of Representatives on Monday because he called Mexican workers “illiterate peasants.”

State Rep. Douglas Bruce, who has a history of provoking controversy, made the comment during debate on a bill that would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary federal visas. The measure is intended to ease a shortage of farm workers in the state.

“I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don’t think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado,” Bruce said.
…

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Juan Cole on the Secretary of State playing “the dozens” with al Sadr:

Rice has her ‘bring’em on moment’ in Iraq, talking trash to the Mahdi Army and calling Muqtada al-Sadr a ‘coward.’ Muqtada al-Sadr eluded Saddam Hussein for 4 years after Saddam killed his father and two elder brothers; and in 2004 he twice took on the US military. He may be a lot of things, but he is not a coward. Has Rice ever said anything about Iraq that was true or useful? Even as she was talking up ‘improved security’ in Baghdad, mortar shells were falling about her in the Green Zone.

These people keep woofing, and they aren’t impressing anyone. They let their ‘gator mouths get them into situations their canary butts can’t handle. She just added thousands of people to the al Sadr movement with her statements, and made Maliki look like even more of a loser. Throwing insults is not very effective against people who lob mortars in response.

MSNBC tells us that the Air Force must do more for war, Gates says

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are “stuck in old ways of doing business.”

Gates complained in a speech at the Air University on Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been “like pulling teeth.”

He indicated that the Air Force’s desire to use pilots for its missions has kept the Defense Department from employing more effective and lower cost unmanned aircraft.

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