Posts from — October 2009

McClatchy reports that Under fire from own party, N.Y. Republican quits House race

WASHINGTON — Under fire from prominent members of her own party who said she wasn’t conservative enough, the Republican candidate for an open U.S. House seat in New York abruptly withdraw from the race Saturday just days before the election.

State Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava said she was trailing in polls, unable to raise money and unlikely to win. She told supporters that while her name would still be on the ballot Tuesday, she released all of them from their pledges and said they could vote for anyone.

Ms Scozzafava was a moderate Republican and long-time party member who had been selected by Republican county chairs to replace another moderate Republican who was the Congresscritter for the 23^rd district, which is most of the northern section of New York state. She was basically hounded out of the race by out of state whackos as a “Republican in name only”.

This is a special election, so turn-out is the key to success. The district is normally Republican, but there is no way of telling how this will play out. Joe Biden is scheduled to be in the area for the Democratic candidate, and Ms Scozzafava’s name will still be on the ballot, so party line voters will still vote for her.

The whackos spent more time attacking her, than the Democratic candidate. It looks like a Stalinist purge.

Whether you celebrate Celtic New Year’s Eve [Samhain], the evening before All Saints Day [Halloween], or the posting of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 [Reformation Day], have a happy one.

Wikipedia does its normally thorough job of covering all of the bases on the holidays that share October 31^st.

I’ll include my remembrances of Halloweens past.

These “harvest festivals” aren’t fooling anyone and they are more in the tradition of the “pagan” Samhain, than the “Christian” replacement, Halloween. You should get with the “program” and have the congregation start nailing their complaints about the way things are run to the main door of the sanctuary. 😈

[Don’t forget to turn back your clocks before going to bed.]

I’m Not Evil

It’s only the black cats that are evil… well, and the fluffy white cats who hang around with evil geniuses… OK, so some people are nervous about calicos… I guess Ted means you have to include the tuxedo cats… but no one thinks brown and beige tabbies are evil.

[Editor: Ted is found at Poor Mouth , and he is proud to be listed with evil cats everywhere. Despite appearances Excise is more of a klutz that evil… I mean: is that face evil? Really? You think so?

The BBC reports: Fourth storm lashes Philippines

The fourth storm to hit the Philippines in a month has lashed the eastern coastal province of Quezon, bringing heavy rain and winds to the region.

Forecasters said Typhoon Mirinae was following the same route as September’s storm, Ketsana, which dumped the heaviest rains in 40 years on Manila.

Mirinae is expected to hit the capital later on Saturday morning.

Many regions are still reeling after the worst storm-related floods in decades, which have left hundreds dead.

Since making landfall, Mirinae is moving across the Philippines at 24km/h (15mph) and is projected to move in the direction of Vietnam.

The island of Luzon has been a magnet for tropical weather this year. They got a break on the last storm that just grazed them before turning away, but this one was a direct hit. They still haven’t had a chance to recover from the first storm and the other three came in. It is reminiscent of 2004 on the Florida Peninsula.

From CNN Money: 9 banks in major holding company fail

The nine banks are Bank USA N.A. of Phoenix, California National Bank of Los Angeles, San Diego National Bank of San Diego, Pacific National Bank of San Francisco, Park National Bank of Chicago, Community Bank of Lemont in Lemont, Ill., North Houston Bank in Houston, Madisonville State Bank in Madisonville, Texas, and Citizens National Bank of Teague, Texas.

That the largest FDIC single-day take-over during the GOPression. You have to go back to the days of the Reagan/Bush Savings & Loan debacle for numbers this bad, and then it was FSLIC doing the eating.

You let a Republican take control for 8 years and banks fail, yet bankers still vote for Republicans. You really have to question their sanity.

The Secret Lair

We’ll get you for this!

[Editor: Lucrezia and Adolf hide in the palm fronds to avoid the sun. They are as charming and friendly as ever.]

Friday Ark

I don’t think so, and neither does he.

The Orlando Sentinel is concerned about Alan’s future:

“I can tell you, I don’t think it plays very well at all,” said Darren Vierday, a Democratic strategist who worked on Grayson’s 2008 campaign. “Moderates will look at it and probably be turned off by it.”

So far, no established Republican has stepped forward to challenge Grayson, who is worth more than $31 million and is likely to tap his own fortune for his 2010 re-election run. A transplanted Miami developer; attorney Todd Long; and two Tea Party activists have declared to run.

“If this [approach to politics] was doing me harm, wouldn’t you see someone jump into this race who has won an election?” asked Grayson, who said he shared leadership qualities with Patrick Henry of the American Revolution.

“I draw the line in the same place where Patrick Henry drew the line — give me liberty or give me death,” Grayson said. “It’s what leadership is all about. It’s articulating the things that everyone believes but no one is saying.”

[Read more →]

This time it is Democrats, including John Kerry, who are trying to alter the facts: Lawmakers ask Library of Congress to retract Honduras report.

The Library of Congress had its legal experts look at the removal of Zelaya in Honduras and concluded that the government of Honduras acted in accordance with the constitution of Honduras. This means that there wasn’t a coup, and the current government of Honduras is the legitimate government.

This finding conflicts with the opinion of Senator Kerry and the Organization of American States who all ignored what the Honduran constitution says to come to their own conclusions based on personal prejudices and biases.

I reached the same conclusion as the Library of Congress by simply reading the constitution.

I agree that the leaders of the current government are owned by the rich business interests in the country, but so is Zelaya and the US Senate for that matter. I ignored all that and looked at the constitution. Zelaya violated it in multiple ways, and the current government followed it. If US Senators would try to do that a little more often, i.e. paying attention to the US Constitution, we would have fewer troubles.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but Senator Kerry et al. want their own facts.

Echidne writes about the Colorado “Personhood” movement at it again in The Egg Americans. They apparently intend to introduce this every two years.

A month ago I wrote about their efforts in Florida.

All that is required is money and a core group of obsessives willing to keep doing this until people stop paying attention, or the initiative laws are changed to stop this.

[I also wanted an excuse to use that graphic since I first saw it.]

The Food and Drug Administration says Gulf of Mexico Oysters Unsafe. That’s true because the incident of Vibrio vulnificus in Gulf waters is higher than ever, due to the water being warmer than ever. The old saying about not eating oysters in months without an “R” is based on the need of Vibrio for warm water.

When you add in the pollution caused by the reduced outflow into the Gulf, the result of lower rainfalls in some areas, and higher water use upstream, the problems increase. Oysters filter the water for their food, so anything in the water will be in the oysters. We aren’t having more red tide blooms every year because the Gulf is healthy. I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone eat raw oysters other than during the Fall and Winter months.

[Read more →]

Congresscritter Alan Grayson has apologized for calling a lobbyist a whore. He should have apologized and he needs to use the proper terms in the relationship among the groups that hire lobbyists, the lobbyists, and the public officials who are lobbied.

Simply put, the groups are “johns”, they are the ones paying for the “services”. The lobbyists are “pimps”, they arrange for the “services” to be provided. It is the public officials who are “whores”.

Grayson would know that if he had worked in the criminal courts, instead of the civil side.

From Elayne to PZ to the British Daily Telegraph The Top Ten Internet Laws.

When you have hung around as long as I have you adopt the attitude of Mustrum Ridcully – they’re not really laws, more like suggestions.

Most people don’t know this, but there have been large protests targeting bankers in Chicago. The large “news” sites have stories about the American Banking Association conference in Chicago, but they don’t seem to be aware of the thousands of people protesting.

I saw a note at another blog, DeRosaWorld, and went out to find out about it, but the Guardian in Britain seems to be the largest news site interested.

The Chicago papers are carrying the story, and the LA Times picked it up from the Chicago Tribune, but none of the largest media sites have anything to say about it. It’s kind of weird, since there are angry people with signs, and they have burned effigies, which is always a good visual for a report, but the companies that supply Americans with their news, apparently don’t know it is happening.

I guess their trucks haven’t made it back from covering that important story about the little boy in a home-made balloon, and other stories of vital interest to the people.

In case there was any doubt about how totally out of touch the bankers are, they don’t think they had anything to do with the global meltdown, and think they are the best hope for ending the GOPression. Instead of a conference, maybe they should consider creating Bankers Anonymous. Of course, that requires them to admit they have a problem.