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Monday, May 28, 2012
New Ad From Karl Rove and "Willie Horton" Creator Once Again Promotes Unreality
More dishonest tricks from the Republicans. But since they're against VAWA, covering contraception (in fact contraception itself), and the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act, Mom, under Republican rule, could be covered with bruises, have 15 children living with her, and, well, they got the "can't afford to retire" part right.
Too bad Republicans spent the last 3.25 years stomping out any stimulus they could, including fixing our roads and bridges. That's the main reason there hasn't been a better recovery from the recession that their last president's policies caused. Now Karl Rove and the Willy Horton ad creator have new lies for swing state residents. Are you going to blindly follow them down the rabbit hole again, knowing they have a string of wars they want to get to?
Video used with permission implied by MSNBC explicitly offering the embed code. (This applies to all MSNBC videos used so far. I will try to remember to make the same statement on all future ones I use.)
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Romney Wants a Vice President Like Cheney
Mitt Romney wants a vice president like Dick Cheney. Could he find anyway more certain to assure Americans of a presidency of "Dubya 2". He's also called for "fixing" Iran which is likely to go about as well as fixing Iraq did. Trillions in debt (when all injuries are fixed or paid for with a few American oil companies getting some contracts to work with other ones extracting Iraqi Oil.
We also got,but did not want a destabilized Middle East, all set up for our buddy Israel to demand we go save their *sses once more, and then again, meanwhile expanding their territory or influence at the expense of trillions of dollars to ourselves. No wonder the Raging Right blogger minions are making up conspiracy theories about White House pictures being "photoshopped". Their true agenda must be carefully hidden under piles of manure and squeaked out to the proper people in code, like admiring dick Cheney.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Romney Goes There! Calls For Voucher School Expansion
Imagine the creepiest way that a presidential candidate could use to try to hurt the greatest number of women who work outside the home in one fell swoop, and Romney has just gone there.
Privatized voucher schools often pay less that normal school systems as a salary, and actually require teachers to work longer hours at school, after which they have to do all the work that teachers do extra on their spare time and often on their own dime for supplies.
Most of the teachers in my county's privatized schools are just working there until they can get into public schools because of the long hours and bad salaries. The owners describe it as all the teachers in their system working longer hours because they love their jobs so much, but when you hear from the teachers it's simply because they need the jobs, especially since the various cities have accepted so many charter schools that public schools have had to cut back.
And now can we talk about the war on women who work outside the home by the GOP. This is ground central because women dominate the employee numbers of primary education and to a lesser extent of public community colleges (for the same quality of teacher in the latter as I remember my early college days.).
Every voucher school pays teachers less than a comparable public school.
Yes, its a war on working women even if they don't work at a school or any public job because it you lower the wages for a major part of their work force, they can be lowered for women throughout the workforce with increased impunity because there will be less reward or maybe even no reward for the extra education and work involved in teaching. This is how you hurt women and be able to extract more money for fat cats, too.
When I used to read the New York Times, they did an expose' on the wages of charter school principals. At least one was over $300k, while teachers were making much less than public school teachers. Even at that the voucher schools were often using public school property piggy backing on the public system and then they claim it's cheaper to create and run voucher schools, but they don't have to buy or even pay rent on any property!
So voucher school advocates lie!
Also read Romney's creepy almost honest assessment of why he doesn't like public schools and their unions. It's so political you can smell the stench a mile away.
Romney to propose voucher-like education overhaul
Privatized voucher schools often pay less that normal school systems as a salary, and actually require teachers to work longer hours at school, after which they have to do all the work that teachers do extra on their spare time and often on their own dime for supplies.
Most of the teachers in my county's privatized schools are just working there until they can get into public schools because of the long hours and bad salaries. The owners describe it as all the teachers in their system working longer hours because they love their jobs so much, but when you hear from the teachers it's simply because they need the jobs, especially since the various cities have accepted so many charter schools that public schools have had to cut back.
And now can we talk about the war on women who work outside the home by the GOP. This is ground central because women dominate the employee numbers of primary education and to a lesser extent of public community colleges (for the same quality of teacher in the latter as I remember my early college days.).
Every voucher school pays teachers less than a comparable public school.
Yes, its a war on working women even if they don't work at a school or any public job because it you lower the wages for a major part of their work force, they can be lowered for women throughout the workforce with increased impunity because there will be less reward or maybe even no reward for the extra education and work involved in teaching. This is how you hurt women and be able to extract more money for fat cats, too.
When I used to read the New York Times, they did an expose' on the wages of charter school principals. At least one was over $300k, while teachers were making much less than public school teachers. Even at that the voucher schools were often using public school property piggy backing on the public system and then they claim it's cheaper to create and run voucher schools, but they don't have to buy or even pay rent on any property!
So voucher school advocates lie!
Also read Romney's creepy almost honest assessment of why he doesn't like public schools and their unions. It's so political you can smell the stench a mile away.
Romney to propose voucher-like education overhaul
Monday, May 21, 2012
When Bain Capital Went To Another Town
Workers tell of Bain's creepy croney capitalism. Really what was it about the way he works did Romney think we'd lay down and worship?
Friday, May 18, 2012
Raw Video: Trayvon Martin At Seven-Eleven on Night of His Murder
I watched one report in which the newscaster started talking about how much taller Trayvon was than Zimmerman and suggesting that Zimmerman might have had a reason to be scared for his life. But the truth is that Zimmerman has a history of attacking women and even messing with a cop so I'm finding the raw footage of the Seven Eleven better than any newscaster pandering to the right on the case.
It is also true that the volunteer neighborhood watch captain had a prescription for an amphetamine product on the night he killed the teen. It was a prescription product for hyperactivity, but might still have made the man too quick to react, but it's also true that the people killed in Stand Your Ground cases seem to be of darker skin than the shooters. And Zimmerman has had problems with inappropriate impulses in years earlier, including attacking a unknown woman as a bouncer, attacking an earlier girlfriend so that police had to be called, and behaving so inappropriately to another officer that he was arrested for disorderly conduct. I don't think his actions after a police officer all but warned him not to follow Trayvon Martin were at all appropriate. And other people have asked why doesn't the mainstream news system validate Trayvon's right to stand his own ground even if he didn't have a gun.
Gun-nuttery seems to be rampant in Florida especially among our white brothers. I think the ridiculous Stand Your Ground law part of the problem. If George Zimmerman gets off without a decent sentence in this case, the problem is only going to get worse.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Discovered: Mayan Calenders Going Past 2012
So if you were hoping to get out of paying taxes next year, you're out of luck.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Is The Photo of Obama in the Situation Room Photoshopped? Please Read Before Judging.
I ran into one of their new conspiracy theories, following a link from a tweet to American Thinker (If yur lib'ral you ain't a real 'Merican Thinker is the implication, I guess).
Did you know the famous Obama, Biden, H. Clinton et al picture in the "situation room" (actually a small room near the main situation room) has Obama photoshopped in? The blogger has proof. Its all in a 216KB png on the page and Mara Zebest's "explanation". Look Look! Obama's too small!
A photo is blurred on the desk in front of Hillary (Yeah dudes probably containing details that the CIA or military doesn't want people seeing). But the blogger finds conspiracy theories all over.
Obama's too small, too! Well that got me. Yeah, he does look very small. Okay, time to save the photo and resize it. Which I did. Even enlarging the photo there was was problematic. It was pretty blurry when scaled up, so I went online again to find another, which was at Wikipedia, here. It was a jpeg. photo using less kbs, but scaled up nicely. I have it up on my desktop and will place with this article. You can go to Zebest's page for the one the blogger offered.
Scale the jpeg graphic up and notice that Obama is so far back that his chair puts a small shadow on the wall behind him. The lights are apparently mostly in the ceiling, probably like in the picture of a situation room in 2009. So the light from mostly above would tend to miss the wall if Obama's chair was not way back there right next to it. That is further back than your eye sees in the poor png graphic. Also in the png on the American Thinker the blurriness of the general photo tends to fuzz the size of Obama's head. When you see a lot of shadow under his head and with blurriness you are thrown into guessing the true size among all the shadow under his chin. Thirdly, Obama's chair is lower than Bidens and he's leaning forward.shortening his torso., Obama in his black jacket tends to blend in with the military guy with all the medals in the png. And my eye at first guessed that Obama was closer to the front that the officer (I can't figure out the rank or even the service, sorry military folk). Again proof that Obama is further back than he seems.
The blogger also trumpets that Obama's head is too small compared to the others near him. Again I say, he's behind those closest to him, and maybe he has a slightly smaller head. He is very thin, so the smaller size of his head may not be noticed in most speeches when he's up on the podium alone, and the extra blur on American Thinker's png may be responsible for the rest.
Notice here at the 2011 WHCD. Yes, Michelle is in front of him, closer to the camera, but the difference in size suggests his head is no larger than his wife's, and again at the 2012 WHCD next to another woman, the relative size of his closer head with the woman (sorry, I don't know her name) again suggests his head isn't much larger. Most men have larger heads than most women. Remember that Obama was the son of a woman who was essentially single, and relied on food stamps. Though he also lived with his grandparents at times, his growing years were spent mostly in tropical locales. I live in an area, though not tropic is hot a lot of the year. We didn't have aircondition which was a luxury when I was growing up and you don't feel like eating a lot when it's hot. I am sometimes amazed a t how much people desire to eat, but I remind myself that I consume more in winter than summer, and try to imagine what I would eat if leaving the house for a few months every year entailed making one's way through snow and freezing temperatures. I'm sure I'd eat more, an eating more as a child tends to make the bones grow larger. A challenging childhood, which I'm sure Obama had, and multicultural experiences can make a child grow into a brilliant adult, but it's possible that is not evidenced by a larger size head if he lived in tropical weather and therefore ate smaller meals than most mainlanders. Here's a whole speech video. Obama and the other men men of obvious African descent seem to have smaller more round heads, so maybe it's also a genetic factor, too.
Obama's further back than he seems especially in American Thinker's poor picture, he's leaning forward, shortening and foreshortening his torso, and he is in a shorter chair that is so far back it's throwing a visible shadow on the wall. If you are scrolling up the jpeg, you can see this. Zebest's picture fails the blogger, or maybe not, maybe he or she is in on the game.
He or she also has two pictures side by side. If you download those (It is one graphic) and scroll them up to a good size you will see things are not as the blogger describes. Yes Obama's head seems the same size in the left picture as Joe Biden's though Obama is behind the VP from the angle of the camera, but once the picture is downloaded and scrolled larger you can see some things you might miss as the picture is presented on the page. Biden is looking straight forward. Obama is looking slightly down. So you are seeing Obama's head from the chin to a point that includes half of the top of his head. Your eye on Biden goes from his hair line to his chin, not including the turkey wattle that older people can develop. Enlarged I notice that part of Obama's head is not his head, but that of someone behind him. You can see a slightly different color of the hair. That becomes more defined when the picture is enlarged, but the most difference may come from Obama's head being tilted so further back on his head becomes the top. The picture on the right side has Biden behind Obama and the heads being the same size shows that indeed Biden's head is bigger.
The next paragraph and picture declares that Obama is not looking at the same thing as Biden, but download it and scroll that better picture up. With more clarity you see they are looking at the same thing, though Obama's eyes are more deeply set. I'm guessing that's why Obama wears eye shadow in so many pictures. He has very deeply set peepers. (I'm sure that the president doesn't wear actual eye shadow though it looks like he's wearing purple or blue in many of his photos. It is possible there is some lightener applied to help him look like his forehead does not protrude so far over his eyes, but it comes off looking like shadow more garish than something a Dallas streetwalker would wear, and is ignored usually, but don't give the right any ideas. They may decide that it's proof that Obama is in drag or something.
More complaints from blogger, Mara Zebest. He or she complains that the eyes of the man in back in the light blue shirt under a light Tony Blinken, do not look where the eyes of the woman behind him, Audrey Tomason, look. Here is the link for the most HD version of the picture at Flickr.com. Zebest is right because as you can see in the most HD version, Tomason is looking at Blinken. Obviously Blinken is looking around Bill Daley Obama's chief of staff at the time. Something intense is going on and apparently he felt he needed to see it instead of being blocked by Daley's head. Tomason is looking at Blinken possibly because he moved into blocking her view towards the screen at the front of the room, or maybe his body nudged hers as he shifted to get a better view, or maybe she's in love (I doubt it). In Zebest's offering the picture is too compact to really see, but you can see it clearly in the largest version of the picture which either Zebest never looked up or didn't want you to know about.
The blogger also complains about the hands, apparently Tomason's, which also look fine in the fully expanded highest definition version of the picture at Flickr. The picture at Wikipedia is the highest definition, but is shrunk to fit within the page. Flickr lets it stretch and you can scroll around for the full HD effect. You can even see what appears to be a wedding ring on Tomason's right hand. Yes, I said right hand. Either the picture is flipped or possibly after losing weight she found she needed to put it on the right hand to keep it on. If she is right handed that would fit a pattern that the bones of the fingers of the best hand are thicker than the other.
But big conspiracy I don't see, not when you view the versions with better resolution.
Why didn't Mara Zebest think of that? Or maybe the blogger did.
When we were all listening to the tape and hearing George Zimmerman say "effing coons", right wingers were telling us we will hear what we are told is there. That happens in viewing pictures too. And obviously, some know that and some are too dumb to know it, but not going to the highest definition of a picture and trying to analyze it, is a mistake or subterfuge.
Zebest's analysis fails completely at viewing the highest definition photo on close up.
Either he or she knows it or is easily duped.
Some earlier news breakers were found to have put online information they received from shadowy people with fake names. Some suggest that the GOP funnels information to right wing bloggers to get it into mainstream news. Bloggers like Mara Zebest seem to be their natural prey.
Catholic League VS The Daily Show Should We Call for Reverse Boycotts?
Warning: There is a graphic within this video that may upset some people.
The Catholic League has convinced Delta Airlines to pull it's ads from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, calling one portion of one skit "hate Speech" according to Think Progress report We Are Now Beginning Our Descent: Delta Sides With Anti-Gay Donohue, Withdraws Ads From The Daily Show.
The Think Progress report points out how the League's speech is pretty offensive, too.
A lot of sources cite wording at Buzz Feed which uses the picture that is supposed to be so offensive. It is a little shocking even to me as a grown woman so I will excerpt the portion I think is important. The announcement by the League to go after other sponsors of Stewart's show and the way they are doing it.,
The one throwing around smut is Donohue himself gratuitously sending the picture to business people who have not seen it or asked to see it. If this works, I will be very disappointed in the Kellogg executives, and I won't be flying Delta for a long time apparently. If they aren't smart enough to realize their actions are harming the free flow of political discussion, I certainly don't want to put my life into the hands of their business during the tricky art of flying. Do they choose their pilots for their skills or for adherence to a hard right doctrine against women?
The Catholic League has convinced Delta Airlines to pull it's ads from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, calling one portion of one skit "hate Speech" according to Think Progress report We Are Now Beginning Our Descent: Delta Sides With Anti-Gay Donohue, Withdraws Ads From The Daily Show.
The Think Progress report points out how the League's speech is pretty offensive, too.
A lot of sources cite wording at Buzz Feed which uses the picture that is supposed to be so offensive. It is a little shocking even to me as a grown woman so I will excerpt the portion I think is important. The announcement by the League to go after other sponsors of Stewart's show and the way they are doing it.,
Donohue outlined his attack strategy against Kellogg's on the Catholic League website today: "Today, all the top management at Kellogg’s will receive a color photo of a naked woman with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament in between. Let’s see if that jars them. Over 700 photos have been sent to leaders in Battle Creek, Michigan."In other words, the Catholic League is implying that The Daily Show is into smut? In fact, Stewart himself says in the video that he hadn't seen the picture before, and appears to start to ask if he is blushing, and he does look noticeably pinker after viewing the graphic. The comment was about states passing laws forcing women to have "unwanted medical intrusion into their vaginas" and how women might prevent that. On the surface it actually the supports the "War on Christmas" as well. Any other implication is purely in the mind of the beholder and X Rated parts are not actually shown. The picture is obviously taken in a doctor's office (notice the typical examination room paper under the woman, though I have to admit that doctors are not usually having women undress fully for a pelvic exam. It is possible it was in the office of a female doctor, which would moot the embarrassment of undressing so completely.
The one throwing around smut is Donohue himself gratuitously sending the picture to business people who have not seen it or asked to see it. If this works, I will be very disappointed in the Kellogg executives, and I won't be flying Delta for a long time apparently. If they aren't smart enough to realize their actions are harming the free flow of political discussion, I certainly don't want to put my life into the hands of their business during the tricky art of flying. Do they choose their pilots for their skills or for adherence to a hard right doctrine against women?
When Nick Ut Saved the Naked Running Girl
First lets have an definition of Napalm from Wikipedia:
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with petroleum or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon.It makes the burning fuel stick to the human or other body so it burns more effectively. This is what the South Vietnam army was dropping on the people of the village that you will see in the video. That kind of horrific tactic is why many Americans didn't feel bad that South Vietnam and their allies, er we, lost the war. .
More importantly, this is a look at what was allowed in those days, and may still be allowed in the theater of war. It is cleaned up and removed from sight of people back home. We saw the still at the time. Everyone most likely remembers it, and I read a report of what happened once in the 80s. But I never saw the video before, never saw Kim Phuk's back with it's horrible burn before I saw this report.
The report will tell you that Nick Ut works in LA now as a photographer. I have seen his name on many photos, including ones that people might call paparazzi shots. He was the guy or one of the photographers who caught Paris Hilton crying as she was driven back to complete her sentence of incarceration a few years back. We all have to get by somehow.
(The people in fatigues were all photographers and reporters, not military.)
Monday, May 7, 2012
What the Economy Needs Now (Not Love, Sweet Love) (Okay that's a Boomer joke. Sorry.)
Despite what Mitt Romney says public sector jobs are needed right now.
Let me explain in case you have forgotten:
A teacher, a firefighter, and a cop (all three currently unemployed) walk into the unemployment office and find that low and behold there is a job offered by their state or local government.
One of them takes that job.
In a couple of weeks or a month he or she has a paycheck.
The new hire cashes his or her paycheck utilizing a teller who is working a private sector job.
The public worker then takes the money the or she earned with that paycheck and pays rent, pays his or her bills, buys gas, and buys stuff in stores, authorizing a bucket load of private sector jobs.
And Voila'!
Recovery happens, especially if all three workers (or three or more workers in any public field) find jobs opening up.
Money is like electricity. It doesn't work unless it's moving around. That's why trickle down economics don't work. A family can only spend so much, and the rest they stash.
Though the rich keep proclaiming that they will hire more workers if they get more money from the government, that's not true. They seem to spend the most of that money sending it to campaigns of people who promise to funnel more money their way, and use propaganda about how "trickle down" helps an economy as a means to keep the masses quiescent about the hardships their families face.
Workers are not hired if there isn't demand for the goods and services they produce, no matter how much money the rich have. They aren't fools. The will use their money only to buy what they want and hire people to make stuff they need. If the stuff they need in fact isn't produced in the US that doesn't add to US manufacturing, but at least it adds to necessity of sales clerks and possibly of delivery drivers.
The Democratic target is usually to send money to the lower middle and working classes in small increments because that is most often spent on necessities that are more likely to be made in the US. Large quantities of money often end up in a savings accounts and don't help the economy.
Feed a female mouse with a mate and take care of her and her offspring and you can see this effect for itself. (Hint do not actually try this at home.) The population increases exponentially, which is why pest controllers will never lack for jobs as long as people can afford them.
LOL at Google Over Blogspot Problems
Google produces the Chrome browser right? It also owns and controls the blogspot (blogger.com) system.
I can use the Chrome browser to open and write blog posts as long as I don't need to access the HTML directly. In Firefox, I can both write and revise HTML via the convenient tab by which I can go to "compose" or HTML. And I need that option for inserting videos and getting them to center correctly. Also for any but the most rudimentary composing.
If I try to access the HTML in Chrome the page crashes and I'm offered an error code with which I can explain my problem to Google.
Hey, Google Dudes you control both of those. It's in your power to fix them so they work together.
I sometimes have problems with videos in Firefox which mostly works the best on everything else though not quickly. But at least I can access my complete blog here. I do dislike having two browsers open while working, because I don't have that many resources on this machine, but there you have it. IE doesn't even show the HTML button so using that browser though fast is not an option in blogging. (And Chrome rightly warns the user it's not likely to work.)
But Google you own Chrome and the blogspot system. It seems a no-brainer that you would make sure they work together. Now that Chrome is remembering to open the last pages used when I shut it down. I could live with the Chrome browser only.
(Safari picks up a bunch of extraneous info with every copy of a few lines of text, making it hard to work with. I don't even use it when I'm borrowing my daughter's MAC Book Pro.)
I can use the Chrome browser to open and write blog posts as long as I don't need to access the HTML directly. In Firefox, I can both write and revise HTML via the convenient tab by which I can go to "compose" or HTML. And I need that option for inserting videos and getting them to center correctly. Also for any but the most rudimentary composing.
If I try to access the HTML in Chrome the page crashes and I'm offered an error code with which I can explain my problem to Google.
Hey, Google Dudes you control both of those. It's in your power to fix them so they work together.
I sometimes have problems with videos in Firefox which mostly works the best on everything else though not quickly. But at least I can access my complete blog here. I do dislike having two browsers open while working, because I don't have that many resources on this machine, but there you have it. IE doesn't even show the HTML button so using that browser though fast is not an option in blogging. (And Chrome rightly warns the user it's not likely to work.)
But Google you own Chrome and the blogspot system. It seems a no-brainer that you would make sure they work together. Now that Chrome is remembering to open the last pages used when I shut it down. I could live with the Chrome browser only.
(Safari picks up a bunch of extraneous info with every copy of a few lines of text, making it hard to work with. I don't even use it when I'm borrowing my daughter's MAC Book Pro.)
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Veterans' Charity Scammer Caught in Oregon
Portland, Oregon, from Washington Park
Nice view and hint to other photographers of Portland you might want to take pictures that don't make this city look almost exactly like Cleveland
Photo shared using Flicker's native coding and allowed via Creative Commons License Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) Thanks to "Travel Portland" which has no connection to this blog or blogger. Click on picture to go to original "Flickr site.
A man who setup a charity scam that was supposed to be providing money to Navy Vets has been apprehended in Oregon. Ohio has been looking for the man, who also stole the identity of a Washington man of Native American descent for nearly two years now, claiming he took 2 million dollars from people of the rust belt state though mostly through small donations. The scam's purveyor made donations to political candidates, mostly Republican, though there doesn't seem to be evidence that the candidates knew about the illegal basis for those donations. The amounts donated were large enough that various candidates took pictures with him. I saw on the video fom ABC, not only George W. Bush and John McCain mentioned in one of the reports ", but also Rudi Guiliani standing with "Thompson who also used the identity of a New Mexico man who ran a veterans group, one Ronnie Brittain for an Indiana driver's license.
According to MSNBC News:
He is accused in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, of 22 counts of theft, money laundering, tampering with records, engaging in corrupt activity and other charges. An associate of Thompson’s, Blanca Contreras, of Tampa, Fla., was sentenced to five years in prison in August, 2011.The Tampa Bay Times reports that Florida also was investigating "Thompson" who had been working the scam since 2001 in their state until he disappeared in 2010.
The fugitive was caught in Portland while renting a room, there. He still has not offered an verified identity according to reports.
Oregon live reports that the scam netted at least $100 million, little of which ever went to veterans. Thompson himself had a backpack full of money and was able pay $600 a month for rent on his room.
Read reports linked above for complete details.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
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