Thursday, November 29, 2012

Congratulations Louisiana! Your GOP has rendered all of you to 2/5ths of a human being through Gerrymandering

 

(Special note to people of other states.  We're working on what the GOP has done to your voting rights.  Please check back at this blog for the next few weeks (Gah! 50 states!) or follow @Bill_Lenner or @CA_Lady on Twitter.)

Dear  Louisiana citizens, You're probably wondering how we know your voting rights have been stolen by the GOP until your vote is worth about 2/5ths of what they should be.  Well look at a couple of pictures.

First, to the left up here is a picture of the counties of your state.  Most of them are somewhat boxy or otherwise fill space available to them.  The red  versus blue colors designate which counties went for Obama versus which went for Romney.  This is not significant because counties are of varying populations.

Neither is the size of the land of each color significant.   Land doesn't vote.  People vote.  It may be later that the GOP can make it true that only landed people can vote or that your vote may only count as much as the land you have.  There are many things wrong today that weren't 30 years since our news and politics is so constrained by billionaire money, but that's for another day.

What is significant about counties is that their boundaries were chosen for mostly utilitarian reasons.  You can see the difference when you see the next picture.

The gray portion is the district for one US House district as it boundaries run in 2012 that had two Republicans running for it in the general election.  Neither Republican, nor any other candidate won a majority.  I assume a runoff election is in the works and that district will turn red too.  But notice the blue district, where a Democrat won the seat.

The snaky design is a typical Gerrymandering gimmick.  Packing most of the people likely to vote Democratic in large portions into as few districts as possible reduces the threat that other districts will get a Democratic majority.
And it worked beautifully in Louisiana.  The blue district is the 2nd district.  The cuts the first district into two pieces one below it and between it an the Gulf of Mexico and one piece  which is  the Southernmost piece edging Alabama.  Actual divided districts are another Gerrymandering gimmick.  And, in fact, that first district had a very low Republican win, but let me do the numbers on the voters who voted Democratic or Republican.

Adding all the voters who voted for Democratic candidates in the two districts we get 291, 865 souls.  Adding all the voters who voted for Republican candidates we get 268,214 ones.  Yup we have two Democratic US House districts that have been Gerrymandered to produce one Democratic seat.  We might find even more if we added up all the districts.

One outcome of this Gerryandering is that 15% of the people who went to the polls to vote for president didn't take the miniscule effort to also vote for Congressman.  1,9888,576 votes for a presidential candidate versus 1,685,758 votes for any Congressional candidate.  In two districts no Democratic candidates were even on the ballot. In the CA 49th district though the powerful Republican Darrell Issa was on the ballot, where he got 4 times the number of FEC registered donations more than his challenger, and horrendous amounts of superPAC expenditures, his opponent still got 40% of the vote.  California districts were taken away from the state legislatures and given to a specially balanced panel.

It is not good to find heavy Gerrymandering in the South again, but the South is not alone.  In fact some are saying that Ohio and Pennsylvania are the most Gerrymandered states in the nation sending heavily Republican delegations to the US House though they should have been sending mostly Democratic ones.

I do not have their results on those states yet, but we know that Louisiana has a constitutional crisis.

The GOP has made each and every person in the state into as little as 2 5ths  of a person.

( I chose 5ths because it matches the 3/5ths of a person that slaves were considered.  Of course, I believe slaves never actually voted.  I suppose their masters voted for them, and they were really 0 5ths of a person.)  If through Gerrymandering your state GOP has made you less than the equivalent of a slave, you may think that can't be true.  Surely you go and vote.  Yet, as you watch the House consider voting away the Social Security payments you actually earn as you work (see post: The Truth About Social Security That Many Don't Want You to Know) as we have shown, you have to wonder how that could happen.

Because, they have crippled your voting voice through Gerrymandering and therefore have grabbed control of the US House of Representatives through their unconstitutional actions.  Notice how often the GOP talks about their control of the House.  They are trying to plant in your mind that they rightfully have this power.

We need to disabuse our fellow Americans and our leaders of the idea that we will go along with this.

I am sure that your state legislative seats are similarly Gerrymandered.  You need to clean house there.  Get a state referendum going to redistrict the entire state.

You may ask why doesn't the Civil Rights act prevent this.  The Civil Rights Act was only to protect the rights of African Americans apparently.  I haven't checked out La, but I did check Texas next door.  The were surprisingly fair to the African American community (before the 2012 election).  (I haven't checked that out afterwards.)  That should be no surprise because they are covered by the Civil Rights Act.  But, a quick check on Hispanics going by last names of their US Reps, Texas is a mess, the pigs going back to their slop.  There may be reasons for that, of which I am not aware, but I doubt the disparity should be as bad as it is.  Someone needs to check that out more deeply, and it shouldn't be the mainstream news.  They get all their funding from billionaires and corporations and their reporting shows it.

Two Caveats remain:

You may think if you are in the Republican party that you are getting over under this system.  No you aren't for two reasons.

1. If you cannot change your mind without losing your power, you have no more rights that those your party has stolen their rights from.

2.  Because the GOP has Gerrymandered the districts they don't have to do what even their voters want done.  They can sell all your rights to billionaires who will finance their political campaigns and even give them money on the side.  According to an expert who I heard explaining it, Super PAC money does not have to be used solely for poltical campaigns.  I scratched that statement, because thinking through it I remembered that it is the SuperPac that can decide where those donations go to so the line straight to the candidate is more easily blurred, but do you think that Mr. or Ms. SuperPac is going to deny his or her cash cow money if he or she wants it?


If that sounds like straight out bribery, it is.  And your winning politicians, therefore, have less incentive to work for you than to do what the Koch bros and Sheldon Adelson, and other Fat Cats want.

Yes, we can fix it state by state, but the people must get their own states redistricted in a fair manner, in both state legislatures and federal House seats.  Most states let those in the state legislature fix the lines of both their state legislative districts and those of their US House seats. CA had to vote explicitly to take away that control to get changes to the system made.

Go for it Louisiana.  There is a reason that you have a Democratic Senator.  Make your elected officials respect you by grabbing the power you have. 

Picture at top is of Indian Creek Recreation Area, Woodworth, La  and is used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user finchlake2000 who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Short link to this post: http://x.co/q5y3 or Now preferred http://bit.ly/16qIMiY

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Instead of Asking Those in Charge of The Operations In Benghazi in September, Republicans Attack the UN Ambassador What's Really Going On? What is Really the Agenda of the GOP Susan Rice Haters

If you already saw the video below tonight, please note that I've inserted two more videos below it on the discussion.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
 GOP Critics can't get over Benghazi.  Not just Benghazi, but post explanations of the Benghazi attack.

Susan Rice was not involved in what was being done in Benghazi.  She had to rely on what others told her about Benghazi, but Old, Wealthy, Senate Puppets of Billionaires keep hammering on her about what those in government who advised her what to say on Sunday news programs.

Hillary Clinton endorses Susan Rice.


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In the next video snip (from same longer video as above) you will see that they have "concerns about Susan Rice", but happily confirmed Condi Rice who missed all the clues before 911 when she was National Security Advisor!!!!! And then went around spouting the BS on Iraq warning about the "Smoking Gun actually being a Mushroom Cloud". Yeah, I guess the billionaires and the War for Israel backers have a special standard for Secretary of State. He or She has to fit their agenda. And just what is their agenda at this moment? Susan Collins tells us at the end of the video snip below in her patrician accent and self important demeanor to get John Kerry out of the Senate, and BTW can they have More War Please? (Okay, the "more war" request is not being spoken at this point, but it soon will be.  On to world economy destroying action on Iran!  Bombs Away!)

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Yes, the GOP wants their boy, Scott Brown, back in the Senate after he stood with their women haters and voted against contraception for women in the ACA, and who inspired his aides into using "Indian chop" disparagement of Native Americans with his racist rant about his opponent's native heritage (which is just exactly as strong in Cherokee DNA as that of the head of the Cherokee nation).

There is another video that shows exactly why the Senators above are trying to push Scott Brown back into the Senate, but for decades the second term game for the GOP has been to either defeat a Democratic president, steal the election, or to block all benefit to the American people, no matter what they had to do.

Short URL to this post = http://x.co/q1YY 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Fat Cats Now Planning to Take More From You By Cutting Your Social Security. We Need to Fight Back on This!


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ezra Klein's Washington  Post report on this is here "Why rich guys want to raise the retirement age"  (Though everything in his print analysis is covered in the video above.  This link is here for you if you can't watch the video for some reason. Plus I've added a few thoughts below.)

In the written piece one other flaw I noticed as the hash was being flung. Blankenfein claims you only work 25 years before you retire.  Um, on what planet?  Who starts working at age 45?  Or for those retiring at 62 who starts working at 37?  Most people are working since they are 14, 16, 18, or at least by 24.  Why is this guy saying we only work 25 years before claiming retirement.

Because they guy he is talking to is just nodding his head and agreeing with everything this Wall Street Bank CEO is saying, not challenging anything, and that, in a nutshell is why such talking heads on TV news are paid so much.  So they will just compliantly nod when the rich guys who make their fat salaries possible, start spewing garbage aimed at taking away more from us so they can lard up their own bank accounts.

Luckily the regulars and replacements at MSNBC don't nod and agree all the time with such people.

BTW,  Social Security is not an entitlement.  We show here that you have earned it. If you have worked 40 years you have earned 20 years of retirement with just 6% of interest on  it.   Yes, Wall Street does not offer any deal to the government that would give a puny 6% interest  without endangering the whole fund system which of course would likely disappear if we did not insist on security.

But, in fact, you also don't get a full continuation of your salary, average or final anyway, so you have still earned your retirement.

When Wall Street wants to play fair we can fix this too.  If the Democrats are strong enough we can still protect Social Security.  We need to make the Democratic party as strong as possible by convincing our friends and families to vote in years that aren't p;residential elections too.  Then we can tackle the gerrymandering that handed the House of Representatives back to the GOP this November.  Gerrymandering makes everyone less of human worthy of full rights and more of a slave to those who make it happen, including the GOP and their fat cat backers.

Friday, November 23, 2012

The Big Lesson Taught by Rollen Stewart the Rainbow Wig Evangelist


This trailer for a movie doesn't explain a lot, I know. But checking out Wikipedia, you can find that Rollen Stewart, a man who would follow popular sports games and try to get on camera with his rainbow wig and his signs with popular bible verses, especially John 3:16 noted on them. Mr. Stewart would show up at nationally and even internationall important games with his act and his signs.

As young Christians he was often held up to us as a person we should be like, that we should go out and try to convert people to the faith. Actual teachers in church sessions would push us to get more active, like they apparently push young people and old, now, to get active in anti abortion protests, at the least yelling at women walking into clinics facing the toughest decision of their lives. I didn't have an answer for them then about why I didn't turn myself into a rainbow wigged crusader, or at least make some signs and yell at motorists from street corners.

I did get pushed into joining crowds when at college that would "testify" on the college green, but always was berated for not doing enough (and that was before even our local evangelical churches discovered the anti-abortion movement as a big money maker).  (Funny, if God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, why didn't he tell our local church groups He hated abortion in the 70s -- though I know some southern churches always felt that way.  I guess that's what makes a lot of  young men and women say, why suddenly does God hate me and want me to be nothing more than a baby making machine? If you really believe, you have to realize, that some people down here on earth got it wrong, but which time were they wrong?  When they didn't believe it mattered to God, or now when they do?)

But to get back to Mr Rollen Stewart, after his rainbow wig days on national TV though Mr. Stewart followed his "spirit" whether of God, the Devil, or basic insanity enlarged by the craziness of a society that no longer believes that Americans deserve a decent standard of living unless they are part of an small group of well borne,  or intellectually or physically endowed super humans, who can grab great salaries while the GOP attack the rest of us, decreasing, by law our ability to earn enough to keep ourselves healthy, let alone happy.

In the face of an increasingly harsh society like that and older age which dissolves the cushion of "always time to turn my life around" so many of us use to keep from thinking about the horrors of the post Reagan society, when a presidential candidate can basically laugh at normal Americans desire to have a decent life when it conflicts with his rich buddies' dream of eternal war and massive tax cuts for "job creators" (who actually mostly create production in China consistent with near slave conditions, and minimum wage jobs in the US), Mr. Rollen finally apparently completely succumbed to his mental illness, and in the end took three people hostage and threatened to shoot planes landing at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).   He is currently serving 3 life sentences for the kidnapping incident.

So when people at church ask you why you don't get more active in protests at abortion clinics or insinuate you should be "evangelizing", tell them do I look like Rollen Stewart?  You may have to explain to them who the guy is, but give them the message that you aren't actually ready to do crazy things and harass other people for their glory and pocketbook.  God can take care of himself.  The church always likes to make a lot of money on the side.

It's your life.  You can handle it.  They don't need to be telling you what you should be doing with it.

Shortened link = http://x.co/ptOq

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Mitt Romney and The Cosmic 47 Percent


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Mittster shares a connection to 47% with Star Trek Programs. Cue Twilight Zone music!

 Irony is piled on irony as Mitt's base of support came from Southern states that are more dependent on federal aid and from the elderly on Social Security which Romney lumped in with his the 47% he dismissed as people he didn't wouldn't waste his concern on as Buzzflash pointed out, but who actually have earned their retirement.  (Social Security receivers must be part of the 47% as pointed out by many pundits, because, otherwise, "47%" of the population could not possibly be filled out by the "takers".  Also included were low wage earners, mostly those with children that also do not pay "income taxes" but are likely to pay Social Security tax if they work and sales tax if they shop for anything but exempted food products, as well as gasoline tax if they use that product, and many assorted taxes that they cannot avoid if they heat their homes at all, etc.  (They also helped support gas taxes if the food they bought came from anywhere further than a few blocks away from their home).

And though, the minimum wage has fallen far below the real needs of Americans, which is why at least the government gives people with children more of a deduction on their taxes than if they were childless, Romney was ready to throw those people away in his election and apparently was going to force the poorest workers in the US to pay more taxes to support his tax cuts for fat cats he had planned.  And Mitt Romney was the least extreme of the Republicans running in the primary after John Huntsman dropped out.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

GOP Goes Nuts Over Benghazi! Weeping and Wailing, But Wait!


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
LOL As the GOP tries to make the Benghazi attack into a conspiracy "worse than Watergate" a Democrat Senator agrees, but it's not the Democrats' conspiracy...

Hostess Brought Down by Unions? Not So Fast.


The media story going around is that unions demanding reasonable pensions (aka in biz/political speek "outrageous demands" are what brought down Hostess Brands.  As usual the news media is choosing to go with the story that their fat cat backers want promoted.

But even the New York Times report had to admit in  As Labor Talks Collapse, Hostess Turns Out Lights:
new private equity backers loaded the company with debt, making it difficult to invest in new equipment. Earlier this year, Hostess had more than $860 million of debt

And a report "Creditors Say Hostess Pay Is Questionable" published April at the Wall Street Journal said at that time:

Creditors of Hostess Brands Inc. said in court papers the company may have "manipulated" its executives' salaries higher in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 filing, in what the creditors called a possible effort by Hostess to "sidestep" Bankruptcy Code compensation provisions.
The committee representing Hostess's unsecured creditors alleges that information it has gathered suggests "the possibility" that the company converted a chunk of its top executives' pay from performance-based bonuses to salary, "at least in part to sidestep" rules designed to ensure that companies in bankruptcy aren't enticing their employees to stay on board with the promise ...
Also see:  Hostess Blames Union For Bankruptcy After Tripling CEO’s Pay  from which I got the WSJ link, though not the NYT's one.  

Their reference to the Journal article could easily be overlooked, allowing a troll to say -- well that's just Think Progress again.  No, it wasn't, it was the Wall Street Journal reporting on court records.

Picture at top above of Long Barn Garden (owned previous to Sissinghurst by the famous couple) is used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Jack Holloway who has no connection to this blog or blogger. Link under picture goes to original site where he offers more info on it.

Picture lower on left used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to The Knowles Collection at Flickr.com which also has no connection to this blog or blogger.  It was placed for all those in mourning over the demise of Twinkies, etc. 

Short url =  http://x.co/prcM

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Did Israel Stop Reuters From Filming Their Operation on Gaza?

Last night and early this morning, Reuters had a live cam filming the bombing of Gaza.  The above video shows the first time that I saw the Reuters cam stopped.  The camera came back on within 2 minutes with a long lens shot that didn't move for a while and no talking. Twenty minutes or more later talking began again (also in a language I don't understand) and the camera began to move again, especially in the direction of bombings.  In one, case they focused as best as they could from apparently miles away on  building that had been hit, showing people arriving at a collapsed structure, but soon drew back.

When the sound of trucks were heard again they would stop talking and focus back on a generalized shot in front of them.

At one point one of the men said (that I could hear) "can't do that".  I don't know why.  That was the only English I heard.

At at least one other point I heard vehicles approach and the feed when down again repeating what happened when just after this video showing though without showing the arriving troops or vehicles.

Look at what you see last in the live video portion of above and tell me these guys did not feel they were under threat for what they were doing. Someone whips the camera around focuses on a canon style weapon on top of one of the trucks that had arrived with the (I assume) IDF just before the feed dies.

Video kept coming on after blackouts for an hour or so more, but then never returned, again suddenly cut off.

I hate to pick on Israel unnecessarily, but they don't seem to be acting with transparency in this case, nor with fairness towards our own people who Nettie wanted to use in a massive invasion of Iran which could have killed 100,000 young Americans and triggered a universal draft.
Update: The Reuters Live Stream camera covered Gaza last night as well. I viewed some video there during their very early morning hours, then it went down. I checked in an hour later and it had become daylight and they were filming again, for a couple of hours. It once went to the whining signal they give, but using alink at the side brought back live (I assume) video. That did not repeat then next time the video disappeared at about 1 am (my time), before I went to bed about 2 am. So, apparently they are not being stopped from their job, but I think it is obvious that they did feel there was a threat when they first encountered the troops. Last night a missel struck close enough to them get dirt on the lens, but did not explode as far as I could see. I assume that since they seem to be filming across a no man's land into Gaza that they are in Israel, and coupled with the fact that the site was not destroyed, that the missile came from Gaza, showing the huge difference in what the two sides are lofting. Some, apparently home made weapons, versus 500 pound monsters that destroy whole buildings and all inside them.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

TDS: Confronting the Questions Involved in Petraeus' Resignation

 I bet tonight's TDS will be even funnier, though not as funny as the real story is becoming. That's not possible. So there's the CIA chief and his biographers who's jealous of the military social planner, who's married to the physician and who's sister is having custody problems with .... But of course, this conspiracy is all about
Obama!

Monday, November 5, 2012

HERE'S AN 800 NUMBER TO THE FBI IN CASE U SEE OR SUFFER VOTER SUPRESSION

 I was leery of the 202 number because I thought it might just be local, but the 202 # and the 1-800 are on this page plus one for just Wester PA (grab it if it fits you area for the fastest service).

Excerpt Hispanic Business.com :
Federal prosecutors and FBI agents will be on duty on Election Day to field complaints of voter intimidation, bribery, vote buying and related crimes, U.S. Attorney David Hickton announced today.

The office has set up a hotline at 412-894-7516. Mr. Hickton has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney as Western Pennsylvania's district election officer.

FBI agents can be reached on Tuesday at 412-432-4000, and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Voting Section in Washington can be reached at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767 or online, the office announced.

"The Department of Justice will act promptly and aggressively to protect the integrity of the election process," Mr. Hickton said in a press release, which indicated that enforcement of voter rights is a longstanding role of the Department of Justice.

Federal law, according to the release, "contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting may violate federal voting rights law.
I've taken a much larger portion of this report than I usually do because this is urgent and important for our nation and for voters.

It doesn't sound like it's just for Spanish speakers, and hopefully they can accomidate either.  I still think that if you can't get help otherwise, call 911.  The cops should help too.  They're real Americans, many of minority backgrounds, some even the children of immigrants.

I'm pretty sure you know if you should have the right to vote.  It is true that Republican operatives may have thrown some registration forms away, but I'm sure if you honestly did your part the cops should take your word for it.  Be strong in your faith.

And hopefully those who threw away the forms will be wearing stripes or orange or something like that for a long time. And those harassing people at the polls can join them.

Pass these numbers around.  And people recommend you take a phone to the polls, and a camera (if you have them) to record any problems.

Is Karl Rove Playing California Through Ad Buys Promoting Proposition 32 and Against Prop 30?

California say hello to the man who may have been leading us around by the nose. Yeah, you know the name. There is a thin veneer of deniability, but "same address is media speak for "yeah they're the same, but we won't say it because we're owned and paid by millionaires and billionaires and we're thankful we still have jobs in news where the pay is better and the work not so hard, so we'll pretend that truth does not exist anymore when we're talking about the Billionaires' Republican hatchet-men and women".

What happened according to A San Jose Mercury News report is:
[A] donation was made last month to the Small Business Action Committee, which has been running campaigns against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown's tax-hike initiative, and for Proposition 32, the measure that would curb labor's ability to collect political cash.
 The California Fair Political Practices  Committee and California's Attorney General Kamala Harris got a ruling from a Sacramento judge to  submit to an investigation over whether the ad buyers broke campaign finance rules.  Subsequently the ad buying group got out their lawyers to whine about political oppression and got a stay from an appeals court, but not before I got the horrific vision of Rove locked in a filthy prison cell lacking his expensive girdle and suits that makes me want to burn out the part of my brain in which that is stored,

Today though the California Supreme Court ruled that the groups had to give up their donor information and, no surprize, the purchasing entity shares an address with American Crossroads at the offices of Crossroads Media and Rove's group denies any connection with either.  So I guess Rove can't make up original names and wanders around like a kindergartner copying that which other people make up.

It's worth a reporters job, though, to put two and two together.

So, unless we want Rove shagging us, why don't we just get out and vote against everything he's for and for everything he hates.

Sounds like a plan.

Political cash floods California races at the LA Times, which is trying to collect online subscription payments these days.  If you have reached your limit for the month (set very low there), take the title to Google News and search on it and click on the Times article there.  GN has it in their contracts that publications must allow a reader access to 5 articles a day from their news search site..

More details at 
San Jose Mercury News: State Court of Appeal sides with Arizona group and issues stay; state's highest court to take up case

KPCC  UPDATE: Groups behind anti-Prop 30 donation revealed.

Edit: No matter whether the Center to Protect Patient Rights were working with Karl Rove I have learned is a front group for the Koch bros. No kidding. That was reported on KPCC's website. Since the Koch bros regularly work with Rove, I see no reason not to suspect it happened this year too, but even more importantly, if the CPR collects donations from outsiders, an investigation should at least be held to see if they promote their group as an actual patient protection group when seeking funds. It is dishonest to call yourself such a high sounding name while playing politics outside its realm, but if they collect money using the implication they are helping patients, then its criminal.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

California: Monsanto is Playing Us For Chumps! Soymilk is Not Milk

Coastal Redwoods, California
California Coastal Redwoods

Yeah, we could have guessed those were coastal redwoods.

(Even I can, and I'm no hippy living out in the woods, but I've visited the coastal redwood areas as well as the mountainous areas where the giant redwoods naturally grow).

But in food, things aren't that clear, anymore.

So Monsanto decided to play with us, hoping we're too stupid to figure out their mind games.

You've likely heard their Rovian commercial whining that Soymilk would have to declare whether it was made from GMO enabled plants, but not real milk, implying that there was something unfair in that one kid of milk was targeted, but not another.

But we're not that stupid, are we?

Soy milk is not real milk. I use it on my cereal, It's a good substitute, has calcium added, and I like the taste though I also use a little regular milk so I won't become latose intolerant.  (I'm not a vegetarian, and only was introduced to soy milk when I ran out and tried my vegan daughter's.)

But they are not the same product. Soy milk is made by grinding up soybeans and letting them soak, then filtering the solids out. That transfers products in the soy beans straight to you.

With milk, cows are fed silage of GMO corn and soy plants as well as other plant products, but, in the first place, cows have incredible digestive tracts. Remember the seven stomachs? And each of those stomachs have been developed by their genetic history to take plants that are mostly indigestible to us, and give them a different environment that will turn their food into massive amount of flesh and with the females a copious amount of milk given the proper conditions.

Most animals have strong immune systems, and combined with the cows digestive tract what she eats is dealt with much more effectively than how you would fair consuming it. At the very least, You can't eat grass and the leaves and stems of soy and corn plants and hope to get through a reasonable day that way. You aren't a cow.

Furthermore, if the stalks and leaves of GMO corn and soy plants cause intestinal problems in cows, dairy farmers have a lot more clout than you have. They buy a lot of that feed for their herds, and the producers of it are going to pay attention. Unfortunately, similar eating problems in humans often take years to be identified, especially on a large scale. Think of all the years we thought that fatty steaks were a good thing to eat though most of us were a so much less active than our ancestors.

Monsanto has created GMO products that can give many people digestive problems that might mimic trying to eat normally indigestible grass and leaves. Remember how some scientists found a bacteria that kills caterpillars? We all went out and bought the new natural product BT to protect our flowering plants instead of dangerous pesticides. But you wouldn't want to consume the toxin those bacteria create and release into caterpillars who eat your flowers or food crops. (Hint: it explodes their stomachs.)

You would wash the food sprayed with it completely. That's because the BT is a bacteria. It shouldn't infect you, but it does create a toxin that can make humans sick as well. Guess what Monsanto's GMO corn and soy contain. The genes of that bacteria that make a toxin that cause some human stomachs to have problems, and voila' the plant makes the toxin itself and distributes it through out, including into the parts that we eat. Suddenly someone is getting sick and doesn't know why. If they're a middle or working class person, they might not even be able afford thousands of dollars of medical tests to find out why. And , even those might not pinpoint the cause as being common forms of GMO foods, especially if GMO containing foods are not identified.

Those people who have  natural chronic problems with digestion can tell you, you don't need that. You don't need the pain and weakness, or the missed work. There are bad enough diseases out there that even people who eat healthy food can have, but at least they aren't being tortured by unknowingly eating a known toxin. The last thing that hard working people need is to try to live on  food that makes them sick.

And, as a matter of fact, WalMart has announced that it will start selling corn from plants that have the genes that create the toxin right in them.  Formerly, such corn was used to make corn sugar because the heavy processing denatured the toxin. 

WalMart thinks it can be successful selling the GMO corn, because only a portion of the population gets sick from the toxin, but what if it's you, or your significant other, and without Proposition 37 other retailers don't have to identify their corn as containing anything different than other corn? It is likely that many more stores will slip in the pretty corn that is not missing kernels.

Monsanto should at least have to tell us what they are doing to our food when we are the primary consumer. Their word games are just an attempt to evade accountability.

Please ignore Monsanto's mind games and vote yes on Prop 37.

More on this subject:

CA: Yes on Prop 37 Is the Only Way to Keep Your Family From Being Fed An Agent Orange Toxin  As one of Monsanto's herbicides stops working the company seeks to create food plants that will resist the effect of another of their products which just happens to be half of the blend called Agent Orange which has been recognized as toxic to humans.  Then the chemical won't just be used on the borders and between seasons in food crop fields, but right on them, and the only way you will know which ones they may be the GMO label on the packaging --- if we pass Prop 37. Otherwise, you and your family can play the eating version of Russian Roulette.

 Video: Our families are being used as lab rats.  Kids have something to say about that.

Picture above used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user Carodean Road Designs who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

OF ONLY 2 REPS WHO VOTED AGAINST PROTECTING WOMEN FROM BREAST CANCER IN 2008, ONE WAS JEFF FLAKE

From: House.gov:

Click on pictures for a readable full size.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Tim Kaine V George Allen Virginia Senate Seat

Tim Kaine vs George Allen


Surprising as it is to find George "Macaca man" Allen with a chance to sell the rights of the citizens of the state of VA to the billionaires, who never actually care a bit about normal citizens, this apparently has happened.

And a poll days ago said that Romney may win the state's electoral college votes, too, putting the presidency more up in the air than I'd heard before.

Well, I'm sure that the people of the commonwealth can make up their own minds but I'm concerned they don't understand what all of Mr. Allen's positions are.

George Allen refuses to condemn the state actions towards women such are requiring an ultrasound before an abortion. This could cause an extra charge of hundreds of dollars added to the substantial cost of the ultimate procedure. If this becomes too costly women will find other methods than having the procedure done by a doctor which could risk her life and health, and even her freedom and that of any one who aids her in the quest to not be pregnant.

In fact, George Allen, says he favors a "Personhood" amendment.  His excuse he said that was because it would help "punish a pregnant woman's attacker".  I'm thinking that Virginia has plenty of laws in place for criminals.  But in case Mr. Allen didn't know, the Personhood deal  actually prohibits the use of the most effective birth control options putting our nation back into the 50s and requiring the use of condoms for even a modicum of prevention.  Personhood actually prevents the use of The Pill and the IUD.   Last I heard, condoms success rate is not anywhere as good as those two methods and some guys complain loudly about the "rubbers".

As even Grover Norquist noted, a Romney presidency is only another situation in which disinterested GOP showman like George W. Bush will drag out his hand to sign bills that Norquist crafts for the billionaires and the Republicans in Congress pass.

If billionaires want us to invade some country for resources, Americans under GOP Congress and President are sent off to war.

And when the nation goes bankrupt because of war and tax cuts for billionaires they can just dismantle all the intelligence industry they said they needed in the years of Dubya and Obama. And get rid of FEMA which does nothing but help communities recover from disasters like hurricanes, and floods, etc.   

I could be fun getting back to those days like in the Confederacy where the rich fared well and  the poor died, except during war when everybody died.

No one thought we'd get to war so fast when Dubya was elected, but they sure showed us.  Boom within 10 months we were ar war, and then the lies came fast and furious about why we had to invade Iraq because, you know Al Qaeda! (which turned out wasn't in Saddam's part of Iraq until after we invaded and toppled him.  Now, Netanyahu, with whom Romney's had two meetings since Spring (and who wants Obama out because the Prez refused to invade Iran for a guaranteed second term), wants us to attack Iran.

War gaming showed that, if attacked, Iran, would not only mine the Strait of Hormuz, but also bomb the Saudi oil fields which would cause global economic collapse (except for oil companies of course who would make out like bandits).  According to the war planning, that could not be fixed until we invaded Iran and cause regime change.

Our military is broken, but the Selective Service still has their plans for a Universal Draft set up waiting for a trigger, ie the next conflict.  The Universal Draft calls for conscripting of all males and females from age 18 to 34 without deferments, except in extreme cases. No more educational reprieves.

Another fact people might not know is that, Iran's military is at least 10 times stronger than Iraq's was in 2003 and they were never forced to give up their chemical and biological weapons.  Those will be waiting for you, or your kids, grandkids.

This terrifies military leaders, and even gave the Bush administration pause.  Of course, Obama, refused to take the bait, but Romney has had two private meetings with the Netanyahu (who covets cheaper Iranian oil because of its superior level of hydrocarbons).  And Romney refuses to release transcripts of the talks he's had with the PM, or tell us if he made any deals with him.

And George Allen will be right there in the Senate to help Romney start another war.  I guess it could be glorious for a few.  Fro the rest, disaster, and don't look for FEMA.  Romney's going to hand it over to billionaires.

Oh yeah, I forgot.  Picture at top used via Creative Commons License Attribution (CC by 2.0) thanks to Flickr user DonkeyHotey  who has no connection to this blog or blogger.

Friday, November 2, 2012

CA-49 Darrell Issa Exposed American Friends in Libya to Possible Capture or Death by al Qaeda Allies

Libyans in Benghazi February 2012 Celebrating Anniversary of Start of Libyan Revolution
Isn't it true that the last thing that Libyan's need right now is Neo-Nixonian gamesmanship over the tragedy that happened in their nation on September 11, 2012?  Like we stood with George W. Bush when his dismantling of Clinton's national security apparatus enabled al Qaeda to strike the US, Republicans should allow investigation and improvement in security to continue without the faux Watergate game they are playing, no matter how angry it will make their billionaire backers if they lose this election.

 According to a Huffington Post report
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R- Calif.) has come under fire after posting 166 pages of "sensitive but unclassified" State Department cables online Friday afternoon.
The documents relate to the Sept. 11 [2012] attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and four others. Administration officials, speaking with Foreign Policy magazine, accused Issa of endangering the safety of Libyans working with the U.S. government, whose names were not redacted from the report:
Much like WikiLeaks, when you dump a bunch of documents into the ether, there are a lot of unintended consequences," an administration official told The Cable Friday afternoon. "This does damage to the individuals because they are named, danger to security cooperation because these are militias and groups that we work with and that is now well known, and danger to the investigation, because these people could help us down the road.
What Issa was doing was grandstanding, carrying on another phony investigation like the one over Fast and Furious program started under George W Bush and continued under the perview of the  Arizona office of the ATF which Issa tried to pretend was a new Watergate style outrage promoted from the Obama Administration and make open his own way to a future White House bid, by helping the Romney/Ryan ticket this year, and then showing the GOP's billionaire backers, he could be the biggest conspiracy theorist tool they'd ever had.

Then after the attack on the Benghazi consulate Issa jumped into action again and picked up the Watergate investigator mantle again, developing all kinds of allegations to work "investigation magic and get his cronies installed so they could vote to take away our Social Security (which he's called a Ponzi scheme but I proved is really a savings plan and if the money is diverted to tax cuts for billionaires may turn into the biggest theft ever from Americans.).

In his exitement he allowed some information to be exposed in his televised hearing in October, and then dumped the rest on the Internet without bothering to check to see if there was information that might get our allies killed.

Even when he started the recall that got Gray Davis removed from office just a year after the Governor won billions of dollars from electricity companies that scammed California through the "Energy Crisis" of 2000 and 2001 by proving the entire crisis was a profit increasing shell game played on our state, Issa may not have done as much harm as he did this year.

Issa's opponent is Jerry Tetalman.  It's time for CA-49 to clean house and make a change.  If you live in the district, you know what to do.

More on Darryl Issa's activities this year and earlier.

Picture used via Creative Commons License (CC by 2.0)  Photographer has no connection to this blog or blogger.  Yes, I know it's blurry.  That's probably for the best.

Steve Colbert Explains Romney-Fema

I think I tried to schedule this for Thursday, but didn't get the video saved in it. I apologize if you tried to view it earlier.

Video: Should We have the Right to Know What is in Our Food?


Also see: Should Our Children Continue to Be Used as Lab Rats?

and  The Only Way to Keep Your Family From Being Fed an Agent Orange Toxin