Video: House votes on whether to condem Chairman Issa's action Shutting Down Oversight Committee Hearing Without Ranking Member's Comment

A Voice vote seems to go against Chairman Issa, but a Roll Call decides against sanctioning him.

Still it's a shame that this man represents our Marines.

Check out our stash on Darrell Issa by inserting his name in box in upper left side of this blog and hitting the "Search" button to the left and hitting the search button.

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.

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

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.

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

CA: Yes on Prop 37 Is the Only Way to Keep Your Family From Being Fed Agent Orange Toxin!

I heard a discussion about Proposition 37 the other day and I realized I actually work with Roundup and I know that 2 4 d is being added to Roundup.  (I don't work with food plants or GMOs.)  Apparently, weeds are becoming Roundup resistant, and all those GMO changes they made to food crops to resist Roundup so it could be sprayed on our food is not working anymore.  That's too bad because Roundup was probably the most innocuous chemical they have for controlling weeds.

Now, in my gardening R-up they put 2 4 d.  The next step is to make food crops resistant to 2 4 d so it can be sprayed right on them.  The problem with that is that 2 4 d is 1/2 of Agent Orange itself.

Another GMO gimmick was to put bacteria genes into corn plants.  Those corn plants then produce a toxin that will kill corn ear worm.  The problem with that in that many people also get sick from the corn, not everyone, but a significant slice of the population.  Now if you start complaining about stomach pains and staying home from work, how does that work out?  You lose your job, right?  So it has been that GMO corn was highly processed and made into corn sugar and syrup which denatured the toxin.  But now Walmart markets have decided to sell it straight to the public because it's so much cheaper.  Without GMO labeling you will never know what's making you sick.


It could be something hurting your career, or reducing your child's ability to work in school.  Heck they can even feed your family 1/2 of Agent Orange.

Soy plants have also been created that have the same gene.

Chemical companies don't care about you.  You'd better care about your family, and vote Yes on Proposition 37.

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

and

Mosanto is Playing California For Chumps. Soymilk is Not Milk And That's Why It's Treated Differently

I have not been paid to write these reports.  I just want my family to be able to eat safe foods.

California : Prop 29 is About Cancer Research #CAPrimary

Rocks off Malibu

What can be better than fresh air and sunset?

Picture above shared via coding available at Flickr and allowed by Creative Commons License  Attribution (CC by 2.0). Thanks to  Flickr user Gtall1 who has no connection to this blog or blogger

California's Prop 29 is a tax on cigarettes that funds cancer research.

You wouldn't know that from the attacks ads on the proposition.

The largest opposition groups are related to cigarette manufacturers and their allies such as anti-tax groups , you know like the people who brought us Proposition 13 that continues to cripple our state in education and public services everyday of the year.

If you smoke, you need Proposition 29 because you are the most likely to end up  with the one of the most most deadly and swiftly forming of cancers

Lung cancer can spread quickly to the brain and both people who I knew learned within weeks of their diagnosis that the cancer had already spread to their brains. It was likely there before the diagnosis, and, in fact, both had suffered from personality changes that drove friends and family from their sides at a time when they needed them most.  Of course, those closest to them rallied around in the end, but the painful disruptions to their family and circle of friends in the time before their diagnosis was devastating to them as well. 

The organized opposition whines that the money doesn't have to be spent in California!

Yeah there's a reason for that.

California one of the most expensive places in the world in which to do medical research.  Remember the goal of Prop 29 is to be able to get the most medical research that will stop the plague of death surrounding a practice that you or a loved one may have acquired.

Also:

Some treatments are transferable between specific types of  cancer and a lot of palliative care can help with many forms of the disease.   Therefore Proposition 29 could help save others of your friends and family that develop other types of cancer.  I don't see anything in the writing on the ballot that says that the money from 29 is restricted to lung cancer.

Now if you're the person I hope you are, you don't subject your family to breathing trapped second hand smoke.  Kudos to you, and this comes from a person that grew up in a persistent fog of second hand smoke since cigarettes were cheap, the tobacco industry was still denying that they caused cancer, and the national government which brought us the Vietnam War let them do it.

Now the same greedy type of Tobacco People want you to vote against Proposition 29 because "it will not all be spent in California".  What they are worried about is people not buying as many cigarettes as before because of an extra tax on the products.  This would actually be the most likely to happen with young smokers.  AND THAT IS A GOOD THING!  To do anything to keep young people to from developing a heavy habit is possibly the best part about this bill.

Though she tried hard, my mom, who started smoking young at a time when no one knew what cigarettes would do, wasn't able to stop until clear messages came through that second-hand smoke was even deadlier than smoking.  In the end she stopped for her family.  She avoided lung cancer, but died of a heart attack and stent operation (a treatment that is no longer highly regarded as a cure and which was always extremely dangerous).   Heart disease is also often initiated and/or increased by tobacco use, especially the heavy long term  addiction like the one from which my mother suffered.

To keep the next young person from smoking as much as he or she thinks is cool or comes to crave, may, in itself save their lives and their relationships when they are older.  Both of the people I know who died of lung cancer started young and smoked until their diagnosis.  And it wasn't any easier for them to stop at that time, than it would have been earlier, and they both still had to deal with the inoperable cancer in their brains.  It was tough for all concerned.  Any method of keeping young people from getting addicted is therefore good.  And if you are a smoker it will help you too, to get rid of the habit or at least to reduce the impact of the toxic chemicals you get from your "smokes".

Maybe the best thing about the new tax is that THE MONEY COLLECTED FROM CIGARETTES CAN'T BE USED FOR ANYTHING BUT RESEARCH ON CANCER.

Even anti-tobacco groups have disliked other taxes on cigarettes because the state governments could use the money for other purposes than trying to help people who smoke or get cancer.  Many felt that it made state governments too reliant on the money they got from people buying cigarettes to do anything to help keep people from smoking or curing the health problems that smoking and tobacco products cause.

For instance,  a tax of 10 cents per pack was placed on cigarettes in 1959 for support of the general fund.

Proposition 10 passed in 1998 placed a $.50 tax on a pack of cigarettes to support early childhood education.

And even the funds from Proposition 99 passed in 1988 ($.25 a pack) to be  used for tobacco education and prevention efforts, tobacco related disease efforts also included  health care services for low income persons and environmental and recreational resources, and could be used to replace money from the general fund.  Some anti-smoking advocates say that dependency on  cigarette taxes that could be used to replace state funds, led the California government to a less proactive position on reducing smoking.

But Proposition 29 takes the money collected from the sale of cigarettes and puts it in the hands of a 9 person panel, rather than the CA legislature's budget process, so it should be safe from replacing general funds or usage on anything else than research on cancer and tobacco related diseases, and anti-tobacco programs.  It would also target other tobacco products with excise taxes that would go for prevention and or cure of diseases related to their use according to the Voter Guide.

This is not a tax the government will put to other uses, and then get addicted to.   In fact, the expectation is that the dollar intake by the fund will be reduced every year because of the relatively heavy excise tax imposed.

Proposition 29 is good for California, but especially  for you unless you're one of the 0% who will never have to worry about getting any kind of cancer, emphysema (both of which can be induced by smog, too) or other smoking or pollutant related illness.

Video: How Many of Michigan's Appointed State Board Members are Corrupt? Maybe citizens should find out.

Michigan is up to tricks again.  State board can make decisions on subjects on which their board members have direct stakes in.

Reporting from Rachel Maddow:

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

Using a search engine I have found out more about the appointed board that is able to make these decisions on their own actions. It looks like a system primed for corruption, and it's powers go far beyond petitioning.

History and Duties The Board of State Canvassers was created by the State Constitution of 1850. Over the years, the structure of the board has changed. Currently, the Board is composed of four members who are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Two board members are selected from each of the two political parties receiving the greatest number of votes in the last election for Secretary of State. Board members serve four-year terms. The terms are staggered so that the term of a Republican seat and the term of a Democratic seat expire in February of each odd-numbered year. The duties of the Board of State Canvassers include: Canvassing and certifying statewide elections, elections for legislative districts that cross county lines and all judicial offices except Judge of the Probate Court. Conducting recounts for state-level offices. Canvassing nominating petitions filed with the Secretary of State. Canvassing state-level ballot proposal petitions. Assigning ballot designations and adopting ballot language for statewide ballot proposals. Approving electronic voting systems for use in the state.

This group works under the auspice of the Secretary of Stare, which is currently held by a Republican elected in the 2010 election, because the former Republican SOS couldn't be re-elected due to term limits.

 Ballotopedia's page on the race is at Michigan Secretary of State election, 2010.
It unfortunately, then uses a banner for Michigan Attorney General for the results table, but I think that was jut a slip up.  An AG is a lot different than an SOS. And indeed Ballotopedia  describes the 2010 race for MI AG differently at Michigan Attorney General election, 2010.

 The Michigan governor appoints 2 new members of the Board of  State Canvassers in odd numbered years, meaning that 2 of the board members would have been named in 2011 just months after Rick Snyder was elected Secretary of State for the first time. The head of the MI State Board of Canvasser, Democrat Julie Matusak was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder in  February 2011. And in fact, she is the member of the board with the least experience on it.  From: Governor appoints members to state boards and commissions. 

And if Governor Snyder gets re-elected then it is likely that Julie Matusak could be re-appointed in four years.    I could not find the salary for Board of State Canvassers on the Internet.  I did find a PDF of a picture of some state positions at the Detroit Free Press Governor's Appointees Salary Database.  Where a blurb notes that

There are currently 177 incumbents that hold positions appointed by the governor. Half or more of these individuals have annual salaries of $88,434 or more (median salary). Approximately 63% earn salaries at or more than $79,650 - what a Michigan legislator currently earns.

and then turns a person over to an app that offers a free trail but then appears to want money for future searches, and a lot of information I don't want to offer right now.

Apparently, though, such appointees  make good money.

This is beginning to smell like California under Schwarzenegger.  The Republican  former action star appointed lots of Democrats to well paid positions,  and gave them perks like using state vehicles to go home on weekends in an apparent gambit to gain their approval for his gambits on turning the state to the right, a constant effort in the Golden State.

Like California, Michigan has voted Democratic in presidential races for the majority of them in the last 50 years, and who's last governor before Rick Snyder rode in on the wave of lies used by the Republicans for the 2010 election was Democratic.  In fact there are more Democrats registered in Michigan than Republicans, leaving the right to work back to power, apparently, on racial division, through which whites heavily outnumber minorities. according to Wikipedia.

Race appears to have been used to pass the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative in 2006.  The MCRI was not a real civil rights law, but one that was 

... aimed at stopping the preferential treatment of minorities (by race, color, sex, or religion) in getting admission to colleges, jobs, and other publicly funded institutions. It was decried by some opponents as a repeal of the 1964 civil rights act.

according to Wikipedia on a page (linked above) showing the picture of California's own Ward Connerly, who could be viewed as a politician much like Newt Gingrich for his views on how minorities should be treated in education.

The collapse of the automobile market was a big part of the downfall of the state's economy, and a large part of that came from the GOP controlled Congress which continued to refuse to raise CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards through out the late 90s and the first six years of the Bush administration leaving the Detroit linked manufacturers to struggle when energy prices rose after 2000. (yes it fell during the great Recession because of the incredible downturn at the time) but, of course rose again as manufacturing started to recover, and not because of policies of the Obama administration except those which helped save our economy from complete collapse.

The latest recession that started during the later part of the Bush 43 years hurt the state greatly and also kept it from developing out of its dependence on the Detroit automobile manufacturing industry.

Unfortunately, the GOP has a huge propaganda machine, heavily funded by members of the 1% that are more eager than ever to throw money at it, since they have found they can control government through the party and craft laws that give them more of American's money while cutting funding to keep families and communities solvent.

We'd better keep and eye on Michigan.  We can either help stop the rape of their state by the 1%, or we can allow the right wing machine to sell all our rights to the multi-millionaires and billionaires that are already lining up behind Mitt Romney.

War Vets Going Crazy, Becoming Killers Again. Nothing to See Here Folks

Southern California's latest serial killer turns out to be another war vet deeply damaged by the time he spent in Iraq.
What fun for leaders to majestically send troops off to war for their education which they certainly get on the battlefield long before they get to take advantage of their post military college plans, if indeed they even get to back to school.
Also funny is how most of the mainstream news only deals with war's damage to the psyche when a terrible crime has been committed.  And then it's considered just local news.  ( One notable exception to that rule was Timothy McVeigh.)
And, how lucky that is for Neocons like Mitt Romney (who is virtually offering up the US military to the highest bidder in campaign donations with his bellicose yammering about Obama not supporting endless war).
http://bit.ly/xWjvP9

Kudos to Amy Goodman who did mention this case on Democracy Now.  Mainstream?  We're still waitiiinngg!

For Califorians: Dan Walters Can Speak Truth to Power if he can smack Dems in the process.

Yeah we should overhaul high paying boards (though we asked for them when we termed out legislators, but there should be balance.  Boards don't work enough for their 6 figure salaries,  but "token" wages are crap). We need full time boards. They. work full time and get paid full time, none of this 5 meetings a year or token payment crap.  Those Californians who have Unemployment Insurance issues need full time represeqntation not advocates who collect $$ for nothing of "token salaries".  The Sacramento Bee : Dan Walters: An overhaul of California boards is long overdue

LA Times - Study upends term-limit theory

See: Study upends term-limit theory