Tags: Music
America has done a creditable job at reducing manmade pollutants over the last 40 years, but it is falling way behind on one: farm animal manure. In the old days, small farms could recycle their manure over their own fields. Now, megafarms produce megapoop but don’t have megafields to spread it on. The government tries to set standards, but the way this works is that the megafarms’ lobbyists object, using “the small family farms” as their human shield against further regulation.
You know you just have to see the picture.
Tags: Corruption, Economy, Humor
EL CAJON, Calif. – The government sent investigators Tuesday to examine a Prius that sped out of control on a California freeway, and Toyota said it wanted to interview the driver as the besieged automaker dealt with a high-profile new headache that raised questions about the safety of its beloved hybrid.
…………………………
James Sikes, 61, was identified in a 2006 newspaper story as a real estate executive and longtime lottery player who won $55,000 and was selected to appear on a California Lottery TV game show.
He appeared at a news conference quickly after the freeway incident Monday and also spoke to reporters Tuesday at his Toyota dealership, where his car was towed.
He said he called 911 about 1:30 p.m. Monday after accelerating to pass another car on Interstate 8 near La Posta.
“I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny. … It jumped and it just stuck there,” he said.
A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and the officer told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.
The braking, coupled with a steep incline on the freeway, slowed the car to about 50 mph. Sikes said he then shut off the engine and the car coasted to a stop. CHP Officer Todd Neibert then moved his car in front of the Prius to block it.
Something smells fishy as hell to me.
Wouldn’t turning the key off be the FIRST thing to do? That’s what my dad taught me, anyway, back about in 1971, when certain Chevys, including my ‘65 Impala, had an sudden acceleration problem caused by broken motor mounts. Doesn’t ANYone have any fvcking common sense? Shut the fvcking key off, for Christ’s sake!!!
And if ANYone HAD come up with the presence of mind to turn the key off, and the car still kept on accelerating, then wouldn’t it now be 100 percent clear that this is NOT a floor mat problem, but an electronic problem?
But I guess that’s a moot question, because evidently, the idea of turning the key off is a new one, and maybe not fully accepted, yet? Even the brave save-the-day cop with the loudspeaker in this story only counseled braking, and only when the car had slowed to about 50 could the driver shut the key off.
Damned lucky that cop showed up to help.
I got a moving violation for answering a cell phone while at a red light. The cop didn’t press down on the carbon paper, so my copy is blank. Should I fight the ticket on that basis? Naw. I’ll just go online and pay it. It’s too near the 2 week deadline to risk exceeding it. What’s this? The Traffic Dept website says ticket number doesn’t exist? Or… the paper ticket ‘may not have been keyed into the system yet’. Well, will they get-around to doing that BEFORE the deadline? No. The website offers me to send me an email notifying when the ticket appears online. (It also offers to tell me if the ticket has not been keyed within 60 days.) I give my email address. The website then says an email WILL NOT be sent. The website lists 4 unpaid ran-a-red-light bicycle moving violations issued in a single traffic-stop, one shltty day, a decade-and-a-half ago. The website refuses to send-out the notification email unless I either pay those tickets or officially state that I am refusing to respond to them. Do you know how much a “fourth offense” for running a red light is? It’s HUGE. (The assumption is you aren’t on a bicycle. And that the cop didn’t fabricate the entire incident.) Then there’s all the fine increases for not paying right-away. I was told unpaid tickets are dismissed after 12 years. I stayed out of trouble… and waited. No auto-dismissal. Now I’m officially a ’scofflaw’ in the NY traffic court system. Since I can’t pay online, I have to answer the cellfone ticket in person. So maybe I’ll fight it after all. But to do so, I’ll have to go-in, issue a plea of not-guilty– then come back for the later court date. Passive-aggressive punishment via time-waste. Plus, as a ’scofflaw’ I’ll have to post a frikken bond to guarantee that I won’t run away to Cuba before the court date.
I write this using my laptop, outside the public library. Not open yet. Did you know a man was arrested for ‘theft of service’ & his computer seized by police; for parking outside an Alaska public library after-hours, using their wifi?
I paid for ‘tethering’ to get online by connecting my laptop to my cellfone. But don’t get me started on Verizon’s sneaky bandwidth-limit and billing-date shell games.
I’d get an iPad, but the damn thing doesn’t have standard ports: Apple will make you buy proprietary cables if you want to connect your camera, fone, printer, etc. And iPad doesn’t support Flash, so the internet won’t actually work. And no outside software is allowed.
I heart big brother.
Tags: rant
I just found this. This is great!
What They’re Really Saying When They’re Saying What They’re Saying
The Chris Matthews Show – March 7, 2010
Meet The Press with Sec. Sebelius – March 7, 2010
Sample from latter link:
Gregory: Kathy I hate health care reform and I’m willing to lie to defeat it
Sebelius : we all know that
Gregory: it is a fact that Americans don’t like Obama’s health reforms
Sebelius : it’s fact that you’re a fucking liar
Gregory: [ fluffs hair ]
Sebelius : did you know that people are suffering and Fluffy if people are so goddamm happy with their health insurance do you think they are happy with 40% increases in premiums?
Gregory: I saw a guy on the street who told me that Obama will fail
Sebelius : I really don’t give a shit about your so-called facts Dancin Dave
Gregory: it’s a really important point whether if this isn’t enacted by Easter Obama will just let it go
Sebelius : good god you are infathomably shallow
Continues…
PS – I got involved in a fund-raiser this weekend that’s kept me busy as hell. I hope that the reason no one’s posted is that you’re all busy, too. Tomorrow looks kind of rugged, too, but after that I may have more time again.
Someone just alerted me to a problem with the coffee site. That’s fixed, but when I logged in to check that out I also got a notice that the Word Press software that runs THIS site was out of date. I updated it.
Let me know if you have any problems. Email if they’re SEVERE problems. timbuk3_98 at yahoo.com
Tags: new blog
Conservatives Turn Against Liz Cheney – As Bad As McCarthy
The backlash is growing against Liz Cheney after she demonized Department of Justice attorneys as terrorist sympathizers for their past legal work defending Gitmo detainees — and now it’s coming from within deeply conservative legal circles.
On Friday, the conservative blog Power Line put up a post titled, “An Attack That Goes Too Far.” Author Paul Mirengoff, called Cheney’s effort to brand DoJ officials the “Al Qaeda 7,” “vicious” and “unfounded” even if it was right to criticize defense lawyers for voluntarily doing work on behalf of Gitmo detainees.
Reached on the phone, Mirengoff offered an even sharper rebuke, declaring that what Cheney was doing was comparable if not potentially worse than the notorious anti-communist crusades launched by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
To recap, even someone who has so little faith in our legal system that they’re OK with criticizing lawyers for defending “some people” thinks that Liz Cheney’s “Keep American Safe Scared” group is “worse than …Joseph McCarthy”. That’s quite a statement.
Tags: Cheney, mass hysteria
An evangelical Christian hate group called “Repent Amarillo” is reportedly terrorizing the town of Amarillo, Texas. Repent fashions itself as a sort of militia and targets a wide range of community members they deem offensive to their theology: gays, liberal Christians, Muslims, environmentalists, breast cancer events that do not highlight abortion, Halloween, “spring break events,” and pornography shops. On its website, Repent has posted a “Warfare Map” of its enemies in town.
Calling Repent an “American Taliban,” blogger Charles Johnson notes that the group’s moniker “Army of God” is a rough translation of “Hezbollah.” Led by a man named David Grisham, a security guard at a nuclear-bomb facility called Pantex, Repent first gained media attention in Texas following a campaign to boycott Houston for electing a gay mayor. The group, which is associated with Raven Ministries, collaborates with other Christian groups as well as forced pregnancy advocacy associations like “Bound 4 Life.”
According to a new exposé by the Texas Observer, Repent set out earlier this year to destroy a discreet club of swingers they discovered in town. On New Years eve, the harassment began, with Repent members, almost exclusively young men, showing up in military fatigues and bullhorns, blaring Christian music at the swingers’ club building. The swingers, made up of “regulars” of middle aged, working class couples, were then stalked at every following visit to the club. Repent not only took video of each member, but obtained the swingers’ license plates and dug through their trash, informing neighbors and coworkers of what was once private
Someone needs to kick the shit out of these little Nazi’s ASAP.
I think some recent threads have shown that “both” parties (here, there and elsewhere) have a major disconnect with their electorates. Rhetoric, wedge issues – help to foster or widen a preceived divide amongst voters, a divide that is largely absent between parties (beyond the rhetoric and wedge issues). Thus the kabuki.
The recent healthcare “debate” was a typical example of this.
I’ve mentioned Canovas/Sagasta and the false revolving door “democracy” of the late 19th century. I’ll take this one step further and throw out an idea.
Doesn’t it seem that politicians’ disconnect is akin to previous periods’ class divide? Have politicians become a “class”, allergic to outsiders, competing for positions within the class structure but ultimately having very close ties?
Example – I can name many “maverick” politicians around the globe. Most became maverick AFTER attaining office, running (more or less) on party platforms and taking advantage of party machinery. Outside of some independently wealthy individuals or in the face of virulent mistrust of government, when has a maverick achieved any office of note in the face of the “establishment”?
Another thing to consider – how do parties select their leaders? To me it seems that networking is the only way, to be a “good soldier” – and thus a “good member of one’s class (or clan)”.
Certainly there’s a certain degree of meritocracy from the parties’ viewpoint. A particularly popular candidate might be moved up the party ladder— to drag with them the rest of the class into power.
Nevertheless, no matter which party is in power, “big” changes never take place anymore. Deals between “opposite” clans within the political class might get something done – rarely indeed affecting how the electorate lives, but invariably affecting the parties’ true consituencies (invariably special, economic, interest groups).
Food for thought?
Tags: Kabuki
This is getting a lot of mention in the American media.
Tags: Corruption, Economy
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