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So… do we all live in the same America? I don’t think so.
Cassy Zobel, a 34 year-old, white democrat who lives in Mckinney Texas, had a rude awakening Friday morning. Her neighbor rang her doorbell to alert her to the vandalism and blatant racism on her property.
Zobel found that someone had covered her Obama/Biden sign, displayed in her yard, with offensive graffiti on both front and back.
I find it interesting that our little suburban city was just named the 2nd best place to live in America. I suppose there should have been a caveat. “Best Place to Live If You’re A Bigoted White, Christian, Anti-Gay Person Who Doesn’t Support Our First African-American President And Hates Everyone Who Does”. That was probably too long a title, though.
- Cassy Zobel
One day we may become a country for everyone.
Related articles
- Romney supporter in Texas defaces yard sign: ‘N*gger lover… Obama sucks d*ck’ (rawstory.com)
- President Obama Related To First African-American Slave? (mymajicdc.com)
- Race, Obama and the GOP (newsobserver.com)
Michelle kicks it off tonight…
I’m looking forward to it. Michelle Obama speaks in the 10 – 11 PM slot, preceded by the Keynote Speaker, Julián Castro, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas.
The Convention opens at 5:00 PM when Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, brings down the gavel. Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel, Joseph Kennedy III (one of several in the Kennedy family honoring the late Ted Kennedy) and Kal Penn, among others, speak tonight.
Related articles
- Democratic Convention Schedule. Who speaks when Tuesday night (blogs.suntimes.com)
- WATCH: Democratic National Convention (kfor.com)
- DNC releases schedule, Castro on after 9 p.m. (statesman.com)
- At DNC, Julián Castro Tackles Comparisons To President Obama – NPR (blog) (npr.org)
- First lady previews speech (kfwbam.com)
- Debbie Wasserman Schultz: DNC Will Be Very Different From Special Interest-Funded, Corporate Infused, Invitation-Only RNC (foxnewsinsider.com)
Court says Texas redistricting law actually discriminated against Latino voters…
Gov. Rick Perry
It seems a redistricting plan signed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) intentionally discriminated against Hispanic voters. So said a three-judge panel today in a unanimous decision. The judges found that seats belonging to white incumbent members of Congress were protected under the plan while districts belonging to incumbent minorities were targeted for changes.
The court said it was
“…persuaded by the totality of the evidence that the plan was enacted with discriminatory intent.
There was
“…sufficient evidence to conclude that the Congressional Plan was motivated, at least in part, by discriminatory intent.”
It is clear that Texas Republicans want to suppress minority representation in order to keep a rising Hispanic population from turning this red state into a blue one in the near future.
Texas’ voter ID law is till on the books but is being challenged by the Department of Justice.
Related articles
- Court throws out Texas redistricting plans (legalinsurrection.com)
- Court nixes Texas redistricting maps (kxan.com)
- Judges raises doubts about Texas voter ID law (sacbee.com)
- Texas to test 1965 voting rights law in court (news.yahoo.com)
- DOJ, Texas Fight at Trial Over Voter ID Law (legaltimes.typepad.com)
- Texas Wants to Say Adios to the Voting Rights Act’s Authority (colorlines.com)
“Miss me yet?” – George W. Bush
George Bush Is the Least Popular Living President
According to Time.com:
Since leaving office, George W. Bush has stayed largely out of the spotlight and away from the daily grind of politicking, declining to take public swipes at Barack Obama so as not to “undermine” the sitting president. The ex-decider, however, hasn’t been rewarded for riding off into the Texas sunset.According to a new CNN/ORC International poll, Bush has the lowest favorable rating of any living president. Only 43 percent of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the 43rd president, lower than Jimmy Carter (54 percent), George H.W. Bush (59 percent) or Bill Clinton (66 percent). Dubya also had the highest unfavorable rating, 54 percent, of those presidents.
Are you surprised?
Related articles
- George W. Bush The Most Unpopular Living Ex-President (alan.com)
- George W. Bush The Most Unpopular Living President (inquisitr.com)
- George W. Bush Most Unpopular Living President, Poll Shows (mediaite.com)
- CNN Poll: George W. Bush only living ex-president under 50% (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- George W. Bush Least Popular Living Ex-President (outsidethebeltway.com)
As long as there are people who believe the unreal, we will have a hard time progressing into the future…
Here is an article from The Texas Observer that caught my attention. I’ll give you part of it here, but it is much, much longer and I encourage you to read it. If you scratch your head with wonder, then you are just like me:
In the beginning, God created dinosaurs and humans, and they walked together in Texas.
At least, according to many people in Glen Rose.
The small town about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth is home to some of the best-preserved dinosaur tracks in the world; it’s also a heavily Christian community where many locals interpret the book of Genesis literally.
Their belief is bolstered by a phenomenon in the riverbed. Alongside the dinosaur tracks are what resident R.C. McFall and others call “man tracks”—tangible proof of biblical creation accounts and a refutation of the theory of evolution.
McFall walks along the Paluxy River, careful not to place his cowboy boot in a dinosaur track. Muddy water fills the fossilized footprints embedded in this rocky ledge.
“There’s a track right there,” he says in a deep Texas drawl, pointing. “That hole is where my dad dug one out.”
If the river weren’t up, McFall explains, we’d see man tracks just a few feet away, in the same strata of rock as the dinosaur tracks.
The 113-million-year-old dinosaur tracks, first discovered in 1909, are an important part of Glen Rose’s livelihood, bringing thousands of visitors a year to attractions like Dinosaur Valley State Park and Dinosaur World. The town’s tourist industry, accounting for $23 million in annual revenue, was built largely on the jaw-dropping fact that fossils this old are still present today. Visitors can park their trailers at the Jurassic RV Park (the tracks actually date to the Cretaceous period) or stay at the Glen Rose Inn & Suites, where the sign features a cartoon dinosaur.
“The dinosaurs are what drive us,” says Billy Huckaby, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Glen Rose. “You can’t develop a town of 2,000 into this kind of tourism revenue unless you’ve got something really special to promote.”
Tourist literature describes the tracks as millions of years old, but not everyone buys the science.
“I believe in the Bible,” McFall says. “I don’t believe the world’s over 6,000 or 7,000 years old. Course, everybody’s got their own interpretation.”
Go HERE for the rest of the article.
Related articles
- Remind me to Never Visit the town of Glen Rose, Texas (educationclearinghouse.wordpress.com)
- Tracking Creation In Glen Rose | Robyn Ross | Texas Observer | 09 April 2012 (texasobserver.org)
- Quote of the Day (chiefwritingwolf.com)
- Top 5 Lies Taught By Accelerated Christian Education (leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com)
- When Jesus Was a Dinosaur Cowboy (bigthink.com)
- The varieties of disbelief (economist.com)
- Human Footprints and Dinosaur Tracks – On The Moon? (kenneturner.wordpress.com)
- Andrew Sullivan gets all militant about religion and creationism! (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
- Which Came Last, Dinosaur or Egg? (abcnews.go.com)
Once again, I am embarrassed to live in West Virginia.
I have said many times in this blog that, with the exception of Shepherdstown and most of the Eastern Panhandle, I dislike being identified with West Virginia. Whether it is a supposedly Democratic senator who acts and votes like a Republican (Manchin) or the hillbilly stereotype other states see us as, being in West Virginia is no place for a liberal. We are victims of tons of jokes told in other states, like:
Q. Why do ducks fly over West Virginia upside down?
A. There’s nothing worth crapping on!
Well, we topped ourselves again, In yesterday’s Democratic primary, a man in prison in Texas got 4 out of 10 votes for the Presidential nomination.
Keith Judd, is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. Obama received 59 percent of the vote to Judd’s 41 percent. He got on the ballot by paying a $2,500 fee (don’t know who paid it for him…but I am not surprised that some West Virginian did) and filing a form known as a notarized certification of announcement with the Secretary of State’s office.
Interviewing a WV resident, the AP published a statement:
“I voted against Obama,” said Ronnie Brown, a 43-year-old electrician from Cross Lanes who called himself a conservative Democrat. “I don’t like him. He didn’t carry the state before and I’m not going to let him carry it again.”
When asked which presidential candidate he voted for, Brown said, “That guy out of Texas.”
Now it’s a question whether Judd will have a representative at the Democratic National Convention (15% of the vote or more usually gets you a rep.)
So, West Virginia has embarrassed me once again. Where will it end?
Related articles
- Against Obama, even a jailbird gets some votes (hosted.ap.org)
- ELECTION 2012: Texas Inmate Gets 40% of Vote against Obama in West Virginia Democratic Primary (pumabydesign001.com)
- 42% Of West Virginia Democrats Vote For Federal Inmate In Presidential Primary (theamericanteaman.com)
- Federal Prisoner Nabs 40% of Early Vote Against Obama in West Virginia Primary (treeofmamre.wordpress.com)
- Federal Prisoner Gives Obama A Run For His Money In West Virginia, May Earn Delegates At Convention (mediaite.com)
- OBAMA LOSES WEST VIRGINIA DELEGATES TO PRISON INMATE – Unexpectedly! “An obscure federal prison inm… (pjmedia.com)
- Federal inmate’s sizable West Virginia presidential vote tally (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- Manchin wins Democratic primary in West Virginia, CNN projects (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- President Obama embarrassed by inmate No. 11593-051 (twitchy.com)
The Flipper is trying to get back in the good regard of Latinos…
… but he may have moved so far to the right that his move to center is not believeable. Take it’s position on Immigration and the Dream Act.
From the NY Times:
The Flipper - Flopped
The Romney campaign appears to have begun shifting to the center on immigration, after staking out a position to the right of opponents like former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.
During the primary fight, Mr. Romney said he would veto the existing version of the Dream Act, or the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which would grant illegal immigrants brought into the country as children by their parents a pathway to citizenship. He labeled it a magnet for illegal immigration. And he criticized Mr. Perry for granting young illegal immigrants in-state tuition to Texas universities.
On Thursday, campaign aides said Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, was not referring to the most draconian portions of Arizona’s immigration law when he said during a debate that Arizona could be a model for the nation. He was referring specifically to the “E-Verify” measure that requires employers to check the legal status of job applicants electronically.
Romney is looking at getting illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country, too. He’s a real pal to folks who are both a large work force and a growing voting block.
Related articles
- Marco Rubio Pushes His Own DREAM Act (abcnews.go.com)
- Romney immigration ‘adviser’: No GOP Dream Act (politico.com)
- Romney Immigration Adviser Kris Kobach Says Mitt Romney Won’t Support GOP DREAM Act (thinkprogress.org)
- Rubio’s Dream Act proposal gets flak from Romney adviser, er ‘supporter’ (tampabay.com)
- Rubio beats back VP rumors, hails immigration plan (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- How Marco Rubio can help Mitt Romney without spot on GOP ticket (csmonitor.com)
- “What A Revolting Development This Is”: Romney’s Immigration Adviser Says Mitt Won’t Support GOP DREAM Act (mykeystrokes.com)
“Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that.”
Hey… vote for Romney and he’ll get rid of Planned Parenthood (and Amtrak, too.)
What is WRONG with these guys?
A Visit with Margaret and Helen
I don’t know if you read Margaret and Helen, but I do.
These two “friends for sixty years” bring their experience to bear on almost every contemporary situation… like Helen’s recent comment on Rick Santorum and his views on faith and sex:
He was in Texas this week talking about his faith… which always leads him to talk about abortion and gay marriage. I swear that man worries more about vaginas and who is sleeping with whom than any normal person should. I don’t think he is right in the head. He told his audience that his faith is a part of who he is and it will guide him in his presidency. Well good for him.
..and on the question of Republicans vs. Planned Parenthood:
If you really, honestly want to reduce abortions in this country, the last
And then I found this on line
thing you want to do is vote for a Republican. If you want to reduce abortions start in your own home by educating your children. Teach your sons to respect women and arm your daughters with information about birth control. If you are so outraged by abortions that your only criteria for a presidential candidate is that he be obsessed with my uterus, then arm your daughters with all the information she needs to protect herself from all those sons who were raised by politicians in Texas and Virginia. And if you really care, make a donation to Planned Parenthood or this other organization called Annie’s List. My grandson says that if you “click” on the underlined words in the previous sentence it will take you to a place you can make a donation on the internet. It couldn’t be any easier than that.
… to which Margaret responds:
Clicking on those words and you can make a donation? How fancy. I hope they know what to do with yours and my checks when they arrive in the regular old mail. Don’t forget. Stamps have gone up to 45 cents dear. Why isn’t anyone outraged about that?
So, my dear ladies, keep up the good work. I find you inspiring.
Related articles
- Maybe Margaret and Helen will join in (maureenholland.wordpress.com)
- Pink Razors – Margaret and Helen (crackerboy.us)
- Pink Razors (margaretandhelen.wordpress.com)
- Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY! (dailykos.com)
- Tell Republicans to Get Their Planned Parenthood Facts Straight (forcechange.com)
- Some People Listen To Rick Santorum And Hear The Voice Of God (crooksandliars.com)
- Conservative Group Releases Unintentionally Hilarious Vid, Claims Planned Parenthood Is Hooking Kids On Sex (clutchmagonline.com)
- The Margaret and Helen blog – anyone have definite proof that they’re real? (ask.metafilter.com)
- Now Rick Santorum is bragging about supporting funding for free birth control at Planned Parenthood (dailykos.com)
- American Life League Says Planned Parenthood Is Turning Kids Into ‘Sex Addicts’ (blisstree.com)
- Apparently Rush Limbaugh Also Thinks Planned Parenthood Is Just Trying To Get Your Kids Hooked On Sex (mediaite.com)
In house buying, the hardest part is the waiting…
Elly and I have been hunting for a retirement property for almost a year. At least once before we thought we had it, then something fell through with the deal and we were out looking again.
Last week we put in 3 offers on the same property (we went down, they said no, we went up. they went down-but not enough, we went up to our limit, they accepted our letter of capacity (that shows we have credit and can afford the purchase.)
Now we are just waiting to hear that they have reviewed the letter and we have the property. This is a foreclosure and we are dealing with the company that owned the mortgage, but, unfortunately, they are in Texas… 2 hours behind us. We have been hoping to hear from them all day, but so far our real estate agent hasn’t called with the good news.
This is our chance to own a little “farmette” (as Elly calls it) where we (read “she”) can garden, raise chickens and a couple of goats and have plenty of room for our dogs. The House is not the passive one we wanted to build, but, if we get it, we are going to seal it up some more and look into solar power. Also, with the 4.5 acres, we may have room to subdivide, build our passive house on 2 acres of the lot and sell off the existing house and 2.5 acres that are left. There are all kinds of possibilities.
We just have to get it. Here at 65 I feel like a young man getting started again. Let’s see how long I hold out.
Now we just need the phone call.
Bill Moyers made a great remark to Colbert:
I don’t get to stay up late at night if I’m subbing for John at WSHC the next morning, so I didn’t see Stephen Colbert‘s show until this morning when I returned from the broadcast. I was 
glad to see he had Bill Moyers on as a guest… Moyers, after two years being away from television, is coming back this month with a new series, Moyers & Co., on Public Broadcasting.
He’s coming back because of his worries about where the moneyed corporations at the top are taking a government which, given their super PACs and lobbyists (and major office holders), have spent 30 years destroying the Middle Class.
Colbert, of course, did all he could to trap Moyers with his pseudo conservative comments (while letting Bill get in the information he wanted to get across), and the discussion came around to whether corporations were people a la the Citizens United decision.
Moyers caught him with a great comment, stating that a friend of his told him:
“He’ll believe that corporations are people when Texas executes one.”
Audience applause of course… and Colbert skipped a beat trying to come back with a remark.
Good for Moyers.
Joke from Rick Perry:
“I think the idea of saying, ‘Listen, I’m gonna build a double fence, we’re going to put alligators between it, and we’re going to put lava in there, as well.’ You know, one tries to outdo the other one. That’s 2,000 miles. The idea of building a 2,000 mile fence costs a huge amount of money, takes a very long time.”
- Rick Perry
It just happens that this was a joke Obama had used before and that Perry had criticized ( actually he said that Obama “interested in trying out forSaturday Night Live, it seems like. He wants to play to what he considers to be the humorous side.”
Related articles
- Rick Perry thinks Jon Stewart owes him a drink (politico.com)
- Was Rick Perry drunk or on drugs during his latest speech? (VIDEO) (rt.com)
- Rick Perry To Attend At Least Five More GOP Debates, Campaign Says (huffingtonpost.com)
- CNN: Why Did Rick Perry Keep Calling Herman Cain ‘Brother’? (mediaite.com)
- Rick Perry: Drunk During N.H. Campaign Speech? (thehollywoodgossip.com)
- Bachmann: Border fence is no joke (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- Wherein Rick Perry mistakes satire for reality. (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
Another reason why Governor Perry does not deserve our respect…
Mr. Death Penalty
From The Nation (these are exerpts…please read the whole article here):
Is Rick Perry Ready to Execute an Innocent Man?
As soon as Rick Perry threw his hat into the 2012 electoral ring, anti–death penalty critics brought up his staggering execution record as governor of Texas: 234 prisoners have been put to death under Perry’s watch, a number of whom had serious innocence claims. Most famous among them is Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 and whose case opened up an investigation that Perry has taken aggressive—and largely successful—measures to squash. But a lesser-known case could also haunt the governor if it reaches his desk: that of Larry Swearingen, convicted and sent to death row for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a 19-year-old college freshman named Melissa Trotter in 1998. Like Willingham, Swearingen was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence and a history of run-ins with the law. But Willingham was convicted based on the inexact science of arson investigations, whose flawed assumptions have been slow to evolve. The scientific evidence in Swearingen’s case, medical experts say, is beyond dispute—and it proves his innocence.
There’s another difference: Swearingen is still alive.
Swearingen was scheduled to die on August 18. But his execution was stayed in late July by the state’s highest criminal court, the notoriously pro-prosecution Court of Criminal Appeals, in order to have the trial court consider new evidence: Histological samples of Trotter’s cardiac, lung and vascular tissue that a growing number of doctors, including well-respected Texas pathologists, say show conclusively that Swearingen could not have killed Trotter.
But is that enough? The Swearingen case has raised questions about the intersection of science and the law: how courts and cops view science, and how decisions are made about what kind of scientific proof is “good enough” to override the type of circumstantial evidence that lends itself to the finality of conviction that Texas courts crave—especially in death penalty cases.
—–
Three days after Trotter disappeared, police arrested Swearingen on outstanding warrants. After her body was found, Swearingen was charged with capital murder—according to the state, Swearingen kidnapped, raped and then murdered Trotter by strangling her with a single leg of pantyhose, cut from a pair, before dumping her body in the forest. Prosecutors sought, and got, the death penalty.
Yet Swearingen maintains his innocence, and his date with death has been postponed three times by the courts. At issue is the science surrounding Trotter’s death, specifically, the science of decomposition. Doctors say the histological evidence shows conclusively that Trotter had not been dead for twenty-five days when her body was found. Samples of Trotter’s tissue—taken almost three weeks after Swearingen was locked up—are consistent with that of a person dead less than a week. Despite doctors’ insistence that Trotter could not have been dead and her body left outside for nearly a month, Texas authorities remain unconvinced that this proves Swearingen’s innocence. Trotter’s parents, too, remain certain that Swearingen killed their daughter. “How long can they examine this evidence?” Sandra Trotter asked in the Houston Chronicle this summer. “From the victims’ rights view, when does this end?”
—–
Courts in Texas have proven on numerous occasions that they do not consider scientific evidence as representing a gold standard for reliability. This has happened, infamously, in DNA cases; DNA science is considered so reliable that courts rely on it in the face of whatever circumstantial or eyewitness evidence would contradict it. In Texas, that has led so far to the exonerations of forty-four men, most convicted of sexual assaults—and more than one who had been sentenced to death.
The doctors in the Swearingen case are adamant that the science in question—histology and gross anatomy, the basic building blocks for modern medicine—cannot be dismissed. If the court rejects this evidence, they argue, they are turning their backs on the basic work done by the state’s forensic pathologists, tasked with determining both cause and manner of death, in thousands of cases each year.
So where does that leave Perry? If it turns out the man is innocent but is executed, Governor Perry looks bad, and if he’s guilty (which doesn’t seem likely) and is executed, President Obama gets the benefit of votes from people who oppose the death penalty.
Even if Perry does stop the execution, death penalty opponents will accuse him of almost executing an innocent man.
An execution could be used to make Governor Perry look tough, or he could grant clemency to court the moderate vote… all his other executions ensure that he has the pro-death penalty vote. If he was going to grant clemency, though, he would have done it by now… and made it a big public relations event.
Related articles
- Will Rick Perry put an innocent man to death? (cbsnews.com)
- Rick Perry set to carry out one or two more questionable executions as candidate (salon.com)
- politico.com: Rick Perry and the death penalty. A Presidential campaign issue? (criminaljusticesection.wordpress.com)
- Rick Perry’s Big Death Penalty Decision – Mother Jones (news.google.com)
- Rick Perry’s Execution Record Includes The Deaths Of Juveniles And The Mentally Disabled (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
- Rick Perry Deserves Scrutiny For His Role In The Execution Of Cameron Todd Willingham (huffingtonpost.com)
- The devil’s right hand (atlmalcontent.wordpress.com)
Did you know there may be a connection between yesterday’s earthquake and fracking?
I have an article at OpEd News that I’d like everyone to take a look at. It is not irrational, but is based on recorded facts and is worth considering in our opposition to fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.
Here’s a quote:
Dr. Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
How Fracking Causes Earthquakes
“According to geologists, it isn’t the fracking itself that is linked to earthquakes, but the re-injection of waste salt water (as much as 3 million gallons per well) deep into rock beds.
“Braxton County West Virginia (160 miles from Mineral) has experienced a rash of freak earthquakes (eight in 2010) since fracking operations started there several years ago. According to geologists fracking also caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes in Arkansas (as many as two dozen in a single day). It’s also linked to freak earthquakes in Texas, western New York, Oklahoma and Blackpool, England (which had never recorded an earthquake before)”
The author of the article is By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, a 63-year-old psychiatrist and author who is an American “refugee” living in New Zealand. She blogs at http://www.stuartbramhall.com.
Why Rick Perry requires an Education… this guy is/was a Governor?
Rick Perry speaking of his rejection of Evolution :
“Well, God is how we got here. God may have done it in the blink of the eye or he may have done it over this long period of time, I don’t know. But I know how it got started.”
How? Adam and Eve?
For some reason I feel really sorry for Texas. When I was working in Austin a few years ago, I thought it was a really neat State. Guess it shifted a lot after 1999.
Related articles
- Brian Hardwick: Rick Perry Is A Daddy Brand (huffingtonpost.com)
- Rick Perry Makes Questionable Remarks About Global Warming (huffingtonpost.com)
- Explain this, Rick Perry (atlmalcontent.wordpress.com)
- Does Rick Perry make the grade? (brobrubel.wordpress.com)
Why is Ames, Iowa, the new Comedy Capital of the World?
Because…
“Michele Bachmann won a straw poll of Iowa Republicans Saturday, confirming her status as the front runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the state that kicks off the real voting next winter.
“Bachmann, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, edged out Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota finished a distant third, a disappointment for a man who freely invested time and money in search of a strong showing to boost his flagging campaign.”
Related articles
- Michele Bachmann Wins Ames, Iowa Straw Poll (crooksandliars.com)
- dcdecoder: It’s almost decision time in Ames, Iowa, where many… (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
- Santorum: Happy With 4th Place in Iowa Straw Poll (blogs.wsj.com)
Rick Perry and the Religious Right show their True Faces…
What Would Jesus Order?
It’s been said many times recently that the GOP is living in a parallel universe, with their own set of facts that have nothing to do with reality as the rest of us know and understand it.
Here is proof, in living color.
These photos were taken at Rick Perry’s Prayerpalooza on Saturday, where he called for seven hours of intense prayer and fasting.
Apparently, the good folks who were in attendance didn’t know that fasting means not eating anything.
Either that, or they have applied the Michele Bachmann Rule of Denial and believe, even as you can “pray away the gay,” you can eat nachos and still call that fasting.
Hey, Babe… thanks for the word from Texas. Don’t you want to keep your Governor and not inflict him on the rest of us?
Related articles
- Top 5 most outrageous statements from Rick Perry’s prayer rally (secularnewsdaily.com)
- Texas Governor Rick Perry Changes the Rules (swampland.time.com)
- Responding to ‘The Response’: AU and allies offered successful alternative to Rick Perry prayer rally (secularnewsdaily.com)
- Al Jazeera Looks at Rick Perry’s Evangelical Prayer Rally: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
- Watch Gov. Rick Perry’s “The Response” Religious Event Live (mediaite.com)
I guess I’m REALLY feeling older…
Al Thomas
Last night was Al Thomas’ Birthday Party over at the Folly, the wonderful timber frame performance area he built some years ago on Bradley Sanders’ property, surrounded by talking areas and wood benches and what’s left of Al’s giant trebuchet (which he says he’s going to put back together one of these days.)
Al turned 60 this week, which makes him 5 years younger than me and a person with so much more energy and personality, able to carry on discussions with anyone and loved by everyone, that I am totally jealous.
Elly and Bud were also at the party with me ( Bud stayed there till 1:00 AM… 1:00 AM!… when his mother picked him up and the party was still going on.) We got there around quarter past five and after 2 1/2 hours I was exhausted, so I talked Elly into going home (she was going to a 10PM showing of “Paris Texas” at the Opera House with her friend Joan anyway), where I went to bed (I had been up since 4:30 in the morning and could barely keep awake.
The music was great, the food was terrific and beer and wine flowed freely. By the time I left there were easily 100 people there… from folks my age and older to the youngest of children running around and speeding through crowds on bikes… and Elly said when she picked up Bud cars will still arriving as others were leaving. How folks close to my age can keep going so far into the night is more than I can understand.
My son says I’m not “social” and that’s probably true (Elly agrees), but I think part of it is that I can never think of things to talk about unless someone else and I are involved in the same project, and I can’t remember most names… even of people I’ve met only a day or so ago. I am so embarrassed about my inability to remember names and how it makes it hard for me to introduce people to my wife and son or others, that I avoid doing it… or I do “one way” introductions, hoping the person whose name I can’t remember coughs it up when saying “nice to meet you.”
As I get older, I’m losing my memory of other things, too… events, movies I’ve seen, etc. … and my energy level is dropping like a bag of stones from a bridge. I’m having more and more trouble losing weight as I get more and more sedentary. I only sleep in 90 minute chunks, so I’m up and down all night. If it were not for this blog, my podcast, and co-hosting for John Case on the Friday morning radio show, I would probably be in a coma.
I can’t figure out who I am at this point in life. Perhaps working on the Carnival project for August at the Folly will help me see who I am (and someday I’d like to direct some theatre again… there are so many pieces I want to do and no one, so far, interested in having me do them.
At least it is Sunday and I can nap the afternoon away.
Anyhow… Happy Birthday, Al. You are one of the people whose names I CAN remember and who I really enjoy talking with.
Related articles
- Birthday Party (mistresssopia.wordpress.com)
- Forever I Guess. (hakolzeletova.wordpress.com)
- Desktop trebuchets for science classrooms (boingboing.net)
- 3 More Days to Buy an Awesome Trebuchet for $30 (awesomebitch.wordpress.com)
Just picked this up by PZ Myers at his great Pharyngula blog…
|
And I thought Rick Santorum was the Stupidest Governor in America.
Now I see it is a Republican disease that infects both of them.
Related Articles
- Holy crap, Texas, how can you stand your governor? (scienceblogs.com)
- An odd fact [Pharyngula] (scienceblogs.com)
- Brace yourselves, LA [Pharyngula] (scienceblogs.com)
- Texas: Our bold leader into the Future! (scienceblogs.com)
- Happy Creation Day! – PZ Myers – Pharyngula (richarddawkins.net)
Perhaps some good news after Saturday’s tragedy…
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- Arizona Green Party continues to advocate for non-violence after tragedy in Tucson (wilderside.wordpress.com)
Here’s the news of the night! Delay Found Guilty (About Time!)
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- Breaking: Tom DeLay GUILTY (my.firedoglake.com)
- DeLay guilty of money laundering (bbc.co.uk)
- Former House Leader Tom DeLay Convicted Of Money Laundering (mediaite.com)
- Jury convicts Tom DeLay in money laundering trial (telegraph.co.uk)
- Jury convicts Tom DeLay in money laundering trial (boston.com)
- Jury convicts Tom DeLay in money laundering trial (msnbc.msn.com)
A Quote for Tea Party Members & The Republicans who are living off of them…
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower – November 8, 1954
If Ike were here now, I bet he’d be surprised at the success of the Texas Oil Millionaires and the politicians and businessmen who have suckered so many Americans into today’s mess.
What do you think?
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- Joe Miller’s Wife Collected Unemployment Benefits: The Hypocrisy Of The Republican Tea Party Knows No Bounds (alan.com)
- Early Morning Swim: Rachel Maddow on the Koch Brothers’ Funding of the Tea Party (firedoglake.com)
- Robert J. Elisberg: Fixing Social Security. Fixing It Real Good. (huffingtonpost.com)
Here’s a great piece from “I Tried Being Tasteful…”
You can go to her site for links: http://youcallthatart.wordpress.com
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- Pence preaches social issues in Iowa (politico.com)
- Fetuses trumpt finances…. (tagg-lines.com)
- Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life champion receives award for courage :: EWTN News (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)
- Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles County Honors ‘Champions of Choice’ at Politics, Sex & Cocktails (prnewswire.com)
Friday Afternoon Entertainment… from Texas…
…or “Why should folks from other states care that 1 in 10 text books are sold to Texas students?”
Guess I’ll look into how this effects West Virginia.
