Keeping this blog going requires your help…

 

…and I will give you a free gift if you make a donation of $5.00 or more…

…you get my absolutely most popular picture font:“Bill’s Broadway DECOrations” These images created from many traditional and period sources are very usable at any size in designs and publications. The font comes for Mac and PC, and I usually sell it for $29.95. It’s my way of saying “Thank You” to offer it to $5 or more donors.

So many of you have been following this blog since 2004 that I feel like a member of a huge web community.

I have enjoyed bringing you the Cartoon(s) of the Week, the Quotes, the Political and Arts News, the Blogrolls of the best sites in America and beyond… They are all a joy to put together. Often we get the breaking political stories before you see them anywhere else. And our wide open communication channels with readers can’t be beat. I offer your participation at all times and appreciate the hundreds of subscribers who sign up every year.

I really need YOUR help to keep it going. I’m hoping you will make a small contribution, by PayPal or credit/debit card, in support of Under The LobsterScope. You’d be amazed at how much $5.00 can do to help me bring more and more to these pages. And it is probably the LOWEST annual subscription fee you will make to any publication… interactive or not. I often receive larger contributions and I certainly appreciate those.

Remember, for a contribution of $5.00 (or MORE) you will receive a copy of my Picture Font, Bill’s Broadway DECOrations and the knowledge that this blog will continue onward.

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See the Sample Below.)

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Thanks,

– Bill T.

Related articles

• Thanks to Mary Ellen Heinemann and beverle bloch for their contributions to this blog… (underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com)

 

Romney is Monsanto’s Candidate…there go our farms!

You know that this blog has a long history of exposing and criticizing Monsanto for the chemical destruction of what once was our fresh food products —Monsanto, whose dark history features scandals involving PCBs, Agent Orange, bovine growth hormone, NutraSweet, IUD, genetically modified (GM) seed and herbicides, reaching back to the 1970s and ’80s.

Those of us who support the remaining organic food growers, and who grow our own out of necessity, have set Monansto as the most evil of challenges.

If we go way back to Romney’s beginnings with Bain Capital when he was 30 years old, who do you think his largest client was, and who remains his friend today? You guessed it. Monsanto. This matters for a number of reasons:  it sheds on Romney’s self-ballyhooed business experience; Romney helped create Monsanto corporate objectives that clash with planetary concerns; If Romney is elected, this enemy of environmentalists will have a very old friend in the White House.

Monsanto’s former CEO John W. Hanley is in fact the only business executive outside of the Bain founding family to so shape Romney’s career—jumpstarting the two companies, Bain & Company and Bain Capital, that account for all but two years of Romney’s much-ballyhooed business experience.

Monsanto, who currently produces Genetically Modified corn, soybean, alfalfa and other seeds, which are  engineered to resist Roundup and increase yield, faces many global disputes, and has lost two recent, at least $2 billion, court decisions in Brazil –  5 million soy farmers sued them. The Brazilian farmers’ issue is also a source of frustration for US farmers—the contracts farmers are forced to sign pledging not to save seeds for future harvests, a common farm custom that resale-fixated Monsanto has hired a seed police army to stop.

“Roundup Ready” seeds, of course, are completely responsible to the success and safety of Roundup itself. However,“super-weeds” are developing a Roundup tolerance, requiring more and more spraying to work. This is harmful both ecologically and financially  for farmers.The seeds, introduced in the Bain years with Bain boosting, Roundup’s supposedly “biodegradable” and “nontoxic” claims, have led to false advertising findings. This is part of Romney’s business trustworthiness and acumen.

In the presidential campaign, Romney is deliberately vague . He’s moved publicly in Monsanto’s direction on the company’s genetically engineered ethanol and farm subsidies, appears aligned with it on labeling (Monsanto wants to avoid labeling its fruits and vegetables with the 5 digit code, different for organic competitors), and his spokesman Shawn McCoy said this month that the candidate was “concerned by the effect that the Obama administration’s crushing onslaught of regulations is having on agriculture.” Read from this what effect the Obama administration will have on one of his largest campaign contributors.

Related articles

• mitt is a monsanto man (thegreenhorns.wordpress.com)
• Protesters Blockade Monsanto Seed Facility in California (earthfirstnews.wordpress.com)
• Monsanto Allowed to Put Genetically Modified Food on Your Plate (blogs.lawyers.com)
• GMO Update: New Study Shows Increasing Rootworm Resistance to Monsanto’s Bt Corn (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Walmart Signs Deal With Monsanto to Sell Un-Labeled GMO Corn (friendseat.com)
• Lisa Cerda – Monsanto: A Modern Day Plague (prn.fm)
• Sept 16: Global Week of Action Against Monsanto (occupyventura805.wordpress.com)

Geez… I go to flea markets all the time. Why don’t I find Renoirs?

 

Take a look at this WaPo article:

“A ‘lost’ landscape thought to have been painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir will go on the auction block Sept. 29 on behalf of the Baltimore-born woman who purchased the artwork at a West Virginia flea market for $7. ‘Paysage Bords de Seine,’ a 6-inch by 10-inch canvas dating from about 1879, is expected to fetch $75,000 to $100,000, according to … the Alexandria, Va., auction house overseeing the sale. She said that it’s one of several depictions of the river Seine that the French Impressionist master created near the towns of Bougival and Chatou.

“The Virginia-based buyer, who prefers to remain anonymous, purchased a box of odds and ends at a flea market just across the West Virginia state line and near her home in the Shenandoah Valley in late 2010 or early 2011. She didn’t much care for the painting and said she would never have bid on it if the other stuff in the box hadn’t caught her eye.

“There was a plastic cow that grabbed me, and a Paul Bunyan doll,” said the woman, who lived in Baltimore until she was 4 years old. “And I liked the frame. It was gold and ornate. I thought I could use it for something else if I cut out the painting.”

– Mary McCauley of the Washington Post

And here’s the assumed Renoir:

I don’t think I would even have bought it FOR the frame. But a PLASTIC COW! That should have been worth something!

Related articles

• Collector finds $75k Renoir painting at flea market for $7 (investmentwatchblog.com)
• Renoir Painting Found at Virginia Flea Market (shoppingblog.com)
• Flea Market Art May Be Renoir (drudge.com)
• ‘Renoir’ painting appears at Virginia flea market (telegraph.co.uk)
• This $7 Flea Market Find May Be A Renoir (huffingtonpost.com)
• Woman Finds Renoir Original at Flea Market (newser.com)
• Possible Renoir found at flea market (upi.com)
• Renoir painting found at Shenandoah Valley flea market (wjla.com)

 

Have you considered what it means to you if Romney and Ryan get ahold of Medicare?

 

After hearing Romney on Meet The Press say that he wants to keep some of Obamacare, what he and Ryan want to do with Medicare, according to the Ryan budget, is a whole different matter.

It’s what it will cost you that you ought to think about.

I don’t know what age level you fall into, but knowing I’m being stripped of the money tobuy two years worth of groceries really pisses me off.

Related articles

• Romney’s budget would require a 40% cut to everything but Medicare, Social Security, and defense (pattidudek.typepad.com)
• Obama: Romney plan for Medicare would cost seniors ‘thousands’ (thehill.com)
• Obama hits Romney with new Medicare study (miamiherald.com)
• Obama uses Medicare to court Florida seniors (washingtontimes.com)
• Romney-Ryan Want It Both Ways on Medicare – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Romney camp admits Medicare cuts will hit current seniors (dailykos.com)

 

Intro to Solar Class Offered at No Cost to WV Residents

 

 Thanks to a state grant, Mountain View Solar, in partnership with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, will be offering “Introduction to Solar Energy Systems” in Berkeley Springs, WV and in Martinsburg, WV. The class is available at no cost to WV residents and can be taken for college credit and as a requirement toward a NABCEP certification.

The class will be held on Tuesdays from 6-8:30 PM from September 11 through November 13, 2012. There are still spots available for students who are interested in a career in solar energy or simply interested in how solar works.

For more information, email John@mtvsolar.com or to register contact Blue Ridge College at 304.260.4380 ext. 2411

Related articles

• SolarWorld solar panels power largest solar installation in West Virginia (solarworld-usa.com)
• Riverside passes 5-megawatt mark in solar power generation (swrnn.com)
• Solar Delivers When Grid Needs It Most (cleantechies.com)
• Federal Tax Credit for Solar Energy (turbotax.intuit.com)

 

Remembering the creation and importance of Labor Day…

The contributions made by unions to the betterment of America’s workers is primarily the reason we celebrate Labor Day. The influence of organized labor cannot be ignored.

Most of the benefits workers now enjoy are directly attributable to unions:

• The 40 hour work week
• paid holidays and vacations
• sick leave
• grievance procedures
• collective bargaining
• generally superior wages.

Unfortunately, we have come to take those benefits for granted. Benefits came about because of unions and soon became the norm for union workers and many non-union workers as well. All American workers owe a debt of gratitude to Organized Labor for its achievements.

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country. By 1909 all U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.

On Labor Day, let’s look at the benefits brought to us by Organized Labor:

Benefits of Unions:

Reinforcement of  the middle class. States with higher rates of unionization have lower rates of poverty, crime, and failing schools.

Raise of wages for all workers. Studies show that a large union presence in an industry or region can raise wages even for non-union workers. Women in unions make 33% more non-union women, and are more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and pensions.

Reducing wage inequality. Unions raise wages the most for low- and middle-wage workers and workers without college degrees.

Creation of mine safety laws strengthening mine safety standards and protecting the rights of mine workers.

The legal participation of Organized Labor has gotten many bills through Congress. In the last 50 or so years these include:

    •    The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
•    The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
•    The Voting Rights Act of 1965
•    The Civil Rights Act of 1964
•    The Equal Pay Act of 1963

So as we celebrate Labor Day, let’s look at it as not just a day off from work, but as recognition of the relationship of the worker to democracy.

Related articles

• Labor Day, How it Came About and What it Means (clarksvilleonline.com)
• The History of Labor Day (womensphilanthropy.typepad.com)
• History of Labor Day (thehrstrategiesblog.wordpress.com)
• Why Call it Labor Day When Most People Have the Day Off? (interactive360.wordpress.com)
• For U.S. unions, holiday begins somber election countdown (news.terra.com)
• Labor Day & POLITICAL ACTION 2012 (propresobama.org)
• Labor Day – An American Holiday (givemeda411.wordpress.com)
• The Arts of Labor Day (thewip.net)
• Construction workers crucial to US landscape (syracuse.com)

Art and Commerce Meet in a Fabulous Format…

Before you do your food shopping this week let me ask you a question. Are you planning on buying tomato soup?  If so, you could bring home some Andy Warhol for your pantry.

Campbell‘s announced Wednesday that a new limited-edition line of Warhol-themed condensed tomato soup cans will go on sale starting Sept. 2 at most Target stores across the country.

These cost 75 cents each and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Warhol’s first paintings of the familiar soup cans.

PHOTOS: Turning 50 in 2012

The soup will come in a variety of intensely colored cans meant to mimic Warhol’s pop-art style. The artist exhibited his soup-can paintings in 1962, and they became his signature works.

Campbell’s said the new cans are being sold in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation, which controls the licensing of the artist’s name and images.

Related articles

• Campbell channels Andy Warhol for new cans (kfwbam.com)
• Campbell’s to introduce new soup can labels inspired by Andy Warhol (oregonlive.com)
• Campbell’s Soup to release special edition Andy Warhol line (deathandtaxesmag.com)
• Campbell Soup to offer limited-edition Andy Warhol cans at Target (mercurynews.com)
• 15 minutes of fame with Andy Warhol inspired Campbell’s soup (rt.com)
• Campbell’s turns to art icon (toledoblade.com)
• Campbell Soup Cans Go Warhol (freshforms.wordpress.com)

So what has the Republican Convention accomplished?

 

Gee. Keep your eyes on these guys. When they complain about Obama, pull out this sheet.

Healthcare Question: WHO GETS HELP AND WHO DOESN’T?

My friend Ted Czukor sent me this essay and I am pleased to pass it on to you:

WHO GETS HELP AND WHO DOESN’T?
By Ted Czukor

info@tedsyoga.com

I’d like to take a poll of all readers over the age of 30. How many of you think that life is going to unfold the way you had envisioned? It certainly hasn’t been like that for me! I’m 65 now, and on the one hand I’ve had some wonderful experiences that I never could have predicted, while on the other hand some experiences have been the sheerest crap; but very seldom in my life has my planning brought about the exact result to which I had looked forward.

One of the more disturbing surprises I’ve had recently is that finally getting Medicare health insurance is not necessarily a guarantee of receiving proper medical attention—because healthcare providers are sometimes slow to order medical tests. I say “sometimes” because it’s a very mixed bag. Sometimes our doctor may send us immediately to the lab for something that he feels is necessary, but other times we may have to come back to his office for multiple appointments over several months with the same persistent complaint before he will decide that the quickly-written prescription isn’t doing anything, and we really do need to have a tube stuck down our throat or a picture taken of our brain or joints to see what the hell is actually going on.

It’s hard to predict when our doctors will jump on a test immediately or delay one for several months—but it seems clear from the national discussion on TV that some tests are being delayed due to concerns about cost. Our healthcare system is losing money, and some patients are guilty of what the insurance industry calls “over-utilization of services”—which makes it damned hard on those of us who legitimately need the testing.

On the Today Show on Wednesday morning, August 28th 2012, Dr. Nancy Snyderman actually suggested that any medical test will come up with something treatable, so therefore people in their 90’s should hold off on such tests so that younger people with longer-expected life spans can benefit from the treatments instead!  We like and respect Dr. Nancy, and we never expected her to take such a cold-blooded stance on the subject. It sounds logical and fiscally responsible on the surface, but how low on the age scale should we set the cutoff point? Age 80? 70? What about people over the age of 60? Shouldn’t other factors besides age be considered in such a decision?

Such a stance is easy to support, so long as the older people in question are generic groups whom you have never met. But when that older person is suddenly a personal friend or a member of your own family—or when, God forbid, it’s actually you—then you will probably take a second look and decide that in this case, at least, an exception should be made!

Another unexpected and recent surprise has been that we have to do our own diagnosing. More accurately, we have to research our symptoms on the Internet and take our questions about possible causes to our doctor, to get him to look into them and determine whether we are barking up the wrong tree—or not. Only our doctors and their labs can diagnose for certain, but we have to tell them what to look for! This is doubtless due to the overwhelming number of patients they see every day, with the result that even the most conscientious physician can only pay full attention to the patient who is right in front of him. As soon as that patient has left and a new one has come in, the first one better receive proper follow-up from the doctor’s staff, because the doctor himself will have forgotten about him until their next scheduled appointment.

In the last three years my wife and I have been successfully treated for degenerated hips and shoulders, melanoma and allergic reactions to various medications—but in every case we were the ones who had to self-diagnose the condition and then go to the proper specialist to have it verified! Until we did that, we were simply given prescriptions for pain or infection in an attempt to mask symptoms.  It was never suggested that surgery might be needed, or that a medication should be discontinued because it might be messing us up.  Suggestions of that nature had to be put forward by us.

I have two reasons for writing this essay and sharing it with others. For those in the medical profession, I want you to know that educated patients understand your dilemmas concerning healthcare costs and the limited time you are allowed to spend with each of us—but we insist that attention be paid to us as individuals, rather than as generic members of a certain age group. For my contemporaries who are experiencing the same frustrations that I am, I want to encourage you to Keep Doing Your Searches on WebMD, and Keep Asking Questions. Don’t take a doctor’s “I don’t know” for an answer. Get your facts lined up, and insist on getting tested for anything that alarms you and that your doctor isn’t completely sure doesn’t need a test.

For those of you who aren’t wealthy and are under 65 without health insurance, I empathize.  I went without insurance for two years before finally making it to Medicare age. The best advice I can give is to do whatever you feel is necessary to maintain your functionality, until you can finally get coverage to see doctors again. The trick is to just stay alive. But remember that getting the insurance won’t be enough. You will have to be an active advocate for your own health and for the health of your spouse and parents.

Related articles

• Doctor Shortage May Swell to 130000 With U.S. Cap – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• GOP team is wrong prescription for patients (jsonline.com)
• Republican Platform Goes There-Would Make Medicare A Defined-Contribution Voucher Program (washingtonmonthly.com)
• What is an accountable care organization and why should you care? (insurance.com)
• Medigap Plans A Through N – Compare Medigap Plans (medicaresupplementalinsurance.com)
• Truth about the Ryan-Wyden Medicare Proposal (illinoisreview.typepad.com)

Why do we take medications that can kill us?

Have you noticed on more and more TV commercials for prescription medications that something upsetting appears?  According to law, prescription meds have to state their side effects in advertising, and since I take a lot of prescription meds I monitor these commercials with scrutiny.

A great number of these side effect revelations include such things as depression, sleeplessness, stomach problems or DEATH! So in taking these sleeping pills or pain killers or diabetes medications, the side effect could be that you die.

Does this cause any problems for the medications industry? It looks like doctors have very little trouble prescribing these potential killers… and the TV ads convince many patients to request these from their physicians.

I see no one on the news or in other source material debating this issue, so I wonder if it is important to Americans (it is becoming important to me because I take at least one of these pills.)

Let me hear from you if you have any thoughts on this issue.

Related articles

• Prescription Medication Side Effects (bluemoonpersonaltraining.com)
• Prescription Medication That May Cause Bone Loss (bluemoonpersonaltraining.com)
• Ask Your Doctor for Prescription Samples (224/365) (thesimpledollar.com)
• Guidelines Released For Prescribing Narcotics In Emergency Rooms (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
• Fort Lee sets 4th drug take-back event (dvidshub.net)
• Stay Away from Doctors and Watch What You Eat (lewrockwell.com)
• Know the Drugs You Take Before it Harms You (sajerosablog.wordpress.com)

Quote of the Week – What does the business community really think of Mitt?

 

Even the folks Romney claims to be a representative of, the Business Community, is unsure of his qualifications:

“All politicians flip-flop from time to time; but Mr Romney could win an Olympic medal in it.

“…competence is worthless without direction and, frankly, character. Would that Candidate Romney had indeed presented himself as a solid chief executive who got things done. Instead he has appeared as a fawning PR man, apparently willing to do or say just about anything to get elected. In some areas, notably social policy and foreign affairs, the result is that he is now committed to needlessly extreme or dangerous courses that he may not actually believe in but will find hard to drop; in others, especially to do with the economy, the lack of details means that some attractive-sounding headline policies prove meaningless (and possibly dangerous) on closer inspection. Behind all this sits the worrying idea of a man who does not really know his own mind.”

– The Economist

Related articles

• The Economist Slams Romney (politicalirony.com)
• The Economist Comes Out Against Mitt Romney (delong.typepad.com)
• Etch A Sketch (themoderatevoice.com)
• The Economist drops Mitt Romney (shortformblog.com)

 

When Does Journalism on the Net change a disturbing image into very poor humor?

 

I’d like to thank Mashable for posting this article which defines communication symbolism on both the left and the right. What are we…Tasteless, stupid, apathetic? Is that what the editors at HuffPo and Newsweek think in their campaigns to promote readership?

Here’s part of the proof:

Both The Huffington Post and Newsweek are battling backlash for their use of coat-hanger symbols to protest a call for a Constitutional ban on abortions without exceptions for victims of rape and incest. The call for the ban appears in a draft of the GOP’s official 2012 platform, according to CNN.

The front page of The Huffington Post was taken up by a large image of a coat hanger late Tuesday morning to illustrate two stories — first this, then this one — related to the proposed ban.

We thought it was powerful,” founding editor Roy Sekoff said of the decision to use the stock image. “It’s saying that this is the inevitable consequence of this kind of policy.” “We knew it went right up to the line of offensiveness,” he added.

 

Not long after, Newsweek posted a screenshot of The Huffington Post‘s front page with the caption, “Whoa there, Huffington Post!” The post attracted more than 700 notes, most of them supportive of HuffPo. Some, including comedian Rob Delaney, interpreted Newsweek‘s caption as critical.

An hour after the initial post, Newsweek changed the cursor image on its Tumblr page to a coat hanger. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative.

“I hope this guy gets fired,” one follower wrote. “Tasteless,” wrote another. “Congratulations: you’ve insulted, offended, and devalued half the human population with your pathetic attempt to be clever,” chimed a third.

What it looks like the problem lies in Newsweek‘s attempt to transform the coat-hanger from a disturbing image (HuffPo‘s use) to a humorous one (Newsweek‘s). Do they succeed with readers? Gee, I hope not.

Good journalism used to be reporting without preferred point of view… or at least without making that point of view funny in a serious context. Then again, with a cover article entitled ‘Obama’s Gotta Go,’ Newsweek has officially removed itself from good journalism.

Related articles

• Newsweek Isn’t That Into Customers, Doesn’t Apologize for Coat Hanger Cursor (politicususa.com)
• Newsweek Tumblr Changes Cursor to Coat Hanger to Mock Women (politicususa.com)
• Damn HuffPo and Newsweek, You Throw Dark (cheezburger.com)
• Newsweek Mocks Huffington Post’s Abortion Coverage With Coat Hanger Mouse Cursor, People Get Very Angry (mediaite.com)
• Huffington Post Coat Hanger Image Responds To Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ And GOP Platform (ibtimes.com)
• Huff Post, Newsweek Turn to Coat Hangers to Protest GOP Anti-Abortion Plank [UPDATE] [Icwudt] (gawker.com)
• Subtle, HuffPo. Subtle. (distriction.com)
• CANADA STOCKS-TSX may open higher on FOMC minutes – Reuters (reuters.com)
• ‘Legitimate’ Rape: The Religious Roots Of Rep. Todd Akin’s Remarks – Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com)
• Gallery: How To Tell If You’ve Been Legitimately Raped (thegloss.com)

 

Want to know the Republican Strategy to beat Obama?

It’s been a secret plan, but it has many no-secret parts. Here’s a great overview and I urge you to watch it.

This plan has to be opposed, but you can’t oppose it until you know what it is… so warch and listen:

OK… are you ready to get going? Let’s make sure this doesn’t become the exclusive country of the Koch Brothers and their pals… They are pretty sure not to include you in their plans.

Related articles

• NYT: Repubicans Favored to Keep The House of Representatives (nalert.blogspot.com)
• The Repubicans Are Now a Big Problem for All of Us… (delong.typepad.com)
• Purges and Repubican Forms of Government (poliscinewsreview.wordpress.com)
• If The Public Knew – Corporate Media Helps GOP Sneak In Plutocrat Agenda (ourfuture.org)
• CHART: The History Of Political Polarization In Congress (businessinsider.com)
• *** Repubicans can tell us again about the wonders of XL Pipeline (dakotatoday.typepad.com)

Cartoon(s) of the Week – Is anything what it seems?

 

Drew Sheneman in the Newark Star-Ledger:

Reasons or excuses… we’re still in the dark…

-and –

Joe Heller in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

Danger or stupidity… there are so many morons…

-and –

Steve Sack in the Star Tribune:

Evil or evil… there is no difference…

-and –

Jim Morin in The Miami Herald:

Investigation or Reputation… we are known far and wide…

-and –

David Horsey in the Los Angeles Times.

Tuned in or tuned out… communication lost in technology…

 

Related articles

• Vaulting Ambition (politicalirony.com)

 

It seems that the Rich need the help of us folks in the Middle Class..

Romney has given us a plan!

Maybe I’ll be in that group of 125 families that helps support Mitt’s own tax break. What a contribution that would be!

Bob Schieffer sums up Congress pretty well…

 

Bob said this on CBS last Sunday:

There will be three more unemployment reports before the election. Congress has gone on vacation for the next five weeks, leaving work on their desks involving jobs, taxes and the budget deficit.

Congress managed to get through last year without passing one single piece of significant legislation. It would be hard to do worse than that, but this crowd may actually manage to do it.

—

And there’s also a couple of fairly important items that have to be resolved one of these days: whether to let the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, and whether or not to block a draconian $110 billion across-the-board cut in defense and domestic spending.

No word on what if anything they plan to do about those items. Truth is, no one expects them to do anything until after the election. The way it stands right now, if the U.S. Capitol caught on fire, this Congress could find a way to make it a partisan issue and do everything but call the fire department.

They went on vacation? I expect we’re paying for these yoyos to spin out at the end of the string.

Look at it this way:

 

Related articles

• Bob Schieffer: Do-nothing Congress takes a break (cbsnews.com)
• Fiscal Cliff: What Really Happens If We Go Over It (dailyfinance.com)
• Rep. Jim Himes: Act now on Simpson-Bowles (darientimes.com)
• Headache awaits Obama post election (whitehouse.blogs.cnn.com)
• Congress, With Much Left to Do, Takes 5 Weeks Off (usnews.com)
• Budget office: Obama’s health law reduces deficit (kansas.com)
• Budget office: Obama health law reduces deficit (tbo.com)
• W.H.: ’12 deficit is $116 billion less than expected (politico.com)

 

Apple Computer may be acquiring Twitter

 

This was on Reuters‘ web site this morning:

(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) held discussions in recent months about possibly investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Twitter to gain a social networking presence, the New York Times on Friday, cited people briefed on the matter as saying.

The iPhone and iPad maker, which has never delved deeply into a social media space dominated by Facebook Inc (FB.O), at one point considered an investment that would have valued the microblogging service at $10 billion but the two were not in negotiations now, the newspaper reported.

Apple declined comment. Twitter did not respond to requests for comment on the deal, which the newspaper said might presage closer ties between the two.

Let’s keep an eye on this. It could be a big deal.

Related articles

• CHART OF THE DAY: Where Apple’s Revenue Comes From (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• IT’S OFFICIAL: Apple Will Release Mountain Lion Tomorrow (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
• Why Apple Should Grab Twitter (ritholtz.com)
• OS X Mountain Lion: The best features (and everything else you need to know) – msnbc.com (gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com)
• Apple In a Relationship with Facebook? Its Complicated. (cultofmac.com)

 

War on Health

 

I’m happy to present Gary Null‘s documentary: War on Health, The FDA‘s Cult of Tyranny.

If you are worried about organic foods, raw dairy products or other things being available, or if you are afraid of GMOs in your food, this will startle you:

Related articles

• PREMIERE: THE WAR ON HEALTH: THE FDA’s CULT OF TYRANNY by Gary Null (prn.fm)
• War on Health – Gary Null’s documentary exposing the FDA – *video* (chasvoice.blogspot.com)
• Watch War on Health: The FDA’s Cult of Tyranny (foodfreedomgroup.com)
• Organically Farmed vs. Locally Produced (theepochtimes.com)
• War on Health: FDAs Cult of Tyranny (Trailer) (therealfoodchannel.com)

 

Attend a National Demonstration Against Fracking in Washington, D.C. — Saturday, July 28

 

I am passing this on to all my readers in the Washington DC area and around here in Shepherdstown and Harper’s Ferry who don’t mind a 90 minute drive. This is very important for West Virginia, already subject to the disaster that is Mountain Top Removal in the coal industry, which is about to be subject to widespread fracking.

This is from the Center for Biological Diversity:

A fossil fuel rush is sweeping the United States — with terrible consequences.  The oil and gas industry is surging into new areas all over the country as quickly and cheaply as possible, largely as a result of advances in fracking technology.
Fracking is a dangerous oil and gas drilling technique that threatens waterfowl, fish and endangered species like the California condor, not to mention human health. In addition to intense local pollution, fracking also emits methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, and represents an increased dependency on fossil fuels when a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy should be our first priority.

“Natural gas” has been marketed as the clean alternative to traditional sources of oil, even though fracking routinely employs toxic chemicals like lead, arsenic, chromium 6 and benzene. This extreme drilling technique is set to explode across the United States, run by a largely unregulated industry.

We must demand that decision makers inside the Beltway take action to stop dangerous oil and gas industry practices before the damage is done. Join us on Saturday, July 28, in Washington, D.C., for a rally at the Capitol to demand a stop to dangerous drilling that hurts public health, water and air.

RSVP here.

What: Stop the Frack Attack: A National Call to Action

When: Saturday, July 28; rally starts at 2 p.m.

Where: The West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol

We’re joining with groups all over the nation for this day of action. Check out this video invite from Josh Fox, producer of the documentary Gasland, and Mark Ruffalo, star of this summer’s action hit The Avengers.

For more information on this and other Center for Biological Diversity activities, visit our events page.

Rose Braz, Climate Campaign Director
rbraz@biologicaldiversity.org
(415) 436-9682, Ext. 319

Related articles

• Stop the Frack Attack (sfgate.com)
• Michael Brune: Stop the Frack Attack (huffingtonpost.com)
• Stop the Frack Attack (ecowatch.org)
• Josh Fox and Mark Ruffalo Invite You to Stop the Frack Attack (ecowatch.org)
• Stop the Frack Attack (sierraclub.typepad.com)
• Celebrities to protest fracking in D.C. this month (bizjournals.com)
• Stop The Frack Attack -Rally In DC (baltidome.wordpress.com)
• House of Representatives trying to stop new fracking rules (switchboard.nrdc.org)

 

How Romney and Bain made a fortune by taking away jobs… and making the people they fired help with their own dismissal.

This is pathetic, but it is why we can’t trust one word Romney says about creating jobs, or the way businesses are going to create jobs.

Take a look:

DONATE: http://www.prioritiesusaaction.org
If Mitt Romney wins, the middle class loses.

Related articles

• Mitt Romney and backers use ‘day-to-day’ to reshape questions about Bain (boston.com)
• Even Mitt Romney admits Bain Capital ‘didn’t create’ jobs (dailykos.com)
• Mitt Romney takes a break from denying he worked at Bain … (dailykos.com)
• Workers ask Mitt Romney to keep Bain from sending their jobs to China (dailykos.com)
• Former Romney Partner At Bain Makes Case For Outsourcing (thinkprogress.org)
• Jim Cramer On Meet The Press: ‘Romney Is Known As A Job Destroyer, Not A Creator’ (mediaite.com)

Republicans, As Usual, Block Bill to Bring Jobs Home

 

The best piece I’ve read on this subject is over at PoliticusUSA… and while anything I’d write on the Republicans and their ongoing program to outsource jobs overseas, benefit the wealthy and convince the middle class voter that they are really on their side doesn’t come close to this piece by Rmuse, I have condensed it here. You can read the whole article HERE.

Mitch “I won’t let Obama get anything passed” McConnell

Last Thursday, in another attempt to protect corporations and kill American jobs, Republicans blocked a measure to reward companies that brought jobs back to America, and protect their candidate Willard Romney. Republicans in the Senate refused to allow a vote on a bill, The Bring Jobs Home Act, which provided a 20% tax break for costs related to moving jobs back to the United States, at the same time rescinding deductions for companies that moved operations and jobs overseas. The bill was number one on the President’s congressional “to-do list,” but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to amend it with an Affordable Care Act repeal and Bush-era ta x cuts for the wealthy extension.

——-

Willard “The King of Outsourcing” Romney

With the Senate Republicans action on Thursday, they exposed their agenda of corporate profit protection at the expense of Americans’ jobs. In one fell swoop, they obeyed the Chamber of Commerce, guaranteed more companies will outsource Americans’ jobs, subsidized outsourcing with taxpayer dollars, provided millions for Romney, created jobs in foreign countries, prevented economic growth, and most importantly, killed millions of Americans’ jobs. Their claim the bill was a political ploy by the Obama Administration is patently false because this is the second time in two years Republicans blocked an anti-outsourcing bill.

——-

The Republican focus on jobs since January 2009 has been killing them, not creating them. They voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus), opposed the auto industry bailout, payroll tax cut and extension, all of the President’s jobs bills, and have blocked any new revenue sources that would fund rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. All of the Republican job-killing measures have as their basis protection of the rich and keeping unemployment figures high, and they are not close to being finished if they win control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

——-

It is a mystery why Republicans get any support from Americans when they have spent the past three-and-a-half years deliberately killing jobs and holding up economic recovery. They have, at every step, demonstrated their allegiance to the wealthy and corporations over the American people, and continue claiming a laser-focus on creating jobs while obstructing job creation and giving corporations tax breaks for outsourcing existing ones. Their contempt for Americans looking for work, or barely holding on to their existing jobs, is nothing short of despicable and by blaming President Obama, they reached a new low in hypocrisy.

So, do you believe what these sociopaths are telling you? The only thing I believe is when McConnell says Obama will never get anything passed… whether we need it or not.

Don’t vote for these people. Keep your jobs here. Encourage businesses to make more. You can bet that the upper 1% aren’t going to make any… and they don’t need the tax deduction because their money is invested in tax free havens like the Cayman Islands.

Related articles

• Republicans block Bring Jobs Home Act, protecting companies that outsource jobs (dailykos.com)
• Republican senators block ‘insourcing’ bill championed by Obama (cnn.com)
• White House, OFA fire back at GOP on insourcing bill (politico.com)
• GOP Amnesia and the American Jobs Act (theroot.com)
• Senate GOP kills measure to curb job ‘outsourcing’ (kansascity.com)
• Job Creation: A Means To An End For The GOP (politicususa.com)
• Senate Republicans to Block Bill Giving Tax Breaks to Small Businesses For Hiring (crooksandliars.com)
• Opinion: Romney’s amazing hypocrisy (cnn.com)
• Biden knocks GOP over outsourcing (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Esquire:Contempt for The Help: Why Romney Won’t Give It Up (esquire.com)
• The Reason Why Bain is important. (jackandjillpolitics.com)
• Romney Invested Millions in Firms That Pioneered High-Tech Outsourcing (motherjones.com)
• Mitch McConnell takes your tax cut hostage, again (dailykos.com)

 

Why I will never eat at Chick-fil-A…

 

Because of it’s management’s consistent push of fundamentalist Christianity upon it’s customers, whether they are Jews, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or atheists like me, I have stayed as far away from Chick-fil-A as I could. If I were starving I would still avoid it. Restaurants should be concerned with making food and not making converts.

Recently, the President of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy,  came out as radically anti-gay… from opposition to gay marriage as well as opposition to gay employees. Does McDonalds do this? Burger King? Boston Market? Well, no.

Let me recommend that you avoid these guys, too. If you really feel a need to eat at the Rush Limbaugh of fast foods, just think about how every buck you spend there is supporting an ignorant society.

Related articles

• Chick-Fil-A Faces Gay Marriage Backlash on Twitter, Facebook (mashable.com)
• Chick-fil-a Faces Fury Over Gay Marriage Stance (judgementofamerica.wordpress.com)
• Is Chick-fil-A Anti-Gay? ‘Guilty As Charged’ Says Its President (patheos.com)
• Chick-fil-A goes public with opposition to gay marriage (marketday.msnbc.msn.com)
• Mayor Menino on Chick-fil-A: Stuff it (bostonherald.com)
• The President Of Chick-Fil-A Thinks Gay Marriage Is Inviting God’s Judgment (buzzfeed.com)
• Chick-Fil-A’s anti-gay stance sparks online outrage (with poll) (vancouversun.com)
• The Left’s War On Chick-Fil-A (VIDEO) (radio.foxnews.com)
• Chick-Fil-A Admits To Supporting Hate Groups (queerlandia.com)

 

The business growth of Private Enterprise Prisons… this at a time when violent crimes have decreased about 41%…

 

Here are the facts… you make your own conclusion. Personally, I think making prisons a private industry sucks— I wonder when they’ll be exporting the prisoners to China.

 

Quote of the Day – Romney had better wise up.

This from The Fix in the Washington Post:

“The truth — in politics and in life — is almost always less damaging than what the imagination can conjure. While the tax return debate is a no-win for Romney, he’d be better to lance this political boil once and for all. It’s not going away and if he doesn’t it’s only likely to grow.”

And grow is what Romney’s situation is doing. He has to be hiding something, and the longer he represses the truth the more obvious it becomes.

Related articles

• George Will: Romney hiding something bad in his tax returns (americablog.com)
• Romney’s Bain story unraveling quickly (maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com)

Cartoon(s) of the Week – Asking Questions

David Horsey in the L. A. Times:

Do you ever question what has become of our culture?

– and –

Rick McKee in the Augusta Chronicle:

Or the morality of our heroes?

 

– and –

Mike Keefe in the Denver Post:

Or the progress we have made in race relations?

– and –

Stuart Carlson of Universal Press Syndicate:

Or how politicians can bamboozle voters?

– and –

Jack Ohman in The Oregonian:

Or why we let our representatives have what they deny us?

 

I do.