Monday, August 30, 2010

My BF won an Emmy

The Emmys last night were actually entertaining and holy cow, quickly paced and short. Good format. Hurry home with the award, honey, I have..uh, dinner waiting.

Cat saves owner from pit bull attack


Just what we need to take our minds off the Teatard meeting yesterday. Please note the lovely dwellings of the mightily tatooed owner who insisted the dogs were just playing!

Teabaggers tee'd off at all the wrong people

Brilliant at Breakfast: "While the teabaggers are getting ready to vote for a Senator from Alaska who believes that unemployment insurance and Social Security are unconstitutional and people delude themselves that these people are ONLY concerned about the national debt, it's funny how we've heard NOTHING from any of these teabaggers and their candidates about the billions squandered in rebuilding Iraq:

'A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets.

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.'

And this doesn't even include the $9 billion that mysteriously disappeared in that country during the war."

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Post-Caturday blogging



Endless blue sky and as green as it gets here on the prairie. 'Stomp On', the pre-party to the Colorado State Fair was Friday. A woman was hit by a car crossing I-25 at 12:45 a.m., while dressed all in black. Escapee from the state police still at large, as far as I know, but at least not hiding out in my garage. That I know. The contract for one of the largest oil fields in Iraq went to...wait for it...Halliburton. The Million Moron March was held in Washington yesterday, with all the meaningless jargon to fire up the Hover-round crowd you could hope for. And by that I mean Caribou Barbie spoke. Cuz it was billed as a non-political event, don't cha know.  And to the attendees with the 'Got enough hope and change yet?" t-shirts, the answer is, no, not nearly enough. When I get a real public option for health insurance, when you don't have to go bankrupt from medical expenses even when you have insurance, when the Republicons in the Senate stop pandering to big corporate interests and stop trying to take my Social Security away, when the Tea baggers wake up and realize the redistribution of wealth already occurred with the Bush tax cuts, and they aren't in on the action, when the Supreme Court takes back it's Citizens United decision to allow corporations to spend as much on campaigns as they want, when the lower and middle classes realize they are footing the bill and being squeezed by their corporate masters and revolt, then I might have had enough. Right now I'm still hoping for a lot more change.

And the kitties are hoping for a little more sun and a lot more Fancy Feast. Right after their third nap.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wait, what??

"As a result there has been a groundswell in a campaign to end the building of megachurches in the United States. And the New York Times has been calling for evangelicals to be subject to broader screening at airports. Many evangelicals are so intimidated by this open bigotry against them that they are afraid to go shopping or leave their homes. Just yesterday, a taxicab passenger asked the driver if he was Christian, and when the driver said that he was, the passenger stabbed him. CNN reports that Christians at the anti-Mosque demonstration in New York were severely beaten by a mob of Muslims.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/32949.html

Kickin' Tumbleweeds

Outside neighborhood bar
Bah, stupid day. I can't find it in The Pueblo Chiefly, but yesterday the state troopers and K-9 units were outside my front window chasing an errant motorist through the condos across the street. He entered a home, was fought off, ran down the street to another house, this one of a teacher returning to the school located behind me (unbeknownst to her, on lock-in due to the stranger at her door). He claimed he was out of breath due to an asthma attack and would she drive him to his house to get his inhaler?
And drive him home she did.
He wasn't there when the cops arrived, but stealing a motorcycle and running a crazy route up Beulah highway and back to the 'old' Wal-Mart where he ditched the bike and disappeared.

In other news, a Springs resident called the police force to report his car had been broken into and they would not come to investigate. Since the good citizens of Fort Focus on the Family Colorado Springs decided they didn't have to pay no stinking taxes, 50 policemen have been laid off, the parks go unattended and you can get a street light turned on for a certain fee. The police force has had to prioritize their visits and unless it's a burglary in progress you'll be cooling your jets. Of course our fine Springs resident repeated his programmed mantra, "What am I paying taxes for?". For nothing dumb ass, since decided you didn't need any damn services. Enjoy the $30 you got back due to the Tabor Amendment. Maybe you can put it towards a car alarm for your gas-sucking Ford Black USA!!!!USA!!! 8-door monster truck.

In other news: Republicons continue their push to make you work until you're 70 and then realize they took all your Social Security and gave it to the already wealthy. Let them eat cat food. http://www.americablog.com/2010/08/deficit-commissions-macaca-moment.html

There was no concern on their part about the deficit during the Bush years. If we got out of Iraq we'd have all the money we need for S.S. and universal health care. What ever will get the population riled up and voting for them in November, against their own best interests.

Inside neighborhood bar

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Say what???

Republicon candidate for NY Governor:

Crooks and Liars: "Paladino laid out several plans that included converting underused state prisons into centers that would house welfare recipients. There, they would do work for the state — 'military service, in some cases park service, in other cases public works service,' he said — while prison guards would be retrained to work as counselors.
'Instead of handing out the welfare checks, we'll teach people how to earn their check. We'll teach them personal hygiene ... the personal things they don't get when they come from dysfunctional homes,' Paladino said".

Poor houses and debtor's prison coming to a neighborhood near you! Right next to grandma's Death Camp. Gawd.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and the fight over free speech - Yahoo! News

I listen to Dr. Laura (here on the Prairie it's her radio show or six hours of Lush Limpball) and I like her cut-to-the-chase style. Her book, Care and Feeding of Husbands is not one I've read but I'll bet you a mosque in Brooklyn it is the 2001 version of The Sensuous Woman given to me as a teenager (and inappropriate for a 14-year-old, BTW). Greet your husband at the door in cling wrap while the gourmet dinner you've prepared is ready in the oven. In references to that book and her philosophy with reflected with her callers is that if your husband is unhappy, it's because you're bitchy.

And actually, I see her point. Too often, however, that 'the husband is King' approach allows domineering or emotionally abusive men to further indulge their narcissism and ignore the needs of their wives and children. Seen it first hand.

Of course, if you're a woman you need to just suck it up, 'cuz Eve ate the apple, that's why.

I was truly appalled a few months back when an adult female caller described her father hitting her. If I remember correctly, her father's behavior had been changing lately. Dr. Laura said "What did you say to make him do that?" in a tone where you could hear the eye roll over the radio. "So he slapped you", she continued in a belittling manner, and the caller stammered, "No, it wasn't a slap - he hit me with his fist" to which Dr. Laura asked again what the caller had said to provoke the abuse. The caller had started to criticize her father, and Dr. L pounced on that "Of course he hit you! He's stressed and your making him feel unappreciated! You were being a bitch!"

My mouth fell open. I worried about the affect of this advice on the caller and all the other listeners. Of course, I'm a Liberal, so in Laura's world that makes me a wishy-washy troop-hating activist bleeding heart that can't handle the truth.

See the link below for why Dr. Laura's First Amendment rights aren't being violated. Caribou Barbie doesn't get it either, another reason I cringe that this woman has a following.



Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and the fight over free speech - Yahoo! News

It's still here...

22-mile long plume of oil still in the Gulf:
K-TALK AM1150 | The New Mainstream

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Nobody Could have Anticipated.....

WTF Is It Now?!?: Nobody Could have Anticipated.....: "August 17, 2010
Nobody Could have Anticipated.....

Thank baby jebus we don't have Socialized Health Care!

The economic crisis in the United States has reduced the use of routine medical care, and the cutbacks here are much deeper than in countries with universal health care systems, researchers say in a new report.
The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, finds that “Americans, who face higher out-of-pocket health care costs, have reduced their routine medical care” much more than people in Britain, Canada, France and Germany.

Easy solution: (Thank you Alan Grayson)
1. Don't get sick
And if you do.....
2. Die Quickly"

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Simmering

If you are over 40 and let go in the down turn, resign yourself to that fact that life may never be the same. Banks aren't lending money to refinance your house, even though they've got the cash. Big business isn't hiring, even though they've got the cash. Health insurance companies are covering less, and raising rates, even though they've got the cash. Republicans in Congress want to keep higher income brackets tax-free, even though they've got the cash.

This isn't about the 'redistribution of wealth' It's about noticing that the game is in the favor of the 'haves', not the 'have nots'. I don't want what you've earned, or own; I don't want you getting richer at my expense.

Stop voting for the folks whose patriotic empty jargon tricks you  into believing they are on your side. They are on the side of the corporation who will stuff the most cash in their pockets.

Op-Ed Columnist - Defining Prosperity Down - NYTimes.com: "Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That’s bad. But what’s worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal." (h/t Americablog)

BP leaves many damage claims waiting in limbo - Yahoo! News

Air conditioning down, and apparently the only tech in town is out of town. Afternoon flooding. Another shooting, which wouldn't even be news in a city. Colorado Rockies coming back. Rocky Ford melon in season.

And to the surprise of no one:
BP leaves many damage claims waiting in limbo - Yahoo! News

Sunday, August 1, 2010

AMERICAblog News

Why do Christians do this? Note the name of the church, emphasis mine:

AMERICAblog News: "The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m."

Words fail.

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