McKeonBucks

corporate whore

""Buck McKeon-- soon to be drowning in a family bribery scandal-- has been one of the biggest corporate whores in Congress for years, taking massive bribes from shady for-profit college lenders and from shady war contractors, while he oversaw legislation in areas those special interested were especially interested in. Like his cronies Issa and Upton, McKeon has been a big proponent of wasting taxpayer dollars on dangerous nuclear facilities-- while taking gigantic bribes from the nuclear industry and while his Southern California constituents have very different ideas....""

Firm handshake, phony smile, Glenn Beck glasses--McKeon's ...Mormonic!

+++++++++

Relatedly: from P-dale, CA the talented Johnny Small

Uncle Abe

on the divine right of Kings:

"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."

--Lincoln, 1858. (Debate with Douglas)

+++++++


Relatedly: go-karts for Jeebuss! Sponsored by T-Rex-Co and Honda-Co

last of the mohicans monday

Referencing and comparing Native Americans to classical cultures was a theme which runs throughout Jefferson's musings on Indians. "Aboriginal Homeric concepts of human behavior had early become real and concrete to him in the simple dignity of American Indians." (Lehmann, 1994).







Perhaps this comparison with Europe's heroic era was to buttress his defense of all things American. For, it was then contended, by France's Count Buffon, that all flora, fauna, and men of the New World were degenerate. Jefferson contested Buffon's statement about the notion that the Native American "savage" was "feeble," "timid and cowardly," with "no vivacity, no activity of mind." On the contrary, stated Jefferson, the Indian "meets death with more deliberation" than any other race on earth; "his friendships are strong and faithful to the uttermost extremity." (Burnstein, 1997).






"As for happiness, he thought it probably greater among the American Indians than among the great body of people in Europe."(Malone, 1951).

Perry vs Romney

or, who sucks less

"ROMNEY: "I don't support any particular program that he's describing," he said, disputing Perry's claim that Romney favors some of President Barack Obama's education initiatives, specifically the Race to the Top program.

THE FACTS: Romney was reluctant to tell Republican primary voters he doesn't hate every Obama policy. Romney does indeed support some of the specific policy changes encouraged by the Race to the Top program and said as much earlier in the week. Speaking in Miami on Wednesday, he praised the president's education secretary, Arne Duncan, for the program. And during the debate, Romney acknowledged supporting elements of the initiative, including teacher evaluations and charter schools.
_

ROMNEY: "I believe government is too big. It's gone from 27 percent of our economy in the years of JFK to 37 percent of our economy."

THE FACTS: Romney is including state and local government spending along with federal spending. His numbers are not far off, but most of the big increases came from Social Security and Medicare payments. Medicare started after Kennedy's presidency. Now it is one of the biggest government spending programs, and one of the most popular. Federal spending alone accounted for 23.8 percent of the gross domestic product last year and is expected to reach 25.3 percent this year."

Some teabugs seem to consider Mittens to be a beady-eyed pagan lib-rall but what they mean is he's not quite a Tex Perry or Bushco sort of texass republican. Make no mistake --Romney is conservative and capitalist--the finance mavens such as G-man Sachs execs love him. He's just a kinder-gentler klansman rather than  the old-timey Perry sort.

sabadoGigante

Nevermind at 20


the murder of Kurt Cobain

=============
Extra! The lovely and talented Miss Brian Goldie rocks out

torahs 4 sale

jewish-indiana-jones/HuffPo

""According to a criminal complaint prepared by U.S. Postal Inspector Greg Ghiozzi, an application by "Save a Torah" to become a charity listed on the federal government's campaign to encourage donations by federal employees boasted that Youlus had "been beaten up, thrown in jail, and gone $175,000 into debt, to bring these holy scrolls out of less-than-friendly places, back to safety and a new life."

At a 2004 Torah dedication, Youlus wrote: "I guess you could call me the Jewish Indiana Jones," the complaint said, referencing the action-adventure hero played by Harrison Ford in the 1981 Stephen Spielberg classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

But Ghiozzi wrote that his investigation of Youlus' globe-trotting found no facts to support claims that Youlus rescued the "Auschwitz Torah" in Poland from inside a metal box that he located and unearthed in 2004 using a metal detector. There was also no evidence that he discovered a Torah in 2002 that had been hidden during World War II under the floor of a barracks at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, Ghiozzi wrote.

A review of travel records showed that Youlus never traveled to Poland in 2004, making only a two-week trip to Israel, and that he didn't travel internationally from early 2001 to August 2004, when he claimed to have made the trip to Germany, Ghiozzi said. He said a historian at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Museum told him Youlus' claims were impossible because the barracks was completely destroyed by the British Army several weeks after the camp was liberated at the end of World War II."""

You lookin' for a holy scroll? Well you come to right place, kiddo. Now ,100 grand for this one--a beauty ,right here. Or you jus get the f*ck outta here, meshugginah

Death valley daze

                 looking east from Panamint valley toward Telescope  Peak
deserthikes

OC cops killl a man

LA Times:

""Orange County prosecutors charged two veteran Fullerton police officers in the death of a mentally ill homeless man, accusing them of a callous cascade of violence against Kelly Thomas as he begged for his life.

Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas on Wednesday said what began as routine questioning by police devolved into a "beating at the hands of an angry police officer," with other officers eventually joining in. He stressed that Thomas did not provoke the attack and that all of his movements were purely defensive.

"This never had to happen," Rackauckas said. "And it never should have happened.""

This happens more often than many in Consumerland realize.

Arctic ice

LA Times:

"A blistering summer melted Arctic sea ice to near-record lows, and scientists say two more weeks of high temperatures could bring ice coverage in the polar region to the lowest since satellite measurements were first taken in 1979.

That's the grim assessment released Thursday by the National Climatic Data Center, which also calculated that last month's global temperatures amounted to the eighth-warmest August on record. Federal forecasters predicted a return to La Nina conditions, bringing slightly drier and warmer weather to much of the country..."

Malibu...covered by waves soon.

sabadoGigante

By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man.
Kant

Boehnernomics

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-boehner-speech-20110915,0,1821312.story

""Boehner's speech highlighted the broad approach long advocated by the Republicans and offered no new specific proposals. He made a direct pitch for tax slashes -- expressing hope that a joint committee would start the process this fall -- and repeated calls to cut all business regulations.


Those efforts, along with deficit reduction, would address the "triple threat" of bad policies keeping businesses on the sidelines, he said.

"The wealthy , which is to say the job creators in America, basically are on strike," he said. "My message to Washington today on their behalf: this isn't that hard. We need to liberate our economy from the shackles of Washington. Let our economy grow.  Help the rich to help the poor, or at least the poor who deserve it."

Boehner spent little time directly addressing the details of the Obama bill, striking the somewhat conciliatory tone House GOPs have aimed for in recent weeks.

"The House will consider them, as the American people expect. Some of the president's proposals offer an opportunity for common ground," he said. "But let's be honest with ourselves. The president's proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth, pro-wealth policies that are needed to generate profits, and thus to job creation in America."

Boehner said any proposals should be tied to increased development of domestic energy resources.

"There's a natural link between the two: as we develop new sources of American energy, we're going to need modern infrastructure--and  brokers, investors, speculators-- to bring that energy to the market, and to make it profitable" he said.

Boehner also offered some proposals  for a republican jobs  bill.  "America needs workers who  understand the entrepreneurial mindstate,"  said Boehner. "For instance , we  need new caddies, and  we are  developing caddie-apprenticeship programs to put  new  caddies to work at corporate golf courses.   The gaming industry also offers many  opportunities--dealers, pit-bosses, croupiers, slot-machine  technicians.   Slot-machine techs are  an important part of the Las Vegas  economy," continued Boehner.

Boehner, a heavy smoker,  suggested another jobs program on the table is tobacco picking.  "We could have many  welfare recipients earn an  honest wage by  putting them out in the fields picking tobacco," said Boehner. """

+++++   +++++   +++++

"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate."  Bertrand Russell

+++  ++++++

Relatedly:  One of Dennis Dunderson's best palsies: Yappi, the baptist wonderdog

Romney the Weirdo

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/mormonism-and-mitt-romneys-weirdness/

"""Who are these non-conservative Mormon skeptics? Well, their ranks probably include a lot of theologically conservative/politically liberal Christians (mainly African American and Hispanic ) who regard Mormonism as a dangerous heresy, and a lot of secular liberals who dislike the L.D.S.’s positions (and politicking) on issues like gay marriage. But most likely some of them are people who don’t have a particular theological or political ax to grind, who know Mormonism primarily through pop culture (from “Big Love” and “Sister Wives” to “South Park” and “The Book of Mormon”) and the occasional encounter with bicycling missionaries, and who have a vague sense of the L.D.S. church as little bit cultish, a little bit outside-the-mainstream, and a little bit, well, weird. Presumably the Obama campaign sees this half-formed attitude as the fertile ground in which its “Romney the weirdo” seeds will take root and grow.

The trouble is that winking at Romney’s faith doesn’t fit into any of the broader issues that will be front-and-center in the 2012 campaign. The Bush campaign’s attempt to paint John Kerry as an effete, quasi-French flip-flopper who couldn’t be trusted with the nation’s defense made sense because 2004 was a wartime election, and the character issues went directly to questions about what Americans wanted in their commander-in-chief. I have a much harder time seeing how insinuations about the peculiarity of Romney’s theological commitments fits into a narrative about why Americans shouldn’t trust him with a lousy economy. His Mormonism, in this sense, may turn out to be a lot like Barack Obama’s connections to Bill Ayers and the Chicago left, which conservatives tried to make hay from in the waning days of the ‘08 election: In a different kind of race, it might be a serious liability, but in a campaign focused on jobs, debt and growth, trying to sow doubts about Romney’s faith will just make the Democrats look out of touch. They’d be much better off just accusing him of being a soulless corporate layoff artist and leaving it at that..""

We don't generally approve of Douthat-Speak but he's a few clicks higher than the usual Fox-pundit. Even when wrong--like suggesting people should not make an issue out of Romney's membership in the cult of flaming salamanders L.D.S--Douthat hints at the Truth: ie, American citizens should be concerned about MR's mormonism and the growth of mormon fundamentalism (and evangelicalism of all types).

Heat

2nd hottest summer/LA Times:

"The National Climatic Data Center announced Thursday what most Americans had been feeling all summer: It's been a scorcher across the country, the second-hottest since 1895.

But not by much. The warmest national average for June, July and August was 74.6 in 1936. This summer's average was 74.5.

The temperature average has to be considered in context. Some regions experienced unseasonably cool weather, and California and New Jersey had their wettest summers ever.

As has been previously reported, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana had their warmest summers on record. Average summer temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma exceeded the previous seasonal statewide average temperature record for any state during any season...."

Res Ipsa Loquitur.

the P-word

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! "

Albert Einstein

++++++++++++++++

Dennis "Sarge" Dunderson: a Yankee Doodle Dandy!

...

""When the Christian crusaders in the Orient came across that invincible order of Assassins – that order of free spirits par excellence whose lowest order received, through some channel or other, a hint about that symbol and spell reserved for the uppermost echelons alone, as their secret: "nothing is true, everything is permitted". Now that was freedom of the spirit, with that, belief in truth itself was renounced." (Nietzsche,Genealogy of Morals---(and that's not to approve of the typical frat boys who use Nietzsche's writing as justification for their light-weight nihilism)

LA Times/911

GOP on AGW

NY Times:

"The Republican presidential contenders regard global warming as a hoax or, at best, underplay its importance. The most vocal denier is Rick Perry, the Texas governor and longtime friend of the oil industry, who insists that climate change is an unproven theory created by “a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”


Never mind that nearly all the world’s scientists regard global warming as a serious threat to the planet, with human activities like the burning of fossil fuels a major cause. Never mind that multiple investigations have found no evidence of scientific manipulation. Never mind that America needs a national policy. Mr. Perry has a big soapbox, and what he says, however fallacious, reaches a bigger audience than any scientist can command.


With one exception — make that one-and-one-half — the rest of the Republican presidential field also rejects the scientific consensus. The exception is Jon Huntsman Jr., a former ambassador to China and former governor of Utah, who recently wrote on Twitter: “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” The one-half exception is Mitt Romney, who accepted the science when he was governor of Massachusetts and argued for reducing emissions. Lately, he’s retreated into mush: “Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that, but I think that it is.” As for the human contribution: “It could be a little. It could be a lot.”


The others flatly repudiate the science. Ron Paul of Texas calls global warming “the greatest hoax I think that has been around for many, many years.” Michele Bachmann of Minnesota once said that carbon dioxide was nothing to fear because it is a “natural byproduct of nature” and has complained of “manufactured science.” Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has called climate change “a beautifully concocted scheme” that is “just an excuse for more government control of your life.”"

+++++ +++++

~(Relatedly): AV Press editor Dennis "Sarge" Dunderson wins another prize

teach Darwin--go to jail

HuffPo/Newton

Should a teacher be sued for describing creationism as "superstitious nonsense"?

This question involves a lawsuit against California history teacher James Corbett. In 2007, a former student sued Corbett for a pattern of hostility "toward religion and favoring irreligion over religion." The student produced secret recordings of Corbett as evidence.

In 2009, a judge considered Corbett's statements and found only one -- that creationism is "superstitious nonsense" -- to be an "improper disapproval of religion in violation of the Establishment Clause," and therefore an infringement of the student's rights. To the amazement of educators and scientists across the country, the court ruled against Corbett and found this one statement in class to have been unconstitutional.

One issue raised by this case is how far educators should modify class content to anticipate potential offense to the faith of their students. In a public school classroom filled with students from a variety of religions and backgrounds, there is a good chance of offending someone in some way. If teachers are at risk of being sued every time they make a factual statement, it may have a chilling effect: "Teachers can avoid [risk] by not talking about these issues at all," according to UC Irvine law professor Rachel Moran.

Is this the kind of education we want?......

Alright lil Sarah, put down the cell phone..Moises did walk, hand in hand, with Pterosaurs. Now, back to Osmosis

the long War

Beattie/Counterpunch:

""This is the war on terror and the war of terror, the Project for the New American Century, or the New World Order, crafted before the events of September 11, 2001 and trafficked to a frightened-beyond-reason public unwilling to examine why we’re hated, receptive only to “they’re jealous of our freedoms.” Frenzied by nationalism, our young rushed to recruitment centers and on to boot camp, trained as matriculants of imperial US murder. It is the long war, perhaps permanent, a consequence of evil intersections, machinations to bomb a country or two, three, four, five, six, seven, whatever, back to the Stone Age.

“USA! USA! USA!”

The Cheney/Bush Administration had what it required, as articulated by Dick, “a Pearl Harbor-like event. Finally, a president and his vice’s grasp held America’s palpable fear. Cheney must have said, “Be still my heart.” With the collapse of towers, a ruptured Pentagon, and a cratered field in Pennsylvania, Dick Cheney, malevolence personified and an admitted torturer, entered the shelter of his nurtured delusions where he paved a corridor of death not only for “coalition forces” but, also, for civilians and those angry “insurgents”, whose lands his greed-twisted project encompassed.

The fourth estate became corporate media. Quivering masses tuned to episodes of reality anything, shunning critical thought.

Allowing the Patriot Act to subvert the Constitution, we ceded both to foreign terrorists and to terrorists within the highest echelons of our government.

The 9/11 Commission convened only after family members pressed for an investigation. The long-awaited verdict placed blame for the attack on a “failure of imagination”.

There has been little consideration by our “leadership” that the footprint of US foreign policy in the Middle East has created enemies, that our allegiance to Israel is a denial of human rights to Palestinians, and that our sanctions and occupations have killed millions. For maintenance and expansion of US geopolitical power/hegemony. And for oil.

“USA! USA! USA!”

“OIL! OIL! OIL!”"""

Quivering masses tuned to that bimbo on Foxnews with the lovely botoxed lips, waving a flag for the War Pigs.

sabadoGigante

homie Bluebeard

Memoirs-Co

Cheney/HuffPo

""On Tuesday, Aug. 30 former Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney published his memoirs, "In My Time," and, as widely expected, he has used this new platform to restate his wholehearted support for some of the most egregious human rights abuses committed by the Bush administration.

We thought it might be instructive to examine some of the claims he makes in his memoirs and see how well they stack up against the established facts.

In an interview with CNN in June 2005 Dick Cheney spun a rosy picture of conditions in Guantanamo: "We spent a lot of money to build it. They're very well treated down there. They're living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want."

The one thing you can't fault the former Vice President on is his consistency. He continues to view Guantanamo as a model prison, describing it in his memoirs as a "humane" facility that "likely provides a standard of care higher than many prisons in European countries where criticism of Guantanamo has been louder."""

Maybe the BushCo patriots-- Cheney, Dubya, Rumsfeld, et al-- might donate some of the profits from their potboilers to pay off the military spending incurred by the invasion of Iraq.


..

Mormons and Chiropractic

diverse-mormons:

"If you don’t think Mormons are a diverse bunch, then chances are good that you aren’t Mormon.  We do share beliefs, but then there are individual beliefs that the church doesn’t comment on.  For example, I know Mormons who swear by chiropractic and naturopathic care.  Other Mormons think they’re complete quacks.  I knew a couple who believed there was no ailment that chiropractic adjustments couldn’t cure, from back pain to ear infections."

Holy Newts of Fire, Captain Moroni! The association of chiropractic and ..the LDS goes back quite some time.   Palmer the quack who founded the quack science chiropractic belonged to the LDS.  Many mormons were anti-vaccination and believed Chiropractic could heal and/or prevent diseases (or as Palmer's jingle went, the Power that made the body, heals the body, pilgrim!). HL Mencken was on to the "preposterous quackery" of chiropractic (and osteopathy), and did not fail to note that ..many Mormons were involved in the scheme:

" In Los Angeles the Damned, there are probably more chiropractors than actual physicians, and they are far more generally esteemed. Proceeding from the Ambassador Hotel to the heart of the town, along Wilshire boulevard, one passes scores of their gaudy signs; there are even chiropractic "hospitals." The Mormons who pour in from the prairies and deserts, most of them ailing, patronize these "hospitals" copiously, and give to the chiropractic pathology the same high respect that they accord to the theology of the town sorcerers. That pathology is grounded upon the doctrine that all human ills are caused by pressure of misplaced vertebrae upon the nerves which come out of the spinal cord -- in other words, that every disease is the result of a pinch. This, plainly enough, is buncombe. The chiropractic therapeutics rest upon the doctrine that the way to get rid of such pinches is to climb upon a table and submit to a heroic pummeling by a retired piano-mover. This, obviously, is buncombe doubly damned."

Mencken, that beer-swilling, piano-pounding, ill-bred German talked the talk. Buncombe--that's chiropractic.

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