Oct 28 08 Supp.

The blog software is cutting off text on the right side of my computer.   Let it be clear that I am NOT writing in Ralph Nader.

Oct 28 08

The Electric Fetus A real live music store with reviews, contests, vinyl records..... http://www.electricfetus.com/rel/v2_home.php?storenr=227&deptnr=1 I don't know how you can subscribe online but I receive a paper newsletter that is full of good information if you want to keep up with new music. +++++++++++++++++ A harbinger of things to come: Climate link to amphibian decline http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7693381.stm   ************************ Tabby cat mothers red panda cub. ( I am a lover of animals so pardon my facetiousness) Aw, ain't they cute? Precious! Dear? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7500479.stm   ++++++++++++++++++ From Pam and Prevention magazine online 14 Surprising Signs You'll Live Longer Than You Think What you're doing right, and how to do it better http://www.prevention.com/suprisingsigns/index.html 1. Your Mom Had You Young 2. You're a Tea Lover 3. You'd Rather Walk 4. You Skip Soda (Even Diet) 5. You Have Strong Legs 6. You Eat Purple Food 7. You Were a Healthy-Weight Teen 8. You Don't Like Burgers 9. You've Been a College Freshman 10. You Really Like Your Friends... 11. ...and They're Healthy 12. You Embrace New Challenges 13. You Don't Have a Housekeeper 14. You're a Flourisher Will You Live to 100?   [do I really want to?]  *******************************   On the slight chance that you might have missed it I want to give my highest recommendation, 5 golden eggs, to the following DVD. There is some guitar music that will send chills down your spine. Check out Jeff Beck playing with his daughter. Bill Murray is a great host as well. Crossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2007

Oct 27 08, p. 2

Porn with a bite   Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson in Zombie Strippers They'll dance for a fee They'll devour you for free http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/zombiestrippers/ Tis the season!   **********************   I am still a Nader fan. He acts for the greater good. He doesn't buy big houses or cars. He won't be found on the front of a cereal box. He just says what he sees as right for the nation. How cool is that? P.S. I am not writing him in on the ballot. This election is too important. from: thenation.com   Nader's Stubborn Idealism William Greider : Presidential Election 2008 Ralph Nader is a man of political substance, trapped in an era of easy lies.   **********************   More from thenation.com Rocking the Black Vote Amy Alexander : Media Dallas DJ Tom Joyner is encouraging African-American listeners to engage in electoral politics. Read More   *********************   Let's not forget the Supremes!!!!   Please! http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081103/schwartz The Supreme Court and the Election: What's at Stake By Herman Schwartz This article appeared in the November 3, 2008 edition of The Nation.   ********************************   Military officers that are willing to face the consequences of honesty about Gitmo. Hurrah! Thanks, Jay    http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22035?email Volume 55, Number 17 · November 6, 2008 'Official American Sadism' By David J.R. Frakt, Reply by Anthony Lewis In response to Official American Sadism (September 25, 2008) To the Editors:   I am prominently mentioned in a quite flattering light by Anthony Lewis in his article "Official American Sadism" [ NYR, September 25]. Please convey my appreciation to Mr. Lewis for his kind words. However, there are a couple of minor factual inaccuracies in his story regarding my client's case that I wanted to try to get corrected. I know that Mr. Lewis as a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist would want to get his facts right even if they are not central to the point of his story.   The story says: Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan accused of throwing a grenade at a convoy of American soldiers in Kabul in late 2002, wounding two, was brought to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in February 2003. He was then seventeen years old. In December 2003 he attempted suicide. The following May he was subjected to what Guantánamo officials called the "frequent flyer program." Every three hours, day and night, he was shackled and moved to another cell—112 times over fourteen days.   We know about what was done to Mr. Jawad because the military lawyer assigned as his defense counsel, Major David J.R. Frakt (Air Force Reserve), sought and won from a military judge an order for his jailers to produce the records of his captivity. Major Frakt brought out the realities of Jawad's treatment in his closing argument at a pre-trial hearing on June 19, 2008—an argument that was a remarkable display of legal and moral courage. Two points: 1. Jawad is accused of throwing a grenade at a vehicle with American soldiers in it, but it was not part of a convoy. It was a vehicle traveling alone through a crowded bazaar in the streets of Kabul. The Russian-made jeep-like vehicle known as a Gaz had two American special forces members and one Afghan interpreter inside. All three were injured. The incident occurred on December 17, 2002, and there are a number of press accounts about the incident available on the Internet. Google "Kabul hand grenade attack" and the date and you will find the stories. You will note that others were arrested for the incident as well, but Jawad, the minor, is the only one in US custody and the only one being tried for this offense. This is an interesting story as well.   2. The judge did not order the jailers to produce the records of Jawad's captivity. I have submitted a number of motions to compel evidence, but the judge has never ruled on any of them. The records were voluntarily turned over by the prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, a US Army Reserve JAG. Lieutenant Colonel Vandeveld also acted with moral courage in producing a number of exculpatory records relating to the mistreatment of Jawad, knowing well that it could doom the case.   Incidentally, Lieutenant Colonel Vandeveld recently submitted his resignation because he felt he could not ethically continue to work as a prosecutor for the military commissions. I would like to see Lieutenant Colonel Vandeveld get some credit for his moral courage because he is currently facing serious threats of reprisal and retaliation for acting with integrity. David J.R. Frakt   *******************************   Mother Earth News online The Presidential Candidates on Energy Issues Gas prices, the economy, foreign policy and climate change are all directly or indirectly tied to energy. With the election less than two weeks away, all of these issues on the table and on voters' minds. So before you head out to vote, find out where Senators John McCain and Barack Obama stand on matters from oil to global warming.   **********************     theonion.com Microsoft Ad Campaign Crashing Nation's Televisions WASHINGTON—Many television owners were left with no other option than to manually restart their devices by unplugging and then plugging them back in. READ MORE   *********************************   jay <cataloger@stillwater.org> thought you would be interested in the following article from The New York Review of Books. -- The New York Review of Books November 6, 2008 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22027?email Green Fantasia By Bill McKibben Thomas Friedman is the prime leading indicator of the conventional wisdom, always positioned just far enough ahead of the curve to give readers the sense that they're in-the-know, but never far enough to cause deep mental unease. He performs a useful service as a kind of political GPS unit, telling us where the country is, and could reasonably be expected to go. And this is his best book, more nuanced than his last, the best-selling The Earth Is Flat. But it needs to be viewed as a snapshot of the current dilemmas of policy, not as the oracle that it often aspires to be......   ******************************   More Mother goodies: http://ipost.com/archive/9z1zn9pstojmgah28c674l66gt0ebs4bud3k65hskpo   Canning:   White Chocolate Raspberry Jam with Coffee Liqueur Don't send those leaves to the landfill:   Put 'Em to Work! Title says it all:   Cooking Greens for Greens Haters The relatively routine root crop raised to respectable repast:   Garden Crops to Dig: It's what's going on underground that counts.   *********************************

Oct 27 08

I need to start by apologizing to Pam. I created this blog and chose the content without getting any feedback from her. She finds some of what I have posted offensive and doesn't care to be associated with it. I am removing her and George's names to reflect that the information and, perhaps, misinformation, presented here are my own and do should not reflect on either of them. I apologize for being so inconsiderate. So, feel free to blast me if you like, but don't blame my poor choices on anyone else. Bob ********************************* Gotta love this: The Nation magazine says good-bye to a scurvy dog! I don't know who can afford to go but I like the sentiment. Bub *************** Rest in Peace! Tony Hillerman, one of my favorite authors, died this weekend. He was a keen observer of traditional Navajo ways and wrote captivating mystery novels about life on the Navajo reservation and the conflicts within the tribal nation and its interactions with the larger surrounding world. He is credited by the Navajo with saving much traditional religious wisdom by incorporating it into his novels. Below is an excerpt from an online obituary on Yahoo.com. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obit_tony_hillerman "Born May 27, 1925, in Sacred Heart, Okla., population 50, Tony Hillerman was the son of August and Lucy Grove Hillerman. They were farmers who also ran a small store. It was there that young Tony listened spellbound to locals who gathered to tell their stories. The teacher at Sacred Heart's one-room school house was rumored to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, so Tony's parents sent him and his brother, Barney, to St. Mary's Academy, a school for Potawatomie Indian girls near Asher, Okla. It was at St. Mary's that he developed a lifelong respect for Indian culture — and an appreciation of what it means to be an outsider in your own land. In 1943, he interrupted his education at the University of Oklahoma to join the Army. He lugged his mortar ashore at D-Day with the 103rd Infantry Division and was severely wounded in battle at Alsace, France. He returned from Europe a genuine war hero with a Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, temporary blindness and two shattered legs that never stopped causing him pain. He returned to the university for his degree and, in 1948, married Marie Unzer. Together, they raised six children, five of them adopted." Very interesting fellow indeed. ****************************** Subject: What If? What if the Obama's had paraded five children across the stage, including a three-month-old special needs infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was the divorced candidate? What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married? What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to painkillers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980's and early1990's.) What if Obama couldn't read from a TelePrompTer? What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? And was never given a command position. What if Obama was the one known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem? What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution? What if the Obamas had adopted a white child? *This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference. *Educational Background of the Candidates: * Barack Obama Columbia University - B. A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations Harvard - (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude *Joseph Biden:* University of Delaware- B. A. in History and B. A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J. D.) *VS.* *John McCain:* United States Naval Academy – Class Rank: 894 of 900 *Sarah Palin:* Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B. A. in Journalism *Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. * "Debate and Disagreement are the Heart and Soul of Democracy." Obama 2008 ******************************** As my friend Les says, she is just gussied up trailer trash. NY Local has our city covered from Co-op City to Coney Island Palin's pricey fashions A good Republican cloth coat? The Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on clothing and accessories for Sarah Palin and her family since early September, according to a report by the Politico Web site. Above, the Republican vice presidential nominee, with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in Bangor, Maine, Oct. 16. Credits: Bukaty/AP Published: 10/22/2008 01:31:04 Email ************************* A tip of the fedora to mi amigo, Eduardo, for the following: May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more, And may nothing but happiness Come through your door! **************** Getting Older? (aren't we all?) From The Nation online with thanks to Jay: Senior Rights and Wrongs By Harper Jean Tobin This article appeared in the November 3, 2008 edition of The Nation. October 16, 2008 A wave of federal court decisions in recent years has made it difficult and sometimes impossible for older Americans to enforce important rights, such as hard-earned pension benefits, freedom from age discrimination, access to long-term care, compensation for injuries caused by faulty medical devices and decent treatment in nursing homes. These decisions are often densely reasoned, relying on abstract notions like national uniformity, efficiency and respect for state governments. Many are motivated, explicitly or implicitly, by a desire to lighten the dockets of overburdened federal courts. The common thread connecting them all is lack of attention to the goals of Congress and the real problems facing older Americans. Hard Knocks in the Workplace Supreme Court Eric Schnapper: The rights of workers get little attention from the court, and employers know they can violate those rights with impunity. Debtor Nation Supreme Court Robert M. Lawless: The Supreme Court has done little to protect a nation of debtors from predatory lending practices. Senior Rights & Wrongs Supreme Court Health For example, the Supreme Court has turned the federal pension law on its head, eliminating virtually all remedies when employers deny benefits in bad faith. Since the Court has given them virtual immunity, employers are encouraged to play fast and loose with the law. Last December, the Supreme Court denied review in Eichorn v. AT&T Corp., a case in which the telecom giant engineered the sale of a subsidiary to eliminate the pension rights of more than 1,000 employees. While employees had the right under their pension plan to transfer to other divisions of AT&T and retain their benefits, AT&T effectively canceled those rights by promising its buyer not to rehire them. A federal appeals court acknowledged that the evidence showed a large-scale, intentional violation of law, but it nevertheless threw the case out, ruling that the law provided no remedies for the employees. To make matters worse, the Supreme Court's ruling this January in Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta Inc. left public and private pensions more vulnerable than ever to securities fraud. When Enron tanked, pension funds lost tens of millions, yet Enron itself was judgment-proof. The Court shielded Enron's equally culpable corporate collaborators from suit, cutting off the only realistic source of compensation. With their assets depleted by escalating medical needs, a growing number of formerly middle-class seniors are turning to Medicaid, which now pays for 60 percent of all nursing home care. Yet federal appeals courts have increasingly ruled that key protections in the Medicaid Act can't be enforced in court. For example, in 2005 a federal appeals court refused to allow seniors to challenge an Oregon rule that, for purely budgetary reasons, deemed some seniors "not sick enough" for home healthcare services; the rule was probably illegal under a provision of the act requiring eligibility standards to be reasonable. According to the General Accounting Office, one in five nursing homes was cited last year for putting residents' safety at risk. Yet in a series of decisions, the Supreme Court has rendered seniors more vulnerable by turning the eighty-year-old Federal Arbitration Act, meant for voluntarily resolving disputes between businesses, into a tool for nursing homes and other businesses to force seniors, consumers, workers and others to sign away their right to go to court. By including arbitration clauses in contracts before a dispute arises, companies get an arbitration system that lets them handpick the arbitrators and the rules to be applied, is tilted against consumers, forces families to travel hundreds of miles, hides abuses from the public eye and strictly limits damages. There is no public record, and no appeal. In June David Kurth testified at a Senate hearing that his father died of infected bedsores in a Wisconsin nursing home. When the family sued the facility owner, it used a boilerplate arbitration clause in its admission agreement to force the case out of court and into the industry-controlled arbitration system. Congressional leaders have called for legislation to restore rights to older Americans in some of these areas, and a bill to ban predispute arbitration clauses in nursing home admission agreements gained some traction, but no action is expected in this Congress. Older Americans should look to the upcoming election and demand leaders who will undo the damage the courts have done--and appoint judges who won't continue to strip away their rights.

October 24 08

Thanks Katius for sharing this: What I call the incredible "inedible" egg [Bub] http://www.eggindustry.com/ The Hard-Boiled Truth: Modern Egg Production in the United States Behind the vast majority of every "incredible edible" egg sold in grocery stores today is a hen so intensively confined inside a wire battery cage, she can barely even move. With just 67 square inches of space in which to live, she can't even flap her wings, let alone build a nest, perch, dust bathe, or perform many other natural behaviors. ************* Shared by Senta. Checkout the photoshop contest at the expense of McCain, of course. Don't stop at the top of the page, the better ones are farther down. Some are hilarious. http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2008/10/photoshop-conte.html ************ Forward from friend Morton: Two nuns are ordered to paint a room in the convent, and the last instruction of the Mother Superior is that they must not get even a single drop of paint on their habits. After conferring about this for a while, the two nuns decide to lock the door of the room, strip off their habits, and paint in the nude. In the middle of the project, there comes a knock at the door. 'Who is it?' calls one of the nuns. 'Blind man' replies a voice from the other side of the door. The two nuns look at each other and shrug, and deciding that no harm can come from letting a blind man into the room, they open the door. 'Nice boobs,' says the man, 'where do you want the blinds?' ********************** Cousin Bonnie cautions: Always wear clean underwear in public, especially when working under your vehicle... From the Northwest Florida Daily News comes this story of a Crestview couple who drove their car to Wal-Mart, only to have their car break down in the parking lot. The man told his wife to carry on with the shopping while he fixed the car in the lot. The wife returned later to see a small group of people near the car. On closer inspection, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis. Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underpants turned private parts into glaringly public ones. Unable to stand the embarrassment, she dutifully stepped forward, quickly put her hand UP his shorts, and tucked everything back into place. She took a deep breath and stood up boldly to face the crowd. She looked across the hood and found herself staring at her husband, who had been standing idly by. The mechanic, however, had to have three stitches in his forehead. ***************** Landover Baptist jab: What Can Christians Do to Help Increase Global Warming? The faster Earth heats up, the quicker Jesus will return! Glory! More> **********

October 23 08

"Pam Brown" <cronewithcats@sbcglobal.net Fwd: Fw: mccain v obama dance off   computers are getting scary....... http://break.com/index/unbelievable-mccain-vs-obama-dance-off.html ************************* Forwarded by my friend Jay: Southern Poverty Law Center October 23, 2008 Dear Friend, Your gift will help protect our legal team at the upcoming trial against the Imperial Klans of America. Donate today Our trial against the Klan in November promises to be one of the greatest security challenges we've ever faced. As soon as we filed the lawsuit, the threats started rolling in, including a web post stating "I say we should blow up their building." We've recently learned that one of the Klan leaders we're facing in our upcoming trial is suspected by an undercover FBI informant of being involved in a plot to kill me. Ron Edwards, Imperial Klans of America (IKA) leader, is a hardened veteran of the white supremacist movement with connections throughout the violent world of neo-Nazis and skinheads. When I took his deposition, he showed up carrying a concealed pistol. The words "F*** SPLC" were tattooed on his shaven head. I hope you will send a special gift today to help with the security measures we're taking to protect our staff at the upcoming trial against the IKA. Over the past 25 years, more than 30 individuals have been convicted of crimes in connection with plots to kill me or in some way harm the Center or its staff. As a Center supporter, you know our work fighting hate groups always carries a substantial risk that we live with every day. You also know that we will never back down from the hatemongers who want to stop us. But I must tell you that I'm especially concerned about the security challenges we're tackling right now. I do not personally fear those who would kill me, but I can't stand the thought that any of our staff might be harmed. That's why I've asked our security chief to take whatever steps are necessary to adequately protect SPLC staff. With your generous gift, we will continue to stand up to these hate-filled terrorists. I hope for the day that my family and my Center colleagues will no longer have to fear being attacked. But in the meantime, with passionate people like you behind us, we will stand firm in the face of threats and intimidation and continue our work for justice and fairness. Thank you for your support, Morris Dees P.S. Please consider a generous donation today and remember to be a voice of reason in your community. Speak out against hate and bigotry whenever and wherever you see it. ******************** An amazing half-time show by the human slinky. ???? You tell me!! http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/2/HalfTime-Basketball-Creighton-University-Omaha-Neb-457715.html ***************** Chicago Manual of Style ad answer page Q. My colleagues are divided in their opinions about "storing data in a computer" versus "storing data on a computer." Which is correct? Thanks. A. You can do either, but I would store the data in the computer. It used to be easy to store stuff on a computer, but now with flat screens and laptops it tends to slide off. ************* I am currently digging my way thorough George Soros' book The Age of Fallibility. I am no economist so I find it very challenging. It was written in 2006 and he was predicting our current financial situation very accurately then. Following is an excerpt from an interview with Soros from The New York Review of Books.  The full interview is available at the following link. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21352 Volume 55, Number 8 · May 15, 2008 The Financial Crisis: An Interview with George Soros By George Soros, Judy Woodruff The following is an edited and expanded version of an interview with George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management, by Judy Woodruff on Bloomberg TV on April 4. Judy Woodruff: You write in your new book, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets,[1] that "we are in the midst of a financial crisis the likes of which we haven't seen since the Great Depression." Was this crisis avoidable? George Soros: I think it was, but it would have required recognition that the system, as it currently operates, is built on false premises. Unfortunately, we have an idea of market fundamentalism, which is now the dominant ideology, holding that markets are self-correcting; and this is false because it's generally the intervention of the authorities that saves the markets when they get into trouble. Since 1980, we have had about five or six crises: the international banking crisis in 1982, the bankruptcy of Continental Illinois in 1984, and the failure of Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, to name only three. ************************

Halloween party pics Oct 21 08

New pictures added. Check them out.

Also want to remind you to check out guest host DangerGranger on the Rock and Road Show on blip.tv

http://rockandroadshow.blip.tv/#1386717