The King's Speech

I believe this is the first time I've put anything up here about a movie, good or bad.  I just saw this film today, on the Plaza (only $4.00 for the matinee, too), and have to say, briefly, that it is one of the most well-written, beautiful, touching films I've seen in a long, long time and highly recommend it.  It even has terrific occasional humor to it.  I nearly can't say enough good things about it.

If you're looking for something to do this weekend with two hours of your time, I doubt you could spend the time any better than seeing this.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Another gun nut attacks

I refuse to apologize for the term for surely this was, in fact, a true "gun nut":


Arizona Rep. Giffords shot, at least 5 killed

By TERRY TANG, AMANDA LEE MYERS and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press3 mins ago

TUSCON, Ariz. --  Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head Saturday when an assailant opened fire outside a grocery store during a meeting with constituents, killing at least five people and wounding several others in a rampage that rattled the nation.

Newly elected House Speaker John Boehner said it best when he was quoted, saying "Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society. 
It seems Former Part-time Governor--and full-time "quitter" Sarah Palin seems to sharea some culpability for inciting followers, too:

In August 2009, an attendee at a Giffords town-hall meeting dropped a handgun, leading Giffords's staff to call the police. "We have never felt the need before to notify law enforcement when we hold these events," her spokesman said at the time.

After Giffords voted in favor of the health-care overhaul in March, she said that vandals had broken the glass door of her Tucson office. "The rhetoric is incredibly heated, not just the calls but the emails, the slurs," she told MSNBC at the time. "Things have really gotten spun up."

She added: "We do have these polarized parts of our parties that really get excited, and that's where ... all of us have to come together and say, 'OK, there's a fine line here.' "

She told MSNBC's Chuck Todd that she was not afraid, however.

That same month, Sarah Palin's political action committee posted a map of the US, showing the locations of the 20 Democratic members of Congress, including Giffords, it was targeting for defeat. Each location was marked by an image of a gun crosshairs.

Fewer guns in the world only makes sense, as does less talk or images of violence and the possible use of violence as an option in our society, to our problems and issues.
Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110108/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shothttp://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110108/ts_yblog_thelookout/giffords-had-been-target-of-violent-threats;_ylt=AjOkbDqgX65.tc07YcFi3SpH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTU0bzVlajg0BGFzc2V0Ay9zL3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTAxMDgvdHNfeWJsb2dfdGhlbG9va291dC9naWZmb3Jkcy1oYWQtYmVlbi10YXJnZXQtb2YtdmlvbGVudC10aHJlYXRzBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZ2lmZm9yZHNoYWRi

Good news/bad news on those "die-offs"

Okay, folks, we can calm down a bit--a bit--on those seemingly random "die-offs" in nature mentioned here and elsewhere, earlier this week.  Apparently they aren't that uncommon in nature after all.

At least partly, anyway.

Here's more of the truth of the matter from Yahoo! News and the Associated Press earlier today:


The reality, say biologists, is that these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated.

Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America. Usually, we don't notice them and don't try to link them to each other.

"They generally fly under the radar," said ornithologist John Wiens, chief scientist at the California research institution PRBO Conservation Science.

Since the 1970s, the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin has tracked mass deaths among birds, fish and other critters, said wildlife disease specialist LeAnn White. At times the sky and the streams just turn deadly. Sometimes it's disease, sometimes pollution. Other times it's just a mystery.

In the past eight months, the USGS has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that's probably a dramatic undercount, White said. The list includes 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys, 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota, 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho, 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas, and the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California.

Weather — cold and wet weather like in Arkansas New Year's Eve when the birds fell out of the sky — is often associated with mass bird deaths, ornithologists say. Pollution, parasites and disease also cause mass deaths. 

So what's happening this time?

Blame technology, says famed Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson. With the Internet, cell phones and worldwide communications, people are noticing events, connecting the dots more.

"This instant and global communication, it's just a human instinct to read mystery and portents of dangers and wondrous things in events that are unusual," Wilson told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Not to worry, these are not portents that the world is about to come to an end."

Now, here's the flip side to this, too, however--we're not totally out of the woods, so to speak (certainly no pun intended, let me be clear):  

The irony is that mass die-offs — usually of animals with large populations — are getting the attention while a larger but slower mass extinction of thousands of species because of human activity is ignored, Wilson said.

The frogs and salamanders and other amphibians, among a lot of other animal groups, are threatened by extinction from we-don't-know-what-yet.  Pesticides possibly/likely have a good bit to do with it, certainly, along with nitrogen run-off from farms and fields, into the waterways.  

And that's just one animal group.

Another threatened group is definitely the bats I mentioned the other day, that have begun dying off due to some mysterious new fungus, it seems.

Who can say what killed the 2 million fish I mentioned the other day in the Chesapeake Bay?  We'll see if that's a natural or man-made disaster, I expect.

The honey bees and the collapse, internationally, of their colonies and the associated die-offs seems clearly a man-made and huge problem that we likely won't be able to address and fix.  This is one problem--the loss of pollinating honey bees--that has such ramifications it's difficult to even know how bad this could get.  

Finally, then, the coral reefs and their dying is also key to life in the oceans and this will likely have huge ramifications for both ocean life and humankind.

So don't get all "the sky is falling" yet but there are some things out there that are scary enough, all by themselves that we can hopefully fix before it's too terribly late.

Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110107/ap_on_sc/us_sci_dead_wildlife_fact_check

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/05/132675539/latest-report-of-animal-carnage-2-million-fish-die-in-chesapeake-bay

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/03/bumblebees-study-us-decline

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=bees+dying&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/coral-reefs-in-danger-of-being-destroyed-1908544.html

http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=coral+reefs+in+danger&aq=0p&aqi=p-p2g8&aql=&oq=coral+re&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41

http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=frogs+dyin

More reasons we need this health care reform we got

Not only do we need what health care reform we got, bad as our system is--and by bad I mean absurdly, unnecessarily expensive--but now we find out from the Congressional Budget Office that if the Republicans were to repeal it, it would cost the country at least $230 billion dollars.  From their report (note:  HR2 is the Republican's bill to repeal the Health Care Reform Act of 2010):

"Consequently, over the 2012-2021 period, the effect of H.R. 2 on federal deficits as a result of changes in direct spending and revenues is likely to be an increase in the vicinity of $230 billion, plus or minus the effects of technical and economic changes to CBO's and JCT's projections for that period..."

"Correspondingly, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2 would increase federal deficits in the decade after 2019 by an amount that is in a broad range around one-half percent of GDP, plus or minus the effects of technical and economic changes that CBO and JCT will include in the forthcoming estimate. For the decade beginning after 2021, the effect of H.R. 2 on federal deficits as a share of the economy would probably be somewhat larger."

That's one quarter of a trillion dollars the Republicans would add to our national deficit by repealing this health care reform we need and needed so badly, besides wasting their/our time by going back over it in Congress this year.

Idiots.

Idiots and demagogues.

Get on with the "people's business", people.

Links:  http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/cbo-gop-health-care-repeal-adds-230-billion-deficit
http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=1750

African-American DA in Dallas needed to free innocent African-American

You may have heard by now about the proven-innocent man in Dallas finally freed after serving 30 years in prison for a rape and robbery he didn't commit?  It was covered by NPR and the Associated Press.

Horrible as it is/was, it's certainly not the first time an innocent man was imprisoned, certainly.  It's been the stuff of books and movies seemingly forever, certainly.

Cornelius Dupree is an African-American who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and then wrongly, mistakenly "found guilty" and imprisoned, as I said, for a rape and robbery he didn't commit.  It's also not uncommon for the way he was "found guilty", either, since it was based on a really bad "positive lineup".

What makes the story additionally important and noteable, however, is that it took an African-American District Attorney in Dallas, one Craig Watkins, to push, time and again, to go back over old cases with existing, stored evidence to see if those proven guilty were, in fact, truly guilty.  As soon as he was elected to his position in 2006, he got busy:


Sworn in as Dallas County district attorney on Jan. 1 -- he is the first elected black district attorney in Texas -- Watkins fired or accepted the resignations of almost two dozen high-level white prosecutors and began hiring minorities and women.


And in an unprecedented act for any jurisdiction in the nation, he announced he would allow the Texas affiliate of the Innocence Project to review hundreds of Dallas County cases dating back to 1970 to decide whether DNA tests should be conducted to validate past convictions.


What's terrific is that Mr. Watkins' stated goal is, as "the criminal code of the state of Texas and the American Bar Association’s code clearly state that the job of a prosecutor is to seek justice," no more and no less and so he is.


Good for him and good for the people of Texas.  


All of them.


Justice is being served.

Links:  http://www.npr.org/templates/search/index.php?searchinput=man+found+innocent+in+Texas&sort=match&tabId=text
http://www.bowtieprofessor.com/african-american-studies/dallas-district-attorney-craig-watkins-a-hero-of-our-time-2010-03-878
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401566.html
http://reason.com/archives/2008/04/07/is-this-americas-best-prosecut

Quote of the day--on war

"A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." --German Proverb

Nature's die-offs so far: anyone paying attention? (updated)

Sure everyone heard about the 5,000 blackbirds that died in Arkansas over the New Year's holiday, you bet.  And then the fish kill, nearby.

Both events surprising, unexpected and unexlained, so far.

But it's important to look at the "big picture", especially in nature and especially with "die-offs" being experienced in nature in recent times.  We need to be sure we're putting and keeping all the puzzle pieces together, in a manner of speaking, so we don't miss anything.

Herewith, then, is a recent list of some of these big "die-offs" in nature that we can't quite seem to explain:

1)  Again, the 5,000 blackbirds killed in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year's Eve.  Maybe it was from people shooting a "fireworks cannon" and so, explained, maybe not.  No one knows yet;

2)  Next was that kill of 100,000--yes, one hundred thousand--drum fish near Ozark, Arkansas on about 20 miles of the Arkansas River.  Nothing to sneeze at.  At this point, they still don't seem to know what killed them, either;

3)  Next up was a 2nd large bird kill, this time in neighboring Louisiana, where an estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School.


The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward...

That was just down the road from Baton Rouge.

4)  Word out in the last 24 hours tells of a huge die-off of 2 million fish in recent days in Maryland's section of the Chesapeake Bay, the Baltimore Sun says;

5)  "The Huffington Post says, meanwhile, says there have also been reports of "mass fish deaths ... in Brazil..."  ParanaOnline reports that 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish have washed up in Brazilian fishing towns since last Thursday. The cause of the deaths is unknown, with an imbalance in the environment, chemical pollution, or accidental release from a fishing boat all suggested by local officials.

6)  "...and New Zealand":  In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on Coromandel Peninsula beaches, many found with their eyes missing,

7)  The same Huffington Post article tells of another, but smaller, die-off of about 50 birds that mysteriously "fell from the sky" in Sweden and again, unexplained.  Oh, joy;

8)  Next up is more than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs have wound up dead on England beaches.   If I can say "fortunately" here, I would say fortunately this seems to have simply occurred due to hypothermia.  It seems they may have just gotten hit with terribly cold weather this winter;

9)  Then there is the massive die-off, worldwide, of pollinating bees we're aware of.  The abundance of four common species of bumblebees in the us has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades, according to the most comprehensive national census of the insects.

Again, we aren't quite sure why yet though I can't imagine humankind's spraying insecticide all over millions of acres of the world can't be doing them any good, at minimum.  It's also been posited that maybe it's our cell phones.  Stay tuned;

10)  Added to all this is the die-off of bats the world over and again, we aren't quite sure why though they have found a fungus that seems to be a common thread in their situation;

11)  Then there's the possible collapse, this time of a plant, of the banana crop across much of the world.  It began in Australia, it seems, and has spread across the world, seemingly headed for our source for bananas, South and Central America.  They're all the same strain of bananas, you see, so any fungus that gets the one, gets them all eventually;

12)  Finally, there is the bleaching and dying off--this more slowly--of the coral reefs that has been noticed by scientists and divers the world over, possibly, if not likely, due to climate change and the increased temperature of the oceans.

There you have it.  I think that's all I have for today, I think.  I guess.

And isn't that enough?

Isn't it far too much?

At what point do we start paying attention to nature, folks, and to this planet we need to live on? 

At what point do we start giving credence to the idea that we need to live with and take care of nature and our planet so we don't end up with the "Silent Spring" Rachel Carson warned us of so many decades earlier?

Now seems like a good time.

Links:  http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/04/Arkansas-bird-kill-likely-due-to-noise/UPI-56241294152955/
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-02/us/arkansas.fish.kill_1_massive-fish-dead-birds-bird-deaths?_s=PM:US
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/another-large-bird-kill-reported-this-time-in-louisiana
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/05/132675539/latest-report-of-animal-carnage-2-million-fish-die-in-chesapeake-bay
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/05/dead-birds-fall-from-sky-_n_804591.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/03/bumblebees-study-us-decline
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978877668
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=bees+dying&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/10/110110fa_fact_peed
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/coral-reefs-in-danger-of-being-destroyed-1908544.html
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=coral+reefs+in+danger&aq=0p&aqi=p-p2g8&aql=&oq=coral+re&gs_rfai=&psj=1&fp=e8de98ca5b405b41
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/mass-bird-fish-deaths-worldwide-phenomenon/
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/916503--40-000-crabs-join-slew-of-animal-death-mysteries

Another American calling for shorter election campaigns

Hopefully this will catch on

Ms. Keli Goff, author, commentator & contributing editor to The Huffington Post, from TheLoop21.com from her column at The Huffington Post yesterday:

Maybe this is one issue where our country -- which I still consider the greatest in the world -- should consider taking a cue from our cousins across the pond. The duration of England's last round of elections? One month. That's right, one whole month. Four weeks for candidates to get their message out to voters, and that month included substantially fewer debates and television advertisements than we are bombarded with in this country. (Although that may have something to do with the country's restrictions on the influence of outside political groups in fundraising and political advertising, another area where we lag behind our allies.)


Shorter election campaigns and campaign finance reform.


Maybe one day, eh?


Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/what-england-can-teach-us_b_804112.html

But they don't see the problem...

More same-old, same-old government, this time from the incoming Republicans:

With Republican leaders anxious to set an austere tone for their ascendance into the House majority this week, the lavish fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday night at a trendy Washington hotel to benefit a dozen GOP freshmen is not exactly the populist image leaders are anxious to project.

And here is the real problem:  

House Speaker-elect John Boehner, whose name was featured on the invitation, is nonetheless skipping the event at the W Hotel, where lobbyists, political action committee managers and others paying the $2,500 ticket price will be treated to a performance by country music star LeAnn Rimes (a $50,000 package includes a block of eight tickets and a “VIP suite” at the W). 

A $2500.00 ticket.  To get in.  Paid for by corporations.  Through their lobbyists.  So they can have access to our legislators.

And the Republicans are promising to change something in Washington?

I'll repeat:  We need true campaign finance reform so it will be strictly illegal for corporations to give money of any sort, like this, above, or to campaigns or whatever, through their lobbyists to legislators of any stripe.

That and we need to make the campaigns 3 or 6 months long, by law, like the British did long ago.

We need to get the corporate money out of government, folks.  We all know this.  Let's do something about it.

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20110104/pl_politico/46999

Great question for all Republicans

From yesterday's debate by 5 possible candidates for the Republican National Committee's next Chairmanship:


"How can an organization that has lost its credibility, is $20 million in debt, is steeped in mismanagement, distractions and drama actually lead us into the next election cycle of 2012 and offer change?" --Ann Wagner, former Missouri Republican chairman and U.S.ambassador to Luxembourg

How, indeed, Ms. Wagner, how indeed?

For that matter, how is this same political party in this same shape and run by these same people supposed to run the entire country?

Fortunately for me, I don't see that happening.

Link to original post:  http://www3.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/3/steele-challengers-take-aim-rnc-debate/

That RNC Chairperson debate yesterday?

Did you see where 5 candidates for the Republican National Committee Chairperson job--including current office holder Michael Steele--debated yesterday?


It was not a reason for any optimism with these people.


From the St. Louis Beacon today:  


At least a third of the questions focused on guns, gays and abortion -- which prompted all the contenders, including Wagner, to emphasize their commitment to traditional marriage and the Second Amendment, plus their opposition to legal abortion.


Did you get that?


Guns, gays and abortion were there big topics.


It's not "God, guts and guns", but it's darn close. 


Stupidity run rampant.


Forget that the abortion issue has 30 years of legal precedent in the country.


Forget that, as a nation, we have shown that we are pretty much over the issue of gays and that we're much more inclusive and tolerant.


Forget that no one is trying to get anyone else's gun by legislation or any other route.


Forget all that.


All that matters is that these are the 3 big, electrically-charged issues that this group of Republicans thinks will charge their voting electorate to get out and vote.


That is some kind of sick.


And for the final, repulsive note, check out that fellow Missourian Ann Wagner is thought to have scored big points in the debate because she nearly literally "out-gunned" the other debaters because, she said, she had 16 guns at her house, between herself, her husband and son.


I feel nauseous.


Link:  http://www.stlbeacon.org/issues-politics/280-washington/107200-wagner-at-rnc-candidates-debate-

But, oh, yeah, YOU just voted Republicans back in the House

From Alternet today:

10 Signs That Our Nation Is Becoming Poorer


The Working Poor Families Project has discovered that the number of working poor in the United States is higher than ever and it continues to increase at a staggering pace.


#1 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#2 Since the year 2000, we have lost 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs. Meanwhile, our population is getting larger.

#3 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but now 42 million Americans are on food stamps and that number keeps rising every single month.

#4 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.

#5 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

#6 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#7 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.

#8 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.

#9 In 1976, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States took in 8.9 percent of all income. By 2007, that number had risen to 23.5 percent.


#10 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.

Corporate America--and the wealthy of the country--thank you.

Link to original post:  http://www.alternet.org/economy/149405/10_signs_that_our_nation_is_becoming_poorer?page=entire

(Easy?) Change we expected with this president

Sure, Sarah "The Quitter" Palin can deride President Obama when she asks "How's that 'hopey-changey' thing going for you?" and I'd respond "Pretty darn well, thank you very much."

Not perfectly, by any means but we saved General Motors--the whole company and all those jobs, working directly for them and all the associated companies and jobs involved--the economy is turning around, we got SOME health care reform, anyway, and the very discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was done away with, along with a lot of other good reforms (for a long list of more, see:   http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/19/805925/-90-Accomplishments-of-Pres.-Obama-Which-The-Media-Fails-to-Report)

But, admittedly, there are a few things I thought we'd get and that, I must admit, I thought we'd get long before now.  They are:

--Closing Guantanamo.  First, he said he would (and yes, I believed him) and second, it just doesn't seem it would be that difficult to do.  There were--what?--267 inmates at this thing?  I never believed for a minute that the United States of America could not or cannot handle 267 inmates of one kind or another.  We have to be that strong;

--Returning habeus corpus back to our political system.  The previous--George W. Bush--administration handily did away with this cornerstone of our Republic and our laws and I think, strongly, we should get it back.  I thought, being the law student and professor he was, that President Obama would see to this poste haste.  Far from it.  I thought he would do this one evening on the way to putting Sasha and Malia to bed one night, it would be that easy.  (Definition, for those needing it:  Habeas Corpus, literally in Latin "you have the body" is a term that represents an important right granted to individuals in America. Basically, a writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate requiring that a prisoner be brought before the court to determine whether the government has the right to continue detaining them. The individual being held or their representative can petition the court for such a writ.
According to Article One of the Constitution, the right to a writ of habeas corpus can only be suspended "in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety." Habeas corpus was suspended during the Civil War and Reconstruction, in parts of South Carolina during the fight against the Ku Klux Klan, and during the War on Terror.)

--I thought we'd get back "due process of law" (the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law) fully restored, too, with this president, particularly as relates to the people held in Guantanamo, at minimum.  More than anything, what I mean here is, if we're going to hold the prisoners at Guantanamo, we should file charges.  If we're not going to file charges--or can't--then they should be released.  We either have something on them or we don't, it's simple as that.  Or it was, before that last president.  To date, no such reclamation;
 
--Finally, I thought we would have seen the end of "signing statements" like those created under, again, former President George W. Bush.  The whole idea that a president could, yes, sign legislation into law but then make these "statements", before, during or after the signing, making it clear he (or she, one day) was going to disallow some portions of the legislation just signed seems anti-thetical to our government.  It wrests far too much power away from at least one other branch of government--the legislative--if not two, with the judicial branch, too, unless and until they ruled against this procedure. 
 
According to The Daily Kos today, President Obama is, in fact, going to issue a "signing statement on Guantanamo restrictions." 
 
When "Dubya" issued "signing statements" originally, when signing laws, I was incensed, it was such a clear power grab.
 
That President Obama would continue the practice stuns and disappoints me greatly.
 
Hopefully this Right-wing, extremely conservative Supreme Court will rule on these statements and forever banish them from our government, if that's what's necessary to rid ourselves of them.
 
In the meantime, I still hope we get the above four issues handled.
 
And as soon as possible.
 
Links:  http://americanhistory.about.com/od/americanhistoryterms/g/d_habeascorpus.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_process
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/4/933248/-Obama-to-issue-signing-statement-on-Guantanamo-restrictions?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

It's one thing to say we shouldn't tax companies much...

But it's quite another, I think--and easily done--to say that we shouldn't be giving tax breaks to big, extremely profitable industries, don't you agree?

Like "Big Oil"?

Check this out, from Political Animal and The Washington Monthly this morning: 

GET THE ENERGY SECTOR OFF THE DOLE.... With global warming deniers about to take charge of the House of Representatives, there would seem to be little hope for major clean energy legislation in this Congress. But all is not lost, argues Jeffrey Leonard in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly. Last fall's election let loose political forces that President Obama can tap to set us on a path to a sustainable energy future with a simple proposal: eliminate all energy subsidies.

 Yes, eliminate them all -- for oil, coal, gas, nuclear, ethanol, even for wind and solar. It will be better for national security, the budget deficit, and, believe it or not, the environment. Green energy sources get only the tiniest sliver of the overall federal subsidy pie, so they'll have a competitive advantage in the long term if all subsidies, including the huge ones for fossil fuels, are eliminated. In addition, deep trends in America's energy supply, including discoveries of huge natural gas reserves, will over time create favorable terrain for wind, solar, and other energy sources that liberals love -- but only if our entrenched system of subsidies doesn't gum up the works. And while getting the energy sector off the dole may have once been politically impossible, with anti-pork Tea Partiers loose in Washington and deficit cutting in the air, the moment may finally be right.

From the original article Mr. Benen is referring to:

Energy subsidies are the sordid legacy of more than sixty years of politics as usual in Washington, and they cost us somewhere around $20 billion a year. To put that sum in perspective, that’s more than the State Department’s entire budget. It’s also enough to send half a million Americans to college each year with all expenses paid. Energy subsidies undermine the working of the free market, and they make rational approaches to long-term energy challenges and climate change impossible. They are not an aid to energy independence or environmental stewardship. They are an impediment.

 Doesn't this make sense? 

Why should we give tax breaks, for pity's sake, to the oil industry?  Does anyone think they won't make a profit?  Who could be for keeping things as they are, I mean, besides the industry itself? 

Libertarians, Conservatives, the Tea Party, Democrats, Consevatives, Liberals--everybody ought to be behind this.

And while we're at it, let me bring up here, yet again, why doesn't some Congressional representative bring up a bill to do away with tax deductions to any industry to take manufacturing offshore?

You know, sometimes things just aren't that difficult.

This is an example of two right here.

Link to original post:  http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027369.php
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2011/1101.leonard-2.html

Possible good news out of Iraq

According to a story on NPR, there is word that Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki is "talking tough" and saying he wants all US troops out of Iraq by the previously-set deadline.

Thank you, Mr. Maliki.  We couldn't agree more.

Here's the jist of the article:

It's long been assumed that the withdrawal deadline of December 2011 would be renegotiated — that Iraq might need some kind of troop presence beyond then. But lately, it's looking like the United States and Iraq might have to come up with another plan.

Over the past two years, U.S. troops have remained in Iraq under a treaty between the two countries known as a Status of Forces Agreement.

The treaty is set to expire at the end of this year. But American generals and Iraqi politicians have long hinted that the two sides might reach a deal to extend the deadline — if, of course, the Iraqi government formally requested it.

But in an interview Maliki granted The Wall Street Journal last week, he said the existing agreement is "sealed" — and subject to neither extension nor alteration. Still, he did seem to leave open the possibility of a new agreement.

No, no, Mr. Maliki, stick with the plan.  Throw our butts out.  Have us bring ALL our soldiers home.  You run your country and let us stick with ours.

Hopefully this isn't just a ploy on his/their part to get yet more money out of the stupid Americans.  You know, "Well, we might let you stay a while longer if you'll give us $X million to stay in the meantime--but only for a while..."

And hopefully this means our soldiers can come home sooner rather than later.

Of  course, in the meantime, it also means that George W. Bush's, Dick Cheney's and Halliburton's ridiculous, huge and extravagant "embassy compound" we built over there--the largest in the world--will go to some waste but hey, we knew that when they started building the ignorant thing, didn't we?

Link to original post:  http://www.npr.org/2011/01/04/132632709/in-surprise-iraq-may-enforce-withdrawal-deadline

One last look at the year that was

Welcome to 2011, y'all.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Things we need to remember from 2010

Sure, it's one thing to "move on" and get on with the new year and that's fine but there are things from this year just past we need to remember, in part so they're handled and the people are not forgotten.  In part, too, so people who are responsible aren't let "off the hook" for their responsibilities.

Herewith, then, are some of the biggest:

--In January of last year, the desperately poor people of Haiti were struck by a devastating earthquake, from which they are still recovering.  They deserve to not be forgotten;

--The BP oil disaster which began at the end of April.  We certainly can't forget this happened.  We can't forget the devastation, both natural and economic, at least, that it reeked on the Gulf region.  We can't forget that so many millions of barrels of oil gushed into the area and we can't forget that it's still down there, doing more harm.  We have to hold BP responsible for all the damage inflicted, and truly for years;

--We can't forget the April earthquake that struck the island Sumatra in Indonesia and the devastation that wrought.  These people need our help--the help of all of us in the world;

--We can't forget the October earthquake on that same island of Sumatra and for the same reasons as above;

--Then there was the October tsunami that struck--again--Indonesia.  These people had a rough, rough year;

--Then there was Hurricane Tomas that then struck already-hurting Haiti.  It's crucial we don't forget--and so, abandon--the Haitian people.

--We need to remember that our health care system is badly, badly broken and needs fixing.  Too many big businesses are sucking far too much money out of our personal, individual accounts and out of the national budgets.  That and too many people are either going without care or simply, worst case scenario, dying.  It's badly fixed and needs fixing and as soon as possible.  What little remedy we got this year with the Health Care Reform Act of 2010 should absolutely not be revoked and should, instead, be augmented with more stipulations, beginning with a "public option" for insurance;

--Finally, we need to remember that we're all Americans and that we're in a bit of one heckuva bad economy right now and that we need to be Americans and work together to solve our problems.  And for you and me, the "person on the street", if you will, that's all well and good but what we really need to get in this new year is representatives in government--particularly in the US House of Representatives--that want and need our government to work for all of us, the people, and not just for the representatives and not simply against the opposing political party.  We don't have enough time on our clock to waste with in-fighting between these political parties.

There is no doubt more but I thought these the "biggest of the big" and things that needed to be kept in mind, in case we can help any or all of these people in the new year.

It seems crazy that we fight all these obscene wars around the world when we should be taking all that manpower, materiel and just plain money and start just helping each other with all the natural disasters we face each year, let alone the poverty, homelessness, disease and starvation.

But that would make too much sense, right?

Let's hope it's a happy new year, indeed.

Links:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Tomas_(2010)
http://yearinreview.yahoo.com/2010/us_natural_disasters#Natural Disasters
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2010_natural_disasters
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100905151748AAONyZk
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P0QN20101026
http://sickothemovie.com/checkup/

On the new year

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."    —John Ruskin


                   With that, I wish you a happy new year.

You are the new day

                                   Happy new year, y'all