The Amounts of Money being Thrown at the 2012 November Elections is Insane.

If you were ever impressed by the $250,000,000.00 Mitt Romney is purported to be worth think about this: It is entirely possible that come December, after the tallies are taken, the Republicans – in less than one year – will have gambled EIGHT TO TEN TIMES that amount to put him in the White House.

Donald Trump (you know – the guy who turned bankruptcy into a lucrative business back in the 80′s) has created his very own Super PAC, seeding it with $10 million in the hope he will help Romney raise over $2 billion.

Personally, I think giving The Donald a Super PAC is like giving a bottle of vodka to a drunk – but that’s just me.

And this is only one facet of Republican fundraising. It’s estimated the total amounts raised by November will have reached between $250 million and $3 billion, (including the primaries). That’s insane!

I don’t recall where but sometime in the last 10 years I read a report that made the claim: the entire world population could be fed on $18 million. I can’t remember if this was meant for a day, a month or a year, but I do remember feeling it was a very conservative amount, considering. (Googling this now got me nowhere, sadly.)

Then that horrid crash in the stock market happened where it was reported that Bill Gates had lost $18 million in one day and I thought – wow – he could have fed the world with that same amount and been a hero!

The Republican campaign coffers this year are literally engorged with cash and I can’t help wonder why this same enthusiasm isn’t given to feeding the world, instead.Think of the roads that could be fixed or shelters built – children saved by such impressive donations.

Think of the good that would come from that campaign money being fed back into the very government the Republicans are in such a frenzy to ‘restore’… more veterans could keep their benefits maybe. Or more hospitals could remain open.

I mean really, how can ONE PERSON so adamantly refuse to let their tax money go to paying for homeless shelters and school improvements – but throw hundreds of dollars into a Super PAC that has no guarantee the money won’t just end up in some fat cat’s pockets????

A whole lot of people could enjoy real benefits from the obscene amounts of campaign funds collected by the Republicans this year. Too bad they’re going to just piss it away instead…

 

Intelligent, Thoughtful People are Coming Out4Marriage

Story and video transcript on Politicus usa:

Visit Out4Marriage.org

In the late 1970′s just prior to the gay community getting slammed with the AIDS virus, I happened to fall in like with the funniest, most charming fella who would take me to coffee and say things like (ok see that waiter over there? Hands off girl that one’s mine!).

Like many, many gay people across the US he’d migrated to San Francisco California in the hope he could live his real life out in the open and stop having to hide behind phoney girlfriends and false machismo. San Francisco was the geographical version of The Great White Hope for gays back then as for some unknown reason the city was if not fully supportive, at least quietly tolerant of alternative lifestyles.

Until meeting this young man I pretty much thought of gay people like any other neighbour on my block:

There was a decorated WWII  hero next door who happened to be Japanese, a modest-sized Catholic Monsignor’s family across the street, a black man with a freckle-faced Irish wife and their two gorgeous daughters next to them , followed by a young Jewish couple,  a fireman and his family of five originally from New York, a little old lady from Hawaii, a square-dancing family of four from Hot Springs Arkansas and the Oxford educated scholarly owners of two Great Danes at  the business end of the block.

San Francisco, at mid-century, was the epitome of America’s image as a melting pot of cultures. Plus we had Noe Valley – home of  Castro St – a section of the city filled with older Victorian buildings still standing (though damaged in the 1906 earthquake), that had been taken over by a small community of gays determined to restore their old-world charm.

I’m pretty sure these buildings are the roots of the LGBT rainbow theme as I quite remember, growing up and busing it to Noe Valley for  dental appointments, that you could stand in one spot and see every colour of the rainbow on these brightly painted houses – trademark of the gay architects who took the time and spent the money to save these beautiful homes from demolition.

From churches to storefronts to the famous Victorian three-story family dwelling, the community was both laughed at and heralded. Every tourist wanted to see Castro St. Every gay wanted to live there. And so they came.

But sadly, even though the San Francisco attitude was tolerant, the laws remained. Gays would still be maligned and bashed and the AIDS epidemic only gave bigots an excuse to be even bigger bigots.

My friend thought that by coming to San Francisco he was leaving all that behind him. The beatings from his father meant to exorcise the gay away, the tears his mother shed when she turned her back on him for last time yet still haunted him… the school bullies and bosses who suddenly aren’t hiring – it all eventually came to San Francisco to. Or maybe it was always already there and I just hadn’t noticed.

Whatever the reality, I never saw my friend living his dream of sexual freedom. I only saw him struggle. Then one day his phone was disconnected, his flat empty and he just stopped showing up at my door.

Through my friend I learned the sadness that comes from being a little bit different. Especially in the gay community. That’s the part I’d not seen before. Tom painted his disappointments onto my city’s rainbow canvas and made it personal for me.

Every nationality, every race, every species has its share of heroes, inventors, nurturers, architects, worker-bees and assholes. In that we’re all the same.The things that make us different are every bit as important to the human race as a whole as those things which are the same.

We should stop insisting that one person’s opinion is better than another and concentrate on cleaning up our planet. You know, like maybe before it blows up from lack of oxygen.

 

Monica’s Child

Monica at age 14 begins an exclusive relationship with a classmate, a boy one year younger than she.  It’s public knowledge among their mates that they are an item. After a year, at age 15 Monica falls pregnant and tells her father and uncle that she was raped – by her boyfriend. Repeatedly.

The case was investigated. Family relatives were divided in their beliefs of the story of rape. Police looked but did not find any evidence to corroborate her story.  She gave birth to a healthy child, finished high school and at 18 meets a young man. They move in together, leaving the toddler behind, with the promise of frequent visitations and someday reuniting as a family.

The child is raised by incredibly caring grandparents with whom she feels wanted, loved and safe. At age 9 she is reunited with her mother, the boyfriend turned step-father, and a  half-sister, four years her junior. She embraces her family but misses her grandparents and never quite feels as though she belongs.

Not long after, and as the feeling of being the outsider in this new family arrangement intensifies,  her mother takes her aside and tells her she was conceived from a boyfriend who’d raped her. Repeatedly. Monica’s child is once again sent to live with her grandparents, who welcome her with open arms and do their best to soften the young girl’s news. She moves back and forth between families for the next few years.

As a teenager she meets another girl with a similar story and the two vow to find their biological fathers. Their search is foiled by a legal system full of sealed records and after a few months they give up.

Then one day while the girlfriend surfs the web, she trips over a website that features a handful of fathers looking for their children. There is a letter with her friend’s name on it. She replies.

The man introduces himself as the father of Monica’s child, explaining that he’d been looking for his daughter for a long time – but that he’d had to move far away because the rumour of his having raped a girl changed his life. He was innocent. But more than he wanted his child to know he wasn’t a rapist – he wanted her to know that she hadn’t been brought into this world from violence or anger – and that had he been given a chance he’d wanted to be her father, regardless of how young he and the mother had been. And they had been young. He was 13 when they began having sexual relations. Monica had been 14.

The young teenager made contact with her newly found parent. When Monica and her husband find out, Monica is so traumatised she’s hospitalised overnight and the her child is once again sent away.

There’s much, much more to this story and I understand how – some 20 years ago now, a young 14 year old girl could have probably feared her father enough to make the claim of rape to excuse her having become pregnant at such a young age. I’m not really faulting her for what happened between two kids and her subsequent prospect of having to face an angry parent.

What I can’t understand and am still trying to wrap my head around, is how the mother could have kept up the lie  all these years – why she even told her daughter she’d been conceived during rape – and why she continues to punish her daughter for an event that never took place. I don’t understand the logic at all and my outrage at what this woman has put this girl through – and continues to put her through – has me teetering on madness.

You have no idea how much self-restrain I’m having to use just to keep from calling this woman out publicly. But my young friend has had enough public humiliation and personal pain and dragging her mother out into the sunlight would only serve to add to her pain.

But if any of you can offer viable explanations, it might serve to help her heal.

 

“Tell me how it ends, Leo!”

There is a quiet moral-of-the-story that threads its way through the seven seasons of the television series West Wing. It can be summed up in one quote: “Tell me how it ends, Leo!”

President Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, is a Nobel-prize winning economist and master at the game of chess. Leo McGarry, played by the late John Spencer, is his chief of staff, a recovering alcoholic who is a master at politics. A struggle between the two men’s approaches to solving political problems builds subtly at first, then explodes in a magnificent crescendo in this episode as Leo, guardian of military tradition, bucks heads with Josiah, the chess master who has the fortunate (or unfortunate) ability to see multiple moves ahead in any battle, on or off the chess board.

If Josiah Bartlet were a real person and he was watching the Republican party inundate congress on both state and federal levels with the onslaught of bills aimed at stripping women of their rights, I can imagine him slamming a book down on his desk and demanding “Tell me where this ends Boehner, tell me how it ends!”

Because if you follow chess at all, it doesn’t take a master’s eye to see that the current path down which the Republicans are marching ends at women not being allowed to say no. Not ever.  Not to a father, a husband or a rapist.

First, the ability to choose when to fall pregnant is taken away by employers being given the legal right to withhold birth control from health insurance because contraception goes against the employers personal beliefs. Never mind her beliefs.

Next, funding for single women with children becomes extinct because the men have decided that lowering a national deficit takes priority. The fact that this lack of funding alters a single mother’s ability to independently raise her children is of no consequence. The men have decided what is important and what is not.

Then the few existing equal-pay for equal work laws are repealed, making it difficult for a woman to sup0port herself in a man’s world at all. Well, the women belong at home anyway. So sayeth the men.

Next, the mormon/evangelical/dominionist premise of the man being the one and true head of the family becomes the model – and then a mandate.

Because when you take a chess players  advice and step back to get a look at the board, the whole board you’ll see that anti-abortion laws were never about saving babies. They were aimed at stripping a woman of her rights.

Think I’m overreacting?

Republican groups are waiting in the wings to repeal the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act.

Republican groups are waiting in the wings to repeal the Affordable health
Care Act

Republicans are currently de-funding blocks of Planned Parenthood on state levels across the country.

Pregnant women are currently being imprisoned across America for the crime of having miscarried.

Some states have recently passed laws granting undeveloped embryos ‘personhood’.

Tell me how it ends, Leo. Tell me how it ends.

 

“Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” Lands in Sydney Australia (and if I read it right, the critics like neither Nick nor Sarah)

This morning, having a cuppa with cousin Margaret, she told me Sarah Palin was going to be on television this evening. She saw the ad on TV and couldn’t wait to give me the news! Margaret loves to tell me things she’s heard about the Palins because she says I’m very entertaining when I get all riled up and animated.

Margaret has recently been moved into a residential care facility where spouse and I now go every Sunday morning to have morning tea, bring her treats and try to make her transition more bearable. And I secretly overdo my reactions to her Palin comments – just to see her laugh.  On top of loving this woman to bits, it’s part of my job as Yank to be a silly one.

**Notice**  I hate hot key shortcuts. Especially when (A) you don’t know what they are and (B) they surprise you by posting your unfinished article in the middle of a sentence… grrr  (if you got here to find only part of this post up – sorry!)

When arriving back home I looked it up and sure enough, Nick Broomfield’s documentary finally hit Australia. I did screenshots of the TV Guide and Sydney Herald write-up in case just giving you this link didn’t work.

[Click each image to enlarge]

If I read this correctly, the Sydney Herald Staff writer wasn’t too keen on the results of Broomfield’s effort to track down the ‘real’  Sarah Palin – but neither was he complimentary about the Grizzled Mama herself. While referring to her in one sentence as one of the greatest political stories of the decade, he appears verbally stressed over the fact that the documentary makes her appear sympathetic.

Or maybe, even after 15 years of living on this island, I still don’t quite speak fluent Australian. (LOL).

Anyway, have a read and you tell me what the writer was thinking…

Here’s the Sydney Herald TV Guide version of the promo:

 

Angus the Fly Slayer

Was headed for bed last night when a fly, landing on a stack of unopened mail to my right, caught my attention. This fly had been hounding me all day and I was pretty done with letting it live. I contemplated getting the swatter (a beyond last resort for me as I really do try to let all things living – be.)

But as I sat there finishing a note to my son an extraordinary thing happened… a baby gecko slithered out from under the pile of mail and began stalking his prey.

My camera sits on a shelf to my left and I tried to get it, turn it on and aim it without disturbing the epic scene building beside my mousepad… but alas the fly was sensitive to my movement and took off. The gecko, however, stayed determinedly still.

The flash didn’t phase him. Perfectly still, like a stone statue the gecko sat, apparently waiting for the fly to return.

“You do realise” I chided the gecko, “this fly is bigger than all of your head and most of your torso.” The gecko cocked his head as if he understood. I continued.

“The thing is, while catching it would be admirable, getting the behemoth into your tiny mouth would be quite another feat altogether. So while I’m on your side in the endeavour, I’m not certain you’ve thought this through to the end.”

The gecko cocked his head once more as if taking hunting advice from a giant was  a daily event in his little life. But then spouse opened my office door and the gecko  scurried down the side of my desk.

Spouse, of course, wanted to know to whom I was speaking as he hadn’t heard the phone ring – and knew we didn’t have company.

“Aww” I muttered, “you scared him off.”

“I scared who off?”

“Angus.”

“Angus who?” he asked confused.

“Angus the fly-slayer. ” I replied with a certain tone I tend to get when spouse doesn’t just ‘know’ what I’m talking about without my having to offer an explanation. A girlfriend would  jump in and catch up without needing a set of directions,  as would a daughter, mother or sister.  But – a man being good at reading a woman’s mind? I’ve never found one.

Needless to say there was a pause. After a while I gave in. “The fly that’s been bugging me all day? There’s a gecko on his tail. He was right on my desk. I’m rooting for him to catch it. He’s just a baby. And his name is Angus.”

Spouse, ignoring the legitimacy of my knowing the gecko’s name (much less that the gecko even had a name) patted me on the head and said “Well I’ll leave you to it then…” and I’m sure he said something more (and more than likely something uncomplimentary), but his voice trailed off as he left the room and I didn’t catch it all. (Which is probably for the best.)

A few minutes later as I clicked my way out of Outlook, the fly flew past my shoulder and as if on cue Angus popped his head out from underneath the pile of white envelopes.

“You are an ambitious sort” I said to the gecko, “but if you can catch that big, nasty fly – tomorrow  I will show you where a horde of tiny, delicious moths are hiding.”

And with that, I left my desk, shut the door behind me and went to bed.

This morning both annoying fly and Angus were nowhere to be seen. I hope he had a good feed and sticks around for moth season. And I hope Angus feels comfortable enough to come back for another chat or two. Would be fun watching him grow up. And if he brings his brothers and sisters around I’ll toss in a few tasty mozzies, too.

 

Unless Mitt Romney Lived in His Son’s Unfinished Basement in 2010, He May Be Facing Charges of Voter Fraud

Mother Jones broke this story in June of last year:

Did Mitt Romney Commit Voter Fraud?

Did Mitt Romney commit voter fraud when he cast a ballot for Scott Brown in last year’s special election in Massachusetts? On Monday, one of his lesser known opponents for the GOP presidential nomination, Fred Karger, filed a complaint with Massachusetts state election officials alleging that he voted for Brown, as well as in other Massachusetts elections, when he was not in fact a resident of the Bay State.

Read the rest of Fred Karger’s account here.

Forbes picked up the story adding their two cents:

Did Mitt Romney Live In His Son’s Unfinished Basement Last Year?

Mitt Romney lived in his son’s unfinished basement in Belmont, Massachusetts in 2010 – or at least that what he claimed to the state to be able to vote last year, says GOP candidate Fred Karger.

If that’s true, Romney showed a true commitment to voting for Republican Senator Scott Brown in last year’s special election, since he owns a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, Calif. and a $10 million home in New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee – but no home in the state he was once governor.

Rest of Forbes article can be read here.

The Democratic Underground republished the story yesterday but there doesn’t seem to be any new information and considering there’s been almost a full year between discovery and now, it seems unlikely that the Romney’s haven’t somehow already managed to dodge the bullet.

Democratic Underground article is here.

The later articles each have the following quote used as a link:

Mitt Romney’s motto: vote early and vote often!

but in each case the link takes me to a private blog and not the source of the quote. If anyone reading this knows the origin of this quote please drop me a comment. Googling it now only leads me back to the same blog – thanks

H/T to FEDUP!

 

Romney Built RomneyCare as a Platform to Obtain the Presidency. Oops.

It’s not that this is new information. It’s that now that Mitt Romney appears to be the presumptive candidate for the 2012 election, we have to wonder how he’ll back peddle his way out of condemning ObamaCare – because our current president thought RomneyCare was such a great idea (and has always given Romney his due credit) he fashioned his Affordable Health Care Act after the Republican governor’s

RomneyCare is now 6 years old (2/2/06).  Team Obama went on youtube in Februaryto wish RomneyCare a very Happy Birthday, and to thank former Governor Romney for this brilliant health care platform. Today, Team Obama uses the youtube clip to remind Republicans that the medical health care plan they so eagerly oppose and want to repeal… WAS REALLY THEIR IDEA!

It’s going to be interesting to see how agile Mitt is at flip-flopping on his own creation. Methinks he missed his true calling. He should have been a gymnast.

 

Google this and have a Hoppy Geek Easter!

Place entire formula into Google search engine:

1.2+(sqrt(1-(sqrt(x^2+y^2))^2) + 1 – x^2-y^2) * (sin (10000 * (x*3+y/5+7))+1/4) from -1.6 to 1.6

(If you don’t get to the animated egg, try copy/pasting the formula into a notepad first – then save the file and copy/paste again into google.)

(May not work with mobile phones or older browsers. )

If the above doesn’t work Google  all of this:

Graph for 1.2+(sqrt(1-sqrt(x^2+y^2)^2)+1-x^2-y^2)*(sin(10000*(x*3+y/5+7))+1/4)

 

Rally for Equal Rights Amendment has Republican Rep Richard Hanna Telling Women to Support Democrats

From my Email bag:

OzMud, words I never thought I’d say, but this Republican member of Congress speaks for me:

As the only Republican Congressman at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment on Thursday, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) gave women an unexpected piece of advice: Give your money to Democrats.

 ”I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault,” he told the crowd of mostly women. “I’ll tell you this: Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side — my side — has a lot of it. And you need to send your own message. You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can’t succeed without your help.” […]

 ”This is a dogfight, it’s a fistfight, and you have all the cards,” he said. “I can only tell you to get out there and use them. Tell the other women, the other 51 percent of the population, to kick in a few of their bucks. Make it matter, get out there, get on TV, advertise, talk about this. The fact that you want [the ERA] is evidence that you deserve it and you need it.”

That Republican is right: it’s time to make Republicans pay at the ballot box for the war on women they are waging across the country.

 At Daily Kos, we have endorsed three of the strongest Democratic women running for Congress you will find anywhere: Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Darcy Burner in Washington, and Ann McLane Kuster in New Hampshire.

 Please, click here to contribute $5 to their campaigns. We really do hold all the cards, and it’s time we started playing them.

 Keep fighting,

Kaili Joy Gray, Daily Kos

Because it’s April 1st I was skeptical – but  Google directed me to Firedog Lake and Huffington Post, both with the same story so *I think* it could be true. How cool is that!

Here’s the face of my new hero:

 

Also, below the article at HuffPo (link above) there is a series of video clips, each part of an interview with Carole Burnett talking about her part in ERAback in the 1070′s when equal pay for equal jobs didn’t exist in any form at all. You have to sit through an abundance of short commercials, but I for one would sit through fire to hear this incredible woman speak… so what’s a few Cadbury Egg promos!

 

Anyone Know What This Is?

 

???

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! [UPDATE +O'Bama Video]

When my hair is all snow white I just might follow this little guy’s style

Perfect parental guidance! Always pick one or the other but never do the same one twice – keep them on their toes and guessing!

(I know just how the poor man feels!)

This belongs on a tee shirt!

Ahh – been there done that rofl!

============ UPDATE ============

With all the clever costumes worn on the day, how can you tell if a real Leprechaun has been to your St. Patty’s Day party?

Ahhh… (damn leprechauns!)

 

AND FINALLY… COURTESY OF THATCROWWOMAN AND IRISHGIRL:

 

This IS our President…

 

PS – Yanno… with my stupid busted arm and all… and taking all these stupid narcotics… you’d thingk SOMEONE would have taken pity on me and said something like (psst – Oz – it’s March and your Christmas banner is still up!)

 

Arizona Strikes Again! New Law will let bosses fire employees for daring to use the pill! [Plus: New vid re GOP war on women]

No really this isn’t a joke. Well of course it’s a joke but not the kind any sane person would laugh at.

This from Jezebel.com:

Law Will Allow Employers to Fire Women for Using Whore Pills

A proposed new law in Arizona would give employers the power to request that women being prescribed birth control pills provide proof that they’re using it for non-sexual reasons. And because Arizona’s an at-will employment state, that means that bosses critical of their female employees’ sex lives could fire them as a result.

<snip>

Yesterday, a Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed Republican Debbie Lesko’s HB2625 by a vote of 6-2, which would allow an employer to request proof that a woman using insurance to buy birth control was being prescribed the birth control for reasons other than not wanting to get pregnant. It’s all about freedom, she said, echoing everyone who thinks there’s nothing ironic about claiming that a country that’s “free” allows people’s bosses to dictate what medical care is available to them through insurance. First amendment. The constitution. Rights of religious people to practice the treasured tenets of their faiths, the tenets that dictate that religious people get to tell everyone who is not of faith how they’re supposed to live, and the freedom to have that faith enforced by law.

<snip>

Click link above for full story. Or for story full of idiotic statements by truly psychotic people who want to take us back to the 1930′s.

Is there something wrong with the water in AZ? Or the air maybe? Is it just too damned hot? To steal a phrase from an anonymous commenter over at The Immoral Minority – are all Republicans these days just a tribe of cave-dwelling cousin-humpers?

My sympathies for the sane Arizonians who haven’t been infected by the loopy bug. Close your windows, have your water shipped in from California and don’t take candy from strangers!

Oh and just to be sure – if you see any big trucks with weird looking plants – don’t fall asleep!

============ UPDATE ============

From MoveOn.Org

MoveOn.org released a new national ad today, calling out Republicans for their recent nosedive into the field of women’s health and reproductive rights.

 

Caught on Tape: The 70 insults Limbaugh aimed at Sandra Fluke *Update* Clue to why Romney isn’t in any Rush to criticize Limbaugh!

…and the most idiotic part – is that none of his information (upon which he bases his insults) was true.

!. Ms. Fluke never discussed her own sex life nor did she discuss the availability of birth control for anything other than medical reasons such as the prevention of ovarian cysts.

2. Ms Fluke was not asking for taxpayer funds. She was making a case for female contraception to be provided by employee insurance carriers regardless of an employers religious ideology (religious employers are currently seeking exemption to this congressional ruling).

3. Unlike male medications which address erectile dysfunction and only last a few hours at a time, female birth control pills are taken daily, one per day, regardless of how much sexual activity is encountered.

(Please note most insurance carriers cover at least partial cost of Viagra and the religious groups seeking exemption from covering female contraception have no problem covering erectile dysfunction medications for their male employees.)

Knowing this, Mr. Limbaugh launched this three-day assault on Ms. Fluke – (deliberately?) mispronouncing her name at every turn – a huge insult for someone of Mr. Limbaugh’s age and level of social education. Are we to believe that none of his producers bothered to correct him? Is his staff that stupid? Of course not. The personal slight was purposeful and well-aimed.

From think Progress:

 

============ UPDATE ============

Ahhh… insight!

Clear Channel’s Directors Give Big to Romney, Who Won’t Criticize Limbaugh

The directors of Clear Channel, which hosts Rush Limbaugh’s show, have been big donors to Mitt Romney’s campaigns, which might help explain why Romney has been so reluctant to criticize Rush.

Fourteen directors of Clear Channel, the company that hosts the Rush Limbaugh show, have contributed $726,400 to Mitt Romney since 1994, most of it in the current presidential campaign.

[Click headline for full story at the Daily Beast]

 

home from hospital

well…i had a rather bad fall friday evening – fractured rt humerus – no surgery – yet – hoping it will knit back together on it’s own. however i am off the comp for at least 10 days – take care – oz

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Found this on Facebook:

Gorgeous – Happy New Year everyone

 

The Children’s Hour

In 1961 a Lillian Hellman play (circa 1930′s) was adapted to film. It raised eyebrows and hackles as it slipped into neighbourhood movie theatres across America. Polite people didn’t openly say the word lesbian as a rule back then much less make it the focus of a movie and more than one religious-right group had it banned from their town. Thing is, the movie wasn’t about lesbians – it was about how quick the public is to embrace hearsay as truth and the ensuing collective knee-jerk reaction that causes permanent damage to those accused before the facts are ever brought to light.

As actresses, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine took a lot of flack for their portrayal of two single teachers wrongly accused of being lesbians by one of their students. The fact of their characters’ innocence made no difference to those offended by the topic. The movie itself was actually falsely labelled perverse before movie-goers had a chance to see for themselves it was neither sexually explicit nor about lesbians – ironically reinforcing the entire moral of the story.

Regardless of a person’s defense of or offense taken, the movie made a strong statement about the manipulation of public opinion:  Once an accusing finger has been pointed there will be those who forever believe the accusation in spite of any evidence ultimately pointing to the contrary. It is the epitomy of the old adage – Once a bell is rung it can never be un-rung.

The Story:
Karen and Martha are longtime friends who open a school for girls. They are hard-working, good teachers and the school attracts many affluent families. Karen has a boyfriend, Martha does not but Karen and her boyfriend include Martha in everything they do. The women’s strong bond and warm personalities contribute to their success as teachers.

Enter the mean girl, Mary, who’s punished for telling a lie and gets even with her teacher by beginning a rumour that the two schoolteachers are lovers. Before the rumour can be disproved, parents pull their daughters from the school and the two women are shunned by the town.

The disgrace and violence the women endure as a result of the false accusation is sadly no different from what happens today. As a society we are every bit too quick to pass judgement now as we were 60-70-80 years ago. Especially when we feel our children may be at risk.

If this is a movie you’ve never seen, I strongly recommend it. The acting is superb and the story is gripping.

This is my head’s up to you because over the next few days I’d like to open a discussion about last month’s events at Penn State. It’s not a happy story – not for anyone – but certain contradictory facts are beginning to bubble to the surface and I’d seriously like to be able to talk about them with you.

Here’s a bit from tomorrow’s post:

 

Protect IP Act – protecting the little guy or just another win for big Corps?

Have not had time to properly research this yet so I’m just going to supply a screenshot of my email letter and the two links that were inside so you can read, respond or just go hide in a corner – because to be honest, hiding in a corner is my first and preferred reaction

[click to enlarge]

Link to more information. (Includes a Vimeo video I can’t embed.)

Link to contacting your senator. (Requires zip code.)

I’m all for copyright owners collecting their well-deserved royalties. But I also hate censorship and am really, really tired of big corporations getting congressional votes on anything.

===================

NOTE:  Have found and enabled the nested thread feature – hopefully this will allow us to respond directly to a comment without having to copy/paste posters names, etc. Wish I could get wordpress to allow .jpg’s to appear in comments – that would save a stack of time and grief…

 

Personhood: Biggest Threat to Women’s Rights – and Romney’s “absolutely” for it.

From my mailbox:

Dear xxxxxx

Mitt Romney has taken a position that every woman in this country should know about:

When asked on Fox News whether he would have supported a “personhood” constitutional amendment, Mitt said, “Absolutely.”

“Personhood” amendments are the notorious measures now being considered in states like Mississippi, Florida, and Ohio, that would elevate a fertilized human egg to the status of a legal person. They would ban IUDs, the morning-after pill, in-vitro fertilization, and all abortions — with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or in cases where the life of a woman is at stake.

In other words, a leading candidate for the GOP nomination for president is on the record in favor of a law that would classify literally all abortions — and even many forms of birth control — as murder.

To be clear: This is the most radical position any of the Republican candidates have taken on this issue, and may be the most radical position any of them have taken on any substantive issue in the race for the nomination so far.

Mitt has an uncanny ability to change course depending on the day, so we put together a video to show exactly where he stands on a woman’s right to choose — whether she’s choosing emergency contraception, or to save her own life.

Romney, who has held a variety of positions on abortion in his 17 years of running for public office, presumably understands the implications of criminalizing birth control and abortion.

If he wants to be in the national spotlight, if he thinks he deserves to be trusted with the highest political office on the planet, he has to be willing to take responsibility for his words and the consequences of the policies he claims to support.

This is so much bigger than his political calculations. It’s literally a life-or-death proposition, and it’s not limited to Mississippi, Ohio, or Florida. Personhood amendments like the one in Mississippi are a direct affront to the federal right to privacy afforded by Roe vs. Wade.

If Romney wants to take the position that abortion and birth control are equal to murder, that’s up to him. But we’ll hold him accountable for it, and not let anyone forget that he’s made the choice to go this far to the right on this issue:

I’ll report back soon,

–Patrick
Patrick Gaspard
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee

 

Republican Hunger for Power is Keeping My Children Hungry

Once upon a time there was an ex-husband who signed divorce papers that included his maintaining full medical and dental insurance on his two daughters who remained in their mother’s primary care. The medical insurance was so inadequate the mother ended up paying for all of any medical bills incurred by her girls because it was cheaper than taking her ex back to court.

One day the oldest daughter complained of a toothache. The mother sought a dentist who specialised in children’s dentistry and made an appointment. It turned out the daughter needed more than one filling, requiring more than one visit. Mom made the arrangements, got the dental work done and forwarded the dental bills to her ex.

The father, (who earned ten times the income of the mother and who by this time understood that no matter what the custody agreement stated, he could afford to do whatever he wanted because his ex-wife did not have the funds to continually take him back to court to make him comply with the court orders) received the dental bills for his pride-and-joy-little-angel and returned them to his ex with this message: I will be happy to pay for all of Angel’s dental bills, including those portions not covered by my insurance but only if she lives under my roof where I can control her dental hygiene.

Mom assured dad this wasn’t going to happen and reminded him there was a court order in place in which he agreed to keep his daughters on his dental insurance. He replied by assuring her that he had no intentions of submitting any dental bills to his insurance company until and unless the girls lived with him.  Mom wrote a letter sending copies to the dentist, her ex, his attorney, her attorney and the judge who signed the custody agreement. That’s when she learned that court ordered agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on unless both parties share the same mutual interests: the health and well-being of their children.

The Republican party is holding America hostage. Republican members of congress are more interested in controlling congress than they are in solving the economic problems of our nation and caring for the health and well-being of it’s citizens.

It won’t matter to them that things like the American Jobs Act would help thousands of people to get back on their feet financially – it only matters to them that the county not get a break until and unless they are the party living in the White House.

An elected, seated American president should not be forced to campaign for his office the entire 4 years of his term. He should expect cooperation from all the elected officials holding office to do a job – and that job is to serve the American people.

The current behaviour of the Republicans in office are out of line. They would rather see my children and your children go hungry in an atmosphere of high rates and shrinking jobs than to knuckle down and do the work they were elected to do.

I’m thinking we should sue them for fraud and get our money back.

 

 

 

Stupid Republicans…

It doesn’t seem to matter to them that the MAJORITY of the people want this…

 

…it only matters to Republicans that THEY pwn the White House! Adolescent Dickheads.

Oh speaking of dickheads, Our Lady of the Divine Sneakers has been silent on Facebook. No fantasy notes about her trip to ROK and no slams for Obama and last night’s vote. Is she hiding?

 

Runner’s Intermission

While we’re waiting for the summary, this has popped into the comments:

THERE’S A RE-ENACTMENT OF THE WHOLE RACE!

(and it’s just perfect- thanks dannyg!)

[CLICK HERE] to see the re-enactment of Sarah Palin running in the SLRC half marathon

 

Hey Sarah! About that Marathon… (almost there)

Before I show you all what some of us have found concerning Red Bandana Guy and Ponytail Girl I’d like to redirect your attention to the right foot of Red-Shirt-Runner-We-Suspect-Might-Be-Sarah in the foreground and the hooded runner we’ve come to know as Teletubby (aptly described by a commenter due to the complete lack of facial features and oval-shaped face some thought to be the shoulder of the giant runner just behind).

From the very first post on this subject commenters (I’ll have proper H/Ts for everyone in the final draft) have pointed out the odd pattern of pixels surrounding this shoe. Perhaps unnatural is the better word as there is a triangular block of pixels to the bottom left of the shoe that simply can’t be a natural byproduct of enlargement. [click image to enlarge thumbnails then use view/zoom on your web browser toolbar to enlarge even more]

Next:

The image of the faceless, black-hooded runner in aqua blue shorts and odd grey shoes next to the unnatural seam in the photo is a curiosity in itself as – like the runner we named Bunny Hop Lady – her two shoes appear to be side-by-side as if jumping in place rather than running forward. Wrap yhour head around that if you can – but that’s not the point of this slice of film.

This is:

Please note the lack of curb on either side of Teletubby.
From back to front, green lawn changes to dark soil edge to grey asphalt. On this beautifully designed, well-groomed street often used for races just like the Jump In & Run event of 04 Sept 11, with a beautifully trimmed and litter-free curb on the opposite side of the street we suddenly have no curb at all.

But wait! There’s more!

About one metre later (39 inches) we have a beautiful raised curb – shaped and squared off  just like the curb pictured on the other side of this roadway.

The lawn edge may not line up with the curb to the left but it does match the walkways in other photos.

 

 

Did our phantom photo-shopper mistakenly mix photos of runners from the two paths? Is that why there’s curbing just one meter away?

But then… just another meter further along…

…we have a rounded and concaved curb peering out between runners – right where one runner is missing an entire upper thigh and right leg. The curb itself is also making a rather odd turn on an otherwise perfectly straight street.

I admit there can be more than one style of curb along 7+ miles of road/walkways. But how many times do you see three distinct different curbs/lawn edges within only feet of each other? I’m guessing no more than 6-8 ft actually. Look at the original again:

The only two photos of Sarah Palin taken on the course by the SLRC photographer show our would-be-runner only in and at the back of the pack of 5k runners EVEN THOUGH she was registered to run the half marathon.  So unless someone attempted to shorten the distance between 3-4 shots of 3-4 different groups of runners taken at 3-4 different locations around the course in an effort to create the illusion that Sarah-I-have-the-tightest-abs-Palin at some point bolted ahead of the 5k pack to achieve her fabulous time of 1:46 and collect the winning second place medal, this photo of jumbled feet, missing limbs and mismatched curbs makes no sense at all.

My final post on this ridiculous photo tomorrow.

 

Hey Sarah! About that Marathon… (the agony of d’feet…) Update: a theory 2nd Update: huh?

Wasn’t going to post this for another day but since the photos are now up at Storm Lake Running Club and no one seems to be able to find Sarah anywhere but running past the 5k walkers at the starting line and once more at the finish line I thought I might risk being labeled disrespectful in order to share my discoveries.

So… once more with feeling.

[click each image to enlarge - see also view/zoom feature on browser toolbar]

This is the image that has had us all bewitched, bothered and bewildered for a week now. We’ve dissected, lightened, darkened, enhanced and flipped our way around the image until most of us have simply gone batty.

A lot of details we thought might be bogus turned out to not be so bogus in the end:  The changing size of the runner’s bib, for example, can be explained by how runners check into the finish line and have bottom strips removed for either time confirmation or receipt of participant goodies. The red shirt and white headband so prominent in this photo yet gone in the finishing line photo can be chalked up to disposable clothing. And so it goes, one by one most of my original misgivings have been satisfactorily explained away.

Wait. Not so fast there buster. Like all things Sarah,  answering one question only seems to open the door onto a dozen more.  So here is the above photo, spliced and copies laid side-by-side  for all of you good people out there with younger eyes (than mine) to help me work out which feet belong to which runner and please – where have some of these runners legs and upper bodies gone?

Let’s look at the last half first…

The Case of Too Many Shoes and Not Enough Legs:

The first bit actually hurt my head. (Insert on left, blue outline on right.) Is this a single shoe with either a big sock or leg warmer folded down to cover the entire top of the shoe? Wouldn’t it drag on the ground and possibly catch on something if it were? And if it is one shoe why is it pointing more toward the camera than the direction in which the runner is facing? I tried to duplicate this shoe angle and almost fell over in the process. It just isn’t natural.

So what if it’s more than one shoe? If that’s not a sock turned down at the ankle, then its quite possibly a second foot (insert on left, pink outline on right) – one that doesn’t seem to belong to anyone in the photo, but will cause this runner to fall flat on his face if he keeps going forward and steps on it.

Then, of course, as some of you have already pointed out this poor man’s upper thighs appear to be well – missing with no sign of a right leg upon which to balance his left leg which happens to be very committed in  a forward stride. The angle of the leg/ankle/shoe suggests it is more straight than bent but if that’s the case we should be looking at a portion of his right, upper, inner leg under his ever-so-petite buttocks instead of the curb and wheel of a bike or wheelchair. Very curious.

I apologize to the poor man whose foot I removed (yellow outline on left) to demonstrate where I thought his missing foot should be. It is, of course, entirely possible that this foot is completely hidden by the  runner-in-red-sweatband’s leg. But not all that probable for nary an inch of it to be peeking through at the crux of the other runner’s bent knee. (Wine anyone?)

The lady we’ve come to know as the bunny hop lady could be running in place, like people do when they’re warming up but what I truly find odd is out of all these people she is the only one looking straight at the camera.

Now we come to The Case of the Extra Toes (pun not my fault – my mother made us watch Perry Mason every week):

This is the image I worked on for a couple of days and I noticed in comments that more of you picked up on this while I was off trying to enhance it. Sadly, my graphics program is simply not capable of enlarging an image to 200%+ and retain its integrity. That’s a problem of a generalized usage of 72 dots per inch – you can only advance so many generations before pixelation makes it impossible to see the image. However, I did try to alter the resolution, in spite of the fact that I don’t have the equipment to do a proper job.

In this case however and even just lo0king at the lower resolution I feel there is a compelling case for the white left shoe of the tall runner peeking between the black pants legs to belong to someone else entirely.

At first glance, the toe of the white shoe appears to belong to the extended left leg of the runner in the white sweatshirt and khaki shorts, to the right and behind the red-shirted runner we politely refer to as ‘Sarah’. Upon enlarging however, there appears to be a second ‘toe’. If it is a second toe that changes everything.

If this is a pair of white shoes rather than one left white shoe and a (truly odd) shadow, then the person who owns them is standing perfectly still, completely hidden between the tall runner in white sweatshirt and khaki shorts and the red-shirted runner.

How would that even be possible? (Maybe a tall vodka tonic…)

And now we come to the observation which I was slow to find but which most of you have already nailed as The Case of the Not-so-Hidden Seam. What are the odds a natural seam in a photo would run almost the entire length, perfectly straight – not one pixel out of line? Have a really good look at the disproportions of objects on the right of the seam compared to objects on the left.

On either side of this seam I found a missing shoulder, breast, knee, leg and curb. I also found either a foot way too big for it’s owner or a leg missing it’s foot above a curb taller than the one to the left of it. There is the sole of a grey running shoe that is perfectly straight, not one curve, not one pixel length difference  between the sole, the heel, the arch… Follow this line up into the trees in the first photo and then look carefully at the black-hoodie – why is this the only image in the entire photo with no facial features whatsoever? It’s not the farthest-most image. It’s directly in the center of the camera lens. Even the tall runner further behind has a distinguishable brow line and eye sockets. Why is this runner, with the oddly-shaped leg in blue shorts and misshapen shoe, the only runner with no face at all?

Okay that’s it – scotch, neat please. And make it a double.

One final note.

The story from the Palin camp is that Todd whisked Sarah quickly off to an awaiting plane after the race – this was the official explanation as to why there was only time for a few folks to have their photos taken with Sarah once it became known she had run the race. And we’ve seen where the toilets were along the route. Where and when did she clean her face adding the fresh make-up we see here?

Because Laura Novak is absolutely correct – face and eye make-up do not survive 13 consecutive 8-minute miles.

Oh Hell, just leave the bottle…

Anyone remember when Sarah made a public fuss over how she didn’t believe Pres. Obama had fairly earned his 2009 Nobel  Peace Prize?

Back at ya babe.

============  Update  ============

Hey everyone -After having written these posts, reading all your comments and digging through SLRC photos and then hearing comments from folks like Greta Van Susteran (et al) I think I may have actually formed a theory. It starts with some remarks  made by a few commenters regarding photos of Sarah just published on the Storm Lake Running Club website and grows to this question:

If running-with-scissors-sarah got one of the top run times, besting most of the runners even those half her age, why is she seen ONLY running at the back of the pack of 5k runners/walkers?

Maybe that’s the whole point of the photo-shopped picture. Maybe Sarah actually tried to run this race but either she or Todd realized early on that she was not going to be able to complete it. They would have little to no control over the hundreds of candid and pro shots that would inevitably be published, eventually showing how far she would fall behind. But they could create a diversion…

The visual of a full sprint Sarah running around the 5k pack into the heart of the half marathon pack would take our attention off her actual placement in the race and focus on the illusion that she runs so fast she could easily pull ahead any time she wanted to not only complete the course but to subsequently win the day.

Now any photos published of her with the 5k runners is of no consequence. The photo released by Greta Van Susteran on Fox tv is now sold as proof positive Sarah ran the entire half marathon. And the frosting on the cake? The photo-that-wasn’t was strategically placed to show the public that she is physically fit and therefore capable of jumping in at the last minute to win a race and run a country.

Except, of course, that’s a lie.

(Ok, who’s hording the cheap Inglenook?)

============  Update 2  ============

H/T to CO & kat:

Take a really really good look:

wait for it…

Well? Where’s the rest of the pony-tailed runner?

 

Hey Sarah! About that marathon… (debate is a good thing) Update! The bib head-scratcher…

Have not had a chance to go through all the comments yet but I’ve skimmed and just want all of you to know I really appreciate the civil discussion between so many people with completely opposing views. That’s what debate is supposed to be all about isn’t it?

I’ve had to install a new browser – very traumatic as I hate giving up stuff to which I’ve grown accustomed – like IE – it’s like having someone else clean up your office and for days you have no clue where anything is! So please bear with me while I fumble around – however I’m hoping this will have fixed my links problem. We’re about to find out.

Way back on the post of 06 September 2011 which began this bruhaha I mentioned a blog post by a man named Teledude who stated that his wife had run in the Jump In & Run race at Storm Lake Runners , Iowa on 04 September. According to his blog on that day, people knew as early as 7am that Sarah was running in the half marathon as his wife had called him to say get out here so you can meet her!

It stands to reason that if one person knew she was there and called her husband that other people would have done the same thing.  But Teledude’s post goes on to tell the tale of how she was there incognito and nobody knew she was there until the race was over.

(If you’ve followed Sarah Palin at all since 2008, you’d know that she doesn’t do anything incognito – nor does she do anything that doesn’t pay her substantially, upstage another politician or garner free publicity. I’m pretty sure having cameras in her face is how she breathes.)

This comment went virtually unnoticed on my first post on this subject so I’m putting a screenie of it here. You can decide for yourself whether it’s genuine or not:

This remark is pretty consistent with speculations made by other runners in the comments who are leary of the two groups all in the same shot (5k walkers and half marathon runners).

Plus – after almost a full week, no other observer has come forward on any of the Pro-Palin sites to make similar claims and add similar photos. (Please note Teledude got instant recognition as his story and photo with Sarah were subsequently published in an L.A. paper – so why wouldn’t another person have coughed up their photo? Are all Republican/tea Partiers modest?)

The Storm Lake Runner’s club photos have still not been posted. However, I’ve looked back at last year’s photos of the same event and noticed that all the race images posted on their site are for sale, so maybe the photographer needs time to code and crop. My only experience with club photos is with members each submitting their candid shots and all are uploaded to a page where everyone can then browse through to find themselves – none for sale, just a form of community involvement.

I do have more to add today but software troubles have put me behind with work (the nice lady who puts money in my bank account is looking over my shoulder with a raised eyebrow – wave to the nice lady for me!)

But before I go I’d like to say something about photo-shopping:

These are Christmas cards I made some years ago. The grevillea blossoms are about ten ft over my head in the backyard. The bow and ornaments are sewn together and adorn a floral arrangement.

Photo-shopping is easy.  But to do it right and without a lot of excess pixelation takes patience and practice. So I put Sarah’s running photo to you this way:

Before the race Todd grabs a shot of Sarah (or whoever this is) running. It could have been done any time actually. At the start of the race he takes candid shots of the runners and walkers and emails them off to someone who then merges images together and submits one to Greta Van Susteran. but whoever did the photo-shop was either quite rushed or not that experienced and got a few odd details wrong.

Following the wrong line, cutting off a portion of the image, not smoothing out edges after having trimmed off too many pixels, and getting image proportions a bit off are common mistakes. Not erasing properly around a removed image (we called it cleaning in my day) will leave puddles of odd pixels that look completely different from that pixelation which occurs when an image is enlarged or enhanced.

To my eye the image of the red runner at the start of the race looks like a rushed photo-shop job by someone who wasn’t actually there and had no reason to not put the walkers, the runners and the lady in red all in the same shot.

Then again – I can be completely wrong. It can turn out to be just a really bad photo taken with a really good camera

Back later – Oz

PS. by the way I hit publish by mistake earlier -sorry if you came into this with only half the post showing …

============  Update  ============

This probably means nothing at all but… it is a head-scratcher:

A & B are almost identical except A is missing the word Jump above and to the left of the #63

C on the other hand is totally different, offering a taller #63, shorter distance between the number and the bottom of the bib and a completely different font for the lettering.

Was there more than one #63 bib? Did they have two or three different sets of bibs?

Curioser and curioser.

(When my boss asks me if the next article is done I’ll say no – and it’s all FEDUP’s fault for distracting me because it was checking that thing that made me notice the bibs

 

Hey Sarah! About That Marathon! (not to beat a dead horse but…)

I may have gotten some details wrong in my assessment of Sarah Palin’s marathon photos in yesterday’s post, but I was happy to add the corrections that could be proven. And I appreciated all the comments by all the commenters, even those who adamantly disagreed with me or thought my post would make things worse for our cause.

Two things – nobody who matters in the media is paying the slightest bit of attention to our cause. I hardly see how anything we  do out here can make that worse. And for the record, energetic discussion and accidental discovery is good for the soul even if not everyone agrees with us or what we find is not what we were originally looking for. At least some of us aren’t afraid to keep looking (/Oz winks at Gryphen) even if the only thing we find is that we were wrong  (/Oz winks at Mel)

Next – for those who keep saying it doesn’t matter if Sarah ran this marathon or not – I beg to differ. It most certainly does matter. Sarah accepted the second place medal. If she didn’t genuinely earn it, she’s stolen it from the runner who did.  Athletes have medals stripped from them for cheating and reporters go out of their way to get the stories. Usually, anyway.

I’ve only known Sarah to run in two other races during the past three years. Each time there were cameras along the routes and in each she found a way to not complete them. Weird for such an avid runner huh?

And I don’t know about any of you but I find it terribly odd that there are no photos of Sarah during this race – only a single photo at the start, again at the end – and both seem odd in and of themselves. (Just like the photos during her faked pregnancy with Trig.)

But here’s a thought - Sarah’s entrance into the half-marathon is being reported as the concept of her PR group. To not have set up staff or fan-based volunteers with cell phones taking action shots of her along the route is just crazy. Those shots would have been money in the bank and votes at the ballot box. If you were her PR man how would you have set this up for maximum return?

But hey anything’s possible right?  So… not to keep beating the poor dead horse here but…

These are the top running times as posted by the Storm Lake Running Club for the Jump In & Run half-marathon, 04. Sept 2011:

(Please Note: I freely admit to not having permission to use the shot of runner #43 below and would be happy to reasonably compensate the owner.)

This is a photo of the woman posted online as the winner of the race overall - alongside Sarah who took second in her class:

[click images to enlarge]

If someone would be so kind as to demonstrate to me how the earth could possibly have rotated around the sun fast enough to create this humongous difference between the shadows of the first place runner crossing the finish line and Sarah crossing the same finish line exactly 8 minutes later without tossing some of us off the planet entirely- I’m certainly willing to listen.

Hmm… the earth suddenly rotating too fast would definitely explain where all the flags went

(editor’s note:  Yes, I originally said 12 minutes – serves me right for trying to do basic math before 6 am!)

 

Irene – Australia’s Saturday Update

From the INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES

Hurricane Irene 2011 Track: Latest Warnings and Watches [MAPS]

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | Aug 26, 2011 10:25 AM EDT

…A hurricane watch is in effect for North of Sandy Hook, N.J. through the Mouth of the Merrimack River, Mass. This includes New York City, Long Island, Block Island, Boston, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.

President Baracl Obama, who is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, is expected to make a statement on Friday urging Americans to heed evacuation orders ahead of Hurricane Irene…

…Hurricane Irene has grown into a massive storm with hurricane-force winds extending outward up to 90 miles from the storm center and tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 290 miles. This means that even if the center of the storm doesn’t pass directly over your area, the effects will be felt far and wide.

Irene has weakened to a Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with winds near 110 mph. She is moving north at 14 mph and is located about 375 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, N.C.

With the expected arrival of a nearly 600-mile-wide hurricane, states across the east coast began preparations.

Five states have declared a state of emergency: North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York…

[Click images to enlarge]

Barely six months ago this was the east coast of Australia – Stay safe, warm and above the water line everyone…

Editor’s Note: No matter how I attempt to add the link to this article wordpress shuts down the entire post. It’s quite bizarre actually. I suggest to view the entire article google ibtimes irene - sorry for the inconvenience – Oz

 

About My Mother

My 92 year-old mother has just decided to not apply for her driver’s license this year. Having undergone surgery on her wrist that is (in her words) taking it’s own sweet time to heal, she’s come to the realization that she can’t grip the keys or turn the steering wheel well enough to consider herself an undistracted, safe driver. And while she’s been recouping from surgery and been the passenger rather than the driver of late, she’s (finally) embraced the idea that her reflexes may not be as sharp as they once were – and prefers not to end up one of those (again, her words) stubborn old coots who kills someone just to prove they can still drive a damn car. 

For the record, my mother has been a stubborn old coot for as long as I’ve known her and it’s a trait that has always served her in good stead (but I’m certainly not going to tell her this now!)

My mother got her driver’s license after my brother was born at the end of WWII and my father quickly nick-named her Leadfoot Lucy because she had a tendancy to drive (how shall I say this) just a wee bit fast. She would wave my father off claiming she didn’t speed. She just knew how to keep up with traffic. Yes, even if it was all behind her…

To her credit she didn’t get tickets and never once caused an accident and she always got us where we needed to go. Among her friends she was the designated driver. It wasn’t until the early 1960′s that more of her female friends began to drive and as a child I remember my mother was always picking someone up or dropping someone off.

She was the one who drove the carload of kids, pets and luggage three hours to the summer retreat ahead of the other adults. She was the one who packed the car with kids needing rides to ballet lessons, track meets, football games, beach parties, piano recitals, choir practice, birthday parties, Saturday matinees at the movies, doctor appointments, dentist appointments and spur-of-the-moment trips to take everyone for pizza or special desserts. She did this for her neighbours, her friends, her relatives, her children, her grandchildren and even recently, her great-grandchildren. She was the one you called when you needed to get somewhere now.

When I was 9 or maybe 10 years old my seamstress mother was sewing a wedding dress for a customer when her hand slipped and the machine plunged the needle directly through the middle of her finger, through the nail, through the flesh. She told me to get her keys and meet her at the car. When I saw her next she had a towel wrapped around her hand like a boxing glove and down the stairs we went. I opened the car doors and she instructed me to sit on her lap and she helped me work the wheel and gearshift while she worked the pedals. We limped down side streets all the way to the emergency.

When the doctor unwrapped the towel he found the needle, thread and presser foot were all still attached to her finger. Like I said – my mother drove everywhere.

My mother now faces being the one who needs a ride and after all these years of being the one who’s done the driving, this is not the easiest pill to swallow. In a phone conversation yesterday she shared with me how hard it is to ask people to take her places (the grocery store seemed to upset her the most) even though people seemed quite willing. I reminded her that she never felt put upon when anyone asked her for a ride and the people around her today are happy to take her anywhere she needs to go. Still, the journey from driver to passenger is a hard road for an otherwise independent soul.

She’s buried her one and only husband, a grown daughter and every relative on my father’s side of the family with whom she had a history. She and her sister are the only two left on their side of the family, save the younger ones from my generation on down. She’s buried every lifelong friend, classmate, teacher, film idol and I cannot begin to imagine what that must be like. I understand loss. But the loss of every single person with whom one has shared childhood or young adult memories – or even middle-aged memories – that I can’t even wrap my head around.

So I reminded my mother how very fortunate she is in that she has people around her who know her now – and love her now – and won’t let her slip through the cracks as it happens with other oldies who find themselves alone, stranded and forgotten.

And in reminding her of all these things it has occurred to me that we don’t do enough for our oldies. Our neighbourhoods are spotted with oldies who could probably use a ride to the shops or doctor’s office and we need to make more of an effort to find out who they are. It shouldn’t be left to them to ask. It should be up to us to offer.

My mother’s affair with driving a car spanned just about 70 years and three generations, all without incident. There should be something that commemorates this kind of milestone in a person’s life.

A renewal notice from DMV is just not a fitting end to 70 years of unblemished service.

 

If This Doesn’t Piss You Off About the Republicans, Nothing Will…

From my mailbox:

Dear xxxxxxx,

I’m writing to you from Manchester, New Hampshire, where last night I witnessed a spectacle that every single Obama supporter needs to hear about.

The major GOP presidential candidates debated for the first time and made one thing very clear: They have no agenda but to take down President Obama.

They even nodded along when one called the Obama administration a “destructive force,” and they said nothing when another said the President has “embraced our enemies.”

Last night was a wake-up call to anyone who thinks they can sit tight while the Republicans battle each other for the nomination: The campaign to defeat Barack Obama and roll back his entire record is well underway. And that’s the one thing on which all of their potential candidates agree.

It was seven against one. Since the President won’t be speaking for himself at one of these debates until next year, our best response is to show the Republicans that when they attack Barack Obama, it only makes us fight back harder.

Fundamentally, last night’s debate was about which of their candidates would turn back the clock the farthest.

They came out for re-fighting the battles they lost on Wall Street reform and the health care law. They backed reinstating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

They even talked about abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency — and phasing out Social Security and Medicare.

They actually spent time debating whether they think Sarah Palin would have made a better vice president than Joe Biden (spoiler alert: They still think so!).

But the words “education” and “middle class” were never uttered even once.

If you were watching at home, you might have thought it was a re-run from four or eight years ago.

Most of these people are full-time candidates with nothing to lose and nothing to do but keep pushing to take us back to the failed policies of the past. Help fight back with a donation today:

http://my.democrats.org/Wake-up-call

Thanks,

Robert Gibbs

The above link takes you to the My Democrats website. On the home page there are links for fact-checking Republican claims along with a stack of other information. I am so  completely appalled with how our president is being treated both by the Republican Party and the media who seem to have forgotten HOW AND WHY news needs to be fact-checked BEFORE it is treated as news.

And where does one party get to call the seated president an enemy in order to win an election? When did this get to be ‘OK’ with the rest of us?

You may not personally like Pres. Obama – and you may disagree with his policies but that doesn’t give ANYONE the right to call him a traitor or insist the the country be TAKEN BACK as if it were lost in a poker game to a mafia drug lord.

Get Sarah Palin’s grubby little media-whore mitts  OFF THE NEWS so journalists can go back to doing their jobs and the country can go back to normal please!

 

How Can The Press Keep Getting This Wrong?

Dear American Press,

Sarah Palin’s campaign for the office of POTUS began on 6 March 2008 when she announced to a handful of your ADN peers that she was seven months pregnant. That’s the announcement that launched her head and shoulders above the other candidates John McCain had on his VP short list. How does this relate to a presidential run? Easy. Nobody ever risked simultaneously faking a pregnancy and making a lifetime commitment to raising a child only to aspire to second place.

And for Sarah Heath Palin, the office of Vice President would be just that: Second place. She said it herself in an interview in Isreal. When asked why she thought she and John McCain lost the 2008 election without hesitation her glib and inappropriate reply was because I wasn’t on the top of the ticket!

For all you political geniuses out there who believe she’s not touring the upper east coast collecting campaign money and bagging votes well – in my 60+ years of life shared on two continents under two governments, you’re the most naive bunch of journos I have ever seen.

Stop scratching your heads wondering if she’s running in 2012 or not. You can’t see it because you keep trying to fit her White House bid into a reasonable set of protocols. Stop it. There’s nothing reasonable about Sarah.

Stop chasing after her and hold still. Take a deep breath. Now - open your eyes and look at what’s right in front of you: Nobody takes a family holiday in an oversized bus decorated with campaign slogans and Republican memes, prominently plugging a PAC donation website unless they’re running for something. And for our Sarah, the only office worth the effort is the top one.

Sarah’s running for president. Count on it. She’s been running  for three years and she’s gambled everything on winning. You people just haven’t been paying attention.

So stop trying to cover your journalistic inadequacies with phrases like America is too smart to put Sarah Palin in the White House and go after the real story: Is America just stupid enough to put her there?

Sincerely,
OzMud

 

Sarah Palin Hijacks Australian Pauline Hanson’s Trademarked Party Name “One Nation”

Sarah Palin isn’t the breath of fresh air her followers portray her to be. In fact, her entire political story has been done before, by a redheaded fish & chips shop owner in 1996 who tired of her Australian government conducting ‘business as usual’ and decided to take on the ‘big boys’, single-handedly. She may not have faked a pregnancy or paraded her children in front of news cameras, but she did drape herself in the flag, complain about her government in a loud, screechy voice and bilk a lot of donations from fellow countrymen.

The following excerpt is from a dynamic summary of Pauline Hanson’s rise to fame. It reads just like a page out of Sarah Palin’s playbook. I encourage every American to read it before deciding whether to politically support Sarah Palin or not.
[Click here to read the entire post ]

The Perils of Pauline: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Delivers A Dangerous Wake Up Call To Australia’s Left
ANDREW HAMMER & JERI STANTON

The story of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

In 1996, Pauline Hanson, the operator of a small fish and chip shop, decided to run for the Australian parliament. She made this decision after becoming fed up with politics-as-usual, and feeling that the existing parties just didn’t represent the interests of Australia’s hard working masses. At least that’s the story as she tells it.

The real story is a bit more revealing…

Photos and links to Pauline Hanson and One Nation:

Launch of One Nation 1997

One Nation (the voice of the people) is a trademarked brand name. Considering Sarah Palin has applied for a trademark on her own name claiming it as a brand name, I find it odd that she would impinge the rights of someone else’s trademark. Oh wait. No I don’t. This is Sarah.

Pauline Hanson draped herself in the Australian flag a good ten years before Palin. And felt just as entitled.

 Australian Gays treated Pauline with the same irreverance as American Gays treat Sarah. Coincidence?

Simon Hunt is a media critic and faculty member at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He’s also a gay man and a music producer. When Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party launched a racist campaign for parliament devoted to stopping Asian immigration, denying rights to aboriginals, subsidizing medical care for whites and ceasing foreign aid, Hunt was inflamed. He did what he knew best– used some a PC to cut together a satirical song called “I’m a Backdoor Man.” The highly danceable track was a cut-up of samples of Pauline Hanson’s voice, and put back together in a way that mocked her agenda. Hunt released it under a drag pseudonym, Pauline Pantsdown.

In 2007 Hanson shifts her focus from Aboriginals to Muslims, re-energizing her base with warnings of Islamic immigrants taking over and smothering out the Christian Right whom she claims naturally belongs here – while the immigrants do not – and begins chastizing the government for not adopting stricter immigration laws. Sound familiar?

Herald Sun 17 March 2007
PAULINE Hanson will urge major political parties to stop the flow of Muslim immigrants into Australia when she launches her bid to become a senator this year.

She didn’t get to be Senator in 2007 however as that’s the election that landed Ms. Hanson in jail for voter fraud. It seems more people voted than actually lived in certain communities – a fascinating story in and of itself complete with intrigue and backstabbing. About a year into her jail time however, certain evidence came to light which showed Ms. Hanson was innocent of the charges and she was subsequently released, all charges dropped. A trusted benefactor was to blame. Ms. Hanson faded into the background and reappeared last year to make a final, failed bid for re-election but the public just really isn’t into her that much any more. First because a lot of people feel while proven innocent, she should have been more aware of what was going on inside her own party. Second because some people feel that when you are the captain of a team and the team screws up – you belong in the penalty box with your mates.

And third – and perhaps more importantly, Pauline Hanson wasn’t re-elected this time because there just aren’t as many bigots around these days as there once were. The world is growing up. Thank goodness.

I found this 1999 political cartoon in an old Australian government archive:

It’s a cartoon of Pauline Hanson staring down an Aboriginal woman, making her stand on who does and who does not belong in her-defined Australia, absolutely clear. Scarey, no? I have the feeling, though, if and when Ms. Hanson realizes Sarah has hijacked her “One Nation” campaign a second cartoon will emerge looking more like this:

My sincere apologies to both artists – Alan Charles and Brent Noel for the merging of their cartoons. but it was for a good cause, right?

Please, please, please take a few minutes to read the first link in this post. This one. The opening paragraphs are critically important because while we may spend a lot of time laughing at these insane women – we can’t afford to ignore them.

 

The Unsolved Mystery of Itchy Heels (Updated – April 2012)

Wow that title sounds like an old west saga – is it just me or can you see Fess Parker standing over a day-old campfire in his raccoon hat talking to Little Sou as they track the sudden disappearance of Chief Big Feather who was last seen at the top of Itchy Heels Rock and… oh wait. How many of you even know the name Fess Parker? Heh. Yeah that’s what I thought. Ok on to the real post

Last week spouse dragged me kicking and screaming to an evening of fireworks at our local mall. The fireworks were scheduled on the river to mark the opening of our shire’s annual week-long fair. Normally I would have been a happy camper to go along but it had rained all night the night before and all day and it was cold. I could not wrap my head around going to an outdoor event in the cold and rain (and mud – bleh) to watch fireworks that may or may not have been visible in the cloud cover and fog. But he really wanted to go so I pulled my socks up and tagged along.

Literally just as we crossed the bridge the rain subsided and by the time we parked the car the clouds and fog were receding. Receding? Evaporating? Well I’m sure there’s a proper word for clouds and fog going wherever it is they go when we suddenly can”t see them but it eludes me at the moment. We walked around the mall for a bit then made our way to the outdoor area designated for the ‘watchers’.

When the fireworks began I tried to plan my camera ‘clicks’ but gave up and just held it on the railing and clicked as fast as I could. Out of 244 ‘clicks’ I ended up with about a dozen decent shots and a half dozen absolutely magnificent shots. The one shown here reminded me of a champagne bottle exploding. I scaled it down to fit this post and will clean it up when I’m ready to enlarge it. But not bad for a dismal day and a now antique digital camera!

One of the reasons I was especially grumbly about this trip across the river was that towards the beginning of last week I had a strange and unpleasant experience that just gradually kept getting worse. Itchy heels. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I was warned that one day I would experience some tingling in my toes and fingers, that as time went on the long term effects of having too much sugar in my blood would show up as poor circulation, kidney problems, liver troubles, weight gain, failing eyesight and oh brother the list goes on.

So far I’ve been extremely lucky. I have regular check-ups and tests and while my diabetic ‘marker’ is sometimes too high for my doctor’s liking, I have managed to maintain healthy kidneys and liver, good eyesight and so far (knock wood) no numbness of limbs. So when I woke up at 2 am with this mild itching on both of my heels I thought – wow this must be how it starts. It persisted all the next day, though still mild and not too hard to ignore. The second night was worse. It was as if I’d stepped into a pile of itching powder that only affected the heels and I rubbed them against a roughly textured throw rug to make it stop long enough to find something soothing. I had a cream for tinnea (athlete’s foot) and generously applied it to both heels. I slept poorly for a few hours then it started up again making sleep virtually impossible.

I have an appointment with my diabetes doctor set for the first week in June, (the earliest I can get in to see him) and decided to tough it out until then. By Thursday, though, the itching was persisting during the day as well and I really wasn’t keen on putting hot shoes and socks on and itching in public from the warmth. It seems to be the warmth of the blankets and socks that exacerbate the itching. Since Friday afternoon I’ve not been able to sleep for more than just a couple of hours at a time so now I’m dealing with a bit of sleep deprivation on top – not a happy combination eh?

About 4 am this morning, as I sat poised on the edge of my chair at my desk, trying to get relief from the side of an old, worn out Easter basket, fantasizing about what we might have downstairs  in the workshop – you know – like maybe a nice rough woodfile or medium grade sandpaper – it occured to me that I was sitting in front of this generation’s best research tool ever: Google.

I typed itchy heels into the Google command bar and hit enter.  Oh my word. A menu popped up with suggestions: – at night – causes – of feet – I picked plain old itchy heels and hit enter.

1,470,000 hits. You’ve got to be kidding me right? Almost 1.5 million responses! What did we ever do before Google???

So I started down the list, looking for answers or causes or relief – and then I stumbled onto this website and was completely taken aback. An odd site called heelspur.com had placed in a separate file on a separate site this compilation of hundreds of people, all asking  the same question:  My heels itch so bad I can’t sleep is there any way to stop the itching?

From 2003 through 2009, literally hundreds of people with the same complaint had come together almost like a community. First there’s the question, then the realization that other people are out there with the exact same problem, then the realization that nobody knows – anything about this – this what – what do we even call it?

Here’s the common denominator in this thread: Everyone experiences it sometimes in the day but always, always at night within an hour or two after falling asleep. And nothing provides relief. Not a cream or a salve, not washing with bleach or rubbing tea tree oil – sometimes temporary relief comes with each of these things but it never ever lasts and you end up back at square one in only hours or a few days. No one has a rash or discolouration of any type, no build up of callous skin, no allergies to speak of, not new products or foods to rule out. Just this God awful persistent itch.

Here are the differences: The people on this site have been to dermatologists, sports doctors, neurologists, dieticians – some have undergone the expense of MRI’s, others have paid thousands of dollars going to all different specialists and having blood tests, allergy tests, allergy shots, the works. Others have tried homeopathic, chiropractic and accupuncture. Some completely change lifestyles. One gentleman was sure it was something he’d picked up at a gym and he stopped going for his workouts. One man thought it was from wearing shoes and socks everyday and another thought it was from going barefoot. One woman had her feet scraped often thinking it was a bacteria that got under the calloused parts of her feet. Another woman had it only on the balls of her feet and not the heels at all but the itching was identical to what everyone was describing. A few people said it happened to only one heel and not the other.

One man says he keeps a grass welcome mat under his side of the bed so when it wakes him at night he can just dig in his heels and rub and rub until the itching stops, hopefully long enough to get back to sleep.

And these are all different people with different lifestyles. Athletes, non-athletes, fat people, skinny people, vegetarians, hot dog fans, diabetics, non-diabetics, men and women alike aged between 20 and 70, in different cultures in different countries all experiencing the exact same dilemma.

I can’t adequately describe the sensation. The itching is maddening. It is all encompassing. You think about nothing else but ways you might try to stop the itching. It is a completely insane physical complaint.

In reading all the ways people have tried to deal with this ridiculously sounding crisis, one man said he tried some Ibuprofen and it seemed to give him some relief. Well I have Ibuprofen in my medicine cabinet and it sounded a lot saner than the poor woman who deliberately went to a public swimming pool once a month to scrub her feet hard against the coarse surface of the chlorine-covered pool floor – so I got a glass of water and took one tablet. Still itchy. About 30 minutes later I took a second. Thirty minutes after that I took a third and within ten minutes the itching was subsiding. By 6 am I was crawling back into bed hoping for at least two hours sleep before it started up again…

Spouse woke me up around 1:30pm. I opened my eyes and waited for the itch. It wasn’t there. All day long I have waited for the itch amd all day long it’s been gone. I don’t know for how long, but I will take one tablet at bedtime from now until my doctor appointment in June. I don’t hold any hope for being told what this mysterious itchy heel thing is, but I will mention it to him anyway and show him the website. Six years of online questions with no medical authority ever once stepping in to give an answer or solution. Too weird.

This is the link to the comments.  It’s worth a few minutes scanning to see the amount of total frustration shared by all these people and how some of them came togetgher to try and solve a problem nobody else seemed able to solve. The commenters slowly evolve into an entire community who in turn welcome newcomers who came online to get answers, only to find there were only more people with the same question. Frustrating, of course, but there’s also a great deal of relief in the simple discovery –  you’re not alone.

For all the things the internet does wrong, once in a while it does something really, really right. Kudos to the developers of search engines and the programmers who have made it possible for total strangers around the globe to click a button, browse a menu and immediately jump into a conversation that could improve their quality of life.

Here are a few of the better fireworks photos from last week. Click each to enlarge – feel free to share

     

============ UPDATE ============
07 April 2012

Every couple of months I notice that this post attracts a new comment from someone who (like the rest of us Googled in quiet desperation looking for a cure.So because there are still people searching for answers to this ridiculously irritating yet medically-unpublished condition I thought I’d take a moment (while my arm is healing from having been broken in January and I’m retraining myself to type with two hands and use the mouse without screaming) to bring you all up on my personal progress/experience. I’m also adding it to my current folder so it doesn’t get dropped from a search engine.

I’m not sure any of the techniques/herbs/medications accomplished anything to be honest. Almost everything I tried gave an illusion of granting relief temporarily but none for any substantial amount of time. I purchased a roughly-textured doormat and kept it by my bed but while I got relief, the skin on the bottoms of my feet began to suffer.

Eventually I purchased a thickly-shagged bath mat with a rubber no-slip bottom and that did the trick.
There was just enough scruffy texture to satisfy the itch but not enough to break the skin. It was enough to let me sleep – which is what I needed to recover the most. Without sleep the rest of your mind and body fall apart and then nothing goes well.

A week after writing this post I met with my GP who happens to also hold credentials in dermatology. He was flummoxed. He made phone calls to other specialists on my behalf – and no one knew what I was on about. My doctor did advise, however, to never take more than 1200mg of Ibuprofen per day, (6 x 200  mg tablets) and then only for short periods of time, never prolonged periods. The itching returned just days after I’d begun taking it so I gave it up easily.

Then, sometime in late June, probably just around a month after originally writing this post, the itching came to a full stop and never – never once – returned.

No explanation. No cure. The mysterious itching that had taken over my life simply stopped and never came back.

My advice to anyone seeking an answer is this:  When it itches,  scratch it. Not so hard the skin breaks, but just until there’s this sort of almost burning sensation. Like you’ve generated heat, just like the heat you get from rubbing two sticks together when attempting to build a campfire. That ‘just-before-it-becomes-unbearable’ b it of heat seems to be the signal that all the itching is going to stop for a bit. Take advantage of that. Get some sleep. With any luck it will eventually just stop for you too.

Oh and complain to your doctor. The more doct0rs who9 hear about this from their patients, the better chance we all have for someone in the medical profession to sit up and take notice – and find some decent remedies!

My thanks to all the commenters – along with my sincerest sympathies. This is not a club any of us wanted to join, eh?

 

 

My Spouse: Portrait of a Most Romantic Man

Spouse came up behind me while I was stretched out on the bed watching television. Winter has arrived early in Queensland. Days are shorter – nights are cold. Evenings spent watching television under the covers will be the perfect norm for a while.

Spouse curled up beside me and pulled my hair aside letting the cool night air waft across my bare neck. He leaned forward, his breath, heavy and warm and softly cooed…

“Don’t make any plans for the weekend.”

“Ooo. Why? What do you have in mind?”

“Rocky I, II, III and IV are on cable. And I just bought popcorn.”

Suddenly I heard my mother’s voice saying “…let him live, sweetie, let him live.”

That small albeit wise admonition has helped keep my marriage together lo  these many years.  On the other hand – Sly Stone and popcorn. Life just doesn’t get any better…

 

Charlie Sheen Provides Glimpse Into Palin’s future (2)

Part Two

Whatever demons drive Charlie Sheen, they are fast running out of road. He still has a huge fan base, but if he continues to trek around the country spitting on them like he did to his fans in Detroit on 2 April then those numbers will dwindle as well. His opening night as a stand up comic was a disaster by every possible measure. To  illustrate the scale of his popularity (in spite of losing his role on the TV show Two and a Half Men) I should repeat that his opening night as a stand up comic had sold out within minutes of the tickets coming available online. Minutes. It’s important to remember this fact because it is the very same group of fans who rushed to buy tickets who also began walking out during the first twenty minutes of his debut in disturbing numbers, all with discouraging comments of disappointment about their idol’s performance.

In fact, people continued to dribble out the front door with such frequence that when it came for a musician’s break, Sheen ducked out a rear entrance, never to return. He not only drove most of his fans away, he bailed on the few who respectfully remained.

Charlie Sheen’s adamant denial that drugs and alcohol have a negative impact on his life, that his usage of either is beyond his control and that he can manage life without help from anyone demonstrates the sort of hubris that is symptomatic of severe addiction. It provides the cornerstone for alcohol and drug abuse recovery as it is the first issue an addict in a recovery program is required to face – admission the addict is not in control of himself or his addiction.

The process of addict recovery begins with the term bottoming out. Coined from hitting the bottom of the wine barrel some seventy years ago, the bottom for an addict is that place in life where an individual finally finds himself without the means to care for himself, feed his habit or reinforce his denial. It’s where friends and family can no longer be tricked with clever lies into giving them money, room or board. There are no more cookie jars to rob or bartenders to con into giving them just one more freebie. No place to hide. At the very bottom of the empty barrel there’s literally nowhere else to go except to look inward and finally figure it out. No, I am not in control. I am not the most powerful being in the universe. I am a slave to my habit and I cannot break free without the help of another human being. This is where recovery begins.

For Charlie Sheen there is still time and hope. And I for one wish him good health and sobriety.

But what has any of this to do with Sarah Palin… indeed.

Charlie Sheen, at the peak of his popularity and success playing the role of Charlie Harper presumed he was immune to things to which other mortals were vulnerable because he was, after all, Charlie Sheen. Laws of nature and physics, rules of public decorum, morality, none applied to him. He was Charlie Sheen Harper , irreplaceable, invincible, immortal. He could do as he pleased and his fans would nonetheless rally around, the network would forgive him and his audiences would  laugh at his material no matter how poorly he prepared. He was Charlie Sheen Harper.

29 August 2008, Dayton Ohio:
Sarah Heath Palin stepped from the rim of obscurity onto the brightly lit stage of a nationally televised Republican Rally and basked in the spotlight the way most of us soak up the sun. She drank in the sound of her own voice, whetting the appetite of her salacious pride. She feasted on the cheering roar of the crowd as if it were food from the Gods – of which she now counted herself as one.

Sarah Heath Palin’s political career peaked that night, in that moment. It would become the high she would continue to seek but never again achieve.  However… and aye, here’s the rub… her relentless search to recapture that single moment of euphoria would lay a destructive course not just for herself but for the country she claimed to love…

 

Charlie Sheen Provides Glimpse Into Palin’s Future (1)

Part One -

Maybe we don’t need a crystal ball to see Sarah Palin’s future. Maybe we just need to gaze into the the prescient world of  Charlie Sheen. He does, after all, seem to be walking an almost parallel path with the tortured ex-half-governor.

Two nights ago a sold-out crowd of Detroit fans began walking out of Charlie’s first-ever live performance just 20 minutes into his act. Comments at the door ranged from “…worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” to the observation that his poorly delivered and poorly chosen opening jokes about Detroit being a crack town full of car thieves had gone over badly. At the end of the day, there’s a difference between stand-up comedy and comic acting. Being good at one doesn’t pre-suppose you’ll be good at the other. If only Charlie were listening to the advice proffered from his agents.

But Charlie ceased taking professional advice in favour of listening only to his inner voice – the voice that guarantees him the people saying drugs and alcohol are killing him – lie.

Charlie Sheen had a brilliant career ahead of him. He hadn’t stepped on too many toes prior to landing the gig as Charlie in the hit series Two and a Half Men. His promiscuous behavior was treated by the public in general as adorable rather than womanizing. His public tippling in the past had been treated by the media on the whole as non-venomous. Tame in comparison to stars like Mel Gibson.

But the universal principle of uncontrolled drug and alcohol consumption is voraciously predictable. In the end, they will strip you of everything you ever deemed valuable. Fame. Friends. Family. And then they take more. Self respect. Health. Longevity.

Charlie Sheen is in full-blown denial and everyone looking on can see it but him. He’s lost one of the best roles a sitcom actor could ever hope to land. Not only did it bring him considerable popularity, it was job security at its finest because the role became the actor – became the role. That synergism guaranteed Charlie Sheen a secure financial future if he just stayed loyal to his craft and didn’t fritter it away.

The shoes of Charlie Harper will not successfully be filled by another actor. At least not in the near future. Should Charlie Sheen break out of his stupor and take action to clean up his life, his act and make amends enough to resurrect the series, the other actors will have already moved on, grown up and perhaps not have the forbearance to forgive Charlie the man for having chucked their chance at financial security into the trash.

Sarah Palin believed her overnight rise to national recognition gave her unlimited political and celebrity sway and that her success in one automatically procured her success in the other. To some degree she was correct. But this is where her addiction steps up to betray her.

No, I am not for a moment implying Sarah Palin abuses drugs or alcohol. I’m saying she abuses life. And that amounts to the same thing. Sarah’s addiction is to her own hubris. And that overbearing pride will be her undoing.

 

My Vision of the Republican 2012 Primaries…

 

Stop Feeding The Troll: No-Palin For A Month Pledge *Update*

Oz Mudflats joins Wickersham’s   Conscience who joins Washington D.C. columnist Dana Milbank in pledging to ignore All-Things-Palin for the month of February.

Dana Milbank’s pledge is here.

WC’s pledge can be read here.

Please join us by not writing or reading about, commenting on or giving this worthless excuse of a human being any acknowledgement whatsoever for the period of one calendar month.

I, OzMud, hereby promise as of 1 February 2011, to not write about, read about or talk about Sarah Palin or any of her brood for an entire month. [Tosses salt over her shoulder and spits into the wind.]

That part of my brain that suffers from Palin-Overload has made a serendipitous connection between the above pledge and the following old, tasteless joke, heard first in a mid-70′s parenting awareness seminar. The memory has brought a smile to my face. The joke goes something like this:

The overwrought, exhausted parents of twin two year olds sit side by side on a sofa. She has raspberry jello in her hair. He has spaghetti sauce on his trousers. Toys abound throughout the room. They watch as the two out-of-control toddlers smear margarine on the television screen. Finally, the father turns to the mother and says “I read somewhere that if you stop feeding them, they eventually become lethargic.”

We talk about not feeding the trolls in our comments sections all the time. Perhaps it’s time to focus on not feeding the Mama Troll as well :)

To those commenters asking questions about where to help with the flood clean-up may I first say thanks so much for the good energy, thoughts, prayers and effort. Second, I am currently researching which philanthropic projects are the most legitimate and effective and will be posting a list and an update of the flood zones soon.

============ Update ============

Thought I’d address the reasoning behind my decision to choose now to ignore Ms. Palin et al for a month. I understand that a lot of you feel this is the wrong time – that things are hotting up in the Palin household and the month of February promises to provide the news cycle we’ve all been waiting for – the Snow Queen’s Demise.

Here’s my problem… Sarah Palin is not now and never should have been treated as news. Her fifteen minutes of fame should never have been elevated to domination of the national daily news cycle. Her tweets and Facebook rants should never have gone unchallenged by the media. Her quite irrational but viscious verbal attacks on our sitting President should never have gone unchastized by our politicians. Her uneducated claims about government policy including health care, our relationships with China, North Korea, Iran, Israel and Iraq should never have been treated as if her ignorant arguments held any substance. For two years Sarah Palin has said what she wanted, when she wanted, without the responsibility of backing her statements with facts, taking part in public debate or answering to the barest of media scrutiny.

And the sad truth is, no matter how the Palins respond to the current and forthcoming allegations, nothing much is going to change. Sarah Palin with all her millions of dollars in the bank will continue to prey on the weak, collect money from gullible supporters who think that by donating their kids lunch money they are somehow saving their savior,  and she will continue to preach to the choir.

No matter what facts are presented to the public over the next few weeks exposing the truth about Sarah’s family life or personal motivations, she won’t lose a single supporter because the people who support Sarah didn’t just fall for her anti-government hype – they worship her. And you can’t fight faith with logic or reason. 

Sarah’s disciples will buy into whatever spin she puts on the truth about herself and her family – they will help her blame the media, the liberals and Obama, and whatever falls out of her closet that she can’t explain away, they will forgive.

This next months chunk of news cycles won’t be any different from any of the other news reports that have previously outed Sarah in some way. She’ll sit behind the bulletproof glass shield conveniently provided by FNC, point to the lamestream media and bloggers and unfair journalists as proof positive she’s persecuted and use Twitter and Facebook to make her undisputed claims of innocence… and nothing will change.

Except for 28 days there will be fewer of us feeding the Mama Troll, giving her fewer and fewer people to blame for her inevitable downfall.

Her favorability in the polls keeps dropping not because more people suddenly got smart, but because more people who already weren’t under her spell  began realizing she’s not just a joke – and she’s not going away. More and more people who have encouraged her bizarre behaviour and treated her as a quirky celebrity are now realizing the real danger she poses to our way of life and that impetus has helped more people to find their voice.

Regardless of what Palin-Facts are suddenly brought to light in the next few weeks, one of two things is going to ultimately happen: Either Sarah Palin is going to run for president in 2012 or she’s not.

But be clear - her decision to run or not will have nothing to do with scandalous bouts of infidelity or damaging emails.  Whichever direction she decides to take, it will not for one second occur to Ms. Palin that she doesn’t have immeasurable amounts of wiggle room with her supporters. This is, after all, the same woman who convinced a nation that her doctor told her it was okay to fly from Texas to Anchorage with leaking amniotic fluid in her 36th week of her seventh pregnancy, after having two previous miscarriages. I’m guessing Sarah could sell sand to Arabs. But that’s just me.

If Sarah chooses not to run then it’s game over and we’ll probably see her next clad in a sequined white gown preaching about the coming of the apocalypse on a Sunday morning religious network.

If she does toss her bumpit into the ring, then I’ll be all over her like ticks on a wet dog – but in March after a lovely Palin-free rest.

As I write this, another comment has come forward. Is it possible this call for a Palin-Free month is the concept of someone like Carl Rove? Designed to take the heat off Sarah as facts of her real life come bounding to the foreground? Sure. But this is my decision – and if it’s the wrong one, then I am at least in good company

 

Foraging For Food In The Aftermath

14 January 2011
Friday

We live on the very outskirts of the flood zone. Our home was never in imminent danger. Our power was never off for more than a handful of hours at a time. The supermarket in my immediate neighbourhood is attempting to serve the sudden influx of people from neighbouring boroughs who have no access to local stores at all.

 It was explained to us the following day by a Woolies manager, “We normally have several deliveries per day for each department – now we can only get one or two trucks on the road so we need them to bring the absolute basics – milk, bread, baby formula and sanitary supplies. Everything else has to wait until the roads are clear and safe again.”

These photos were taken on the evening of the 13th, just one day after the Bremer River overflowed into downtown Ipswich…

(Click images to enlarge)

  Carrots,
  broccoli,
  string beans,
  cucumbers, etc.

  Potatoes,
  onions,
  pumpkin…

  Bananas,
  apples,
  oranges,
  lettuce…

  All the
  popular
  sugared cereals
  are gone…

  Bread…
 

Spouse has been the one to forage daily for supplies – I’ll go back with my camera on Monday.  But really, this is why emergency services are forever preaching that we always maintain a stocked larder with at least two weeks of tinned food, dry staples and paper products because when emergencies happen – uit can be the difference between taking care of one’s family or not.

Good lessons here.

PS sorry about the photo layout – on the worksheet they are perfectly lined up on the left with captions on the right – this program is really irritating – rofl.

 

Getting Supplies To A Semi-Isolated Relative

13 January 2011
Thursday

Cousin Margaret is a 71 year-old widow who lives alone. Her children’s lives and careers have taken them a fair bit away from home so spouse and I try to keep an eye on her. Under normal circumstances, this is an easy task. Her health isn’t the best, but she’s pretty independent.

Her proximity to Bremer River this week has, however, put a rather large dent in her independent armour. Margaret has out-lived the neighbours with whom she’s always interacted. The new neighbours are all younger and not that interested in befriending their neighbours. Gone are the days of women in a neighbourhood gathering for morning tea while husbands are off at work – gone are the gab sessions held over the fence while hanging out the family laundry. Today’s younger people only need the internet for news and gossip, and it’s becoming more and more common to realize we don’t have a clue who lives in the houses around us.

Margaret is left to only know two of her neighbours, and they have (understandably) been focused this week on how the floods have affected their own properties and rellies. Margaret’s best friend attempted to get supplies to her, but without success. All roads leading to her little corner of the world have been under water.

Yesterday, as soon as we got word that the bridge was accessible spouse and I made a thermos of hot coffee, packed up milk, bread and lunch meat and headed for North Ipswich. Margaret had already been without power for 36+ hours.

A routine trip to Margaret’s house would normally take around an hour and a half: 15-20 minutes to get there, 30-45 minutes to have a cuppa and visit, and 15-20 minutes to get back home.

Today, with all the road closures and detours, we left the house at 10:30am and wouldn’t get back until after 3:30pm. Most of that time was spent in traffic.

When we did get to Margaret’s this is what we saw (click each to enlarge):

  

The power came on while we were there. We helped get rid of spoiled food from the fridge and freezer, made a fresh pot of coffee and settled her in with a sandwich and television. She had almost three days of catching up to do on news photos and reports.

Coming back across the David Trumpy bridge was bumper to bumper traffic so I had time to leisurely take photos of the river. You can gauge the normal width of the river by looking at the gum trees. Gum trees don’t usually grow under water…

  

On the downtown side of the bridge you can see the first row of buildings that went under water, along with a street that’s still hidden…

        

The flow of traffic picked up once we left the bridge and I literally just pointed the camera and clicked as we drove past the intersections. These are the streets we’d tried to photograph the day before but weren’t allowed close enough. Also, downtown Ipswich is a maze of one-way streets so coming and going find you on different streets altogether.    

Here are the few fly-by photos clear enough to print… 

    

  

Tomorrow we hit the grocery store… the one that isn’t under water.

By the way – I found President Obama’s speech in Tucson to be incredibly moving. How anyone can listen to him and make the claim that he isn’t a Christian and hates America is pure insanity.

I also heard Sarah Palin’s 8 minutes of dribble. How anyone can listen to her and make the claim that she is a Christian and loves America is pure insanity. I’ve a lot to say on the matter but right now the floods here prevail.

 

Power’s On – Sun’s Up – River’s Down

12 January 2011
Wednesday

Ventured to the Queen’s Park Lookout for a birdseye view, and then drove around the hospital and behind the library for a closer look.

(Click images to enlarge)

Center of Ipswich:

  

 

The flowers however, are loving this wet weather. We found all of these walking the two blocks from where we parked the car to the roped-off intersection:

   

On the way home we actually found a produce market open and scored fresh bananas, a pineapple, cherry tomatoes and navel oranges.

Then it rained again and the power went off.

13 January 2011
Thursday

The death toll has held at 10 for Southeast Qld but the number missing fluctuates between 48 and 90. We’ve discovered a cousin of ours is stranded and has been without power since Monday evening.  We’re going to try to get to her this afternoon. Spouse has gone off to find bread and milk and another transistor radio.

The sun is out and reports indicate that neither the Brisbane nor the Bremer Rivers rose as high as anticipated which is a really good thing. The consequences of all this water leaving our little hamlets of course means that the hamlets below us on the map will all now and each experience flooding of their own.

Well… I suppose the water has to go somewhere.

Sidenote:  There is a little town called Chincilla – last night it was flooded – for the fourth time in a year. Seems they just recover from one flood and another hits. The company I work for is organizing a drive to collect and deliver food and blankets. Many businesses are doing the same all around the country.

The Australian Federal Govt has reported already handing out more than $17 million to displaced families by way of cash disbursements so people suddenly without homes can buy food and supplies. This amount is expected to quadruple in the next week.

 More later – we’re off to try and reach cousin Margaret.

If you haven’t already, click on the Henkimaa link to the right – just over there >>>
Mel has put together a great post on the Brisbane end of this flood.

-OzMud

 

The Rain Stopped Just Long Enough For The Street To Un-Puddle

11 January 2011 3:00pm

As of two hours ago, 72 people are still missing with 8 confirmed deaths in the southeastern corner of Queensland. My corner. The portion of the Bremer River which affects my neighbourhood is already12.6 meters (aprox 40 ft) above it’s normal height and is still rising. The prediction is that Bremer River will continue to rise overnight, reaching 18-19 meters by midnight and 20-22 meters by morning.

Wivenhoe Dam is reportedly mitigating enough water daily to fill the Sydney Harbour – twice. (Mitigating, I’m told, as it pertains to water in dams is a fancy way of saying swallowing.) Wivenhoe has five floodgates and all five are open and in full operation. A month ago, one spillway was opened to slowly empty the flood storage compartment in response to the unusual amount of rainfall during November and December, and in anticipation of what we’re seeing today.  Good onya city planners…

There are evacuation notices going up for my town - but not for my neighbourhood. The streets needing to be evacuated are all along the river’s edge and lie below tthe predicted 22 meter rise. We are positioned well above. We won’t be in any danger of our home being washed away, but we will be cut off by inaccessible roads. So it’s truly time to stock up and hunker-down.

12 January 2011 4:00am

The suddenly absent drumming of rain on our Queenslander’s iron roof literally woke me from a sound sleep an hour ago. If you’ve never experienced it, the iron rooftops of the older Queenslander homes create a deafening racket under heavy rain or hail. You can stand next to someone outdoors and scream at the top of your lungs and not be understood, it’s that loud. I hollered to a neighbour across the fence during the morning downpour and she just laughed at me, making a hand gesture that meant ‘call me!’ You get used to the sound, though, and it becomes more noticeable when it stops than when it starts.

As of 10pm last night, the local number of missing persons has risen to 78 and the death toll has risen to 10. The power went off during the 10pm updates. I went to sleep, but spouse stayed up listening to evacuation updates on a transistor radio. Around 1am the local supermarket and it’s parking lot went under water, as did my dentist’s office.

We have uninvited guests on our roof and quite possibly in the attic. We think they’re possums but honestly, they sound like elephants tromping overhead. At the moment, I can identify at least two different sets of footsteps and I’m pretty sure they’re playing volley ball up there. (Or having extremely loud sex – I can’t really tell.)

Just after the rain stopped, waking me, the power came back on and I immediately turned on the computer and TV for news. Nothing new since the last radio report, except everyone is incredibly grateful for the break in the rain. Oh and Wivenhoe Dam has dialled back it’s water release for the next 24 hours to slow down the amount of water being dumped into the Brisbane and Bremer Rivers – evidently the real problem still lies ahead as there is a projected seasonal high tide expected to impact on these rivers between 9am and 12 noon today (Wednesday).

While the river is rising, there’s not the flash-flooding that wreaked havoc through Toowoomba yesterday, so while the rain has stopped, we’re thinking of venturing out at first light to see how much of the river we can see from a closer vantage point. I’m also thinking I should post this before the power goes off again.

This isn’t over. We’re in for at least two more days of heavy rain, dam overflows and high tides.

This is the most comprehensive set of reports including photos, stories and videos I found to share.

Until later,
OzMud

PS  Thank you so much for all the kind words of support in the previous comments- and yes, we have our two emergency tubs packed and at the ready.

 

David Kernell: Palin’s Collateral Damage *Update

David Kernell, the young man convicted of breaking into one of three yahoo email accounts Sarah Palin unethically used for state business had his sentence passed down today. It’s probably easier to just post this link to Palingates coverage than to rewrite it here. Be sure to read the entire summary as Palingates provides a unique outside the U.S. perspective on the whole incident.

In my mind, this is a perfect example of something not-so-bad blown completely out of proportion by the reigning Palins with the help of an adoring media. I am so tired of the media giving these people carte` blanche just because their bizarre behaviour  is fodder for good ratings – but now, to have helped Sarah turn a curious college student into a major class felon – that’s the Palin/Media brand gone too far.

With Sarah Palin in command we no longer need to go outside the U.S. to find political prisoners. We’re now making them right in our own backyard. 

Tell us, Sarah, when two of your children, Track and Willow got into trouble with the law over destroying public and private property, what happened to them again? Oh that’s right. You built them a big house and took them shopping.

Nice one Sarah. Very presidential of you.

=============== Update ===============

Palingates has updated their report with portions of the actual testimonies posted here along with links to the complete .pdf files.

We have known since the testimony was given that Sarah and Bristol lied under oath as (at the time) many of us were godsmacked to note that Mr.Kernell’s attorney ignored the perjury. He was trying to keep the trial focused on the facts rather than let it wander off into a media frenzy about Sarah… and of course no one will ever know if that was the right way to go for his client or not.

Jeanne Devon at The Mudflats posted aerial photos of the Palin house in Wasilla after Bristol claimed – under oath – to be alone, without telephone service  and miles from nowhere. The photos clearly show the Palin house is not out in the boondocks. Other witnesses corroborated the fact that two secret service persons were living at the Wasilla house and so at no time could Bristol have ever been alone and/or in mortal danger. But the judge never heard these facts. Bristol and Sarah’s testimomies stayed on the record and unchallenged.

I no longer have a link to the AKM post above. Maybe one of you have it and can post it in comments? Believe it or not I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner while typing these posts today. It’s a version of my new tradition since moving to Australia that I fondly call An America Thanksgiving (a week late and in the wrong country).

Off to get a pumpkin pie in the oven… NOBODY DO ANYTHING EXCITING UNTIL I GET BACK!

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “David Kernell: Palin’s Collateral Damage” and click on the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Moron Watch: 192 Hours To U.S. 2010 Midterm Elections

John Boehner is worse than a moron. He’s a boldface liar.

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “Moron Watch: 192 Hours To U.S. 2010 Midterm Elections” and click on the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Moron Watch: 336 Hours To U.S. 2010 Midterm Elections

The ADN posted an article here regarding Joe Miller’s confessional appearance on CNN. How bizzare is it that a candidate for the U.S. Senate prefers to be interviewed by a national news conglomerate rather than his own, local media.

That’s ok. At least Joe’s reluctance to trust his own constituency garnered some carefully thought out comments and helped some Alaska Republicans see the light.

Like umm… this guy:

(click to enlarge)

 

Shh….

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “Moron Watch: 336 Hours To U.S. 2010 Midterm Elections” and click on the word comments  just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Smear Campaigns: Do they Work? You Betcha!

During this past month I’ve come to realize that I personally know six people on the mainland who believe – genuinely believe – that President Barack Obama:

…is not a U.S. citizen and has never produced a US birth certificate.
…is a fanatic Muslim intent on destroying Christianity.
…is owned by big corporations who line their pockets at the expense of ours.
…hates America.

Six people. That’s six votes to my one.

All six are over the age of 50.
Four are women.
Three are widows.
One is self-employed.
Two are retired.
One served in the military.
All have a high school education.
Five attended at least one year of college.
Three hold college degrees.
Five are parents.
Three are grandparents.
Three are currently employed.
One held the same job, in the same building for 40 years.
Five were employed prior to the Bush Administration.
Two collect Social Security.
Five were born and educated in California.
Six were homeowners prior to the Bush Administration.
Three are homeowners now.
All were baptized and raised in Christian faiths.
Four baptized their own children.
None currently attend church.
Five blame Pres. Obama personally for the current state of the economy.
Three believe the new healthcare plan will destroy their current coverage.
*Four own handguns.
Two are Registered Republicans.
Two follow the Fox News Channel.
Two refuse political discussion claiming all politics is garbage.
One believes whatever her son tells her to believe.
One believes Sarah Palin makes a lot of sense.
Four view Sarah Palin as a victim of ratings-driven journalism.
Three believe Sarah Palin’s ‘wild ride’ was created by the media.
Six believe Sarah Palin to be Trig Palin’s natural birth mother.
Two believe Sarah Palin is a political drama queen but would vote for her over Pres. Obama anyway.

*Of the four gun owners, three honestly believe  Armageddon is upon us and they will need their firearms to protect their homes and families from Muslim invaders.

What struck me the most about my supposedly educated, well-rounded friends was not that we share such different core beliefs, (because I have a lot of friends and usually enjoy the diversity) but that each of their current political leanings appear to be driven by abject fear. All six believe the Obama Administration is now and will continue to plummet America into the worst economical depression ever recorded by man, and because of our foreign debts, we will one day be owned by the Muslims who will impose Islamic Law, having us bowing to the east or be shot on our doorsteps.

Oh yes. There’s one more thing my friends listed above all have in common:

Not one of them knows about my blog.

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “Smear Campaigns: Do they Work? You Betcha!” and click on the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

I used to think it didn’t really matter which party was elected into office. We’re all Americans, right? And whatever the party bias, each was led by intelligent, educated people who know more about running a country than I do. George W. Bush, John McCain and Sarah Palin have changed all that. Join me. Get involved.

 

The Palin [un]Welcome Wagon

Joe McGuinniss is, by trade, an expose writer. His steadfast ability to dig the truth from a pile of political dung has shed light on the truths driving such figureheads as Richard M. Nixon and Ted Kennedy. He’s written behind the scenes stories of sports figures and murderers alike and each work has shown respect to his subject while proffering a gripping honesty for his readers to digest. It is little wonder the man is such a success at his chosen profession.

Enter Sarah Palin.

Joe McGuinness is writing a book about Sarah’s 2008 bid for the White House. And like he’s done with each of his other works, Joe’s physically moved close to his subject.

But this is Sarah… and paranoia runs deep in Palin veins. So when she discovered who had moved into the rental house next door, she auto-rallied her troops on Facebook…

[click image to enlarge]

AKM tells the full story
at The Mudflats here

The Immoral Minority
adds Glenn Becks take here

Palingates adds a photo 
composition here

What I’d like to offer are these:
FB comments deliberately elicited by the snarling Mz. Palin as she bared her teeth to show her new neighbour exactly who the alpha dog is on Lake Lucille.

It’s not enough for Mz. Palin to lie about historical events, current events, current politicians, global warming and dinosaurs… I could live with the lies actually. It’s the unwarranted fear and hate she instills in her followers that I can do without. 

Here…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To listen to Sarah’s followers – Joe McGuinniss is  stalker, pedophile and overall danger to the community who needs to be arrested, jailed, shot at and become the victim of a household accident.

Last time I looked, it was the right of any American citizen to live in any state, in any city, on any street of choice.  There was nothing unAmerican or sinister about Mr. McGuinniss renting the house next to the Palins.

It’s not his fault, after all,that while the Palins now, certainly have enough money to do so, none were smart enough to purchase the properties on either side of their compound to ensure their familial privacy.

And quite frankly, if privacy was the Palin’s main concern, they should never have nested between two adjacent houses and on the edge of a common lake.

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “The Palin [un]Welcome Wagon” and click on the word comments just beneath.  Thanks, OzMud

 

Ca Dems Grow A Pair – It’s about time! [Update]

Sarah Palin is busily promoting Carly Fiorina to Republican voters of California as ‘the face of commonsense government’. Her Tea Party backers have inundated her Facebook appraisal of Carly with complaints and criticism because they have already selected someone to represent their needs in this years election – one Chuck DeVore – and are more than just disappointed that Sarah didn’t get behind their pick – **they’re downright pissed.

Enter the California Democrats:

Wapo has the whole story here.

**Please note: A handful of Sarah’s FB-Bots have begn to counter the posted criticisms with comments of praise, expressing faith in her wisdom and judgement. Two things – first, I’m betting they aren’t California voters but fans from C4P and second – scroll down about a dozen or so comments and you’ll find the ‘real’ responses to her FB push for Carly.

*     *     *     *     [Update]     *     *     *     *

Here’s the original Carly Fiorina ad:

The youtube comments on both clips are worth the read. Just click on either video to reach the youtube site.

 

To comment on this post, please scroll up to the title “Ca Dems Grow A Pair – It’s about time!” and click on the word comments just beneath. Thanks, OzMud

 

Traversing the internet, I find it jarring to be in the middle of reading a post only to discover the writer has used an acronym with which I am not familiar.  I suppose this is a byproduct of text’ing, however I don’t text.
I’m guessing some of you don’t either.
For our edification then, a page sporting
Annoying Acronyms can be found right over there –>  ========================================================================