“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Then the few existing equal-pay for equal work laws are repealed, making it difficult for a woman to sup0port herself in a man’s world at all.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.

 

WTH Has Sarah Got on Her Feet? *UPDATE*

I swear these look like ice skates to me…

Not my photo – the original photos are here and the C4P story is here.

In a nutshell, the nutcase from AK got paid big bucks to spout her ‘we are the daughters of God’ dribble to an infatuated crowd of women at a religious convention over the weekend. I could care less. Well, except that every time she gets paid for spewing this crap some poor young, innocent woman gets sucked into the vortex.

There is something interesting going on though I thought in these recent speeches of hers… Sarah is actually instructing women to stand up for themselves. And the hidden problem with this for her is that in teaching women to stand up for themselves – they eventually, actually – will 🙂

Oops.

============  UPDATE  ============

FOUND ‘EM!!!
Irishgirl’s comment section piqued my interest even more so I thought what the heck – Google Images! And sure enough… there they were… FOR SALE!

And the BEST part is (drumroll please…) the shoes are called

H O B A K

That’s them, right?

Please make my day and tell me Sarah (you lil’ ho, you) wore shoes named after ‘the world’s oldest profession’  to a religious convention!

Talk about biblical!

BTW – shoes can be found here. This pair are sold out but the other HOBAK shoes seem to all be around $150-$200 each.

 

“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:

 

Uh-oh… Ann Romney Trips Over her Own Cake.

This in my morning’s emails:

<OzMud…>

Please send an email to your member of Congress to support the Woman’s Option to Raise Kids (WORK) Act, which gives low-income women with children under age four the choice to stay at home to raise their kids. Click here to send an email.

Now that Republicans have flip-flopped on their decades-long denigration of mothers and decided that staying at home to raise children is work—or at least, it’s work when Ann Romney does it—some House Democrats are telling them to put their money where their mouth is by introducing the Woman’s Option to Raise Kids (WORK) Act.

The WORK Act allows raising children under the age of four to count toward the required “work activity” defined under the 1996 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Program. If Republicans really valued the work mothers do, they’d support legally defining raising young children as work so that more low-income moms can make the same choice Ann Romney made.

However, with Democrats calling their bluff, many Republicans are folding. When asked about the WORK Act, Rep. Jon Mica (R-FL) said being a mother “isn’t work in the normal sense.” Teabagger Rep. Steve King of Iowa compared the hard work of motherhood to washing his car.

Please, send an email to your member of Congress in support of the WORK Act. It’s either time to give all moms the same choice Ann Romney had, or to put an end to this sham outrage.

Keep fighting,
Kaili Joy Gray, Daily Kos

Excellent update at the Daily Kos on how the Republicans have downgraded their stand on defining stay-at-home moms from real workers to- you know – people who don’t really work at all. Well that didn’t take long, did it…

 

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 Tells Pres. Obama “Start Packing” Seriously? PLUS: Ted Nugent calls Obama Administration “as Nazi Germany as it gets”

From a Diane Sawyer interview just hours ago…

I am so over all the open disrespect shown our duly-elected, highly successful, currently seated president. Totally over it.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

TED NUGENT recently endorsed Mitt Romney. In fact, Romney actually solicited Nugent’s endorsement. This weekend at an NRA conference (while the media was in a frenzy over Hilary Rosen’s overly-disected statement about Ann Romney not understanding what it’s like to be a middle-class working mother) Ted Nugent took to a microphone and called President Obama everything but a white boy.

He even stated the current Obama administration was “as Nazi Germany as it gets”. Listen for yourself:

If you don’t have the stomach for the 3 minute audio – News Corpse has a transcript here.

Quote: “We need to ride into Washington in November and chop their heads off!”

yeah, that’s who I want leading my country…

But let’s make sure we continue to harp at Ms. Rosen for stating a truth and ignore the treasonous rhetoric spewing hate from the Romney camp.

 

If You give a girl a Paycheck… From Blue Gal

Reprinted in part from Blue Gal’s website… GO HERE to view full post – it’s so brilliant I’m jealous!

 

 

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.

 

Arizona is at it again: New Anti-Abortion Legislation Signed. Sealed and Shoved down Our throats *Update

From the Daily Beast:

…Life starts earliest in Arizona, which now defines gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman’s last period, rather than at fertilization…

I am without words.

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

From the comments:

When the medical profession defines gestation as beginning on the first day of the woman’s last period they extend the pregnancy to include an additional two weeks. Pregnancy is then defined as being 42 weeks long. But it was never intended to be used as a legal term.

Using gestational age to interpret feotal development age muddies the waters and sets a precedent for personhood lobbyists to shorten the currently legally accepted timeframes for early abortion. Once that precedent is set, the timing on heretofore legally obtained abortions is reduced by two to four weeks and we will be vulnerable to being charged with accountability of a feotus that hasn’t even been conceived yet.

Gestational age is a medical term which should never be interjected onto actual feotal development. It is complete overkill. If it is allowed to be used as a legal definition for ‘beginning of life’  our rights as women will be in serious jeopardy.

From John Hopkins online:

Nowhere in the language used in the Arizona legislation does the author adjust the additional days added at the begi9nning of a 42 week gestational period. Instead, the 20 week legal precedent used to define legal abortions has been truncated by two full weeks, cutting the time to obtain a legal abortion from 20 down to 18 weeks. And this doesn’t even take into account the timing of late ovulation which could then tack an additional one to two weeks onto the time between ‘the first day of a woman’s last period’ and the time of actual conception.

It should be important to note that no matter how gestational age is defined, the science behind the actual length of a pregnancy is not altered. It still takes 38 to 40 weeks to incubate a healthy feotus, ready to emerge and take it’s first breath no matter where you decide to place the start marker. Legislating this marker is then redundant, and only useful if the intent is to create new precedent by which lobbyists can alter existing laws.

Gestational age is a ‘method of measurement’ not a legal term but we run the risk of it becoming a legal fact and overturning the medical science used to create our abortion laws, and laws making women liable during feotal development.

It’s also one dangerous step towards making personhood effective a full month prior to a child even being conceived. Gestational age and feotal development after conception are not the same. It’s inaccurate to interpose the terms and then create legislation based upon the inaccuracies.

Thank you kitchem for your thoughtful comment.

Ok that’s my two cents folks – your thoughts?

 

SarahP(alin)A(ccess)C(ash) finally getting the exposure it so richly deserves.

Malia Litman posted this story on her blog today – and because it speaks to a sentiment by which so many of us have been so frustrated for so long I thought it should be re-posted – everywhere.

It’s not by accident Alaskan bloggers refer to Sarah Palin as Granny Grifter. Alaska’s taxpayers have been witness to (and victims of) the Palin’s enjoying unearned government perks for a couple of decades now. In fact, the list of the number of incidents that directly or indirectly put government funds and personal donations into Palin pockets since her mayorship back in the nineties is mind-numbing. How she’s been able to get away with the practice of stealing from tax payers for so long could almost cause one to believe in miracles.

But now the publicly-aired quarterly financial reports are shining bright on Sarah’s grifting and a few of her faithful followers and regular PAC contributors are stepping into the light. They are beginning to ask questions like why are their donations to SarahPAC  paying three ladies in Wasilla a total of $35,000 for three months of clerical work? Why did the PAC foot the bill for a $19,000,  2-minute video to rebut the movie Game Change – when neither the HBO movie itself or the rebuttal have anything at all to do with the current election cycle?

And I must admit, for all the time and energy I’ve personally spent on this blog jumping up and down, flailing my arms while trying to help the other bloggers shine that light on the Palin’s unethical fleecing of the public  – it’s now rather satisfying to rest on the sidelines with the others and think … hey Palinbots? Told you so!

[Click Image to enlarge]

The Atlantic article by staff writer Conor Friedersdorf is here.

Nice catch Malia – you may have found a Republican we can actually get behind.

 

Romney: Finicky or Funicky

Evidently, when it comes to food Mitt Romney is one of those finicky eaters who only eats what he likes and hates what he doesn’t like. I’ve had the misfortune of having to cook for people like this – folks who aren’t content to just dislike a food item but feel compelled to let all those around them know they are displeased with what has been put in front of them. It’s a confusing, frustrating time in the kitchen when you are responsible for a finicky eaters’ diet.

According to Mother Jones, Romney’s eating habits caused some hiccoughs on the campaign trail and someone somewhere dug up a restaurant review (well of course he was an actual food critic – finicky eaters who are also eccentric to the bone usually fancy themselves as having impeccable taste ). It is a review  of an Olive Garden in Grand Rapids, North Dakota and Mother Jones has published it in it’s entirety here:

It starts off like this…

Olive Garden is Great
By Mitt Romney

 Let me tell you, this place is great. Is this where you folks normally eat? Only when you’re broke, that’s right. Heh.

I’m not going to critique the critique… you be the judge. I’m just sad for the negative publicity. There’s tongue-in-cheek and then there’s just mean.  Back in the nineties, that was a favourite place of mine to dine and I never had a negative moment in any of the Olive Gardens I ever visited.

For someone touted as a professional, nationally recognised commentator on food and culture I think Mitt Romney is a huge flop.

Lead-in story to this post is here at the Daily meal where his unkind words are boasted as a hilarious review. I evidently have quite a different sense of humour.

 

 

 

Where in the World is George Zimmerman? (Update) Charged and in custody!

… I feel a video game coming on.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego screenie

Ok. Moment’s passed.

Last weekend George Zimmerman dropped off the map. His (now former) attorneys of record came out earlier in the week to announce they no longer represented Mr. Zimmerman (albeit they still back his killing of Trayvon Martin as justifiable) as he has not returned phone calls and appears no longer to be at his Florida residence.  They cited the knowledge of Zimmerman having contacted Sean Hannity (Fox News Channel) to arrange an interview against their instruction as the main reason for dumping him as a client.

Well sure. Because chatting up Hannity is way more offensive than having murdered an innocent teenager.

Think Progress has the scoop on Zimmerman and Hannity here.

Think Progress has the announcement of Zimmerman’s attorneys ditching him here.

Laurence O’Donnell has an updated video of the attorneys resignations from the Zimmerman defense here.

Both Think Progress  articles have videos worth watching. There’s also a short about how an unnamed relative has come forward (well, how ‘forward’ can it be if he or she is unnamed) to tell the world not to bother looking for George in Florida because he’s no longer there. (Exit mysterious witness stage right.)

Hey wait – How can this be? I thought all reputable, conservative Republicans like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly didn’t believe in anonymous sources? Hmmm. Must only be Democratic anonymous sources they berate.

Well here it is Thursday morning and Zimmerman is still AWOL and I want to know… how? why? He has not been formally charged with the killing of Trayvon Martin – but neither has he been cleared. So while he is still under investigation, how can it be legal for him to have left town?

Mr. Zimmerman has launched a website titled therealgeorgezimmerman. Outfitted with a PayPal button the website elicits financial donations to cover George’s living (on the lam) expenses while he’s being investigated.  Makes sense. Free money is free money – Sarah taught her party well.

But with almost a week between George launching a website, donning running shoes and now, my multi-question of the day is this:

Where is George Zimmerman?

Why was he allowed to leave town?

Is he still packing a loaded gun?

And if none of those questions make you just a little uncomfortable ask  this one:

Does this face say Computer Savvy Web Author to you?

Somebody had to create his website and show him how to use PayPal. He didn’t figure it out on his own.

Is the IRS out there?

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

New Question: Can his whereabouts not be traced via receipt of funds from the PayPal account?

CHARGED AND IN CUSTODY!

Watching the live-feed video here.

I feel relieved that a person who actively carried a loaded weapon and has killed at least one person under most questionable circumstances is no longer roaming around, free to be provoked into shooting someone else.

 

Wow – Are We Nearing the End of Cancer? (I woke up to this article today…) Update

Vaccine targets 90pc of cancers

From The West Australian April 10, 2012

Scientists have produced a vaccine that can train patients’ bodies to find and destroy tumour cells.

ImMucin has been developed by the drug company Vaxil Biotherapeutics and researchers at Tel Aviv University who have studied a protein called MUC1, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

Scientists have discovered that MUC1, which is found on the surface of cancer cells, can be used to trigger a response in the patient’s immune system to detect and fight tumours.

The therapy could provide a “universal injection” to help people fight common cancers such as breast, prostate, pancreatic, bowel and ovarian cancer.

Preliminary results from clinical trials suggest that the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients and reduce levels of disease, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Vaxil Biotherapeutics said: “ImMucin generated a robust and specific immune response in all patients which was observed after only two to four doses of the vaccine out of a maximum of 12 doses. In some of the patients, preliminary signs of clinical efficacy were observed.”

While the scientists hope to continue trials to prove the effectiveness of the vaccine, they believe it could be used to treat small tumours or to prevent the return and spread of the disease.

The Daily Mail reports that participants of a safety trial at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem had “greater immunity” to the blood cancer multiple myeloma after receiving the vaccine.

Ten people took part, and three of the seven people who have finished the treatment are now free of “detectable” cancer. The only side-effect they experienced was “minor irritation”.

The scientists behind the vaccine hope to conduct more extensive trials in patients to prove its effectiveness.

The human immune system usually does not recognise cancer cells because tumours are formed of a person’s own cells and not recognised as a threat.

MUC1 is found in normal cells, according to the Telegraph, but levels are too low for the vaccine to trigger the immune system.

The results are still to be published formally, but the Daily Mail reports that if trials continue successfully, the vaccine could be on the market by 2020.

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

In case you’d like to know more about the Tel Aviv University their website is here:

From the section About TAU:

Located in Israel’s cultural, financial and industrial heartland, Tel Aviv University is the largest university in Israel and the biggest Jewish university in the world. It is a major center of teaching and research, comprising nine faculties, 106 departments, and 90 research institutes. Its origins go back to 1956, when three small education units – The Tel Aviv School of Law and Economics, an Institute of Natural Sciences, and an Institute of Jewish Studies – joined together to form the University of Tel Aviv.

 At first attached to the Tel Aviv municipality, the University was granted autonomy in 1963, and its campus in the residential section of Ramat Aviv was established the same year.

 Tel Aviv University offers an extensive range of study programs in the arts and sciences, within its Faculties of Engineering, Exact Sciences, Life Sciences, Medicine, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Arts and Management. The original 170-acre campus has been expanded to include an additional 50-acre tract, now being developed.

Gorgeous campus. And it serves as a huge reminder to one and all that the entire middle east is not made up of bomb-carrying, America-hating,  uneducated souls whom ‘we’ need to rush in and rescue. And because their citizens do not have to waste precious resources on unending political campaigns, they are free to get things done.

Like finding a cure for cancer that is only eight short years away from being a reality.

 

If Corporations are People – Why aren’t they Paying Taxes like the rest of us?

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Last year, Citizens for Tax Justice found that 30 major corporations had made billions of dollars in profits while paying no federal income tax between 2008 and 2010. Today, CTJ updated that report to reflect the 2011 tax bill of those 30 companies, and 26 of them have still managed to pay absolutely nothing over that four year period:

 – 26 of the 30 companies continued to enjoy negative federal income tax rates. That means they still made more money after tax than before tax over the four years!

 – Of the remaining four companies, three paid four year effective tax rates of less than 4 percent (specifically, 0.2%, 2.0% and 3.8%). One company paid a 2008-11 tax rate of 10.9 percent.

 – In total, 2008-11 federal income taxes for the 30 companies remained negative, despite $205 billion in pretax U.S. profits. Overall, they enjoyed an average effective federal income tax rate of –3.1 percent over the four years.

 Amongst the 30 are corporate titans such as General Electric, Boeing, Verizon, and Mattel. The only four companies that slipped into positive tax territory were DTE Energy, Honeywell, Wells Fargo, and DuPont, with DuPont the only one that paid more than 4 percent over the four years.

And in case you haven’t heard, Walgreens has confirmed pulling all their advertising from any and all Rush Limbaugh shows, includuing any and all shows around his time slots. They are the 67th major company to confirm giving Rush the boot.

 

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)

 

hahahahaha! Palin for VP again? hahahahaha!

McCain:
Romney Should Choose Palin As Vice Presidential Candidate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain says Rick Santorum should recognize “it’s time for a graceful exit” from the Republican presidential campaign in the wake of Mitt Romney’s sweep of primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

 McCain also tells “CBS This Morning” there’s a strong field of Republicans who could be the vice presidential candidate.

 When asked to suggest some names Wednesday, the Arizona Republican said, “I think it should be Sarah Palin.” But when pressed to elaborate, he said “I think we have some very qualified candidates,” citing Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Govs. Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

 Palin, the former governor of Alaska, was McCain’s running mate in his unsuccessful bid for the presidency four years ago.

Aww this just made my whole day! I bet she even thinks of herself as being even MORE qualified this time around!

 

Queen Sarah’s Today Show Crown a Little Tarnished (after all)

From the Washington Post:

NEW YORK — ABC’s “Good Morning America” is claiming a one-day victory in viewership over longtime champ “Today” on NBC.

 On Wednesday, “GMA” was watched by 5.236 million viewers, while 5.149 million viewers tuned into “Today,” according to the Nielsen Co.

Wow. Can we let that sink in for a moment?

On the day before, Tuesday, the day Sarah Palin supposedly walloped Katie Couric by attracting 4.5 million viewers to Katie’s .5 million viewers, Palin fans were quick to do the ‘landslide victory lap’ with their queen.  But then on Wednesday, Ryan Seacrest drew one million more viewers (ratings reported viewers at 5.5  million) than had tuned in to see Sarah on Tuesday and as it turns out, The Today Show N O R M A L L Y enjoys an audience of between 4 and 5 million daily.

So in reality, Sarah’s appearance had little effect on the show’s average, daily ratings.

Her actual ratings bump was in the mere thousands, compared to Seacrest who bumped the numbers by exactly one million. Hardly worth the effort of polishing the crown…

 

Barack Obama sings “I’m Sexy & I Know It”

Under the category TOO CUTE 4 WORDS!

 

“Katie” To Premiere Monday 10, September 2012 (That’s got to piss her royalness off so much…)

Executive Producer Jeff Zucker today announced key production updates for Katie Couric’s highly anticipated nationally syndicated talk show, “Katie.” The live, weekday show has already been cleared in 94% of the country, and will premiere on Monday, September 10, 2012. The show is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

So this Tuesday, did a few million people tune into the Today Show to see Sarah rather than Katie? You betcha… because we know Katie’s going to be there for us in the long haul – but Sarah’s always a train-wreck waiting to happen and most of us were compelled to watch. (We’re only human.)

But the truth is, once the novelty is over and the Wasilla-Hillbilly voice has scratched through the surface of our tolerance, the millions of rubberneckers will change the channel, Sarah will morph back  into a cliche and Katie will still be there, a well-credentialed, professional journalist.

About the Today show… I am so disappointed in Matt Lauer for not calling Sarah out on her President Obama bashing. He never questioned one of her erroneous statements and she gave him plenty of opportunity. For instance, President Obama does not set the price of gasoline, the world market does. And President Obama didn’t support the banks bail-outs to protect the bankers – he did it to protect the hundreds of millions of Americans who had their life savings IN those banks.

Shame on Matt for not standing up to her. Really, a shameful display of journalism.

 

“Sorry Sarah, Katie’s The Queen” – says The Daily Beast

The video is here and these are my favourite spots:

John Avlon, Rebecca Dana and Louise Roug had just finished discussing bin Laden’s rather luxurious life in hiding. Time to change topics and my first ‘spit coffee all over my desk moment’ comes at the 1:15 mark:

“Well, speaking of taking disasters and putting them on television…” (referring to Sarah’s appearance on the Today Show.)

and again at 2:03:

“If Sarah Palin is your ‘big guns’ isn’t that essentially admitting defeat?” Oh Ouch! That had to hurt!

So whatever the numbers turn out to be, at least we can pretty much tell that the real lamestream media has Sarah’s number and while they’re willing to let her play in their sandbox this week, none of them will be any too happy to have to share their real jobs with her 🙂

I actually would love to see Sarah Palin succeed as a talk-show host. Let her compete with actual television personalities where she’s only accountable to her ratings polls and get her the Hell out of politics!

 

Hullo! We Found Elvis! And He’s Only Two!

This is just enchanting and makes me want to believe in reincarnation…

 

What an amazing little guy! He sat through an evening watching his parents and their dance club and showed everyone what he learned. Don’t miss his big finish!

(Ahh if I were only 50+ + years younger and potty trained…)

 

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!

 

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

2ND UPDATE 24 MARCH 2016
Because WordPress doesn’t allow for me to bring this post into today’s date I’m writing a whole new post – you can join it here: New post March 2016

Maybe there’s hope yet!

Original post and comments below the line…

---

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?