Working in Bare Feet

GOP Fat Man Insults FLOTUS

2011-12-22T14:41:00.003-05:00

Another example of the bags of shit we send to Washington.

Representative Sensenbrenner (aka Pigman) was overheard talking on the phone, retelling an incident in which he said about Michelle Obama, “"She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself."

"Essentially stupid people are dangerous and damaging because reasonable people find it difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior." Carlo M. Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-28T09:22:00.002-04:00

The Occupy Wall Street movement is calling attention to the hypocrisy of the free-market capitalist class that has enriched itself by privatizing profits and socializing loss. Our financial system is now nothing but a virtual casino wherein hardworking citizens are seen as rubes to be relieved of their savings through a process of investment legerdemain that makes Three-card Monte look like a Knights of Columbus parlor game.

Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is.... predation—a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. James K. Galbraith, The Predator State

Gov Rick Perry

2011-10-25T15:57:00.004-04:00

Gov Perry says he can do for the United States what he did for the state of Texas. Yea right!!! Check the state-by-state statistics for child poverty, families without health insurance, percentage of working poor, student performance, school dropout rate, unwed mothers, or any other statistic that measures the success of a state government in assisting its citizens. You'll find that Texas consistently ranks towards the bottom in most areas critical to fostering a successful and healthy citizenry.

Perry's claim that he created a Texas job boom is just so much bullshit! There are plenty of jobs in Texas - a right to work state - but few that would provide more than minimum wage earnings with no health care.

N.B. Gov Perry, in a blatant appeal to garner the fringe right vote, has rekindled the Obama birth certificate fiasco. This cracker barrel cowboy has the audacity to assume that he has the intellectual resources to lead this great country.

"The big trouble with dumb bastards is that they are too dumb to believe that there is such a thing as being smart." Kurt Vonnegut

"Texas is run by the rich and the righteous, and the result is a state of piracy and piety that puts the medieval papacy to shame." Bill Moyers

Marco Rubio: Neo-Malthusian

2011-08-25T11:55:00.003-04:00

In his speech last week at the Reagan Library, Senator Rubio said:

"These programs actually weakened us as a people. You see, almost forever, it was institutions in society that assumed the role of taking care of one another. If someone was sick in your family, you took care of them. If a neighbor met misfortune, you took care of them. You saved for your retirement and your future because you had to. We took these things upon ourselves in our communities, our families, and our homes, and our churches and our synagogues. But all that changed when the government began to assume those responsibilities. All of a sudden, for an increasing number of people in our nation, it was no longer necessary to worry about saving for security because that was the government’s job."

Sen. Rubio's vision of America's self-reliant past is a common conservative meme that purports to show that our society was more vibrant and caring before the age of big government programs. What Rubio fails to recognize, as do many other conservatives, is that the big government programs like the Work Progress Administration and Social Security rescued the American dream for millions of its citizens. Programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority that brought electricity to thousands of family farms not only raised agricultural efficiency but incomes and life-expectancy as well. Rubio's vision of the self-reliant nuclear family caring for its ill is as farcical as the Puritan security reflected by Kinkade's kitschy little cottages.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

G. K. Chesterson

Keuka Lake: Gem of the Finger Lakes

2011-08-22T22:01:00.002-04:00

50 plus days of triple-digit heat in the Dallas area has me longing for those cool summer evenings spent on the shores of Keuka Lake. Sitting around a flickering campfire sharing bottles of wine collected from the area's wineries.

The Debt-Ceiling Debacle

2011-08-05T10:17:00.004-04:00

The debt-ceiling debacle revealed that politics is broken in every possible way and there's no point in explaining complicated matters to the American people. By Jacob Weisberg (Slate.com)

… Some of the congressional Republicans who are preventing action to help the economy are simply intellectual primitives who reject modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science. …

… The United States suffers with an increasingly third-world level of infrastructure, a third-tier education system, and enormous gaps in the preparedness of its workforce. The debate has now ended: Money to upgrade those faltering systems will not be forthcoming. …

You Can't Fix Stupid!

2011-08-04T23:18:00.002-04:00

The Reverend Robertson, never one to let the facts interfere with a good story, states that Islam dates to the 8th Century BCE. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, lived from 570 to 632 CE. Don't expect the Reverend to issue a correction any time soon.

Medieval Ignorance Dominates Washington

2011-07-29T07:37:00.003-04:00

The US Congress: Where you can do nothing and still keep your job.

2011-06-29T12:41:00.000-04:00

Hail to Michigan

2011-06-03T15:53:00.002-04:00

Michigan was my home for over 16 years. I have many fond memories of the "mitten" state and its great people. And its many excellent microbreweries were treat to remember.

Texas Microbreweries Lose Another Round

2011-06-03T11:12:00.002-04:00

In the end no one, least of all the brewers of craft beer in Texas, should have been surprised.

House Bill 602, allowing these small brewers to sell token amounts of their product to visitors after brewery tours, died when the deadline for its consideration in the Senate passed this week, according to a story by the Houston Chronicle.

Similar bills have suffered identical fates in at least three previous sessions, most recently in 2009. After the House tantalized the brewers by passing the bill unanimously on to the Senate in April, Texas Watchdog speculated that it was only a matter of time before someone stepped in to stop the insanity.

The conventional narrative has Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewing conglomerate, killing the bill merely by having an Austin spokesman, Mark Bordas, voice objections before a senate committee. A howitzer employed to obliterate a mite. (Mark Lisheron, Texas Watchdog)

While Bud is a fine mass produced beer, local microbreweries are producing excellent beers and ales with regional flavors. Bud is Wonder Bread to your local microbrewery's artisan baguette. How I miss the fine craft beers of Michigan's many microbreweries! Oh how I long for a pint of Arbor Brewing Company's Sacred Cow IPA or Michigan Brewing Company's High Seas IPA!

True American Heroes

2011-05-23T13:08:00.003-04:00

As severe storms battered cities across America, our first responders have displayed exemplary courage in rescuing hundreds of fellow citizens from widespread floodwaters and from the wreckage of destroyed homes. These men and women are deserving of our heartfelt thanks.

Unlike the selfish, cosseted suits of Wall Street that drained the wealth from working-class Americans into the hands of those that have never lifted a finger to help anyone but themselves, our first responders, at great personal risk, provide aid and comfort and ask for nothing in return. You are the true American heroes. Thank you.

Seriously Funny Stuff

2011-05-22T13:03:00.000-04:00

width="480" height="396" allowfullscreen="true" name="clembedMjA2ODAtNDY1Njk" align="middle" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer">

Why Vouchers Are Bad for Texas

2011-05-19T10:48:00.003-04:00

The Texas Freedom Network supports full funding of the state’s public schools. Vouchers are a controversial proposition to use tax dollars to fund tuition at private and religious schools. Such a plan would drain money from our public schools, diverting scarce tax dollars to private and religious schools that don't have to meet the same standards as public schools and are unaccountable to taxpayers.

Additionally, spending public tax dollars for religious schools violates the state and federal constitutional separation of church and state. As far back as 1997, the Texas Faith Network began building a coalition of Texas clergy who are opposed to vouchers. To date, almost 150 religious leaders across the state have signed onto the Clergy Statement of Opposition to Vouchers.

Eight Reasons Why Vouchers Are Bad for Texas

While not one of the eight reasons listed to oppose school vouchers, channeling public funds into private schools will further balkanize our educational system producing disassociated blocks of future citizens exposed only to a set of limited ideas and beliefs. This would create trouble in our expanding multicultural democracy.

Soundtrack for a Progressive Movement

2011-04-30T10:59:00.000-04:00

Afghanistan: Get the Fuck Out - Now!!!

2011-04-28T14:53:00.004-04:00

Pilot Kills Eight US Soldiers, One Contractor in Kabul Airport Attack

Reports Say Soldiers, Pilot Got into Argument

by Jason Ditz, April 27, 2011 (Anti-war.com)

At least nine American members of the NATO occupation force were killed today in Kabul Airport when an apparent argument with a pilot turned into a shootout. The pilot killed eight NATO soldiers and one NATO civilian contractor before being slain himself.

The pilot had been employed as a pilot for 20 years, although the Afghan Defense Ministry claimed today that he suffered from some unnamed “mental illness.” There was no indication what the argument was about.

We've invested blood and treasure in this piss-hole of a country and achieved nothing. Billions of our tax dollars have disappeared into the off-shore accounts of corrupt Afghan politicians. Afghanistan is nothing but a tenth-century version of the Sopranos with burkas in place of haute couture.

It's not about the budget - It's about enforcing conservative mores

2011-04-13T10:54:00.003-04:00

Poll: 46% of Mississippi GOP voters want to ban interracial marriage.

So the liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling outfit posed a revealing question to Mississippi Republicans in their latest survey: "Do you think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?"

Shockingly, 46 percent of the state's GOP voters replied "illegal." 14 percent bizarrely responded "not sure." That means about 60 percent of these Southern Republicans are hearkening back to a time--1958 to be exact--when the American mainstream overwhelmingly looked down on people with different shades of skin getting married.

Erik Hayden, The Atlantic Wire

The GOP's Small Government Plan

2011-03-30T11:19:00.004-04:00

The GOP's plan to reduce the size of government:

Neuter the SEC
Neuter the EPA
Neuter OSHA
Neuter the FCC
Neuter the FHA
Neuter HUD
Neuter the FDA
Neuter Head Start
Neuter the Dept. of Education
Neuter the Dept. of Health and Human Services
Neuter the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

While promising to gut just about every government agency supporting middle-class citizens, Republicans are proposing sweeping new legislation that will insert government bureaucrats into our most private decisions - that of reproductive choice.

NARAL, an abortion-rights group, tries to track each piece of abortion-related legislation making its way through state legislatures. Last year they tracked 174 bills. This session's count is already up to 351.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/03/24/whats-behind-the-surge-of-abortion-bills/#ixzz1I6AoXOkH

Sanctioned Political Violence

2011-03-10T10:34:00.004-05:00

Unable to legally ban union representation for Wisconsin's public employees, the GOP controlled state house illegally voted to terminate union representation for all public employees. These heavy-handed tactics are today's button-down corporate equivalent to the more bloody tactics used by Ford Motor and its enforcement goon squad supplied by the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

It should be clear to everyone that Gov. Walker's original claim that his assault on unions was driven by budget issues was a lie. The ugly truth behind what happened in Wisconsin, and what's happening in several other states, is that political conservatives and big money are colluding to destroy what remains of the union movement.

“Messianic theology eventually breeds messianic politics.” Thomas Hobbes

“This three-decade war against common sense has preached that tax cuts for the rich help the poor, that labor unions keep workers from prospering, that regulations protecting consumers attack freedom.” John Cavanagh & Chuck Collins, The Rich and the Rest of Us

Active Ignorance

2011-03-09T10:23:00.002-05:00

These protesters are woefully ignorant of the American Constitution they so readily cite in justifying calls to deny basic rights to their fellow citizens. Their actions make a mockery of America's promise to support and protect individual freedoms. And the politicians who foment this ugly nationalism for personal gain are among the greatest threats to our democracy today. In this disturbing video one can see connections to an earlier time when self-serving politicians convinced a nation to murder millions of fellow citizens for no crime other than being different.

“As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own volition, souls proceed into heaven or into hell.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College

The Coming Economic Collapse

2011-02-18T09:50:00.004-05:00

So how will we know when a bottom is in and the economy will recover? I’ve postulated a few signs (some humorous, others not so pleasant). Bear in mind, much of this is tongue in cheek. But like all sarcasm, there’s a grain of truth.

We will bottom WHEN:

CNBC and Bloomberg start firing anchors and cutting their coverage time by hours, not minutes.
Maria Bartiromo and Jim Cramer start telling investors to short the market with all they’ve got.
Questions like “do you think we’re heading for a recovery” result in the questioner getting punched in the face or ignored like a loony tune.
People HATE stocks and stock ownership has plummeted back to one in ten Americans (the pre-401(k) levels).
Investing is no longer a hobby and people fight tooth and nail to retain their nest egg (honestly what the hell is “play” or “speculative” money?)
The number of mutual funds has fallen by at least half (why are we paying fees for people who can’t beat the market?).
People no longer want to get an MBA to become a broker or a financial advisor.
Our economy is based on “making something,” not “offering advice.”
Books about Warren Buffett no longer comprise an entire publishing industry (seriously, Amazon (AMZN) lists 5,000+ books on him).
The Richest 500 people in the world are no longer all billionaires (never happened before in history… how’s that for concentration of wealth?)
Guys like me are no longer writing about finance or investing but instead take up a respectable profession.

Then… we will have probably hit bottom.

Thanks to Graham Summers at Seeking Alpha blog

If Sarah Palin Were Black ....

2011-02-08T09:44:00.004-05:00

If Sarah Palin were black, Fox News would have demanded that the F.B.I. prosecute her for sedition and inciting political violence.

If Sarah Palin were black, the Right-wing would be calling for Black political leadership, as well as the Democratic Party, to both condemn her and renounce any future relationship with the former Governor from Alaska.

If Sarah Palin were black, she would be publicly denounced for being a vacuous, narcissistic, self-centered, "diva" that is not fit for public service and who cares more about her own fame and fortune than she does the common good or the victims of The Arizona Massacre.

If Sarah Palin were black, her behavior would be used as a launching point for discussing how Black leadership is in crisis. In fact, a major news network would air a whole series on how black women are failing their communities and how Palin is emblematic of a larger trend.

If Sarah Palin were black, the Right would be lambasting her for not embodying the Conservative principles of "personal responsibility."

If Sarah Palin were black, Glenn Beck would have already linked her to his imagined cabal and tradition of violence among "Progressive-Liberal-Socialists." On his blackboard there would direct links from Palin to Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saul Alinsky, the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, the Tides Foundation, The Symbionese Liberation Army, and The Weather Underground.

If Sarah Palin were black, Rush Limbaugh would have said that her behavior is one more example of how liberalism is a "mental illness," that liberals are a "cancer," and that progressives should be "destroyed."

If Sarah Palin were black, she would be persona non grata after The Arizona Massacre and run out of the public square on a rail.

My thanks to We are Respectable Negroes Blog

The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010

2011-01-21T08:21:00.002-05:00

9) Tea Partiers

Charges: Openly racist and lying about it, uber-religious, hyper-hypocritical, usually-tetched old codgers who wheel around in their Medicare-provided Hoverounds® and rage against fiscally irresponsible social programs, like Medicare, because they’re too dumb to realize that they’re co-opted, Machiavellian mouthpieces of greedy billionaires.

Aggravating factor: They elected some 40 candidates to Congress.

Sentence: The consequences of their actions.

Read the full list of the 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010 (The Beast, Jan 19, 2011)

Gunny Politicizes Charity Event

2011-01-07T07:20:00.006-05:00

R. Lee Ermey may know the history of the Marine Corps but he appears woefully ignorant of historical events outside those of our beloved Corps. Please inform Gunny that President Obama was handed a steaming plate of shit; a failed economy, a housing crash, and two wars, by his predecessor Bush the Lesser. Gunny is fortunate to have his medical care provided by the Veterans Administration. If he had to deal with the sea of red tape and exclusions associated with the for-profit health care industry, I'm sure he wouldn't have made those thoughtless comments over what he perceives to be the socialization of American health care. The Toys for Tots event was not the venue for Gunny to develop a terminal case of verbal diarrhea.

Why do Fundamentalist Christians Hate America?

2011-01-06T21:02:00.005-05:00

Pslam 109

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.

Know Jesus - No Jesus

Steampunk Explained

2010-12-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

Broken Bodies - Broken Lives

2010-12-23T10:42:00.010-05:00

Covering the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, I learned that most of the land mines that the Soviets laid were designed to maim, not kill. The Soviets knew that a dead body causes no tactical inconvenience. It only removes the one dead person from the field. But a wounded person requires the assistance of people all the way down the line who could otherwise be fighting. Likewise with the home front in a war. The dead leave an awful vacancy in the lives of loved ones, but those who are seriously wounded or psychologically traumatized can disrupt families and society more. Families of the dead can move on, as difficult as it may be, and as awful as it may be to say; the families of the seriously maimed, physically or psychologically, never can.

The long tail of suffering that extends from the war front to the home front, and from dead and wounded soldiers and marines, sailors and airmen, to their wives and children, and to their children’s children, is statistically numbing and heartrending. Of the 2.2 million American troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, several hundred thousand have sustained physical and psychological wounds. The figures of 4,417 dead from Iraq and 1,368 from Afghanistan (as of November 10, 2010) are well-known and oft-quoted. But the physically wounded from both wars number more than 40,000, a staggering number, and roughly three-quarters of them have been wounded in a serious life- and family-affecting way. According to the Army Office of the Surgeon General, between 2001 and 2009 doctors performed 1,286 amputations, three-quarters of which were of major limbs.
(Robert D. Kaplan, The Wounded Home Front, American Interest Online).

Wounded Warrior Mission:

To raise awareness and enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members.

To help injured service members aid and assist each other.

To provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured service members.

Government Sanctioned Discrimination No Longer Legal

2010-12-23T09:09:00.004-05:00

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed a landmark law Wednesday repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the military, fulfilling one of his major campaign pledges and casting the issue as a matter of civil rights long denied.
"No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country that they love," Obama said.
"The implementation and certification process will not happen immediately; it will take time," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz warned in an e-mail that went out right after Saturday's Senate vote. "Meanwhile, the current law remains in effect. All Air Force members should conduct themselves accordingly." (Associated Press)

It would appear that many of those opposed to gays serving in the military are of a similar mindset to those who once believed, or like Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who apparently still believes, that both gay and Black men are psychologically incapable of controlling their libido.

Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act Passed

2010-12-23T08:51:00.003-05:00

WASHINGTON -- After a filibuster and threats of obstruction by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would provide health care for first responders to the 9/11 terrorist attack. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer reached a deal with Republican senators to support the bill earlier in the afternoon.

(Elise Foley, Huffington Post)

Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing... after they've tried everything else. Winston Churchill

You Make the Call ...

2010-12-03T18:07:00.005-05:00

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) identified President Obama as, "very, very urban." When was the last time a white politician was identified as "very, very urban?"

Racist or Not Racist ... It's Your Call.

In defense of Rep. King, I believe he's simply too ignorant to recognize the racial stereotypes on which his thoughtless comments were based.

Insensitivity or ignorance?

When referring to our duly elected president, many white conservatives are too quick to ....

a) emphasize his middle name Hussein.

b) question his citizenship status.

c) denigrate his role as a community organizer.

d) label him as a Muslim, meaning not a true Christian American.

Remember Our Fallen Heroes

2010-11-22T09:17:00.002-05:00

The Pentagon has released the names of eighteen service members killed in Afghanistan.

US Air Force SrA Andrew S Bubacz, 23, Dalzell, SC
US Army CPL Shawn D Fannin, 32, Wheelersberg, OH
US Army SGT Edward H Bolen, 25, Chittenango, NY
US Army SPC Shannon Chihuahua, 25, Thomasville, GA
US Army SPC David C Lutes, 28, Frostberg, MD
US Army SSG Juan L Rivadeneira, 27, Davie, FL
US Army CPL Jacob R Carver, 20, Freeman, MO
US Army SPC Jacob C Carroll, 20, Clemmons, NC
US Army SSG Kevin M Pape, 30, Fort Wayne, IN
US Marines SSgt Javier O Ortiz Rivera, 26, Rochester, NY
US Army SPC Shane H Ahmed, 31, Chesterfield, MI
US Army SPC Nathan E Lillard, 26, Knoxville, TN
US Army SPC Scott T Nagorski, 27, Greenfield, WI
US Army SPC Jesse A Snow, 25, Fairborn, OH
US Army PFC Christian M Warriner, 19, Mills River, NC
US Army SSG David P Senft, 27, Grass Valley, CA
US Army PFC Kyle M Holder, 18, Conroe, TX
US Army SPC Justin E Culbreth, 26, Colorado Springs, CO

Veterans Day 2010

2010-11-11T10:02:00.002-05:00

But fame is theirs – and future days
On pillar’d brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell – when cold neglect is dead -
“These for their country fought and bled.”
Philip Freneau

To all my fellow brothers and sisters who served our country in its time of need - Thanks and Welcome Home!

The Slide Continues: Reagan to McMahon

2010-10-29T18:04:00.004-04:00

American democracy is threatened by our weakness for those who saturate the media extolling the mundane while denigrating the exceptional. We have set the bar so low that our politicians need show no qualification for high office beyond their ability to echo juvenile platitudes while mustering artfully crafted smiles to a media ravenous for any content to gorge its 24/7 feeding frenzy. Our leaders have morphed into an embarrassing display of self-righteous religiosity and narcissistic preening carefully scripted to merge seamlessly between the practiced steps and rehearsed humility of the intellectually numbing entity that is our popular media. That a woman whose entire career has promoted nothing but the aggressive, steroid-fueled display of sweaty tits and shapely asses could be seriously considered for public office confirms how little respect remains for those we entrust to advance our great democratic experiment.

For-Profit Prisons: You Build 'Em - We'll Fill 'Em!

2010-10-28T20:44:00.006-04:00

Many states now spend more on prisons than on education. If you believe the for-profit prison industry can provide a cost-effective solution - take a close look at for-profit post secondary education.

Deception at colleges alleged | The Post and Courier
YouTube - GAO: For-Profit Colleges Encouraged Fraud
CNN Money: For-profit colleges busted
Dept. of Education Announces Crack-Down on For-Profit Industry

For-Profit Prison Industry

Black Americans are jailed at the rate of three thousand per hundred thousand whereas South Africa managed to preserve apartheid by imprisoning 729 black males per 100,000.Paul Kennedy, "Preparing for the Twenty-first Century."

Iowa GOP: Seriously, We Have No Ideas!

2010-10-27T06:57:00.012-04:00

Iowa GOP platform calls for ‘no-activities night on Wednesdays’

The Iowa Republican Party is seeking to establish a "no-activities night" every Wednesday in the state.

"We support the establishment of a no-activities night on Wednesdays," reads section 4:33 of its platform.

The unique declaration is sandwiched between clauses stating a commitment to allowing Bibles in schools and supporting the right to teach one's kids how to drive. (Raw Story)

F Bombing the Homophobes

2010-10-24T10:34:00.003-04:00

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.

D. H. Lawrence

Experimental Error: Electile Dysfunction

2010-10-22T13:17:00.006-04:00

AAAS Science Magazine

Adam Ruben, Oct 22, 2010

But if [Christine O’Donnell] and her friends win influence in November, our world will change. What will a Tea Party victory mean for the future of science and scientists? Here are some possibilities:

- The first author on every published paper will be God.

- Personal protective equipment will include safety goggles, a lab coat, and an American flag lapel pin.

- You will save time by generating both your hypothesis and your conclusion before beginning the experiment.

- Despite all evidence to the contrary, 15% of evolutionary biologists will believe that Barack Obama is a Lamarckian.

- The requirement for statistical significance, often p <>

- Foxnews.com will be accepted as a peer-reviewed journal.

- All chemical equilibria will shift to the right.

- An emboldened National Rifle Association will insist on the rights of every American to own and conceal scientific equipment. Remember, if Large Hadron Colliders are outlawed, only outlaws will own Large Hadron Colliders.

- All difficulties, especially budgetary issues, will be blamed angrily on the principal investigator, even if the previous principal investigator set the lab on fire before leaving office.

- Scientists, never the most physically commanding people, will have to adopt a variation on the Tea Party's favorite "Don't Tread on Me" flag. Perhaps: "Please Don't Tread on Me, as You'll Break My Glasses."

- Randomized, double-blind clinical trials will be replaced with séances.

- Our species will be renamed Hetero sapiens.

Violence Breeds Violence

2010-10-21T11:35:00.003-04:00

As the anti-choice zealots once again ramp up their efforts to deny thousands of Americans their constitutionally protected right to reproductive choice, it’s important to recognize how both the anti-choice and radical Islamists merge religious fundamentalism with violent rhetoric in an attempt to impose through fear what they’ve been unable to achieve through the political process. Both groups believe that what has been impossible to gain through popular support can be achieved through violence and murder.

“[T]he central question dividing liberals today is whether they believe liberal values are as imperiled by the new totalitarianism rising from the Islamic world as they are by the American right?” Peter Beinart, Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again

Ignorance without Limits

2010-10-20T16:33:00.009-04:00

Glenn Beck uses an obsolete 19th Century trope to undermine evolution by suggesting that the lack of any fossil evidence establishing a direct linkage from apes to man is therefore prima facie proof of creationism. Evolution doesn't state that man evolved from the apes but that we share a common ancestor. Beck seems unaware of this subtle but critical point in evolutionary theory. Either Beck is disingenuously playing to the ignorance of his viewers for political gain or he truly believes in the biblical story of creation. If the latter, one of the many religious networks would be more appropriate for his proclamation of faith. It's laughable for a network with the likes of Hannity and Beck to claim fair and balanced coverage.

Glenn Beck confirms Twain's adage that all one needs in life is ignorance and confidence and then success is sure.

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." Albert Einstein

Citizens United: The (Quiet) Money Machine

2010-10-18T16:26:00.004-04:00

The Tea Party’s carefully constructed populist veneer hides an organization addicted to the corporate largess resulting from insider deals, special favors, and biased legislation. One needs only consider the Tea Party’s large middle-class following to understand the corrupting influence of oceans of corporate cash and the ability it affords wealthy contributors to recast themselves as benefactors of America’s working class. The US Chamber of Commerce says that the foreign money flowing into its organization will not impact its view of pending trade legislation. The Koch brothers, having fought against any legislation designed to protect the physical and financial health of working people, spend millions funding Tea Party efforts to delegitimize government.

“America's conservative elites have openly thrown in with the country's legions of discontented far right thugs. They have explicitly deputized them and empowered them to act as their enforcement arm on America's streets, sanctioning the physical harassment and intimidation of workers, liberals, and public officials who won't do their political or economic bidding.” Sarah Robinson, Fascist America: Are We There Yet?

The Father of Fractals (1924-2010)

2010-10-18T13:02:00.003-04:00

Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a maverick mathematician who developed the field of fractal geometry and applied it to physics, biology, finance and many other fields, died on Thursday in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85. (Jascha Hoffman, NY Times)

Mathematics possesses not only truth but supreme beauty. Bertrand Russell.

Public Servant - Private Threat

2010-10-01T10:27:00.006-04:00

Andrew Shirvell, Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan, dramatically illustrates how fundamentalist beliefs conflict with the public peace. It's also very clear that Mr. Shirvell is guilty of cyber-bullying as defined by the State of Michigan's own statute. Michigan AG Mike Cox should remove this bigot from public service immediately.

Support Your Right to Read

2010-09-30T09:45:00.003-04:00

Torch every book,
Burn every page.
Char every word to ash.
Ideas are incombustible,
And therein lies your real fear.

American Library Association

Christine O'Donnell: GOP Senatorial Candidate

2010-09-17T09:53:00.006-04:00

"It is not enough to be abstinent with other people, you also have to be be abstinent alone. The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery, so you can't masturbate without lust."

"We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools. Now we're having weekly shootings. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS."

“And what ... if the population is increasing, so what? People aren't bad. When did humans become a bad thing? Why is it that we have to, you know, stop people from getting pregnant?”

"What's next? Orgy rooms? Menage a trois rooms? ... [Coedness] is like a radical agenda forced on college students."

"I mean, it is very difficult, I'm sure, for a man to sit there and stare at his girlfriend naked and not want to go a little bit further."

Ms. O'Donnell's statements indicate a deep-seated fear of all things sexual. In a more honest time, her immaturity and lack of intellectual depth would have limited her political career but we’re living in strange times. The eccentrics who drive Tea Party politics have no will to address the difficult issues facing 21^st Century America. They are children complaining, angry voices spilling from open mouths and closed minds.

Christine O'Donnell: Let's Return America's Morality to the Closet

Sedition: The Tea Party's Dark Side

2010-09-15T09:00:00.004-04:00

Sedition: In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order.(Wikipedia)

This moron believes that if you're not happy with the lawful results of the democratic process that you're obligated to commit murder in order to achieve results that are in agreement with your personal beliefs.

His hat indicates that he may be a veteran. If so, he does a great injustice to the millions of veterans who fought and died protecting our democracy. The greatest threat to American democracy today is from the growing number of ignorant, self-righteous vigilantes and bigots being nurtured by the Tea Party. It's a national disgrace.

Printing: The Revolution Continues

2010-09-14T16:56:00.003-04:00

I've seen components produced using the stereolithography process. Components produced using the 3-D printing process appear to have much greater resolution than those produced using stereolithography - and at a quarter the cost.

Blood Money

2010-09-14T11:59:00.003-04:00

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enablingPrudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.

Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts, which allow the company to withhold lump sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.

Prudential held $662 million of survivors’ money in its corporate general account as of June 30, according to information provided by the VA. Prudential’s general account earned 4.2 percent in 2009, mostly from bond investments, according to regulatory filings. The company has paid survivors holding Alliance Accounts 0.5 percent in 2010. (David Evans, Bloomberg News)

Not content with sweetheart deals from the Veterans Administration, the financial vampires at Prudential Financial conspired to earn large profits from the deaths of our fallen servicemen and servicewomen. Is there no sense of shame remaining on Wall Street?

It's Official: Inmates Run the Asylum

2010-09-09T20:07:00.003-04:00

Pastor Jones and his handful of special need followers painfully illustrate the lack of adequate psychiatric care facilities.

Solution to Proposed Quran Burning

2010-09-08T12:17:00.002-04:00

If Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center wishes to burn the Quran to demonstrate his ignorance of Islam, he and his bigoted flock should be free to do so provided the burning occurs at a site just outside the holy city of Mecca and with no US Military protection. Faced with this option, I'm confident the cowards of Dove World Outreach would quickly choose some other moronic way to express their intolerance of religious diversity.

Our brave soldiers should not be put in harms way by the actions of this flock of lunatics.

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things, and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." Steven Weinberg, Physicist

2010-09-02T14:52:00.003-04:00

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo

How many classic works of art can you identify in this music video?

The Real Cost of Ignorance

2010-09-02T11:08:00.002-04:00

These "Take Back America" participants mourn the loss of freedom under President Obama but were unable to name a specific instance where their constitutional freedom was restricted. For these folks, reality is what agrees with their prejudices. BTW, one may pray to their god at any site in Washington DC - just don't ask the federal government to sanction your religious preference.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson

The Tragedy of Afghanistan

2010-08-31T08:12:00.009-04:00

We Owe the Troops an Exit

By Bob Herbert
The New York Times

August 30, 2010

One of the reasons we’re in this state of nonstop warfare is the fact that so few Americans have had any personal stake in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no draft and no direct financial hardship resulting from the wars. So we keep shipping other people’s children off to combat as if they were some sort of commodity, like coal or wheat, with no real regard for the terrible price so many have to pay, physically and psychologically.

Not only is this tragic, it is profoundly disrespectful. These are real men and women, courageous and mostly uncomplaining human beings, that we are sending into the war zones, and we owe them our most careful attention. Above all, we owe them an end to two wars that have gone on much too long. (Full Story)

With the majority of American citizens having no direct involvement or no skin in the game, the Afghanistan War continues to devour American blood and treasure at an accelerating rate. If we believe this war is worth its cost, let’s demand that our elected representatives reactivate the Selective Service System and institute a war tax in order to equally spread the war’s cost among all citizens.

Tea Party Fantasy

2010-08-25T08:36:00.007-04:00

Billed as a populist movement of middle-class citizens, the Tea Party movement brought together a hodgepodge of essentially single-issue voters angry over the economic and cultural changes reshaping America. From fears of losing their homes to their discomfort over the emergence of native dress at suburban malls, Tea Party activists see their privileged positions undermined by a government they believe gives special favors to a growing underclass of racial and ethnic minorities. Typically white, middle-age, blue-collar, and belonging to one of the major Protestant denominations, Tea Party supporters seek to restore the character of American society to the one they remember from the Fifties and Sixties – a period of American dominance following the global destruction of World War II.

What is unknown by the average Tea Party supporter and overlooked by its political elite is the ocean of private and corporate money fueling what is portrayed as a genuine populist movement. Swayed by a carefully crafted media campaign of misinformation and revisionist history, Tea Party members are deceived into supporting special-interest programs hidden within what appear to be common-sense reforms. Support for school choice carries within it the seed for a separate but equal educational system where the economically advantaged can isolate themselves yet receive federal funding. Support for smaller government can also result in reduced enforcement of banking, environmental, and worker safety regulations where economic penalties have always hit middle-class taxpayers the hardest. Support for expanded law enforcement also holds out the promise of billions in profits to be extorted from bankrupt states in building and operating for-profit prison systems.

Billionaires like the Koch brothers represent the real power behind the false populist movement known as the American Tea party movement. One can only hope the rank-and-file Tea Party supporters recognize this deception before the American Dream becomes only a faint memory.

“All things are subject to interpretation … whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” Nietzsche

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

Fear, Hate, and Beer: England's Tea Party

2010-08-24T09:05:00.005-04:00

English Defense League: Inside the Violent World of Britain's New Far Right (The Guardian)

Driven by fear and hate, and fueled by pints of strong ale, the lumpenproletariats of Britain’s culturally diverse cities have found a new target for their anger over Britain’s stagnant economy – their Islamic neighbors. There’s nothing like unembarrassed ignorance coupled with a soaring blood alcohol content to really stimulate a mob’s aggressive behavior. Like their American Tea Party cousins, members of the English Defense League wrap themselves in the flag, swearing to defend their country from the growing hordes of foreign looking citizens seeking to overthrow centuries of Christian dominance. Demagogues like Gingrich and Limbaugh, and anti-intellectuals like Palin and Beck, foment fear and mistrust of all who are different. “I’m tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact,” (Phil Plait, The Mainstreaming of Crazy).

Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in favor of letting them crawl and grovel all they please before whatever fraud or combination of frauds they choose to venerate...Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and.. the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.
H. L. Menchen, 1956

Dark Age Redux♠

2010-08-06T08:46:00.004-04:00

With the unusually large number of troglodytes seeking political office, one would have to set a new standard in absurdity to stand out from this crowd. It appears that Ms. Sharon Angle, GOP senate candidate for Nevada and Tea-Party hack, has established her bona fides as one of America’s leading advocates for a return to the Dark Ages; a time where religious extremism and anti-humanism cooperated in one of the world’s longest reign of raw brutality. Only a deep-seated sadomasochistic leaning among Nevada’s electorate could put a social deviant like Ms. Angle in the US Senate.

The sentiments expressed in Ms. Angle’s comments, reflective of those held by 17^th Century Puritans, reject centuries of advancement of human rights for a return to a time when religious faith condemned hundreds of innocent women to death.

Interview with Bill Manders (Jan, 2010)

BM: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?

SA: Not in my book.

BM: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

SA: You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.

Interview with Alan Stock (Jun, 2010)

AS: What do you say then to a young girl, I am going to place it as he said it, when a young girl is raped by her father, let’s say, and she is pregnant. How do you explain this to her in terms of wanting her to go through the process of having the baby?

SA: I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade (italics mine). Sharon Angle interview (June 2010)

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

Hatred and Bigotry Defeated

2010-08-05T08:50:00.005-04:00

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned California's Proposition 8, which voters approved in 2008.

In addition to citing the obvious violations of US Constitutional right to equal protection, the judge also blasted the defenders of Prop 8 for their lack of research and their substitution of opinions for facts. American citizens should not have their constitutional protections subverted by appeals to religious prejudice nor by pandering to the intolerant.

(Citations from Judge Walker's decision.)

"Race restrictions on marital partners were once common in most states but are now seen as archaic, shameful or even bizarre. When the Supreme Court invalidated race restrictions in Loving, the definition of the right to marry did not change. Instead, the Court recognized that race restrictions, despite their historical prevalence, stood in stark contrast to the concepts of liberty and choice inherent in the right to marry."

"Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians.The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples."

"Our deepest quarrel with fundamentalists in this country, then, is not about Iraq, health care, abortion, or gay rights. It’s about the very possibility of trying to be true without needing the truth. It’s about being able to commit to a truth while always remembering that this truth could be partial, incomplete, and provisional—a steppingstone forward, not an edifice of certitude."

Nick Bromell, Scooter and Me

Sarah "Mama Grizzly" Palin

2010-07-08T16:55:00.004-04:00

As a French architect once described Clare Booth Luce, the same could be said of Ms. Palin, "She is a beautiful facade ... but without central heating."

Religion Threatens Tolerance

2010-07-08T16:07:00.004-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Wish You Weren't Here

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Once again Fox News shows that it's easier to hate than to understand. Thanks to Jon Stewart for reminding us that most of our religious bigotry is fomented by those within the conservative christian movement.

Texas Mourns its latest Fallen Heros

2010-06-29T23:27:00.004-04:00

Texas loses six brave soldiers to the War in Afghanistan during the month of June 2010. To-date, Texas has lost 490 of its sons and daughters to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sergent Brandon Bury (26), Kingwood, USMC
Lance Corporal Derek Hernandez (20), Edinburg, USMC
Specialist Matt Catlett (23), Houston, USA
Staff Sergent Michael Flores (31), San Antonio, USAF
Sergent Mario Rodriguez (26), Smithville, USA
Staff Sergent Edwardo Loredo (34), Houston, USA

The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:
Their courage nerves a thousand living men.
~Minot J. Savage

Joe "Big Oil" Barton's Brain Fart

2010-06-17T21:05:00.004-04:00

Congressman Joe Barton, 6th District of Texas, apologized to BP's CEO Tony Haywood for the White House's attempt to "shakedown" BP and hold them financially responsible for the largest oil spill in United States history. Rep. Barton proves once again that having an almost total lack of higher brain function is no handicap for a conservative politician.

In a moment of uncharacteristic political acumen, GOP leadership quickly forced Joe to recant his apology. If Rep. Barton feels an apology is in order, let him apologize to the families of the eleven dead oil platform workers, the thousands of Gulf Coast residents who's lives have been traumatized, and the millions of creatures - great and small - that have perished due to BP's criminal actions in short-circuiting the well capping process to save a few hundred thousand dollars.

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.

John Stewart Mill

A Powerful Image

2010-06-16T10:20:00.007-04:00

Dorothea Lange (1895–1965)

Daughter of Migrant Tennessee Coal Miner, Living in American River Camp, near Sacramento, California, 1936

Gelatin silver print, before 1941

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

I had the opportunity to view Lange's photograph of the coal miner's daughter up close during a visit to the Amon Carter Museum last Sunday. I was captivated by the brilliance of the young woman’s natural beauty in contrast to the few simple belongings her family had brought with them from their Appalachian home. Lange’s skill in illuminating the resilience of the human spirit in times of stress is without equal. I was disappointed that Lewis Hine's Steamfitter, another iconic image of the 20th Century, was not on display that day.

The Tragic Reality of Drill Baby Drill

2010-06-04T09:25:00.002-04:00

The shallowness of Sarah Palin’s intellectual development does not allow the tragic consequences of greed or ignorance to tarnish her self-indulgent worldview. That she could have been one heart beat from the Oval Office illustrates how widespread is the fallacy that home-spun grit is always superior to the brilliance of the educated mind. Mediocrity means never having to say you’re sorry.

A Universe from Nothing - Dr. Lawrence Krauss

2010-06-03T23:17:00.003-04:00

Lawrence Krauss gives a talk on the current picture of the universe, how it will end, and how it could have come from nothing. Krauss is the author of many bestselling books on Physics and Cosmology, including "The Physics of Star Trek."

Good Bye Michigan - Hello Texas

2010-06-02T12:17:00.003-04:00

Finally settled into new Texas home. Adjusting to a much hotter climate than was experienced in Michigan.

No Justice - No Peace

2010-04-22T18:14:00.002-04:00

When Nike's ethics match its marketing plan?

2010-04-13T22:02:00.002-04:00

Of Woman Born (1977)
I know of no woman—virgin, mother, lesbian, married, celibate—whether she earns her keep as a housewife, a cocktail waitress, or a scanner of brain waves— for whom the body is not a fundamental problem: its clouded meanings, its fertility, its desire, its so-called frigidity, its bloody speech, its silences, its changes and mutilations, its rapes and ripenings.
Adrienne Rich

The Party of No[Nothing]

2010-04-12T16:05:00.003-04:00

When your only stars are two hot babes, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, with the collective judgment of a hominid fossil between them, you know you're going nowhere fast.

The Party of No: No Ideas, No I.Q, No Future.

Evert Cilliers @ 3 Quarks Daily

Simple Sarah Says

2010-04-09T14:18:00.005-04:00

"It's kind of like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'” And with these words, Former Alaska Governor, and likely presidential candidate, Sarah Palin outlined her juvenile view of our strategic arms policy. Palin’s Manichean vision reflects her belief that there are no existential doubts, no ontological questions incapable of being expressed in childish metaphors or ten second sound bites. Her enthusiastic support comes primarily from an assortment of frenetic but essentially harmless conspiracy theorists, anti-taxers, birthers, and anti-vaccinationist oddballs, with a scattering of violence-prone bullies espousing every social deviancy from civil insurrection to racial segregation, that comprise today’s Tea Party movement. Sarah’s seductive delivery is purposely crafted for an audience that’s grown too lazy for thought and too fearful of honest reflection.

Sarah’s appeal to every crass, injudicious, and violent element of the American psyche may have elevated her from the mediocrity of a small-town politico to the vainglorious world of a media superstar but her conspicuous lack of intellectual curiosity coupled with the shallowness of her ideas will forever link Sarah to the amoral and selfish id of our collective consciousness.

"There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance." (Goethe)

Irony Department

2010-04-04T18:36:00.003-04:00

Who would have guessed that it's the old white guy living at Number One Observatory Circle who may next embarrass us with a big MO-FO on national TV?

Tea Party Fascists

2010-03-22T21:54:00.003-04:00

For months we've seen the worst Tea Party bigots, homophobes, racists, conspiracy theorists, birthers, gun nuts, and a host of other extremists attempt to shut down any serious discussion of health care. These hypocrites call themselves patriots defending democracy but their goal is to make large numbers of Americans second-class citizens.

Not content with the democratic process, these self-professed patriots tried to intimidate legislators with threats of violence. If assholes like this threaten to return with their firearms, we'll toss their traitorous asses into a 6 by 8 federal cell.

It's ironic that most of the brainless sheep protesting federal health care reform have aging parents on Medicare - a government run plan. And how many of these protesters have a disabled child or sibling receiving federal assistance? From where do they think that money comes?

The sickness of the tea party mob was on full display Sunday. Their racist, homophobic outbursts left the ugly stain of hatred on the steps of our nation's capital. These sad, angry losers prove that it's easier to hate than to understand. The only legacy these pathetic malcontents will leave to mark their having ever lived is another generation of dysfunctional, anti-social offspring.

One Dog's Reaction to the GOP Jobs Bill

2010-02-22T17:31:00.004-05:00

Why yes - that's a dog singing the blues!

Blood of a Patriot? WTF!

2010-02-22T15:17:00.008-05:00

AUSTIN, Texas — The daughter of a man who crashed his small plane into a building housing offices of the Internal Revenue Service called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed an IRS employee, were "inappropriate."
Joe Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

It was only a matter of time before some mentally unbalanced anti-government crank felt sufficiently motivated by the violent rhetoric of the Tea Bagger mob to carry out a terrorist attack. I guess this was his response to the bagger's popular sign, "The Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots." Sorry Samantha but your father is not a patriot - just another terrorist in the mold of Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, and Randy Weaver. The only mark left on this world by Mr. Stark is another bloodstain. The world's reservoir of hate dropped a level with his violent death.

If you must grieve, grieve for the family of IRS employee Vernon Hunter killed by your father's cowardly action. As the joke is told, "I'd piss on his grave if I didn't have to wait in line."

Swansea Love Story

2010-02-21T11:30:00.006-05:00

"In 2009, Swansea drug agencies reported a 180 percent rise in heroin use, and it’s visible on the city’s streets. Early one morning we meet a young, homeless couple named Amy and Cornelius in a city centre alley. As heroin-addicted alcoholics, they’re smack in the middle of two of South Wales’s most ever-present epidemics."

This six-part series highlights the social damage resulting from the loss of jobs and hope in the city of Swansea.

Senator Shelby (R-Ala): Show Me the Money

2010-02-09T06:45:00.003-05:00

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., had blocked more than 80 presidential nominations now before the Senate, but tonight he relented, saying he had simply been trying "to get the White House's attention" on two important national security issues related to his state. Johnathan Karl and Kristina Wong. ABC News.

It seems Sen Shelby wanted to throw some $40B in taxpayer funds to businesses in his home state.

Shelby is literally trying to undermine the federal government’s ability to do business effectively and have responsible, politically accountable leadership, in order to lobby on behalf of a foreign corporation, against an American corporation.

The Shelby affair has yet more layers of stunning hubris: the $40 billion project he is demanding action for is actually related to a bidding process in which a joint venture between Northrop Grumman and EADS —the European parent of Airbus— is competing against Boeing for a contract to build a new aerial refueling tanker. The Northrop/EADS venture plans to build the tanker in Mobile, Alabama, if it wins, but is threatening to withdraw its bid altogether unless the Air Force makes the conditions of bidding more favorable to its needs. Truth-First.com

Sen Shelby, like many of his fellow conservative legislators, decry wasteful federal spending at every opportunity. It would appear that Shelby has no reservations with spending billions on a project that benefits a foreign company that donated bags of money to Shelby's political slush fund. What a hypocrite.