Monday, May 17, 2010

This Needs To Be Repeated Often


We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, Now you get mad!?
You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.
You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.
You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.
You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.
You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.
You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.
You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.
Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no.
I have one of my own: You didn't get mad when Diebold and his electronic voting machines fixed the election for Bush/Cheney in 2004!!
H/T to YellowDogGranny for the pix!!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Snake Bite Kit

Towards the end of '83 we were moving from Reno to back UP on the Tundra. The first stop for the night was in Wendover, UT. We ate breakfast at the Red Garter Casino in Wendover, NV as the Motel 6 didn't do breakfast(this was before any motel chain did breakfast). As a souvenir I bought this Snake Bite Kit. It lived for many years in the glove compartment of my vehicle(never know when you might get bit by a snake) and then finally migrated to a dresser drawer where I ran across it recently.

The Snake Bite Kit contains Pain Killer and a Tourniquet. As you can see the Pain Killer is a small bottle of Vodka and the Tourniquet is a Red Garter.
Below is a more recent photo of the sign for the casino. When I googled it, I found several things relating to the Red Garter Casino. Some good, some not so good, there were comments about the hotel part where some were happy with it as a cheap place to spend the night and others were not happy with the conditions they found and the service. Could've been the service wasn't up to snuff because at the time the place was in financial trouble and the workers were worried they'd lose their jobs. Then last Feb. it got new owners, the major owner is the half-brother of Sen. Ensign of NV. He got the money from their father to buy the casino and merge it with the others he owns.

What struck me when we stopped there was the name change for the town. In the 70's I straddled the grey dog on a trip to the Bay Area. The bus stopped at the Stateline Casino for a short rest break (15-20 minutes). At the time I think the town on the Nevada side was called Stateline, NV. (Stateline Casino was bought some years back by David Ensign and renamed the Nugget which then bought the Red Garter).


Friday, May 14, 2010

My Bullshit Dectector Still Works

Recently I received an e-mail about the 2008 Presidential Election results. After a quick glance at it, I thought it was pretty much a case of bullshit facts to back up a biased opinion to justify that Obama isn't a legitimate President. Below is the e-mail, I just copied the body of the e-mail. The names have been removed to protect the guilty!!



Subject: 1776 - 2008

Born 1776, Died 2008

It doesn't hurt to read this several times.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St.Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning lastNovember's Presidential election:

a.. Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29 b..

Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000 c..

Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million d..

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territoryMcCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of thecountry.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in lowincome tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition ofdemocracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population alreadyhaving reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty millioncriminal invaders called illegals - and they vote - then we can saygoodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize justhow much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to ourfreedom.

Like I said this struck me as bullshit, so I googled the Professor. When I started typing in the guys name, google helpfully came up with several suggestions including;
joseph olson hamline university

So I clicked on that and then the first hit and came up with this;
http://law.hamline.edu/node/784

This is his bio at the Hamline University website listing of faculty.

After reading the entire page, I clicked on reply all on the e-mail and sent this message:
I googled this guy and here is what I found on the first hit. http://law.hamline.edu/node/784

DISCLAIMER: There are a series of e-mails floating around the internet dealing with the 2008 Obama/McCain election and the 2000 Bush/Gore election, remarks of a Scottish philosopher named Alexander Tyler, suicide rates, or ANYTHING ELSE. I did not author any part of either email. I've been trying to kill this falacy for nearly 10 years. I didn't have any part of it in 2000 and I still have no part of the email in regards to the 2008 election. For details see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp.

I think I'm pissing in the wind here, but bullshit is bullshit and has to be rebutted.

" When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross" - Sinclair Lewis
___________________________________________________
So far, no e-mails. Nothing. Nada.... The silence is deafening!!!

Also while googling about this, found almost the same results for the 2000 Presidential Election.

Gotta get me a set of those Bullshit Protectors, wonder if there is a set for the eyeballs. I mean a body can only stand so much bullshit and being able to deflect most of it would ease the strain.


















Saw where this picture was labeled as a guy listening to aWol give a speech during the 2004 campaign.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Springtime UP On The Tundra


5/9/2010 17:23 GMT
The satellite photo 24 hours later shows most of the snow is gone. Not enough to show up in the satellite photo.

Same Shit, Different Year

Luckovich at the AJC.