Shithead robots with no feedback

 The Yellow Fringe has recently been discovered by people who leave mindless comments  not well hidden as advertisements, and robots doing the same.   I have more than once started down the path of setting up the code puzzle window trap.  But, each time decided I rather have the door wide open.
Few of these comments end up on my blog, most end up coming to me as email.  Either way they can be dispatched with a couple of finger wiggles.
For all the apparent hi-tech-ness they possess, it blows my mind they are so stupid, they have no feedback loop.  They waste their time, they can never get any return if 100% of their efforts fail to appear.
In case you never get these, most look something like this;  "This is very interesting, I want to learn more on this important subject.  Please contact me so we can be friends.  @jerkyouaroundsales.something.

Gas and Oil industry to attack new movie about fracking

Matt Damon and John Krasinski (The Office) wrote the "Promised Land" movie script together, took the two lead roles, and it's in theaters today.
It's about fracking, the destructive practice of freeing oil or more often gas from their proper storage space underground and the wealth and pollution it produces.  Last month the fossil fuel industry set out to hamper and discredit the movie.  They put a pool of money together to fund "bad" reviews for papers that will take the gift review, rebuttals on editorial pages, send out speakers to clubs and media events, spur if they can a few dingbats to picket a few theaters in hope they can reduce the number who will see it and/or convince small town theaters to not show it at all.
Based on the gas industries reaction to this movie, thats all I need, I will see it.

Avaaz.org 's 17 million will take on Wyndham Hotels

About 1 million of those (us) are in the USA.  It is the largest social action organization in the world, and extremely effective.  Today they announced to Wyndham Hotels, the worlds largest hotel chain, they will launch a petition drive against them if they do not withdraw support to the NRA and the 10% discount to NRA members in the next few days.
I just looked at the Wyndham facebook site, it is already flooding with complaints from around the world about the connection to an organization with blood on it's hands.   In fact a spontaneous boycott has emerged, many are informing Wyndham they will never stay again if the change isn't made.  The Wyndham brands:

Avaaz is targeting them first among the businesses who give discounts to NRA members because this chain has a reputation for doing the right thing in environmental issues and other events.

I think next some car rental companies will catch hell, they also give money and discounts.  Without these discounts members will be less likely to renew.
Currently social media has power to change the actions of companies.  USE IT DAMN-IT, you probably have excess cell phone minutes, the internet ...........

Find Wyndham on facebook or the web, send them a note, or call their headquarters.

November hell, and stuff

Thousands of land and sea temperatures are taken daily around the globe.  Averaged it gives us the worlds temperature.  The month of November was the 36th consecutive November the world another high.  And least you forget your math, every time the average is exceeded then next year the new average is a bit harder to exceed, but it happened 36 times in a row.  In fact we exceeding the previous global temperature every month of the year for decades.  February 1985 was the last month that did not exceed the previous average.

Olive Garden and Red Lobster say they are having a bad quarter.  Since they shot their mouth off about Obama and Obamacare, people just aren't coming in at the same pace.

Pfizer drugs hung on against months of bad publicity, but the emails and calls and public demonstrations at their events finally got to them.  Phizer is the last drug maker to cut their ties with Heartland Institute.  Heartland is the HMFWIC of the waco climate deniers and lobby group.  They now have lost most all their corporate suppliers except tobacco and fossil fuel.

Signing on line petitions and calling, and staying away from prick businesses has been very powerful these last few months.  We are powerful, if we just write, call, march, donate.

It was a hell of a November for weather, and for pricks on the right.

weapons of choice

Should the NRA be named a hate group?

The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors and studies hate groups in the US.  I wonder if they will look at the NRA?

Pine beetle puts Grizzlies back on endangered list

Brown area = dead pines

Dead pine trees now cover the west all the way to just north of the Canada border.  Billions of dead trees.  Loss of forest that rivals the clearing of the Amazon, maybe exceeds it. Pine tree beetles can not survive multiple severe freezes.  Years of ever warming winters allowed a population explosion that is altering North America.  Drive to New Mexico, Montana, it breaks your heart to see whole mountains of dead pines.  Get close to the tree and you see sawdust at the base, holes in the trunk, this is the leading edge of a dying ecosystem.

Pine nuts feed lots of animals, birds and porcupines, chipmunks, even bears. Most of the critters that live off them feed the wolf, badger, coyote, fox, eagle, owl, bear, martin, mink, wolverine.   Bears in the hardest hit areas are going hungry with the  the health problems and migration that come with that.  For this reason the Grizzly in recent days was returned to the endangered list.

Without the pine, its erosion prevention, it's cooling and air filtering, it's shade, it's shelter, the Rockies and all the west will grow hotter and dryer with faster snow melts, flash floods.  Spray can protect the pines, but it's an impossible task, spray all the western pines, not enough equipment or chemical is available nor is it safe.  The only hope is a return to cold winters, or a new promising decoy pheromone that leads males to mate with a pile of goo, but that too will require a near impossible network of distributors to dab girl bug stink on a half dozen trees per acre each year, but it could work in limited areas if the pheromone is made in volume, and if government and landowners and foresters are willing to buy it.

The whole of the Rockies should be put on the endangered list, this is alters the whole ecosystem.   Are you doing anything, even a small thing, about this?

Snow ski resorts are leading the cry about global warming.

Environmental update:
*A leaked report from the main body watching climate change will up the predictions again, expect temp change of from 10 to 15°F in your kids lifetime.  New York 115, Needles CA 130, Oklahoma City 125.  These temps kill, outside activities will be impossible on many days of the year.
*350 parts per million of CO2 is thought to be the tipping point.  In the last few years we are creeping right up to it.  The same report predicts 400+.
* Ocean acidity is up 30% in the last 200 years, and increasing.
*Mercury in the ocean is up sharply in the last 100 years, and increasing.

Good news:
EPA came through with a soot reduction requirement Friday.  Diesels and smokestacks and open burning activities will be cleaned up or curtailed.  The deadlines are short, changes must be made in the next few years. Soot absorbs solar heat from incoming rays and heats the atmosphere, carried on the wind it reaches every part of the world then falls on snow and ice collecting suns heat to accelerate the melt, and it makes the snow look yucky.  You can see it in layers of ice growing more evident over the last 2 centuries.  Catching some of this soot also catches Mercury and Lead.

Here is what Cleveland looked like in the late 70's, the EPA has been a positive, there is no doubt, no one wants to go back to that.

Conn. gov says this is sad

He marches out and says the correct things about the loss.  He did not say I will do everything I can to make sure this never happens again.  It will happen again.  With no action, it's what, 2 weeks, 1 week until another shooting.  Mexico killed 40k in the drug war in 5 years, we kill 20k every year, Mexico looks the safer.

Converted, just barely, and reluctantly, caveats apply.

I have for a long time been against growing food for fuel.  Using up the nutrients of the good earth, and our dwindling water supply to blow it through a cylinder and into the air we breath.  Then there's the issue of shifting the grain economy from the food chain to energy, with a none to suttle impact on food prices and the environment.  Either the food shelves will have fewer products at a higher price, or more jungle and marginal land must be stripped of nature, flushed with chemicals and thrown into monoculture production.   So far all this is a moral and logic issue.

All that and I still didn't point out, corn to fuel is nearly a break-even.  It takes about one unit of energy to make one unit.  We use oil to make fertilizer, for pesticides, herbicides, trucks to deliver all that crap, tractor and combine fuel to farm and harvest it, energy to pump water to it, trucks to deliver it, fuel to distill it, more fuel to deliver it to market.  And then you have ethanol with fewer calories than fossil fuel gas, meaning fewer btu in the cylinder.  Now, good news, maybe.  The last couple years the new distilling methods are a little more efficient, and they are making progress using cow poo, and corn stalks and some kinds of grass.  I don't know the ratio now but they can make more than a unit from a unit of energy.  OK, hauling corn stalks off for this sounds good till you understand laying on the field they are a form of fertilizer, stop erosion and provide a place for small game to hide.  Clearing these off may be one more mistake.

So am I converted after all that?  Maybe.  Here's why.

Under Obama we have more drilling in the US, more new production coming on line than any time in history.  Palin got her wish, drill ding bat drill.  We could in 10 years be an oil exporter.  According to all the bullshit this will make oil cheaper.  If your bullshit alarm isn't slapping like a derelict metronome then let me point out, oil prices are set in the world market, no matter the local supply.  The price is set  by the driver in India filling up, not by a smart ass blonde in white pants on TV with pictures of happy people and sunsets and promise of lower price fuel.  So all that to say oil prices do not go down if we drill a well, or a butt load of'm.  Look at the US, Canada, and Japan.  US produces less than it needs, Canada more, Japan none.  All three have the same price fluctuations for transportation fuel. World demand, not a surplus or a dearth set the price.

Vulnerability is what we have now in transportation.  Single source.  Almost 100% of US transport is oil driven.  To make it even more scary, the oil has to go through a refinery.  The US has no excess.  For years and years refineries have run at maximum capacity.  No reserve.  Every time there is a fire or one shuts down for repairs prices soar.  US transportation is at extreme risk for two reasons, the source and the bottleneck processors.

Electricity is not that risky, we have a reasonable set of overlapping sources.  Coal, dirty fucking stuff, natural gas, and nukes.  These are our primary sources, in that order, though coal is being changed out at a fast pace mostly with NG.  Then we have wind, growing, it produces several percent of our needs already, in a few areas it is substantial.  Solar, biomass, hydroelectric dams, a few geothermals and a few other smaller forms help out.  The electric sources are getting more diverse, the risks growing smaller.

Transportation.  Getting to work or to the casino to piss away your money is a concern sure, but think of where your going to get food or viagra next week if the trucks are out of gas, damn.  The mormons are OK, they keep a years worth of food on hand, and when I was a kid we had home canned food, might have been a years worth if you had to eat grandma's yucky canned mincemeat.  So........

I'm starting to think using corn for fuel might be OK, just barely.  But all those reasons against it are eating on me.  And ethanol still gets mixed with gas, so it doesn't solve much does it?  It won't lower prices, it may raise them.  And therein is the little peg I hang onto, however weak.  Higher prices, and a little bit of diversity in the fuel sources may be a good thing.  Why?  Higher prices will incentivize hybrids, high mpg cars, and electric cars, public modes, and conservation.  Electric cars are on the way, they have their place, and they use a fuel from multiple sources - electricity, it's trending towards cleaner all the time.    The EV models coming next year or so have a little better range, and that will grow year to year.  Trucks too are dinking around with EV's.  UPS and Fed-ex are both using EV's in some small city markets, it's a learning process, and they will get there.

One more thing, I have a farm, raise corn some years.  But I want it to go for food.  I can't wait for  electric tractors some day with a solar paneled cabin.  That would be cool.   Yea, I'm not sure yet about my conversion, I could backslide.  I did once before, went to a camp with a bunch of thumpers, said me too, then on a hike the hottest girl there was setting so I could see her legs, winking and flipping her hair around, yea I don't think that conversion took.

Earth to get new supply of minerals tonight, free.

December 13/14, 10pm - 5am, wherever their is a clear sky in North America.  Geminid meteor shower, up to 100 per hour, peak fall rate at 2am.  The stuff is free, intergalactic immigrants falling to earth,  stardust, get some.

Santa Claus Takes Action

 Santa video, making a list, check it twice.  I have called my representive's local office, emailed his DC office, called and emailed both Senators, called both congressmen from adjoining districts.  HO HO HO

Just a few more days and I am free of state taxes

No, I'm not retiring.  Better than that, the money I make will be tax free in the state of Kansas.  I'm a friggin job creator now, or soon will be, Jan 1.

The GOP run state decided to make more money for the state lets stop collecting tax dollars from job creators, the highest earners in most cases.  We had a surplus of hundreds of millions, now it's projected to dive into the red by the same amount in one year, and within a few years be a billion.  Oh not so not so at all say the Gov and the Repubs.  Here's how it's gonna work. ---  I don't pay taxes.  That will make me fucking rich.  I hire a guy to wash my car windows.  He pays taxes instead of me.  The state collects even more money than it use to.  Me, the window guy and the state are all rolling in dough.  That'll work, just ask anyone.

OK why don't I have to pay state tax starting next year?  Farm income, not taxable.  Small business income, not taxable.  I have a farm, and I sell crap (hey it's a business OK?).  So, you see I am a job creator.  What's my plan for the few hundred I will save?  My spending will not change one penny.  And that's what will happen with most the savings, nothing.  So, lets stop calling people in this situation, or the 1%ers or the 10%ers job creators.  Lets be honest.  Idle rich is the proper term.

For all the hubbub of this two things are very interesting.  More than one of the GOP have said they know this will crash the state into multiyear severe debt, and glad of it, bankrupt the state is the only way to cut services and make the poor scrounge for their own or get out.  (Can you say Christianista?)  The other thing is this helps the federal government pay off it's debt.  The deduction on federal income tax for state tax is lost, the added fed tax due will be about the same as the state cut, the GOP is helping Obama, and seem to be ignorant of it.

Conservatives hate the EPA, now I'm bummed after leaning this

 The EPA has given over 100 wavers to fracking operations to pollute the aquifer they are drilling in or near.  This is an exemption saying it's OK to violate the rules. ONE HUNDRED aquifers are now poisoned, and with a fucking government permit.  The gas and oil and chemicals seeping into the underground lakes makes them unusable for generations, 100 years minimum for most of these slow moving slow filling reservoirs.  For what?  So we can have a 10 or 20 years glut of natural gas.
Can you drink Natural Gas?  Can you wash your kids in it?

We need to let the EPA know this needs fixed.

Fox douche bag takes one to the puss

Watch this!  I haven't seen such an uplifting scene since John Stossel was bitch slapped by a wrestler.

The fossil fuel and utilities catch 22, and 23.

 
In 48 states self made electricity cannot be sent across a street or road.  The utilities happily set astride a law that says no.  In the case of a farmer, he has a solar driven water pump with excess energy, but cannot rout it across the road to power a pump in another pasture.

Most states have net metering, but in my state it is strongly in favor of the utility.  The excess you might sell to the grid is bought at a miserable low price, and in some utility zones they don't settle up monthly but yearly, cheap watts treated as a zero interest loan to boot.  Still, in many regions the pay back is  good and the satisfaction of selling your extra power I am told is akin to a toke of Lebanonese blonde hashish.

If ever you have a chance to speak up on changing the rules on these issues, please bluster and sputter and stamp until you win for all of us.

Your TRASHED again aren't you? Your gonna have to stop.

Did you know that the US consumer lifestyle produces 141 pounds of waste every day for every one of us.  How?  Not just the shit you throw away, loose, waste, or pack into basement like it's gold, but the manufacturing and marketing waste to make it, ship it, store it, advertise it, sell it.  And here we are at Christmas, and I'll bet your fucking trashed again.  Get help.  Stop buy'n all that crap, and recycle, and watch this video from Jeremy Irons.

A threat multiplier, what's that?

Veterans can get involved in the fight for solar and wind and alternatives to fossil fuel.  Vent your spleen on congress's bald face opposition to more fuel efficient vehicles, tanks, ships, buildings.  Congress is trying to keep the biggest fleet of vehicles and the biggest owner of buildings in the world (the US military complex)  gobbling up oil and coal and part of the force tied to fuel convoys, no matter the cost in $'s or lives.   Go to   http://www.operationfree.net, they will guide you through letter writing and phoning if you want the help.

Profiles in Kansas Courage

Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, both Republicans RSVP'd and attended a pre vote reception held by former Kansas GOP Senator Bob Dole, contender for VP and for Prez and WWII wounded vet.  His wife former Senator Elisabeth Dole attended also caring for and pushing the ailing Senator in a wheelchair.

The reception attended by most the Senators, was to promote the disability treaty which vote counters thought would pass.  Both Roberts and Moran promised the Dole's they would vote for the treaty.  Dole sat in wheelchair on the floor of the Senate and was wheeled off by Elisabeth when the vote  started.

Both Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran then slithered to the bench and whispered their votes against the treaty.  Both cowards had stood next to Dole 5 minutes earlier with their hands on the ailing giants shoulder.  Neither coward was willing to call out their vote for fear the CNN broadcast would pick up their betrayal of Dole.  Others failed Dole as well, but these two from his own state, this was vile and disgusting, and for what, bowing to the tea bags and the fear media.  What a sad day that the GOP couldn't stand up for disabled people around the world, this treaty had one goal and impacted only one thing, disabled people elsewhere, it imposed rights copied from our own laws, it would not have affected us in any way.  Instead, it showed the 100+ nations that have ratified the treaty that we are hostage to and afraid of the political midgets among us.

Profiles in GOP Courage.  What a display.

tear tracks

Squandering away the hours of my life on this sculpture, a low relief in alabaster about 8"x8".   Not finished yet with the detail or the polishing.  The pattern in the stone is really dramatic, but it's playing hell with the shadows and detail in certain lighting, competing and confusing the contour created image.  It may end up as one of those sculptures that only looks good in the right lighting situations, in other words, it won't be winning any gallery space.  

Exxon Hates Your Children

I am not sure about this kind of add.  It makes a good point, though in an uneasy way.  Being a recovering Republican, reregistered as a Dem a few years ago, I'm well aware the Reichwing uses this kind of "bloody their noses" attack adds and are completely OK with it, in fact they thrive on it, it's their cottage industry.  Still, the video has a point, profit first, delay and sew doubt, bribe and greenwash your way to a few more years of massive profits and welfare.

Kentucky Senator Ashley Judd

Sure sounds better than Senator McConnell.  Mitch has never won in a landslide and 2014 is his year, 72 then.  This week McConnell hired a 2014 campaign manager, same guy that ran teabag Dentist Rand Pauls campaign.  Ashley, 8th generation Kentuckian, may be able to retire the red neck wattle of McConnell.  I sure hope so.  I have heard her in two interviews.  She is an excellent speaker, smart, and she cares about common folks and fair play for people and the environment.  It appears she will run.

The free market, utility rates based on GOP tax model

My local natural gas supplier ask for a rate increase.  Oh the red state said sure, so long as you don't hose the rich guys.
Why the rate increase?  Global warming has given years of mild winters and record highs, such as yesterday 72°F, night time temps in the high 50's.  Gas usage is low, at the same time fracking is creating a glut.  If the market is to work, our rates should be going down down down, supply exceeds demand.
Well, doesn't work that way in the red states, not when capitalist have a monopoly on the market and in the state government.  To ease the burden on people with big houses, rather than raise the rates on volume, they raised it as a service charge.  Everyone saw an increase, even if you use nothing, the volume rate also went up, but not much.
Same thing happened here last month with water rates, but for a different reason, we are using too much water, the demand is putting pressure on the supply, so whats the cure, sha-zam, same cure, raise the service rate more than the volume rate.
In both cases, people who use large volumes of gas and water have a proportional increase smaller than those who use very little.  I say it favors the rich and/or wasteful, same as the GOP tax plan.

Black Carbon the global warming multiplier

Black Carbon, or soot, primarily comes from burning wood, dung, coal (unscrubbed smokestack or in the open), from forest fires, from 3rd world dirty diesel fuel.  Soot comes off the fire with CO2, but acts differently.

CO2 is mostly invisible, stays in the atmosphere almost forever if not absorbed, and only a percentage can be absorbed at any one time.  CO2 acts as a blanket, increasing the earths temp by holding in heat that would otherwise be radiated into space.

Black Carbon can be seen, floating about it absorbs the incoming solar heat, increasing the atmospheric temperature in a completely different way than CO2.  Winds carry it around the world, falling to earth within a few weeks, but most of it falls within the first few days in the region it was generated, that which falls on snow and ice absorb sun light raising local temps and accelerating the melt

From Pakistan to China intense levels of heating and cooking with wood, dung, grass, plus the dirtiest power plants and diesel trucks in the world produce smoke that is visible from space, much of it settleing on Himalaya glaciers.  Within 15 years the glaciers will be nearly gone.  Large areas of Southeast Asia gets 30 to 40% of its water from the glacier melt.  Famine and starvation on a scale the earth has never seen is near, the vultures will be fat.

Black carbon is thought to be about 40% of the heat gain problem among the various greenhouse gasses.  It is also the easiest to halt, with the shortest payback, a couple of months it's out of the atmosphere, a hard snowfall and it is hidden from absorbing heat into the glacier.  There is a big push in India to get people to use a new style of cooking stove that burns 60% less fuel and sends up 70% less soot, but at $20 many cannot afford it.  Cleaner diesel and a turning away from coal has to be immediate as well.

In some cities in the US, mostly small resort locations, Vail for example, fire places are now regulated, fewer are allowed to be built, there are days where it is not allowed to use them at all.  We have a fireplace, but rarely use it, and now, knowing this, it may never burn again.

Mid 70's (F) here in central Kansas the last few days have seen each with a record high.  Mid December and the cows are covered with flies, and the drought continues.  Meat prices up 8% by late spring.  The water table is dropping, irrigation from underground sources has it's limits.

US military vets, here is another fight you are qualified for

Operation Free is a group formed of military veterans dedicated reducing security and economic risks to the nation, to our soldiers and sailors, and slowing global warming by getting involved in the nations energy policy.

If your a vet tired of our soldiers and sailors being used to protect oil corporations operations and freight, this is a vet group you should check out.   http://www.operationfree.net

Susan Rice conflicts of interest, I'm done with her.

According to OnEarth and Treehugger,  Susan Rice has $1.25 million worth of stocks invested in fossil fuel companies, pipeline operators and Canadian energy companies.  Between $300k and $600k of stock is in TransCanada the company developing the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline which is awaiting approval now from the State Department.  How is that not conflict of interest?  She also owns stock in Enbridge, their pipe spilled over a million gallons of crude in the Kalamazoo.
I'm done with her confirmation fuss, no calls or emails for her.  The chips fall as they will.  All pipes leak, it doesn't improve with age.  This won't be an issue though for the GOP, most of them are one the payroll of oil already.

Bitter John McCain shot down again Wednesday

John McCain along with Oklahoma's oil industry shill - if it snows somewhere then there ain't no global warm'n - Inhoff, lost a fight against the Navy and AirForce.  Wednesday by 62-37 the Senate passed an amendment to delete a line in the defense bill prohibiting testing and buying alternative fuels and energy products.  The Pentagon has been clamoring for this, and through some Obama directives they have been doing it already to some extent.
Amazingly the two Kansas Republicans and Iowa voted with the Dems.  The Koch's are probably looking for someone to run against them already.  It's not known why they broke their greasy shackles, maybe to do the right thing, that would be unusual.
McCain and Inhoff grumbled the military should not be messing around with new fangeled hifaluten contraptions anyhow dagnabbit when we got all that there oil.

World War II vets death rate around 700 a day

One Angry Zebra lost his 88 year old father a few days ago.  He was in the big one, and Korea.  I lost my father in law about 6 years ago, right at the top of the bell curve, I read for a few weeks they fell at near 10,000 a day.  A higher mortality rate than they faced in battle.  Only a year ago the rate was 1,130 a day, it will dip below 500 in the next year and to a handful a decade out.  Currently the youngest vets are 86, well a few lied about their age going in and may be as young as 83.  Most are in their early 90's, a lucky few are over 100.    700 funerals a day, amazing.

R them Republicans learn'n?

They can't help it, they're all legitimate rape guys, self deportation guys, stand your ground guys, voter suppression guys,  and work for the 1%ers.  Oh, Rachel left out the speaker and the whip, add in 2 more old white guys.

Changing minds, sewing distrust of Fox. See this movie.

Google "Chasing Ice Trailer".  

Autism .... It's the pollution dammit.

Specifically motor vehicle pollution is now linked to autism.  I am sure it is not the only cause, but it is the first absolute link identified, certainly it is an accelerant to its onset.  So far no others have been proven.

The risk of autism goes up the more car and truck exhaust one is exposed to.  It can increase to 3 times more likely in pregnant women or  infant up to 2 years of age are exposed often at high levels.

My neighbor has an autistic boy, he has never looked at us, never spoken to us in 15 years living here.

One more reason to stay away from traffic jams and busy roads if possible, drive less, pollute less.  We need to get off fossil fuels.

Meat Mythcrushers

Why might you ask use so many drugs on factory farm animals.  Jammed in stinking barns or feedlots knee deep in piss soaked shit is one reason.  Also, animals gain weight eating drugs, you'll never look at your fat aunt eating her meds the same again will you?  In the case of cattle, it's corn and soybeans.  Cattle evolved to eat grass, not grain. Grain gives them stomach problems, fertilizer residue adds to the gut bugs (and even germs in the meat).  To keep them healthy long enough to kill, they pour meds into them.

Weaponize the Obama supporters

There is a machine setting in America on idle.  It registered hundreds of thousands, it got out the vote, it beat the GOP at Prez level, the Senate level, and it got a few more dems in the house, but more importantly it got around 300,000 votes more for dems running for congress than the repubs.  States are still counting absentee and provisionals, the trend in these is strong dem., the final vote will be 1,000,000 more votes for dem congress than repubs.  This fact needs to be known, this number is scary shit for repubs, that with a large majority of reps elected they lost the popular vote in congress by a million. This is nail biter stuff for them, this is some lop sided scary shit for them.  And Obama, and we, need to get some things done the next 2 years to take advantage of it.

Obama appears to be ready to use this machine to pressure congress on the budget and other issues.  Plus the machine needs to continue to run all the way to mid terms, which traditionally are repub gains. If you haven't called your rep or senator lately, your a failure.  It's time to weaponize.  Fuck'm.

Imagine if you can

How much energy does it take to run a 100 watt incandescent for one year?

714 pounds of coal

143 pounds of natural gas

2 hours, 20 min  of wind turbine *

8 days, 18 hours of solar panel **

Using a CF (curly bulb) or a LED would take only 1/4 as much.

* 1.5 MW turbine, a big one, most big ones under 3 years old are now 2 or 2.2 MW.

** 1 square meter PV panel.

Without you, Obama, and you too, will lose ground in the second term

Go to http://dccc.org/pages/free-sticker?source=2012.11.24_dems to get this free bumper sticker.  Why?  This program is already helping babies, closing the seniors donut hole a little each year, keeping kids insured till 26, and in the next 2 years it will help more, lots more of us.  But the GOP and Fox and Rush have been able to poison the air with misinformation and scary labels.  Obamacare needs some good PR.  Even if you don't want this sticker on your car, get it, put it on a telephone pole, the curb, a Wallmart truck.

Obama is not walking away from the millions of small donors and activists that put him in the WhiteHouse, twice.  I got some emails a couple days ago asking if I will start working again for him.  The only way the things we voted for will get implemented is if this same network hammers the congress and senate and media on the important issues.
The GOP still claims they will try to kill Obamacare, they can't, but they can block, delay, strip out funds, and kill pieces of it.  The GOP will also try to keep the richest from paying their fair share, and putting it on you and me, if not as a tax, then by closing services, parks, education and deductions for the low and middle brackets.
Get involved or history may well show the GOP's plutocrats prevailed even though they lost the second election.
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I also got an email from the republicans.  They are raising money to win Senate in 2014.  20 Dems on the line then.  At first the funds will go to set up 20 teams to follow, hound, & record these Senators full time.  Send a group to every event to hoot, fuss, accuse and question.  The goal, keep them off balance, force them into fewer appearances and create the illusion of large scale dissatisfaction from the public.
If you have a dem Senator appearing near you, attend, show some support now, dilute the bullies.

Make a holiday loan, it'll make ya feel good.

For the last few years I have loaned money to people for art supplies in Mexico, to buy carpenters tools, coffee trees in Guatemala, a machine to balance tires and fix flats in New Orleans, to raise flowers in Mexico, rakes shovels and seed in Peru.  Kiva is my tool.  Kiva is a micro loan organization, they screen, and train people to succeed with a modest business plan, and they hand them money.  These people don't normally have collateral, many don't even have a good education.  Banks won't talk to them.  It's either borrow from loan sharks, criminals, or stay dirt poor.  The failure rate of Kiva loans, is less than 2%.  I think I have made at least 10 loans, and all paid back in full.  
It works like this.  Go to Kiva, read about people looking for loans, choose one and decide how much to risk.  Your money is pooled with others until they have enough to launch the loan.  I started with $25, and have added 3 or 4 times.  (You get no interest, you can ask for the money back when it's been paid, but almost no one does, what fun would that be, I just loan it agian)
I look for people in Central and South America involved in arts, crafts, food production, manufacturing.  You can search by various subjects.  You can also buy a gift card/account, I did this for some college students in the family to get them involved, they continue to reinvest it.
A few days ago I put $25 in to help raise 1,250 for a young man in San Miguel Xoxtia, Mexico.  He has a few hogs and will buy a digester to ferment pig poo into gas to power some lights and equipment  stop methane escaping into the atmosphere, plus, he ends up with a not so smelly manure to sell as fertilizer to local gardeners, he figures it will pay for it's self rather quickly.
I like this better than kickstarter, you get feedback, these people are screened then coached and encouraged, they pay it back, it's a full circle, it's how things should work.
 www.kiva.org.

Latest converts to global warming

Today, Shell Oil called on nations everywhere to establish a carbon tax "to combat global warming".  Shell was joined by Unilever (drugs and consumer products) Alstrom (a manufacturer) and 97 other large multinationals.

Today, the World Bank ask the nations of the world to take immediate actions to stop global warming as it will fall heaviest on the poor nations but impact us all.

A few days ago, Price Waterhouse, the accounting firm to billionaires and corporations sent notice their customers global warming is real and will do great harm to their investments, starting now.

A few weeks ago, Germany's insurance companies sent their largest clients the same notice Price Waterhouse has.

A few years ago, the German Army, and (in the closing days of Bush 43) the Pentagon published their findings that global warming was real and would set in motion mass migrations, wars over water and farmable land, make some regions unproductive and lawless.

wind The Next Big Step, it was always there

A few miles from my home, a Siemens factory builds the nacelle, the box at the towers top.  Koch Industries is also a few miles off, they along with coal and oil industry in Kansas work non stop with law makers to cripple and close this plant.  This industry is a threat to fossil fuel.  Support the wind energy credit before Congress.  Big oil wants to kill wind power pretending it's for our benefit  to level the field on subsidies, while in fact fossil fuel gets billions, wind and solar get millions.  Let your congressman know you want them to support wind and solar credits, thousands of jobs depend on it, clean air and a cooler future need it.

Businesses that will never have a dollar of mine

Hobby Lobby - religious zealots and right wing support
Chick Fil-A - anti gay and anti women rhetoric and support
Menards - mandatory/not mandatory??? civics classes deriding Obama and democrats
Dennys - adding surcharge for Obama care, CEO says don't tip the waitress if the price is to high now.
PapaJohns Pizza - cut workers hours so they don't have to offer health benefits
Cracker Barrel - religious zealots and right wing support

I have never had a Papa Johns pizza or a Chick Fil-a, and never will, haven't had a Dennys in a couple thousand cockroach generations, never will again.
The only thing Cracker Barrel has going for it, a few stores have electric car charging equipment, but still, I'm done with them.
I see in a couple of cities local owned pizza stores are counting on a silver lining of a boycott of papajohns.

False equivalency. 24 out of 13,974, did the media fail 4th grade math?

World temps for 2012 are almost 2°F above historical norms.  Another year that will be ranked as one of the top 10 hottest, of which 7 or 8 are within only the last 10 years.
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The Army is going to congress today to complain about their hectoring  them on sustainable energy projects and biodiesel.  Logic says reduce  vulnerable supply lines by taking energy efficient equipment, portable solar and wind units to outposts and deployments.  If they can stop moving caravans of fuel into hostile situations they can save millions of $ and hundreds of lives.  Of course, Congress works for oil, these things are poison to their owners.

Congress has tried to block them from testing new engines and fuels in tanks and trucks, they have made it harder to add solar, wind, new lighting and insulation to existing bases in the US, in short "oil" needs the Pentagon to stay hooked.
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Just in case you don't know what peer-reviewed articles are, these are papers submitted to publishers.  None of the publishers pay for these articles.  There is no $ gain from being published, but it helps the field and is a feather in the cap of the writer.  In this case the publishers focus on science, often on single fields, for example geology has it's own set of publications, aerodynamics theirs and so on.  People with great interest and knowledge, and who are educated in these fields research something, gather data, make experiments and so on and share their ideas and findings with others in their field.  The whole field benefits.  The submitted article is reviewed by at least 3 people who have significant knowledge related to the subject.  They pick the thing apart looking for flaws, they do the math or make the formula (if any was used in the conclusions) evaluate the strength of the data, hunt for mistakes, plagiarism, grammar and writing skills, and it's overall importance.  This process takes weeks to a year, often they ask for a revision then the whole thing starts anew.  For every one that is accepted, many have fallen short.  This is peer-review, and it is how science progresses, if you found a planet the others have to be able to see it following your instructions. These are not normally written for the public, for most of us they are dull reading with charts and calculations and terminology specific to the subject.

Only 24 papers have ever been published that would suggest some aspect of global warming is not occurring.  Most likely they focus on some aspect or data set, and it was found to be valid, but please know that none prove once and for all the thing is a hoax, for if one did the GOP, Massey, BP, or Kochs would have had it printed and mailed to every house in the nation.  The septic sceptics claim thousands of papers published, what they do is write articles for small town papers, for "for profit" magazines sometimes for a fee, on blogs, for right wing media, and more and more for the mainstream media who have no one and no interest in vetting these pieces as they lay off and dumb down reporting staff.  These articles don't stand up, are often written by people uneducated in the field, reuse false info off the internet.  No review is needed, no facts, just get us something for December.

Do the math.  Or as Clinton says, the arithmetic.  Also........watch the PBS series on the Dust Bowl starting Sunday night, the dust bowl was the first large scale man made ecological disaster in America.

Reform the fillibuster

Sign the petition at: http://www.reformthefilibuster.com/udall/

The Senate GOP used this tool to stop anything and everything.  Reform suggested would return it to it's old rules, to fillibuster you must stand and speak, otherwise business may continue.  Also they would restrict it from use on procedural votes, currently the GOP blocks motions out of the gate, prohibiting debate.  Sign this, and call your senators no matter which party they are.

Beethoven Symphony 5, Peter Schickele

Beethoven as a sporting event.  Heard this this morning on my public radio station.

the best article yet about Romney's shitty campaign

<iframe src="http://www.businessinsider.com/embed?id=50a12a1beab8eaa218000005&amp;width=600&amp;height=430" width="600" height="430" border="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Maybe the greatest, maybe not, but worth a listen, well worth a thought.

We're going to have to keep winning to win anything

Don't let down your guard, keep writing letters and calling those politicians and signing petitions.

*Ohio voted in committee to cut off planned parenthood, it goes to the house now.
*Wisconsin decided they are going to arrest federal employees who are implementing Obama care.
*Kansas believes it has found a new kind of voter fraud, taking a picture of your ballot so you can show how you voted and get paid, they have never had a case of this, but we are about to write a law making it illegal to have a picture of your own ballot, cause they think minorities are going to start doing this in the next election.
*Arizona will throw out around 400,000 votes at midnight, their law says they have to have them counted by then, and they are counting absentee and provisionals at only 18,000 a day.  Most of these are in democrat counties.
*The Senate's racist are going to fight the black women who Obama will nominate to take Hillary's job, on the grounds she misled them.  The FBI gave her, and the White House, Congress and the Senate the very same brief on the same day, yet she is to blame, and why not, look at what color she is, and she has a vagina.

Keep calling those white guys, I will call my congressional dork today on an issue, since I am not Koch I have to talk to the kid on the phone, but I will call and rant.

The climate explained clearly in 4.5 minutes

I recommend you visit Grung-e-Gene

http://disaffectedanditfeelssogood.blogspot.com/2012/11/no-austerity-no-compromise-with.html#links

Paste that address in your go-to window and go, an excellent investment of a few minutes of your time from one of the best writers I visit on Blogger.

Adultery in the military

This current kerfluffup over sex in the top ranks of the military is disturbing, it could have set up top people for blackmail.  So, it is serious for sure.  But, I was in the Air Force, went to an uncountable number of parties in the married enlisted and officers housing units. Some were doozies too.   Enough to tell you with confidence, this kind of investigation could snowball, it could clean out the ranks.  If we start going through the emails and phone calls of everyone, a year from now Fiji will have a bigger military.

I might even owe an F4 pilot an apology, though maybe not, it was a surprise to me and I was at the wrong place at the right time, about 10 years her younger, I was pulled into a room by the pilots cigarette and bourbon breath wife, did what was suggested, was put back in the hall in 10 minutes with stern instructions to never so much as smile or say hi to her if I saw her again.  Roger, Wilco, Out.

Best damn conservative tweet of election night

Horrible possibility: if the geeks are right about Ohio, might they also be right about climate?
David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter and card carrying right wing analysis and adviser.

best 16 minutes of TV this year

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49736294

Best damn music pair today breaks up today

click the little full screen box and watch this, voices like instruments, sensual, what a loss, broke up.

And the Oscar for stupidity goes to.....the human race

Price Waterhouse Cooper, high end accounting and business advising corp. just finished crunching the numbers, and is informing their customers to expect global warming to kick their asses, chaos is on the way.  6°F temperature rise by 2050, 11°f by 2100.

Price Waterhouse Cooper is not a collection of hippies, and they don't work for the left, but for industry and insurance, banks and billionaires.

The information tells businesses that no time is left to stop cutting forests and polluting, if we don't reduce our fossil fuel use by significant amounts every year, starting today, agriculture and business will become nearly impossible.  Populations will have to fall.  West of the Mississippi will be a permanent dust storm.  Businesses and nations will fail.

The 6 or 11 degree rise is world average, not uniform, so some places may see 20 or 30 degree rise, Saudi Arabia 145°, American southwest 140°.  At those temps work or sports outside will kill us, our pets, cattle, blue birds, deer, even snakes.

So, deniers must love it, this is easy to attack, an accounting firm using higher numbers than science does.  Why?

Science, math and hard work win over gut feeling

My son is working on PhD political science.  Told me months ago Obama would win, and win big.  They were using new methods and models for targeting voters who could be won if you got them the right facts.  Not bullshit, not promises, lots of personal contact and  facts on issues and events.  The repubs knew this, and could have copied it to some extent, but they thought it was a bunch of smarty-pants math and science, but politics is gut feelings and hunches and old contacts.  This opinion fits perfectly with their overall hatred of math and science.  These are the guys that don't believe in global warming, evolution, stem cell research, and they didn't believe the polls that showed them losing.  The boy says this election will revolutionize the way future races will be run, maybe though, just maybe, the GOP will ignore it a few more years.  Hang in there Rove, maybe you can help Jeb

Red state scramble, or, let the feds in?

10 days. The states have just 10 days left to report to the US how they will set up and operate the insurance program for Obama care. If they don't, the Federal's will move in and set one up and the state will have no say. Many of the red states with repub govs were sure Ryan and his rich friend would be elected and this whole thing could be ignored. Now the scramble. Do you want to run the program, try to control it, keep the hated feds out, or do you let them run it, doing what ever they want? What a sticky choice for the red states, poor planning, wishful thinking.

one world, one atmosphere, one life

How many jobs does $1M invested return in USA?

The Obama 3 years and 9 months in office has seen the US install significant solar and wind power, doubling the wind to 51 gigawatts or 50 nuclear reactors worth, solar is 4 times greater now about 6 GW.  Current projects on order will drive us to 10 and 60, 70 GW total, most of this will be complete within the next 12 months.
Thats 60 or 70 reactors not needed, 70+ gas or coal plants not needed.  The amount of water saved every day from reactors and fossil burners are rivers and lakes of water, freeing it up for agriculture and cities.  The time to build these is amazing.  From a few months to a year for most solar and wind projects.  Compare that; coal 5 years +, 12 + for nukes, to say nothing of the tons of hot for ever and ever nuke waste, and the pollution from carbon based fuels.

Support the alternative energy credits.  It's a bargain comparing the benefits to cost in your tax dollars given to oil and coal now.

Just another Bankruptcy for Romney

Hey GOP, this is your right turn.

The GOP shlog through the dream of government by and for the rich is almost over, the Romney Ryan campaign is bankrupt of ideas, and sufficient support.  But what about all that money they gathered.  It's lost on stupid ideas, lost on lies, lost on racism, lost on class warfare, lost fighting womens health issues, lost on flubs and fuckups to many to count.
Just like Romney's businesses, his best asset is knowing how to pull this off, it was other peoples money.  All those thousands of people who called in and wrote checks for 10 bucks, even 10,000, its lost.  Romeny in his failed 08 bid spent a few millions of his own, not this time, this time he only put up $200k, as a loan to his own campaign, they have so much money this will be one of the bills paid in the next few days is that loan.  Romney risk nothing, didn't have enough confidence to put his own balls on the race.  Some even lost millions, well thats OK they can afford it, and for those who gave small and shouldn't have, I hope they learn that CEO's don't give a damn for your money, wages, investments, dreams, they are just an asset to be managed and some of it scraped off.   Romney's been to this rodeo before, the money on the line came from people outside the family, outside the partners, no big deal, take some profit and move on.
Well done Romney, well done mr CEO, risk other peoples money, thanks to the gods, thanks to Thor, you won't make it to the white house, where you would have bet the whole nation on one of your schemes.

Ryan scares hell out of Romney campaign, Palin style

The AP reports that just as Palin did before election day, so too has Paul Ryan.  Started making plans to rehabilitate their reputation after the loss.  Yes, as Palin, Ryan too is caught talking to planners and money bundlers who can't keep their mouth shut.  This is as bad as it can get, when the VP causes a leak that inside the campaign it's understood the patient is now a cadaver.  The rats are looking for a way off this festering sinking tub.  Not even Fox can save them now, nor the millions, other than massive voter suppression and tampering with numbers, they got nothing.  And the word is out.

The AP says these Ryan promoters are telling him to leave the Congress, take a job teaching for a year, write a book and then start the 2016 run.  Thing is, no wannabe VP off a losing ticket ever got to first base in later White House races, it's the kiss of death for that dream.

I washing my brandy tumbler and setting it out for a drink Tuesday night.

Colin Powell - Obama for America TV Ad

Bush tells the rich how to move money to Cayman Islands

Attention voters:  Prez 43 Bush of "Mine Chimpf" fame, spent yesterday not worrying about another hurricane that opened up a major city for new development, but worrying about saving jobs creators the terrifying possibility of paying taxes in the USA.  While every living ex president has a cause and works to do some public good, even his daddy Bush 41, Bushie 43 gave a few news organizations not owned by the ubermench a laugh with his post prez work which is painting dog pics and speeching for money.  He spent the day in the Caymans promoting the Romney family habit of hiding money, avoiding taxes, and moving cash out of the USA while still asking the USA military the middle class taxes support to go everywhere brown black and yellow poor people ought to be shot for oil.

Insurance companies know it's true, pentagon too.

Bloomberg editor tweeted, this issue might upset some people, the stupid ones.     Bam!

Now Michael Bloomberg endorses Obama, says he has been excellent on the hurricane relief work, and will work on global warming which is much of the cause of it, Rmoney will not, plus Rmoney has abandoned every thing Bloomberg ever admired about him.

Gov. of NY says, we get the storm of the century every 2 years.  It's stupid not to heed the science and take action to protect our cities, infrastructure and farms.

2012 Tesla Model S - Jay Leno's Garage

One of the most informative 12 minute utubes your ever going to see.

First Lady, looking good.

I'm no expert on fashion, but I must say Michelle Obama is wearing a really nice dress and she is very attractive in this photo.   I keep thinking back to the interview a few weeks ago when a GOP female type said Obama should be defeated because she wanted a first lady that really looked like a "first lady".  She meant black people shouldn't be in the White House except to serve lunch.  

stupidity, or insanity in the family, very disturbing

1) My friend I wrote about who's 85 yr old mother lives in front of Fox news, who is upset almost every day that Obama is trying to destroy America, when the daughter told mom it's just not true she wouldn't talk to her for 2 weeks..... now comes the rest of the story.  She found her mother with a picture of Obama on cardboard with pins in it, asking what is it devout catholic mother told her it was voodoo, she and some other old ladies got these pictures and they get together or on the phone every few days and stick another pin in.  Well, the friend about flipped, she's wondering if mom is ready for sedation or the funny farm.  It is really bothering her, she says they are considering damaging moms TV somehow.  She said she expects mom to have a high blood pressure event on Nov 6 and 7.  She also thinks this is moms last election due to health issues, fox might kill her with the upcoming coverage of Obama stealing the election.
2) My sister (much older than me) usually avoids talking politics with me since she and all her kids are strong republicans, and hate the government, and all live off it, she and her husband worked in military programs and retired on SS, one kid is a teacher, one a prison guard, one in military, grandkid discharged from military during training from injury with permanent disability payment, another on SS disability, another working for defense contractor.  100% of the family is living off the government, and they hate the government, Obama, tax, and the people getting free rides.  What the fuck is wrong with this picture.  A couple years ago I pointed this out and a room full of em looked at one another and one said "Oh yea", but the rest were silent, and still they hate that imagined lazy government worker or the guy getting money setting home, (which is some of them).  OK, I digress, what pissed me off is a forwarded email yesterday about Obama the traitor, the claim is the marines were down the street from the consulate in Libya, with fighters overhead, lasers pointed at the attackers, and Obama said no, don't save them, leave.  And,,,,,,fucking and, Obama supplied the bad guys their weapons, and fired the General who got the rescue guys within a stones throw of the place.
Irrational thought is a terrible thing, seeing it in a family member is crushing.

fake picture of rally "liked" by 58,000 Romney supporters

This is off the tax dodgers lying flip flopping email web site, it says there are 58,000 "likes" for this photo.  It's fake.  It's a Nevada event, doctored up to beat hell.  Note the tent seems to have two supports, yet both are at one end, the isles are three at one end, the two openings in the tent top (in the top picture) becomes 4 while only one lets the sun shine through, the roof supports are mismatched in many places.  If you enlarge it you will see a banner at the left end reads Romneney, this thing was stretched and pasted into a fantasy by someone who was either not good at it or decided the Rmoney supporters were as OK with this hoax as they were at being part of the Rmoney canned good hoax in Iowa, taking products provided by Rmoney off one end of the table and handing them to him for the photo ops at the other end.  What the hell is main stream media doing?  I think the liberal press charge is pretty much over, the rich own the press, and if they want to keep their job they can shut the fuck up about what they see.

womens rights after rape, cut, health care, cut, Romney's plan.

Chrysler first, now GM's CEO says Romney is lying, again.

Exuse me for posting an erotic picture of Sandy

FEMA and NOAA on Romney's hit list

Rmoney and the alpha geek Ryan have said in the past they will close FEMA because it smells of big government communism, and NOAA because they dabble in weather science and keep records of past  trends.

Sandy is Gods revenge for lesbian scissors

Just trying to beat the Reichwing zealots to the punch.  Their god is hitting the US for something.
What do you think he is punishing us for?  Shutting down a good war?  Breast cancer exams covered by insurance?  Allowing suits against pedophile priests and scout leaders?  For not letting the GOP abolish FEMA?  Threatening to tax the rich?  Having a black President?  Please, tell me, why does their god do this?

Hurricane Sandy's power outages can be avoided

If you were in the area hit by power failures, and if you have solar panels on your roof, your broccoli and frozen blueberries are going to be fine.
One or 2 PV panels will run a kitchen if you don't use everything at once, a couple more will run it all, a couple more will run most of a small house.  If you have a small battery system you'll have lights into the night as well.
If you live in West Virginia where they predict snow, no worry, solar panels even work under snow.    In fact, a light snow makes them more efficient due to the millions of reflective and magnifying surfaces it creates.
Solar power sounds better all the time.  If I wasn't 50 feet north of a row of six 100 foot tall cottonwoods I would have PV's, but they shade the house year round almost all day, very nice in the summer, it lowers my air conditioning bill.

My neighbor scores first touchdown against the Irish in 44 quarters

Blake Bell, OU #2 quarterback, lives a block or two from me in Wichita, scored the first running touchdown against Notre Dame since Boston College in 2011.  44 quarters.   Blake, 6'6" QB use to run between my house and the neighbors with the neighborhood kids.  I don't really know him.  Walking around the block the last time I saw him 2 years ago he said hi, nice kid.  The belldoser they call him.  I think he has run 6 or 7 TD's this year.
Notre Dame won.  I'm a big 12 fan, but I really like ND.  Their #5 is fantastic and a really nice guy, he goes out of his way to spend time with the walk-ons and bench warmers, knows all their names, says they are the heart of the team through their practice and staying power.  How many athletes recognize that.  What a gem.  Manti Te'o.

Myth #3, Obama is crippling business

I voted early

Mail in ballot, done.

Mad John, the GOP's best foot forward

 

 

 As Letterman said 4 years ago, "there putting something in his metamucil".   Crowding into the GOP's clown car non compos mentis McCain is rushing from TV to TV to excuse and support Repubs  redefining rape as just another "method of conception", Ryan famously said, one of Gods tools to deliver joy to the world.  The list of war on women troopers enlisting just the last month is to long to deal with here.  This raving rable who spend no public time speaking about the boy scout rapes, Catholic alter boy pokers or evangelical womanizers, are eager to make laws to take over the body of any women carrying the god given joyous sperm of a rapist.
FYI: His multimillionaire wife is a big part of Budweiser in the Southwest, not one Budwieser product in 4 years.  Go John go, this is your last rodeo.

kids can make you money

Got a dimmer switch?  Paint or tape this little design on it.  Got a kid?  Tell the kid, whenever their is good natural light in the room, or if no one is in the room, make this into a happy face.
According to a story on line, the kids take over immediately, they love to be in charge of something, and as you know a penny saved is a penny earned.

the flag blows left, backstage fun

I found this on a German web site, swears it is real not faked.  It's Mitt and grandkids.  Also, the Germans are following this election closely and they are baffled by the amount of support Rmoney is getting considering he lies all the time.  They ask one another what do the people voting for him think they are voting for?

The Romney-Mourdock Ticket

Rmoney is running adds endorsing this Murdock war on women warrior, and refuse to take them down, hopefully they will continue long enough for women all over the nation to see Rmoney is a douchebag.  It's kind of a gift to democrats, "something God intended".

He's Got it Right - Obama for America TV Ad

Starve, but with the lights on.

The largest use of water in the US, both mined (wells) and fresh surface water (river/lake) is thermoelectric, boiling water and directing the steam through a turbine to make electricity.  The result is the bulk of this water goes up in vapor, along I might add with many units of wasted heat. Coal is burned for this, natural gas, and some oil, wood, trash etc. as well as nuclear plants do this too.  A move to wind and solar panels frees up that water for all the other uses listed below.  Water, not oil, will be the most valuable commodity soon in the US, it already is in much of Africa and the worlds deserts.  Unless we free up water from our current generation methods, free them soon for agriculture, we are going to starve, but with the lights on.  

Fracking has exploded since these charts of 05, fracking is pumping whole creeks underground, lost forever, exempted it from the water vapor/rain/ocean/water vapor cycle.  That can't help the dusty boots in the field.

Romney endorses Obama for President

Last nights debate was another shake of the etch-a-sketch for the GOP, shake and start over, repeat as necessary.  Along the way lie that your current statements do not reverse or ignore your old ones, shake and repeat.

On every point Romney agreed with the current position and action.  He nit-picked the details for things to bitch about, but the man endorsed Obama, there is no other way to view it.  Good enough for me, I'll vote Obama.

What a good belly laugh, the line about we don't have as many horses or bayonets as in WWI either.  Now, for the ship counting trick, which by the way 1 of todays ships could have shot hell out of the entire worlds navy of early WWI without ever getting close enough to see them.  The count is meaningless.

How Many Ships for World War I?

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Go back a few years before 1917 and you’ll see that the Navy was gradually building its force, but throughout that period it had significantly fewer active ships than it has today.

That pattern held right up to 1916 when the active force totalled 245 ships, still fewer than today’s count.

Given that history, it’s pretty obvious why Mr. Romney chose 1917 as his benchmark. The jump to 345 in just one year was an unprecedented but appropriate activity by the Navy, given that the U.S. was heading into war with a powerful force that had already laid waste across Europe.

After World War I, the Navy’s active force took a nosedive for reasons that are patently obvious. The same pattern, logically enough, occurred before and after World War II.

In other words, 1917 is a cherry-picked year of comparison. It does not account for the technological advances that President Obama pointed out, and it does not account for the state or nature of warfare during the periods of comparison.

Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1qN9S)