Word Games

post from jobsanger on 12 July 2012 01:01:00 AM. © jobsanger

Political Cartoon is by Matt Bors at mattbors.com.

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Late Late Night FDL: Keep On Dancing

post from Firedoglake on 12 July 2012 01:00:52 AM. © Firedoglake

The Gentrys -- Keep On Dancing.[...]

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Tour Standings After Stage 10

post from jobsanger on 12 July 2012 01:00:00 AM. © jobsanger

STAGE 10 WINNERS
1. Thomas Voeckler (France) Europcar
2. Michele Scarponi (Italy) Lampre-ISD
3. Jens Voigt (Germany) Radio Shack-Nissan

YELLOW JERSEY (Overall Race Leaders)
1. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) Sky Procycling
2. Cadel Evans (Australia) BMC Racing..........01' 53"
3. Christopher Froome (Great Britain) Sky Procycling..........02' 07"
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) Liquigas-Cannondale..........02' 23"
5. Denis Menchov (Russia) Katusha..........03' 02"
6. Haimar Zubeldia (Spain) Radio Shack-Nissan..........03' 19"
7. Maxime Montfort (Belgium) Radio Shack-Nissan..........04' 23"
8. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Belgium) Lotto-Belisol..........04' 48"
9. Nicolas Roche (Ireland) AG2R La Mondiale..........05' 29"
10. Tejay Van Garderen (United States) BMC Racing..........05' 31"

GREEN JERSEY (Best Sprinters)
1. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale..........2322. Matthew Harley Goss (Australia) Orica Greenedge..........2053. Andre Greipel (Germany) Lotto-Belisol..........1724. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) Sky Procycling..........1295. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy) Lampre ISD..........109
POLKA DOT JERSEY (Best Climbers)
1. Thomas Voeckler (France) Europcar..........28
2. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden) Astana..........21
3. Michele Scarponi (Italy) Lampre-ISD..........21
4. Christopher Froome (Great Britain) Sky Procycling..........20
5. Jens Voigt (Germany) Radio Shack-Nissan..........18
6. Cadel Evans (Australia) BMC Racing..........18
7. Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spain) Rabobank Cycling..........18

WHITE JERSEY (Best Young Riders)
1. Tejay Van Garderen (United States) BMC Racing
2. Rein Taaramae (Estonia) Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne..........00' 25"
3. Thibaut Pinot (France) FDJ-Bigmat..........03' 22"
4. Rafael Valls Ferri (Spain) Vacansoleil-DCM..........19' 01"
5. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) Liquigas-Cannondale..........27' 07"

TEAM STANDINGS
1. Radio Shack-Nissan (Luxembourg)
2. Sky Procycling (Great Britain)..........04' 58"
3. BMC Racing (United States)..........22' 06"
4. Astana (Kazakhstan)..........25' 56"
5. Omega Pharma-Quickstep (Belgium)..........26' 00"
6. Liquigas-Cannondale (Italy)..........28' 48"

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The Nightowl Newswrap

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 12 July 2012 01:00:00 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @BGinKC

The House had it's 31st nervous breakdown today, voting 244-185 to "repeal ObamaCare!!!1!" -- again. The Senate will ignore it, of course, but it made for mediocre political theater, so there's that. Whatever. It's summer. We're bored. We'll take what we can get, and they've already shown Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Sound of Music outside on the wall of the public library twice.

And then they hit the links. After voting to turn the middle class back over to the tender mercies of the insurance companies, they got busy talking about what really matters to John Boehner: Golf!

It's called "race baiting" Mitt Rmoney addressed the NAACP Wednesday morning, and it was downright creepy, the way he taunted the crowd and got them to boo him while he stood there with a vapid, vacuous shit-eating grin on his face. The thought of that soul-less parasite as president for four long years terrifies me.

It'll never get a vote in the House because the teabagger assholes who really put the emphasis on "lower chamber" want failure and suffering, not jobs and recovery. They want the rich parasites to have more and the real job creators -- the small businesses that are inherently middle class -- to stop hoarding the little bit of wealth they have managed to hang onto and turn it over to the plutocrats already because everyone knows that they deserve ALL the scratch.

You want to know what makes my blood boil? Having a lowlife dipshit like Allen West ascribe motives to me and tell interviewers "what liberals really mean" when they say something. But what pisses me off even more is ~~reporters~~ stenographers who take it down and never call him on his bullshit assertions.

Good. Since it's a constitutional right and women in Mississippi have the same rights as women anywhere else in the country. A Federal Judge -- who was appointed by George W. Bush -- has continued the stay that is keeping the only abortion clinic in Mississippi open after the male-GOP state legislature came up with a TRAP law to shut it down.

And in Texas, they don't even want doctors to say the word "abortion". Rick Perry's Department of Health and Human Services has issued a new set of rules that expands the ban on funding from "affiliates" of abortion providers to include "promoters" of abortion. And what is a "promoter" of abortion, you ask? It's any physican who gives a woman a referral for the service.

Good idea. A few years ago, after all the kids had moved out and I had bilateral knee surgery, we almost bought a small, one-level house in the Waldo neighborhood of KC. I freaked out the morning of closing and didn't follow through. Why did I freak out? Because I didn't understand the 42-page disclosure form -- and I'm a pretty sharp cookie -- if I don't understand something like that, it's because I'm not supposed to understand it. The CFPB wants to put a stop to crap like that and shorten the form to three pages of plain English that can be easily understood by the average consumer.

I'm having a hard time getting my head around an Oklahoma republican defending food stamps, but that's what happened Wednesday when House Ag committee Chairman Frank Lucas defeated an attempt by teabagger-conservatives to double the food stamp cuts in the House farm bill.

Four more heat deaths in St. Louis, raising the total to eighteen so far this year. And do I need to point out that we're not even halfway through July? Usually the heat-related deaths occur in August.

And finally. . .

The tea-kettle appears to have boiled dry. A candidate who is making a second run at elected office has photoshopped out all the "tea party" endorsements on the campaign mailers he is reusing in his current run.

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There Is A Great Deal To Be Said For Being By
Yourself

post from Texas Liberal on 12 July 2012 12:54:24 AM. © Texas Liberal

I don’t mind being by myself. The picture above is meant to show being by yourself. Being alone helps you think, and helps restore your energy to deal with others. It is true that I took this picture when I was at a gathering with a number of other people, and that the glass you [...]

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Obama calls for tax fairness

post from Occasional Planet on 12 July 2012 12:13:59 AM. © Occasional Planet

On Monday, July 9, President Obama urged Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for those who make under $250,000 for one year and let tax cuts expire for the top 2%. We don’t need more top-down economics. We tried that theory . . . we can’t afford to go back to it,? Obama said. [...]Related posts:

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Open Thread

post from Crooks and Liars on 12 July 2012 12:00:32 AM. © Crooks and Liars

enlarge Credit: Blue Gal

Oh wonderful! I see from watching Maddow tonight, that instead of being on trial for war crimes (as shown above), Dick Cheney is holding a fundraiser for Romney tomorrow. Next up, the Romney campaign points out that sucking up Cheney's Halliburton dollars for their campaign is an example of in-sourcing AND recycling.

Open thread below....

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Whose Water Could The NY Times Possibly Be
Carrying In Their Slanted Syria Reporting

post from DownWithTyranny! on 12 July 2012 12:00:21 AM. © DownWithTyranny!

Assad & Brig. Gen. Tlass
I was pondering how to approach the NY Times story from last week about how Assad's regime in Damascus is unstable and that the proof is in the defection of Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass. And then I happened on a post from an old friend, investigative reporter Russ Baker of WhoWhatWhy.com who suggests all the "news" we're getting about Syria is, at the minimum, skewered. The Times:

The defection of a young general close to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has provided the most telling sign yet of eroding support for his government among even the most elite and trusted Sunni Muslims, who serve as a critical pillar of the security forces and civilian administration.

But while the defector, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, gained world attention when he fled Damascus on Thursday, President Assad?s bigger military challenge is the swelling number of silent objectors-- soldiers of all ranks lacking the means to flee, or the interest, but no longer cooperating with the government. Instead of responding to the call to duty, they are staying home, abandoning their posts as the opposition grows bolder, stronger and more effective, said Syrian military experts and defectors.

Mr. Assad?s loyal inner circle and core support remains the Alawite community, a minority Muslim sect. But Alawites constitute no more than 12 percent of the 23 million population, so the Assad family has for decades relied on the majority Sunnis for their legitimacy and practical support. Sunnis make up the bulk of the nation?s foot soldiers, hold posts throughout the bureaucracy and dominate the elite in the business community.

A few Sunnis have always held high-profile positions in the government and military. General Tlass?s father, Mustafa, like his son a Sunni, was a confidant of the president?s father, Hafez, and served as defense minister for 32 years under both men.

But the uprising fueled almost entirely by the Sunni community-- some 75 percent of the population-- has gradually formed a deepening sectarian rift, chipping away at that crucial support among Sunnis. As the government crackdown intensified, leaving by some estimates as many as 17,000 dead, according to the United Nations, at least one deputy minister and 15 generals, all of them Sunnis, have defected to Turkey, 5 in the past few weeks alone.

The numbers of those who are actively undermining the government by simply refusing to comply, rather than join the opposition, are far larger, however. The Syrian Army of roughly 400,000 troops has been more affected by this type of attrition than by defections, experts said. Of the 80,000 young men expected to show up for their mandatory military service this year-- most of them Sunnis-- experts said that virtually none have responded.

The distrust between the Sunnis and Alawites in the military has grown so deep that at night, when Sunnis are put on guard duty at key installations, there are always Alawite guards assigned to watch the Sunni soldiers, said a colonel who defected to Turkey.

The NY Times would never purposely publish false "news" to push an agenda, would they? Well... you can't help but wonder when you realize that they somehow neglected to mention in their fine reportage that "Tlass did not defect directly from the Assad inner circle. He had already fallen into disfavor early in the uprising and lost his command in May 2011?14 months ago. If you had that additional piece of information, you would interpret the news reports in a totally different way." And Baker adds, "When a piece of evidence that contradicts the overall impression is absent from the reportage, the reportage itself is almost worthless" and then asks who really carried out the Houla massacre?

The media told us that more than 100 people, including women and children, were brutally slaughtered at close range in the village of Houla in late May. The bloodshed, reported around the world, was ascribed to a militia, the Shabiha, which is loyal to Assad. Here?s an example, from the BBC website:
Survivors of the massacre in Syria?s Houla region have told the BBC of their shock and fear as regime forces entered their homes and killed their families?.

Most witnesses who spoke to the BBC said they believed that the army and shabiha militiamen were responsible.

?We were in the house, they went in, the shabiha and security, they went in with Kalashnikovs and automatic rifles,? said survivor Rasha Abdul Razaq.

Later, a dribble of accounts cast doubt on this, since the people killed were, by and large, themselves supporters of Assad. But few heard about these. The BBC report did not say who Rasha was, or provide any evidence that she actually was there, or that if she was, she had any basis for saying that the killers were identifiable as to their affiliation. BBC quoted one other source, who did not provide a name. Despite the thinness of this material, the BBC story was picked up all over the world, and became perhaps the definitive account.

Maybe the Frankfurter Allgemeine-Zeitung has less of an agenda to push than the NY Times and BBC. They reported that Assad opponents admitted that government backers were not responsible for the massacre and that "anti-Assad rebels attacked army roadblocks just outside Houla, which had been intended to protect villages, where the majority are members of Assad?s Alawi sect, from Sunni militias. The soldiers at the roadblocks, overwhelmed, called for backup, which led to a 90-minute battle, in which both sides sustained extensive fatalities" and that "it was in this time frame that the unidentified militias entered Houla." Frankfurter Allgemeine-Zeitung:

?According to eyewitness accounts?those killed were almost exclusively from families belonging to Houla?s Alawi and Shia minorities. Over 90% of Houla?s population are Sunnis. Several dozen members of a family were slaughtered, which had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Members of the Shomaliya, an Alawi family, were also killed, as was the family of a Sunni member of the Syrian parliament who is regarded as a collaborator. Immediately following the massacre, the perpetrators are supposed to have filmed their victims and then presented them as Sunni victims in videos posted on the internet.

?"Their findings contradict allegations of the rebels, who had blamed the Shabiha militias which are close to the regime.?

I never believe anything I read about developments in other countries. I learned long ago that's it's always false and always a reflection of someone's agenda, usually the Military Industrial Complex's. The Times is notorious for putting out fake news on behalf of the U.S. government. They've been doing it ever since I could read.

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Video: Boxing kitten

This just makes me smile.Okay, so perhaps I'm missing my little canine dominatrix:

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Defending Your Home Against Friendly Lesbianesian
Mommies

Jennifer has a problem:

My new neighbors are lesbians with a small child. They are determined to have her ?socialize? to build her ?social skills? and my children are children they would like her to socialize with. That is not a suprise. My children are older, very well behaved and honor students. They are also kind, reflecting our Catholic values. We live in an apartment complex and several times now, the lesbian or her partner have come over and brought the little one with them. They clearly expect my children to play with the child, which they have so far done, politely. However, I don?t approve of their lifestyle, and I find the more ?butch? member of the couple to be almost intimidating. She is aggressive, mannish and heavily tattooed with a nearly shaved head.

Fortunately, Jennifer sought help from the lesbianesian removal experts at The Thinking Housewife. Here's Thinking Head of Household Lawrence Auster's advice:

[The tattoos] simplify the issue, removing any grey area or ambivalence. I would never allow a heavily tattooed (or lightly tattooed) person to enter my house on a social visit, period. Why is Jennifer allowing this freak in her house?

If I were in her position, this is what I would say: ?I find your tattooes repulsive and disgusting. It makes me feel sick to look at them. You chose to disfigure your body, so that every time other people saw you, they would be forced to look at the frightening sight of your disfigured body. So not only are you repulsive to look at, but, since you did this through your own choice, you obviously haven?t the slightest consideration for other people. Why then should other people have any consideration for you? You are not welcome in my home, and I do not want my children to play with yours.?