The Beatles - Sexy Sadie

post from US Politics | AMERICAblog News on 29 April 2012 07:00:15 AM. © US Politics | AMERICAblog News

Yesterday was another walking day along the donkey path on the island of Thira, going up and down the hills and looking into the caldera hundreds of feet below the path. We spoke with more people are the Minoan eruption 3600 years ago, that is linked to everything from Moses parting the Red Sea, to crop failures in China, chaos in Egypt and even the lost city of Atlantis. At a minimum it was one of the strongest ever volcanic eruptions and it sent a massive tsunami to Crete which is 70 miles away. It also created an amazing caldera which is over 1200 feet deep, where cruise ships stay on idle since they don't have enough anchor chain to reach the bottom. The volcano remains active today and warms up a natural spring that feeds into the salt water. The bigger concern today though is the earthquake fault line that is active just off of the village of Oia.The other discovery has been traditional Greek food. I spent some time speaking with the chef at a great family style restaurant (Naoussa) about the local food, which is excellent and affordable. For those who like cooking and eating stew, beef stifado is amazing. (This seems to be a decent recipe for stifado for those interested though there are lots of variations.) It's a bit different from a French daube but not completely different either. The slow cooked whole onions are divine. I also had a sea bass which was cooked perfectly over coals. There's nothing more amazing than a simple, perfectly cooked fish for my taste. And Greek yogurt? Wow. I've never had anything even remotely close to the yogurt here which is very thick and not runny at all.What is amazing is that despite the heavy flow of tourists (it's pre-season now, admittedly and it's a zoo in the summer) the people here are amazingly friendly. I've been through plenty of heavily visited countries around the world and the Greeks here are as nice as they come. There are many in the island with ties to America or Australia so there's a definite bond between then and the overseas visitors. With the Greek economy being what it is today, it's likely that there may be another period of emigration ahead.

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Sunday Open Thread

post from My Left Wing - Front Page on 29 April 2012 07:00:00 AM. © My Left Wing - Front Page

Happy Birthday, Maryscott!

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Missouri - Unite Against the War on Women -
Jefferson City march and rally - photos, part 2

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 29 April 2012 06:52:15 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @MBersin

Previously:

Missouri - Unite Against the War on Women - Jefferson City march and rally - photos (April 28, 2012)

Unite Against the War on Women - march and rally in Jefferson City - April 28, 2012 (April 21, 2012)

We Are Women March 4.28.12 - Susan Montee (D) and Courtney Cole (D) (April 19, 2012)

Approximately three hundred individuals from across the state gathered Saturday morning near the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Building in Jefferson City for a march to a rally at the Capitol in support of women's rights.

The march to the Capitol.

In the two hours as people gathered in the staging area for the march near the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Building they took the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other, visit, talk politics and policy, exchange ideas for signs, and take photographs.

Nancy Maxwell, the Democratic Party candidate in the 54th Legislative District,
in the staging area before the start of the march to the Capitol.

Gadsden ovaries.

Courtney Cole.

Peggy Cochran.

Teresa Hensley, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District,
spoke to the crowd about the impact of domestic violence and her experiences in
successfully dealing with those cases as Cass County Prosecutor.

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To Shut Them Up, Buy Them Out

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 29 April 2012 06:00:00 AM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

By @KYYellowDog

If you are a super villain out to control the world, you don't have to indulge in expensive, risky nuclear weapons. You can bring the nations of the world to their knees by destroying their ability to feed themselves: Poison their bees.

Anthony Gucciardi, via Nation of Change:

Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company's genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.
It can be found in public company reports hosted on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto's GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of "restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination" could be very advantageous for Monsanto.
SNIP
It appears that when Monsanto cannot answer for their environmental devastation, they buy up a company that may potentially be their 'experts' in denying any such link between their crops and the bee decline.

For you non-farmers out there, without bees there is no food.

It's now a matter of life and death - of pure self-defense - to assume corporations guilty until proven innocent.

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Sunday Talking Heads: April 29, 2012

post from Firedoglake on 29 April 2012 05:00:00 AM. © Firedoglake

Good morning, it's a little nippy here - hot chocolate is in order with a fat slab of sourdough toast, with a kittycat toe warmer.A number of appearances by WH counterterror guy John Brennan this morning, an anniversarial victory lap for the Obama[...]

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Late Night Karaoke

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 29 April 2012 03:00:00 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

[...]

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Read It

post from jobsanger on 29 April 2012 01:07:00 AM. © jobsanger

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Senate Republican Men Say Violence Against Women
Is OK

The Republican Party claims it is not waging a war on America's women. They claim this is just a false accusation that was made up by Democrats to embarrass them. But that is hard to believe considering the Republican record recently. They oppose the right of a woman to control her own body. They oppose giving women equal pay in the workplace. They oppose free and easy access to contraception for women. They oppose healthcare reform (Obamacare) which outlaws higher insurance premiums for women. They want to defund Planned Parenthood (which provided need health care for poor women). And they want to slash social programs (where the majority of participants are single women with children).

That would be enough to convince any sane person that the Republicans are truly waging war on women. They consider them to be second-class citizens -- undeserving of equality with white men. And just to drive that point home, 31 Republican senators (all white men) have voted against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This move was so far over the line that all five Republican women in the Senate abandoned their own party and voted with the Democrats (even though they have voted with their party and against women on most other Senate votes).

How could these 31 white male Republican senators possibly justify such a dastardly vote? Two reasons. First, they really don't believe women are worthy of the same rights and protections that men have (they are misogynists). Second, the Democrats had the audacity to widen VAMA to include more abused people -- including immigrants (even undocumented immigrants), same-sex couples, and Native Americans abused by non-Native Americans.

For these white male Republicans, that is just going too far. They think it should be obvious that it is OK to abuse and attack these people. And to prove their point, they voted to allow domestic violence against all women. It's just one more example showing us that Republicans (especially the white males) value their right-wing ideology more than they care about American citizens.

How can any woman (or any man that cares for the women in his life) vote Republican?

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The GOP Offer

Political Cartoon is by Lee Judge in The Kansas City Star.

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GOP Candidate Is A Convicted Felon

The person pictured above is Fabian Tankesly, the lone Republican candidate for the Precinct 2 Potter County Commission seat in east Amarillo (the only seat on the County Commission generally considered to be a safe seat for Democrats). While Republicans were initially happy to have a candidate in the race, it now looks like Tankesly will not be on the November ballot.

That's because state law bars convicted felons from running for public office (unless they have been officially pardoned) -- and Tankesly is a convicted felon. And not just once -- he has been convicted of felonies four times, with the last being in 2002 (and at least two of those convictions were for Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle). The Republican county chair said he is investigating the matter, and will remove Tankesly from the ballot if he is a convicted felon who has not been pardoned.

Tankesly admits he is a convicted felon and has not received a pardon, but says he will continue to run for the seat until told by the county party he is ineligible. He says he was not trying to hide his past, although he submitted the necessary paperwork with his signature below the paragraph saying he was not a convicted and unpardoned felon.

He said he had turned in the paperwork on a form printed in Spanish (a language he is not fluent in) and didn't realize what the paragraph had said. That seems a little suspect, since the forms are readily available in both English and Spanish.

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