The New Year.........Thus Far

   So, how has your new year been thus far? Better than mine, I'll bet.
   Since this is just one of those lazy Sundays with nothing better to do than to wait for the NFL games to come on the television, I figured that I would give a little bit of insight into my year thus far.  It has not been pleasant.
   The year started out great with the usual New Years Eve parties and all ofthe drinking that goes with it. It was the next day when things began to go south.
  First of, on the 2nd, I awoke in the midst of a low blood sugar seizure from my diabetes. This is never a pretty sight. Picture an epileptic seizure on steroids. Mine are pretty violent and bloody. Only to myself, though.  Between kicking the walls while being down on the floor, and banging my fists into the floor, I ended up with a bloodied big toe along with the one next to it on my right foot. I also ended up with some carpet burns on both of my knees.  This was actually a mild seizure.
  Of course, the year started out cloudy and dreary with rain thrown in for good measure, and it stayed that way up until this morning, pretty much.
  I spent the 3rd day of the year recuperating from the seizure on the 2nd because the muscles are very stiff and sore after having one of these episodes. No big deal.
  Then came this morning. Once again, I woke up in the middle of a seizure, but this one was really mild. Only a little bit of pain from the sore muscles and a headache.
   It dawned on me this morning that yesterday was the anniversary of my getting diabetes. 43 years of injecting insulin into myself to stay alive. So, I guess that the seizure was just a little reminder.
  I may just sleep through the rest of today..

Friday Funnies: The Facebook, Romney Edition

Jimmy Fallon: "While attending meetings in Chicago this week, President Obama stayed in a hotel instead of his own house. It was annoying, though: When he asked for a wake-up call, they just showed him his latest poll numbers.

Jimmy Kimmel: "Shares of Facebook stock dropped from the opening day price of $38 to around $34 today. They say if it drops any lower, Mitt Romney will swoop in and divide it up into Face and Book." 

Jay Leno: "According to a study released today, the average member of Congress can only speak at a tenth grade level. Which is worse than it sounds, because the average tenth grader speaks at a third grade level."
 "Facebook has lost so much money that founder Mark Zuckerberg has been named an honorary board member of JPMorgan."
 "President Obama gave the commencement speech at Barnard College the other day. He told graduates their future is bright unless they want jobs."
 "On the first day of trading, Facebook shares rose less than expected. We were promised that Facebook would take off like a rocket. Apparently it's a North Korean rocket."
 "Our good friend Chris Matthews on MSNBC was on 'Jeopardy' the other day and get got his butt killed. He was so embarrassed. The good news? He got so many facts wrong today he was offered a job at Fox News."
 
Conan O'Brien : "Mark Zuckerberg got married a couple of days ago. At their wedding, Zuckerberg's wife wore a dress that cost nearly $5,000. That is until the dress went public. Now it's worth $2,000." 
 "Facebook shares fell again today. At one point this afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg went from being a billionaire to being 'still a billionaire.'

David Letterman :"Facebook is worth $100 billion. Today it was friended by Greece."

Bill Maher : "For the first time in our history, more minority children were born in America than white children. And today the Octomom said, 'I'm on it.'"
 Ron Paul did not endorse Mitt Romney, and this happens to a lot of people. They say his hatred for Romney comes from a phenomenon called 'meeting him.'
 "Conservatives often say that gay marriage cheapens their marriage. Well, I think a diploma from Liberty cheapens my degree from a real school.
 "When you confuse a church with a school it mixes up the things you believe – religion – with the things we know – education. Then you start thinking that creationism is science, and gay aversion is psychology, and praying away hurricanes is meteorology." –Bill Maher on Mitt Romney's speech at Liberty University

"They teach that the Earth is 5,000 years old, and dinosaur fossils washed up in Noah's flood. This is a school you flunk out of when you get the answers right." –Bill Maher on Mitt Romney's speech at Liberty University


 



 

Yes, my Internet connection is still going as slow as honey in Alaska. I did manage to browse the Internet and find a little post making some fun of Republican Mitt Romney, so I now present it to you.


The Chronicles of Mitt: May 23, 2012


Hello, human diary. It is I, Mitt Romney. Today I gave a speech at the Latino Coalition annual economic summit. This was good, because it had the word "economic" in it; it also had the word "Latino" in it, however, which was the trickier part. I have found connecting to ethnic units to be quite difficult, during this campaign. For some reason they seem to be suspicious of my intentions. Immigration seems to be a sensitive topic in this community. I have tried in the past to thread that needle with what I thought was a perfectly sensible proposal, which is that we simply make life in America so miserable for immigrants that they self-deport. The benefits of this policy would be numerous; in addition to reducing government costs by outsourcing immigrant deportation to the immigrants themselves, it turns out that most of my other polices would have the side effect of making non-wealthy members of the country quite miserable already, which means very little additional work would have to be done. This self-deportation policy was, alas, not well received by the ethnic unit community. I still do not fully understand why, but Eric F. has stated that I am not to speak of it again. It is at times like these that I wish I still had access to the undocumented workers that used to work for me, so that I may discuss my ideas on the subject with them, and perhaps receive suggestions on how better to make the lives of undocumented workers less bearable in general. Alas, I was forced to downsize them because I was running for office, for Pete's sake. (Note to self: Pete still owes me for that one. Discuss it with him.) Regardless, my speech today to the ethnic units was satisfactory. I successfully addressed the immigration issue by removing all mentions of it from my speech, thus solving the problem. Not mentioning things is proving to be among my greatest campaign assets, and Eric F. believes we should strive to do more of it. Original

Internet Problems

I am having the worst time with my Internet connection ever since that damned solar eclipse on Sunday night. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but my Internet speed is something like 17 times slower than it is supposed to be. Of course, my ISP says that there is nothing wrong, but I beg to differ. It took over 10 minutes for my posting page to fully load! WTF? Needless to say, there will not be much posting from myself until this crap is fixed.

Monsanto Threatens to Sue Vermont For Putting Accurate Labels On Food Products

MinistryofTruth MON APR 09, 2012 More proof that the one thing big corporations don't want is a real "Free market", not if "free markets" mean a place where consumers are given exact information on what goes into the products they can choose from. Corporations are not for "free markets", they are for fixed markets, fixed markets where corporations write their own rules and the only rule is "Let the buyer beware." To whit . . . . . . But as it turns out, their fears of a lawsuit-happy Monsanto are somewhat justified. According to reports, the biotech behemoth has threatened to sue the state of Vermont if it presses ahead with the signing of the Vermont Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act (H. 722), a bill that would make Vermont the first of the United States to require labeling of genetically engineered food. ~snip~ According to the bill’s website, Vermont Right to Know GMOs, it’s backed by Vermont representative Kate Webb and would require food sold in Vermont retail outlets to clearly label any food that has even been produced through genetic engineering, and would bar GMO foods from bearing an “all-natural” label. foodanddrinkdigital.com You would think if Monsanto had faith in their products they would seek to defend it with and the wonderful benefits of genetically-engineered food in a positive pr campaign or something, but no, instead Monsanto Corporation would rather limit the ability of the people of Vermont to govern themselves. If the people of Vermont vote for a government that chooses to make sure that the citizens of Vermont have the right to know exactly what goes in their food so they can make their market choices according to their own preferences, Monsanto is against that and is willing to sue. We Occupy Wall Street protesters have a little saying. That saying is "Fuck Monsanto." Things like this are the reason why. More below the fold. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the slimiest corporate douchenozzles of all? Banksters, health insurers and Monsanto, oh my! It seems simple – give consumers the choice and let the market decide what’s important – but it clearly isn’t the kind of act that would make companies trading in in this form of biotechnology very happy. According to news site RT, Monsanto representatives have outright threatened to sue if H. 722 is passed in the Vermont senate and house. What’s more, AlterNet reports that the threat is already having an effect on legislators’ will to move the bill forward . . . foodanddrinkdigital.com Yes, by applying pressure to Vermont State lawmakers with their massive corporate influence (money), Monsanto has already managed to slow down the passage of H. 722 through the Vermont State legislature. All because Monsanto badly wants to ensure that Vermont consumers don't know what they are eating. And doesn't that sum up our corrupt and duplicitous corporate governance nicely? Corporate governance, where the motto is "Eat shit, the other bio-genetically engineered white meat." Yes, a nation where Monsanto writes your laws. you know, when I thought about the future as a child I thought we might have talking animals like the dog Astro from the Jetson's or that weird little white fuzzy talking alien that used to hang out with George Jetson, but I never thought that the weird little white fuzzy talking alien that used to hang out with George Jetson would be part of my "all-natural" Vermont Chef Salad. And aren't the religious social Conservatives who can't stand the thought of gay sex because it ain't natural or stem-cell research, and evolution because it is not God's will, that and a bunch of other far flung scientific ideas like arithmetic, well arent these guys supposed to be outraged and tearing at their golden waist-coats over this? Instead I hear silence. It's mighty hard dragging the right wing kicking and screaming into the 21st century when they are so dead set on living in 1855 Charleston, South Carolina, do I have to prove that Monsanto's new Frankenfish McRiblet wasn't on Noah's Ark to get you religious retrogrades interested? In a truly "free" marketplace consumers need full information to make informed decisions, denying consumers this information deprives the free hand its' mythical ability to do its' thing, if you believe in such nonsense. By restricting the ability of consumers to obtain the information they seek when choosing one product over another Monsanto is acting very un-"free market". They want to rig the market so you don't know what you are buying. In a supply side "free market", if consumers have only a choice between horseshit and GMO's, they will eat horseshit and GMO's. But never mind that, the bottom line is this, Monsanto and other huge corporations have an enemy, and they are called "informed people". Yes, a mind is a truly terrible thing to waste, and Monsanto agrees with that sentiment, that is why they are suing Vermont so they can put Bio-engineered lizard brain in your all-natural soy milk without you ever knowing it. Fuck Monsanto.

Florida homeowners: When did we secede from the U.S.A.?

by Baitball Blogger Thu Apr 05, 2012 Original

It seemed like a simple cause and effect scenario. The case before the Florida Supreme Court would have decided who was responsible for the repairs of defective construction work in a development. But before the Court ruled on the case the Florida legislature came up with House Bill 1013. What it does is interfere with a basic American principle: the right to due process of law. Due Process is a simple concept. It’s defined as “[f]air treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement.” The key words are “citizen’s entitlement.” For most of us, that translates to, constitutional right. We just assume that the courts will be available to reinforce our rights, when nothing else will. It’s just the ordinary concept of checks and balances. But that’s what the Florida legislature interfered with when it passed House Bill 1013. Homeowners are blocked from relying on the court for remedies for shoddy workmanship. So now, instead of holding the developer responsible, homeowners will have to resort to special assessments among their own members to resolve faulty construction work. In some towns and cities, this will mean hardship for future homeowners because much of this work is performed before the first homeowner moves in. If anyone is expecting the local government to act like some fail safe system, performing building inspections to ensure that work meets appropriate standards, they can check into my website, www.keystoneworksite.com for the rude awakening. There’s a lot about this state that many people don’t realize until it’s too late. When you sign that contract and become a homeowner a transformation begins which turns you into something less significant than what you were before you moved in. Like Pinocchio on Donkey Island, none of us realize what we’re in for until it’s too late. Except here in Florida, where the borders are surrounded on three sides by water I’m always reminded of a school of fish which is herded into one big bait ball for someone’s easy pickings. In this case, the special interest group which benefited from the bill at our expense was the Florida Home Builder’s Association. You can understand why they would lobby for this law, but what’s the legislature’s excuse for it? Or the excuse of the people who voted for them? I mean, who in their right mind elects a politician who turns around and treats them in this manner? If this isn’t bad enough, the bill applies retroactively, which will have the effect of hamstringing the one case which the Florida Supreme Court reviewed in December and might have given the homeowners some relief. Right now the bill is on its way to the governor’s office where Rick Scott’s signature will turn it into law. As long as people continue to vote based on party labels, we’re going to see this drift away from the rights that every American assumes is theirs from birth. It’s just hard to comprehend that this roll back in rights is coming from a Republican led state legislature. The disconnect is classic Florida. The Republicans voters, who claim they are against a government that encroaches on their freedoms, vote for representatives who pass laws which encroach on our freedoms. There is no other way to see it because nothing can be more American than the system of checks and balances, yet the bill will prevent us from setting the process in motion. Even the cry for “no-new-taxes” rings hollow when the kind of laws that continue to come out of a Republican led legislature whittles away at our consumer protection laws. House Bill 1013 is just another example of how we exist to feed the system, but we are never allowed to break even. That’s the reality. If you walk into this state for the sunshine and climate, be prepared to pay for it in ways you never dreamed of. I’ve lived here long enough to know that change will not come from within, so the hope is that someone on the outside will step in and remind our Florida leaders that we didn’t relinquish our citizenship at the border. Of course, the extreme would be to throw up our hands, admit defeat and acknowledge that we no longer are part of the union. It might be easier for everyone concerned to just begin the cumbersome process of updating the textbooks to describe the United States as a nation composed of 49 states instead of 50. Though the whole costly mess can be avoided if you allow Puerto Rico to take our place. This entry was inspired by an opinion piece in the Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/..

Hey! Guess who still gets mega tax breaks under the GOP budget plan? BIG OIL

by Eclectablog     Tue Mar 20,2012

It's good to be the king

 Not only is Paul Ryan's "Path to Poverty" budget going to give rich people tax breaks and cut benefits to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while maintaining current levels of military spending, it does something else, too. The GOP budget preserves massive subsidies to Big Oil companies while cutting investments in renewable energy.

 

[I]t appears that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) proposed FY 2013 budget resolution would retain a decade’s worth of oil tax breaks worth $40 billion. And his budget would cut billions of dollars from investments to develop alternative fuels and clean energy technologies that would serve as substitutes for oil and help protect middle-class families from volatile energy prices as well as create jobs. In short, the Ryan budget compounds the cost of high oil and gasoline prices on the middle class.

That's today's GOP, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Oil.

Bought. And. Paid. For.

Ryan's Budget Shot Down In The Senate...

... as if there ever was even a slight chance that this piece of crap bill would pass in the adult chamber of our government. The nice thing is that 5 Republicans grew a spine and then voted " no " on the Ryan budget plan. The Democrats wised up and they all voted " No." The vote was 40 in favor, 57 opposed. Republican voting No: Scott Brown Susan Collins Lisa Murkowski Rand Paul Olympia Snowe

Donald Trump And Those Other " Birther " Idiots...

....have been slapped up the side of their heads with the release of President Barack Obama's lonf-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, so now the morons want the President to release his college records because Trump and the " group of stupid " need something else to keep the ignorant sector of the population from deciding to maybe believe that Obama is a legitimate President of the United States. This is nothing but many of the Republican Party, along with other " group of stupid " attempting to distract Americans from the real issues at hand. It is a sad day in America when the sitting president has to defend his birth-rite and his education record to a rolling train of idiots, which does no good in the first place. Trump should be thrown off of NBC and his fake reality show cancelled. He should be also labeled as a terrorist. I would hope that President Obama would not stoop down to their lower level again by submitting to their demands of his school records. There is no point in giving in to the racist once again as it will not help matters anyway.

Supreme Court Screws U.S. Consumers

Oh yes! The Supreme American Taliban Court voted in favor of fucking the American consumer/worker.

by mrbeen38 Wed Apr 27, 2011 ( Link at bottom of story ) Today the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, issued an incredibly disturbing opinion for United States consumers (i.e. all of us). In AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion the Court held that corporations can ban consumers' rights to take corporations to court, individually or in class actions, through arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. Virtually every consumer contract we enter into contains buried within it a term saying that by signing the contract we agree to settle all disputes in arbitration and do not have a right to band our claims together in court in a class action. In the case of Discover Bank v. Superior Court, 36 Cal. 4th 148 (2005) the California Supreme Court held that the inclusion of such clauses in consumer contracts was unconscionable in light of the fact that consumers have absolutely no say as to the terms of the agreements they enter into with corporations. Thus those clauses are unenforceable and consumers are allowed to file class action claims in state courts. Today, the United States Supreme Court overturned that opinion holding that states do not have the right to find a contract's arbitration clause unenforceable because their ability to do so is preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act. What does this mean for you and I? Well, in short, without access to courts and without the right to band together in class actions, consumers will have virtually no ability to put an end to bad and illegal corporate practices and will have virtually no ability to recover any damages they suffer resulting from bad corporate practices. Most individuals, for example, are not going to take a corporation to arbitration for a small claim of say $50. If they did so, the cost of arbitration to them would likely exceed the amount of their claim. Likewise, in arbitration, consumers would have no right or ability to obtain an injunction stopping a corporation from further engaging in an illegal practice. In short then it means that any time you have to sign a contract for a product or service, corporations have been given free reign to falsely advertise their products, breach the terms of the contract, and outright steal money from you and there is little or nothing you can do about it. The threat of class action litigation has often served as a deterrent on corporations from engaging in illegal and un-consumer friendly practices. Through their decision, the Supreme Court has removed this deterrence and corporations are free to rip consumers off with virtual impunity and without fear of legal action that would otherwise vindicate the rights of consumers. Unsurprisingly, this story appears to have received very little media coverage despite its far reaching implications for virtually every person in the United States. The Supreme Court has given corporations yet another victory in their quest to utterly dominate the people of the United States. Today is a truly sad day for consumers - all of us - the People of the United States of America.Updated by mrbeen38 at Wed Apr 27, 2011 at 03:51 PM PDT Wow! The rec list! This is my first attempt at a diary so thank you very much to all who recommended it. I tried to include a link to the opinion when I initially wrote this diary but for some reason it didn't work, so here is the link: http://www.supremecourt.gov/...

Why Conservatives Vote To Keep Getting Screwed

My first video post with Keith Olbermann since he departed from MSNBC only to go out and start his new enterprise. The video comes to you by way of http://foknewschannel.com/. Sorry once again, but the damned link will not post. Anyway, Keith will explain to you, as if you did not know already, why the conservative workers in America continue to vote for those Republican shit-heads even though they are getting screwed just like all of the rest of us are. If you happen to be here by some freak- of- nature accident and you are a conservative, listen to Keith very carefully. There will be a test.

Shutdown Hinges On Planned Parenthood Cuts?

So the Democrats and the American Taliban Party cannot reach a budget agreement only because Chief Boehner and the hoods want P.P. to no longer exist, basically?

Democratic officials familiar with the negotiations said that proposed restrictions on money for Planned Parenthood remained the chief sticking point, and that attempts to resolve the disagreement through alternatives like allowing a separate floor vote on the issue had not been successful. Democrats said they were told by the Republicans that the votes of anti-abortion social conservatives would be needed to move any budget measure through the House. John Boehner's PR flack told the New York Times that spending was still the primary issue, but no Republicans that are involved in the negotiations have actually backed that up. And Politico's David Rogers, who has some of the best sources inside negotiating rooms, described the negotiations as having "moved beyond spending toward social policy." As Dick Durbin says, "This is no longer about the budget deficit, it’s about bumper stickers." And the question is: will the GOP shut the government down over a bumper sticker? My bet: no. But if they do, there will be hell to pay.

Source:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/08/964755/-Shutdown-showdown-comes-down-to-Planned-Parenthood-funding

Boehner Breaks Out The Tissue

American Taliban House leader John Boehner decided to break out into tears on Thursday as the talks over the federal budget went no-where. Perhaps this piece of crap should seek the attention of a medical specialist.

All of the lying and bullshit that he and his ilk have been presenting to the American public must be getting to him.

At an afternoon news conference today, Boehner announced the House GOP will press forward with a short-term government funding bill in hopes of averting a shutdown this Friday. But President Obama said Tuesday he wouldn't support a measure.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110406/pl_yblog_theticket/boehner-gets-teary-amid-threat-of-a-government-shutdown

Wisconsin:Challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg Wins...

...but there will most certainly be a recount.

...according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. She says: "Wisconsin voters have spoken and I am grateful for, and humbled by, their confidence and trust." The latest tally from the AP has Kloppenburg with 740,090 votes and Prosser with 739,886 votes -- a 204-vote margin.

Source:http://www.politico.com/arena/

American Taliban's Plan To Replace Medicare

The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills. Mr. Ryan and other conservatives say this is necessary because of the program's soaring costs. ... Mr. Ryan's proposal would apply to those currently under the age of 55, and for those Americans would convert Medicare into a "premium support" system. Participants from that group would choose from an array of private insurance plans when they reach 65 and become eligible, and the government would pay about the first $15,000 in premiums.

The above come from The Wall Street Journal but my link will not come up for whatever reason. If you wish to go to their site: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576240751124518520.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Glenn Beck Rumor..

... going around on Wednesday that American Taliban recruiter/cheerleader/racist pig Glenn Beck may be wanting to start his own cable network if he leaves ( gets canned ) the Fox News Channel at the end of his contract, which is at the end of 2011.

Beck's contract with Fox News is up in December, and both sides are, as an earlier Times report put it, "contemplating life without" each other. The New York Times reports that Beck has been thinking about starting his own channel for over a year.

Okay, as is usual when blogging through Blogger's website, the links to this story aren't visible, so just copy and paste in your browser, the following http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_7317.shtml

Elizabeth Taylor Dies At Age 79

Yahoo

LOS ANGELES - Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen life was often upstaged by her stormy personal life, died Wednesday at age 79.She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, publicist Sally Morrison said.

http://no-dictator-needed.blogspot.com

Wisonsin, Michigan,Florida...

....and a few other states have had nothing but what are basically communist ideas voted into law by their American Taliban governors.

Wisconsin Senate Taliban Strips Workers of Collective Bargaining Rights

Wisconsin's Taliban chief Scott Walker and his Taliban sidekicks in the state Senate voted just a short time ago to take away collective bargaining rights from public workers. the Taliban voted 18-1 for this assault on Wisconsin public workers.

The Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money. But Republicans on Wednesday split from the legislation the proposal to curtail union rights,and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later. The lone Democrat present on the conference committee, Rep. Tony Barca, shouted that the surprise meeting was a violation of the state's open meetings law but Republicans voted over his objections. The Senate then convened within minutes and passed it without discussion or debate. Spectators in the gallery screamed "You are cowards."

for whatever reason the damned link will not show. I'll try to correct this as soon as is possible.

Vivian Schiller: NPR CEO Resigned Wednesday...

... after a video was released showing a fundraiser making basically true comments about conservatives, Teabaggers, and Juan Williams, a former NPR political analyst.

CSMonitor

In a wide-ranging conversation during the video sting, Mr. Schiller appeared to belittle “uneducated Americans” who adhere unthinkingly to a conservative party line. He also characterized tea party activists as “seriously, seriously racist” and bemoaned the dearth of “educated, so-called elites” in the political debate.

Only in American can one tell the truth and then be punished/fired for doing so unless you are a politician.

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