Open Thread – Clouds
Clouds from the topside. I snapped this picture out of a plane window trying to amuse myself as we flew over Montana. Not that the location for this particular shot is particularly significant, but somehow Big Sky Country seemed to work out from either side of the clouds. The photo doesn’t really do it justice but the clouds had a strange appearance that was both cottony and almost like lizard skin, and tightly woven so it looked like the plane might land on the clouds and skim off to bounce back up. And the sky? Blue, blue, blue.
Due to my sense of humor,I had to mention this- Michelle Obama’s jet was forced to abort its landing as reported by several sources yesterday. My question is why aren’t RWNJ jumping all over her and pulling gov’t funding for her jet because the gov’t paid for an aborted landing and we all know what nutters think of abortions. They must have been napping on the job.
New Kentucky US Senator Rand Paul,distraught with his 3 months on the job has already filed papers to run in 2016,and might take the time to run for Potus next year. Maybe he’ll be too busy raising campaign cash to help nutters continue to destroy our Country.
Woo hoo, Wisconsin!!! And now for some good news…
Two more recall petitions were filed yesterday and today against Republican state representatives. Yesterday it was Sen. Luther Olsen’s turn and today a petition was filed against Sen. Sheila Harsdorf. All four petitions filed so far have had well above the required number of signatures and submitted weeks before the deadline.
“The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent notes that “In the entire history of the state of Wisconsin, organizers have only managed to trigger recall elections four times” — something progressives have now done in a matter of weeks.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/19/third-and-fourth-wisconsin-republicans-recall/
marvelous news Leenie. go Wisconsin. ♥
Just when you think there might be a tiny spark of sanity in AZ Gov Jan Brewer, she makes a quick u-turn back into Crazy Land. Yesterday she vetoed the Arizona birther bill and got props for finally making a wise and informed decision. Of course, there is speculation that there are enough votes for an override, so she can get credit for the veto but end up with the bill signed into legislation anyway. That way, she satisfies the sane people who have not yet moved out of Arizona as well as the birthers and other assorted crazies. But, cynical motives aside, at least the bill was vetoed.
Well, today’s another day and the secret is out that while while everyone was distracted by the birther veto, she also signed another little tidbit of legislation that “gives the Tea Party-associated Gadsen Flag the same protection as the American flag when it comes to home owners associations”.
Now the yellow flag with the coiled snake gets the same protection as THE US FLAG in Arizona.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/19/jan-brewer-tea-party-flag/#disqus_thread
You have GOT to be kidding! What about the Stars & Bars…when does that ‘glorious flag of pride and heritage’ [<snark] get equal protection?–or would that be too obvious a declaration to be flown by those dear, sweet, non-bigoted, non-prejudiced home owners? Sweet Yeebus – has AZ lost its collective mind? beth.
(Whoa, I wonder if anyone has considered floating a bill in AZ for equal protection of the Rainbow Flag? It's origins are as American as apple pie, too, aren't they? b.)
OK, slipstream, you’re slipping… you didn’t catch my “it’s” in the above.
As The Donald would say, “slipstream, you’re fired…beth, your [sic] hired.”
(Obviously he’d say that, because: The Donald is turning himself into the testosterone version of the sat-bhit crazy of Palin and Bachman and, although he can’t stand it when folks who work [directly] for him aren’t totally on the ball, he lurvs it when he knows he has mindless folks clamoring to follow his every word and sat-bhit crazy opining. Chronic misusers and abusers of the apostrophic, the English language, and plain old simple, basic logic, are right up his alley. 😉 ) beth.
—For giggles {or fits of hair-pulling hysteria…} try this: “Catastrophes of Apostrophic Proportions”. I would tell you my score from the quiz, but if anyone knew what it was, I’d be banned from getting anywhere near a keyboard, let alone actually using one. For life… b.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/apostrophe_quiz2.htm
Sorry, beth, I was out in the woods doing search-and-rescue stuff. Now I am back and on apostrophe patrol.
As a reward for catching yourself in apostrophe abuse, and turning yourself in, here is a definition you will enjoy:
“bafflegab noun (slang) – the professional logorrhoea of many politicians, officials and salespeople, characterized by prolix abstract circumlocution and/or a profusion of abstruse technical terminology, used as a means of persuasion, pacification or obfuscation”
Not into your word games, although curious. Thank you for the search and rescue. nem
The depths of Republican hypocrisy never fail to astonish me.
You know Paul Ryan of the ‘let’s abolish Social Security and Medicare, end all those terrible entitlement programs that just make people lazy and hand over the money to my friends on Wall Street’ fame?
Well, when he was only 16, his father died suddenly of a heart attack. Ryan and his siblings collected Social Security until the ages of 18. He saved his SS money and used it for college.
So the man who’s trying desperately to eliminate the safety net for older people, widows, orphans and people with disabilities had part of his college tuition paid for by SS benefits.
Someone who experienced that kind of tragedy at such a young age should support the program that helped him and his family survive a terrible time. But, as usual, it’s another case of “I got mine so the he!! with you!”
http://www.politicususa.com/en/paul-ryan-social-security
Dubya Bush was much the same way. He got into Yale only because Daddy pulled strings as an alum. U of Texas wouldn’t take him because of poor grades. As President of Texas Rangers he got the city of Arlington to condemn and take land for a new stadium which made Dubya’s 600k investment net him a cool 15 mil. As guv of Texas he didn’t think it was right for the guv to take private property without just compensation. And don’t forget all the help he got getting into Texas Air National Guard which kept him stateside during the Vietnam war.
A friend of mine consistently referred to him as “Shrub”. I think Molly had it right. nem
I know I’m late to the party but I need to comment. President Obama scared me this evening speaking about the future of the “Great Entitlement”. I think it is not good to scare all who are working that when they are ‘entitled’ to Social Security or/and Medic…., there is no backing within the promise of the Federal Government.
This is not a good show by our President, at this time.
I don’t want to offend anyone’s sensibilities,but this month’s Playboy has two interesting and revealing interviews. One with James O’keefe and a longer one with Mass. Dem, Congressman Barney Frank.I found both interviews to be revealing and one goes along way to restoring my belief that Dems certainly are the lesser of two evils.
Playboy has articles? I never noticed that.
Ha ha ha 😀
Is this O’Keefe in the plane wreck with Ted Stevens, in Alaska?
No, this O”Keefe is the pimp and mastermind behind the Acorn and Planned Parenthood videos that forced Acorn to essentially go bankrupt and allowed nutjobs in Congress to take federal funding from PP. He was until recently an Andrew Breitbart protege and is no longer.He also tried to tap Sen. Landrieu’s of La. telephones in her home district,got caught and one of his associates is the son of a La. DA or AG and so charges were dropped. That should have been a federal Prosecution in my opinion.
BP posted a profit of 5.6 billion bucks for the year. Not bad when rethugs were whining about Obama forcing them to go bankrupt. I hope Texas idiot Congressman Barton apologizes to BP’s shareholders because their return on investments were so low. Finally stopped snowing again. Really melts fast even without sunshine.
Don’t know if this was posted here yesterday… Under the title: “What’s Sarah Palin Yelling About?”, it’s a HuffPo photo of Sister Sarah screeching in Madison on Saturday…folks are asked to to caption it.
I think my favorites, so far, are: “OMG! There’s a person of color. Right there! See, see..in the orange shirt!. Cant you see her? I told ya I had a diverse following.” and “That’s what I like to see, somebody with a handgun with a thirty round extended clip. God bless you.” beth.
[b] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/caption-this-photo-sarah-palin_n_850651.html#comments [/b]
Well, the rumors have been swirling for weeks and the news finally broke yesterday. Our school superintendent is leaving to become CEO of Chicago Schools, under the direction of Governor-elect Rahm Emmanuel.
To any of the Chicago mudpups who may have children in the city school system I simply say…sorry.
He’s missed several important school board meetings over the past few months, including a critical one recently where the impending budget was discussed (presumably because he was in Chicago, finalizing his deal). He failed to return phone calls or text messages from the Board of Education for more than a week while he was ‘out of town’. He announced his decision to resign to the board by text message and only later followed it up with a formal letter. The announcement on the Chicago news apparently came before before he notified the board here (not sure if it was before or after the text messages). And he just signed a new contract with the district in November for a second three year term for a nice hefty raise with guarantees of more raises every year. That contract was signed shortly before the announcement of hundreds of anticipated teacher and support staff layoffs. What a consummate professional…NOT!
Did you mean Mayor-elect? Instead of Governor-elect?
Oops…yup. Sorry!
We just elected a new Governor in November and our Mayor became the Lt Governor so we had to hold a special election for a new Mayor 2 weeks ago. The man who was elected was the former Deputy Mayor and was also the Acting Mayor for several weeks after our Mayor left for Albany to become Lt Governor. However, shortly before the special election he was replaced by someone else because of a technicality I didn’t understand. Then he was elected Mayor.
With all the Mayors and Governors and Lt. Governors and Superintendents switching places will-nilly, it’s been a little confusing around here lately!
Ditto. One office at a time. nem
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides, now.
Maybe you should add songwriter to your resume.
I remember that song, and now it flits thru my life. Thanx, nem
Ah, flying over Montana. We were on a small jet to Kalispell Airport on the way to a wedding on the shores of Flathead Lake (largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi in the lower 48). A woman asked (not anyone in particular, a general question to all within earshot) what the white lines in the sea of green forest were. I had to answer: logging roads. The clouds really were beautiful.
Here’s the link mike from iowa mentioned:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/16/967533/-Kucinich-OWNS-Walker:-Admits-NO-savings-from-union-busting-bill
Everyone, have a lovely day.
In an earlier open thread-What a 9.0 earthquake sounds like- Zyxomma posted a link to a Congressional hearing where Wisconsin Guv Walker was being grilled by Cong. Kucinich. Walker stated a couple times that workers have a “Fundamental Right To Choose”. Which leads me to wonder why woman aren’t granted that same right to choose when it comes to reproductive activities.I smell a lawsuit and court fight coming.
Lizard skin,really? Sounds like ESPY onerload and you need to relax and unwind. Visit Iowa,just don’t ask why. It is snowing up a storm again and the Robins are carrying protest signs. Farmers are unhappy as they would like to have planted corn already.Snow is wet enough to build a snowman if I could bend over to roll snowballs. Great job of keeping us informed. Help me out so I can send you a donation by check or money order.
Quilted Northern? — hope not owned by the Koch brothers.
Beautiful. From up there, it is impossible to see any of the nonsense going on down on the ground.