Open Thread – Mush?
I managed to snap just one shot of this scene out of the window of my moving car as we sped past. Training on little snow? Or a creative way to get that broken four-wheeler home? Either way it was a uniquely delightful Alaskan scene on the Sterling Highway.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121113/NEWS10/311130049/1011/EPA-may-take-over-enforcing-water-act-Iowa The Fed (EPA) is considering taking over water control in iowa because the state refuses to protect the lakes and streams from livestock industry. We have many, if not all,impaired waterways because agriculture is king.
Who’s the handsome new poster ripping off my name?
Today is Veterans Day 2012.
My father in law , a veteran of WW1 and WW11 —-an Army colonel died this day in 1984.
Today is the day we honor all of our Veterans——Freedom isn’t free!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2RwRi2TjA0
Scotus has agreed to hear arguments about a certain part of the voter’s right act that allows the fed to step in and monitor locales with histories of discrimination. Plaintiffs think it is not necessary and defendants claim it proved its value this election cycle against vote suppression.
Mikey- I need to go hunt around and be sure but think our very own Cap’n Torpedo is in on this along with some other doof Govs.
WC did an excellent post about this:
http://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/captain-zero-and-the-voting-rights-act/
especially for we non-legal types.
Once upon a time I knew more about this than I can remember now BUT WC’s remarks toward the end about the ability to bail out (and explanatory link ) are very important.
There is already a remedy for entities which meet the requirements under these sections of the VRA. Sure interested in why they don’t just bail out.
These tools are oh so interchangeable from one rwnj locale to another. Plug in and play. The message never changes,the color white is Henry Ford type optional-you know it comes in the color of your choice,as long as it is white.On rare occasions you can get an integrated model-teak or mahogany stained.
On a side note,Financial Times reports by 2017 the United States will pass Saudi Arabia and become the worlds largest oil producer. That means rwnj claims that Obama has cut production to drive up the price,will in effect increase production so nutters can claim trickle down oil economics works just like trickle down Raygunomics.
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-sues-block-parts-federal-voting-rights-act from 8/21/12
http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/projects/voting_rights/page?id=0073
here too…
http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/shelby-county-v-holder/
here’s the whole dealie
haven’t finished reading it myself
and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was voted back in as Chief Soopreme Court Justice in Alabama The largely,majority white population apparently does not approve of the chains of slavery to the Federal Gubmint.
T
Mikey- I don’t think we’re gonna live long enough to see an end to the white fear thingy but maybe our kids and grands will.
Have to just keep chugging along working away at it all.
And hope someday the white fear people wake up and look around and see the world didn’t end when they lost center stage as a majority, it just moved on to a different place.
Course I’d like for them to acknowledge it out loud too but no holding my breath on that one…
We use a modified go cart to keep the dogs in shape when snow is minimal. The go cart has no engine but does have ATV tires, extended steering column for the bolted on office chair and bright orange roll bars. The brakes work as well.
Since we use our 8 dogs for the trap line, it is very important to keep them in shape during the summer months. The go cart works well for this. We’ve a 5 mile trail system for the dogs to run on. The dogs are athletes. It would be a disservice to them if we didn’t let them run in the summer months. The pups love the daily summer run!
My dad use to just let his dogs take their daily run without harness. Or tied up to anything.
Fight lies with truth
Fight intolerance with understanding
Fight hatred with compassion
Fight greed with generosity
Fight Fox News with maniacal laughter, especially in public.
When I saw this, an economic disaster in its purest form, well….I can’t really type my reaction here, because it involved blasphemy and obscenity. OK, I’m so ashamed. But I think the emotional outrage is valid.
http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/now-heres-real-problem.html
The outrage is valid.
Very.
It is part of the reality of income disparity.
Too many folks dismiss this concern about housing with an airy wave and the assertion that minimum wages are for high school and college students- not for working adults.
Along with the outrageous rise in the cost of college attendance it doesn’t even make much sense for students anymore let alone adults in the workforce.
Too much of the so called job growth in the last few years has been in minimum wage( or barely above) positions .
Hopefully we can push back hard now to the right-to-work and abolish the minimum wage doofs.
We must.
Why is that so bad? Unless you are assuming that there is ONE minimum-wage earner per apartment, it looks like an employed couple could afford the median two-bedoom rent in most states. I’d hope by the time that the couple become parents, they are not earning minimum-wage. Though that does assume contraceptiove access, affordability and no “failure.” (how many of us are the result of contraceptve failure? Waving my hand. But, my parents did not earn minimum-wage, they were skilled blue-collar employees).
If you track this map back to the organization which prepared the study more information is available.
http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2012-OOR-US-Statistics_0.pdf
http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2010tbls.htm#1
If you go here you can see 2,25 million workers in the US over the age of 25 work at or below minimum wage.
In the information from the NLIHC above , it is obvious that even wages some above minimum are stretched in paying rent prices which leave anywhere near adequate money for food , clothing, transportation, etc let alone insurance and all. It is growing- this problem of low wages and it costs us all in other ways.
College and/or technical school or a trade apprenticeship are still cost-effetive, and, essential for your future and the future of the nation.
Though I agree that minimum wage is far too low, I disagree that education is not cost-effective.
It is perhaps not clear that I am saying that the old saw about minimum wage being adequate for college students’ needs is what I am questioning.
I’m not sure college education is altogether cost effective anymore, either, but am not addressing that at all here.
In case you missed it, pure beauty from Frank Rich:
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/gop-denial-2012-11/
“Daniel Patrick Moynihan might be surprised to learn that he is now remembered most for his oft-repeated maxim that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Yet today most Americans do see themselves as entitled to their own facts, with one of our two major political parties setting a powerful example. For all the hand-wringing about Washington’s chronic dysfunction and lack of bipartisanship, it may be the wholesale denial of reality by the opposition and its fellow travelers that is the biggest obstacle to our country moving forward under a much-empowered Barack Obama in his second term. If truth can’t command a mandate, no one can.”
I’ll make an iron clad guarantee right now,today. RWNJ are running out of people to throw under the bus so they will make half-hearted appeals to all the groups they insulted in this election. Minorities,women,Gays will all be schmoozed and flattered until the midterms and then they get thrown under the next rich,white candidate’s bus to provide much needed traction sliding backward. Rethuglicans,as a group,never change at least not for the betterment of Americans..
Are you kidding? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’ve seen everything from pickups to bicycles being pulled by dogs. If you race, you have to train, and if there’s no snow, you still go.
Mitchie McConnell claims rethuglicans have mandate to not raise taxes on the wealthy. Does anyone in Alaska know if W. A. Ross is on retainer to the NRA or rethuglicans? He represented an Alaskan guide named Jim Keeline who was convicted of claiming Alaska residency when he lived forty miles from me in iowa. Keeline,who worked as a game warden in the late 60s-early 70s is from my hometown.
He has been and may still be on the NRA board.