This should be a concern for every thinking American.
Today, 47 senators voted that the earth is flat.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, convinced Sen. Harry Reid that there should be a vote to "disallow" the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific finding that global warming represents a danger to human health. This scientific finding, supported by essentially all climate scientists other than those financially seduced by the dirty energy industry, is the key underpinning for any approach to addressing the global warming crisis.
Yet, 47 senators voted yes on the so-called Murkowski Amendment.
What kind of country elects 47 senators who deny basic science?
It amazes me that there is still a supposed 'debate' on this issue. The energy industry has done an amazing job of buying out weak-minded politicians and spending their millions to sow the seeds of doubt. Backed by a mostly conservative media, the sheep meekly follow along and lacking the intellect to critically think it out, scream out 'HOAX!!' in blind unison.
According to these fools, the world's climate scientists are all wrong but Rush Limbaugh is right. The top scientific academies of one hundred nations are wrong but James Inhofe is right. Really, how pathetically stupid can some people be?
What kind of country elects 47 senators who deny basic science?
The type of country where guys like the one below get elected to the highest government institutions in the land. That type of country..
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Animal of the Week: The Sundaland clouded leopard. A new species of big cat is caught on film.
The Israeli attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla has rightfully scandalized the world but it has also brought out the flocks of rabid pro-Israeli zealots who viciously attack anyone anywhere who dares to suggest that Israel isn't always right about everything all the time. It might be important to understand where the Israeli propaganda they spread is coming from.
Keep reading: http://casadelogo.typepad.com/factesque/2010/06/the-israeli-flotilla-raid-and-the-mossad.html#more
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Cracks showing in American support for Israel
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2010/06/cracks-showing-in-american-support-for.html
The beauty of Catholicism is that perpetual clean slate. Pope Benedict begged forgiveness from God and victims of child sexual abuse by priests on Friday and vowed that the Catholic Church would do everything in its power to ensure that it never happens again. Benedict made his comments, some of his clearest ever about the scandal that has swept the Church around the world, during a homily in St Peter's Square to conclude the Roman Catholic Church's "Year of the Priest" celebrations. Wearing white and gold vestments as he spoke to some 15,000 priests, Benedict said the year that was to have celebrated the priesthood had been marred because "the sins of priests came to light, particularly the abuse of the little ones." "We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again," he said.In today's sermon, Ill Papa also promised stronger screening of applicants so that only the most determined pedophiles get hired.
When life is being difficult and giving you problems, there is only one person women should turn to for advice. Pat Robertson.
CO-HOST: Pat, this is from Anne who says, "My husband has always been a flirt and loves to talk with other women he finds attractive. He says he would never cheat on me but his actions are starting to get to me. What should I do?"
ROBERTSON: Anne, first thing is you need to make yourself as attractive as possible and don't hassle him about it. And why is he doing this? Well, he's doing it because he wants affirmation that he is still a man, that he is attractive — and he gets an affirmation of himself. That means he's got an inferiority complex that's coming out. And he's not gonna cheat on you. He's just playing.
But you need to not drive him away or start hassling and hounding on him, but make yourself as beautiful as you can, as fun as you can, and say let's go out here, let's go there, let's go to the other thing.
Got that, women? No hassling and no hounding your poor significant others. Doll yourself up, put the pot roast into the oven, pick up a broom and please your man. Pat knows best. After all, this guy has got a direct link to God and you can't beat that.
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Colorado Springs is what happens when rich people don't pay taxes
I visited C.S. way back in 1984, and was blown away by what a beautiful place it was. There were gorgeous plants and flowers everywhere. You could see Pike's Peak through some residents' kitchen windows. There were mild days and cool nights even in August. And, most of all, one was taken by how pristine everything always looked. "This is Heaven!" one resident, a former Texan, told me unabashedly.
But, one other thing I noticed: I had never seen so many extreme right-wingers congregated in one place in my whole life. And, mind you, I'm an almost lifelong Texan.
It was Religious Right Heaven. It was also NORAD ex-military Heaven. When we went to the "hipper" part of the urban area, a place just next door called Manitou Springs, a seemingly cool-looking bookstore had a display case featuring the complete works of Ayn Rand, fiction and nonfiction. (I'm still trying to figure out how one tells those apart.) This place had every kind of extreme right-winger, variously theistic to atheistic, on full display. Even at a sort of dude ranch where we went to see a popular local show combining a traditional chuck-wagon meal and Western music, somebody shoved a right-wing screed in your hands while you ate your ranch beans and got ready to hear the greatest hits of the Son of the Pioneers. ("Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds ...")
I was absolutely blown away by the physical beauty of the place, the Garden of the Gods, the Cheyenne Mountains ... you name it. But it occurred to me -- this is a place that votes for Reagan something like 4-to-1, or more. The local daily newspaper, the only one competing with the Denver-based papers, was a place where you practically had to pass a Libertarian ideology test to go to work as a journalist there.
Now we know what happens to a place when the locals become pathologically anti-tax. It's a lot like what happened, more gradually, to the state of California in the decades that have followed the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. That place, once the envy of the other 49 states, has become such a hellhole that hardly anybody wants to be the governor. There's not enough money for basic things. I call it "Atlas Shagged."
Courtesy of Truthout, here's an exclusive video of what's happening in this once-pristine city. Last fall a proposed property tax increase was rejected by a margin of almost 2-to-1, and now they can't even afford adequate police protection in this fast-growing city. It's reported that two-thirds of the streetlights are idle, like, out. A merchant was murdered at a place where a city streetlight was nonfunctional.
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More of this, please "President Barack Obama said Friday that some members of Congress should share the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ... In an interview with POLITICO, the president said: "I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big-government overregulation and wasteful spending." ... The president also implied that anti-big government types such as Tea Party activists were being hypocritical on the issue. ... "Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying 'do something' are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much," Obama said. "Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.""
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Kevin Drum posted this at 7:49 a.m., obviously before he had sufficient caffeine to smother his Inner Snark.
Good news! The recession is over:
Unemployment remains at near-record levels, and most Americans are struggling to rebuild their battered finances. But the country's wealthy are once again doing just fine, thank you.....Last year the number of millionaires bounced up sharply, new data show. And after that decline and rebound, the millionaire class held a larger percentage of the country's wealth than it did in 2007.
....The [Boston Consulting Group's] latest report on wealth, one of the first broad depictions of how wealth shifted in 2009, indicates that the number of U.S. households with at least $1 million in "bankable" assets climbed 15% last year to 4.7 million after tumbling 21% in 2008.
Well, you know what I mean: the recession is over for everyone who counts. As for the rest of you, it's time to suck it up. We need austerity, people, not out-of-control spending. So stop whining, OK?
It's class war. The Rich against The Rest of Us. To varying degrees (minimum for the 40 years from FRD to Reagan), it always has been. And it always will be. There's only one question:
How much are we going to make the Haves pay for the privilege?
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