You may remember that just a very short time after the State of the Union address I commented about the actions of the Chief Justice at the address. I gave him a pass and said no big deal.
I also, at the time, said that it was sort of stupid to have the court there in the front row but that they could not show any feelings. They should not smile or clap or do anything.
I it might be a good idea for them from now on just watch it on TV and not attend. I said they should not say it was for some reason or place any blame or anything.
Now the Chief Justice, John Roberts, labeled the political atmosphere at the State of the Union address "very troubling." Wow that is such a break with history and tradition that I can not believe that he would say such a thing and on top of that he says it leaves him questioning whether the justices should continue to attend.
Justices just do not make statements like that.. They have a tradition and a history of being very careful what they say and for him to do such a break with tradition is just wrong.
See CNN story
Justices are turning over in their graves right now.
I have just given up on any Republican and on the Republican party. I can only hope and pray that some new party comes along to replace them.
Here are the remarks I made here on January 29th about the State of the Union address.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Very interesting article at Guardian.Co.UK called "Inside the world of Obama’s secret service bodyguards."
"The Southern Poverty Law Center began life in 1971 as a tiny law firm specialising in civil rights cases. It took on the might of the Ku Klux Klan, and was duly rewarded by having its offices razed and its senior lawyers targeted for assassination. But it kept on going and grew to be one of the most respected monitoring groups of rightwing extremism in America today.
Recently it brought out a report called Terror From the Right [http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/terror-from-the-right" title="Terror From the Right], which identifies, in chronological order, the serious home-grown plots, conspiracies and racist rampages that have been cooked up in America since the Oklahoma City bomb in 1995. The list runs to 10 pages of closely printed type and itemises 75 domestic terrorism events, from plans to bomb government buildings to attempts to kill judges and politicians.
Each of the incidents aimed to change the political face of America through violence, courtesy of groups with such titles as Aryan People’s Republic, The New Order and The Hated. But in the summer of 2008 the chronology takes on a sharp change of tack. Entries, which had been running at one or two per year, start coming faster. And instead of a variety of different targets, one name crops up time and time again: Barack Obama.
The first such entry is for 8 June 2008. Six people, linked to a militia group in rural Pennsylvania, are arrested with stockpiles of assault rifles and homemade bombs. One of the six allegedly tells the authorities that he intended to shoot black people from a rooftop and predicts civil war should Obama, who five days previously had cleared the Democratic nomination for president, be elected to the White House.
Next entry: 24 August 2008. The day before the opening of the Democratic convention in Denver at which Obama was nominated, three white supremacists are arrested in possession of high-powered rifles and camouflage clothing. They are talking about assassinating Obama.
24 October 2008: Less than two weeks before the election, two white supremacists are arrested in Tennessee over a bizarre plan to kill more than 100 black people, including Obama.
21 January 2009: The day after Obama’s inauguration, a white man is arrested in Massachusetts, having allegedly killed two black immigrants and injured a third. He says he was "fighting for a dying race".
10 June 2009: James von Brunn, aged 88, walks into the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and shoots dead a security guard. Von Brunn, who died last month in jail awaiting trial, left a note that read: "Obama was created by Jews."
In the 13 months that Barack Obama has been the occupant of the Oval Office he has been the subject of an extraordinary outpouring of emotion from the American electorate. At the start it was largely adulatory, though more recently the adoration has been drowned out by a cacophony of criticism from tea party activists, birthers, global-warming deniers and viewers of Fox News. At the same time, largely hidden from view, there has been a layer of antagonism towards Obama that lies well beyond the boundaries of reasonable political debate.
That has been a fact of life for Obama and his family since long before they took the keys to the White House. On 2 May 2007, fully 18 months before election day, he was assigned a secret service detail ? much earlier than any other presidential candidate in American history. The precise reasons for the move have never been disclosed, but there was certainly a mood in the air sufficiently palpable to disconcert Michelle Obama. A senior US official in the State Department has told the Guardian that before he decided to run for the presidency, Obama had actively to win Michelle over to the idea by assuaging her fears about the potential of an attack on him, her and/or their two daughters.
Michelle would have been aware of the backstory here: that Colin Powell had declined to run for the 1996 Republican nomination partly because his wife Alma feared his assassination at the hands of white supremacists. Over the course of the long presidential race, Michelle spoke openly about her anxieties and how she had determined to overcome them, telling 60 Minutes that she had decided to fling herself into the race because "I am tired of being afraid".
According to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s new account of the 2008 election, Game Change, she eventually felt relaxed enough to crack sardonic jokes about the subject. "I’ve already gone out and increased our life insurance on [Barack]," she quipped. "You just can’t be too careful!" But as the Southern Poverty Law Center survey shows, the issue of safety and the 44th president remains anything but a laughing matter. "Virtually every domestic terrorist event we have identified since June 2008 ? when it became obvious that Obama was going to win ? has been directly related to him," says the author of the report, Mark Potok…"
Popularity: 1% [?]
"Creative Loafing Atlanta presents: The Georgia Knight Riders and Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied for a crowd of more than 500 on Feb. 20 in the town of Nahunta, Ga., about 275 miles southeast of Atlanta."
Popularity: 1% [?]
Rush Limbaugh defends Toyota and attacks the UAW union!
He defends corporations and he even defends non American corporations.
First last and always he is a shill for big corporation and the rich.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The man that crashed an airplane into a Texas office building that held the office of the IRS left a statement on his web site.
See The Smoking Gun
See CNN story
You can read his entire note in PDF format here.
Here is just a bit of the statement: “corrupt Catholic Church”, “mill management and corrupt union”, “incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY”, “presidential puppet GW Bush” and here is his ending statement:
“The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to hid greed.”
Details will come out I am sure about this entire story. Reading between the lines it looks to me like this guy wanted to be a capitalist and was trying hard to get in there and be a deal maker and live the American dream and everything went wrong for me. He is blaming others for all his problems. I guess that is normal.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Make money uploading files? I found a site that is set up so that you can make money by uploading files and then you get money each time one of the files is downloaded. The site is ShareCash.
I like the idea that you get money for each file downloaded. There are other sites like this but they pay you per 1000 files downloaded or something like that. This site sounds like a good idea.
Now the question is what sort of files are someone going to pay so that they can download them?
Also it looks like the max size of a file is 200 MB and I wonder if that might be a problem.
I just made a 14 minute video for YouTube and it was a bit over 100 MB. So I guess a person could make a video on some subject and the video could be about 30 minutes and then offer it to people to download. It would have to be, I guess, some sort of help file or how to do file. But then it would have to be something that people could not find for free on the Internet.
Anyway just wanted to pass on the information about this site/service. I will be signing up for it and I will be trying to think of some way to make a few dollars with their site. Right now the question is how do you do that?
I just signed up for the Affiliate end of the service so if you do click on the link above and if you do sign up and if you do make some money I would get some money at the same time.
Popularity: 1% [?]
CNN has a very interesting article called “Ten big ideas from TED.” One thing in the story is this:
“…$60K a year can make you happy
Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won’t buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help.
Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but "above that it’s a flat line," he said.
"Money does not buy you experiential happiness but lack of money certainly buys you misery," he said. But the real trick, Kahneman said, is to spend time with people you like…”
Back when I was 40 years of age I had an uncle die and leave me about $7K. I spent it all in one month. It was a great month. I had a girl friend and money was no object. If I saw something I got it. I could eat any place and not even think about the price. It was a great month.
I have told people that if I had $72K a year I would be happy. Now from reading and seeing stories about lottery winners…I also now understand that if you have a lot of money often and in fact it seems like all the time things do not go well for you. So it looks like $60K or $70K a year would be just about right for me.
Now how can I make $60K a year from Google AdSense? With this month half over I have made $4.04 so far. Smile
Two of my four children make over $60K a year. I think they both are pretty happy. As happy as a Howard can be. Smile
The problem is that a lot of people here in the United States were making good money but with the Bush/GOP mess they do not have a job or are working at at fast food place. It is going to take time for things to improve. They are saying that the unemployment rate is 9.7% (down from 10%).
But my grandson was getting unemployment but he used up all those funds and so he is not getting it so he is not being counted. There have got to be a lot of people not working and not getting unemployment money so they are not being counted.
I saw a job listed here in Fort Worth for $92K a year. It was a job for a security officer.
You need to be willing to work in Iraq!
I think things are getting a little better but I suspect that there are some hard times ahead for all of us. The banks, insurance companies and the credit card people are going to fuck us over and over again. It is in their nature to do that..That is their business plan.
Popularity: 2% [?]
This video was made after 18 hours of no power in Fort Worth (Texas). We got power back 2 hours after this video was made.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Here is a great post from Americablog. It is by Steve Kyle. He teaches economics at Cornell University.
This post says what I have been trying to say for years about Social Security. Mr. Kyle does it in a clear way and I am posting his entire post on the subject.
GOP talking about cutting Social Security again, when the real budge problem is health care
by Steve Kyle (NY) on 2/07/2010 07:01:00 PM
Two Republicans, Alan Greenspan and Hank Paulson, sat on Meet the Press this morning and told us that there is no way out of our fiscal mess that doesn’t involve cutting entitlements. And first on their list is Social Security.
First, why should anyone believe what these two guys have to say? They presided over the monetary policy and the fiscal policy that got us into our current economic mess.
Second, why on earth does the supposedly he-said/she-said addicted mainstream press have only discredited Republicans to talk about economics? Aren’t there no Democrats available?
Third, and most important, can we PLEASE kill the zombie-like reawakening of the we-must-cut-Social-Security-benefits meme once and for all? We last killed this lie a few years ago when Bush Jr. had a run at it, but in fact it has been around since 1933. Republicans HATE Social Security for two reasons, one stupid and one understandable (but also stupid if you actually care about retirees):
- The stupid reason: Social Security is "socialist." Well, sure it is and what of it? If people actually like it (and there is no question they do) are we really going to cut it just because it is something socialists happen to like also?
- The understandable reason: If I were a Republican, I too would hate the program that is so popular, it got Democrats elected and reelected for half a century. (Incidentally, this is also why they hate single payer health care. If we ever actually put it in place it would be so popular that the party who got credit for it would be cemented in power for the rest of our lives (which would be much markedly longer, incidentally). Only people who never travel to other countries (like most Republicans) could imagine that single payer wouldn’t be popular. If you doubt what I say, just look at Medicare, our current seniors-only single payer government health care system. Even the tea-baggers like it.
Here are some facts. Social Security, if it has a long run problem at all, won’t run in to any problems for at least three more decades by even the most conservative estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Even then, the "crisis" is that the SS trust fund will run out and SS will have to rely on current SS taxes like it did for most of its history. In other words, the "crisis" is that instead of having a steadily rising value, social security payments will be stuck at current levels, meaning us worker bees today will retire "only" at the level current retirees are getting rather than the steady increases we are promised. Of course, it is entirely possible and even probable that this "crisis" will never materialize at all, so it is silly to worry about it now when there are far bigger problems out there.
What are those far bigger problems? Medicare and Medicaid! They really ARE going to eat the entire federal budget in a decade or two if we don’t pass some health care reforms.
To make it crystal clear, let me reiterate. Health care costs are going to bankrupt us if we don’t pass some real reforms. Social Security won’t bankrupt us. Lumping them together is just a way for the Republicans to attack Social Security – something they have hated for almost 80 years, and something which still works pretty well. And it will continue to work pretty well if we just leave it alone. Health care won’t.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The word is that the National Tea Party Convention paid her $100,000.00 for this speech. Since she does hold any political office I have no problem with her getting any money she can from speaking or anything else that she wants to do.
But I am sorry.. This speech was not worth $100K. She is a very poor speaker. It looks like she had some talking points written by someone. She just did not do a good job. I am not a public speaker but give me $100K to speak and I will come up with one hell of a speech.
Her lame start up of the speech just was just so sad.
“I am so proud to be an American.”
She said she looks forward to attending more Tea Party events. I would also if they gave me $100K for it. SMILE
Scott Brown just a guy with a truck (smile) and a nude magazine spread in his past. I guess she likes him because he and her son in law have the same thing in their past. Funny seems like I remember her blasting her son in law for being nude in a magazine.
I would think that the first five minutes of a speech should move you or set a tone or something … That was five minutes of my life I will never get back. She had nothing for the opening of her speech.
Funny they keep showing the people there listening to her speech. They are all old white people. Not one person of color. It looks like like how the Republican national conventions would look in the old days before they started to put some color in their conventions for the TV cameras. The only thing missing this time is the cigar smoking men.
Sarah Palin just does not have anything to say.. She speaks in little talking points and I am not sure she even believes them or understands what it is all about. It is sad that the Republicans can not come up with someone that understands the issues. I am not sure she can ever understand issues.
One thing she needs to do is pay someone to write her a good speech. My God, if you get $100K (plus extras I am sure) for a speech and you are empted headed the way she is.. Pay someone to write a speech for you. Hell she could find someone for $1K or $10K to write one for her.
Well I will not go on with talking about her speech. It was not a good speech. It is not that she is a Republican. If it was a good speech I would admit it. She just does not have it. She never had it and she does not have it now and she is not going to get it ever. If they run her for President she will get 30% of the vote. No matter who the GOP run they can count on that number of votes. That is all she would get. She is a loser. Dear sweet Jesus please have the Republican run her in 2012.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The following is from Texas Lawer, an ALM Publication, I found it in Tex Parte Blog.
“Austin solo Adam Reposa, who made obscene gesture before judge, loses fight at CCA
Adam Reposa (pictured), the Austin criminal-defense solo who made a gesture simulating masturbation toward a prosecutor while standing before Travis County Court-at-Law No. 6 Judge Jan Breland, faces 90 days in jail. In an 8-1 decision today, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Reposa’s application for a writ of habeas corpus in his contempt case. Judge Lawrence Meyers, the lone dissenter in Ex Parte Adam Reposa, did not write an opinion. The CCA’s unpublished opinion, written by Judge Paul Womack, presents the following summary of Breland’s testimony at Reposa’s contempt hearing: On March 11, 2008, Reposa appeared as counsel for a defendant in a criminal case in Breland’s court. Breland asked Reposa to stop whispering to his client while she was trying to explain a plea offer to the client. After the prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney Bill Swaim, protested about Reposa’s continued whispering, Reposa made the simulated masturbation gesture toward the prosecutor while looking at Breland. Acting on Swaim’s motion, Breland held Reposa in contempt. Senior Judge Paul Davis of Austin, sitting by assignment, subsequently found Reposa guilty of contempt and sentenced him to 90 days in jail. Reposa appealed to the CCA on June 2, 2008. The CCA had set bail for Reposa pending the disposition of his case. In its decision today, the CCA overruled Reposa’s five issues challenging the judgment of contempt and sentence. With regard to Reposa’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, Womack wrote for the majority, “Regardless of the fact that the gesture was not directed at Judge Breland, it nevertheless was a purposeful act of disrespect and an affront to the dignity of the court. As such, it rises to the level of criminal contempt.” Swaim declines comment on the CCA’s decision. Travis County Attorney David Escamilla as well as Austin solo Karyl Krug, who represents Reposa in the habeas corpus writ application, each did not immediately return a telephone call. When told of the CCA’s decision, Reposa said, “Oh well.” When asked what happens next, Reposa says he doesn’t know. “I need to talk to my lawyer,” he says. But Reposa adds that he does not think he can file his writ application in another court.
– Mary Alice Robbins
UPDATE: Karyl Krug, who represents Reposa in the habeas corpus writ application, says she is surprised the CCA issued an unpublished opinion in a case involving issues of first impression. As noted in the CCA’s opinion, Reposa had argued that the case was one of first impression because of the “extreme ‘extraneousness’ ” of evidence presented at the contempt hearing, including the introduction of Whoopsy!, a magazine distributed in Austin night clubs that featured an apparently satirical ad by a lawyer identified as “Bulletproof, the DWI stud.” Reposa identifies himself as Adam “Bulletproof” Reposa on the State Bar of Texas Web site. Krug says Reposa can file a motion for rehearing with the CCA but that there has been no decision to do so. Travis County Attorney David Escamilla says, “The real take-away from this legal saga goes beyond what happens to this lawyer. It’s a sobering reminder to our profession that the standards of decorum in our courts apply to everyone — defendants, victims, witnesses and lawyers.”
Posted at 11:29 AM | Permalink
Digg This | Save to del.icio.us”
Popularity: 3% [?]
Just found this video on YouTube. My God, I love it.. I got a major hard on. If you read my blog you know I do not like lawyers. In fact I hate lawyers. I think most all of them are scum.
The video below is him turning himself in at the jail.
“Some ATL readers may find our Lawyer of the Day posts frivolous, but there are valuable lessons in each one. Texan lawyer Adam "Bulletproof" Reposa has many lessons to impart.
Lesson one: how not to show one’s displeasure with a judge’s ruling. From the Austin American-Statesman:
Adam Reposa, 33, was held in contempt of court by County-Court-at-Law Judge Jan Breland for his "intentional and contumacious conduct during the court’s review of the plea bargain offer to his client before jury trial."
Reposa, who could not be reached for comment, "made a simulated masturbatory gesture with his hand while making eye contact with the court in response to an objection by the state to his interference with the court plea bargain inquiry," Breland wrote in a judgment of criminal contempt of court filed March 11.
While we may understand the desire to use the "jerk-off" gesture with a judge who uses the word "contumacious," we strongly advise against it.
Lesson two: how not to manage your media relations, as reported by a local broadcaster.
When Reposa’s law office was contacted by phone, the person answering said she was instructed by Reposa to tell the media a vulgarity, which won’t be printed here.
We advise "no comment at this time" as a much more respectable way of saying f**k off.
Lesson three: how not to market your legal services. First, do not register with your state bar as "Bulletproof." Second, do not make terrible YouTube videos.
While we are tempted to make the "jerk-off" gesture, instead we will end with "no comment at this time."
Austin attorney put in jail after "obscene gesture" in court [KeyeTV.com]
Defense lawyer held in contempt for lewd gesture at judge [Austin American Statesman]By Kashmir Hill | 03.24.08 at 10:00 AM
Posted In: Lawyer of the Day”
Popularity: 2% [?]
“Tonight’s full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features on the moon.
This being the first full moon of 2010, it is also known as the wolf moon, a moniker dating back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights. Each month brings another full moon name.
But why will this moon be bigger than others? Here’s how the moon works:
The moon is, on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) from Earth. The moon’s orbit around Earth – which causes it to go through all its phases once every 29.5 days – is not a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. One side of the orbit is 31,070 miles (50,000 km) closer than the other.
So in each orbit, the moon reaches this closest point to us, called perigee. Once or twice a year, perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, making the moon bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.
Tonight it will be about 14 percent wider and 30 percent brighter than lesser full Moons of the year, according to Spaceweather.com.
As a bonus, Mars will be just to the left of the moon tonight. Look for the reddish, star-like object…” Yahoo News
It is going to be cold tonight but I am going to check it out.
I love looking at the sky. I love space and astronomy. I wish my eyes were better and I wish I had the location and the equipment to do astronomy.
I can not afford more than one hobby.. Hell I can not afford one hobby and I consider the Internet and computers to be one hobby.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The following is from PCWorld
“Google will phase out support for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 Web browser starting in March, the company said Friday.
"Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites," Rajen Sheth, Google Apps senior product manager, wrote in a blog post Friday.
The announcement comes more than two weeks after Google reported that its servers had been the target of attacks originating in China. Those attacks targeted a vulnerability in IE 6, for which Microsoft has since issued a fix.
Support for IE6 in Google Docs and Google Sites will end March 1, Sheth said in the post. At that point, IE6 users who try to access Docs or Sites may find that "key functionality" won’t work properly, he said.
Sheth suggested that customers upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome 4.0 or Safari 3.0, or more recent versions of those browsers.
According to StatCounter, IE6 has 18 percent market share among browsers.”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Remember the South Gov? Well now take a look at the Lt. Gov!
You will not believe what he is saying.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Popularity: 1% [?]
(CNN) – In his weekly radio and video address Saturday, President Obama sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this week easing some campaign finance regulations.
"This ruling opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy," Obama says in the address. "It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way – or to punish those who don’t."
Full transcript of address after the jump
Popularity: 1% [?]
“Russia Today: Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it’s Haiti’s disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is … destroying and taking over Iran.”
From Real Clear Politics
Hugo Chavez must not believe in God…I would be to scared to say something like that out of fear of God striking me dead on the spot.
What a little scum bag this guy is to say something like this at this time.
Dear God, I know you are busy but take a look at Hugo Chavez and send the Angel of Death to pay him a visit please. I do not pray very often so could you do this one little thing for me please.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Popularity: 2% [?]
Follow me on Twitter 
