Archive for June 21, 2012
Draft Dodger Romney: Military Service Will Earn You Citizenship
(Via.)
Mitt was a “missionary” in Paris while boys his age were drafted and killed in Vietnam because they didn’t have money or friends in high places. That would be two of my friends who are dead, circa 1972, because that was their situation.
But now we’re supposed to believe Romney values military service?
Okaaay.
Want to Know if You’re Eating GMO Food? The Senate Says No
I hope I live to see a time when congress represents We the People instead of their corporate sponsors:
(Image via PomegranateMarkets.com)
The Senate on Thursday rejected an amendment to the farm bill that would have given states the power to require labels on genetically modified food.
“This is the very first time a bill on labeling genetically engineered food has been brought before the Senate,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), who introduced the proposal. “It was opposed by virtually every major food corporation in the country. While we wish we could have gotten more votes, this is a good step forward and something we are going to continue to work on. The people of Vermont and the people of America have a right to know what’s in the food that they eat.”
Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow opposed the amendment, claiming it could interfere with the development of drought resistant crops.
The amendment was defeated by a 26-73 vote.
More on the details as to who voted in favor of this as soon as I can dig through the info.
Back to what I said up top: I hope I live to see a time when congress votes on behalf of We the People: Record-breaking One Million Americans Tell FDA: We Have a Right to Know What’s in Our Food
This isn’t about a “nanny state” as Fox would say. It’s about the government giving people information about what they’re eating — giving them information so they can make an informed decision. If folks want to buy GMO food, fine.
Got Sick on Vacation? You Get Another Vacation
Can you imagine this happening in the corporatocracy also known as the United States? Me neither.
(Image via FloridaStateParks.org)
For most Europeans, almost nothing is more prized than their four to six weeks of guaranteed annual vacation leave. But it was not clear just how valuable that time off was until Thursday, when Europe’s highest court ruled that workers who happened to get sick on vacation were legally entitled to take another vacation.
“The purpose of entitlement to paid annual leave is to enable the worker to rest and enjoy a period of relaxation and leisure,” the Court of Justice of the European Union, based in Luxembourg, ruled in a case involving department store workers in Spain. “The purpose of entitlement to sick leave is different, since it enables a worker to recover from an illness that has caused him to be unfit for work.”
[...]
The Court of Justice had previously ruled that a person who gets sick before going on vacation is entitled to reschedule the vacation, and on Thursday it said that right extended into the vacation itself.
So humane. So sane.
Update on the Poor Little Moose I Posted About Yesterday
It turns out that the poor little moose who got caught in a skate park in the mountains west of Boulder that I posted about yesterday died:
(Image via DailyCamera.com)
The young moose that wandered into a Nederland skate park on Wednesday died from hyperthermia, or overheating, officials said today.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said a necropsy was performed on the young bull moose. The results showed the moose was otherwise in good condition and appeared to have died from overheating due to the stress of getting stuck in the skate park and then being tranquilized and moved.
Staff at the Nederland Teen Center reported that the moose was in the bowl of the skate park around 11 a.m. Wednesday. Officials believe the moose, who was about a year old and weaned, was headed for Barker Reservoir when it got startled by some people fishing and ran back toward the skate park, where it then became stuck.
Awe. Too bad. Sad.
63 Percent of Republicans Still Think Saddam Hussein Had WMD
We can thank Fox “News” for this:
How misinformed are Republicans about world affairs? If presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s assertion that Russia is “without question our number one geopolitical foe” is any indication, then the answer would appear to be very.
A new poll supports that theory.
The poll, constructed by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2, found that fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view.
“By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view?” Those are pretty darn high numbers too given that that lie has been thoroughly debunked.
Incredible.
There’s a Reason They’re Called Wingnuts
Twitter was down for about 45 minutes just now and the wingnuts are thinking there’s some sort of grand liberal conspiracy behind it, probably orchestrated by Obama himself.
My Tweets of the Day:
Holy cow.
Romney’s Non-Position on Immigration
UPDATED.
Romney’s running for wuss in chief:
Heads up Latinos. This means you wouldn’t like what Romney has to say on the issue.
UPDATED: Turns out Romney didn’t avoid the issue. He said “I will replace and supersede” Obama’s immigration order. As usual, no details.
Climate Change is Scaring the S–t Out of Me
This is happening in my town and it’s scary:
For the first time in at least 30 years, the Boulder Fire Department has set up daily patrols of the city to monitor conditions and help prevent fires.
The patrols, conducted by teams of three firefighters ready to respond with a small truck and a 300- to 750-gallon water tank, are part of a pre-emptive effort in the face of extreme fire danger.
“Although we were at extreme conditions in the past, we’ve never been this way this early,” Boulder Fire Marshal David Lowrey said.
The patrols are running from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Think about that for a minute. The fire danger is so high here that fire trucks are actually driving around looking for fires so they can put them out before the almost-constant eastwardly breeze whips up a wild fire that burns through half the town, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and panicked people who are trapped and can’t get out of harm’s way in the clogged, narrow streets.
I try not to think about it in too much detail because it would truly be a horrifying nightmare. All it would take to have the nightmare come true in these tinder dry conditions is some idiot tossing a still-lit cigarette on the ground.
I’ve lived in Boulder for 35 years. Used to be we’d get a brief downpour almost every afternoon during the summer months. Those rains kept the fire danger down. Not anymore. Those rains stopped about eight years ago.
Like I said, I try not to think about it in too much detail because the thought of looking out my west-facing window and seeing this headed toward my house
is almost more than I can stand.
Where the Hell is Matt?
This video will make you love the world:
The Deceitful Romney Campaign
This is disgusting:
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.
