Cat Squirrel Spider

A few random photos from October. I'm hoping we have a bit of warming before we head into the long orb season ahead.
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Early voting in Franklin County

I'm going to try and get out for lunch to vote early in Franklin County. Usually I vote on election day at a church on Main Street, but I want to see what the early-voting scene is like.

I fear B.G. and I may be back to living in a Red State...




I got there about 12:20. Approximately 20 voters were in the registration room, few enough so there was no waiting...one just filled out the absentee ballot request card, turned it in to one of the workers, and then followed him or her into the voting machine room.

I left about 12:40, by then the voting crowd numbered about 40, and there was a line to come into registration.
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Orb from last week

Here's an orb from last week. This orb is quite agitated, as shown by its bright red color. It's not safe to approach them in this state unless one is a trained orbitologist.


From Nonny over at the House of Substance, a link to 100 Orbs of Light in the Schuylkill River.

Thanks, Nonny!

Update: A couple more pictures.


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Fred Hiatt and Marcus Brauchli made a bet

Fred Hiatt and Marcus Brauchli made a bet. "You've had Dick Cheney write an op-ed defending torture. You've hired torture apologist Marc Thiessen. Fred, you can't make the Washington Post editorial page any suckier", said Brauchli.

FRED WINS!




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Some October pics, part ii

It took a bit more than a minute (or seven), but here they are.





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Some October pics

As always, click the pic to biggie-size it.






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Fully Loaded

At the once well-respected L.A. Times, Jonah dumps a load:

The irony is that there's not that much ideological opposition to worthwhile public works projects. There's some, but most objections are much more consistent with the old-fashioned country-club-style fiscal conservatism everyone claims to miss. The white elephants are just too expensive to build, and they often seem to be aimed at disguising wealth distribution, either to favored unions or to favored donors.

1) Statement
2) ???
3) Self-refutation!

Anywho, the real smelly is here:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush's allegedly tardy response was seen as proof that conservatism itself was inadequate to the demands of responsible government. But it wasn't conservatism that had some volunteer firefighters out of commission because they were in Atlanta for sexual harassment training and video tutorials about how great FEMA is.

It wasn't the lack of some volunteer firefighters that finally tore the rotting bottom out of the Bush Administration, you festering pustule of nepotism.

On the record Brown refused to identify Karl Rove as the mastermind behind the Republican response. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco was less reticent. "This is exactly what we were living but could not bring ourselves to believe. Karl Rove was playing politics while our people were dying. The federal effort was delayed, and now the public knows why. It's disgusting."

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The beer testing will continue

until morale improves.


I've read that a rose is a rose is a rose. But I could have sworn I heard this one chanting "Exterminate! Exterminate!" as I took its picture.


The Ohio Buckeyes lost last night. This one doesn't seem to mind.

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You Listen, Timmeh!

My Senator


October 14, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC— U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Mark Begich (D-AK) today sent a letter to Obama Administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, urging action following recent news reports of widespread improprieties and mistakes in the foreclosure processes employed by mortgage servicers.

“There have been attempts to dismiss the reported violations as minor technical paperwork errors, and to employ the defense that these were harmless errors because the homeowners were in foreclosure and would have lost their houses anyway. These are not technicalities, they are not isolated cases – it is likely that over 200,000 foreclosures have now been suspended – and these improprieties cast doubt on the foreclosures in question,” the senators wrote.

“The systemic problems that are being uncovered in the current mortgage market are remarkably similar to the predatory practices employed during the subprime mortgage crisis,” the senators continued. “Your agencies have tools at your disposal to address the substantial challenges facing homeowners in the mortgage market, and you are able to respond more nimbly than Congress to this emerging crisis. The ample record of homeowner abuse should compel you to act expeditiously in the best interest of homeowners and investors.”

Time for jail terms.
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Weekend Pictures

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Did you know there was a U.N. report about the Mavi Marmara?

I wouldn't know, if I only got my news from U.S. newspapers and television stations. This is why I have Scott Horton on my blog roll.

News That’s Unfit to Print: UN Report on the Flotilla Deaths

By Scott Horton

This report has been widely circulated and discussed among international law experts who trade notes about its interpretation of the San Remo Manual and the various theories advanced by Israel to advance its blockade, and it has gotten intense attention in the press in Europe and in Turkey. But it has drawn remarkably little attention from the press in the United States. Even the New York Times, whose editorial pages previously included dueling columns about the significance of Doğan’s death and the flotilla incident, has not even mentioned the report’s existence, notwithstanding the fact that it deals with the death of an American citizen. Why might that be?

The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution. Furkan Doğan and İbrahim Bilgen were shot at near range while the victims were lying injured on the top deck. Cevdet Kiliçlar, Cengiz Akyüz, Cengiz Songür and Çetin Topçuoğlu were shot on the bridge deck while not participating in activities that represented a threat to any Israeli soldier. In these instances and possibly other killings on the Mavi Marmara, Israeli forces carried out extra- legal, arbitrary and summary executions prohibited by international human rights law, specifically article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

P.S. Via Glenn Greenwald, I see the Washington Post's Column Lynch wrote about the report. Needless to say, Lynch's article is full of U.S. and Israeli attacks on the report's authors.

P.P.S. Just as I'd like everyone to read about this report, I'd like everyone (or every person who lives in this country) to watch this video:


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I'm Not A Witch

OH REALLY? We'll be the judge of that!




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Where in the World?

I'll get around to identifying these eventually.







Hints!



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