“From the Dept. of Clueless, RNC chair says GOP problems with women are contrived by media.”
– David Axelrod, Senior Advisor to President Obama, responding to Preibus’ comment on Twitter.
First Quote of the Day
“Well, for one thing, if the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars, and mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we have problems with caterpillars. The fact of the matter is it’s a fiction and this started a war against the Vatican that this president pursued. He still hasn’t answered Archbishop Dolan’s issues with Obama world and Obamacare, so I think that’s the first issue.”
– Reince Preibus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, in response to a question from Al Hunt if the GOP is waging a war on women, as the Democratic National Committee has alleged.
Filed under News
Pictures of the Day
Cleanup continues in the Dallas / Fort Worth area after Monday’s storms. Officially, the National Weather Service confirms 13 tornadoes touched down. I’m still amazed that no one was killed, considering that DFW has a population of nearly 5 million. Here are more photos from the storms’ aftermath.
Filed under News
Praise the Lord and Tithe Your Soul!
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), which has some 18,000 affiliates and claims to broadcast on every continent except Antarctica, has come under scrutiny for alleged embezzlement and sexual harassment claims by some of its former employees. Founded by Paul Crouch, his wife Janice and – believe it or not – Jim and Tammy Faye Baker in the 1970’s, the California-based entity preaches a so-called “prosperity gospel,” which promises material rewards to those who give generously. It’s obvious from the lavish lifestyles TBN executives lead that the prosperity part is purely subjective. It’s amazing how people keep falling for these goons. Like the Roman Catholic Church, Christian evangelicals always screw people out of their hard-earned money; that is, people who can least afford to get screwed.
Proverbs 28:6 “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse.”
I mean, who needs a pedophile priest looking out for your kids when you have this bitch!
Filed under Curiosities
April 4, 2012 – 260 days Until Baktun 12
Survivalist Tip: The tornadoes that struck the Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area remind me of the importance of creating a tornado survival kit, which is akin to a hurricane survival kit. Consider that the indigenous peoples of North America have lived with these types of weather phenomenon for thousands of years and you’ll realize how important it is to be prepared for such a disaster. This is especially important, since there’s a good likelihood the Earth’s axes will shift dramatically, which in turn, could generate plenty of tornadic winds. The Mayans and other Indigenous Americans respected the power of these storms and never tried to control them like Europeans did. That explains why so many of the first European-Americans got their asses wiped out by a tornado because they thought it was just a funny-looking cloud. And, since they’d killed so many Indians, there was usually no one around to say, ‘Hey! Don’t be a dumb ass! Get inside your log cabin!’
Below is a basic checklist for any decent tornado survival kit. This may vary on whether or not you’ll be in your home when the apocalypse hits.
Purchase or find the following items:
- a generator
- a firearm
- a permanent marker, to print ‘This house insured by Smith & Wesson’ on the outside of your home
- a small radio, preferably self-powered
- a flashlight, preferably self-powered
- a medium sized pack of batteries
- canned food or power bars
- plastic bags
- duct tape
- bicycle or football-type helmets
- rain gear
- rope (mainly to tie down any hysterical member of your crew)
- a hand-powered can opener
- a few small plastic dishes and silverware
- blankets, preferably those made by people like the Navajo or Cherokee
- a phone
- bottles of water
- a first aid kit
- money (preferably small bills)
- a car charger for your cell phone
- any and all prescription medicines, mainly for the hypochondriac in your group
- spare sets of keys to your vehicle and home
- extra changes of clothing for each person in your posse
- any special food or medicine for children
- any special food or medicine for pets
- chocolate
I’ve mentioned most of these items before as necessary in your overall cache of survival gear, but it’s important to emphasize their significance. And, don’t be a dumb ass when you see a tornado! RUN!
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
Senators Seek to Extinguish Navajo and Hopi Water Rights
Little Colorado River
U.S. Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain, both Republicans representing Arizona, will visit Tuba City on Thursday, April 5, 2012, to persuade leaders of the Navajo and Hopi Nations to give up their aboriginal and treaty-guaranteed priority Water Rights by accepting a “Settlement Agreement” written to benefit some of the West’s most powerful mining and energy corporations.
Kyl and McCain introduced Senate Bill 2109 – the “Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2012” – on February 14, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the state’s admission to the union. The bill is on a fast track to give Arizona corporations and water interests a “100th birthday present” that will close the door forever on Navajo and Hopi food and water sovereignty, security and self-reliance. In the House of Representatives, the bill is under H.R. 4067 and is sponsored by Rep. Ben Quayle.
S.2109 asks the Navajo and Hopi to waive their priority Water Rights to the surface waters of the Little Colorado River “from time immemorial and thereafter, forever” in return for the promise of undetermined federal appropriations to supply minimal amounts of drinking water to a handful of reservation communities.
The Bill (and the “Settlement Agreement” it ratifies) do not quantify Navajo and Hopi water rights – the foundation of all other southwestern Indian Water Rights settlements to date; thereby denying the Tribes the economic market value of their water rights, and forcing them into perpetual dependence on uncertain federal funding for any water projects.
S.2109 could thwart any irrigated agriculture and water conservation projects to heal and restore Navajo and Hopi watersheds (keeping sediment from filling downstream reservoirs); to produce valuable livestock and crops for the Navajo and the Hopi, as well as their external markets; and to provide healthy food and active lifestyles for all future generations of Navajo and Hopi children. This is counter to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1908 “Winter’s Doctrine,” which explicitly reserves and safeguards the water needed for the permanent well-being and prosperity of the Navajo and Hopi.
Kyl and McCain demand that the Navajo and Hopi people relinquish all rights to the quality of surface and ground water supplies and to legal protection from any injuries incurred as a result of damage to those water supplies in the past, present and future. In other words, if anyone in those communities gets sick from, say, lead-contaminated water, they can’t sue the State of Arizona or the federal government for damages because they gave up that right by agreeing to the bill. Yet, the Navajo and Hopi really don’t know the full extent and nature of the rights they are being pressured to waive because the details of the “Settlement Agreement” are not being shared with the public.
Navajo and Hopi water and public health have already been damaged severely by past uranium and coal mining in and around their communities. Kyl and McCain now want to strip any remaining and rightful legal protections against the present and real dangers of such future contaminations.
S.2109 and the “Settlement Agreement” require the Navajo and Hopi to give Peabody Coal Mining Company and the Salt River Project and other owners of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) tens of thousands of acre-feet of Navajo and Hopi water annually, albeit without any compensation. It also will force the extension of Peabody and NGS leases without Navajo and Hopi community input, or regard for past and continuing harmful impacts to public health, water supplies and water quality – as necessary pre-conditions to Navajo and Hopi receiving Congressional appropriations for minimal domestic water development.
Kyl and McCain are behaving like this 1912, instead of 2012 where Native Americans have civil rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. But, considering the mantra of hate the GOP has acquired in recent years, this should come as no surprise to most of us. Still, using the power of the U.S. Senate to engage in near-terroristic threats to any group is amoral and un-American. It’s appalling that this crap is occurring even now.
I’ve started a petition on Change.org to have this bill removed from consideration in the U.S. Senate: http://www.change.org/petitions/u-s-senate-remove-s-2109-from-consideration.
Thanks to fellow writer and blogger K.B. Schaller for alerting me to this.
Filed under News
Today’s Notable Birthdays
If your birthday is today also, “Happy Birthday!”
Actress Elizabeth Wilson (The Boys Next Door, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Graduate) is 91.
Author Maya Angelou is 84.
Author Kitty Kelley is 70.
Actor Craig T. Nelson (Coach, Silkwood, Poltergeist, The Killing Fields) is 68.
Actress Christine Lahti (Swing Shift, Crazy from the Heart, The Doctor) is 62.
Singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 61.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. (Ally McBeal, Richard III, Natural Born Killers) is 47.
Actress Nancy McKeon (The Facts of Life, The Wrong Woman, Teresa’s Tattoo) is 46.
Filed under Birthdays
On April 4…
1841 – President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia after serving only 32 days in office, the shortest tenure of any U.S. President. Harrison was the first Chief Executive to die in office.
1887 – Susanna M. Salter became the first woman mayor in the U.S., elected by the people of Argonia, KS. Salter won by a two-thirds majority, but didn’t even know she was in the running until she entered the voting booth. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union had submitted her name.
1914 – The first known serialized moving picture, The Perils of Pauline, opened in New York City.
1949 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established by 12 Western nations.
1960 – At the 32nd Annual Academy Awards, Ben-Hur took 11 Oscars, breaking the 20-year record of 10 held by Gone with the Wind.
1964 – The Beatles set a record by having all 5 of the top songs on Billboard magazine’s “Top 100” chart:
1) Can’t Buy Me Love
2) Twist and Shout
3) She Loves You
4) I Want to Hold Your Hand
5) Please Please Me
1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated while standing on a balcony outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.
1981 – Henry Cisneros became the first elected Hispanic mayor of a major U.S. city, San Antonio.
Filed under History
Quote of the Day
“If I were the father of such a monster, I would shut my mouth in shame.”
– French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, in response to a decision by the father of Toulouse gunman Mohammed Merah to sue the French police over his son’s death last month. Merah fatally shot 3 students and a rabbi at a Jewish school, before killing 3 French paratroopers.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé
Filed under News
