I'm not a big fan of country music, but after seeing this, I'm definitely a new Josh Turner fan:



I'd kill for a voice like that.

Here's some Friday FUN:

Listen to this Lyrebird mimic construction sounds.

- Film of the streets of San Francisco four days before the 1906 earthquake.

- Live satellite images of Earth

- Near the end of this magic performance, watch as this guy passes his arm through a glass table.

- Take the FCC's test of your internet connection speed.

TODAY"S REPUBLICAN PARTY

I think this op-ed by Mr. Herbert sums up today's G.O.P. quite nicely:

March 23, 2010 An Absence of Class By BOB HERBERT Some of the images from the run-up to Sunday’s landmark health care vote in the House of Representatives should be seared into the nation’s consciousness. We are so far, in so many ways, from being a class act. A group of lowlifes at a Tea Party rally in Columbus, Ohio, last week taunted and humiliated a man who was sitting on the ground with a sign that said he had Parkinson’s disease. The disgusting behavior was captured on a widely circulated videotape. One of the Tea Party protesters leaned over the man and sneered: “If you’re looking for a handout, you’re in the wrong end of town.” Another threw money at the man, first one bill and then another, and said contemptuously, “I’ll pay for this guy. Here you go. Start a pot.” In Washington on Saturday, opponents of the health care legislation spit on a black congressman and shouted racial slurs at two others, including John Lewis, one of the great heroes of the civil rights movement. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was taunted because he is gay. At some point, we have to decide as a country that we just can’t have this: We can’t allow ourselves to remain silent as foaming-at-the-mouth protesters scream the vilest of epithets at members of Congress — epithets that The Times will not allow me to repeat here. It is 2010, which means it is way past time for decent Americans to rise up against this kind of garbage, to fight it aggressively wherever it appears. And it is time for every American of good will to hold the Republican Party accountable for its role in tolerating, shielding and encouraging foul, mean-spirited and bigoted behavior in its ranks and among its strongest supporters. For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich. This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry. Glenn Beck of Fox News has called President Obama a “racist” and asserted that he “has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential candidate, has said of Mr. Obama’s economic policies: “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff.” The G.O.P. poisons the political atmosphere and then has the gall to complain about an absence of bipartisanship. The toxic clouds that are the inevitable result of the fear and the bitter conflicts so relentlessly stoked by the Republican Party — think blacks against whites, gays versus straights, and a whole range of folks against immigrants — tend to obscure the tremendous damage that the party’s policies have inflicted on the country. If people are arguing over immigrants or abortion or whether gays should be allowed to marry, they’re not calling the G.O.P. to account for (to take just one example) the horribly destructive policy of cutting taxes while the nation was fighting two wars. If you’re all fired up about Republican-inspired tales of Democrats planning to send grandma to some death chamber, you’ll never get to the G.O.P.’s war against the right of ordinary workers to organize and negotiate in their own best interests — a war that has diminished living standards for working people for decades. With a freer hand, the Republicans would have done more damage. George W. Bush tried to undermine Social Security. John McCain was willing to put Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Oval Office and thought Phil Gramm would have made a crackerjack Treasury secretary. (For those who may not remember, Mr. Gramm was a deregulation zealot who told us during the presidential campaign that we were suffering from a “mental recession.”) A party that promotes ignorance (“Just say no to global warming”) and provides a safe house for bigotry cannot serve the best interests of our country. Back in the 1960s, John Lewis risked his life and endured savage beatings to secure fundamental rights for black Americans while right-wing Republicans like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan were lining up with segregationist Democrats to oppose landmark civil rights legislation. Since then, the right-wingers have taken over the G.O.P. and Mr. Lewis, now a congressman, must still endure the garbage they have wrought.

I wonder if you can use this on toddlers too:

Watch Chris Matthews make a total jerk of himself while simultaneously and disrespectfully deriding a Congressman (starts at the 3:47 mark):

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Chris Matthews tries to look like he knows and understands facts more than he actually does. I stopped watching his show years ago.

Remember Congressman Tim Ryan's rant against Bush from October 2004? Well, he's still at it:


h/t: Americablog

Ten immediate benefits of HCR

Here are ten benefits which come online within six months of the President's signature on the health care bill: 1. Adult children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until their 27th birthday 2. Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions 3. No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage 4. Free preventative care for all 5. Adults with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool until the exchanges come online. While these will not be cheap, they’re still better than total exclusion and get some benefit from a wider pool of insureds. 6. Small businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which could be as much as 50% of what they pay for employees’ health insurance. 7. The “donut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription medications more affordable for seniors. 8. Requirement that all insurers must post their balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments. 9. Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay. 10. AND no more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can't lose your insurance because you get sick.

Source

BITS

Most people will sign anything.

Wal-Mart strikes again. Will always be disappointed, but will never be surprised, at Wal-Mart's mistreatment of its employees. I have NEVER purchased anything from this nefarious company, and I never will.

From DNC Chair Gov. Tim Kaine:

"Here are some of the key elements of the President's reform proposal:  • It will strengthen the coverage you get at work by reining in the worst insurance company abuses. • It will provide tens of billions of dollars in new tax credits to small businesses to make it easier for them to provide coverage if they choose to do so. • Many Americans buying their own coverage in the individual market will qualify for tax credits that reduce their premiums by an average of nearly 60 percent – and they will get better coverage than what they have today. • If you are on Medicare, you will have benefits you don’t have today: Preventive services like cancer screenings at no cost, and a substantial reduction in prescription drug prices if you fall into that gap in coverage known as the “donut hole.” Over time the proposal closes this coverage gap completely. • If you don't have insurance, you may be eligible for a tax credit to help pay for your coverage – part of the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history. • Insurance companies will be required to offer coverage regardless of your health status or because of pre-existing conditions, and they cannot boost rates or drop you from your coverage when you get sick. • If you are a parent, you can keep your children on your insurance plan until the age of 27 (the current limit is age 21)."

This is what the Republicans hate. Anything that will result in better lives for average Americans is bad for average Americans, according to the No! party.

California Republicans make some of the weirdest campaign videos. This one by Carly Fiorina, who is running against incumbent Barbara Boxer for U.S. Senate, is quite entertaining with the Boxerhead blimp and all, but still carries all the traditional Republican campaign lies. With all her money you'd think she could afford a decent PR firm, unless she thinks these campaign videos are actually going to help.


And why does Carly insist on looking like a lesbian? Does she think California Republicans have stopped being prejudiced hypocrites? She could gain a lot more support of her party if she stopped using words with more than two syllables and looked more like Sarah Palin.

Bits and Pieces for the Week of March 7 - 13

New colonialism in Africa. "Water, says the UN, will be the defining resource of the next 100 years." (7 of 6)

This fan knows how to enjoy halftime. (Mike)

More from Maricopa County corruption news: "...the chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court appointed an investigator to look into allegations that [County Attorney Andrew] Thomas engaged in unethical behavior in his prosecution of county officials." This man is another Sheriff Joe's stool pigeon. "Last week, The Arizona Republic learned that Thomas was being investigated by the FBI for potential abuses of power." (7 of 6)

This is the most screwed up state in the Nation! Arizona HB2632/SB1070, the bills would: Requires law enforcement to investigate someone’s immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion they are undocumented: Requires law enforcement the authority to arrest someone if they have probable cause to believe someone is undocumented: Criminalizes transporting, harboring or shielding anyone if the person knows or disregards the fact that they are undocumented: Allows law enforcement to use a ruse to entrap a business owner into hiring undocumented immigrants and gives county attorneys subpoena power. (7 of 6)

CA State Senator Roy Ashburn admits he's gay. "His sexual orientation is at issue because Ashburn has one of the staunchest records of voting against bills that would expand rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Californians." Slightly better than Larry Craig? (7 of 6)

Of all the Oscar winners last night, I'm particularly satisfied that Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor. His performance in an otherwise dreadful film was thoroughly entertaining.

This week the Republican/Tea Party/Fox News talking point is Obama "ramming health care changes down the throats of Americans". Here are some other recent things rammed down our throats:

As for ramming things down people's throats, here is what the Republicans rammed down our throats during Cheney-Bush: 1. War on Iraq, costing over 4,000 American service lives, 31,000 wounded bad enough to go to hospital, many of them maimed for life, and costing over our lifetimes $3 trillion (which we don't have). All based on outright lies. 2. Torture. 3. Warrantless wiretaps. 4. 'Protest zones' and arbitrary arrest of people peacefully assembled. 5. Further gutting of financial regulation, pushing the country's economy off a cliff 6. Deep tax cuts for the superwealthy and de facto tax increases for the middle classes, passed by reconciliation 7. Unfunded programs, including wars, tax cuts and medicare changes, that created most of the current budget deficit and much of our current public debt, much of it passed by reconciliaton. 8. Virtual abandonment of our troops in Afghanistan for a concentration on Iraq, and slacking off on capturing the top al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. 9. The gutting of environmental regulation and the surrender of the public to corporate polluters. 10. Bush's 'victory' itself in 2000. So suck it up, GOP. You really screwed us all over and messed up the country big time. All we want to do is have people's children be able to see a doctor without it bankrupting the family. That's your big complaint?

Middle East expert Juan Cole is optimistic about the Iraqi elections and American troop withdrawal:

"....It seems to me extremely unlikely that the post-election scene will be so violent or unstable as to call for a revision of the current timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq, to which President Obama has committed the US government. Iraq has actually seen much worse violence in recent months than anything it has experienced in the run-up to this election, though it is true that civilian casualties spiked in February. Iraqi authorities have repeatedly said proudly that the Iraqi military and other security forces are capable of keeping basic peace now, and they are in charge of security for the voting stations this time, not the US military. I do not believe the Iraqi parliament that is about to be elected will put up with any foot-dragging on troop withdrawals by the US,and I think the US military officers who speak of slowing down the withdrawal are doing so to discourage radical guerrillas from making trouble during the elections (warning them that attacks will backfire by making it harder to get rid of the Americans)...."

We've beaten Iraq to a pulp, so the sooner we get (our soldiers) out of there the better for all.

Popular Science has put its entire archive of magazines online for free. Enter a search term here and you'll get the entire issue with the article. Example: click HERE for an early article on television, when only about 10,000 people had them, and go to page 66.

Chilean earthquake last week shortened the length of our day.

This is quite the engineering feat:


Details HERE.

FINALLY!