ALEC in Arizona

Phoenix protesters pepper-sprayed at Westin Kierland Resort "...Some 900 predominantly Republican lawmakers from around the country are taking part in the three-day ALEC conference, which is sponsored by ExxonMobil, AT&T, SRP, Altria, Novartis, Aetna and Freeport-McMoran, among other corporations. Lawmakers were aware of the protests but dismissed the protesters' concerns of undue influence. "They presume that my vote can be bought, and it can't," said Amanda Grosserode, a Republican lawmaker from Lenexa, Kans. Robin Vos, a Wisconsin Republican legislator, said, "there are no examples in Wisconsin of corporations having undue influence." At at much more subdued gathering at the state Capitol on Wednesday morning, a group of about 40 professionals and activist leaders spoke about how legislation that has come out of ALEC affects Arizonans. Former Arizona Democratic legislative leader John Loredo said the groups are focused on "exposing the corporate influence of ALEC." "ALEC is the mechanism companies use to control public policy," Loredo said. "This is policy designed to enrich the richest corporations in the country at the expense of the middle class and the voters." He and other speakers mentioned Arizona's Senate Bill 1070 immigration law, laws supporting the use of private prisons, efforts to curb union activities and laws that privatize education. "Long ago, ALEC's corporate members figured out they could make big bucks by locking people up," said Caroline Isaacs, program director for the Arizona branch of the Quaker-based social justice group American Friends Service Committee. "Immigrant detention is the new growth industry.""

I'm sorry, any rebpuli-con legislator who says their vote cannot be bought by ALEC would not be attending the ALEC conference!

From a friend who was at the protest this morning... "The irony of it all was that here we had this overabundance of police in riot gear poised to pounce on the protesters protesting ALEC. While inside the Westin, ALEC was writing legislation to privatize every function of government. Which legislators throughout the country would bring back to their state legislatures...legislation that would potentially destroy the jobs of these same publicly employed policemen and decimate their pensions!" - Fred B.

The Ethics-barren Republican Party

As funny and entertaining as this Republican Primary season has been so far, it's now become disgusting. How any person with common sense can identify with this political party is totally beyond me.

Mitt Romney is the most consistent GOP candidate. He is a consistent flip-flopper:

"....The ideological hoops you have to jump through these days in order to be considered a true conservative have become too numerous to count. First, George W. Bush was excommunicated from conservatism, and even called a "liberal" by some. Then it spread to Congress and the Senate. Now you're not a "true" conservative unless you want to roll back eighty years of government, replace the Constitution with the Ten Commandments and fire illegal immigrants out of a cannon into an electrified alligator-filled lake of molten sulfur...."

source

Thanksgiving Bits and Pieces

Customer reviews of pepper spray on Amazon

Here is the broadcast schedule of the Republican Presidential debates, in case you didn't want to miss any episodes of this very entertaining TV series.

Here are some talking points about OWS that you can use when "discussing" it over Thanksgiving dinner with the family conservatives.

Just a Diluted Food Product

The Silent Protest

If you heard about the Davis police's pepper-spray abuse of UC Davis students this weekend, then this video will speak volumes to you:

Bits & Pieces

Don't discredit the recent faster-than-the-speed-of-light research quite yet.
Scientists develop incredibly strong material that is 1,000 times lighter than styrofoam.

Huh. Apparently Arizona is headed back to our universe. UPDATE: Not apparently but definitely!
An inspiring product of modern medicine.
Mayor Bloomberg inadvertently gives Occupy Wall Street a huge lift.
GOP candidates push for more war and torture.

Lure of the Fryer

William Shatner's Thanksgiving safety message:

A Special Tribute to NYC Mayor Bloomberg

Earth in time-lapse from ISS:


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

WMD: Iraq --------------> Iran

As the warmongering right-wing elitists in the U.S. once again ramp up false charges against Iran regarding nuclear weapons, everyone needs to remind themselves about the last time this happened:

An 86-year-old's first (and very interesting) post.
How Bill Clinton would fix our economy.

There is no green dot

Stare at the plus sign:

The music is pretty wimpy, but the stop motion animation was made in 22 months, 1,357 hours by 30 people with 2 ladders, 1 still camera & 288,000 jelly beans!

The only options left for helping the Greek economy are: bad and really bad. Here's Greece's latest move.
Chick-Fil-A is anti-gay.
Why Bank of America (and any other mega-financial institution like it) is so blatantly awful. Move your checking/savings accounts to a credit union... it's a no-brainer.