cassandra_m
"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm
cassandra_m's Latest Posts
Sunday Open Thread [8.11.13]
Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us” when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May.
But just weeks into their journey, the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile where they are resting in a hotel in the port city of San Antonio.
Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said. The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment.
Late Night Video — How Ed Asner Pissed Off Conservatives
Ed Asner does the voiceover for this very interesting animated short called Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale, created by the California Federation of Teachers to show how teachers (and other public employees) are targeted to deflect away from how rich people are milking the system. This is good stuff — a little simple, […]
Saturday Open Thread [8/10/13]
Yesterday was Starbucks Appreciation Day — but the only people doing the appreciating were gun groups. The Starbucks in Newtown, CT closed early rather than be descended upon by these idiots parading their guns:
Earlier, however, more than two dozen gun rights supporters, some wearing pistols, camouflage or Connecticut Citizens Defense League T-shirts, showed up to show their support. The company said it had no participation in the event. Gun critics also turned out to voice their opposition.
Long after the store shut down around 4:30, people on both sides of the gun divide stayed outside in the heavy rain, the gun supporters standing on the left, many smoking cigarettes, and the gun opponents to the right, holding lighted candles.
“Little do these ignorant people know that we come in here every day for coffee, carrying our weapons,” said Tom Catalina, 64, of Newtown. “Starbucks has always been open about their support of the Second Amendment and our right to carry, whether open or concealed. Guns make people safer.”
QOD — Should the US Boycott the Sochi Olympics?
George Takei has a provocative blog post arguing that It’s Time to Move the Olympics:
It’s been bubbling for some time, but the controversy over Russia’s draconian “gay propaganda” law has now boiled over.Last week, Russia’s Sports Minister confirmed that the country intends to enforce its laws against visiting LGBT athletes, trainers and fans, meaning anyone even so much as waving a rainbow flag (and I presume many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating) would be arrested, held for weeks and then deported.Given this position, the IOC must do the right thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia.
Late Night Video — The Repealicans
Good snark from Nancy Pelosi’s crew on the completely ineffectual House GOP (2:16 mins):
Tuesday Open Thread [8.6.2013]
The School District of Philadelphia is reviewing their options in suing some Wall Street banks for illegally manipulating an index that underlies the derivatives that the District invested in and lost money on. The Philadelphia City Paper is reporting:
The School District took out swaps with Wachovia (purchased by Wells Fargo in 2008), Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. But a lawsuit could name more banks as defendants. Philadelphia’s lawsuit names banks that were direct counterparties and also those that are accused of rigging Libor, including Citi, JPMorgan, RBC, Bank of America, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, RBS and UBS.
Hillary Really Does Scare Them
On Monday, RNC Chair roused himself from their Prime Directive of finding more old white people to vote for his candidates to threaten CNN and NBC with “No Debates For You!” if they go forward with projects for a documentary and for a miniseries about Hillary Clinton’s life. Both are planned for release around the 2014 timeframe. But the RNC is so scared of Hillary that they will threaten to not participate in 2016 Presidential debates on these networks:
Wilmington as the 8th Unfriendliest City in America?
This is the result of one of those Conde Nast Traveler surveys, which asks its readers to rate hotels, resorts, airlines , cruise ships and even cities. There is even a category for Friendliest and Unfriendliest City, and Wilmington made the Unfriendliest City list, ranked at 8
Wilmington, the state’s largest city, didn’t appeal to our survey takers as much as Delaware’s better known beach areas. One reader says he “would rather avoid” the city that is only “necessary to visit on business.” Other readers say Wilmington is a place with “not much charm” that “needs work.”
What do you think about this? The NJ reports on this and got plenty of reaction from locals, mainly of the cheerleading variety.
Late Night Video — The IRS Snipe Hunt of Darrell Issa
This is from the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who have helpfully condensed the snipe hunt masquerading as a Congressional Hearing to it’s salient points (approx 1.5 minutes). As in there *is* no scandal at the White House for this. The scandal is that Issa wasted alot of Government time and money in order to get this bit of arson done in full view of a TV audience:
GOP Bamboozlement on SNAP Benefits
SNAP benefits have been in the news over the past few weeks as Congress tries to pass a Farm Bill. The Senate passed a bill that made some cuts to the SNAP program, while the House separated SNAP from the Farm Bill and proceeded to cut SNAP so that 5 million people would no longer be eligible for food support. The GOP ( including the locals who don’t have much to say other than to repeat the talking points sent to them each day, and the media, unfortunately) are pushing messaging that tries to link the SNAP program with economic recovery. This messaging ignores some key points….
Late Night Video — Joe Scarborough on Ted Cruz’s Train Wreck
Scarborough here seems like he is about ready to break out the Code Duello and call for seconds. This also features Tina Brown, getting in a plug for The Daily Beast *and* a killer diss of Cruz:
When Will the White Community Take Responsibility for Its Culture of Violence?
This is the question central to Chris Hayes’ news (satire) piece yesterday:
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It was inspired by this post in Gawker, called Video of Violent, Rioting Surfers Shows White Culture of Lawlessness:
A frightening and violent mob swept through the normally quiet seaside community of Huntington Beach last night following a surfing competition in the area. Businesses were vandalized and looted, portable toilets overturned, and brutal fistfights waged right out in the open. It was an ugly display and a sad day for California. But more than that, it was a reminder that we must begin to seriously consider the values of our thuggish white youth.
It is worth reading ALL of the comments here, because, seriously, what America needs is to raise the level of outrage over the persistently thuggish behavior of white youth.
Wednesday Open Thread [7.31.13]
The folks over at Wired Magazine took a look at who in Congress voted for and against clipping the wings of the NSA and found that those who voted NO to uphold, received double the amount of campaign money from the defense and aerospace industry than those who voted YES. To remind you, John Carney voted NO to keep the spying operation in your business — and received $9000. Not alot (Buck McKeon holds the record with $526K and he also voted NO), but it is a good reminder of where the interests lie.
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