Help Protect America’s Great Outdoors!

This is pretty cool, if it works. I mean, look! This is totally going to work, especially because Stephen Colbert is plugging it!

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Stephen Colbert knows the importance of clean water, places to camp and hike, and the general avoidance of bears. That’s why he’s asking every American to stand up and make their voice heard for America’s Great Outdoors.

Leaders in Washington are making decisions about the conservation of our land and water NOW. There are only a few days left to tell them what is at stake. Bears can be scary, but our real fear is missing this historic opportunity to protect America’s national treasures.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Americas-Great-Outdoors/145359402165574

And Bring Back Jobs from Overseas...

hahahaha...
Remember what I said yesterday about every day saying the little mantra about life being too short to take seriously?
So, rather than get all P.O.-ed that Boehner and his Republican buddies are leaving out at least one crucial element of the America Speaking Out website survey, I am going to laugh.
hahahahahaha...



Dear Friend:

Thanks to you, Republicans have put forth A Pledge to America, a new governing agenda built by listening to you and focused on addressing your top priorities. As a member of the America Speaking Out community, you made this groundbreaking effort a success.

You told us Washington should be focused on creating jobs, cutting spending, repealing Obamacare, providing for a strong national defense, and reforming Congress. You gave us specific ideas - like a requirement that all legislation should list its constitutional authority. You spoke out, and Republicans were listening. Now, with five detailed policy plans, we've produced a new governing agenda that reflects America’s top priorities - and we’ve already begun to fight to implement it.

There is more you can do to make sure your voice is being heard. Join thousands of others in liking the Pledge to America on Facebook, and follow Republicans as they work to implement the reforms that you voted for. While there, you can read recent news on the Pledge, watch the preamble video, and continue to discuss and debate your priorities with others.

Thank you again for contribution, and keep speaking out - Republicans are listening.

Sincerely,
John Boehner
House Republican Leader

I'ma say this every day.

Life is too important to be taken seriously. -Oscar Wilde

I slept in the same bedroom as Oscar Wilde used to sleep in Halifax, NS, at this sweet B&B for a couple nights once. It was cool.

Got my Sunday paper and my Mystic Monk coffee

First of all, peeps, the Sunday paper made me crazy today. People running around yapping about how Obama wants to take us all over like Big Brother and the gubmint just stomps on our liberties and controls our lives in minute detail... Then these same people, I bet you anything, I mean, practically I would bet my own soul if it were worth betting, that the staff, including the principal at Laramie Junior High School, who say a boy can't wear a wristband saying "I heart boobies" to support breast cancer awareness because the word "boobies" could offend someone... I bet these very same freaked out control freaks who are squandering an opportunity to do what the wristband is intended to do: bring up awareness and discussion of a pretty important and grave topic- are those same complainers about how the gubmint steps all over their rights.

And then these ranchers up in the Meeteetse area who want to keep a bunch of monks and their monastery out... ostensibly concerned about water, wildlife and traffic... I bet they bitch about the gubmint wanting to control them, too. Just like they want to control a few guys who keep to themselves for the most part. WTF, people? Come on, these guys roast coffee. And truly, do they look all that bad to you?

Then, to make the reading of the Sunday paper just about as unrelaxing as it can possibly get: The USA Weekend magazine or whatever it's called that arrives inside the local paper features an article about how brave Jon Stewart is for broadcasting the "fake" news. Argh?

These are strange times indeed. And really screwed up.

"Independent thinkers unite!" says Jason R. Clark.

This is not an endorsement, only a point.

Yesterday I heard Jason R. Clark, who is running for Governor of Colorado, on the radio claiming that 45% of Colorado voters are unaffiliated, yet he, who is running I/UAF, is not being allowed to debate other parties' candidates before the people of Colorado. The media has decided to focus on the two "major" parties at the exclusion of him, and I am imagining, the other candidates who are not Michael Bennet or Ken Buck.

This morning on NPR, the story was exactly that, as though Bennet and Buck are Colorado's only choices in November.

Clark contends that the only way you can hear his message is on his website- or in the ads he can purchase. Meanwhile, it's free airplay for Bennet and Buck. And we bitch about Fox "News" being a political fund raising propaganda machine? What's the huge difference if just one party is given the attention, or just the two "major" parties? If 45% of Coloradans are not Rs or Ds, then the other 55% are made up of a combination of Rs and Ds, and my bet is that not one of those comprises 46% of that 55.

So, what's the point? That there may be other choices out there, besides the run-of-the-mill fat walleted smooth talking sold-out Rs and Ds? Other choices that aren't crackpots so insanely ridiculous that they scare up the rest of the media attention?

YES.

Don't ask, don't tell

This is an easy one to fix, peeps:

Take the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, all by itself, and present it to the House and the Senate. Vote. Bill passes. Those who vote "nay" get fired by the people, with an invitation to go live in another country if they can't abide people of less-than-heterosexual preferences defending them as citizens of this one.

The end of a degrading, disgraceful discriminatory measure.

Vote for me in 2012. I mean, seriously, I make sense, and I'm not a mean-spirited, obstructionist, partisan ass.

Since when have "facts" and "perspectives" been the same thing?

WTH, people? One more example of people thinking they know something, when really they just think it. duh. We are screwed.

Running for Office... or not?

Walking for office. 2012. President. USA. Tony is my campaign manager. I hope. He can sit and not talk for a really long time and suddenly belt out a killer.

Green funerals,,,? Kinda weird

From The Economist, so the FFM may skip this juicy one:

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=17043348&subjectID=348924&fsrc=nwl

Told Ya

To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious. -Samuel Butler

That is a sweet little mantra, right there. I was thinking, just yesterday afternoon, that sometimes it's just as productive to sit and daydream as it is to try to get something else done.

Just to let you all know, if you don't already, Buchanan defended his decision to can Bill Ayers from speaking on the UWYo campus last spring again yesterday, claiming safety as top priority. (Even though afterward he said the guy could come talk on Prexy's if he wanted to, right out in the open without police backup or anything.) ack.

He also said he will not institute a speaker policy on campus, and he is fully backed by the Board of Trustees. Hellz, that's great; keeps things wide open for him to deny someone again in the future, without a piece of paper for dissenters to point to him having signed saying he won't do that kind of thing.

Whatever. Politicians are politicians. Not that there aren't some cool ones out there, like Anthony Pollina and, right here in Wyoming, Chris Rothfuss. And others, too, but I don't have the time or inclination to go looking them up this morning. I mean, the FFM is right, even though he hates the peoples, in general, politicians get into that business for the power and money, not to serve in some civic capacity. God help us all. Oh, shite, sorry about that. I shouldn't talk about God in the context of American government. badbadbad

UWYo President Tom Buchanan to Eat Crow- NOT likely!

Peeps, I heard him on the radio this morning, recorded at the little panel discussion on freedom of expression in academia at the Hilton Garden yesterday (that's the upscale locale to make events look fancier than if they were just held in the Union Ballroom or something on campus.) Now, if you know me, if you know the fiasco that occurred when Bucky shut down the Geological Museum, if you have read this blog in the past or Keep Laramie Dinos or any of Meg Lanker's stuff about that or the Bill Ayer's fiasco that occurred last spring, you know that:

1) Our University President is just another businessman in a college suit (as are so many any more), who talks crap, and

2) I think he is full of shite and have confronted him personally on his heinous acts and have received nothing but his red face staring down at the table in reply (which, frankly, is almost satisfactory.)

So, he was saying, in this excerpt I heard on the radio this morning, that he will speak to the university community this coming Thursday about "lessons learned" from the Bill Ayers shenanigans. And do I believe he will own up to his irresponsible behavior? HELLZ no!

Then, to put the icing on the cake, Meg just posted on a favored social media site, a "Perspective" Buckster the Huckster (I like it; may keep it) wrote for the Casper Star Tribune just over a year ago, during the firestorm of protest over naming the Cheney International Center the Cheney International Center, called "Tolerance, Diversity Cut Many Ways."

(Aside, I find it more than a little disturbing that when I enter that building to visit a health professional here on campus, I am faced with a giant portrait of Dick and Lynn... Really, "Dick Cheney," and "health," whether his own, or that of say, US soldiers, Iraqi civilians, etc., just do not belong together, people.)

Anyway, in this "perspective," Bucky said the following:

"I have no quarrel with people expressing their views to UW. But good universities operate on principle, and the principle here is that tolerance and diversity cut many ways. Whether you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant, gay or straight, white or black, you are welcome at the University of Wyoming. Should we subject potential donors and the purpose of their gift to public referendum? I think not.

"If we do, we lose sight of the fact that our role is to teach, not to indoctrinate. Good universities cannot distance themselves from all that is controversial. To do so would require rejecting mortgage brokers, bankers, pharmaceutical firms, sports figures, fast food chains, political leaders, historical figures, energy companies, uncommon religious groups, and Middle Eastern countries to name just a few."

Hahahahahahaha.

I am sorry, but you did not welcome Mr. Ayers to campus, did you? DID YOU?

As the Cloud Lurker would say, and has more than once when either Tommy Boy or Dick is mentioned, ew.

Obama's "Kenyan, anti-colonial' worldview, or 'Eye-of-Newt Gingrich is Senseless'

Dude, I am sorry, but what does this even mean? Especially coming from someone who has absolutely no notion what it is like to live like a regular old American. For Chrissake, the last time most of us Americans were colonialists, we weren't yet Americans, you dumbshite.

Gingrich: Obama’s ‘Kenyan, anti-colonial’ worldview

September 11, 2010 10:52 P.M.

By Robert Costa

Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D’Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that President Obama may follow a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” worldview.

Gingrich says that D’Souza has made a “stunning insight” into Obama’s behavior — the “most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama.”

“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?” Gingrich asks. “That is the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior.”

“This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works, who happened to have played a wonderful con, as a result of which he is now president,” Gingrich tells us.

“I think he worked very hard at being a person who is normal, reasonable, moderate, bipartisan, transparent, accommodating — none of which was true,” Gingrich continues. “In the Alinksy tradition, he was being the person he needed to be in order to achieve the position he needed to achieve . . . He was authentically dishonest.”

“[Obama] is in the great tradition of Edison, Ford, the Wright Brothers, Bill Gates — he saw his opportunity and he took it,” Gingrich says. Will Gingrich take it back in 2012? “The American people may take it back, in which case I may or may not be the recipient of that, but I have zero doubt that the American people will take it back. Unlike Ford, the Wright Brothers, et cetera, this guy’s invention did not work.”

“I think Obama gets up every morning with a worldview that is fundamentally wrong about reality,” Gingrich says. “If you look at the continuous denial of reality, there has got to be a point where someone stands up and says that this is just factually insane.”

Gingrich spoke with NRO after the premiere of his new film, America at Risk.

I think it's time to LEAVE.

I think I've used that precious line from Tammy's (Friend for Live) and my undergrad latenight party-going days before on here, but dag, it's appropriate.

I mean, seriously, some people in Afghanistan complained that the authoritays in the US did not arrest the jackass pastor who invented that despicable plan to burn Qur'ans tomorrow? All the while burning American flags? Really? I don't remember when burning a book became a criminal act in this democratic republic. (Go to town with the Terry Jones effigy, though, without danger of arrest. Burning stuff and protesting aren't against the law here as long as no one gets hurt; it's probably that way in Afghanistan, too, right?)

And calling for President Obama's death? Really? Those people would fit right in here with our culture of "blame some other guy." Seriously.

And finally, we are not all the jackass pastor (who still should be ashamed, even though he bagged his plan), other people in the world. What the hellz? So, if we Americans are all jackass pastor-types who want to engage in acts of hatred, does that make you all terrorists?

Come on, people. yeesh

Only rich people vote.

Serious. I can't just sit around and not yap about the ridiculous political crap people say. I mean, I could, but I might have a coronary just as quickly as if I keep howling. Somebody yesterday on the radio, or maybe the day before and I held onto it that long, said that representatives in some rich districts that voted for Obama would like to remind him that if he repeals the Bush tax cuts on schedule, their seats will be at stake.

Really. Tough shite. What? Do you think the rest of us don't vote, too?

But that's my only comment for today, except look at this sweet Ukrainian street art from Kiev, by Aec, from Fatcap's Worldwide Graffiti Blog.
http://www.fatcap.com/graffiti/59845-aec-waone-kiev.html

You know you know one of these dancers.

Today's blip courtesy Dennis, who lives Scientific American.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39049000/ns/health-behavior/

How will we be burned alive?

http://www.theonion.com/video/christian-groups-biblical-armageddon-must-be-taugh,17491/

Man, those are some pretty sweet dioramas, and the fact the kids get to act out killer scenarios right in the classroom? Yes, exciting!

Thanks, Birgit

Birthday Girl

So, last night we were sitting around while Tom opened his birthday presents, and Patty asked what day I was born, like which day of the week. She knew her day. I did not. I thought maybe it was Sunday, that I'd heard that once, so I checked online, and sho 'nuff. I found this site that told me not only what day of the week I was born, but all sorts of other interesting stuff about my birthday.

Like my number path, which is 6 and which notes that generally there are no negative aspects to that path, but that there could be a tendency to expect too much from others and be really hard on myself.

Having been reminded, once again, of this tendency, and having engaged in a political discussion this morning that became borderline less-than-cordial, with an old friend, I realized I have to just stop: stop expecting people to be rational, forgiving and most of all, responsible.

So I might have to turn this blog into a venue for other thoughts, like maybe my daydreams of colored fishes, instead of the political fodder that generally appears here. Because, peeps, things just ain't gonna change out there, and I need to remember that my social libertarian philosophy is not a feasible one in the real world. People want want want to get get get, but give the same to someone else? Fuggidaboudit.

Anthony Pollina shows it can be done!

OK, peeps, I have a lot I would like to write about, but I am definitely cramped for time right now, so here is some good news, and more later.

Hi Folks-
Primary results last week were great! Which means lots of work ahead!
We came in a very strong second out of 5 candidates, close behind the incumbent and well ahead of the other challengers.
I want to thank all of you who contributed, voted, called, signed, honked and waved, and otherwise supported our campaign. But, I also need to tell you about the work ahead and how important this race is.
We are in an increasingly important position. Our race is now the best opportunity Progressives and Democrats have to replace a Republican in the State Senate!
Sounds great. But it is also the only seat Republicans are likely to lose. They don’t want it to happen. With many saying we are the front-runner, Republicans will fight hard and throw lots of money at the race to defeat us.
Let’s face it, those who want to re-license Entergy Nuclear, turn back our progress on civil rights, and continue the failed Dubie-Douglas economic policies simply do not want Anthony Pollina in the State Senate.
With your help we succeeded in the primary. We need your help again. If you live nearby, let us know how you can help: put up a sign, write a letter, join us for a honk and wave, and more.
No matter where you live, please make a contribution now to be sure we have the resources we need to win.
Thanks very much.
Anthony