Letters from Mad Plato

RICK SANTORUM

2012-02-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

SANCTIMONIOUS RICK SANTORUM BELIEVES Americans might soon be decapitated by Barack Obama!

Is the guillotine still being used in Kenya?

I don’t know, but hold on to your hats and heads, because Ricky the Righteous Santorum is warning us that we all might lose our heads if President Obama stays as OUR Head of State.

However, it is Mr. Santorum who seems to have lost his head AND brain.

Lawyers.

Some are good, some are bad, and some are very stupid.

The brain is a precious thing to waste on demagoguery and righteous (and pious…thank you Newt GINGRICH) bologna!

Ron Paul is looking better and better all the time.

Unfortunately, Mr. Paul does not reside inside the big belly of the religious right or the righteous rich.

The GOP’s presidential candidates are looking more and more like a house of monkeys.

What’s Jeb Bush doing?

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

SOME HOLY WRIT OF MORMON MITT

2012-02-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

"He'd buy companies. He'd close companies. He'd get rid of jobs,"

Donald Trump told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley.

***

People are also corporations.

Attorneys decide whether to have wars

(Forget the U.S. Constitution?).

Only men and women should marry.

Marijuana shouldn’t be legal.

The very poor have a safety net.

Churches and mosques should be wiretapped.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

NEWT GINGRICH

2012-01-28T07:25:00.000-08:00

"Gingrich is a virtual supernova of megalomaniacal madness."

From

Lunar Colonies, Lunacy and Losses

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Published: January 27, 2012

***

NEWT GINGRICH
By M.L. Squier

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
WITH BIG HEAD!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
HYPOCRITE!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
ARROGANT MAN!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
FRANKLY HUMAN!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
WITH TINNY VOICE!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
POWER HUNGRY!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
OLDER POT HEAD!

NEWT THE CUTE
RACIST
WIZENED OLD COOT!

NEWT THE DUDE
WHO WANTS
TO COLONIZE THE MOON!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

CORRALING THE CAUCUS EX POST FACTO

2011-12-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Teary-eyed John Boehner.

Serpentine-eyed Eric Cantor.

Vacation time for U.S. House members.

Millions of Americans were almost occupied again.

The pestilent priorities of politics almost prevailed again over principles.

Occupy Wall Street might soon have become Occupy America.

But the gestapo-like guardians of a quondam, dying Democracy (quasi-police state) are still capable and ready with their pepper spray, shields, batons, and those new-fangled things that zap eardrums to hinder dissenters.

Just take a shower and get a job.

The occupiers are occupying because they and most Americans have been occupied for quite some time.

(NOTE: Etymology of to occupy: During 16c.-17c. a euphemism for "have sexual intercourse with," which caused it to fall from polite usage.)

The occupying protestors are not just unclean hippies and anarchistic agitators, or homeless drugsters, or marauding men and women looking for quick and easy sex. Of course, there are some of these. It is the world, after all, and its stage has panoply of characters.

These protestors are fed-up, battered, beleaguered, brave souls who have lost jobs and savings.

They are the 99% who are telling the 1% to pay up---not down---and to contribute a higher percentage of taxes from their very high incomes. They beckon that some corporations actually start paying income taxes.

AMERICA IS FOR ALL, and NOT JUST FOR ONE!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

***

Cops Ready for War

By Andrew Becker | The Daily Beast – Wed, Dec 21, 2011

Nestled amid plains so flat the locals joke you can watch your dog run away for miles, Fargo treasures its placid lifestyle, seldom pierced by the mayhem and violence common in other urban communities. North Dakota’s largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there’s not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade.

But that hasn’t stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.

Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it’s been parked near the children’s bounce house.

“Most people are so fascinated by it, because nothing happens here,” says Carol Archbold, a Fargo resident and criminal justice professor at North Dakota State University. “There’s no terrorism here.”

Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a Daily Beast investigation conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Interactive Map: States Spend Billions on Homeland Security

The buying spree has transformed local police departments into small, army-like forces, and put intimidating equipment into the hands of civilian officers. And that is raising questions about whether the strategy has gone too far, creating a culture and capability that jeopardizes public safety and civil rights while creating an expensive false sense of security.

“The argument for up-armoring is always based on the least likely of terrorist scenarios,” says Mark Randol, a former terrorism expert at the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. “Anyone can get a gun and shoot up stuff. No amount of SWAT equipment can stop that.”

Local police bristle at the suggestion that they’ve become “militarized,” arguing the upgrade in firepower and other equipment is necessary to combat criminals with more lethal capabilities. They point to the 1997 Los Angeles-area bank robbers who pinned police for hours with assault weapons, the gun-wielding student who perpetrated the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, and the terrorists who waged a bloody rampage in Mumbai, India, that left 164 people dead and 300 wounded in 2008.

The new weaponry and battle gear, they insist, helps save lives in the face of such threats. “I don’t see us as militarizing police; I see us as keeping abreast with society,” former Los Angeles Police chief William Bratton says. “And we are a gun-crazy society.”

Adds Fargo Police Lt. Ross Renner, who commands the regional SWAT team: “It’s foolish to not be cognizant of the threats out there, whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, or Fargo. Our residents have the right to be protected. We don’t have everyday threats here when it comes to terrorism, but we are asked to be prepared.”

The skepticism about the Homeland spending spree is less severe for Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York, which are presumed to be likelier targets. But questions persist about whether money was handed out elsewhere with any regard for risk assessment or need. And the gap in accounting for the decade-long spending spree is undeniable. The U.S. Homeland Security Department says it doesn’t closely track what’s been bought with its tax dollars or how the equipment is used. State and local governments don’t maintain uniform records either.

To assess the changes in law enforcement for The Daily Beast, the Center for Investigative Reporting conducted interviews and reviewed grant spending records obtained through open records requests in 41 states. The probe found stockpiles of weaponry and military-style protective equipment worthy of a defense contractor’s sales catalog.

In Montgomery County, Texas, the sheriff’s department owns a $300,000 pilotless surveillance drone, like those used to hunt down al Qaeda terrorists in the remote tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Augusta, Maine, with fewer than 20,000 people and where an officer hasn’t died from gunfire in the line of duty in more than 125 years, police bought eight $1,500 tactical vests. Police in Des Moines, Iowa, bought two $180,000 bomb-disarming robots, while an Arizona sheriff is now the proud owner of a surplus Army tank.

The flood of money opened to local police after 9/11, but slowed slightly in recent years. Still, the Department of Homeland Security awarded more than $2 billion in grants to local police in 2011, and President Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contributed an additional half-billion dollars.

Law enforcement officials say the armored vehicles, assault weapons, and combat uniforms used by their officers provide a public safety benefit beyond their advertised capabilities, creating a sort of “shock and awe” experience they hope will encourage suspects to surrender more quickly.

“The only time I hear the complaint of ‘God, you guys look scary’ is if the incident turns out to be nothing,” says West Hartford, Conn., Police Lt. Jeremy Clark, who organizes an annual SWAT competition.

A grainy YouTube video from one of Clark’s recent competitions shows just how far the police transformation has come, displaying officers in battle fatigues, helmets, and multi-pocketed vests storming a hostile scene. One with a pistol strapped to his hip swings a battering ram into a door. A colleague lobs a flash-bang grenade into a field. Another officer, holding a pistol and wearing a rifle strapped to his back, peeks cautiously inside a bus.

The images unfold to the pulsing, ominous soundtrack of a popular videogame, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Though resembling soldiers in a far-flung war zone, the stars of this video are Massachusetts State Police troopers.

The number of SWAT teams participating in Clark’s event doubled to 40 between 2004 and 2009 as Homeland’s police funding swelled. The competition provides real-life scenarios for training, and Clark believes it is essential, because he fears many SWAT teams are falling below the 16 hours of minimum monthly training recommended by the National Tactical Officers Association.

“Luck is not for cops. Luck is for drunks and fools,” Clark said, explaining his devotion to training.

One beneficiary of Homeland’s largesse are military contractors, who have found a new market for their wares and sponsor training events like the one Clark oversees in Connecticut or a similar Urban Shield event held in California.

Special ops supplier Blackhawk Industries, founded by a former Navy SEAL, was among several Urban Shield sponsors this year. Other sponsors for such training peddle wares like ThunderSledge breaching tools for smashing open locked or chained doors, Lenco Armored Vehicles bulletproof box trucks, and KDH Defense Systems’s body armor.

“As criminal organizations are increasingly armed with military-style weapons, law enforcement operations require the same level of field-tested and combat-proven protection used by soldiers and Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other high-risk locations,” boasts an Oshkosh Corp. brochure at a recent police seminar, where the company pitched its “tactical protector vehicle.”

The trend shows no sign of abating. The homeland security market for state and local agencies is projected to reach $19.2 billion by 2014, up from an estimated $15.8 billion in fiscal 2009, according to the Homeland Security Research Corp.

The rise of equipment purchases has paralleled an apparent increase in local SWAT teams, but reliable numbers are hard to come by. The National Tactical Officers Association, which provides training and develops SWAT standards, says it currently has about 1,650 team memberships, up from 1,026 in 2000.

Many of America’s newly armed officers are ex-military veterans from the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan. Charles Ramsey, who was police chief in Washington, D.C., on 9/11, upgraded the weaponry when he moved to Philadelphia in 2008. Today, some 1,500 Philly beat cops are trained to use AR-15 assault rifles.

“We have a lot of people here, like most departments, who are ex-military,” Ramsey says. “Some people are very much into guns and so forth. So it wasn’t hard to find volunteers.”

Some real-life episodes, however, are sparking a debate about whether all that gear also creates a more militarized mind-set for local police that exceeds their mission or risks public safety.

In one case, dozens of officers in combat-style gear raided a youth rave in Utah as a police helicopter buzzed overhead. An online video shows the battle-ready team wearing masks and brandishing rifles as they holler for the music to be shut off and pin partygoers to the ground.

And Arizona tactical officers this year sprayed the home of ex-Marine Jose Guerena with gunfire as he stood in a hallway with a rifle that he did not fire. He was hit 22 times and died. Police had targeted the man’s older brother in a narcotics-trafficking probe, but nothing illegal was found in the younger Guerena’s home, and no related arrests had been made months after the raid.

In Maryland, officials finally began collecting data on tactical raids after police in 2008 burst into the home of a local mayor and killed his two dogs in a case in which the mayor’s home was used as a dropoff for drug deal. The mayor’s family had nothing to do with criminal activity.

Such episodes and the sheer magnitude of the expenditures over the last decade raise legitimate questions about whether taxpayers have gotten their money’s worth and whether police might have assumed more might and capability than is necessary for civilian forces.

“With local law enforcement, their mission is to solve crimes after they’ve happened, and to ensure that people’s constitutional rights are protected in the process,” says Jesselyn McCurdy, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The military obviously has a mission where they are fighting an enemy. When you use military tactics in the context of law enforcement, the missions don’t match, and that’s when you see trouble with the overmilitarization of police.”

The upgrading of local police nonetheless continues. Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio now claims to operate his own air armada of private pilots—dubbed Operation Desert Sky—to monitor illegal border crossings, and he recently added a full-size surplus Army tank. New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly boasted this fall he had a secret capability to shoot down an airliner if one threatened the city again. And the city of Ogden, Utah, is launching a 54-foot, remote-controlled “crime-fighting blimp” with a powerful surveillance camera.

Back in Fargo, nearby corn and soybean farmer Tim Kozojed supports the local police but questions whether the Homeland grants have been spent wisely. ”I’m very reluctant to get anxious about a terrorist attack in North Dakota,” Kozojed, 31, said. “Why would they bother?”

***

Friday, December 16th, 2011 | Posted by David Swanson

Set Your Doomsday Clock to 11:51

By David Swanson

The National Defense Authorization Act is not a leap from democracy to tyranny, but it is another major step on a steady and accelerating decade-long march toward a police state. The doomsday clock of our republic just got noticeably closer to midnight, and the fact that almost nobody knows it, simply moves that fatal minute-hand a bit further still.

I’m not referring to the “doomsday” predicted by Leon Panetta should military spending be scaled back to the obscenely inflated levels of 2007. I’m talking about the complete failure to keep the republic that Benjamin Franklin warned we might not. Practices that were avoided, outsourced, or kept secret when Bill Clinton was president were directly engaged in on such a scale under president George W. Bush that they became common knowledge. Under President Obama they are becoming formal law and acceptable policy.

Obama has claimed the power to imprison people without a trial since his earliest months in office. He spoke in front of the Constitution in the National Archives while gutting our founding document in 2009. So why not pick the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights to further codify its elimination? President Obama has claimed the power to torture “if needed,” issued an executive order claiming the power of imprisonment without trial, exercised that power on a massive scale at Bagram, and claimed and exercised the power to assassinate U.S. citizens. Obama routinely kills people with unmanned drones.

As Obama’s Justice Department has broken new ground in the construction of state secrecy and immunity, the Bush era advancers of imperial presidential power have gone on book tours bragging about their misdeeds. One can expect the next step to involve serious abuse of those who question and resist the current bipartisan trajectory.

So what does the latest bill do, other than dumping another $660 billion into wars and war preparation? Well, it says this:

“Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”

In other words, Congress is giving its stamp of approval to the unconstitutional outrages already claimed by the president. But then, why create a new law at all? Well, because some outrages are more equal than others, and Congress has chosen to specify some of those and in fact to expand some of them. For example:

“Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40) includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection (b)) pending disposition under the law of war.”

And this:

“The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a) may include the following: (1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force.”

Jon Stewart explained when those detained without trial under the law might be released: “So when the war on terror ends, and terror surrenders and is no longer available as a human emotion, you are free to go.”

An exception for U.S. citizens was kept out of the bill at President Obama’s request.

So why did Obama threaten to veto the bill initially and again after it passed the Senate? Well, one change made by the conference committee was this:

“The Secretary of Defense President may, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, waive the requirement of paragraph (1) if the Secretary President submits to Congress a certification in writing that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States.”

The reference here is to military tribunals. The President – that is, the current one and future ones – need not hand someone over even to a military tribunal if . . . well, if he (or she) chooses not to.

President Obama wanted a bill that limited him in no way, and he is likely to issue a law-altering signing-statement that further removes any offensive limits on absolute tyrannical power. This type of signing statement is another example of something done secretly by Bush, exposed, turned into a temporary scandal, denounced by candidate Obama, then utilized by President Obama, formally established by executive order, and now more or less accepted by everyone as the norm.

That is what will happen with trial-free imprisonment and assassination as well. And the presidents who engage in these practices will be from both major political parties. So readers should weigh the acceptable crimes and abuses of the good tyrants on their team against the risk of presidents from the other team doing the same. Of course, this team loyalty is the main reason the streets of Washington are not filled with protesters. The corporate media believes that outrages agreed to by both parties are not news. Many Democrats believe any power a Democratic president wants he should have, even though all of his successors will have it too. And many Republicans back whatever comes out of a Republican House of Representatives.

A large majority of Republicans in the House voted to eviscerate our Bill of Rights, and the Democrats split 93 to 93. In the Senate both parties overwhelmingly voted “Aye.”

If ever there was a time to build an independent, principled movement based in activism rather than elections and to put a few more minutes back on the doomsday clock, this is it. While Obama’s decision not to veto this bill has discouraged many, at RootsAction we’ve continued demanding a veto because we think the Constitution should be upheld and improved, not dismantled. If signed into law, we will demand that this elimination of our rights be repealed by Congress or overturned in court, and we will use that campaign to educate the public about what just happened.

David Swanson is a campaigner for http://rootsaction.org and the author of “When the World Outlawed War,” “War Is A Lie” and “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.”

TRUE OR FALSE?

2011-09-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Mister Einstein’s Equation

Supremo

E’s equal to MC squared

Has just been fired by Mister

Neutrino!

***

Which of the following is not true:

A man had a sexual relationship with a dolphin for 9 months!

A man died from spontaneous combustion!

A particle has exceeded the speed of light!

Earth has been invaded by Extraterrestrials!

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

THE FACE OF DICTATORSHIP

2011-08-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

I originally posted this on Sunday, October 22, 2006, but forgot to dedicate it to Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, who are still re-writing History and covering up.

My thanks to Percy Bysshe Shelley.

THE FACE OF DICTATORSHIP

As I lay awake
There came an awful voice
From across the land,
And with great power
It showed me
The Face of a Dictator.

I saw Murder on the way-
He had a disguise like Dick Cheney-
Very smooth he looked, yet solemn-
Seven vampires followed him:

All were fat; and well they might
Be in bloodthirsty plight,
Because every day, and every night,
He tossed them human hearts to eat
Which from his wide suit he’d take.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,
Like Donald Rumsfeld, a scarlet scowl;
His huge tears, for he wept well,
Changed to hard rocks as they fell.

And the poor, irradiated children who
Before his feet played back and forth,
Believing every tear a gem,
Got their brains knocked out by him.

Covered with the Bible, as with light,
And the phantoms of the night,
Like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, next, Demagoguery
On a serpent slithered by.

And many more Murders were
In this loathsome masquerade,
All hidden, even to the eyes,
Like terrorists, lawyers, or spies.

Finally, the Dictator arrived:
He rode in a black limousine,
Splashed with blood;
He was pale most in the lips,
Like Death in the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kinglike crown,
But in his hands were skull and bones;
From his mouth these words I heard-
I am your Long War President,
The Torturer and the Decider…..
Only
The obedient and faithful shall survive!

IT WAS THE OIL STUPID!

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

2011-08-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Governor Rick Perry: Fiscal Responsibility is Essential for Prosperity and Job Creation

Speech at the National Conference of State Legislatures Legislative Summit

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

San Antonio, Texas

NOTE: Words by Mad Plato are between brackets

* Note: Gov. Perry frequently departs from prepared remarks.

[And Mad Plato frequently abbreviated Governor Perry’s remarks.]

Thank you Gov. Dewhurst for that introduction, and for all you've done for Texans over the past eight years as Lt. Governor.

[And you can thank me when I become President of the United States in 2012.]

It's an honor to be with you today and a pleasure to speak to such a dedicated organization like the National Conference of State Legislatures, as you work together to share ideas with your colleagues from across the country and help shape public policy in the United States.

I know the conventional wisdom lately has been that change happens from the top down, and while that may be conventional, it's not wise.

[My brain is at the top just like yours, but I prefer change to happen from the bottom up.]

As I think everyone here can attest, the bulk of the real work gets done on the state level, or at least it should be.

[What about funding for building America’s schools and Interstate Highways, or fighting foreign wars? Is this work that’s done at the state level?]

I can understand why anyone could be confused about that fact with an activist federal government intruding on environmental policy, dictating education policy, taking over healthcare and even interfering with the right of a private company to locate a plant in a right-to-work state, as is the case with Boeing in South Carolina.

[Blame George W. Bush for dictating the education policy called No Child Left Behind, but give him credit for almost completely killing the EPA!]

One of the points I've made consistently over the years is that states are best positioned to deal with the challenges they face, and that local governments are, by definition, more responsive to the needs and directions of their citizens than some officials thousands of miles away.

[But this point might change when I become your president.]

This wisdom is written into the United States Constitution, crafted by our founding fathers to ensure that each state has the right to govern its affairs in its own, unique fashion.

[This includes personal affairs. They’re private and your business…unless you’re a paid public servant.]

Of course, you knew you wouldn't leave here today without hearing about what is working in Texas.

[And it’s not just because I’m the governor and running to be your next president.]

For starters, you're gathered in a state that has been selected the top state for job growth and development for seven years in a row in a survey conducted by CEO Magazine.

[Why? Two words: Petroleum, petroleum, petroleum. Was that three words? Sorry.]

A state that's led the nation in exporting for nine years running, accounting for $206.6 billion in foreign trade in 2010, up 27 percent over 2009.

A state that won the 2010 Governor's Cup, which is awarded annually by Site Selection Magazine to the state with the most new and expanded corporate facilities in the country.

[I will proudly carry this cup everywhere that I campaign for the 2012 presidency.]

A state that's growing by leaps and bounds [And we don’t even have that many kangaroos!], adding 4.29 million people between 2000 and 2010, and has been the nation's top moving destination for six years straight.

The economic turbulence of the past few weeks is weighing hard on everyone, but regardless of which way the economic tides may turn, I believe our philosophy here in Texas will keep us in a much better position than most other states.

It was the culmination of a reckless culture that has refused to confront spending in Washington.

[No thanks to both Republicans and Democrats!]

It took massive debt piled on the next generation's credit card.

[No thanks to both Republicans and Democrats!]

Simply put, our country is in trouble.

Until Washington figures out the only true stimulus is more money in the hands of employers across all economic sectors [Yes, this includes the multi-millionaires, billionaires, and trillionaires! Hands off of their sky-rocketing profits! No taxes!] as well as a restrained bureaucracy that no longer over-reaches into the workplace, our national nightmare will continue.

[And President Obama has just continued the national nightmare that George W. Bush started. If you blame one you must blame the other.]

Some may say we're seeing evidence that America is in decline, but I don't believe that.

[It’s just sliding down a mountain of debts as steep as Mt. Everest]

When I see the nobility and sacrifice of our soldiers and SEALS in Afghanistan, when I see Americans going to work every day to make a better life for their children, I know our country's best days are ahead of us.

[I have to wave the flag here even though in my heart I believe that Afghanistan is a quagmire.]

I believe in this country because I believe in Her people.

[Yes, God is a woman!]

And, even in our darkest hours, the West Texas optimist in me tells me our brightest hour is just around the corner.

[Even though the corner is dark as we peer through a glass darkly.]

But we're going to have to work for it, and organizations like the NCSL are playing a vital role in our efforts to achieve a better future for all of us.

I thank you again for having me and for everything you're doing to spread good works across all states.

May God bless you and, through you, may He [I mean She] continue to bless this country we love so much.

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

JOBS JOBS AND JOB

2011-08-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

By William Blake

NOTE:

I do not have time right now to re-read THE BOOK OF JOB. I know I have simplified good, old, Godly Job. I will take the blame for any insults or inaccuracies.

Dear Biblical Job:

Did you ever have to worry about finding a job?

O.K. I realize it was your job to moan and groan;

“Why me?”

Don’t get me wrong.

I respect you a lot.

I just started thinking about you as I was listening to the ranting and railing about the Economy.

Dear God:

Do you hear more than just the prayers from Rick Perry and his parishioners (or prisoners)?

Like most Americans, I have lately been feeling anger, confusion, frustration, and…

DESPAIR

(or HORROR?)

Barack Obama has become somewhat wizened and gray (not totally wise or white…well maybe “white”---in the sense of his increasing acceptance of the status quo and his surrender to the Corporate and Military masters.

Hope?

Nope.

Well, maybe.

I haven’t given up all Hope…

Yet.

***

What’s next?

Who will want to replace Barack Obama in 2012?

The pickings are slim and scary at this point.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for listening.

***

IT’S ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE END STUPID!

BOSOMS BROTHERLY LOVE AND PHYSICS: A DIALOGUE (SORT OF) BUT NOT SORDID

2011-08-02T04:37:00.000-07:00

***

LITTLE BROTHER:

“i shall keep abreast of this *news!”

HERE IS THE *news MENTIONED ABOVE:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0425/Higgs-boson-Was-the-God-particle-foundHiggs boson: Was the 'God particle' found?

Higgs boson, aka, the "God particle" is a subatomic particle that is presumed to bestow mass on all other particles. An internal note from physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has scientists buzzing.

A rumor is floating around the physics community that the world's largest atom smasher may have detected a long-sought subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle."

The controversial rumor is based on what appears to be a leaked internal note from physicists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mile-long particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. It's not entirely clear at this point if the memo is authentic, or what the data it refers to might mean — but the note already has researchers talking.

Some physicists say the note may be a hoax, while others believe the "detection" is likely a statistical anomaly that will disappear upon further study. But the find would be a huge particle-physics breakthrough, if it holds up.

"If it were to be real, it would be really exciting," said physicist Sheldon Stone of Syracuse University.

Hunting for the Higgs

The Higgs boson is predicted to exist by prevailing particle-physics theory, which is known as the Standard Model. Physicists think the Higgs bestows mass on all the other particles — but they have yet to confirm its existence.

Huge atom smashers — like the LHC and the Tevatron, at Fermilab in Illinois — are searching for the Higgs and other subatomic bits of matter. These accelerators slam particles together at enormous speeds, generating a shower of other particles that could include the Higgs or other elemental pieces predicted by theory but yet to be detected. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

The leaked note suggests that the LHC's ATLAS particle-detection experiment may have picked up a signature of the elusive Higgs. The signal is consistent, in mass and other characteristics, with what the Higgs is expected to produce, according to the note.

However, some other aspects of the signal don't match predictions.

"Its production rate is much higher than that expected for the Higgs boson in the Standard Model," Stone told SPACE.com in an email interview. So the signal may be evidence of some other particle, Stone added, "which in some sense would be even more interesting, or it could be the result of new physics beyond the Standard Model."

Too soon to tell

Stone was quick to point out that the note is not an official result of the ATLAS research team. Therefore, speculating about its validity or implications is decidedly preliminary.

"It is actually quite illegitimate and unscientific to talk publicly about internal collaboration material before it is approved," Stone said. "So this 'result' is not a result until the collaboration officially releases it."

Other researchers joined Stone in urging patience and caution before getting too excited about the possible discovery.

***

BIG BROTHER:

“You may not have to remain abreast of this news---once announced, it will be nippling across all media sources.”

***

BIG BROTHER:

“…nippling across in place of rippling across....”

“Well, pappy, nipple as a verb? I thought it was "udderly" untrue, but it wasn't. This from the Urban Dictionary”:

Nipple:

as a verb: to grab and tug a nipple, especially through clothing, especially roughly; in bdsm, a common way to find out if the girl you're making out with is really a sub or just playing in the scene.

I was making out with Megan and I nippled her real good while we were kissing; she started humping my leg so I knew she was one of us.

***

BIG BROTHER:

“It appears you have missed the latest theoretical update from CERN.
The search now centers on finding the Hugless Bosom particle.
It puts cleavage in all the standard model particle theories.”

LITTLE BROTHER:

“I know about cleavage, and, i actually was a devil's advocate with tongue-in-cheek because i know that the search is on for Mr. Bosom...I mean Miss Bosom. i learned about this when i watched the Colbert Report (one of my favorite shows) on Comedy Central.”

BIG BROTHER:

“The discovery will no doubt become a bust for the noble prize in physics!”

***

LITTLE BROTHER:

“aCtUaLLy, i am also familiar with how to find Pi (Personal information)... and my ESP powersssssss are an enormous benefit (i don't own a cell phone!). YeS...BeWaRe...Be aFrAiD cOmRadE.”

BIG BROTHER:

“I have never succeeded in finding the end of Pi, except in a banana Pi.”

***

LITTLE BROTHER:

“cLeVeR! Nay...iNGENious! aNd you're even not Pie-eyed! But what about the Higgs Boson particle! Let's find it, dammit!”

***

LITTLE BROTHER:

Nippling or Rippling

The Human Bosom is

Beautiful!

Night or Day, Day or Night

The Bosom Sheds her Light

And Delivers Delight!

by ML Squier

a.k.a. Mad Plat0

BIG BROTHER:

“The reason for the next busom discovery in atomic physics!!!

***

LITTLE BROTHER:

“We've given each other tit for tat (or tat for tit)! It is well that we've gotten IT off of our chests!”

IT'S NOT THE BISON STUPID!

IMPS & ASSES INSIDE A CUL DE SAC INSIDE A TICKING CLOCK (OR TIME BOMB?)

2011-07-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

"epic crossing"
By James Wolf

“Sausage making is not pretty. But the sausage we have, I think, is a very different sausage from when we started.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

H.L. Mencken

***

Tick tock

Barack…

Time is running out

Congress is a lout!

Politics is a scourge

On the people’s splurge!

(Or vice versa)

The

Race

For

The White House

Hungry

A head louse

But quiet

A church mouse!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

CHANGE THE WORLD

2011-07-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

A microscopic photograph of fluorescent-stained Spirochaeta americana. The red spiral-shaped figures are dead cells; green ones are living. Credit: Richard B. Hoover, Elena Pikuta and Asim Bej, NASA/NSSTC University of Alabama at Huntsville, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

MO (short for Molecule)

MOLLY (short for Molecule)

MO & MOLLY are a married couple.

MO:

Honey, where are my glasses?

MOLLY:

Honey, don’t you remember, the doctor manipulated your vision gene, and so you don’t need your specs anymore.

MO:

Oh, right. But where’s my iPod?

MOLLY:

Honey, now I really think you’ve lost your…marbles…I mean your brain…I mean…Oh, I don’t know what I mean anymore…we’re so tiny and have such miniscule brains. But one thing for sure: WE DON’T HAVE EARS…so you’re just dreaming about that iPod!

MO:

You’re right, and I’ll stop my inquisition, but I do have one more question. When is our appointment with the doctor?

MOLLY:

Which doctor?

MO:

The one that’s going to change us into a new life form.

MOLLY:

I’m not sure. Let me look for the appointment card. Oh, here it is, on the green sofa in the back of our Petri Dome. It says: Monday at 2:00 P.M.

MO:

Good! We still have time to do a little gambling before we’re transformed into a new form.

MOLLY:

Right. I’ll start packing our things. Go ahead and start the Microbe Bus, and get it warm. Oh, I can’t wait to get out of this Petri Dome and go on a little outing!

***

QUOTES BELOW are from Life Out There ‘It’s Alive! It’s Alive!’ Maybe Right Here on Earth

by Dennis Overbye

THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Reproduction is the job of any life,” he explained, but Earthly organisms have evolved a spectacular set of tricks to improve the odds of success---everything from peacock feathers to whale songs. Dr. Joyce’s molecules have not yet surprised him by striking out on their own to invent the molecular equivalent of writing a hit pop song.

“It is only a matter of time”, he said, “before they do.”

Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School and his collaborators have embarked on an ambitious project to build an artificial cell that can replicate and presumably evolve.

“In my view, a terran laboratory will make synthetic life before NASA or the E.S.A [European Space Agency] ”.

Dr. Steven Benner

The Benner group has: Initiated synthetic biology as a field. The Benner group was the first to synthesize a gene for an enzyme, and used organic synthesis to prepare the first artificial genetic systems. These systems have been used to direct the synthesis of artificial proteins having unnatural amino acids, in FDA-approved clinical assays for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C that improves the medical care of over 400,000 patients annually, and to support the first artificial chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.

[SOURCE: http://www.ffame.org/people/sbenner.html]

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

AFTER WATCHING http://www.history.com/videos/who-killed-the-neanderthals?cmpid=PaidMedia_Outbrain_HIS_TOPICVID&utm_source=his&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campa

2011-07-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: Please watch the video WHO KILLED THE NEANDERTHALS to understand my words below, especially the portion of the video which says that the first encounter between Cro-Magnon hominids and Neanderthals might not have been violent…BUT today, after thousands of years for Evolution to “brew” our genes, we now have our present-day WORLD and the U.S. Congress.]

NEADNERTHALS ARE NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT, BUT GO AHEAD, SNEEZE AWAY AT THESE MORE INFERIOR HUMAN BEINGS WHO REMIND ME OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

YES, I AM SAYING THAT DEMOCRATS ARE THE REPUBLICANS’ CRO-MAGNON BRETHREN, SMARTER AND (MORE IMPORTANTLY) MORE SANE THAN THEIR CONSERVATIVE COUNTERPARTS!

CLIMATE CHANGE MAY ULTIMATELY DO US IN, BUT RIGHT NOW, THIS VERY DAY, THIS VERY MINUTE, AS SECONDS TUMBLE INTO MINUTES AND HOURS---APPROACHING THE 11^TH HOUR ON AUGUST 2---IT IS THE NEANDERTHAL BRANCH OF HUMANITY THAT IS ENDANGERING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

WHO WILL PREVAIL?

IF THERE IS A DEFAULT (AND AGAIN, THIS IF IS STILL A MIGHTY WORD), THEN WE CAN LAY BLAME ON THE LESS INTELLIGENT OF OUR SPECIES.

WILL GOOD DEFEAT EVIL?

LIGHT DEFEAT DARKNESS?

CRO-MAGNON DEFEAT NEANDERTHAL?

I AM STAYING TUNED (PROBABLY TOO MUCH SO), BUT I FEAR AND TREMBLE BECAUSE THE NEANDERTHAL REPUBLICANS ARE NOT WILLING TO COMPROMISE.

PRESIDENT OBAMA MUST USE HIS EXECUTIVE POWER AND ORDER A DEBT CEILING INCREASE IF THE CONGRESS DOES NOT DIG OUT OF ITS PRIMORDIAL BOG.

BOTH REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS CAN SLUG IT OUT LATER DURING THE RUN TO THE 2012 ELECTION TO VOTE ON THE ECONOMY.

IT'S THE GENES STUPID!

GET THE LEAD OUT OF YOUR CAUCUS!

2011-07-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

“...I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.”

Mark Twain
- "Foster's Case," New York Tribune, 10 March 1873

***

UPDATE: 7-28-2011

I have a cartoonist's brain. The words and pictures are in my brain, but my hand is not deft enough (NOT daft) to draw what I hear and see, so I'll just describe what I would draw if I could, using the following words as the caption beneath my work of art:

"Get your ass in line," Boehner told the rank and file. "I can't do this job unless you're behind me."

I would draw Senator Boehner walking (an orange glow coming from the halo above his head). Mr. Boehner would be holding a golf club in one hand and the bill he wants signed in the other hand. Behind him are ALL of the House members, walking backwards BUT following behind Mr. Boehner with their own BEHINDS exposed!

NOTE: Words by Mad Plato are between parentheses.

"How many times does he
(Mr. Boner...I mean Boehner)
have to throw red meat to the extreme right in his caucus to please them?"

Sen. Charles Schumer (D) New York

***

“Anyone who says that either entitlement reform or tax increases are off the table does not have a plan for sustaining American greatness and passing on the American dream to the next generation.”

“Alas, that is the Tea Party. It is so lacking in any aspiration for American greatness, so dominated by the narrowest visions for our country and so ignorant of the fact that it was not tax cuts that made America great but our unique public-private partnerships across the generations. If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission. No American politician was more allergic to debt or taxes than Thomas Jefferson, but he also appreciated the need to have the resources to make the Louisiana Purchase and insisted that on his tombstone it be written that he founded the University of Virginia. “

Can’t We Do This Right?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

July 26, 2011

The New York Times

***

IT'S THE MONEY STUPID!

CONGRESSIONAL CONSTIPATION

2011-07-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

"SPEAKER BOEHNER HAD SOME DIFFICULTY IN HIS CAUCUS."

President Barack Obama
(in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Friday, July 22)

WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON STUPID?

ADVICE FROM GOD

2011-07-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

“God was dealing with me. At 27 years old, I knew that I had been called to the ministry. I’ve just always been really stunned by how big a pulpit I was gonna have. I still am. I truly believe with all my heart that God has put me in this place at this time to do his will.”

Rick Perry

Characters:

God as Herself

Rick Perry as himself

Michele Bachmann as herself

Hermann Cain as himself

God:

O.K. This is for all of you to hear: Stop saying my name so much, or I’m taking you off of my list.

Rick Perry:

What list?

God:

My list of presidential candidates.

Hermann Cain:

Are you really God…Allah…or what?

God:

Watch it Mr. Cain!

Michele Bachmann:

What about “Lord, the day is at hand. We are in the last days. You are a Jehovah God…”

God:

No! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Stop saying anything…unless I tell you to like I did George W. Bush.

Rick Perry:

You ARE a vengeful God!

Hermann Cain:

You must be a Democrat!

Michele Bachman:

And gay like my husband...oops!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!