Monthly Archives: May 2009
Incredible markdowns!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
John Cole, Scranton, PA Times-Tribune
Elephant men…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
May 17th – Today in History
1954 -Supreme Court unanimously rules on Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education reversed 1896 “separate but equal” Plessy Vs Ferguson decision
1973 - Senate Watergate hearings begin. The scandal forces Richard Nixon the following year to resign.
1792 – The Birth of the Stock Exchange.
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby held in Louisville, Kentucky.
Other interesting events on this day:
1884 – Alaska becomes a U.S. Territory.
1963 – U.S. performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site.
1970 – Hank Aaron becomes 9th player to get 3,000 hits.
1989 – Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa.
Michelle Obama’s First Commencement Speech at University of California at Merced
Part I – She is such a great First Lady!
Part II – Commencement Speech At University Of California – Merced
Schuster: “Why did the Bush Administration not Waterboard During the Second Term?
David Schuster asked this question to Democratic Strategist Chris Kofinis and Republican Strategist Ron Christie.
500 Years – Women In Art
This beautiful video was done by Phillip Scott Johnson – YouTube name eggman913. Please check out all of eggman913′s videos — what an incredible talent!
Music: Bach’s Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma
Here is a partial list of the portraits in this video:
Archangel (Angel of the Golden Locks) – Artist – Novgorod School, RussiaLa
Scapigliata (The Lady of the Disheveled Hair) – Artist -Leonardo da Vinci
The Madonna of the Carnation – Artist – Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa – Artist – Leonardo da Vinci
Lady with a Unicorn – Artist – Raphael
The Birth of Venus – Artist – Sandro Botticelli
Sacred Conversation – Artist – Giovanni Bellini
Press Briefing: Reporter Challenges “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Policy Pose a Danger to Troops
The reporter’s point was, if we are dismissing good soldiers for the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, doesn’t that pose a danger to our troops? Press Secretary Gibbs responds, “The President has long believed the policy does not serve our national interest.”
Civilian Contractors, Water, U.S. Soldiers, KBR, and Wastewater Pouring Out of Showers…
Stories of short supplies have haunted the U.S. military throughout the war in Iraq—things like inadequate body armor or unshielded Hummers. But while many soldiers say they had good access to water and even Gatorade, the 11 News Defenders discovered that others, stationed all over the country and during all phases of this desert war, say something else was often missing.
“We were rationed two bottles of water a day,” said Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey, referring to 1 to 1.5 liter bottles.
In this report, Robey talks about running out of water and forced to drink water out of faucets in Iraq homes, because that was the only water around. The problem with that is, most Iraqi water is untreated and can cause illness. As a result, dysentery spread rapidly through his unit, affecting between 50 to 60 men.
They had to resort to stealing water from civilian contractors by taking unsafe routes, with road bombs, to the airport to find pallets of water that had not been distributed.
Another problem facing the soldiers was – unclean water in the sinks and showers in Iraq.
Turns out, at many similar bases, the water was supposed to be processed by Houston-based company KBR. In an internal KBR report, the company sites “massive programmatic issues” with water for personal hygiene dating back to 2005. It outlines how there was no formalized training for anyone involved with water operations, and one camp, Ar Ramadi, had no disinfection for shower water whatsoever.
“That water was two to three times as contaminated as the water out of the Euphrates River,” said former KBR employee Ben Carter.
Carter, a water purification specialist, was the one to blow the whistle on it all. He said he first noticed a problem when he found a live maggot in a base toilet at Camp Ar Ramadi. He subsequently discovered that instead of using chlorinated water, the soldiers’ sinks and showers were pouring out untreated wastewater.
I did some digging and found that this problem goes back to 2004, it was first reported by ABC News in 2006.
Open Thread for Sunday – The Age of Steam
Steam powered this nations transport up until the late 1940′s. Diesel was then taking over. The implementation of Diesel power took a back seat because of shortages during WWII. By 1960, the last commercial steam locomotives passed into the dust bin of history. For more on this, look here.
I am partial to B&O because my grandfather was Chief Yard Technical Engineer there until he retired in 1957 at 79. He was responsible for keeping steam locomotives operational and creating upgrades to existing locomotives. He had a team of 20 metal workers and mechanics who could create or recreate any part of a steam engine. Some of the steam-powered yard switchers that they were using were older than he was.
Now semis have taken over and the RR industry is under stress. But then, that’s progress?
Feel free to add your comment to this thread and the ones below.
Saturday night in the cesspool — do you dare?
Fluffy...
Are you up for it? Show me what you’ve got…it’s a cesspool for heaven’s sake!
Saturday open thread
Mmmmmm, strom-berries...
My eldest used to call strawberries “strom-berries” when he was little. We’ve called them strom-berries ever since.
I just finished planting my tomatoes — medum-sized red tomatoes and yellow cherry tomatoes, as well as lavender, rosemary, and thyme. I couldn’t decide on the flowers, so they will wait.
It’s a warm weekend in the northwest. What are y’all up to?
Bill Maher Defends Wolves
And then he just cracked me up. Thank you Bill.
NEW RULES – Bill Maher – May 15, 2009
It’s the Torture, Stupid
Who cares what Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it? That isn’t the point. The point is what it is that she is accused of knowing – That the Bush Administration, in violation of both US Law and International Treaty, tortured people. Continue reading
Hey, it’s music night!
Alice Cooper, School’s Out
Well, it’s out until Monday, when summer session starts. 
Copy & paste the address of your favorite YouTube music in the comments section, and we’ll all enjoy it!
“We got no class, and we got no princip[les]…”
Shoulda had impeachment on the table, huh?
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
Oh, the Irony…Savage needs Hillary Clinton’s help
Savage needs Hillary Clinton’s help with lifting UK Ban.
This is the same guy who called Hillary’s Rutgers speech “Hitler dialogue,” back in April 2007. Here is a transcription from Media Matters:
On the April 23 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage played an audio clip of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-NY) April 20 speech at Rutgers University in which Clinton commented on the April 18 Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. In the clip, Clinton asked, “What message does it send when the Supreme Court decides that women’s health doesn’t matter?” In response, Savage stated: “That’s rubbish. That’s Hitler dialogue. [Joseph] Goebbels [information minister in Nazi Germany] would be proud of you, Hillary Clinton. I know [former Chinese communist leader] Mao Zedong would have been proud of you.” Savage also referred to Clinton as a “liar” and a “sickening person,” and added, “[T]his is life and death you are talking about. It’s not about women’s health.”
Savage on Democrats and the media: (May 13, 2004)
Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, The New Yorker, CBS have destroyed the war effort against terror. And if, God forbid, a suitcase bomb goes off you’ll know who to blame. I’m — hey I’m not going to mince words, there’s no grey zone here. It’s black and white, it’s them versus us and the enemy within on their side.
The Week In Business Shows – That In Most Cases The Wrong Person Is Running The Company
GM bankruptcy almost inevitable. They posted a $6 billion first quarter loss…shares set to fall like a rock. Link.
A Swedish CEO “fires himself” rather than handing out pink slips to workers. Bank of America, Chrysler and Citigroup CEOs could not be reached for comment. Link.
Speaking of Bank of America, CEO Ken Lewis, is hoping to repay back TARP money in months rather than years. Also hoping this will get stockholders off his back for the Merrill Lynch debacle. Link
Nordstrom’s preliminary first quarter sales fell by 9.2%, analysts only expected earnings of 26 cents a share, they faired better than expected. That’s sad when chump change per share is something to rejoice. Link.
Microsoft’s planning a “war” on iPod that has as many glitches as their Vista Software. Link.
Intel got socked with a record breaking fine of $1.45 billion for illegal and secret practices to squeeze out AMD. Link.
The visitor..
I looked out my kitchen window yesterday and found this visitor resting in my garden under the tree. I still haven’t figured out how it got into my back yard.. Or out!
Natural Magnetic Fields Revealed As Chaotic
Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries.
The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent ‘whistlers’ produced by fleeting electrons.
This is a really interesting video that I thought all the science enthusiasts, like myself, would enjoy. The audio isn’t grainy it’s the noise generated by the magnetic fields.
This video is by ascarida.
Heavy Breather…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Sifton: “Up to 100 detainees have died in US custody”
Any torture investigation should focus on the deaths of approximately 100 prisoners who were in U.S. custody, says attorney and human rights investigator John Sifton. Senate torture hearings have examined the effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques but Sifton says this is the wrong focus. “Those are the wrong debates to be having right now,” Sifton told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.
“We knew that up to a hundred detainees had died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we had published this information previously. But I brought it up again, because I feel like the debate right now about torture is missing the point,” he said.
“These aggressive techniques were not just limited to the high-value detainee program in the CIA. They spread to the military with disastrous results. They led to the deaths of human beings. And when there’s a corpse involved, when there’s a dead body involved, you can’t just have a debate about policy differences and looking forward or looking backward.”
Read the article in The Daily Beast by John Sifton entitled “The Bush Administration Homicides“.
Apparently, a student of history…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Kucinich: We Are Moving From Industrial Capitalism To Financial Capitalism To Crony Capitalism!
Dennis Kucinich is explaining why he put in HR444, “which says we have to have a national policy – which states that the maintenance of steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping are vital to our national economic security and our national defense.”
” We can not be a free nation if we don’t have the ability to make things.” He further states, “How can we defend a country if you can’t make cars, you can’t make planes and you can’t produce steel.” “This is a national security issue.”
Video by VotersThinkdotorg.
Bear with us….
