The Watering Hole Tuesday, December 6, 2011

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In a Pacific tide pool a well camouflaged sculpin tends its garden of purple sea urchins. An exceptionally calm day allowed me to take this photo from above the waters surface.

BP has filed suit against Halliburton for destroying evidence of its sloppy work that resulted in last years Gulf oil spill. We’ll see what happens.

This is our Daily Open Thread. Your comments on corporate malfeasance, tawdry business practices or the days expected political melodramas are encouraged!

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155 thoughts on “The Watering Hole Tuesday, December 6, 2011”

    • It may be a ploy. Quayle, a literal zero in the political arena, yet I’m sure easily manipulated, may have been “asked” to endorse Romney to further undermine Mitten’s relevance.
      Corporate Control wants Ging-er-itch in the White House.

    • Can you imagine the conversation before the endorsement…

      Phone Rings

      Mitt: “Mitt Romney.”
      Dan: “Hi Mitt, it’s Dan.”
      Mitt: “Dan who?”
      Dan: “Dan Quayle.”
      Mitt: “Dan Quayle?”
      Dan: “Yes, former Vice President Dan Qualye?”
      Mitt: “Oh, hello Dan. With all the punking of GOP candidates by morning radio shock jocks, you can never be too sure.”
      Dan: “I understand. They’ve gotten me three times this past month. They do a mean Boris Yeltsin…”
      Mitt: “Dan, Boris Yeltsin is dead.”
      Dan: “I know, which is what made it all the more dastardly. Anyway, I’d love to throw my endorsement your way.”
      Mitt: “Mr. Vice President, I’m flattered, but that’s certainly not necessary.”
      Dan: “Yes, that’s what the others said too. So I’d thought I’d give you a call.”
      Mitt: “I’m not your first choice?”
      Dan: “Of course you are, Mitt. I was just toying with the others.”
      Mitt: “I see.”
      Dan: “So have your people call my people…”

      Mitt, makes pretend static noises in the phone and hangs up.

  4. On the discovery of the possible earth-like planet (at least meets some criteria) yesterday, some hundreds of light-years away from us http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16046733

    Religious nut cases all over the world will of course fail to ponder the impact of this discovery – that the existence of a deity and his preoccupation with the personal habits of a sporadically ascendant ape-like being on a small, blue-green watery world becomes more unfeasible the more similar blue-green watery worlds there seem to be elsewhere….

    …. the fundamental arrogance of religion is exposed by religious reaction to these kinds of discoveries. Galileo had the same problem: heliocentricty gave the Pope ‘the vapours’ – “How can earth not be the centre of the universe – stick a red hot poker up his jacksy until he confesses the holy uniqueness of God’s creation of man!” As earth and mankind are demonstrated to be less and less central to the reality of the universe, the more ridiculous religion seems to be.

    And yet the same creationist BS will continue to be poured into our children’s heads – those that send them off to Sunday Day-care/Brain-washing….

    • What are we?

      Half evolved beings, living on a spinning speck of mud, circling a fifth rate star. We are not the center of the universe.

    • Always reach for your Douglas Adams at a time like this:

      “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

      and

      “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

      • Found it:

        “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

  5. I’m glad Newt Gingrich’s surge gives him the opportunity to be despised by a whole new generation.

    • So….. Newt is leading in Iowa and this is being spun how by the state that prides itself on voting for ‘Family Values’ issues…..?

      • Well, you know how righties are… they don’t expect their candidates to have family values, or to even do anything about family values. They just expected their candidates to say the words.

    • So…. Republicans would rather vote for the lying, cheating, hypocritical pusbag lobbyist that is Newt Gingrich than vote for the flip-flopping corporate cardboard cutout cultist than have a wog in the White House…..

      …. there’s some family values for ya….

  6. Beautiful photo Raven!
    Looks like Helliburton stepped in it, but a sternly worded letter will surely be their fate.

    Something inside me tells me that in that vast expanse of universe, there are beings who look upon us with a certain sense of sadness. So much potential, yet so much uncontrolled greed, strife and madness infects our species.

  8. QOTD:

    “If Newt Gingrich becomes president, we all deserve to die in a purifying fire,” – libertarian Will Wilkinson.

  9. From Washington Monthly:

    * Michele Bachmann was endorsed yesterday by Phyllis Schlafly, a major anti-feminist leader and head of a religious group called the Eagle Forum.

    Schlafly is Bachmann in 30 years, so consumed with hatred that her bones smolder.

    • Not surprising when one considers that Batscat Bachmann uses Conservapedia, Phyllis’ baby boy’s monument to insanity and stupidity, as a source.

    • Schlafly has aged very well, considering that she is a 19th century Carrie Nation wannabe.

    • Holy shit! At the end, did that nutcase tell us that Jesus wants us to invest wisely?
      WTF? Raised a Catholic, that was never interpreted that way, ever.

      • I kinda wanted Thom to ask him why Jesus told people to give away all their possessions to follow him. Many are called, not many are willing to follow.

      • It would have been interesting if Fischer was on camera too. I don’t think he has any idea that said “new one” was ripped but I would need to see his expression to be sure. Either way, it’s obvious that he doesn’t even recognize the problem that Thom pointed out.

    • I did miss it. Thanks for posting it. Fisher and AFA and a whooooole bunch of other Jesus for Profit organizations are a bunch of hypocritical, self centered , uneducated fools. They need to be relegated to the trash heap of society.

      • Fisher and the other leaders of AFA are smart because they have convinced people to give them money, lots of money basically for nothing. Investing in AFA has a low rate of returnt. According to Fisher, Jesus wouldn’t approve of this investment.

    • Wow, Fischer didn’t even understand that he’d been slapped stupid…er.

      Don’t you just love that condescending tone and jolly laugh they use? As if they’ve actually gotten something over on you. :roll:

    • Ok, no idea what the kid said can’t hear it. Only thing I got was “My mommy…” (says…?)

      So I don’t support feeding 8 year old kids ‘gotcha’ lines. Homosexuality is complex and since the kid is 8 his knowledge of the issue has to be rudimentary. Ask the question yourself lady. I’m no Batshit aplogist, but I think that’s unfair.

      I’d have said “Is this your question or your momma’s?”

      • Yeah, I thought using the her kid was extremely exploitative on the mother’s part. If the mother had a beef with Bachmann she should have spoken up herself.

        • I agree with you and TtT to a point. We don’t know whether the kid was put forward or if Crazy Shelly picked him because she, wrongly, figured she could handle any question a young child would ask. Her terror of lesbians is also well documented so it’s possible that the mother was brushed aside.

    • He tells her his Mom is gay and doesn’t need fixing…
      Bachmann heard him when it was repeated and her facial expression said it all!

  12. My sister got a seat 30 feet from the podium for Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas today.

    Maybe she’ll live blog it.

    • Pretty cool. I saw my sister in the crowd just before the speech, they had a camera shot from the crowd, and I clearly saw her, turned around laughing and chatting with the person sitting behind her. She is well within shoe-throwing distance, too!

  13. Tweet of the Day:

    “I’m beginning to think Sarah Palin has stayed out of this GOP race because it’s beneath her dignity.” — Andy Borowitz.

    • I’m starting to think that the really crazy ones are only running to make Mittens look good by comparison. Either that or they think that the Dems won’t have the guts to pull the trigger on Newt’s history of corruption.

    • “How to win friends and influence people.”

      I have proposed a foreign aid budget that starts at zero. From that zero baseline, we will consider aid requests based solely on America’s national security interests.

      • I figured that someone would spot that bit. I also figure that his list will begin with Israel and end when he runs out of oil producing countries.

        • It’s not the first time he’s spouted this drivel and, yes, there was an exception being made for Israel–or at least Israel would move to the front of the line.

          I suspect first off the list would be Egypt.

    • The thing that’s maddening is that the sharp knives shouldn’t be required. A gentle puff of air, carrying the message of Newt’s corrupt nature, should be enough to blow the gasbag back to the slime he rose from. Alas, the “librul media” insists on calling him “Speaker” and treating him like an honored elder statesman. It’s almost enough to make me do something desperate but, since I don’t subscribe to cable, I can’t really boycott anyone in the “librul media”.

      • Nancy is gearing up – did you catch her comment about being one of four Congressional investigators who accumulated the evidence that forced that pustule to give up the Speakership back when he was just a philandering crook.

        • With public records, no less. The neutered one is running scared – promised to take down Pelosi for violating ethics…
          the puffed marshmallow doesn’t quite understand the public in public records.

        • True; but how many casual news watchers will ever hear it? How many heard her brilliant speech, laying out the GOP plan to destroy the economy in order to bring down the Obama Administration, the day that Weiner resigned? What I’m talking about, mostly, are the anchors of so-called news programs who steadfastly refuse to call Newt “corrupt”.

          • That won’t happen – he’s a Repugnant one – and so are the media.
            Only Democrats get called on their ‘sins’.

            • Exactly. That’s why I still think our only hope is a wide scale boycott of cable TV with a demand for reform of “news” networks and true ala carte’ service. That also won’t happen but a guy can dream.

              It’s actually rather funny. Every couple months my local cable provider calls me up to pimp their latest “spectacular offer”. In contrast to other telemarketers; I allow them to run through their spiel. Then I ask them if I can order just Discovery Channel, History Channel, and SyFy and specifically exclude cable “news” networks because i refuse to pay people to lie to me. I’m sure that it doesn’t get passed up the chain but I feel good about telling them why I won’t buy their service.

    • Shiver shiver shiver.

      Frankly, they’re lucky I’m not in Obama’s chair — then they’d have something to worry about. Not sure there’s a good use for a gun, much less a good reason to own one. Never have been sure. At least not since the day I shot a squirrel out of a tree with my pellet pistol and then stood over it and watched it die.

      A guy on a chat list one time chastised me for my anti-gun stance, asked me what I’d do if four armed black guys came after me on a darkened street. I told him I’d make murderers out of them. Made him mad. Why, I have no idea. ;)

      • If you had a gun and 4 black guys or 4 any color guys were coming after you, you would be statistically likely to have your gun taken away from you and used on you.

        Besides, what are you doing walking on that darkened street, frugal? Don’t you know that you can get raped like that? Especially if you are wearing something suggestive? /snarky

        • This one is for frugal too re: the hypothetical assault by scary brown people.

          Despite some anxiety issues I’ve never been afraid of my fellow man. Since I’m almost 6’2″, spent much of my life enjoying/enduring physical exertion, and I haven’t carried cash since the invention of debit cards, I wouldn’t make a good target. Still, I have given some thought about what I would do if someone tried to rob me whether on the street or at home. I’ve decided that the best course of action would be to suggest that i buy the robber a beer and/or throw a pizza in the oven while we get acquainted and I find out if I can help. I would endeavor to make it very clear that the situation can be resolved without anyone getting hurt or going to jail. If negotiations break down I figure there’s always time to hit a robber with the biggest, heaviest, hardest object that falls to hand. Using a firearm on another human being just doesn’t even make the cut on my list of methods to resolve conflicts.

      • Personally, I would just enforce the “well regulated militia” part of the 2nd Amendment. Far fewer guns would fall into the wrong hands if all gun owners were required to meet minimum requirements and present themselves and their weapons for periodic inspection and training. Doing away with the term “accidental shooting” and replacing it with “criminal negligence” would also make sense to me along with very strict laws regarding the security of firearms to keep them out of the hands of children and burglars. I don’t buy into the “guns don’t kill people” meme but I am firmly convinced that the biggest problem with guns is that we don’t do enough to keep them out of the hands of children, fools, felons, and psychopaths.

        I never had much problem killing animals, mostly game birds, I intend to eat but i got to the point where I got uncomfortable with cleaning big mammals. I can still help cut up the meat of a deer, bear, moose, antelope, or domestic farm animal but the field dressing makes me realize how similar they are to us humans. I gave up deer hunting many years ago and I can depend on friends to provide me with a couple good meals a year. To me, hunting has always been about the eating.

  18. Thanks a lot Raven for standing in. Terrible day at work today and no lunch break to post. Your picture is again just fabulous. How you do it? I can’t imagine, pure talent and lots of practice I guess. Thanks again.

    • I wouldn’t presume to speak for Raven but, as an intermittently avid shutter bug, I think the key is to take lots and lots of pictures. Often it’s the ones that one thinks won’t turn out are the best of the bunch. On a related note…

      one of these days i have to get my scanner working with my new computer and then learn how to post the scanned images. I have over 40 years of accumulated nature pictures and pictures of airshows that I think people may enjoy.

  20. Emily Dickinson summed up the current Republican candidate field about 150 years ago, circa 1861, when she wrote:

    To fill a Gap
    Insert the Thing that caused it –
    Block it up
    With Other — and ’twill yawn the more –
    You cannot solder an Abyss
    With Air.

    How’d she do that? Amazing.

    • Perhaps she was visited by the same muse as Groucho Marx? He nailed the current GOoPers with “I’m Against It” circa 1932.

  21. Will anyone challenge Mittens on this in public? Seems that his staff didn’t just remove government hard drives to cover his ass, but they spent a lot of government funds to do so.

    The cleanup of records by Romney’s staff before his term ended included spending $205,000 for a three-year lease on new computers for the governor’s office, according to official documents and state officials.

    In signing the lease, Romney aides broke an earlier three-year lease that provided the same number of computers for about half the cost — $108,000. Lease documents obtained by Reuters under the state’s freedom of information law indicate that the broken lease still had 18 months to run.

    As a result of the change in leases, the cost to the state for computers in the governor’s office was an additional $97,000.

    • IF (shudder) he gets the nomination, the subject of fiscal responsibility and transparent government will get shoved way the hell up his gazoo. And he won’t be able to tap dance away from Obama shredding his ass.

    • Challenging any Reichwhiner about anything seems to be taboo. I’m also increasingly convinced that the “not Romney” clowns are only there to make Mittens look like the reasonable adult in the race.

    • One of the most glaring shortcomings of modern America is that we don’t prosecute the officers of corporations who kill their employees and/or customers. I’m not a big fan of China in general but I sometimes admire them for imprisoning and/or executing (I vacillate on capital punishment in general) managers and owners, at least the ones who lack connections at the top, who cause death and injury. Sigh… We don’t prosecute war criminals either so I guess that I have to get in line for a redress of my grievances.

    • Not soon enough.

      It won’t go away – the tenacious survivors aren’t going to be placated with the monetary ‘award’ …

      Gary Quarles, whose son Gary Wayne Quarles died in the disaster, said: “I want to hear names, and I want to know what they’re going to be charged for. Today would have been a fine day for them to have told us.”

  23. California, Nevada team up to investigate mortgage abuses

    “The mortgage crisis is a man-made disaster that has taken a heavy toll on the country, but it saved its worst for California and Nevada,” said Harris. “The mortgage crisis is a law enforcement matter, and we will prosecute to hold accountable those who are responsible and also protect the homeowners who are targeted for fraud.

  24. Hello, all. The internet has been up for a few hours, but I’ve been busy.

    I’m hoping there’s a link up-thread to the video of the President’s speech today. If not, I’ll find it.

  26. I think I’ll relax in my comfy used chair and catch up with Rachel/Ed/Lawrence.

    Y’all keep an eye out for that speech, and I’ll do the same. :)

  27. Said by the highest person in the land, and about damn time. This should start some debate or name calling:

    It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.

    • We have witnessed 30, almost uninterrupted, years of tax cuts while industry has left the country and we have seen no jobs or growth to show for it. As a percentage of GDP our taxes are lower than they’ve been since the 19th century. Concurrently, we have allowed money changers to write fiscal policy to their advantage. The disgusting part is that, largely due to propaganda that would make Herr Goebbels blush, a sizable percentage of the American electorate is convinced that the problem is that the Reichwhiners have been thwarted in some of their efforts to turn us into a feudal society.

  29. Gotta love our “librul” press/media. I submit this only for amusement.

    Last night some troll wrote a post to my local paper where he alleged that he had found bone marrow in the center of a dinosaur fossil, “alleged to be millions of years old”, he was cleaning. Then he posed the question “could bone marrow survive for millions of years”? Since it’s an area of long interest and some expertise, I told him that, if he reached the center of a fossil while he was cleaning it, he was doing it wrong. Predictably, he reported my post as abusive and I had to write an email to Katherine to explain that I had merely corrected a falsehood without violating the Terms of Use. Meanwhile, another poster who I have reported dozens of times for calling the President “Obummer”, “Obomba”, and even “President mandingo” has never had his comments blocked to the best of my knowledge.

    We are fighting an unequal battle and the editorial boards of newspapers are not on our side. But? They will cave if one is stubborn enough. My account has been reactivated and I will continue to fight the good fight.

      • Well, to be fair, there are reports of preserved soft tissue inside a t rex fossil. From what I have read it sounds like the structure of the soft tissue was preserved well enough that the minerals that replaced the soft tissue were replaced, again, by organic material during the treatment of the fossil in question. I think his post was analogous to Crazy Shelly’s claim that vaccines cause “mental retardation”. He saw a reference to soft tissue being discovered inside a fossil and decided to lie abut it.

        (NOTE: I don’t know if anyone has been able to prove that soft tissue can’t be preserved inside a fossil where the external layers are replaced by minerals that form an impervious surface.)

    • Funny. Hannitty is most popular, Billo is sixth, yet Billo pulls a million more viewers every night than Hannitty.

      Who calls themselves Democrats and watches Blitzer?

          • I can’t either but I have encountered it. I met a guy through flying R/C airplanes and we became friendly. He seemed like a decent sort until he had a few beers and he turned into a Nazi. There’s no need to repeat his words but “mud people” was bandied about. I haven’t seen him in almost 20 years but, the last I heard, he was busy drinking himself to death. it couldn’t happen to a more fit person.

            • It’s not normal to be so hate-filled. He knows it, but all he knows to do is drink himself into the grave.

              If that’s all he can figure, then godspeed to him.

    • ohh, the vitriolic anti-Catholicism isn’t something I’ve seen in a very long time. Truly something is eating at the insides of the writer.

  34. Trump’s holding a GOP debate!?

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!11!!!1!!!!

    How ridiculous! It must be a coinkydink that Trump has a book coming out.

    • He’s also going to endorse the one he decides is the “winner”. It sounds like more fun than throwing rocks at Grandma or feeding baby brother to the hogs.

      • If I were a repiggie — please shoot me if that ever happens — I’d be angry that these GOP clowns are turning something so important into a god-damned circus.

    • Romney won’t participate in Trump debate, cites busy campaign schedule

      Jon Huntsman and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) have already said that they would be skipping the event, arguing that Trump’s resume as a reality TV show host delegitimized the presidential process.

      Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) has wavered on her participation.

  37. The police dept. just phoned: my car has been found. “It looks ok.” is what the officer said.
    No way of knowing if operable.
    (I can’t imagine the steering column would be in good shape…won’t know until the morning)

      • We’ll find out in the morning.
        Seems it was towed, from a private residence, the day after it was stolen.
        Odd thing – the apartment manager called me early afternoon and wanted to re-assign my parking spot. I said ok until I either get a car or mine is found.
        Life can be quirky.

      • Exactly my thought – and I asked if it were operable – of course, since it was towed, they don’t know…

    • For his part, Mayor Crocker stressed that the city’s firefighters will help people in danger, even those who haven’t paid the fee. “After the last situation, I would hope that everybody would be well aware of the rural fire fees, this time,” Crocker said.

      Compassionate s.o.b. isn’t he?///

  39. I am still up,but scheduled for the sack in about half an hour.

    I came across this interesting item. It seems that HS dropouts are a drag on the economy and the state and the United States are bearing the penalty.

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