The Watering Hole: June 3, 2011 — Clearcut forests to fight global warming!

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Natural Resources Today

Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) thinks it would be a great idea for the U.S. to help countries all over the world clearcut all of their trees, in order to fight global climate change.

Srsly.

Is there some thought being given to subsidizing the clearing of rainforests in order for some countries to eliminate that production of greenhouse gases?” Rohrabacher asked Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s special envoy for climate change. “Or would people be supportive of cutting down older trees in order to plant younger trees as a means to prevent this disaster from happening?

Cutting down all the trees, which absorb tons of CO2 every day, would actually make the problem of global climate change WORSE.  But don’t bother telling Dumbass Rohrabacher, cuz he knows the real cause — nature.

This is our daily open thread — what’s warming your heart & soul today?

230 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: June 3, 2011 — Clearcut forests to fight global warming!”

  1. A Tree is a Tree said another clueless GOoPer: Saint Ronnie of the Demented

    Reagan’s knowledge of environmental issues, except for air pollution, was minimal.
    Even the geography of the north coast, where trees outnumbered people, eluded him. During the 1966 campaign, a reporter asked Reagan a question about the Eel River (a battleground between those who wanted to dam its middle fork and those who sought to preserve it as a wild river). Reagan asked where it was. The reporter told the embarrassed candidate that he was standing alongside it.

    I think, too, that we’ve got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you’ve looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees – you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?

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  2. Rohrabacher must be heavily invested in an oxygen bottling company, or portable oxygen concentrators.

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  3. I believe Rohrabacher’s “confusion” may be the result of several misguided ideas that serve as a basis for today’s right-wing philosophy in addition to several “rules” that people pointlessly follow. One, God made humans and gave them complete dominion over the planet. (Ann Coulter said He said we could “rape it.”) Two, since we are supreme on this planet, nothing we do can possibly be considered “bad.” Then we have the “rules of a polite society” which say that it is impolite to call someone “stupid” to their face. And then there are Congressional rules that deny a Member the privilege of directly calling someone a liar.

    The end result is that we have stupid, lying, idiotic Republicans (like Rohrabacher) using their Congressional privileges to stand up and say the most outrageous, moronic things, and no one in the House is allowed to call them what they are – the stupidest fucking people on the planet (or what’s left of it.)

    Add to all that the successful; right-wing strategy of saying we must have “balance” in our debates, that we must “hear both sides of the argument,” as if both sides of the argument are equally valid and it’s just a matter of which guy’s argument you accept and nothing at all to do with the actual truth. The right-wing in this country has managed to make the truth a casualty of every political debate now. If Democrats say the sky is blue, the Republicans are allowed to stand up and say, “No, it isn’t, it’s green.” And we’re supposed to respect that point of view and treat it as if it had any validity whatsoever.

    Political talk show hosts invite people to appear on their programs and the guests are almost always given a free pass to espouse any outlandish theory they want. But if you question them, they become indignant (or pretend to) and try to claim that you are denigrating millions of Americans who feel the same way. never mind that these are millions of uninformed dumb shits who don;t know the first thing about what they’re saying except that Rush Limbaugh (or Glenn Beck, or Sean Hannity) told them this so it must be true.

    And we can lay the blame for this squarely on the Republican Party’s thirty-plus-year campaign to destroy our nation’s public education system. What makes that part even worse is that the private education Republicans want to support (with taxpayer dollars) is not superior to the public education we all pay for with out tax dollars. [For example: Graduates of Regent’s University are given law degrees they would never have been able to get at even the worst public schools.]

    It is truly a sad, sad commentary on this nation’s greatness that you can make more money spouting lies and complete bullshit and have it accepted as fact than you can telling everyone the truth. And I say we can thank today’s Republican Party for that.

    The Republican Party – Where the truth can go fuck itself.

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  4. Trees are the lungs of this planet … Without them, the planet dies

    Of course, you can’t have lung cancer without lungs, so maybe we should cut the Planets lungs out …

    :: Face Palm ::

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  5. Well said, Wayne. And the first thing I thought when I saw this post (actually the second after “This is a joke, right?”) was that Rohrerbacher (sp.) must have a special interest to want to see that happen … House, you might be onto something …

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  6. I notice every time there’s a snowflake, the deniers screech that it’s proof there’s no global warming. Yet, we have more floods, more violent storms, and other unusual weather events, and not a peep from them that it might actually be due to global warming.

    And… good morning all.

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  8. Good morning! We have a reply feature? Good job to whomever added it.

    I almost hope that Rohrerbacher is being paid by some special interest to say these things. I’d rather believe that than acknowledge the harm that is certain to follow if we are governed by folks who are that stark staring stupid.

    Didn’t the northwest have some impressive mudslides due to clear cutting a few years ago?

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    • Good Morning, Outstanding … Hope you have a great day!

      I think you are right about the mudslides; I just don’t recall where. And the tree roots hold the top layers of earths soil in place … Do we need to play “The Lorax” at the beginning of each House and Senate Session?

      I have to get ready for work now ~ keep up the good work here being a great steward of the Planet 🙂

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    • Yeah, and that’s way the hell more serious than say, outing a CIA agent.
      Geez, Holder, get some perspective.

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      • Or prosecuting people for torturing other people – or secret renditions – or lying to take the country to war – or using white phosphorous – the list goes on and on and on and on….

        I thought the Obama Administration was all about looking forward – ignoring the crimes of the past???

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        • AG Holder is perhaps the worst AG since, well the last two and he’s giving Alberto ‘Torquemada’ Gonzales a real run for his money in rank incompetence and political cowardice.

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  10. Good Morning Critters:

    The Anthony Weiner story reminded me of the well endowed male underwear model that graced a Sears catalog years ago, perhaps in the ’70’s. The head of his penis was fully visible below the bottom of the leg of the boxer shorts he was wearing!

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    • I admire Kevorkian because he put a spotlight on a very real and not uncommon situation – people who are terminally ill and in such pain that they are prepared to die rather than continue their suffering.

      I grew up knowing my mother’s nursing school friend, Margaret. She was a very bright, independent woman with a cutting wit, a single mother, er, “widow” as they were then known, a teacher and an artist. Maggie developed Parkinson’s, a devastatingly rapid form, and within a few years was in a nursing home, her body in violent spasms from head to toe. She and her daughter decided “it was time” and they removed her feeding tube. That poor woman languished, in pain, for over two weeks before she finally refused all fluids and died.

      We allow our pets to die with far more dignity. So, hats off to you, Dr. Kevorkian.

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  14. Well, I’ve figured out a method to track recent comments. Working in Chrome, I hit Control F, for a page text search, and put in June 3, 2011 6:1, which spots all the comments from 6:10 to 6:19 am. Then I can change the last digit to 2 in order to find the comments in the 6:20s and so on. So, with a little effort, I can keep up with the thread a bit better!

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    • I find the e-mail feed to be very useful. Also for what you’re wanting to do, an RSS would probably due the trick. The site’s Comments RSS feed is here.

      I hooked it up to my Yahoo page, and it seems to work fine. I also tried Google Reader, but wasn’t all that pleased with it. There are other options too.

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  15. Why sure! Let’s clear cut forests across the planet to help combat global warming! While we are at it lets dump more toxic chemicals into our lakes, rivers, streams and ground water to help kill bacteria.

    These evil phuck’s actually want to bring hell onto Earth. Tribulation will be by mans own hands. Won’t these idiots be surprised when they achieve their wicked goals to destroy the planet for maximum corporate profits and realize there is no rapture?

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    • But Jebus is coming, dontcha know?

      I can’t help feeling that, if there is some supreme being, she’s really pissed at the way her “devoted followers” are destroying our one and only planet. We have brilliant scientific minds to research, conclude, warn, and guide a change of course, but that might mean that billionaires and wannabes would see less profit in their rape of the planet.

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  17. I always admired Dr. Kevorkian, thought his ideas were spot on. I still find it fascinating that a society which loves war and has no worries if tens of thousands (or more) people die needlessly, a society which allows any nut to own a gun, to murder others, a society which allows and exercises the death penalty, all in a world where EVERY human alive at any given moment is going to assuredly die one day anyway, refuses to allow the afflicted to take the assisted easy way out when the time is, in their own eyes, right. The Right to Die. Jack Kevorkian was imprisoned solely because he believed in and assisted those who felt it was time.

    I understand there were differences between Kevorkian and the case of Terri Schiavo back in 2005, that it was not HER request to be allowed to die in peace, that it was a collective decision by others who understood the reality involved. Nevertheless, Tom DeLay used the situation to “eloquently” explain things, to sum up the virtue, sanctity, and politics of human life:

    “One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America. This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others.” ~Tom DeLay, House Maj. Leader, R-TX; March, 2005

    That from a man who had, according to wire reports, “voted to take his own father off life support 17 years ago.”

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  19. AOL teaser headline:

    Also in the Headlines
    Obama Vows to Raise Taxes

    WTF? I open the link and it goes to HuffPo and the story is about Obama not extending the Bush tax cuts again. AOL and HuffPo, that’s some synergy between partners, eh?

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  22. LOL I was kidding about adding like and dislike buttons leading to Disgust and Facebook and now, presto, like and dislike appear. Didn’t know I had so much influence. 😮

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  23. From TP:

    A new poll conducted by Lake Partners, found that 79 percent of “Americans feel Congress has focused too much on abortion and not enough on things like preventive care, reproductive health and expanding access to birth control.” But only four in 10 respondents “said they would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress who votes to defund groups like Planned Parenthood.”

    Well done, Repiggies. You’re making the American public sick and tired of YOU.

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    • No kidding — the GOP assault on women and women’s civil rights will soon backfire on them.
      Why any woman would vote GOP escapes me.
      Even Indiana, where HHS said defunding PP is against federal law, the
      GOP (and Daniels) say they will defy the law and do it anyway.

      Family Values?
      Respect for the Law?

      Lies, and the lyin’ liars who tell them.

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  24. John Edwards is indicted and Bible Spice is “vacationing” around the country visiting primary sites in her big fancy bus lugging her family and dissing other primary candidates while begging for more money. I bet nobody is investigating her.

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    • I will not defend John Edwards, but I wonder why he is indicted for campaign illegalities when so many others have done the same (mostly GOP).
      It seems to me this is not a criminal issue, but a matter for the F.E.C.

      Same with the non-story about A. Weiner. It’s not a sex scandal. It is a photoshopped pic.
      He hasn’t helped his case, I agree, but the media fascination with this is almost obscene in itself.

      The double standard is very prominent.

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      • I think it was Lawrence O’Donnell who said that if people were accusing him of having a package that large he wouldn’t want to deny it either. And Jon Stewart said he’d been a roommate of Weiner’s and that definitely wasn’t his equipment although he’s sure Weiner would like it to be. I thought men believed that crap about how size doesn’t matter. 🙂

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  25. When morons get elected because of a negligent press, an ill- informed electorate, and willfully ignorant, this is what we get.

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    • If I may?

      We mustn’t forget campaigning from the pulpit. A lot of Reichwhiners vote for morons because their preachers tell them said morons are “good Christians”.

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      • Sigh…you’re right.
        Preachers have their own agenda, biases, and desires. They can be cloaked in the guise of “christianity” but they are false prophets, exploiting their position for their own purposes.
        Depriving children of an education and decent food and housing while continuing tax breaks for millionaires — or deying granny a decent life in her final years — or denying health care for the working poor or the unemployed — why that is considered “christian” is beyond me.

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      • Is it possible that Princess Snowpants is actually more stupid and uninformed than she was when she emerged onto the national stage? What 3rd grader doesn’t know the story of Paul Revere? Well, other than her brood, none of whom appear to attend school when Mama needs a photo op.

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        • Her IQ is so low she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know and doesn’t think she has to learn anything that won’t make her money. She is too stupid to know people laugh at her not because of her “lamestream media” but because she says really stupid stuff.

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      • Thanks, Shayne. Do you still draw a blank when you click on my name at TP?
        Things are more calm here, and no trolls, just good discussion and comments.

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            • It’s John Wayne night and I’m watching “Rio Bravo”!

              One last thought on John Edwards. If the justice department is going to go after him for misuse of campaign funds, then they had better be consistent and go after Christine O’Donnell as well. It was pretty clear she had also misused campaign funds, though nobody had done anything about it yet. Surely not to the amounts Edwards is accused of, but rules are rules. If they are going after Edwards, they have to look into her as well.
              I can’t help but feel that this is more about making Edwards pay for what he did to humiliate Elizabeth before the world. I frankly think he’s been shunned and humiliated pretty good out of natural consequences. He’ll never win another election to anything, and it’s not clear if he’ll ever be able to practice his profession again, especially after this. I really feel bad for the rest of his family. They’ve lived through enough crap already.

  27. That is among the stupidest things ever said and everyone is stupider for having heard it. The wholesale destruction of natural CO2 sinks is, at least, as big a problem as emissions from burning fossil fuels. I don’t recall hearing of this guy before but he’s already managed to move into competition with Batscat Bachmann for the title of stupidest member of Congress.

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    • “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” — Ronald Reagan, 1981
      I believe he thought trees used oxygen and emitted carbon dioxide. Stupidity is not new to the Republican party.

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    • 11:44 AM | TPM NEWS | #
      Paul Ryan, Who Supported Auto Bailout And TARP, Says Government Shouldn’t Pick Winners

      House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) warned at Friday’s Faith and Freedom Conference that the government needed to remove itself from the free market.

      Of course not, that’s the job of Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Banksters! If government were to pick the winners, they might choose workers and consumers!

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  29. Watching the first segment of yesterday’s Hardball this morning, I noticed Palin ranting about the horror of “government mandates” (in re health care, specifically, but apparently ANY government mandate imposed on we the people). Had I been there to ask her a question, I’d have asked how she feels about the slew of ‘mandates’ in the current mill, in states across and around the country, that want to ‘mandate’ that abortion be criminalized and forbidden — by government ‘mandate’.

    She’d certainly have agreed 100% with me that such mandates are wrong. Right?

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    • frugal, I saw that, too. Here’s what she said:

      “However, even on a state level and even a local level, mandates coming from a governing body, it’s tough for a lot of us independent Americans to accept, because we have great faith in the private sectors and our own families … and our own businessmen and women making decisions for ourselves. Not any level of government telling us what to do.”

      So is Frigid Barbie now pro-choice?

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      • Nope, she’d rather have the private sector tell her what to do – because of her great ‘faith’.

        faith – belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, *especially without logical proof*

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      • So is Frigid Barbie now pro-choice?—-

        Well, from the Blind Allegiance Book by Frank Bailey, he says she “gave Bristol a choice” — that means she would have been perfectly OK with Bristol terminating her pregnancy.

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    • Good question. What is frightening is sending people to jail because of an abortion. Soon they will be working on making birth control illegal and sending people to jail for using birth control.

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      • Next, women will be sent to jail for refusing to have sex with their husband or refusing a date on a Saturday night — preventing a possible pregnancy, ya know.

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      • I believe there is a law in the making (is it Alabama or Mississippi?) to do just that. They will outlaw the pill.
        Their anti-contraceptive argument this time is focused directly on the chances that a women taking the pill might still become pregnant only to have the baby aborted by the hostile environment created in the womb by taking the pill.
        They will put it under “personhood” legislation which declares that a sperm and egg become a “person” as soon as they unite.
        So — this is the party of “small government” ???

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  30. Little Miss Palin
    still busily failin
    was riding her bus thru town
    Took a potshot at history
    to her such a mystery
    The Right Wings favorite clown

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  31. After perusing today’s servings of Republican misspeak I am wondering if they shouldn’t detail someone in their entourage to be something like a flapper (ala Jonathan Swift) or the person in the TV studio that used to hold up the signs that said Applause or Laugh.

    This one could hold up a sign that says “JUST KIDDING!” when they say something totally bogus.

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    • If rampant democracy were to truly break out throughout the Middle East, what sort of an effect would that have on the drooling Rapturites?

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      • None, until the price of gas went up to five bucks. Then they’d blame descendent-of-Cain Obama for the both the non-rapture AND the arrival of commie democracy in the burgeoning anti-American Caliphate.

        Something like that.

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    • So, Ecclestone wants to risk his sponsors by reinstating the Bahrain F1 race? That gnomish oligarch never did have a conscience. If I were the Brazilian F1 organizers, I’d sue him. They had the last race on the schedule. Now it looks to be India. In a way I kind of hope Vettel and Webber wrap the championships early so it won’t be relevant.

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      • House, how much weight would be added to your basic F1 car by a 20mm chain gun and targeting system? Certainly would add a new dimension to the sport.

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  33. Tell the media: Stop covering Sarah Palin and start doing your job

    Once again, Sarah Palin is playing the news media for fools, and once again, they’re falling for it…

    We’re not picking America’s top model, top chef, or top dancer — we’re picking a president. And until Palin actually announces or makes some real news, it’s time for the media to stop fawning over her, and to start vetting the real candidates who actually might become president.

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  34. Zooey — I left a post yesterday about you planting a statue of St. Joseph to help you sell your house. You don’t have to fully believe, ( and I know it’s superstition at it’s greatest), but heck, it couldn’t hurt. 😉

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    • I’m kind of a vision board gal myself and would suggest printing out a picture of your home and slap a SOLD sign on it. Include your desired asking price, too, if you’d like. Putting stuff out into the universe sometimes works, sometimes not, but like you said LL, it can’t hurt!

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      • I LOVE vision boards! I definitely believe in putting things out into the universe, and I have discovered that one has to be VERY specific about some of these things or the universe may answer in an incomplete way…

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  36. According to Kos, Amy Klobuchar is kicking as in potential senate seat challengers, beating Pawlenty by 13 points and BatShit Bachmann by a whopping 20 points!

    Doesn’t look like TPaw could even carry his own state in the general election for prez.

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    • That’s why I kinda hope they both run. I can’t think of a better way for my beloved Minnesota to repudiate the mad march to the extreme right than to see two Minnesota wingnuts get beaten in the primary of their home state. No one outside Crazy Shelly’s church circuit fails to see she’s insane and no one likes T-Paw since he abandoned his job to run for national office.

      On the other hand. I dread seeing the local press/media pimping their candidacies because having Minnesotans running for President makes them feel more important. The fact that one is a pandering dolt and the other belongs in a locked psych ward probably won’t be enough to prevent them from claiming that two presidential candidates makes us more relevant.

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    • If it were my choice to make, I’d have Sarah Palin arrested and charged with child abuse. She’s done nothing but use those kids to support or hide her own dementia. She needs to be seriously dealt with before it’s too late. If it’s not already. Too. Late.

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      • I worry that little Trig is probably not receiving the therapy and assistance he will need to maximize his potential. It takes a lot of time and Sarah sure isn’t doing it. It’s not enough to choose to have a child with a disability, one must also raise him.

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        • I’d be surprised if the child is getting any sort of assistance, and since he’s not an adorable baby anymore, mama isn’t interested in carrying him around like a sack of potatoes. He’s home being ignored by the minimum wage nanny.

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    • I don’t know about Alaska, but all throughout the country elementary schools are still in session! How is it that Piper can be on a family vacation during the school year?

      Oh, that’s right. Education is so elitist, even at the 4th grade level!

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  38. Frugal doesn’t understand why people follow Palin. There are admirers, curiosity seekers, and those of us who she scares senseless. Put me in the latter.

    I’m focused on Palin because she represents, to my mind, the core of today’s “conservative” movement: a desire to smash existing institutions and to “fundamentally restore” the American status quo before the Great Society, and even, the New Deal. That she comes as a female wrapped in what most people consider a physically attractive facade makes her undeniably a threat.

    And what’s the deal with the “Ebert thumbs” and “Rate This”? Is The Zoo upgrading, or competing?

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    • I don’t plan to rate anyone. Y’all should assume I like all your posts and that if I don’t I’ll be too polite to tell you.

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    • I’m not afraid, don’t fear much if anything at all. Have long felt that unwarranted fear is the wrong path to take. From the Academy Award-winning script by Abby Mann in the movie Judgment at Nuremberg, filmed in 1961, German judge Ernst Janning, on trial before the Tribunal circa 1947, speaks of national fear alive in Germany in the thirties:

      “There was a fever over the land. A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. There was, above all, fear. Fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that can you understand what Hitler meant to us. Because he said to us: ‘Lift up your heads! Be proud to be German! There are devils among us. Communists, Liberals, Jews, Gypsies! Once the devils will be destroyed, your miseries will be destroyed.’ It was the old, old story of the sacrificial lamb. …”

      I was just a kid when Joe McCarthy did his best to promote fear in the US. We had recently gotten our first TV, and some of the hearings were televised. I enjoyed watching my dad laugh at McCarthy rather than fall prey to the culture of fear that was under slow but obviously deliberate cultivation. But that wasn’t new to me — there never was any ‘fear’ in our house. Pop always dismissed silly crap like McCarthyism — and he’d have dismissed Palin after the first five minutes of her acceptance speech in 2008 with the same line he used to dismiss the commie plot to conquer the world and make everyone a slave: “In a hundred years, no one will even remember their names. Or care.”

      That was only 57 or so years ago, but today his words ring truer than ever. Sarah Palin? I fear her as much as I fear a wild wolf pack: not at all. And when it comes to respect, I’ll side with the wolf pack any day of the week — sense of honor demands it. And believe it: in a hundred years, people will still know and remember wolf packs. Sarah Palin? No chance. Poof.

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      • There’s a guy down the street who has a giant banner in his yard that showed up when Obama was elected. It says:

        “When the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty.”

        I have a nearly uncontrollable urge to hang another banner next to it that says; “Frightened people make stupid decisions”. I decided against it when I was walking past his place and saw that it was all six cops could do to drag him, kicking and screaming, to a squad car.

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    • In the book “Game Change” by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin there is quite a bit on John Edwards (and Elizabeth). They talk about his $400 haircuts. He’d actually received TWO $400 from a posh Beverly Hills stylist who later revealed that he’d once charged John Edwards $1,250 for a session back in 2004. (This is directly from the book).
      When you are a man and you have a man’s short haircut, what could they possibly do that is worth $1,250? Sprinkle it with gold dust?
      The chapter in question is entitled “They LOOOOOVE ME!”

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  42. How John Edwards’ $400 Haircut Lead To Alleged Illegal Donations

    This is a cautionary tale for Gov. Goodhair.

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  43. TtT – (you may want to re-think that power mower envy)

    Rock Thrown From Mower Kills Passing Woman
    Volleyball-Sized Rock Grazes Driver, Kills Woman

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  46. Just popping in for a tiny little bit.

    Hi Zooey and assorted critters and carbon-based lifeforms.

    I was going to give a thumbs up to Outstanding’s comment that TPZOO doesn’t need a thumbs-up/down feature, but doing so would have been…Republican of me ( and ironic of course).

    Particularly ‘good’ comments are invariably identified by the reponses they get. Some comments, like those pertaining to Formula One racing or bird-spotting tend to render the rating/thumbsup-down feature inapplicable, whilst anyhting informative, pithy clever or funny gets its recognition in the responses it engenders.

    In all other cases every comment here tends is of a consistent standard that there’s no point in giving them any ‘prizes’—-unless of course the plan is to total up the scores later on and then have an awards show! 😀

    So the voting up/down feature gets a definite ‘Gingrich’ from me—ther’s no need for it at all.

    ,

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  48. There used to be a spray-painted piece of plywood propped up against a tree on U.S. 12 that read on one side, “Obama Sucks,” and on the other, “Palin/Beck 2012.”

    Last time I drove past, I noticed that a tree had fallen in the last windstorm, crushing the silly sign — and demolishing the rickety deck on his trailer house.

    Heh.

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  49. The House of Representatives voted on a pair of resolutions related to the Libyan conflict today. The first resolution — which rebukes President Obama for the way he has conducted the Libyan operation and demands more information and accountability from the administration — passed 268 to 145.

    I seem to remember writing about this the other week, in that there was a bunch of harrumphing recently about thw War Powers Act —Democrat Mike Honda was on concerened congress-critter—and I pointed out at the time it was a bunch of ill informed whining that would/t and couldn’t come to anything because Congress has never had the balls to actually impose the terms of the act since it was introduced.

    If congress had actually used the War Powers Act to cease Liibyan operations, it would appear as though they were hitting themselves in the face!–Congress wrote the law and has refused to apply it ever since. The problem isn’t Obama overreaching any executive powers, its the congress failing to exercise its own consitutional and legal authority on principle and in fact , as per fucking usual.

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      • The second resolution, authored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), would’ve required U.S. armed forces to withdraw from Libya within 15 days. It failed 265 to 148.

        Dennis K means well, but as he’s been relying on the War Powers Act, and a Congress which, despite its knee jerk Obama bashing simply doesn’t want to actually DO anything about anything that might appear in any way actually principled, just in case it sets a precedent unintended consequences ( like preventing a future Republican president from going to war on a whim).

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        • So did they vote it down because a nazi/socialist Dem wrote the bill? Or because they just feel safer when we’re killing brown people?

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  50. Sad day today. I had to put my baby, my 14 year old Siberian Husky, Reenie, down this afternoon. The Vet found a large tumor pressing against her spine and she’s had trouble breathing the last two days. I rescued Rennie from death row at the Humane Society when she was 3 years old. I’ve owned two other Huskies in my life, all great dogs in their own wonderful and unique ways, but Rennie was the best, so many memories and funny incidents, God am I gonna miss her a ton! 😦

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  54. IP…I’m so sorry!

    I just DREAD the day that something happens to our King of the House, Oswald (better known as Ozzie). We got him when he was about 8-10 weeks old…someone found him here in Los Angeles with a big bite mark on his neck. In fact, today, June 3 is his 11th “Birthday” here at the house. And what is he made of? Who knows…he’s medium sized, about 55 pounds, short hair, kind of fawn red…looks like he’s got some terrier and ridgeback. So that is what we tell people we like…those that we don’t like, we tell them he’s a pit! I’ve dealt with rescuse pits and he most certainly does not have pit in him…but we like to bug dog / animal haters.

    Our regrets to you and yours.

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  55. IP, so sorry to hear about Rennie. My daughter visited us just yesterday — she and her five year old Siberian Huskie named Balta. Balta is one of the most amazingly intelligent and gentle critters I’ve ever run across. A ‘typical’ SH, daughter says. I don’t even want to think about the day it’s time for Balta to travel to the stars. Can’t imagine the sadness to follow. Maybe the thankfulness implicit in having known them will help with the sadness.

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    • Wow, and I was still reeling from the ‘new’ information that Revere rode through towns shooting off guns to warn the British that they couldn’t take our guns…

      I have so much to learn at Scarah’s knee.

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    • Geithner, she said, has “given us now four different due dates where catastrophe would befall us if the debt ceiling is not raised. . . . Well, once bitten, twice shy. How many more times are we going to have to hear this date change?”

      This coming from a fundie awaiting the ‘rapture’ that’s been ‘postponed’ how many times now?

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      • OK, I’m giving that comment a thumbs up… since the like buttons are gone…. 😉 (I don’t like the buttons, but I like your comment EBB

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    • Sarah Palin really DOESN’T know anything.. about anything. She makes it up as she goes. She is just a whole lot of personality and chutzpah, with no substance or common sense (or, as it seems, basic education), and is an attention and media whore. She is a narcissist and possibly a megalomaniac. She contributes NOTHING. And she is as mean and vindictive as they come (with a smile on her face)..

      I don’t believe she is going to run. She can’t be that stupid. I just think she wants her share of attention, she is paying back a few people (like Romney), and she likes jerking people around to feel like she is powerful. I can’t stand this woman.

      Finding someone qualified to lead this country isn’t about a popularity contest.

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  57. Raven, if you’re still around —

    I just got word of a nasty fire in AZ, up in my old stomping ground in the Apache NF, above the Rim and to the west of US 191. Started in the Bear Wallow Wilderness and is burning northward. Roads are closed, evacuations (including even the towns of Alpine AZ and Luna NM some 25 miles to the north. Also the lodge where we worked in summer 08 at Hannagan Meadow, plus all ranches and cabins between the Black River and 191. Sounds nasty nasty nasty. If you happen to spot any updates, I’d greatly appreciate a heads up.

    The fire’s in the heart of the Mexican Wolf reintro area. If the winds keep blowing and there’s no rain, the fire could wreak havoc on the small handful of wolves still surviving in the wild.

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  62. I would like to thank all of you kind hearted people for the well wishes and sympathy in regard to the loss of Rennie!

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