I know it seems a frequent theme on this blog

But a lot of people, really suck.

A fitting capper to what they had already done metaphorically

Ugh.

On the morning of Dec. 19, 2012, in a Torrance courtroom, Larry Delassus' heart stopped as he watched his attorney argue his negligence and discrimination case against banking behemoth Wells Fargo.

His death came more than two years after Wells Fargo mistakenly mixed up his Hermosa Beach address with that of a neighbor in the same condo complex. The bank's typo led Wells Fargo to demand that Delassus pay $13,361.90 ­— two years of late property taxes the bank said it had paid on his behalf in order to keep his Wells Fargo mortgage afloat.

But Delassus, a quiet man who suffered from the rare blood-clot disorder Budd-Chiari syndrome and was often hospitalized, didn't owe a penny in taxes

Never quite gotten this, but okay

Let's see Lenin, Mao, Jeremy Bentham oh, and for a limited time only, Pope Formosus.

Its hard sometimes to wade between the legitimate and phony criticism of Chavez.   As Atrios pointed out a few days ago, the American Press does have a real aptitude for hating the leaders or government tells them to hate because of a hidden First Amendment Clause on that copy Nicolas Cage found.

Still, to each their own, but this hardly ever ends well.

Venezuela's acting president says Hugo Chavez's embalmed body will be permanently displayed in a glass casket so that "his people will always have him."

The deal with John McCain and pissing matches is

He'll have them all the time, especially every couple of hours during the night.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) responded to criticism Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has lobbed against him, saying in an interview, ”I treat Sen. McCain with respect, I don’t know if I always get the same in return.” McCain, who opposed Paul’s filibuster of now-CIA Director John Brennan, also referred to Paul, along with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), as “wacko birds” in a separate interview.

Paul's filibuster did at least pull him within one of a stopped-clock, so that I guess is an accomplishment.

Of course, this comes against the "laws of Attaturk's Life"

Sigh,

Soon after reaching perihelion, the comet [Pan-STARRS] may become visible to the naked eye for Northern Hemisphere sky-watchers low in the western horizon just after sunset on March 7, weather permitting, said Raminder Singh Samra, a resident astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

"When viewers look for Pan-STARRS, they should have a clear unobstructed view of the western horizon, as the comet is visible for only a few minutes each night in mid-March," Samra said.

"For best results a clear view of the horizon and dark skies are recommended, and having binoculars will greatly enhance the view for observers in large, bright cities." (Also see "New Comet Discovered—May Become 'One of Brightest in History.'")

About a half-hour to an hour after sunset on the 12th and 13th will be the easiest time to spot the comet, thanks to a young crescent moon.

But back to those "Laws" it is going to be cloudy and rainy/snowy here for the next few days.   There is no astronomical phenomena that will not be obscured by weather in my area.

Hide your face in shame

That THIS happened anywhere, let alone in the United States.

Stephen Slevin, arrested for a DWI and accused of driving a stolen car that he said he borrowed from a friend, was placed in solitary confinement shortly after he arrived at Dona Ana County Detention Center in New Mexico because he declined to post a $40,000 bond. After one medical examination, Slevin, who was severely depressed even before his arrest, was deemed suicidal and placed in a padded isolated cell with no natural light for 23 hours a day. Once in that cell, Slevin faced an insurmountable battle in changing his circumstance, in spite of neglect so severe that his toenails grew to curl around his foot, he pulled out his own decaying tooth and fungus grew on his face. He sent letters saying “I’m afraid to close my eyes” and “I don’t know much longer I can go on.” But the only response he received was greater sedation, his lawyer told NBC News. After two years in this circumstance, the charges against Slevin were dropped and he was released, having never been found guilty of any crime.

Slevin recently prevailed in a lawsuit which cost the taxpayers a large, large verdict. Slevin's jailers should be in jail.

[The] evidence included letters written by Plaintiff seeking help, and sick call requests documenting Plaintiff’s suffering from bed sores on his thighs, fungus growing on his face, rotting teeth, pain, inability to sleep and nightmares where he could not sleep. … Medical records kept by the Detention Center similarly documented Plaintiff’s experience of pain and suffering, and the lack of treatment for his many medical and dental conditions. … Plaintiff … spent six months along in his cell with virtually no human contact before his release.

Although first attempting to explain away his lack of recreation time by testifying that Plaintiff refused to come out of his cell, [Detention Center Director Christopher] Barela testified that he would not have put his dog in a cell like Plaintiff’s cell and left him there for a month at a time, even if his dog refused to come out. He admitted that, if his dog refused to come out, he would wonder what was wrong with her and take her to the veterinarian. Barela also acknowledged that he knew it was not acceptable to leave his dog or Plaintiff in the conditions in which Plaintiff was left [...]

With regard to the injurious effects of administrative confinement on Plaintiff, his expert, Dr. Grasisan,  … testified that Plaintiff was “more massively impaired by the PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, than [he] ha[d] ever seen in [his] entire professional life.” According to Dr. Grassian’s testimony, Plaintiff’s life “is kind of torture.”

You stay classy...and creepy Conservatives

Cripes!  What. An. Asshole.


As Blue Texan points out not only is this just offensive on its face, but the person referred to is on trial for killing her boyfriend.

Imagine

If public sector hiring was normal instead of austerity based how many jobs would be added and how many additional tax payers we'd have to drive down that deficit the monsters that rule the airwaves the much of the parties caucuses think can only be solved by fucking us?

According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 236,000 jobs were created last month, bringing the unemployment rate down to 7.7 percent. Analysts had expected 160,000 jobs.

The private sector created 246,000 jobs, while the public sector again contracted, losing 10,000 jobs. The wider U-6 measure of underemployment fell a tick to 14.3 percent

Hey Dick Cheney is still in the news even if only quasi alive

MoDo had the right amount of paxil when she wrote this -- and there's a forthcoming documentary where he's interviewed and says how AWESOME he is.   Which reminded me of this old chestnut.

Hey the guy who wrote this seems like a halfway decent snarky blogger, wonder what ever happened to him?

Chapter 1:

Dick was born in the house his father built. Dick's father was a sort of a little man, common man. He was a streetcar motorman first, then a farmer, and then he had a lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon ranch in California Wyoming. He sold it before they found oil on it. And then he was a grocer Lion-Tamer. He was a great man, because he did his job, and every job counts up to the hilt, regardless of what happens.

Nobody will ever write a book, probably, about Dick's mother. Dick's mother was a saint. A saint with eight teats and a dewclaw.

Chapter 2:

When Cheney was just a year and a half, he intercepted Japanese codes that stated they were preparing to attack Midway Island. He promptly sketched a crayola-gram to Admiral Chester Nimitz and changed the course of the war in the Pacific. For his heroism, Nimitz recommended Cheney for the medal of Freedom, but he was denied the award by Fascist-apologist Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Dick got his revenge at the age of four, when on a trip to Warm Springs, Georgia he introduced the resting Roosevelt to his pillow. [Sorry, classified]

Chapter 3:

1948, seven year old Dick Cheney tries to volunteer for the United States Air Force to participate in the Berlin Airlift, the attempt to keep West Berliners fed is known to young Dick as "Germany's second chance to get National Socialism right!". But just before he can bicycle down to the recruitment office he stubs his toe on the coffee table, suffering a nasty hangnail that would likely compromise his flight status. Darn the luck. Fortunately, Dick is able to turn to other priorities and engage in the war at home with incessent red-baiting of fellow second grader milk monitors and playing in Whittaker Chambers' pumpkin patch.

Chapter 4:

Dick hits puberty -- puberty hits back.

Dick waterboards puberty.

Puberty confesses to just about anything Dick asks.

It is a very dark period for Dick's old socks.


Chapter 5: The College Years

1960: Dick attends Yale, having won a scholarship for his High School Senior thesis in late 1958 "Castro's 26th of July Movement, an insurgency in its Last Throes". However, Dick has to leave school early after participating in the 'Kill a Commie for Nixon' program. Neverthless, it is determined by a council of Skull & Bones that Cheney will not be prosecuted because, after all, his victim was a liberal and from a mere middle class family. Dick drinks from Geronimo's skull and departs for Wyoming in 1962.

Dick takes time off from school, working for an electrical company as a lineman. However, in reality, Dick is listening in on phone conversations involving the Kennedy Administration. Later that Year, Dick visits Hollywood and gets a job as Marilyn Monroe's housekeeper going by the name "Eunice".

Dick and his High School Sweetheart Lynne begin sending each other letters and gifts. Lynne sends Dick the heart of a local farmhand, Dick sends Lynne the pelvic bone of a vagrant whose flesh he had boiled away. Their co-dependency grows stronger. On Valentine's Day 1963 Dick sends Lynne a letter that reveals the poet in Dick Cheney's soul:

Miss Vincent,

My regards to you on this February 14, 1963. Without you, my will to power would have stopped when I assumed hall monitor duties in junior high after Tim Wilson's 'little accident'. You have given me the drive to attain the highest levels of executive authority as well as introduced me to the consumption of human flesh. I look forward to maintaining a respectful distance from you for years to come.

Sincerely,

Richard B. Cheney

Dick returns to college this time at the University of Wyoming, to be closer to Lynne and available for late night sessions of passionless dry humping and random euthanizing of the pets of Wyoming Democrats. In the Fall of 1963, Dick who is double majoring in Unethical Behavior and Embezzlement, proposes to Lynne, saying the only thing he wants to do more than get in her pants is get the United States into a War it cannot win. Lynne chuckles, accepts and tells Dick he'll have at least two opportunities to do each. But first, she asks for a blood sacrifice to prove his devotion. Dick is puzzled as to what to do, but then just before Thanksgiving, he hops a train to Dallas.

Mitt Romney, leaving politics to spend more time taking money from other people's families

Late to the party, but he's back in private equity management and I just thought of the headline.

BLOGGING!

The price of being a d-bag

I wonder if the victim of the Dildo-boat assault has a claim pending?

James O’Keefe—the blonde bombshell who set the conservative world of hidden-camera YouTube movies ablaze—has just agreed to a $100,000 settlement to calm down the unjustly fired (and weirdly litigious about it) ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera. According to a copy of the deal, obtained late last night by your wonkettes and viewable after the jump, O’Keefe has also agreed to ink an 11-word non-apology apology, that sources close to reality are calling “insincere” and “suuuuuuuch bullshit.”

"Next time, definitely"

In the late 1990's CNBC money maven James Glassman and a co-author loudly proclaimed everything about the economy was SO awesome the Dow-Jones would be hitting 36,000 by the time George W. Bush eliminated the deficit for good and ended terrorism by August 2001, if I recall.

Missed it by that <------------------------------------------------------------------------->much. 

But like any conservative or corporate apologist there is no amount of being wrong that can keep them from their six and seven-figure gigs while asking for people in the five-figures to be fired. Less than two-years ago, Glassman announced he was wrong then and would apparently always be wrong forever into the future.

Slowly and reluctantly, after three decades writing about finance, I have come to the conclusion that because the world has changed, investment strategy must change with it. The old rulebook, which served us so well for nearly a century, needs revising. The rush of recent bolts from the blue - the attacks of 9/11, the BP oil blowout, the "flash crash" that sent the Dow tumbling 1,000 points in minutes and the unprecedented collapse of U.S. home values - is no fluke.

And now two years later, FLUKE YOU!

Today, the far edge of that time frame is clearly in reach. From its low of 6,547 on March 9, 2009, the Dow has risen 117 percent. Another 117 percent in four years would put it at 31,022, just 16 percentage points shy of the magic number. ... How fast can the U.S. grow? Four percent is attainable, but I’d settle for 3 percent. Get there quickly, and we’ll get to Dow 36,000 quickly, too.

What kind of job can a guy who is wrong all of the time get anyway?

James K. Glassman is executive director of the George W. Bush Institute.

Naturally.

Hey look "real" good faith everybody

Congressional Republicans, proudly as incurious as Bill O'Reilly:

President Obama took 12 Senate Republicans to dinner last night -- the president reportedly paid for the evening out of his own pocket -- in the hopes that some schmoozing might ease the gridlock that has paralyzed much of Washington. By all accounts, the gathering went quite well, but there was one paragraph in one report that stood out for me. From NBC's First Read:

[O]ne senator told us that he learned, for the first time, the actual cuts that the president has put on the table. Leadership hadn't shared that list with them before.

That, my friends, is amazing.

That was fast

The remaining opposition to same sex marriage can be summarized thusly: The Olds, the Scolds, and the Untolds.

Somebody ask John McCain about this

Iowa just got a bit more geologically interesting:

Buried beneath the rocks, dirt, buildings and roads of the city of Decorah, Iowa, lies a 470 million-year-old meteorite crater. Unlike the craters on the pockmarked surfaces of the moon and Mars, this crater can't be seen by looking down at Earth's surface, at least not by the human eye. But recent aerial surveys primarily aimed at getting a better picture of the minerals that underlie the region got a look at the crater structure using instruments that detect the variations in gravity of different types of rock, as well as their ability to conduct electricity.

Decorah is a lovely city on the banks of the Mississippi in Northeast Iowa (and a place yours truly was last to more than 20 years ago -- to confirm that I was indeed being dumped by my then girlfriend [it wasn't that miserable she just accepted what we both knew before I did, it was a sad but mature dumping]) ... oooooh window into my anonymous blogger life...and "Good times".

Explains a hell of a lot about Bill O'Reilly

Ta-Nehisi Coates in regard to self-delusional claims of non-discrimination has this sentence that explains so much about Mr. "The didn't say motherfucking iced tea":

In 1957, neighbors in Levittown, Pa., uniting under the flag of segregation, wrote: “As moral, religious and law-abiding citizens, we feel that we are unprejudiced and undiscriminating in our wish to keep our community a closed community.”

Something not to be reported heavily

Oh p'shaw -- what about how fat Pregant Kim Kardasian is?  THAT'S NEWS!

The improving global economy has triggered a near-record increase in heat-trapping CO2 emissions, according to new statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This makes it unlikely that global warming can be contained, as world leaders had hoped.
Carbon dioxide levels rose 2.67 parts per million in 2012 to just under 395 ppm. The jump was the second highest ever recorded, behind only 1998 — another year that saw tremendous economic activity.

...“January, 2013 also marks the 37th consecutive January and 335th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average.” 

...

Current pollution trends translate to another 2.5 to 4.5 degrees of warming within the next several decades, according to John Reilly, co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere and the amount being produced by factories are both higher than the worst-case scenarios climate scientists have been relying upon, according to Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann.

This means that the harmful effects of climate change may begin happening more rapidly. The evidence shows that it’s already playing a role in making storms like Hurricane Sandy worse.

Allow me to summarize.

We're fucked.

And Al Gore was fat at various times.

"PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

North Korea, still the "Un":

North Korea is vowing a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States. The harsh rhetoric Thursday comes hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

Lying and being sloppy not a problem for conservatives

Tucker Carlson knows he's stumbled upon a business model at least as successful as his prior one, "My family is loaded".

Despite ABC News' throwing into question the veracity of The Daily Caller's sources for a Nov. 1 report that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) had sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, the site's editor-in-chief doesn't seem bothered in the least. 

"I'm not seeking their approval," Carlson said of detractors in the Post piece. "Why should I care if a bunch of losers on Twitter don't like it?"

I quoted Carlson on Tuesday about how he wants "aggression" from prospective Daily Caller staffers; is hiring journalists, not "wine stewards"; and doesn't care whether they have college degrees.

Wrong/Schmong the only thing that matters is that the shit gets peddled.  

Hey look the world didn't end

And someone filibustered in a traditional manner.