March, 2011 archive
Facebook Frolics 0
Erstwhile nominee for a Republican Congressional nomination sues Facebook, claiming that Facebook cost him a gig in Congress.
He was planning to campaign for the nomination via Facebook, so he could be the one to get steamrollered by John Dingell in the November election. Instead, he got steamrollered in the primary.
But instead of starting the next great internet-based political revolution, Moughni’s page was pulled by Facebook administrators last June 10, right around the time he had added his 1,600th “friend.” About two months later Moughni finished fourth in a crowded GOP primary field, Rep. John Dingell then easily captured his 29th term in November’s general election.
Facebook says that Mr. Moughni’s page was pulled “after he had received several warnings regarding ‘suspicious or anomalous behavior.'”
He wants just his page back.
Oil’s Well that Ends 0
Writing at the Asia Times, Michael T. Klare predicts the end of cheap oil.
It’s a long piece but well worth the time, especially the section on the history of European and American intervention in the Middle East.
Tsunami Timing and the GOP 0
Glomarization points out the irony of a tsunami hitting California just as the Republican Dystopiacs try to eliminate tsunami warning systems.
Aside:
I haven’t commented on the situation in Japan because, really, there is nothing I can add to what others are already saying and feeling.
Republican Dystopiacs 0
Renee Loth in the Boston Globe.
And we really, truly, can’t tax rich people a penny more to help pay for these other things.
Read the whole thing.
Dustbiters 0
I got caught up in shell scripting last night. I checked for responsible fiscals after COB EST, but not after COB CST and later.
Turns out the FDIC recognized more of our banking community for their fiduciary acumen.
Bank no more on
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebood Street View:
The page belongs to Alger Street in Brockton, a stretch of potholed, pitted asphalt that has crushed tires, shattered shock absorbers, and rattled the teeth of drivers for years, if not decades.
On Little Cat Feet 0
Fog over the beachfront, yesterday, mid-afternoon.
The Atlantic is out there somewhere . . . .
H/T Susan for the pic.
“Hey, Bub. Yeah, You, ovah Dere. Wanna Buy a State?” 0
In Wingnut World, there is no such thing as “the public good” if there’s a quick buck to be made.
Forget the “public trough.”
They’re planning to make make off with the whole water system and fence it to their cronies, who like most fences, will pay only a pittance for the goods:
The budget bill also plans to tear down the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). This is not New Jersey, where a succession of corrupt governments have underfunded (read: stolen) the state pension system in order to shift resources to pay for budget shortfalls in general revenues caused by tax breaks for the rich. The WRS is one of the nation’s most stable, well-funded and best-managed pension systems. Although Wisconsin is not a big state, the WRS has amassed $75bn in reserves, and pays out handsome pensions to its public retirees, without needing new public subsidy. The Walker bill has language providing for tearing down this system, raiding its assets to pay for further tax cuts for the rich (especially property owners), and then throwing Wall Street a meaty bone as public employees would be shifted to 401k plans handled by money managers on commission.
In a separate proposal, Governor Walker would start privatising the University of Wisconsin’s two flagship doctorate-granting campuses. Ironically, the land grant universities – of which Wisconsin has long been among the best – were created by protectionist 19th-century Republicans as an alternative approach to British free-market doctrine, which dominated the prestigious and largely anglophile Ivy League universities. These universities, like their German counterparts, taught a new economic policy of state management and public enterprise that formed the basis for subsequent US and German development. Walker would kill off this tradition, and return intellectual production to the highest bidder.
Clone Me, Dr. Memory 0
Bergman and Ossman have a podcast.
Facebook Frolics 0
(snip)
The social networking site blocked her page and removed the image because it said it broke its rules on nudity.
Ms Tullett said she had only intended to offer encouragement to fellow breast cancer sufferers.
“It was to show other women that after such an ordeal you can come out of it with your dignity and your womanhood again, and that it’s not all frightening,” she said.
I suspect that she should have known better. There’s nothing like pictures of real people to make other people get all stupid.
I’m beginning to think that life would be saner if we were willing to admit that real people look like real people from head to toe and dispense with the coyness.
Not likely to happen, though.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Not good, not terrible.
More at the link.
