Dec 22 2009
By now you no doubt read that U.S. Army General Cucolo has issued a policy statement concerning U.S. troops in Iraq; “get pregnant, face possible courts-martial“.
For the first time in history, our troops are to face a courts-martial for getting pregnant?
This begs the question; just who IS in charge in Washington, DC????
Dec 22 2009
Luck: Couple of months ago, my husband's stepmother's niece, 18 years old, wants heated windshield wipers. Can't find them online, files a patent and now Walmart wants the rights. True story. (seriously)
Why I am the Mom of the Year: If your five year old finds your vibrator and thinks it's a light saber, running around the house swinging it with both hands zroom-zroom, you might want to downsize or at least choose a different color. (no comment)
Best Drinks Ever: Eiswein and Chocolate milk made with dark cocoa.
I am a veteran, a mama of three and soon starting my junior year pursuing a degree in Microbiology, then on to PA school (please science gods). I am a eco-socialist libertarian progressive atheist who also happens to have a single economic thought progressives hate so you will have to be in the dark about because unlike vibrator stories, its personal. Proud Moment: I met Howard Dean in Iowa the week he made both the Newsweek and Time covers. I would have a picture if not for some asshole who bumped my husband as he took the picture. Because we were with Sen. Johnson people, we were able to hang around in the background with Dean and his people after the event. Pelosi's daughter was filming. I hope I am not on film. I haven't watched her documentary for just that reason. Stupid, I know.
My Favorite Joke:
Hi! -Christina
Dec 22 2009
This will certainly not be the deepest or most analytic essay I’ve ever published and I apologize to the people I’ve moved down, but it needs to be said and I’ll just say it briefly-
The only things the Versailles Villagers care about are money, and approval.
Don’t give them that.
Don’t pay for their shit. Spit on them!
Don’t watch their shows or vote for them or pay for their products. Tell them in the Mega-Mart when you meet them that they are hurting America, that they are nothing but failed novelists and stenographers.
I’m not asking for the world here or advocating pitchforks and torches or even that you stop doing what you need to do to provide for yourself and your family.
What I am saying is that you have to give up pretending that everything is normal.
That those bruises of yours are just because you are clumsy and “undiplomatic”.
It is well past time for you to take a good look at your life and decide if you are better off than you were 4 years ago.
Or even last year.
Oh Rose, have something to eat.
Two hundred thousand years in the future he’s dying, and there’s nothing I can do.
Well, like you said, two hundred thousand years, it’s way off!
But it’s not! It’s now. That fight is happening right now! And he’s fighting for us, for the whole planet, and I’m just sitting here eating chips!
Listen to me! God knows I have hated that man, but right now I love him, and do you know why? Cause he did the right thing, he sent you back to me!
But what do I do every day, Mum? What do I do? Get up, catch the bus, go to work, come back home, eat chips and go to bed, is that it?!
It’s what the rest of us do.
But I can’t!
Why, cause you’re better than us??
NO, I didn’t mean that! I just… But it was. It was a better life!
And I don’t mean all the travelling, and seeing aliens and spaceships and things, that don’t matter.
The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You know, he showed you too!
That you don’t just give up! You don’t just let things happen!
You make a stand, you say no, you have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away.
Dec 22 2009
Have we become too comfortable, sitting behind our keyboards and silently typing away our anger? Has the progressive movement embraced the wonderful technology of the internet at the expense of real world activism and organizing?
I’m afraid this might be so. And it’s time to turn that around. On Bill Moyer’s Journal this past Friday, economist Robert Kuttner brought up a striking fact that is missing from nearly all of the plethora of analyses – ranging from Obamapologist to Obama hater to everything in between – that I’ve seen of this presidency:
ROBERT KUTTNER: The other thing that’s missing, if you compare him with Roosevelt or LBJ or Lincoln, the other thing that’s missing is a social movement. In all of these great periods of transformation, you had social movements doing a complicated dance with the president, where sometimes they were working with him, sometimes they were beating up on him. That certainly describes the civil rights movement and Lyndon Johnson. It describes the abolitionists and Lincoln. It describes the labor movement and Roosevelt. Where’s the movement?
Dec 22 2009
h/t to Huffington Post
This will be relatively short as my outrage meter seems to be peaking again.
As the next wave of defaults is churning its way through the prime mortgage market our saviors in Washington have come up with a new way to scam the general populace. Its called bailing out the banks, part II.
Dec 22 2009
“I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in,” said one former Democratic official. “I think they’re miscalculating what’s happening with progressives and the left.”
Failing to understand the intensity of progressive anger, dismissing it with condescending arrogance is bad enough, but that’s not all they’re miscalculating. Obama and Democrats seem to think they’re securing the long-term support of the corporate establishment, they think they’re consolidating their power, but they’re walking right into a trap. They’re being set up to fail, they’re being set up to take the blame when everything implodes. The corporate masters of America and their GOP enforcers expect that this trap, this setup will result in a Presidency so disastrous and unpopular, in a Congress so despised, in a political system so divisive and dysfunctional that when General Petraeus arrives on his white horse to save America in 2012, he will win every state, Republicans will take Congress back, and the Permanent Republican Majority will be here to stay after a rather unsuccessful first attempt.
If that doesn’t happen, it won’t be because the designated scapegoats with the (D) after their names in the White House and Congress didn’t play their assigned roles. They are. To clueless, halfwit, suicidal perfection. Democrats are jubilant that they’ve managed to clusterfuck their way to 60 votes in the Senate, but they won’t be quite as jubilant when the healthcare crisis keeps intensifying and unemployment keeps getting worse and banks keep failing and the dollar tanks and the war in Afghanistan keeps getting bloodier and the commercial real estate market implodes and takes what’s left of the economy down with it.
Obama isn’t playing 12 dimensional chess, he’s playing Russian Roulette with a bullet in every chamber.
He loaded the Wall Street Bailout bullet, he loaded the not enough stimulus bullet, he loaded the Bernanke back to the Fed bullet, he loaded the deficits are bad bullet, he loaded the Afghanistan escalation bullet, he’s loaded every bullet the corporate masters of this country handed him and keeps pulling the trigger.
Dec 22 2009
Dec 22 2009
Chalk up yet another reason why we have two wars going right now — the U.S. Military is one of the biggest consumers of petroleum products in the world.
And because of this, it is also one of the world’s leading producers of CO2.
As pointed out in this incredible essay, this is the proverbial “elephant in the room”.
(And don’t even get me started on the share of the budget defecit, and the ongoing collapse of the dollar, that the Pentagon is responsible for. )
Sara Flounders writes:By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate agreements.
***
The Feb. 17, 2007, Energy Bulletin detailed the oil consumption just for the Pentagon’s aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and facilities that made it the single-largest oil consumer in the world.
***
Even according to rankings in the 2006 CIA World Factbook, only 35 countries (out of 210 in the world) consume more oil per day than the Pentagon.
***
This information is not readily available … because military emissions abroad are exempt from national reporting requirements under U.S. law and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change” …
Bryan Farrell in his new book, “The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism,” says that “the greatest single assault on the environment, on all of us around the globe, comes from one agency … the Armed Forces of the United States.”
More inconvenient facts:
Professor Michael Klare noted in 2007:
Sixteen gallons of oil. That’s how much the average American soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan consumes on a daily basis — either directly, through the use of Humvees, tanks, trucks, and helicopters, or indirectly, by calling in air strikes. Multiply this figure by 162,000 soldiers in Iraq, 24,000 in Afghanistan, and 30,000 in the surrounding region (including sailors aboard U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf) and you arrive at approximately 3.5 million gallons of oil: the daily petroleum tab for U.S. combat operations in the Middle East war zone.
And there’s more:
And in 2008, Oil Change International released a report showing that:The [Iraq] war is responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) since March 2003. To put this in perspective, CO2 released by the war to date equals the emissions from putting 25 million more cars on the road in the US this year.
Between March 2003 and October 2007 the US military in Iraq purchased more than 4 billion gallons of fuel from the Defense Energy Support Center, the agency responsible for procuring and supplying petroleum products to the Department of Defense. Burning these fuels has directly produced nearly 39 million metric tons of CO2 Just transporting 4 billion gallons of fuel to the military in Iraq consumed at least as much fuel as was delivered nearly doubling overall fuel-related emissions.
Emissions from the Iraq War to date are nearly two and a half times greater than what would be avoided between 2009 and 2016 were California to implement the auto emission regulations it has proposed (but that the Bush Administration struck down).
If the war were ranked as a country in terms of annual emissions, it would emit more CO2 each year than 139 of the world’s nations do, more than 60% of all countries on the planet…
Wow, no wonder the Powers that Be don’t want to put the brakes on this thing. It’s a paradise for the oil companies, a dream come true. They take over a country with oil, then spend gargantuan amounts of oil in order to keep the Army there, then when things settle down a bit they just gear up ANOTHER “war” so that they can pump even more and more, all the while charging it to the United States taxpayer.
What a racket.
The wars are rackets.
Dec 21 2009
Ian Welsh is in an agitated state of irritation!
So very glad to hear your opinions. Unlike most of the morons who think Obama/Bernanke/Paulson/Geithner did the right thing, I predicted almost everything that happened to the economy, in many cases years in advance, and I sure as hell don’t think so.
But what do I know. Unlike the people who call the shots, I have a consistent record of being right far far more than chance would allow. Therefore, as with everyone else who called their shots right far in advance I have no say, but have to listen to morons who didn’t call it right tell us how they had no choice but do stupid things like not nationalize banks, not force banks to actually increase lending, not force bondholders to take a haircut, not institute massive progressive taxation and not pass a health care bill which is a massive giveaway to the medical industry of the US.
Great.
I hope all you morons who think there was no other choice but to do what has been done enjoy the right wing populist backlash that Obama and the Dems, by doing the wrong things over and over again, have made virtually inevitable.
God I wish Canada wasn’t right next to America. Being in a dingy attached by a chain to the Titanic, while the Titanic is run by morons cheered on by fools is immensely depressing.
Funny. Among econ-bloggers I like to read, he’s the relative optimist! To me, a decade of economic malaise and a mere right wing populist backlash sounds relatively survivable in comparison. Any room in that dinghy for steerage class?
Dec 21 2009
Becoming a Power Player
Initially, Evony is a game about producing resources to build your city with. Whether by “growing” them in your resource fields, (your most important asset early on, tend and upgrade them well!) or plundering them from other players…resources are the key to the game.
But at some point, when your city is getting strong and you are looking to really get in the game…plunder bigger prey, join in attacks, or just prove what a badass you are…the game becomes about producing troops.
And producing them fast.
Faster than you kill them, for instance.
To do this, you need two things and a little knowledge and a few tips…so here we go! The first thing you need are the aforementioned resources. You can’t do anything in Evony without resources. So hopefully by the time you need lots of troops, your resource fields are producing merrily along and you have learned how to successfully plunder. If you are smart, you even have a couple of “Farm Cities” that you plunder every day or two for the resources they continue to produce. After you have killed or driven off their former owner.
Troops take three ingredients, food, lumber and iron. And you need them in vast quantities. Especially food. We will get to the Food Problem a little later.
The other thing you need to produce troops are barracks. lots and laots of barracks. The more Barracks you have the faster you produce troops. Cottages don’t produce troops, and neither do warehouses. If you want to be a power player, you want to tear down ALL of your warehouses and replace them with barracks. Warehouses are for players that expect to get plundered, Barracks are for people who expect to plunder other…in other words, Power Players. You should have no more than eight cottages. If you have more than eight, tear them down and replace them with barracks.
If you do not have a second city…get one. If you want, ask on chat and we will help get you a GOOD one! Initially your second city should be not much more than a way to produce the two essential elements of Power Players…resources and barracks. It should be as close to your main City as possible for easy transporting of goods and troops. Here is what a Power Players second city looks like:
A Rally Spot
Beacon Tower
An Academy (so you can study to things at once)
A Feasting Hall for your Mayors (see the section on mayors)
Seven cottages
And Barracks, Barracks, Barracks.
If you want, you can remodel it into something more homey once you have your first 90k archers.
And that is the first goal of a Power Player, 90k Arch. Why 90k? Because that is the maximum number that can be launched to attack your enemies from a level 9 Rally Spot. As you are making your 90k throw about 10-20k Warriors in to the mix, you will want them for a Meat Shield. (See the section on attacking) Make at least a couple of thousand scouts as well. Pike, swords and workers are nice and shiny, but you don need many of them at all, and that mostly just for a rainbow. (See attacking)
Your next goal is to make about 10-20 cavalry, for fast raids, supporting others in the alliance by reinforcing them quickly…and as transport to clean out resources from your farm Cities. Once you have 90k Arch and a nice Cav…you can make some more auxiliary and support troops. More scouts, more warriors, and now if you want some shiny swordsmen, go for it.
Thene get to work on your NEXT 90k Archers. if there is one thing sure in this game it is this…you an NEVER have enough Archers!
Dec 21 2009
With two games left to play, the playoff picture is heating up.
So, I’m taking a break from politics to talk football.
My team, the Indianapolis Colt’s, have already clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoff’s.
Here’s how the playoff’s are shaping up…
Dec 21 2009
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Iran clashes after Montazeri funeral
by Hiedeh Farmani, AFP
Mon Dec 21, 10:30 am ET
| TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran police clashed with stone-throwing protesters after the funeral attended by vast crowds of mourners in the holy city of Qom on Monday of dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, websites said.
Montazeri, an inspiration to reformists and human rights activists and a fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped create, died aged 87 on Saturday. Opposition websites said hundreds of thousands of mourners poured onto the streets of Qom, many chanting slogans and displaying the green of Iran’s opposition — effectively turning the funeral procession into a massive anti-government rally. |
