countrycat Posts

The "turnaround artist" that the Huntsville City Schools hired to rejuvenate the system is acting like the "look the other way" artist when it comes to school bullying and violence.  At a school board meeting last night, Superintendent Wardynski appeared to blame a teenage girl who was assaulted in a school bathroom for, well, being in the bathroom.Here'...

It's been a good week for Judge Robert Vance.  Campaign finance reports show him leading Judge Roy Moore in campaign contributions & former Republican Congressman Jack Edwards endorsed Vance in the race - adding his voice to Justice Gorman Houston's previous endorsement .Rep. Edwards' endorsement called on voters to put competence above party loyal...

Whether you're looking to watch tonight's debate with a group of like-minded friends or wanting to do the "dress-up" thing or hoping for a fun community party.... Alabama Democrats are there!  This week promises a fun series of events in multiple locations.  So don't stay home... party with Democrats!Tonight:Madison County Democrats will be watching the first presidential debate at the University of Alabama University Center in Huntsville.  Candidate meet & greet begins at 7pm & there are free refreshments.  ---- Sure...

Rep. Keith Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), is working with Progressives throughout the country to build both national & state "Progressive Caucuses."  The CPC held an organizational meeting in Charlotte during the Democratic convention & there's a conference call today to provide updates.Just a reminder that Tuesday, October 2nd at 7PM ET, we will take the next step in moving this country towards a better future. We would like you to join Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Representative Keith Ellison on a...

Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Gorman Houston has crossed party lines to support Judge Robert Vance, the Democratic nominee for Chief Justice.  Justice Houston served on the court with Judge Roy Moore - before the latter was removed for misconduct in the infamous "Ten Commandments" case.

When is a poll not a poll?  When "World Net Daily" conducts it and requires your personal data in order to respond and have your opinion shared with "major news networks & opinion leaders." While at a favorite national political Web site (DailyKos), I noticed a banner ad asking my my opinion on the Obama presidency & re-election effort.  One click later, and I'm in wingnut la la land.  Here's the intro & first question:

Now, I clicked the first radio button without a second thought, but then perused the other options.  All I can say is "WOW. Thanks for this creepy glance into the extremist GOP mindset..."

I couldn't submit my opinion without sharing personal contact info.  NOPE.  The "major news networks" will have to do without my pearls of wisdom....

Looks like the Alabama GOP legislative supermajority may cost the state even more money.  Their inability to balance the #$$%$ budget without a voter bailout is going to cost us in more ways than one.  Not only are we pulling a huge chunk out of the state savings account and thereby decreasing future revenue going into the General Fund, we may end up paying higher interest on state bonds:

Hampton said, "The state is essentially planning, at least for the next several years, to be subsidizing its General Fund operations with these funds that are not part of its normal revenues."

"It shows the state is not in structural balance. Its ongoing revenues are not supporting its normal ongoing expenses," he said.

"Obviously, if you're out of balance like that, that's a sign of budgetary stress and weakness and potentially weak management practices that are allowing that to continue," Hampton said.
[...]
The article said, "The state's planned multi-year use of those funds signals that its structural budget imbalance will make it difficult to implement the intended repayment. Inability to adopt a plan to return to structurally balanced General Fund operations could negatively affect the state's rating."

What happens when a state's credit rating takes a hit? Ask the State of Illinois:

Credit ratings affect the state's pocketbook and, therefore, taxpayers' pocketbooks. The lower the rating, the higher the interest rate a state must pay when it borrows money by selling bonds.

"The rating matters," said John Sinsheimer, director of capital markets in Gov. Pat Quinn's budget office. "If we save money on interest rates, then we can put more money into services."
[...]
But financial analysts said that compared to top-rated states, Illinois is paying somewhere between 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent more in annual interest on long-term bonds.

That suggests an additional cost in the ballpark of $25 million to $30 million annually in the early years of a $2 billion bond issue. The amount would decline as the bonds are gradually paid off. That's a lot of money but not enough to have a major effect on the state budget.

Now let's remember.... the legislators asked voters to pull over $400 million out of the Alabama Trust Fund.  Interest from the ATF supports the General Fund.  Huge withdrawals from the AFT reduces the principal, meaning less money transferred into the General Fund. Lower General Fund revenues make it much harder to repay the "loan" from the ATF - perhaps that's why the Constitutional amendment approved by voters didn't include any repayment options....

More & more budget stress makes it harder for the state to repay its obligations, cover current needs, and borrow money for infrastructure & other vital economic development projects.

Moody's just fired a warning shot over the Alabama statehouse & governor's mansion.  Will the GOP supermajority pay attention?

Why are Alabama veterinarians allowing this radical group to speak for them?  The Alabama State Board of Medical Veterinary Examiners (ASBMVE) is once again trying to close (PDF) every low-cost spay & neuter clinic in the state.  It's not a animal welfare issue - the clinics are safe and effective - so we have to conclude that the ASBMVE is just green with envy and greed.

This is a hard photo to look at but it was taken right here in Alabama at the Bibb County Animal "Shelter" after the "cat room" was cleaned by hosing out the concrete room as the terrified cats huddled in a corner.  This is what's at stake and this is what happens when we don't reduce the number of unwanted animals in our communities.

The ASBMVE is doing its dead level best to make sure that even more animals end up in places like this.  The group is planning to vote at its October 10th to close every low-cost spay & neuter clinic in Alabama. The issue is that the non-profit, low cost clinics are run by non-profit groups, so the ASBVME professes "concern" that the doctors may not be free to exercise independent medical judgment.  But the real issue issue was described succinctly by Athens vet, Dr. Robert Pitman:

These spay/neuter clinics claim to have performed 80,000 procedures over the last 2-3 years. This number is highly suspect but whatever number is correct, the legal veterinary community has seen a significant decrease over the same period.

Alabama Voters for Responsible Animal Legislation (AVRAL) has been a leading advocacy group in the state on this and other animal welfare issues.  They are urging begging anyone who cares about animal welfare and over-population to contact the ASBMVE and demand answers.

It is absolutely IMPERATIVE that every person in Alabama write a brief letter to the ASBVME telling them it is wrong to close the low-cost spay/neuter clinics. These letters WILL become part of the official records of the hearing on Oct 10. It's the law. You should also send a copy to Mark Nelson of Alabama Spay/Neuter Clinic so we have a REAL count of how many letters were sent (we've learned not to trust the ASBVME). The point is WRITE YOUR LETTER TODAY---you don't have to be Shakespeare.

Mail to ASBVME c/o:

Tammy Wallace
8 Commerce Street; Suite 910
Montgomery, AL. 36130-5330

also send the Irondale clinic a copy of your letter so that the ASBVME doesn't claim "we didn't get many letters..."

Send them to:
2721 Crestwood Blvd.
Irondale, AL. 35210

When you write, you might mention that the Federal Trade Commission has already discussed whether the ASBMVE's actions could be construed as a "restraint of trade."  Here's the document in PDF.

Also, I urge you call your vet and ask him/her if he supports the low cost clinics.  If so, they need to make their voices heard on this committee.  If they tell you no... time to find a new vet, IMO.

And remember why we're fighting this now.  During this spring's legislative session, Speaker Mike Hubbard personally killed the bill that would stopped the ASBVME from doing this.

African refugees relocate to Alabama to fill jobs after immigration law scared off Hispanic/Latino workers.  Remember the GOP's brash assertion that Alabama citizens would line up after HB-56 took effect?  No, he wasn't talking about the Beason lines... he meant "line up" to fill all those jobs that the "illegals" were taking.

As so often happens when Senator Beason opens his mouth, he had no idea what he was talking about.  As Bloomberg reports:

Republican state Senator Scott Beason, a sponsor, said at a news conference last year that the restrictions on undocumented workers would “put thousands of native Alabamians back in the work force.”

Instead, it caused a labor shortage that resulted in the importation of hundreds of legal African and Haitian refugees, and Puerto Ricans, according to interviews with workers, advocacy organizations and businesses. Most were recruited by the poultry industry, in a segment of the economy that has been a heavy employer of undocumented workers, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington research group.
[...]
Wayne Farms found Eritreans, displaced by war and conflict, and other Africans through East Coast Labor Solutions LLC, a Fairlea, West Virginia-based labor broker. East Coast has about 200 workers in Alabama, owner Ray Wiley said in an interview.

Most of these worker have landed in Albertville and I, for one, certainly hope that some of the African workers stay to open restaurants because Eritrean food is awesome!

But this article should raise a BIG red flag: these workers are being provided by "labor brokers" and the last time those guys were in the news, they were employing hapless "guest workers" in near sweatshop conditions in Huntsville at the Cinram DVD facility.

The workers are employed by Ambassador staffing agency. Ambassador distributed workers, upon arrival, among 20 local landlords. Circumstances varied greatly, but some workers reported paying as much as $300 per person per month to share a small, furnished apartment with three or more roommates.

In one case in November, The Times found four Jamaican women who paid a combined $1,200 a month for an apartment with busted plumbing and no heat that had rented for $450. 

In February, the Fair Housing Center of Northern Alabama, a nonprofit agency based in Birmingham, and the NAACP began questioning housing for foreign workers in Huntsville.

Landlords "were charging some of the people $300 per bed," in "roach-infested" apartments, Jerry Burnet, chair of the state housing committee for the NAACP, told The Times last month. "They've got a little small bed, like you have in a barracks, and they were putting three in each room."

Wormsby said HUD opened the formal investigation after receiving the complaints gathered by the NAACP and the Fair Housing Center.

At the same time, Cinram was scarfing up tax breaks for its low-wage labor scheme.

Remember though... compared to Gov. Mitt Romney's little paen to Chinese slave labor working conditions, Cinram was a real "worker's paradise."  From his now-famous Q&A to wealthy supporters last Spring:

And they work in these huge factories, they made various uh, small appliances. And uh, as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they worked per day, the pittance they earned, living in dormitories with uh, with little bathrooms at the end of maybe 10, 10 room, rooms. And the rooms they have 12 girls per room. 

These types of working conditions are a feature, not a bug in the Republican plan for working Americans.

So I'd suggest that we give Senator Beason a nice little Bronx cheer for yet another of his "unintended consequences" to the immigration bill.  He's managed to exchange one set of low wage workers who have little or no leverage or ability to demand fair wages & safe working conditions with another set.  And yet... maybe it wasn't "unintended" after all!

Labor brokers have a shady reputation all over the world, from South Africa, to New Zealand, to Canada, and yes... in the US.  Global Research studied the plight of these mobile, temporary workers and the description sounds depressingly familiar:

On top of low wages, no benefits, and no legal right to unionize, these workers face the constant threat of deportation if they speak out against their employer. It is within this context that we must understand the crash that six months ago killed 11 farm workers, including 9 migrants from Peru, near the Canadian town of Waterloo. Since the accident there has been no government investigation into the transportation and living conditions of migrant farm workers in Canada and fleeting media coverage. Like South Africa, migrant farm workers in Canada live in isolated rural areas, often housed directly on the farms, where they often experience severe discrimination and racism.

Don't get me wrong: I'm thrilled that some of these refugees have a chance at building a better life in a stable community with a decent job.  But we need to be vigilant and make sure that's actually the case.  Because past history has shown us clearly that these desperate people are willing to accept low wages, terrible working conditions, and are ripe for exploitation.

Anybody want to explain how this is an improvement?

Just yesterday, we wondered if this is the week that the Romney campaign would find a cure for the candidate's political hoof in mouth disease.  Nope.  Gov. Romney just can't stop talking, this time at a California fundraiser where he pulled in $6 million from suckers supporters willing to pay up to $50,000 each: 

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical  malfunction.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

Good question, Mitt. I mean, what could possibly go wrong on a plane that lets passengers crack open a window at 35,000 feet in order to toss out their gum, get a breath of fresh air, or check on the dog strapped to the roof?

Predictably, those darn liberals on Twitter made fun of Gov. Romney's eminently sensible airline safety proposal.  They mocked the Governor using the hashtag #RomneyPlaneFeatures:

• Windows that open retroactively.
• Passengers are given vouchers to purchase their own oxygen & life vests.
• Has 2 right wings.
• Is held together solely by wingnuts.
• Refuses to release its flight plan.
• Plane-top dog carrier.
• Grey Poupon dispensers.
• George Romney legacy ejector seat.
• Comes with a golden parachute.
• Seats with an adjustable reality setting.
• Really, really reversible positions - on everything!
• Auto pilot set for the Caymans.
• Goes wherever the wind blows.

If nothing else, the Romney campaign, indeed the entire Republican primary season, has been a sustained source of amusement for the "reality based community."

But after you stop laughing, remember: a substantial set of the voting population is planning to vote for this guy.

wow.  This hit my email inbox yesterday afternoon and it really puts Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet with Texas Governor Rick Perry in perspective.  The Romney campaign wants to sell you a campaign sticker - for $45.

The email says it came from Ann Romney.  She obviously thinks that "you people" won't have any trouble spending that for a sticker.  And have no fear.... once your car is sporting it, it will have more style & class in its tire than Romney's critics.  Just ask Rafalca.

George Washington University's school of Political Management surveyed small business owners & found a majority supporting President Obama. In spite of Gov. Romney's inaccurate mantra of "you didn't build that," 39% of small business owners surveyed support the President while 31% support Gov. Romney.

GWU and Thumbtack surveyed 6,174 small businesses across the U.S., all with six employees or fewer. According to the U.S. Census, around 95 percent of small business owners employ six workers or fewer.

The entrepreneurs surveyed rated the economy and jobs as most important to them in choosing a president, while lower taxes—which Romney has stressed throughout his campaign—were rated as less important.

No surprise at the cathouse.  Daddycat & I are small business owners and "lower taxes" don't even figure into our calculations.  No, we're way too worried about paying health insurance premiums for ourselves & our employees.  President Obama's health insurance reform stands to make that easier and more cost effective for us.

Our GOP senators have done absolutely nothing to help us and Senator Sessions actually led the charge against the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which allowed self-employed people to deduct their health insurance premiums.  When I questioned him about that vote at a "town meeting" in Fort Payne a week later, he told me he "didn't remember" the bill. Funny, when I saw him on CSPAN talking about it, he was quite hot under the collar...

Chamber of Commerce campaign spending be damned.  Actual small business owners - and not the plutocrats who claim to speak for us - know who's on our side.  And it's not the guys stood by while their Wall Street cronies drove the economy into a ditch. 

After a convention that generated a "dead cat bounce" and a disastrous two weeks after that, you have to wonder if Mitt Romney is actually some sort of "Manchurian Candidate" determined to re-elect Barack Obama.  Hey, he's busily sending jobs (and entire factories) to China, so it's totally possible.

Sorry, Gov. Romney, but it's just impossible for any Democrats not to grin like possums as we look back on the past month of your campaign.  The absolute best comparison I can make to you is Thurston Howell III of Gilligan's Island fame.  Mr. Howell might have been a rich, out of touch doofus, but he was never a dick.  Unlike Mitt Romney....

Let's review his history - before the past month:

• Appretince middle school hairdresser.
• Police officer wannabe.
• Too important to serve in Vietnam, but not too embarrassed to support the war anyway.
• New techniques for pet transport.

Now, let's consider his campaign's recent history:

• The media just won't stop chattering about his incompetent his campaign staff. And that includes the whiners who work for him!
• Romney inadvertently says what he really thinks about half the country.
• Desperate to change the subject, Gov. Romney releases his full 2011 tax return - which raises more questions than it answers - and sends in a note from his accounting firm for the rest of the missing returns.  Oh, and as he said months ago, those 2011 returns disqualify him for the presidency.

Ya think?

You know things are going badly when Herman Cain starts to look good.

But don't worry.  Romney has a "class act" supporter looking to shore up his standing with women voters - his wife, Ann, who compares critics aka "moochers" (unfavorably) to her dressage horse:

“My horse has more style and more class in its hoof than they do in their whole deal.”

Ok then. 

Earlier this week, the state spent over $3 million on a special election  that asked voters to do the Legislature's job & balance the state budget.  Governor Bentley & other GOP leaders blamed the budget problems on the state's struggling economy.  Indeed, the state is far too dependent on sales taxes, which can cause wild swings in revenue.  It's a "feast or famine" situation.

But a January 2012 study by UA economist, Dr. Samuel Addy suggests that this year's budget woes may be self-inflicted.  Remember the Republicans' stated goal of making life so miserable for undocumented workers that they leave the state?

They accomplished that goal and, in doing so, managed to run tens of thousands of taxpayers out of the state:

"As a result of this exodus, aggregate demand has been reduced, a negative shock that puts the state's economy on a lower growth path than would have been the case without the law," the report argues.

There are also costs associated with implementation, litigation, potential loss of economic development due to negative publicity for the state and inconvenience in obtaining services for residents.

Alabama's gross domestic product, or GDP, will take a sharp hit according to the analysis. The state's total goods and services produced will drop between $2.3 billion to $10.8 billion and the state will lose between $56 million to $264 million in state income and sales tax collections, the study predicts.

Now remember the $437 million draw from the Alabama Trust Fund.  It's a 3-year draw down of principal - about $145 million/year, which is rght in the middle of Dr. Addy's projections.

In 2010, undocumented workers paid $130 million in state & local taxes in Alabama.

Nice work, guys.  By fighting the unicorn of an "immigration crisis," you managed to tarnish the state's national & international reputation, cost the state millions in legal fees, give the state's economy a sucker punch, and scare voters into raiding the state's savings account to pay for your folly.

Truly, we can't afford any more years of Republican control and their "unintended consequences."

hat tip to an LIA FB fan who pointed out this study!

Today is the anniversary of a death (in Jewish observance, it's called a yartzeit) & that's usually quite a somber event.  But not today.  One year ago, the odious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law died: let's dance on its grave, shall we?

Remember the whining naysayers who predicted absolute disaster:

"We believe that imposing this burden on our men and women in uniform would undermine recruiting and retention, impact leadership at all echelons, have adverse effects on the willingness of parents who lend their sons and daughters to military service, and eventually break the All-Volunteer Force." 

BREAK the military?  Strong language from so-called military leaders who have very little faith in the committment, bravery, and tolerance of those who serve their country in uniform.

What really happened?  According to the study "One Year Out" (PDF):

• Repealing DADT has had no overall negative impact on military readiness, including cohesion, recruitment, retention, assaults, harassment, or morale.
• Greater openness and honesty post-repeal may have actually increased understanding, respect, and acceptance.
• Recruitment has remained robust.
• Retention was unaffected by repeal. Only two individuals’ departure can be tied to repeal, both military chaplains.
• There has been no increase in violence within units; in fact, many harassment disputes can now be resolved in ways that were not possible when servicemembers could not disclose their sexual orientation.
• Unit morale was not impacted, except on the individual level depending on a servicemember’s personal position on the issue of DADT.
• LGB servicemembers did not come out en masse.

Why not take this successful initiative & use it as an example to those opposed to marriage equality.  We have proof of what happened to the military when GLBT soldiers came out of the closet:  nothing.

And what will happen to my marriage when my GLBT friends gain the legal (and human) right to marry?  Nothing.

It's amazing that we're still fighting this issue.

Let's refresh our memories: the "birther" movement claims that President Obama was actually born in Kenya, but his quick-thinking parents realized the potential of the slimy, wailing newborn to someday take over the American political system.  They quickly fabricated a paper trail including a fake birth announcement that appeared in a Hawaii newspaper.  This amazing pair did all that from Kenya - in the days before the Internet or Photoshop, when people still used the telegram to communicate over long distances.

OR DID THEY?    cue scary music.....

Speaking to a Republican women’s group in Alabama yesterday, state GOP chairman Bill Armistead recommended to his audience a fringe birther movie that claims that President Obama’s real father is American labor activist Frank Marshall Davis, according Mobile Press-Register political editor George Talbot....
[...]
The movie Armistead reportedly recommended, “Dreams From My Real Father,” represents a breakout fringe of the birther movement. The film, according to its director Joel Gilbert, “presents the case that Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA organizer and propagandist, was Obama's real father, both biological and ideological, and indoctrinated Obama with a political foundation in Marxism and an anti-White world view.”

Raise your hand if you see the problem here..... Frank Marshall Davis was a US citizen.   Um.... doesn't that negate the entire birther argument?

This sets up quite the clash between AL GOP chair Armistead and Alabama's head birther, Hugh McInnish.  If you recall, McInnish was last sighted (tinfoil hat firmly in place) on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery with "proof" that Obama is NOT a citizen.

A class of intellectual titans, this isn't.  But it is entertaining in the way you can't look away from, say, a train wreck.

Senate Republicans killed the Veterans Jobs Bill yesterday. The budget point of order was raised by Alabama Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.  IL Senator Dick Durbin requested a motion to waive Session's motion, but it went down to defeat.  You see, it only got 58 votes - a $%^% majority - instead of the 60 votes needed to kill a GOP filibuster.

This is what passes for "business as usual" in the United States Senate.

“This violates the Budget Control Act, there is no dispute about it,” Sessions said in a floor speech Wednesday. “The bill will not even go through the House and it violates the Constitution because it says revenue bills must be started in the House ... [and] this is a revenue bill.”

The Veterans Jobs Corp Act would have created new job-training programs to help veterans find work in targeted fields such as national park conservation, historic preservation projects, police work and firefighting, among others.

Because, hey, nothing says "thank you for your service to the country" like "this violates the budget control act" does it?

What is the problem?

Republicans objected to the projected price tag of the jobs bill as well as the administration’s plan to pay for it by imposing penalties on Medicare providers and suppliers who are delinquent on taxes, and by collecting back taxes from others.

YIKES! We know how the GOP disdains those who don't pay taxes... or do we???

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterans' unemployment is several points higher (10.9%) - than the general population.  These are people who have risked their health, their lives, and dealt with real family difficulties resulting from long & numerous deployments.

They have sacrificed a LOT for us.  Is it too much for Senate Republicans to offer them something?

The bill, which had bipartisan support in the Senate and would have given priority to post-9/11 veterans whose employment prospects are three points below the national average, fell two votes short of the majority of 60 needed to waive Republican objections.

After the vote, at midday on Wednesday, Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee, accused Senate Republicans of "shocking and shameful" obstructive politics.

The bill was filibustered by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky last week and then other GOP senators (including Alabama's) picked up the banner once the bill made it to the floor.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America described the vote as a "huge disappointment".

Ramsay Sulayman, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said he was saddened to see "a very small group of people that are standing for principle to block the bill from even coming to a vote" on an issue like veteran jobs, which has seen a strong spirit of bipartisan support.

"That's what we object to. If people say 'We don't like the bill' and stand up and get up and vote and go on the record ... that is different. It's sad to see a few people holding a bill to hostage."

Nice work, guys.

Read the text of the Veterans Jobs Corps Bill Act. 

It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day and the bilge rats are all over the hornpipe chattering about the Captain's re-election campaign & that poor lubber trying to take over the ship.  Confused by the lingo?  Here's the "Talk Like a Pirate" dictionary.

ARRRRR..... there's chum in the water after the lubber got caught on tape blowing his hornpipe to supporters.  Seems his sailors are lower than a bum's barnacle.

Our mate, Bill Mahr weighs in.  Beauties, he needs to work on his pirate lingo, but we still say "Aye! Aye!"

"There is a big difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy. Of course the Democrats are disappointing---that's what makes them Democrats. If they were any more frustrating they'd be your relatives. But in this country they are all that stands between you and darkest night. You know why their symbol is the letter 'D'? Because it's a grade that means 'good enough, but just barely.' You know why the Republican symbol is 'R'? Because it's the noise a pirate makes when he robs you and feeds you to a shark."
---Bill Marrrr

Meanwhile, Krispy Kreme is so afeared of the rapacious pirates that they're handing out free loot (a doughnut) to anyone who comes into the store & talks like a pirate today.  Here's yer list of targets mates: Talk Like A Pirate promotion.

Here on land, there's a lot of chatter about yesterday's vote to loot the state treasure chest.  What say ye, maties?  Use this as an open thread and jibber jabber the flag up the yardarm!

Comedy Centra's Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly will face off in a debate at George Washington University on October 6. This is going to be good. The 90 minute debate won't be televised (at least there are no plans for that at this point), but will be streamed via Internet.

After supporting the Republican candidate in 2000, 2004, & 2008, the Fraternal Order of Police have declined to endorse Governor Romney - the first time in 98 years that the organization has not endorsed either candidate.