i love it when electronica is cold.

Kanye West - Coldest Winter

heh-heh. and in one more country....

Not a very good time to be a conservative in Iceland, apparently!

DED!

Oh. dear. LOL

Is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen a little paranoid?

Maybe.

On Wednesday, the Republican congresswoman got a call from President-elect Barack Obama, didn't believe it was him, and hung up on him. Twice.MORE

The Republican party's aim was fucking up America.

You know what? Why the hell do we keep putting into power a party that believes that government doesn't work, (and then they set out to fuck it up to prove their thesis) and that their prime objective is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and to make their religious fundamentalists happy, fuck up the rights of everyone else?

So basically the Republican party's name should be synonymous with destruction and misery, right?

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.

The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn’t been enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an increase of erosion and flooding.

The 11th hour change before President George W. Bush leaves office would eliminate a tool that citizens groups have used in lawsuits to keep mining waste out of streams. Mining companies had been pushing for the change for years.

It also means that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will have to decide whether to try to restore and enforce the rule, a process that could take many months of new rulemaking. Obama’s transition team declined to comment on its plans on Tuesday.


...


The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new “right of conscience” rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.

Also? There goes the middle class

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

know thy (neighbours') government

An interesting bit on what the Canadian government is like

OK.
The first thing you need to know is that Canada has a parliamentary democracy, and that we are a Constitutional Monarchy. This is a very, very different system than the US uses, and it allows for a lot of interesting political variation. The most significant to the majority of my readers will likely be that our head of Government (The Prime Minister) is not the same person as the head of state (The Governor General). The Governor General is the Queen's representative in Canada, and plays an important role. (She's also the Commander-in-Cheif of the Canadian Forces.) In addition, we vote for parties not individuals. (Edited to add: There's been some debate about this in the comments, and as usual, the commentors are right and I was unclear. When I say this, I mean that we do NOT vote for a Prime Minister in an election. We vote for the person at our local level, they represent a party, and then the party's leader becomes Prime Minister. Clearer?) We vote at the local level and elect a Member of Parliament, and the party that gets the most MPs wins, and the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister.MORE

(no subject)

Kanye West - Welcome to Heartbreak

the beat for this, especially the piano bit? sofuckingcool

make you smile

via blackfolk

The benefactor of the ball

Va. man spends $1 million on inaugural package for disadvantaged

WASHINGTON - It was billed as the biggest, most eye-popping of the inauguration hotel packages: the JW Marriott's $1 million "build-your-own-ball" offer. You get 300 rooms, four suites, $200,000 worth of food and drink, and a primo site overlooking the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route.

And it was snapped up within hours of Barack Obama's election as president by a customer the hotel declined to identify.

This morning, the Marriott is scheduled to announce that the buyer is a Virginia businessman who wants to bring to the inauguration disadvantaged people, terminally ill patients, wounded soldiers and others down on their luck.

Earl W. Stafford, 60, of Fairfax County, the founder of a Centreville technology company who grew up as one of 12 children of a Baptist minister, said he will provide his guests lodging, food and special access, as well as beauticians, gowns and tuxedos, if necessary.

Stafford has paid the $1 million, a spokesman said, and is prepared to spend $600,000 more for a breakfast, a luncheon and two balls at the hotel. Stafford said he hopes to recoup some of the $600,000 from other sponsors, yet to be recruited.

"We wanted to . . . bless those who otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to be a part of the great celebration, the inauguration and the festivities," he said in an interview yesterday. "Our objective is to bring in a cross-section of society -- those who are distressed, those who are terminally ill, those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, those veterans who are wounded and served our country."MORE

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Gore: Crisis of Citizenship Impedes Addressing Environmental Crises

1. US pollutants killing the Inuit in Arctic. The US has released pollutants and toxins into our environment and these poisons were carried north by sea currents and weather patterns, contaminating sea animals eaten by the Inuit and the water they drink. Researchers have documented for the first time that "unacceptable levels" of environmental toxins are in the bodies of some of the Inuit. The level of contamination in the animals and in mothers' breast milk is exponentially higher than that level deemed to be hazardous waste when found in soil.
2. Our bodies are contaminated by chemicals and pesticides that pollute our air, water, food and land. Please meet Patricia, Denis and Deb. They were part of a group from Washington state who volunteered blood, urine and hair samples to be tested for eight classes of chemicals. They are not "walking toxic waste dumps" yet, but the level of pesticides and chemicals in their bodies "were high enough to make both scientists and subjects sit up and take notice."

"Dr. Patricia Dawson, 56, a Seattle surgeon, had the dubious honor of having 38 chemicals detected in her chemical profile. Her PBDE levels were near those found to cause reproductive problems in laboratory animals. Her levels of DDT (banned since 1972) were greater than 90 percent of the U.S. population.
Denis Hayes, president of the Bullitt Foundation and a founder of Earth Day, was found to have mercury above a level deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. Mercury has the potential for causing learning deficits.
Deb Abrahamson, 51, a Native American living on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, 54, of Seattle, were found to have very high levels of pesticides."

3. In 2005, the World Bank issued a report that linked cancers to environmental conditions.

"For almost all forms of cancer, the risk of contracting this disease can be reduced if physical environments are safe for human habitation and food items are safe for consumption."

Certain illnesses have increased over the past few decades: Autism has increased tenfold, one type of leukemia increased by 62%, male birth defects doubled and childhood brain cancer increased by 40%. And, another study claims to have linked chemical pollutants used to manufacture products as a contributing factor to "soaring rates of breast cancer."
4. Our government does not know what constitutes a "safe" level of pollutant. How many times how we heard our government or a corporation say, "hey, don't worry about this particular pollutant that you are drinking, eating or breathing because it's usage is at a safe level?"
Our government operates under the assumption that any pollutant has a safe level which may be discharged into our environment for ultimate consumption by us. In fact, only 25% of the chemicals used in the US have ever been tested for toxicity. That means 75% of the chemicals are released into our environment and homes without any testing for toxicity.
We are the guinea pigs who ultimately determine what constitutes a safe level of exposure.MORE

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May I be no man's enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides.
May I never devise evil against any man; if any devise evil against me, may I escape without the need of hurting him.
May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good.
May I wish for all men's happiness and envy none.
When I have done or said what is wrong, may I never wait for the rebuke of others, but always rebuke myself until I make amends.
May I win no victory that harms either me or my opponent.
May I reconcile friends who are wroth with one another.
May I, to the extent of my power, give all needful help to all who are in want.
May I never fail a friend in danger.
May I respect myself.
May I always keep tame that which rages within me.
May I never discuss who is wicked and what wicked things he has done, but know good men and follow in their footsteps.
- The Prayer of Eusebius (a pagan who lived some two thousand years ago, as quoted in Gilbert Murray, Five Stages of Greek Religion)


from www.edwardtbabinski.us

Dear SUP

FIX MY COMMENTING FUNCTION ON MY LJ DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!