If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?
– Margot Fonteyn
– Margot Fonteyn
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
of SOTU reviews, courtesy of alternet.
Much less painful than watching the real thing.
Dear Cabin – I just came by to say thank you for the SOTU live-blogging threads. I decided if my tv was going to be pre-empted to spend the evening watching Denzel and catch up today.
I have never enjoyed a bush speech as much as reading those threads this morning. And many thanks to ejmw for posting Jim Webb’s speech too. That’s the part I didn’t want to miss.
You’re welcome, and I want to thank everyone else who helped live-blog it too.
Great job live blogging, CG. Now that I can watch videos, the one you posted on the fp gave me a giggle this morning.
It sure seemed that Bush continues to ask/demand sacrifices from the middle/lower classes and refuses to ask anything from the privileged or the corporations.
This morning on DemocracyNow!, Amy Goodman discussed last night’s SOTU with a variety of guests. Apparently, the president’s 20% reduction in 10 years is actually a piddling %20 reduction in the projected increase of gasoline usage in the US in the next 10 years.
Kind of brings everything into focus, doesn’t it? His energy proposal is smoke and mirrors, it’s less than nothing, it’s a fart in a windstorm.
The link is to the DemocracyNow! website… there is no transcript for the segment where they discussed energy.
caught trying to pay someone to edit their Wiki for them: AP/Yahoo
Maybe they wouldn’t need to that if they didn’t suck so much?
Wants to trademark Katonah, NY, but the town isn’t very happy about it: NYT
Hmm. Good questions.
Out of curiosity, I looked up her trademark applications on line. Normally, one cannot trademark a geographical name, but in this case, she is only claiming that her products are inspired by the town, but not being manufactured there. Therefore, her use of Katonah is acceptable because it is not geographically descriptive, nor geographically misleading. It’s a fine line, but in all likelihood, she will be granted the registration.
As for other uses of Katonah, it is likely that they could not be registered by name alone, unless used as a service mark, as opposed to a trademark. You could use Katonah Bar & Design, but what the real strength of the mark would be in it’s design.
Trademark law is bizarre. :>)
The head of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Phillip Asiodu, has warned that Nigeria may be left with no forests by 2010 due to ongoing deforestation, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on Thursday. “With so much illegal logging going on across the country, coupled with the very little replanting programs, there may be no forest left by 2010,” Asiodu said at a public lecture. And that’s not even mentioning the expansion of the Sahara Desert into northeast Nigeria.
More reasons to hate the internal combustion engine: Particles from car exhausts generate more persistent and longer-lasting clouds but – paradoxically – less rain, new research suggests. Furthermore, putting more of these particles into the atmosphere reduces the low-level winds, which could reduce the amount of wind power available in very polluted regions. The result is that arid but populated regions like California suffer a triple blow as a result of vehicle pollution: less water, less hydropower and less wind energy.
Researchers have determined that during the last ice age, the prevailing winds over North America blew from the east, not the west as they do today. This resulted in a much drier climate in the pacific northwest of the time, for which there is independent evidence. Just another large and unexpected effect of a change in the climate system…
A plan put forward by the US Army Corps of Engineers – and currently being discussed in the new Congress – would build a semipermeable “Great Wall of Louisiana” from the Mississippi River to Texas to block the advancing Gulf. But critics say the Morganza’s cost may undermine the efforts of more meaningful restoration proposals, such as diverting the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to bring silt and freshwater into the lower Louisiana basins to rebuild lost shore front. About 50 percent of the Lower 48’s seafood comes from the area that would be protected by the Morganza levee. Eighteen percent of the nation’s daily fuel also is pumped through these marshes as the chief port to the offshore platforms.
Miss Bush’s speechifyin’ last night? The NY Times says this year’s energy proposals were modest and perhaps less achievable than those made last year. And the LA Times says Bush’s proposals to reduce U.S. gasoline consumption rely on assumptions about energy markets, politics and technology that some experts say are debatable, and include some apparent contradictions.
Enjoy wine? Here’s what climate change means to you, according to the LA Times: Imagine a world in which the best sparkling wines come from Surrey in southern England, not Champagne. A world where Monterey Bay is home to California’s best Cabernet Sauvignons and Sweden produces world-class Rieslings. [I know the political inaction on climate change is certainly enough to drive me to drink!]
Oh, I hope this is a true trend
In case anyone missed the fact that the new Democrats elected to the House in November are economic populists who oppose the free trade policies advanced by the Bush administration and its allies in the Democratic Leadership Council, 39 Democratic members of the freshman class have signed a letter reminding party leaders, “Vital to our electoral successes was our ability to take a vocal stand against the administration’s misguided trade agenda and offer our voters real, meaningful alternatives to the job-killing agreements, such as CAFTA, that the majority of our opponents supported.”[snip]
The firm commitment of the Democratic freshmen to fight for fair trade policies that favor workers, the environment and communities, as opposed to the race-to-the-bottom free trade policies of the Bush administration and its Democratic allies, should signal a radical shift. There is no longer anything akin to a pro-free-trade majority in the House.
This trend is also present in the Senate and is very encouraging. We’ll see how and if this fresh populism within the Democratic ranks translates into new directions in trade policies. I can’t help but feel encouraged.
Looking for a tailor to make a jumpsuit but it Appears no one in the community here is interested in Scooter Libby.
Those who did missed the first day of trial yesterday can catch up with my diary at link: “Fireworks and bombshell detonates in court” It’s reported, Libby destroyed evidence.
Michael Isikoff of Newsweek finds
a circular firing squad in a federal courtroom in which the president’s men–and Vice President Dick Cheney’s–are all shooting at each other.
Who wants a dynasty? Grumbling about a Few Decades of the Bush and Clinton Families
How much is your Piggy Bank worth? More than you think
There’s a Coin Shortage: How much are those pennies worth