(The pad underneath is for comfort and insulation. Cats who have to sleep on a hardwood floor have special burdens...

These aren't riots. You are watching an unjust system be[ing] dismantled.One can only hope that interpretation is recognized in the halls of power before protesters are driven to more extreme measures to make their voices heard.
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NOT Our House, thank goodness... not this time! |
The Supreme Court on Tuesday opted to hear arguments in a case that could redefine "one person, one vote" -- one of the bedrock principles of modern voting rights law. The case could change how electoral districts are drawn across the country, revamping who comprises electoral districts and reshaping the idea of who is ultimately "represented" by elected officials.I do not understand how the conservative Justices on SCOTUS, operating in response to politically conservative legal entities like the self-proclaimed "Project on Fair Representation" (yeah, right), believe they can get away with this bullshit indefinitely without provoking a rebellion by people defending the Guarantee Clause of Article IV of the US Constitution. Please read about the Guarantee Clause, then read the above linked article about what the PoFR is appealing to SCOTUS to have imposed on all the states, a procedure that would change the redistricting rules in most of the states and render the phrase "One Person, One Vote" practically meaningless, in a fashion that might guarantee each state, not a (small-r) republican form of government as assumed for at least 50 years based on several prior Court rulings, but in fact a (cap-R) Republican form of government, which is clearly the goal of PoFR.
The case, Evenwel v. Abbott, originated in Texas and is being spearheaded by a conservative legal group. Legal experts tell TPM that the impact of the case could be far-reaching, especially for Latinos and residents of urban districts.
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Carbon monoxide kills Kentucky couple having sex in car
GLENCOE, KY (KTRK) --
A man and woman died while having sex in a parked car, WCPO-TV reports.
Paramedics say Violet Iles, 25, and David Long, 32, died when carbon monoxide began leaking into the vehicle through a rusty exhaust pipe. The couple had turned the vehicle on because it was a chilly night.
Long's brother told WPCO-TV he found the bodies while walking his children to their school bus stop.
"I pulled him out and I tried to do CPR on him, and the paramedics tried to talk me through it over the phone," Kevin Long said.
Police are now waiting for a toxicology report to see if alcohol or drugs were in the couple's system. The Sheriff's Department says anyone who plans to spend a long period of time in a parked vehicle should roll down the windows or turn off the vehicle.
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Kienholz: Back Seat Dodge '38 (1964) or Door Open - How You're S'posed To Do It |
A. This is a story about the evils of...
- carbon monoxide
- Kentucky
- couples
- cars
- sex
- drugs
- rock 'n' roll
- toxicology
- CPR
- paramedics
- sheriffs
- all of the above
- none of the above
B. As fluff news items go, this one is...
- more entertaining than most
- regrettably typical
- bow-ring (aptly the name of the Gander, Newfoundland airport)
Thank you for your time. No matter what you answered, you may print your quiz and use it as toilet paper. You are now leaving...
THE TOILET ZONE!
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Our Street, westbound |
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Our Street, eastbound |
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HPL Downtown - the mouse greets you! |
As an American librarian I am glad to be living in the European Union where library funding isn't under attack to the extent that it is back home in the United States, because readership, literacy and an open based knowledge system that is publicly funded is still valued. In America, library budgets have become low hanging fruit for conservative local and state politicians.Louisiana is the worse case in point where Gov. Bobby Jindal has eliminated state library funding all together. Not only does it beg the question will your state be next but it asks the question what will you do when they come for your library and your kid's summer reading program? Do you really know how many books it's really going to take to make that special child or grandchild in your life a lifelong reader. Do you think you have anywhere near those numbers of books in your private collection?
Please let's remember the voluminous studies that have been done year after year, decade after decade that show us that prison inmates for the most part are functionally illiterate and that teen pregnancy is directly linked to literacy rates.
HPL Downtown - Jesse H. Jones Bldg.
Entry area, view from 2nd floor
Christian Science Monitor: November 18, 2013...
Louisiana residents choose libraries over jail to receive funds Residents of Lafourche Parish in Louisiana recently voted down a proposal that would have used money currently going to local libraries to build a new prison.
http://www.csmonitor.com/...
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HPL Downtown - Jesse H. Jones Bldg? Reading Room |
I am anything but neutral on this matter: a free and democratic society stands or falls on the depth and breadth of its information resources available directly to citizens. Cutting public library funding by almost $1m virtually assures Jindal and his sorry state (sorry, State of Louisiana, but that's how I see it) will slip irretrievably behind in today's knowledge-driven world. It just won't work to leave out rural people, or poor people, or... anybody. Everyone must have access to the means of lifelong self-education.Citing budget concerns, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a $25-billion budget that eliminates almost $900,000 in state funding for its libraries. In a statement, the governor’s chief budget aide, Paul Rainwater, said, “In tight budget times, we prioritized funding for healthcare and education. Operations such as local libraries can be supported with local, not state dollars.”
HPL Downtown - Julia Ideson Bldg.
(The library of my childhood)
On Thursday, Library Journal took a look at that assertion. What they found was that while some local parishes may be able to cover the funding gap, others will feel the loss. Rural parishes will face a particularly daunting challenge.
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HPL Downtown - Julia Ideson Bldg. (View from above old catalog room?) |
Leaked internal Shell documents reveal Shell believes temperature will rise 4°C, then 6°C above today's
WACO, Texas (AP) — A shootout among rival biker gangs at a popular Texas restaurant left nine people dead and 18 others injured, a police spokesman said on Sunday, sending panicked patrons and bystanders fleeing for safety.Yes, there's a reason people call that city "Wacko" ... though I don't believe the city is to blame for this exceptionally violent crime. What does surprise me is the biker gangs: when I was a youth of about 30, the bikers I knew were, by and large, ordinary contributing members of society who liked to dress tough and make loud noises as part of their weekend recreation. Though I never rode, I used to go for Sunday morning breakfast at one of the local eateries favored by bikers, which at the time was called Phil's; despite hundreds of cycles parked outside and even more rough-clad bikers chowing down inside, there was simply no trouble from the biker groups... I wouldn't call them "gangs" because I saw no evidence of any criminal behavior. They even politely queued up and waited for their tables, ate their gigantic platefuls of bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes and very greasy dinner rolls ("these are the times that fry men's rolls," I used to say, though never to them), donned helmets (well, many of them did), got on their bikes and left with a roar that sounded like Indy cars at a race track... all without making trouble. How the times have changed!
The violence erupted shortly after noon at a busy Waco marketplace along Interstate 35 that draws a large lunchtime crowd. Waco, Texas police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said eight people died at the scene of the shooting at Twin Peaks restaurant and another person at a hospital. He told the Waco Tribune-Herald that the nine killed were all members of biker gangs.
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Held 44 hours without charge in an overstuffed, unsanitary cell
Geremy Faulkner, who turned 18 in February, was videotaping police interaction with looters and bystanders last Monday afternoon at Baltimore’s Mondawmin Mall when he was arrested along with 250 others in the city that day. He spent the next 44 hours in jail, crammed in a small holding cell with as many as twelve men with no beds, no blankets, no pillows, intermittent water (the pipes spewed brown water that the guards suggested they avoid drinking), inadequate food, and no access to an attorney.Please read the rest of Karen Houppert's article at The Nation, linked above. Read it even if you already have "outrage overload" today. View the photo of Baltimore cops. And if you're in Baltimore, pay attention: the life you save may be your own, no matter what you are doing tonight or will be doing tomorrow.
He was never charged with a crime.
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“The right to be left alone is the most cherished of rights,” Kentucky senator and presidential aspirant Rand Paul said over the weekend in San Francisco. He was there to sell himself to the young tech elite as a civil-liberties crusader; the only candidate willing to take an uncompromising stand against government surveillance. He cares so deeply about privacy that he’s planning to filibuster the renewal of parts of the Patriot Act.Oh, yes: Rights for him; no rights for you. Women of reproductive age, take note...
But the leader of “the leave-me-the-hell-alone coalition” is simultaneously, albeit more quietly, arguing that women should have little privacy in their healthcare decisions. “The government does have some role in our lives,” Paul said at a summit organized by the anti-choice Susan B Anthony List in April, by which he meant making abortion illegal. Paul describes himself as “100 percent pro-life.” Along with all of the other Republican presidential candidates he supports a bill that resurfaced this week in the House that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
"What every woman really needs is
one of my fingers." - Sen. Rand Paul
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What an Amtrak locomotive looks like... intact |
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This handsome logo was introduced in 1969, long after my father had abandoned railroad work for schoolteaching. |
B. B. is gone — but the thrill of his music is certainly NOT gone
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B.B. King with Lucille |
...I personally regard all secret law and secret interpretation as invalid, if for no other reason than that it is not possible to comply with a law or interpretation to which one does not know the text.
... The court completely rejected the government’s secret reinterpretation of Section 215 that has served as the basis for the telephone records collection program. ...
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Servicing the Public for Over 100 Years |
...I have done contract IT work for Shell (more than a decade ago; I would not accept such work today) and I knew some of the people involved in designing the more ambitious drilling projects. Those at Shell are neither better nor worse than typical in the industry, but it is the nature of things that they appear to be self-assured to the point of arrogance about the outcomes of their work, in deep water and/or extreme weather. What could possibly go wrong? (*cough* BP Deepwater Horizon *cough*) Apart from that, as of a couple years ago, it looked as if all the big oil companies, including Shell, were partnering with one of two Russian companies, both of which have bad track records regarding safety and environment.
... The project Interior approved today is bigger, dirtier, and louder than any previous plan, calling for more sound disturbances and harassment of whales and seals, more water and air pollution, and more vessels and helicopters. It also runs the risk of a catastrophic oil spill that could not be cleaned in Arctic waters.
The company’s accident-filled efforts to drill in 2012 demonstrate that neither Shell nor any other company is ready to drill in the Arctic Ocean. Shell proved that again just last month when its Discoverer drillship was held in port due to pollution control failures. Drilling for oil in the Arctic Ocean also takes us in the wrong direction on combating climate change.
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Shell Kulluk Rig Damaged, Mar. 2013 (credit: National Geographic) |
Fast Track Authority for Toxic Trade Fails Key Vote in SenateI am glad I am not a White House Laundry worker, because I'm certain Obama soiled his underwear over this...
From Reuters:
Legislation giving U.S. President Barack Obama authority to speed trade deals through Congress failed a crucial procedural test on Tuesday, delaying a measure that may be key to President Barack Obama’s diplomatic pivot to Asia.
In a setback to the White House trade agenda, the Senate voted 52-45 – eight votes short of the necessary 60 – to clear the way for debate on the legislation, which would allow a quick decision on granting the president so-called fast track authority to move trade deals quickly through Congress.
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Eddie Heywood, 1946 |
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Environment
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NOT the logo, but should be... |
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Leaders of TPP member states (courtesy Wikipedia)) |
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Stephanopoulos |
Last week in Texas, a Republican lawmaker proposed an amendment so outrageous, that even some of his own GOP colleagues were repulsed. Andrea Grimes, with RH Reality, reports:For fuck's sake indeed. I've observed over the years that when something like this happens to a male GOPer legislator's own wife (probably to the wife of any male GOPer, legislator or not), they address it in the obvious way: they carve out an exception for the women in their own family. No needless suffering or serious medical danger for their womenfolk; oh, no...
Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) put forward an amendment that would make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if a fetus “has a severe and irreversible abnormality,” effectively forcing families with wanted, but unsustainable pregnancies to carry to term at the behest of the state and against the advice of their doctors or their own wishes.What would cause a lawmaker to want the government to inflict more emotional pain onto an already grieving family, in addition to adding a major health risk to the mother? Does he not realize a woman can easily die of sepsis by carrying a nonviable fetus?
Schaefer said that suffering is “part of the human condition, since sin entered the world.”Oh, for fucksake! Where do these people come from? More importantly, how do they hide their vile and odious ignorance long enough to get elected?
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Wal-Mart issued a statement Monday to TPM dismissing "rumors" that tunnels were being built by the U.S. military beneath closed stores in an attempt to launch a takeover of Texas.Maybe Wal-Mart would have gotten more attention if the announcement had been made by Lorenzo Lamas...
"There’s no truth to the rumors," Wal-Mart spokesperson Lorenzo Lopez told TPM via email.
The tunnels are part of a series of conspiracy theories surrounding "Jade Helm 15," a military training operation set to take place later this year in seven Western states. The conspiracy theorists have said the operation may be part of a covert attempt to takeover Texas and other states.
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Right... we should have known that omission would have been the (ir)responsibility of Rep. Louie "Goober" Gohmert (R-TX). What a guy. He'd be entertaining if he weren't so dangerous as he climbs the political ladder. And I think this committee needs a formal slogan, perhaps this one: "It must have been an oversight..."Representative Louie Gohmert (R–TX) is worried that scientists employed by the U.S. government have been running roughshod over the rights of Americans in pursuit of their personal political goals. So this week Gohmert, the chair of the oversight and investigations subpanel of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee, held a hearing to explore “the consequences of politically driven science.” Notably absent, however, were any scientists, including those alleged to have gone astray.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
"Darn laxative failed again..."
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Naomi Klein |
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that flares at refineries and chemical plants emit about four times more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) a smog-forming air pollutant than previously reported. EPA also found that Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units at refineries emit more than 10 times more hydrogen cyanide per year, releasing more than 3000 tons more of this powerful neurotoxin each year than previously reported, and more than one third the combined total of all hazardous air pollutants refineries reported to the Toxics Release Inventory in 2013.Ah, yes, the
The new EPA guidelines were prompted by a 2013 lawsuit by the Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of Air Alliance Houston, Community In-Power and Development, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services. EPA revised its methodology for estimating emissions from flares used at various industries, including refineries and chemical plants after determining that they release four times more VOCs than reported by industry in the past. VOCs contribute to smog and include benzene and other carcinogens. Although EPA is apparently informing reporters that these emission factors should not be used to estimate VOC releases from flares and oil and gas drilling sites, the agency has not made this distinction in the guidance it has published today or in previous versions.
Houston Ship Channel
on a crystal-clear day
“The VOC air pollution plume from flares is four times larger than we thought, and that multiplies their contribution to health problems,” said Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “Based on this new data, flares deserve more attention from state and local regulators.”
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