December 6, 2012

How To Be A Republican

December 6, 2012

The first onesie has been purchased.

December 6, 2012

...no words...

Wakefield man faces more than 100 charges in child sex abuse case; allegedly had 13 victims in towns north and west of Boston
By Peter Schworm and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

WOBURN — A Wakefield man allegedly videotaped himself as he raped and sexually abused 13 small children — some as young as eight days old — while providing day care for people at their homes in various towns outside Boston, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said today.

John Burbine, 49, has been indicted on 100 counts. He gained access to the children through the child care service, Waterfall Education Center, run by his wife, prosecutors said.

“This is among the most troubling and disturbing cases of child abuse ever prosecuted in Middlesex County,” Leone said in a statement.

The victims are from Stoneham, Medford, Newton, Reading, Melrose, Woburn, and Waltham. They were both male and female and ranged in age from eight days to 3 1/2 years old. The assaults allegedly occurred from August 2010 and through August 2012, prosecutors said.

The rest: http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/12/06/wakefield-man-faces-more-than-counts-child-sex-abuse-charges/q37UKjWc6df91Bwm8EGXyH/story.html

No words.

December 6, 2012

Mr. Burns explains the "fiscal cliff."

December 6, 2012

Bayou Frack-Out: The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You've Never Heard Of

Bayou Frack-Out: The Massive Oil and Gas Disaster You've Never Heard Of
By Mike Ludwig
Truthout.org | Report

Thursday 06 December 2012

For residents in Assumption Parish, the boiling, gas-belching bayou, with its expanding toxic sinkhole and quaking earth is no longer a mystery; but there is little comfort in knowing the source of the little-known event that has forced them out of their homes.

Located about 45 miles south of Baton Rouge, Assumption Parish carries all the charms and curses of southern Louisiana. Networks of bayous, dotted with trees heavy with Spanish moss, connect with the Mississippi River as it slowly ambles toward the Gulf of Mexico. Fishermen and farmers make their homes there, and so does the oil and gas industry, which has woven its own network of wells, pipelines and processing facilities across the lowland landscape.

The first sign of the oncoming disaster was the mysterious appearance of bubbles in the bayous in the spring of 2012. For months the residents of a rural community in Assumption Parish wondered why the waters seemed to be boiling in certain spots as they navigated the bayous in their fishing boats.

Then came the earthquakes. The quakes were relatively small, but some residents reported that their houses shifted in position, and the tremors shook a community already desperate for answers. State officials launched an investigation into the earthquakes and bubbling bayous in response to public outcry, but the officials figured the bubbles were caused by a single source of natural gas, such as a pipeline leak. They were wrong.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13136-bayou-frack-out-the-massive-oil-and-gas-disaster-youve-never-heard-of

December 5, 2012

Study: African Lion Population Shrinks to 32,000

Source: The Washington Post

The savannah habitat that ­sustains African lions has shrunk by 75 percent over the past ­half-century, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, a dramatic loss that could threaten the species’ survival.

The new analysis by American, African and British researchers — which suggests the continent’s lion population has declined from 100,000 to roughly 32,000 over 50 years — provides a clear picture of where the animals now live and how major land-use changes and population growth have put them in jeopardy.

“It’s a shock,” said Duke University professor for conservation ecology Stuart Pimm, one of the paper’s co-authors. “Savannah ­Africa has been massively reduced. . . . As [people] moved in, lions have been hunted out.”

The findings come just one week after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will study whether African lions should be listed under the Endangered Species Act, a move that would end the importation of trophies into the United States. Several groups petitioned the agency last year to list the species, though some conservationists ­argue trophy hunting provides a source of revenue to local communities, which helps keep savannah habitat intact.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-african-lion-population-shrinks-to-32000/2012/12/04/5a0d2360-3e43-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html

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I hate everything. Just God damned everything.

December 5, 2012

Until They All Come Home

There has been an ongoing debate here on DU about the hero-worship of the military in America, and to what degree that adulation fosters our hyper-militarized permanent-war national mindset and existence. Without doubt, this is a valid and vital debate...but for the moment, I'm going to add a different dimension to it: what it means to be a veteran in America today, the brutal (often lethal) hardships involved, and what that says about our national character. The numbers alone are staggering. To do so, I interviewed Paul Sullivan, a man who has dedicated his life to helping veterans in every way he can, "until," as he says, "they all come home." - WRP

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A soldier makes his way home through the Indianapolis
International Airport from a yearlong deployment to
Afghanistan, Sunday, June 10, 2012.
(Photo: Sgt. John Crosby / The National Guard / flickr)

Until They All Come Home
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout.org | Op-Ed

Wednesday 05 December 2012

(snip)

American history textbooks, along with American "news" media outlets, tend to focus on large martial events - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm - as specific, defined moments in time. That they are is beyond question; that the spaces between them have been times of peace is, however, laughable. The United States has been in a state of permanent, global war since Pearl Harbor. Involved in conflicts large and small, known and unknown, a moment has not passed in the last 71 years that has not involved American military personnel killing and dying somewhere in the world.

That is fact.

This reality has accelerated to an extreme and lethal level over the last twelve years; we have been at war in Afghanistan since 2002, and at war in Iraq since 2003 (if you think we're not still at war in Iraq, I can introduce you to some military families who are still posting love-you-be-safe letters to that particular delivery code), and the operational tempo that has defined the last 4,000 days has taken a savage toll on the men and women tasked to carry the burden placed upon them by those who have been allegedly leading this country.

This is not a story about America's insanely bloated "defense" budget. It is not a story about the bent priorities this nation has come to accept; to wit: more than half of every dollar collected in taxes goes to warfare and spying, a multi-trillion dollar industry, while we reel through national "debates" about cutting health care benefits for old people and closing schools because "we can't afford it."

This is a story about the people who have most recently endured what it means to serve in America's military, and what they are dealing with right now as a consequence of that service.

(snip)

For men like Paul Sullivan - former Cavalry Scout for the Army's 1st Armored Division and veteran of the 1991 Gulf War - our ongoing wars and the plight of the veterans who have fought them is an abiding passion, and the focus of a singular mission.

Between 1995 and 2000, Mr. Sullivan worked for the National Gulf War Resource Center in Washington, DC, where he led the national effort to pass the "Persian Gulf Veterans Act of 1998," a law significantly expanding health care, disability benefits, and scientific research for 250,000 ill Gulf War Veterans. From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Sullivan worked at the VA, where he produced reports about the health care use and disability benefit activity of Gulf War, Afghanistan War, and Iraq War veterans. From 2007 until 2012, Mr. Sullivan served as the Executive Director at Veterans for Common Sense. He regularly testifies before Congress and frequently appears in the media speaking about veterans' health care and disability benefits, especially Gulf War illness and post traumatic stress disorder. He works today for the law firm of Bergmann & Moore, whose website carries a bold banner that reads, "Aggressively Representing America's Veterans."

I recently interviewed Mr. Sullivan about the current state of affairs for veterans in America...

The rest: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13149-until-they-all-come-home

December 4, 2012

So Mitt got his old Marriott job back, eh?

December 2, 2012

When you see it...

December 1, 2012

Take 50 seconds and watch this deaf 8-month-old react to his cochlear implant being activated.

Whatever you're pissed about will be better after you watch this.

Just wow.