underpants
underpants's JournalJust saw "Big Miracle" - hilarious cameo at the end of the movie *SPOILER* of sorts
Big Miracle is the story of three gray whale stranded in the ice near Point Barrow Alaska. I had completely forgotten about this story.
It happens in 1988 and there is more politics in the movie - Greenpeace (Drew Barrymore), big oil (Ted Danson) and the end of the Reagan administration.
At the end of the movie the lead character - John Krasinski from "The Office" - doesn't go for the big network reporting jobs but stays in Anchorage. He is the anchorman for the local news and he segues to sports....
Sarah, it's not all Iditarod news is it?
My wife and I cracked up 
She was barely recognizable.
Meanwhile in Virginia - the GOP legislature has gone nuts
Assembly's right turn forces gov's hard choices
Coming McDonnell's way soon are bills that would radically curb abortion availability, bar same-sex couples from adopting children, require photo identification of voters and force drug tests of welfare recipients.
Another would repeal a 20-year-old law that brought an end to Virginia's reputation as a gun-runner's paradise, supplying weapons that found their ways into the hands of criminals as far up the Eastern Seaboard as Boston.
http://www.necn.com/02/05/12/Assemblys-right-turn-forces-govs-hard-ch/landing_politics.html?&apID=ebc8cd827448468da39eabee9296b564
All of these went through just this week. They also slashed funding for bike trails and routes - my two wheeling friends are flipping their lids over this and they should.
Jose (6 years old) posts on DU
my name is josie . i like cats and dogs . i love you . ok byebye .
VOTER FRAUD!! theft. perjury. INVALID. - Mitch Daniel's Repub Indiana Sec. of State CONVICTED
LMFAO
Yesterday, a jury found Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R) guilty on six felony counts of voter fraud, theft, and perjury. The conviction cost White his job, though he plans to ask the judge to reduce the charges to misdemeanors and hopes to perhaps regain the position.
In a statement, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) announced White’s deputy will take over on an interim basis:
I have chosen not to make a permanent appointment today out of respect for the judge’s authority to lessen the verdict to a misdemeanor and reinstate the elected office holder… If the felony convictions are not altered, I anticipate making a permanent appointment quickly.
But a second court case could ultimately give the job to Democrat Vop Osili, who lost to White in November 2010. A judge’s December 2011 ruling — currently on hold, pending appeal — held that due to the voter fraud charges, White’s election was invalid. Should that ruling survive the appeals process, Osili would assume the office.
Ironically, White’s now-removed 2010 campaign website listed election integrity as among his top concerns, and promised he would “protect and defend Indiana’s Voter ID law to ensure our elections are fair and protect the most basic and precious right and responsibility of our democracy-voting.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/04/418963/indiana-secretary-of-state-convicted-of-voter-fraud/
Modern medicine - the dog solved it (sort of)- true story from my life in the last 24 hours
2/2/12 3:58 I get a call from daycare - "Josie fell backwards and hit her head she is very woozy..." I am shutting my computer and say to my boss "I am out of here Josie hit her head on the playground". She, of course, is cool with that.
4:18 completed the 25 minute ride to daycare and have Josie in my arms. Headed to the hospital. Josie is nodding off but I keep her awake from the front seat.
4:35 Mom meets us at the entrance to the ER and carries Josie in.
4:37 Josie throws up into a bag in the lobby of the ER
Okay enough of the timeline.
EKG - fine
CT Scan - fine
No one can figure it out. I have told all the staff ( who were FANTASTIC as usual) that the kids at daycare saw Josie walking by herself, stop, knees wobble, falls backwards like a tree onto the back of her head in the tree bark playground.
The ER doc thinks she might have a stomach virus that is going around.
They want to keep her for the night for observation. Old school, old south (complete with bowtie) neurologist comes into our room in the pediatrics ward. [font color = red]My child is seeing a neurologist[/font]. He can't figure it out. He says that most likely she fainted. Since being at the hospital she has complained about her tummy being sore. He says (and he is great with her) that fainting in caused by low blood pressure. The sight of blood or a spider or sudden abdominal pain could cause this. Her foggy behavior since then could be either an adrenaline drop or concussion (what I assumed it was) OR her sleepy mode since the accident could be a sign of seizure. [font color = red]SEIZURE[/font]. He says there is no reason for a healthy child with no family history to have a seizure but we will need an EEG.
This morning - Mom stayed with her in the room because there was only one fold out chair.
EEG. The tech, who has been doing this for 12 years, says that he doesn't see anything wrong on the EEG.
During the EEG a volunteer came by with her therapy dog. I asked if she come back in 20 minutes or so.
She returns with Gracie. One of 9 sheltie's she and her husband have. 3- or was it 7? -are trained and certified as therapy dogs.
Gracie is in the hospital bed with Josie. Josie is loving all over her so I say to the owner/handler, "She was just walking in the playground and got wobbly knees and fell backwards onto her head"
Josie: "That's not what happened!"
Me: "It isn't?"
Josie: "Well.... I was climbing up the ladder on the playground and my foot slipped. I hit my tummy and it hurt. I got off the ladder. It was tough to breath. I started walking to the teachers when I guess that is when it happened".
Me: "That's what happened?"
Josie: "Yep" she goes back to playing with Gracie
I look up at the handler "Well how about that? Gracie got us the whole story"
Handler: " You wouldn't believe how often that happens"
WOW just WOW
The neurologist and ER doc pretty much had it right but we didn't know about the ladder until Josie was coherent (the next day) and had Gracie to help her. Personally I think she had the wind knocked out of her. It has happened to me playing football a couple of times and suddenly not breathing is a bit of a shock - Josie kept it together enough to get off the ladder which is saying something.
Thank you Gracie. Just, thank you.
Donald Rumsfeld speaks to large crowd in Roanoke - "large"?
ROANOKE, VA --
More than 400 people welcomed former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the Star City Thursday evening. Rumsfeld spoke at Roanoke's Jefferson Center, as part of a book tour to promote his memoir "Known and Unknown."
"It is going to take them time to find their way. I have never been one to believe the United States could go in and build other countries. It isn't possible for other nations to go in and make it all better for them,” says Rumsfeld.
The former secretary also touched on disagreements between the Department of Defense, State Department, and the National Security Council.
"It seems to me, in large measure, it isn't it. It is a difference of perspective difference of views, difference of positions, and that is fair,” said Rumsfeld. 
"It is not a result of the defense establishment. You could abolish the defense department, and you wouldn't make a dent in that debt,” says Rumsfeld.
--LOVE this last line ---
And it was answers like that, which gave people who attended a first hand look into his job as the former Secretary of Defense.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-news/2012/feb/02/donald-rumsfeld-speaks-large-crowd-roanoke-ar-1660575/
"The fact that there's a brother in the White House is just so unsettling to so many people."
UPDATE: Voter ID bill set to pass (VIRGINIA) House on Wednesday
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/jan/31/1/at-capitol-rally-nearly-300-decry-voter-id-bills-ar-1652900/
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones said the bills were specifically targeted to suppress the vote of "those who turned Virginia blue in 2008," when President Barack Obama carried the state on his way to victory.
"There are some nefarious things going on that cause us some grave concern," Jones said. "The fact that there's a brother in the White House is just so unsettling to so many people."
Civil rights leader and former executive director for the NAACP Benjamin Chavis also gave a blistering speech calling the proposed legislation "arrogant bills introduced by arrogant politicians.'
Chavis said the proposed changes "represent the old South" and "lynch democracy."
ABC News PAC report - look who is on the front page ..... but ABC offers no hard number as to why
Soros (l) and Newt's buddy Adelson (r)
Money has always been one of the more significant parts of elections, although the 2012 cycle has kept campaign finance lawyers, experts and critics busy because of the introduction of so-called super PACs. These political groups can raise as much money as they want, and then spend unlimited amounts on ads to sway the election toward the candidates they support.
This is a guide to some of the most generous donors to super PACs.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/pac-pack-men-money-candidates/story?id=15479174
John Paulson and Edward Conard - $1 Million - Romney supporters
Bob "Swift Boat" Perry - $.5 Million to Perry $3.5 Million to American Crossroads (Rove)
Sheldon Adelson - $5 Million EACH from he and his wife to Winning Our Future (Newt)
Foster Friess - the "guardian angel funding " Santorum's Red, White, & Blue PAC which has spent $2 Million
Jeffrey Katzenberg - "so far given $2 million to the PAC, Priorities USA Action. " - Pro-Obama
The Koch brothers -$1.3 Million to "Americans for Prosperity". Koch Industries - $12 Million to Republicans since 1990. " are reportedly planning to direct more than $200 million into the 2012 cycle"
George Soros "has given millions of dollars to Democratic causes." --that all it says in terms of real dollars
Va. Republicans Train Fire on Union Requirements for Public-Works Projects
The Va GOP has both Houses of the General Assembly and the Governorship -- stop if you have heard this one before 
Republican-sponsored bills to prohibit mandated project-labor agreements (PLAs) for state-funded infrastructure projects are making their way through both houses of the General Assembly.
House Bill 33, sponsored by 66 state delegates, seems a shoo-in for passage. The bill would ensure that state agencies, or construction managers acting on their behalf, would neither require nor prohibit project-labor agreements for state-financed public-works projects.
But not everyone is dead-set against the idea of project-labor agreements.
“I don’t have a gut reaction one way or the other,” Del. Mark Keam (D-35th) told the Sun Gazette at his Richmond office. “So far, it works well. I’d like to keep PLAs as an option on the table and let people negotiate. I think PLAs work. They’re fine. There are benefits to it. If it isn’t broke, why change it?”
http://www.sungazette.net/arlington/news/va-republicans-train-fire-on-union-requirements-for-public-works/article_06e6ea70-4b34-11e1-a278-0019bb2963f4.html
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