September 27, 2014

Even animals need guardian angels.

Even animals need guardian angels.

And lucky for White Boy, a dog who was stranded in the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida, a manatee was standing by, keeping the pup company until a local police officer could help rescue him from the water. While neighbors in Seminole Heights heard the dog struggling Friday evening, they did not realize what had happened until they saw him in the water the following morning, according to Good Morning America, and called the Tampa Police Department.

His pleas for help, however, attracted the attention of a large manatee -- a species that is naturally curious -- and likely swam over to investigate, rescuing officer Randy Lopez told ABC News. White Boy couldn't make it over the cement sea wall on his own, so the manatee watched over him until Lopez was able to set up an extension ladder and bring him back to dry land.

"You don't see that every day, and it's a great reminder... the importance of kindness," the department wrote in their Facebook post alongside the photo.



Look closely at pic above


MORE:
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/manatee-watch-dog-rescue/story?id=25704364
https://www.facebook.com/TampaPD/photos/a.454843527921185.1073741825.140302859375255/730693280336207/?type=1&theater
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-importance-of-kindness.html

September 27, 2014

NYT Op-Ed: How Israel Silences Dissent

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For most of Israel’s existence, the majority of Israelis have allowed the state, in the name of Jewish sovereignty and security, to violate Palestinians’ basic human rights — including access to water and the freedom of movement and assembly. The state has killed unarmed protesters and then failed to carry out investigations; it has allowed settlers and soldiers to act with impunity; and it has systematically discriminated against non-Jewish citizens. After so many years of repressing those who stand in the way, the transition to targeting “one of your own” isn’t so difficult. Now it is the few Jewish Israelis who speak the language of human rights who are branded as enemies.

Zeev Sternhell, a political scientist and an expert on fascism, believes that “radical nationalism” and the “erosion of Enlightenment values” have reached new heights in Israel. “To grieve for the loss of life on both sides is already a subversive act, treason,” he told Haaretz. Mr. Sternhell has experienced Jewish extremist violence firsthand; in 2008, a settler planted a bomb in his home that wounded him.

Israelis increasingly seem unwilling to listen to criticism, even when it comes from within their own family. Not only are they not willing to listen, they are trying to silence it before it can even be voiced. With a family like that, I would rather be considered one of “them.”


................

the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/opinion/how-israel-silences-dissent.html?_r=1

September 27, 2014

Treasonous GOP Congressman Dares Generals To Resign en masse in protest of President Obama...

“Let me reassure you on this. A lot of us are talking to the generals behind the scenes, saying, ‘Hey, if you disagree with the policy that the White House has given you, let’s have a resignation,’” GOP congressman Lamborn said Tuesday, adding that if generals resigned en masse
in protest of President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, they would “go out in a blaze of glory.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/26/obama-generals-resign_n_5888434.html

September 27, 2014

Donald Trump DO IT! I dare you.

I wonder if I run for PRESIDENT, will the haters and losers vote for me knowing that I will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN? I say they will!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/515635087275474944

September 26, 2014

16-Year-Old Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair 2014 With World-Changing Crop Yield Breakthrough

16-Year-Old Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair 2014 With World-Changing Crop Yield Breakthrough

by Beverley Mitchell, 09/25/14



Irish teenagers Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow, all 16, have won the Google Science Fair 2014. Their project, Combating the Global Food Crisis, aims to provide a solution to low crop yields by pairing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that naturally occurs in the soil with cereal crops it does not normally associate with, such as barley and oats. The results were incredible: the girls found their test crops germinated in half the time and had a drymass yield up to 74 percent greater than usual.


Read more: 16-Year-Old Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair 2014 With World-Changing Crop Yield Breakthrough | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

http://inhabitat.com/16-year-old-irish-girls-win-google-science-fair-2014-with-world-changing-crop-yield-breakthrough/

September 26, 2014

I don't want NO stinking "freedom fries"

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Remember when there were just a few liberals on the left saying "Umm.... I dont think we should do this." Remember how Republicans said Democrats hated America and loved terrorists? Remember how even fellow Democrats were saying how could we tolerate people living under dictators and suffering massacres? Remember how they shouted "Holocaust!" and "Rwanda!" Outnumbered, liberals said "You'll regret it!"

Then things didnt seem to go as planned. Because when plans meet reality, reality wins.

Then things began to change. And over time, after great cost, slowly everyone comes to realize that the Middle East is not a playground for America's intentions but a real place whose choices in how they govern themselves is just as valid as any white western nation. Slowly they realize that perhaps America does not know all, know best, and is omnipotent in ability. Perhaps those crazy reality based people knew what they were talking about after all.

But memories, schmemories. How can we repeat the past if we don't forget it?

And so here we are again.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332537/-Remember-before-the-Iraq-War-Remember-that

September 26, 2014

Koch Funded AFP- NC Chapter sends out incorrect voter information

"Americans" "for" "Prosperity" is a Koch Bros. Astroturf disinformation propaganda front.

RALEIGH — Hundreds of North Carolinians – and one cat – have received incorrect voter registration information, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections.

The information – an “official application form” – was sent by Americans for Prosperity, a national conservative group with a state chapter based in Raleigh.

Since then, hundreds of people who received the forms have called and complained to the State Board of Elections, said Joshua Lawson, a public information officer for the board.

“It’s unclear where (Americans for Prosperity) got their list, but it’s caused a lot of confusion for people in the state,” Lawson said.

One resident even received a voter registration form addressed to her cat, he said.

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MORE HERE:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/09/25/4181779_voters-mailed-incorrect-information.html?rh=1
and a good summary here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332529/-Koch-Funded-AFP-NC-Chapter-sends-out-incorrect-voter-information#

September 26, 2014

87-year-old woman tells her story about being disenfranchised by the GOP’s war on voting

87-year-old Wisconsin resident Ruthelle Frank spoke out about her own experience:

On October 2011, an article appeared in my local paper reporting that, in order to vote in the next election, everyone was going to need a state-issued identity card for the first time. At 85 years old, I didn’t have one, because I’m handicapped and so I never drove a car or needed an ID.

The newspaper said that I’d have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and register for a card, and it had a list of the documents that I needed to bring. I had everything – except for the legal birth certificate. I’m not sure my parents ever gave that to me. I did have a baptism certificate that was notarized, but that was all.

My daughter drove me down to the DMV with my stack of paperwork, and we tried to ask the receptionist if I had everything, but she just handed me a form with a mess of questions on it. I told her I didn’t have a birth certificate, but she didn’t say I couldn’t go further, so we sat down and I filled it out and brought it back to her.

She barely looked at it, handed it back to me and sent me to the photo department, so I thought we were all set. But after the photo person took my picture, he sent me to another woman, and I handed her the form and my stack of papers, and she just threw my baptism certificate back at me and said it wasn’t valid and I couldn’t get an ID.

She even said, “How do I know you’re not an illegal alien?!”

That really hurt. I’d lived in the same house for 85 years, I’d served on the village board for 18 years, and then they told me that I wasn’t going to be allowed to vote.

I always voted. I’ve been registered to vote since I was 21 (the voting age wasn’t 18 until later), and I have never missed a presidential election.

My polling place is just one block down the street and one block over, so I could always walk to get there. Maybe a couple of times it was a little further away, four blocks or something, but never so far that I couldn’t walk. Voting places are close to home. But I had to get my daughter to drive me to the DMV because it’s 5 miles away. Thinking of all the other poor people, there are lots of us who might be able to get out to vote but not to get to the DMV, not if you don’t drive or don’t have anyone to take you there. And then you get there, and they tell you you don’t have the right piece of paper and maybe you’re an illegal alien who never should have voted?

I left the DMV and thought, “It just isn’t right.” I felt so downtrodden. As handicapped as I’ve been my whole life, as old as I am, it just felt like I wasn’t as good as anyone else.

I did try to get a birth certificate after that. Eventually, they told me I could get one, but I’d have to pay anything from $20-$200, since there was a mistake with my name that had to be corrected. That’s a lot of money! I’m so old now, what am I going to do with a $200 birth certificate? Hang it on the wall?


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/24/wisconsin-new-voter-id-law-woman-denied-right-87?CMP=twt_gu

September 26, 2014

The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes "The Ray Rice Video For The Financial Sector Has Arrived"

From the link: "How Segarra got herself fired by the Fed is interesting. In 2012, Goldman was rebuked by a Delaware judge for its behavior during a corporate acquisition. Goldman had advised one energy company, El Paso Corp., as it sold itself to another energy company, Kinder Morgan, in which Goldman actually owned a $4 billion stake, and a Goldman banker had a big personal investment. The incident forced the Fed to ask Goldman to see its conflict of interest policy. It turned out that Goldman had no conflict of interest policy -- but when Segarra insisted on saying as much in her report, her bosses tried to get her to change her report. Under pressure, she finally agreed to change the language in her report, but she couldn't resist telling her boss that she wouldn't be changing her mind. Shortly after that encounter, she was fired."

ProPublica's Jake Bernstein tells the story of Carmen's first months at the New York Fed, and how she came to start recording. And we hear the story of how the Fed examiners respond to an unusual, questionable deal that Goldman Sachs did -- a deal that the top Fed guy stationed inside Goldman calls "legal but shady."

This story was co-published with This American Life, from WBEZ Chicago.

Hear the radio version on these stations or download the episode now.

HERE: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/536/the-secret-recordings-of-carmen-segarra

September 26, 2014

Jon Stewart to Eric Bolling: "F*** you and all your false patriotism."

(audience groans and boos)

First of all, forget the rampant sexism in that statement. Second of all, she's a pilot, so whatever gender-specific equipment she might be carrying, it's in the fucking air! (audience laughter) And thirdly, what was the quote that someone said earlier in your program? "These people are putting their lives on the line for us. Show respect."

So fuck you and all your false patriotism. (massive audience cheering and applause)

When Bush took us to war, any criticism was shouted down as treasonous. But a President you don't like has the country poised on the same precipice? No transgression, no matter how immaterial and ridiculous, is too small to cite as evidence that this President isn't as American as you are.


...


MORE plus video:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332519/-Jon-Stewart-to-Eric-Bolling-F-you-and-all-your-false-patriotism