The Crisis - Dec. 23, 1776

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Tuesday September 23, 2008 · 9:13 AM PDT

2008/09/23 · 09:13

"These are the times that try men's souls."

So wrote Thomas Paine, in an essay so stirring that General George Washington had it read aloud to his more or less miserable troops at Valley Forge that winter of 1776. Paine called his essay "The Crisis."

Here is a passage from "The Crisis" that might apply to the snake oil we are being offered for our (and our grand-children's) hard-earned $700 Billion:

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.

ornerydad

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Wednesday March 26, 2008 · 8:22 AM PDT

2008/03/26 · 08:22

Spring has sprung and we're all heading out for picnics, swims, sails - - so please leave the plastic at home! In fact, please learn to do without and encourage your local businesses, town councils, county boards and institutions to cut back, pick up and recycle.

The latest from the plastic dump formerly known as the Pacific Ocean:

Nearly two million Laysan albatrosses live here and researchers have come to the staggering conclusion that every single one contains some quantity of plastic.

Where is this? Midway Island, as reported in this BBC News story

Poll

18 votes Show Results

To turn back the Plastic Tide, I will

18 votes Vote Now!

To turn back the Plastic Tide, I will

Call for strong chemical corporate regs and stronger enforcement

9 votes

Take action through an eco-org

3 votes

Get all up in my congressperson's grill

1 vote

Encase my used household polymer products in duct tape and shove in attic

1 vote

Suggest my local bistro owner serve albatross fricassee

4 votes

I’m Not Sure Why I Hate Television w/POLL

ornerydad

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Thursday November 08, 2007 · 7:44 AM PST

2007/11/08 · 07:44

But you know, it seems so - - well I’ll just say it: it seems so OLD.

As a rank-and-file member of the Baby Boom, just consider how many hours I’ve viddied, oh me brothers. 37,000? 59,000? 100,000 hours of television?

Consider the ocean of bullshit that represents. (Although, I will admit there have been plenty of pretty good commercials.)

But also the window on the world. The promise, the diversity of our living planet and the unpredictable people who’ve pranced and strutted across the viewport.

I’ve loved TV, I admit it. Loved and lost the love, it seems.

Poll

10 votes Show Results

The catch-phrase that best sums up political television is:

10 votes Vote Now!

The catch-phrase that best sums up political television is:

â€oeAcid, Amnesty and Abortion.â€

0 votes

Chance the Gardener: â€oeI like to watch.â€

1 vote

â€oeWe gotta move these refrigerators.â€

5 votes

â€oeDâ€TMoh!â€

4 votes

Fresh Nukes! $50 Billion, Suckers! w/POLL

ornerydad

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Tuesday July 31, 2007 · 4:43 AM PDT

2007/07/31 · 04:43

Oh boy! 50 billion greenbacks for new nukes!

How much you got in that there Energy Bill for solar? Wind? Geothermal? Tidal? Co-generation?
How about for Conservation? Retrofitting America’s leaky doors, windows attics and basements? Research on new automotive fuels?

Oh, here’s some funds for all that: $7 billion for renewable energy. Hmm, so all those other forms of independence-supporting energy will get 12% of the pie, while nukes will draw on a suitably robust, manly, nuclear 88%.

Poll

36 votes Show Results

Electricity will be "too cheap to meter" because:

36 votes Vote Now!

Electricity will be "too cheap to meter" because:

No nukes is good nukes.

9 votes

Decentralized energy generation is democracy-friendly.

13 votes

Some nukes is smart nukes.

11 votes

Bill Oâ€TMReilly is pro-nuke, and all good Americans oughtta be, too.

3 votes

Give Libby a rifle, order him to Baghdad

ornerydad

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Monday July 02, 2007 · 7:33 PM PDT

2007/07/02 · 19:33

I didn't say give him bullets.

Just ship his worthless, traitorous ass straight to the FUBAR hellhole he helped make into the suppurating reality that is draining life and freedom out of this world and this America.

You want to commute his sentence, Bush-Cheney?

D.C. to Baghdad, one-way. How's THAT for a commute.

Happy Independence Day, and let's IMPEACH the entire verminous clot of them.

How much is YOUR electric bill? w/POLL

ornerydad

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Thursday March 08, 2007 · 5:25 AM PST

2007/03/08 · 05:25

This is a serious diary. Doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. But if you want to go straight to the payoff, it’s down below at soft energy path and getting off the grid.

Now, then – the question! Your electric bill.

Never mind how many kilowatt hours you use, don’t bother breaking down the impenetrable thicket of "basic fixed service charges," transmission charge, distribution/customer charge, distribution/energy charge, transition charge, energy conservation charge, renewable energy charge, therm conversion factor, sales tax, or even the dreaded "default service tariff cost adjustment factors."

Never &@#%$*^# mind that!

(jump)

Poll

231 votes Show Results

On average, for my household electricity bill I pay:

231 votes Vote Now!

On average, for my household electricity bill I pay:

I burn peat and Iâ€TMm proud.

1 vote

less than $20 a month.

6 votes

from $20 to $80 a month.

69 votes

from $80 to $160 a month.

71 votes

from $160 to $431 a month.

75 votes

exactly $432 a month.

3 votes

more than the Gores but less than the Clampetts.

6 votes

I pay my utility bills in wind turbine futures.

0 votes

American Greetings Co. Sexually Slanders Dems - Boycott!

ornerydad

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Wednesday February 14, 2007 · 12:38 PM PST

2007/02/14 · 12:38

Democratic Party leaders are under personal and collective smear attack by American Greetings Corp. - - a supposedly wholesome, tradtional company providing good cheer for generations.

We can't let their sleazy, unfair, sick and stupid attack stand.

Please read on - - AND TAKE ACTION TODAY!

(Happy Valentine's Day in the meantime!)

ornerydad

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Wednesday November 15, 2006 · 10:26 PM PST

2006/11/15 · 22:26

Excellent diaries elsewhere. Thanks in particular to everyone commenting on the smintheus diary. Good patriots all.

Just felt it might be helpful to start a new thread with some close, point-by-point refutation of the major Snow Job we are getting, America!

The sum-up in the Guardian article

is this:

Four-point strategy
· [1] Increase US troop levels by up to 20,000 to secure Baghdad and allow redeployments elsewhere in Iraq
· [2] Focus on regional cooperation with international conference and/or direct diplomatic involvement of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
· [3] Revive reconciliation process between Sunni, Shia and others
· [4] Increased resources from Congress to fund training and equipment of Iraqi security forces

Below, I offer a take on each:
Read More

And speaking of Tet Offensive w/POLL

ornerydad

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Friday October 20, 2006 · 9:09 AM PDT

2006/10/20 · 09:09

Is Iraq Vietnam? Is the current violence there equivalent to the Tet Offensive?

Current White House propaganda has Bush suggesting we might be in a Tet-like situation in Iraq now. Discussion over what he is trying to put across with this remark ranges from "He means the media is painting a misleading picture of failure" to "He is admitting we are seeing a peak in violence, but hinting it will pass."

But there is a big difference.

Tet -- that was a major attack on Saigon by North Vietnamese regular army forces, in a nation divided in half many years before the arrival of the U.S. military.

I think the Iraq quagmire now is something else altogether. I think it is the carving up of what was -- prior to U.S. invasion -- a nation, into warring factions. Madly armed and well-funded factions. Carving up into a half-dozen mini-states, each one itself riven by violent local factions, and undermined by regional influences.

more... Read More

Long Island Repub: "Bush has destroyed the whole thing." w/POLL

ornerydad

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Friday October 13, 2006 · 8:12 AM PDT

2006/10/13 · 08:12

This is nice Friday news.

E.J. Dionne in the WaPo reports:

State Sen. Kemp Hannon, a Long Island Republican who has spent nearly three decades in the legislature, also worries that the coalition of "Reagan Democrats" that D'Amato helped build -- "they were Irish, Italian and Polish Democrats and some Jews" -- is a thing of the past. "I believe that Bush has destroyed that whole thing," Hannon says. "It's not here any longer in the Northeast."

FIVE House seats in NY may switch to DEM this cycle - - not a bad stake.

more... Read More

BREAKING: surreal play at Shea Stadium (political relief)

ornerydad

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Wednesday October 04, 2006 · 2:01 PM PDT

2006/10/04 · 14:01

Here's how it went down with the Dodgers batting:

Top 2ND B:2 S:2 O:0
Jeff Kent singles on a line drive to center fielder Carlos Beltran.

Top 2ND B:2 S:2 O:0
J. D. Drew singles on a soft ground ball to pitcher John Maine. Jeff Kent to 2nd.

Top 2ND B:2 S:1 O:2
Russell Martin singles on a fly ball to right fielder Shawn Green. Russell Martin to 2nd. Double play, right fielder Shawn Green to second baseman Jose Valentin to catcher Paul Lo Duca. Jeff Kent out at home. Drew out at home. Russell Martin to 2nd on the throw.

Hunh?!? I gotta lay off the sauce!

"I was made to be an American terrorist." - AWOL in Canada w/POLL

ornerydad

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Monday August 28, 2006 · 10:36 AM PDT

2006/08/28 · 10:36

Well, the Times (of London) sent a journalist to track down some of the 40,000 deserters the Pentagon has recorded since 2000.

The reporter found and spoke with 4 of them, in Toronto (posted at RawStory).

They seem to be your basic combat-vets-turned-conscientious-objectors. Some have earned combat decorations. They each remarked on the same key points: mama didn't raise no wanton murderer, hated to see friends turn into agents of evil, if I was Iraqi I would resist this insanity...

The Crisis - Dec. 23, 1776

ciao and thanks for all the plastic albatross w/POLL

I’m Not Sure Why I Hate Television w/POLL

Fresh Nukes! $50 Billion, Suckers! w/POLL

Give Libby a rifle, order him to Baghdad

How much is YOUR electric bill? w/POLL

American Greetings Co. Sexually Slanders Dems - Boycott!

Refuting the BushBaker Last Big Push in Iraq w/POLL

And speaking of Tet Offensive w/POLL

Long Island Repub: "Bush has destroyed the whole thing." w/POLL

BREAKING: surreal play at Shea Stadium (political relief)

"I was made to be an American terrorist." - AWOL in Canada w/POLL