via: drunkonstevphen
Daily Archives: June 12, 2012
Here’s a sane, rational idea. You know what that means…
Obama’s adviser on drug policy wants to see drug addiction treated as a health issue, not a crime:
Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama’s top adviser on drug policy and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, gave a speech yesterday arguing for the treatment of drug addiction as a public health issue, not a crime. “Drug addiction is not a moral failing on the part of the individual, but a chronic disease of the brain that can be treated,” said the White House drug czar. Kerlikowske argued that the paradigmatic shift in policy focus is necessary because an emphasis primarily on incarceration and the criminal status of drug users fails to treat the problem by disregarding prevention, treatment, and recovery…
This will never go over with the GOP / one percent. Prevention, treatment, and recovery are all fancy socialist words for drug users getting ‘help‘ — which as we all know, and as our Republican friends shout constantly, isn’t what government should be in the business of handing out (for people who aren’t wealthy). Our tax dollars should be going to profitable oil companies, banks who gamble and lose, farmers who grow nothing, and — most importantly — the GOP’s Forever Wars, where ever that will be next.
Treatment instead of incarceration would also mean that private prisons, like Corrections Corporation of America, wouldn’t get as much guaranteed “business” and the massive profits that go along with warehousing non-violent drug users. This is a successful American business model! And most of all, private prisons wouldn’t get all that additional profit from using their prison population as a cheap, almost third-world source of labor for their Fortune 500 buddies. Think of the CEOs and their bonuses!
“I want you to kill all infidels.” — Jesus
School Hangs Up Student’s Drawing of Jesus Saying ‘I Want You to Kill All Infidels’
Aren’t American fundagelical children adorable (like their parents)? Or look at it this way: the Taliban will have nothing on the next generation of Christians.
Up in smoke
An accurate depiction of exactly how I feel about math
via: questionall
High Park Fire, Colorado: 43,433 acres now burned, still not contained
The “good” news is that the fire grew by only about 6,500 acres since yesterday – which is much less than the over 28,000 acres it grew the day before. However, there will be winds today.
From InciWeb:
The High Park Fire is approximately 15 miles west of Fort Collins and burned an estimated 43,433 acres and continues to grow. The northeast portion of the fire is active and continues to be an area of concern. In addition, the northwest portion of the fire is burning hot. On Monday, firefighters were able to anchor the SW corner of the fire, which will help start to establish fire line. Air support helped fightfighters make ground on south flank and eastern flank of fire, but fire remains zero percent contained. Weather Tuesday is expected to be warmer and drier with winds out of the southwest and gusts up to 18 mph. [...] There has been one confirmed death of a 62-year-old woman as a result of the fire. For more information visit the Larimer County Sheriff’s website.
- Personnel involved: 500
- Air resources on scene include:Air resources on scene include: 5 heavy air tankers, 5 SEATs (single engine air tankers), 4 Type 1 heavy helitankers, 3 Type 2 helicopters, 4 Type 3 helicopters and 3 Blackhawk helicopers. Approximately 26 engines are on scene. A Type 1 Management Team has assumed command as of 6:30 a.m. Monday, June 11. Additional ground, air and engines have been ordered.
You can listen to some of the EMS, Fire, and LE personnel who are involved HERE.
Aerials of High Park Fire – Fort Collins, CO
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Lory neighborhood / Lory State Park (near Horsetooth Reservoir):
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Is this a new flip-flop record for Romney? 12 hours
Igor Volsky at Think Progress reported at 9PM last night:
During an interview with CNN’s John King on Monday evening, Romney campaign surrogate Newt Gingrich defended Mitt Romney’s resistance to hiring “more firemen, more policemen, more teachers” and admitted that the former Massachusetts governor’s policy would lead to less teachers in the classroom:
[...] We have to come to grips with how big the challenge is, and does that mean there will be fewer teachers? The honest answer is yes. Does it mean that you’re not going to get quite the same pension plan people have been getting? The honest answer is yes. President Obama may say well, we can borrow our way out of that decision. I don’t think the American people agree with him.
About 12 hours later, Travis Waldron of Think Progress reported this morning:
Mitt Romney slammed President Obama last week for wanting to hire “more firemen, more policemen, and more teachers,” making a clear assertion that those workers belong among the 700,000 public sector workers who have lost their jobs in the last three years… [D]uring an appearance on Fox News Tuesday morning, Romney contradicted his own remarks, saying that the Obama campaign was making “a very strange accusation” when it claimed he didn’t want to hire more teachers:
[...] That’s a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that’s completely absurd. He’s got a new idea, though, and that is to have another stimulus and to have the federal government send money to try and bail out cities and states. It didn’t work the first time. It certainly wouldn’t work the second time.
I think we can all agree that what Romney said and meant originally was “completely absurd.” But apparently he’d like to revise history a little and say we’re all “completely absurd” for believing that’s what he said. Nice try, Etch-a-sketch.
Morning Bunker Report: Tuesday 6.12.2012
WHAT ROMNEY / REPUBLICANS STAND FOR———————————————
The Bush Recession dramatically shrunk Americans’ net worth — The Great Recession shrank Americans’ wealth so much that in 2010 median family net worth was no more than it had been in 1992 after adjusting for inflation, the AP reports. Median net worth declined from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010, a Fed survey of family finances found. — Political Wire
If you want to know why the recovery has been so sluggish, you don’t need to look much further than the chart above – The poorest families (far left) showed a slight gain in income since 2001 but a 35% loss in wealth. The richest families (far right) showed flat incomes and a 16% increase in wealth. The families in the middle — the vast majority of the country — showed substantial losses in both income and wealth. Overall, median net worth dropped 27% between 2001 and 2010. For middle class families this overwhelmingly represents housing wealth: the housing bust since 2007 more than wiped out all the gains they saw during the housing boom. — Kevin Drum
Like recurring hemorrhoids, Tea Party grassroots gather In Washington – ”Welcome to the hostile takeover,” said Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of the Tea Party group. “We, as shareholders of the American enterprise, feel like it’s far past time that we beat the Washington establishment. In case you’ve read otherwise, we have not gone away.” — HuffPo
Did Republicans deliberately crash the US economy? (i.e. sabotage, treason) – “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” Such words lead some to the conclusion that Republicans will do anything, including short-circuiting the economy, in order to hurt Obama politically… it’s a hard accusation to prove: after all, one person’s economic sabotage is another person’s principled anti-government conservatism. Beyond McConnell’s words, though, there is circumstantial evidence to make the case… – Michael Cohen
Stand Your Ground laws and remembering who Jeb Bush really is – Justifiable homicides nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010, according to the most recent data available, when 326 were reported. [...] The bill passed in Florida, and was immediately signed by Gov. Jeb Bush. Yes- that would be the same Jeb Bush who is running around today bemoaning radical Republicans. You know, the same “moderate” Jeb Bush who signed the laws giving him permission to insert himself into Terri Schiavo’s marriage. They are all radicals. – John Cole
You know Romney’s lies are reaching critical mass when even his online PR firm ‘Buzzfeed’ complains: Romney Campaign Video Takes Obama Wildly Out-Of-Context – A new web video from the Romney campaign claims the President flip-flopped on hiring more government workers. But, in context, he was talking about the decline in public sector employment during the last recession, compared to an increase under Ronald Reagan. — Buzzfeed video
Is Limbaugh REALLY this stupid or does he just rely on the ignorance of his audience? “Nobody’s opposed to cops or firefighters or teachers — but they aren’t private sector jobs. They do not contribute to economic growth. Their purpose is otherwise. They have an entirely different purpose: public safety, public education, this kind of thing. But there’s no growth in the economy. If you add those jobs — and if there aren’t other types of private sector jobs added while at the same time we’re adding to the fire rolls and the cop rolls and teachers — we are reducing the size of the private sector. This is Marxism 101. It’s also Ignorance and Sophistry 101.” [...] if Romney and Limbaugh actually, sincerely believe what they’re saying, I’d just ask them to consider one question: do they believe teachers, police officers, and firefighters spend money? [...] In other words, there are hundreds of thousands of teachers and first responders, but they never buy things and they never invest, so when they get laid off en masse, there are no economic consequences whatsoever. — Steve Benen
“We are not a household. We are an economy. Your spending is my income, and my spending is your income.” – Paul Krugman
WHAT THE PRESIDENT / DEMOCRATS STAND FOR ————————————
Obama And The Future — This election is about empowering him to finish what he began. And to have voted for him in 2008 and not vote for him now makes no sense at all. We all knew there would be brutal resistance to real change. So are we really going to bail when resistance makes its strongest counter-attack? Or will we push the president to keep his promises while mobilizing to ensure he can recapitalize in this election and finish the job? I know where I am on this. Do you? – Andrew Sullivan
The story, in a nutshell, is this: we inherited a total disaster, things are getting better, and Romney will bring us back to disaster. — Michael Tomasky
Obama For America TV Ad: “Number One” – When Mitt Romney was governor, Massachusetts was number one. Number one in state debt: $18 billion dollars in debt, more debt per person than any other state in the country. At the same time Massachusetts fell to 47th in job creation; one of the worst economic records in the country. First in debt, 47th in job creation. That’s Romney Economics. – YouTube
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“If Barack Obama could just do half the kind of job that Mitt Romney did [as governor of] Massachusetts, this country would be thriving.” — a little ‘wisdom’ from Bay “At the Moon” Buchanan
FBI: Violent crime down for fifth straight year – Last year marked the fifth straight year of year-to-year improvement for the number of violent crimes reported to authorities. It was the ninth consecutive year of declines for property crimes, according to preliminary FBI data for 2011 released Monday. [...] The FBI says murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault all went down in 2011. [...] The preliminary data is based on information the FBI gathered from 14,009 law enforcement agencies around the United States. – SFGate.com
BREAKING: Department Of Justice Sues Florida Over Voter Purge — The U.S. Justice Department is suing Florida after the state disregarded the federal government’s request to suspend its voter purge campaign. In a letter to the Florida Secretary of State, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez argues that Florida is violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act. “Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct,” Perez writes. The full text of the letter is available HERE. –Think Progress
14 Million seniors are already benefiting from Obamacare (and a large majority of them are probably watching Fox News 24/7, cursing the Kenyan-born socialist in the White House) – Medicare reports that 14.3 million seniors in America have already received important preventive benefits under President Obama’s health care law. In the first few months of 2012, seniors were able to take advantage of a number of preventative health services, including an annual checkup, without paying any deductibles or co-pays. “Thanks to the health care law, millions of Americans are getting cancer screenings, mammograms, and other preventive services for free,” said acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. “These preventive services are helping people in Medicare stay healthy and lower their health care costs.” – Think Progress
Wakey, wakey
via: pricklylegs
