January 11, 2011 · 6:25 pm

Virginia Foxx: Tucson Shooter’s Beliefs ‘The Liberal Of Liberals’

The always tactful GOP Rep Virginia Foxx is at it again…

How does this woman keep getting re-elected?  She’s the craziest Congressperson in Washington, since Virgil Goode lost his seat a couple of years ago.

And that’s saying a lot…

From TalkingPointsMemo:

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) says political rhetoric doesn’t really incite violent behavior at all — but not before describing Arizona shooting suspect Jared Loughner as a “communist” and “the liberal of liberals.”

“This guy appears to be a communist,” Foxx told the Winston-Salem Journal. “His beliefs are the liberal of the liberals [sic]. There is no evidence whatsoever that this man was influenced by Sarah Palin or anybody in the Republican Party. This man is not a conservative; he’s a fan of communism – that’s the opposite of conservatism.”

In ascribing affirmative political views to Loughner, Foxx is going farther than her colleagues. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), by contrast, only claimed Loughner doesn’t appear to be a Tea Party member.

“I don’t think members of Congress incite that kind of rhetoric,” Foxx added. “I don’t think the things we say incite that kind of behavior. And I don’t know that the things other people say incite it. I just think we have deranged individuals in this country and occasionally they do bad things.”

via GOP Rep: Loughner’s Beliefs ‘The Liberal Of Liberals’ | TPMDC.

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January 11, 2011 · 6:19 pm

New James Bond Film: ‘Bond 23’ Announced

This is good news.

I love the Daniel Craig Bond films and the latest one had been on hold due to the Bankruptcy of MGM, the studio that owned the rights…

The name’s Bond. James Bond. And he’s back — a new James Bond film has officially been announced.

EON Productions announced on Tuesday that the film, for now referred to now as ‘Bond 23,’ will go into production late this year.

Daniel Craig is back for his third turn as the secret agent, while Sam Mendes will direct the new installment.

In April, the film had been suspended indefinitely because of MGM’s financial troubles. With their recent refinancing, the movie became good to go.

via New James Bond Film: ‘Bond 23’ Announced.

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Filed under Entertainment, Movies

January 10, 2011 · 10:23 pm

Fox Host’s Site Runs Picture of Glenn Beck with Gun while Condemning Violence

Is it possible he could be the reincarnation of all 3 Stooges rolled into one man?

Today wasn’t the best day for Glenn Beck’s website to rely on a random image generator.

While the media goes back and forth about whether or not Fox News or conservative talk radio had an impact on Jared Lee Loughner’s decision to go on a rampage, Beck unknowingly made a convincing case against himself when an image of him holding a gun appeared next to a quote where he condemns violence.

Click link for full article and picture on the Huffington Post

More-including the Picture:   Glenn Beck Photo FAIL: Fox Host’s Site Runs Unfortunate Juxtaposition (PICTURE).

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January 10, 2011 · 7:43 pm

Cupcakes Are Dead. Long Live The Pie! : NPR

Just in case you aren’t up to date on the latest food trends…

From NPR:

Every year, I predict the death of the cupcake. I’m always wrong.

But this year, they’ll have real competition from the humble pie. Trend-spotters are calling pie the food of the year. Texas and New York restaurants offer pie happy hours. Pies are showing up at weddings, and pie shops are opening in a neighborhood near you. Pies come in sweet and savory, maxi and mini, deep dish and deep-fried.

If pies are the new cupcakes, New York Magazine says, vegetables are the new meat.

No more the supporting actors. Vegetables are stars. Remember food guru Michael Pollan’s mantra? “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It’s getting some serious traction.

And when Mario Batali — the prince of pork — embraces meatless Mondays, you know the times they are a-changing.

One of the most glam vegetables will be kale. Look for the frilly bouquet of slightly bitter, dark greens both cooked and raw in a salad.

Root vegetables, meanwhile, are the new heirlooms. These gnarled vegetables such as salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and celery root are about to step onto the food fashion runway.

More:   Cupcakes Are Dead. Long Live The Pie! : NPR.

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January 10, 2011 · 6:20 pm

America has ‘reached the point of no return,’ Reagan budget director warns | Raw Story

Wow….This is from David Stockman, Reagan’s Budget Director…

Even he says the Bush Tax Cuts should not have been extended and it’s time to reign in the Military Industrial Complex….

 

The Obama administration’s $78 billion cut to US defense spending is a mere “pin-prick” to a behemoth military-industrial complex that must drastically shrink for the good of the republic, a former Reagan administration budget director recently told Raw Story.

“It amounts to a failed opportunity to recognize that we are now at a historical inflection point at which the time has arrived for a classic post-war demobilization of the entire military establishment,” David Stockman said in an exclusive interview.

“The Cold War is long over,” he continued. “The wars of occupation are almost over and were complete failures — Afghanistan and Iraq. The American empire is done. There are no real seriously armed enemies left in the world that can possibly justify an $800 billion national defense and security establishment, including Homeland Security.”

Short of that, he suggested, the United States has “reached the point of no return” with its artificial creation of wealth, and will eventually face a sharp economic decline.

via Exclusive: America has ‘reached the point of no return,’ Reagan budget director warns | Raw Story.

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Filed under Politics, The Economy

January 10, 2011 · 5:20 pm

Glenn Beck Emails Sarah Palin About Arizona Shooting

This is truly sick…

How much more hypocritical do these two self-centered drama queens have to get before people realize they are nuts?

They are running for cover and trying to disguise the fact their over-heated rhetoric may have contributed to the tragedy in Arizona.

They have definitely contributed to the loss of civility in the political discourse….

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin emailed each other about the shooting in Arizona, and Beck read some of their exchange on his Monday radio show. Beck told Palin he feared for her safety, and he condemned the shooting, which led to the deaths of six people and the wounding of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Both have been accused by some as having contributed to the political climate that may have indirectly led to the shooting. Palin, in particular, has drawn criticism for the map she put up that placed Giffords’ congressional district, among others, within crosshairs.

Beck said that Palin had gotten in touch with him first on Sunday night. He read what he had sent to her in reply.

“Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are feeling the same heat, if not much more on this. I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down,” Beck wrote. “There are nutjobs on all sides…terror is terror. I don’t care if it is for Allah or your party.”

“I hate violence,” Palin replied, according to Beck. “I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence. Thanks for all you do to send the message of truth and love and God as the answer.”

via Glenn Beck Emails Sarah Palin About Arizona Shooting.

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Filed under History, Politics

January 9, 2011 · 11:34 am

The Conservative Constitution of the United States

Priceless- and scarily accurate…

From David Cole in today’s Washington Post….

Here are the Amendments.  I encourage you to click the link to see the actual “Constitution”.

AMENDMENTS

1. Congress shall make no law abridging the Freedom of Speech, except where citizens desecrate the Flag of the United States; respecting an establishment of Religion, except to support Christian schools, religious apparitions in food products and the display of crosses and creches in public places; or abridging the free exercise of Religion, except to block the construction of mosques in sensitive areas as determined by Florida Pastors or the Fox News Channel.

2. The right to bear Semi-Automatic Weapons, AK-47s or Bazookas shall not be infringed by background checks, safety locks, age limits or common sense.

3. The right of Corporations, Hedge Funds, Business Leaders and Lobbyists to spend endless cash on campaigns and influence-purchasing shall not be infringed. The so-called right of Unions to associate shall be denied as fundamentally un-American and contrary to the agenda of the Chamber of Commerce.

4. Marriage and the benefits thereof shall be restricted to the Union of a Man and a Woman, consecrated in a Christian house of worship, with vows to expose any and all progeny to daily viewings of Bill O’Reilly.

5. All persons born or naturalized in the United States are Citizens of the United States of Real America only if their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were Citizens, and only if they pledge opposition to Health Insurance Reform or New Taxation. Any Citizen convicted of providing material support to Terrorist organizations, wearing clothing bearing images created by Shepard Fairey, or displaying Nancy Pelosi bumper stickers shall be stripped of Citizenship.

6. Aliens, of this world or another, shall have none of the rights guaranteed herein to Citizens.

7. Corporations shall have all of the rights guaranteed herein to Citizens, and then some.

8. No White Male shall be denied equal protection of the law through Affirmative Action or otherwise. In keeping with the intent of the Framers, as discerned by the Honorable Justice Antonin Scalia, distinctions on the basis of sex shall not be deemed to deny equal protection.

9. The right to be uninsured and make other people pay the costs of one’s Health Care shall not be infringed under any circumstances.

10. Congress shall make no law limiting Americans’ right to warm the Planet by using all the energy they darn well please.

11. The Unborn shall have the rights to life, to vote, to bear arms, to practice Religion except in a mosque in Lower Manhattan (see First Amendment) and to make campaign contributions, but once the child is born, it shall have no rights if it is an Alien (see Sixth Amendment).

12. No one may be required to do anything He or She does not want to do. Ever.

via The Conservative Constitution of the United States.

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January 8, 2011 · 6:54 pm

Gore Vidal: Michele Bachmann ‘Too Stupid To Deserve An Answer’

I’ve always loved Gore Vidal and his work…

Now, even more so…

From TalkingPointsMemo.com

You might recall how Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has said that she first became a Republican as a result of her disgust at reading a “snotty” Gore Vidal novel. So what does Gore Vidal think?

As we reported last week, Bachmann told a Republican crowd in Michigan that she cast off her youthful Democratic roots after reading Gore Vidal’s novel “Burr”, which depicted the Founding Fathers in an unfavorable light. (We later discovered that Bachmann had told this story before — and that in an earlier version of the tale, she said it had been a different Vidal novel, “1876.”)

Our old colleague Justin Elliott at Salon did quite a lot of work to get a response from Vidal. And finally, through an assistant, he received this written statement from the man himself:

“She is too stupid to deserve an answer.”

More:   Gore Vidal: Michele Bachmann ‘Too Stupid To Deserve An Answer’ | TPMDC.

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January 8, 2011 · 10:05 am

Deep Roots Market Proposes Downtown Grocery Store | digtriad.com | Triad, NC | Local News

This is great news from the News & Record.

I always want to support Deep Roots more, but they don’t ever have everything I need.  Hopefully this will enable them to carry more local produce and fresh, safe meats.  I love the idea of a cafe.

And this will be very convenient for us.  Good news all around!

Deep Roots Market announced it has signed a contingency lease agreement with North Eugene Partners, LLC to build a downtown area grocery store.

The builder will construct a 10,500 square foot building on the 600 block of N. Eugene Street, between Smith St. and Fisher Ave.

Final lease signing and construction will be depend on certain conditions being met in the next few months. If the project goes forward as scheduled, construction will begin in March and the store will open in October.

Downtown residents have long hoped for a grocery store within easy driving and walking distance.

The proposed store, on the northern perimeter of downtown, will be easily accessible to downtown residents and workers, but will also be connected by major roads to all parts of Greensboro. It will be located along the proposed path of the Downtown Greenway.

Deep Roots has been in business since 1976 and focuses on local, natural, and organic products. By expanding to this larger store, Deep Roots will be able to add a deli and café, clean-raised fresh meats, and a beer and wine section, as well as expanding other selections of the store. The new store will also offer a community room which will be available for classes, meetings, and other uses.

Deep Roots Market is owned by over 1,700 households in the Greensboro area. For more information about Deep Roots Market visit http://www.deeprootsmarket.com.

via Deep Roots Market Proposes Downtown Grocery Store | digtriad.com | Triad, NC | Local News.

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Filed under Food, Greensboro, North Carolina, The Environment, Virginia

January 8, 2011 · 9:40 am

Misery With Plenty of Company – NYTimes.com

Great commentary from Bob Herbert in the New York Times.  I encourage you to click the link and read it in it’s entirety…

The politicians and the media behave as if the poor don’t exist. But with jobs still absurdly scarce and the bottom falling out of the middle class, the poor are becoming an ever more significant and increasingly desperate segment of the population.

How do you imagine a family of four would live if its annual income was $11,000 or less?

During a conversation I had this week with Peter Edelman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a longtime expert on issues related to poverty, he pointed out that the number of people in that tragically dismal category has grown to more than 17 million. These are the folks trying to make it on incomes below half of the official poverty line, which is $22,000 annually for a family of four.

No one talks about these families and individuals living in extreme poverty. Certainly not the Republicans who were having a dandy time this week deliberately misreading the Constitution and promising budget cuts and other initiatives that will hurt the poor even more.

If you’re still having trouble deciding whose side the Republicans are on, just keep in mind that the House G.O.P. bigwig Darrell Issa sent a letter to 150 businesses, trade groups and think tanks asking them to spell out which federal regulations they dislike the most. These are lifeguards on the side of the sharks.

Scared to death of being outdone, President Obama and his sidekicks climbed into their spiffy new G.O.P. costumes and promised in humiliatingly abject tones to shower the business world with whatever government largess they could lay their hands on. The first order of business (pun intended) was the announcement that William Daley, the Chicago wheeler-dealer and former Clinton administration official who landed a fat gig at JPMorgan Chase, would become the president’s chief of staff. Mr. Daley was a loud critic of recent financial regulatory reforms and has been obsessed with getting Democrats to be more subservient to business.

The poor, who have been hurt more than anyone else in this recession, don’t stand a heartbeat’s chance in this political environment. The movers and shakers in government don’t even give a thought to being on the side of the angels anymore — they’re on the side of the millionaires and billionaires.

Nearly 44 million people were living in poverty in 2009, which was more than 14 percent of the American population and a jump of four million from the previous year. Anyone who thinks things are much better now is delirious. More than 15 million children are poor — one of every five kids in the United States. More than a quarter of all blacks and a similar percentage of Hispanics are poor.

via Misery With Plenty of Company – NYTimes.com.

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