Category Archives: Uncategorized
Scotto am nosy.
In Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, once you’ve been convicted of a felony, you’ve lost the right to vote — for life. Delaware was on that list up until June, when they restored voting rights to all felons (other than murderers, sex offenders and those convicted of felony bribery) five years after the completion of their sentences. Massachusetts voters, on the other hand, will soon be voting on a bill that would take away the voting right of convicted felons.
In all, forty-six states plus the District of Columbia restrict the voting rights of felons in some manner.
The actual logic of taking away these voting rights is elusive: Keeping a child molester away from children after his sentence is complete makes sense. Not allowing an embezzler to work in a bank is logical. Taking away a murderer’s voting rights… well, I’m not sure what a murderer is doing released from prison in the first place, but that’s neither here nor there.
And of course, this being the United States, we can’t escape the racial angle: This year, one out of every eight Black men of voting age — 1.4 million in all — will be unable to vote. In Florida and Alabama, the figure is closer to one-third. Jesse Jackson refers to disenfranchisement as “taxation without representation”, and says it goes against what the civil rights movement stood for.
hero of the day!
yay! a good pop-up stopper! kills pop-unders, too.
it’s free. 🙂
Rock the Vote
the one I like?
BALLOT TITLE: Florida Transportation Initiative for statewide high speed monorail, fixed guideway or magnetic levitation system.
BALLOT SUMMARY: To reduce traffic and increase travel alternatives, this amendment provides for development of a high speed monorail, fixed guideway or magnetic levitation system linking Florida’s five largest urban areas and providing for access to existing air and ground transportation facilities and services by directing the state and/or state authorized private entity to implement the financing, acquisition of right-of-way, design, construction and operation of the system, with construction beginning by November 1, 2003.
evil newsies
Pussy Spy
It should have been the perfect spy. But the CIA’s attempt to use a surgically altered cat as a covert bugging device fell at the first hurdle – when it was run over by a taxi.
Nicknamed “Acoustic Kitty”, the audacious scheme was one of a number of bizarre projects dreamt up by military scientists in the latter days of the Cold War, according to documents newly released by the US National Security Archive. A domestic cat was wired up with control and transmission equipment designed to turn it into a mobile “eavesdropper” capable of listening in on conversations by using its tail as an antenna.
Two sides to the same story –
Are Green Party Members Now Terrorists?
Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine, as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago.
“An official told me that my name had been flagged in the computer,” a shaken Oden said. “I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan.”
Oden, a long-time organic farmer and peace activist in northern Maine, was ordered away from the plane. Military personnel with automatic weapons surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her passage on any flight.
Here is a different take on the same story. While counterpunch is good for finding stories, they tend to be no better than annanova when it comes to sticking to the facts… another reason not to trust everything you read, even in the news.
Models caked in chocolate ooze down catwalk
It’s slinky, it’s sexy, but above all, that side-laced miniskirt and barely-there bustier top being paraded on the catwalk are truly edible.
World-renowned French fashion designers indulged in their passion for chocolate this week, ditching their usual chiffons and silks in favour of mouthwatering ingredients in what has become a yearly celebration of the cocoa bean.
last but not least –
Daler Mehndi’s Homepage
Flash animations, Indian pop music AND brightly colored turbans? Oh, yes.
more of his videos are here
Protected: I blame for this.
gamine & eminence grise
gamine gam-EEN; GAM-een, noun:
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin GAM-in.
eminence grise ay-mee-nahns GREEZ noun, also, gray eminence
plural eminences grises ay-mee-nahns GREEZ
One who wields unofficial power, often secretly, through someone else.
From French Ă©minence grise, literally gray eminence.
Clothes Make the Man. So goes an old saying. While we know it is what is inside that really counts, there is a grain of truth in the statement. And in many cases, it is the distinctive clothes that turn out to be defining marks of some. We all are familiar with redcoats (British soldiers) and blue stockings (women with intellectual interests). This term provides another example where clothes are used as a symbol for a particular type of people.
Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, aka PĂ©re Joseph (1577-1638) was a French monk and secretary of Cardinal Richelieu. However, the monk was more than just a secretary. He was the Cardinal’s confidant who governed the diplomatic negotiations on his behalf and encouraged French participation against Protestant forces in the Thirty Years’ War. The Cardinal wore a red habit and was known as Eminence Rouge. The monk, on the other hand, went with a gray shade, and accordingly, his title became synonymous with people exercising unofficial influence.
gamine & eminence grise
gamine gam-EEN; GAM-een, noun:
1. A girl who wanders about the streets; an urchin.
2. A playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
Gamine comes from the French. A boy who wanders about the street is a gamin GAM-in.
eminence grise ay-mee-nahns GREEZ noun, also, gray eminence
plural eminences grises ay-mee-nahns GREEZ
One who wields unofficial power, often secretly, through someone else.
From French Ă©minence grise, literally gray eminence.
Clothes Make the Man. So goes an old saying. While we know it is what is inside that really counts, there is a grain of truth in the statement. And in many cases, it is the distinctive clothes that turn out to be defining marks of some. We all are familiar with redcoats (British soldiers) and blue stockings (women with intellectual interests). This term provides another example where clothes are used as a symbol for a particular type of people.
Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, aka PĂ©re Joseph (1577-1638) was a French monk and secretary of Cardinal Richelieu. However, the monk was more than just a secretary. He was the Cardinal’s confidant who governed the diplomatic negotiations on his behalf and encouraged French participation against Protestant forces in the Thirty Years’ War. The Cardinal wore a red habit and was known as Eminence Rouge. The monk, on the other hand, went with a gray shade, and accordingly, his title became synonymous with people exercising unofficial influence.
green and orange clay
high pitched voices tell happy tales
gumby and pokey
back from laundry, soft rain falling, time for a lay-down with a snuggly cat and a good book!
Today’s reading will be – Reality Is What You Can Get Away With – R.A.Wilson.
Screen goes blank, as if film broke. Weird extraterrestrial noises. Sign appears:
IT IS REALITY THAT IS MALFUNCTIONING
abeyance – appropriate for LJ
abeyance uh-BAY-uhn(t)s, noun:
Suspension; temporary cessation.
Abeyance derives from Medieval French abeance, “expectation,” from abeer, from a-, “to” (from Latin ad-) + baer, beer, “to gape (at),” from Late Latin batare, “to gape.”
stealing an idea from
Scotto’s Hateful/Distasteful Things
running out of hot water in the shower
unfulfilling food (Tasteless Produce for example)
people who think they’re brilliant, but aren’t.
paper cuts
folks with no sense of humor
circular arguments
high school level politics on LJ or at work
wearing neckties
melted slurpee
bullies
casual profanity
newsprint stains on fingers
software that only works “sometimes”
$.35 pay phones, without a dollar bill changer
tardy taxicabs
off-schedule buses
public toilets with ‘leftovers’ inside
bars with music too loud to converse
home-based e-mail spam of “this is sooooo funny” incoming a dozen times
hot Gatorade
toilets with no lids to shut pre-flush
insect bites
“reality” TV
badly handled firearms
greasy/sticky floors
folks in communications industry, that can’t communicate.
What harshes your mellow ?
Going out for a few…
Danny just called up, and invited me to go to his school’s volleyball game… leaving about 3ish.. I should be back around 6 tonight. I haven’t been to an event like that for a while…more in it for getting together and gabbing with ol’ Danski on the ride over. He’s going dancing with the Mrs this evening.