Another sign of the dog days of summer–an annual cicada shell, left over from molting.
These shells have delighted many a kid over the generations.
Kids, its all coming to an abrupt all all too soon. Put down the video games and get outside!
120 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………..Tuesday, August 9”
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A swarm of cicadas so enthralled a friend’s daughter in the 1970s that she decided at age eight that she would become an entomologist. She veered briefly into vet school but ended up going back into the field she loved.
Crickets and cicadas are part of the background noise of summer.
Its a regular symphony out there right now. They are loud!!!
Yup…tis that time. To include funny piles of dirt under my deck from where the cicada wasp made a home. And let us not forget the noisemakers katydids are also around 🙂
At the Blogger Machine Gun shoot, there were tens of thousands in the air. I would, at times, have 5 or 6 hitting and landing on me. I’ve never seen such active cicadas. These were smaller and red as opposed to the bluish ones we have here.
Were those a different kind of cicada, Cargo? I mean as opposed to the annual ones. Maybe they were the dreaded Tennessee Red Cicadas. 😈
How Rep. Austin Scott betrayed his Tea Party roots
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By Dana Milbank, Wednesday, August 10, 2:01 AM
Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, a Tea Party favorite and president of the House Republicans’ freshman class, got off to a slow start as a legislator but finally introduced his first bill last week.
His draftsmanship should please the people who chant “read the bill” at political rallies, because H.R. 2774 is only one sentence long. In its entirety: “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Legal Services Corporation Act is repealed.”
This one sentence says a great deal about Scott, because it is a transparent attempt by the young lawmaker to defend a company in his district that discriminates against U.S. citizens in favor of Mexican migrant workers. Scott introduced the bill abolishing Legal Services exactly three days after it became public that Legal Services had won a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determination that Georgia’s Hamilton Growers “engages in a pattern or practice of regularly denying work hours and assigning less favorable assignments to U.S. workers, in favor of H2-A guestworkers.” Hamilton also “engages in a pattern or practice of discharging U.S. workers and replacing them with H-2A guestworkers,” the EEOC determined.
In a broader sense, Scott’s bill gets at what has long troubled me about the Tea Party movement: It is fueled by populist anger, but it has been hijacked by plutocrats. Well-intentioned Tea Party foot soldiers demand that power be returned to the people, but then their clout is used to support tax cuts for millionaires. They rally for tougher immigration laws, but then their guy in Washington helps corporations to fire U.S. workers and hire foreign nationals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-rep-austin-scott-betrayed-his-tea-party-roots/2011/08/09/gIQAoKnQ5I_story.html?hpid=z2
A Tea Party Congressman supports businesses that hire illegal aliens over US workers. I think that’s freakin hilarious, bwahaha!
You teahadis are being played for fools by rich millionaires.
Sorry about Wisconsin. I guess when the people say “enough BS”, they really mean it. The good news is all the mountains of cash the left spent to influence the election was wasted.
I gotta tell ya’, there may be no better indicator of the sheer quality of HuffPo than AOLs surprise quarterly loss and the $3 stock price. It’s a shame that the once mighty AOL had to learn the hard way that liberalism is the path to economic destruction.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/295630
Gerrymander districts to favor your party, add large amounts of cash
and then mix in misleading ads (attack ones for “extra flavor”) and
who even wants to run for office except the “chosen ones”?
Money may be the “mother’s milk” of politics, but too often it
is mixed with toxins.
@slowpoke, I actually think that the recall was rather amazing. It was a long shot. There are a couple moderate R’s in the mix that might add a little reason to the situation. We shall see. Maybe things are where they should be now.
Not seeing a $3 aol stock. Obviously aol’s decline from a ‘mighty’ position has to do with technology changes more than political ideaology but think what you want.
What can we assume about microsoft or apple using your criteria?
Apple is ready to overtake Exxon Mobile as the country’s richest company. Who would have thought that would happen ten years ago?
I can remember when you were laughed at if you owned an apple anything. (and I did.)
The Wisconsin recall elections were interesting – not only for the sheer amount of money and lobbying but for the number of signatures quickly collected to address what some common people saw as a problem. The Tea Party should have supported this grassroots effort of “little people” who challenged the established system. Ha ha ….maybe we should follow the money to see why the average Joe and Jane didn’t matter that much to the TP.
Murray and Kerry over Warner? What a joke. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2011/aug/10/tdmain01-reid-bypasses-warner-for-super-committee-ar-1228829/
Immigrant labor – legal or illegal – offers a temptation to cheat
6:47 am March 4, 2011, by Jay
Two of the nation’s hottest political issues — the conservative drive to slash federal spending, and the controversy over illegal immigration — are playing out in the courtrooms and farms of Georgia.
In fact, they intersect in an interesting place, in the H2-A program that allows farmers to import temporary farm workers to do the hard labor that Americans supposedly won’t do. In debate at the Georgia Legislature over illegal immigration, an expanded H2-A program is mentioned often as a legal source of labor for Georgia agriculture, the state’s largest industry.
Under the H2-A program, thousands of workers are recruited from their home country — in most cases, Mexico — and are brought to the United States to do seasonal work. They are guaranteed a wage — currently $9.11 an hour — as well as room and board and travel expenses.
That’s a higher wage-and-benefit package than illegal immigrants can demand. Farmers participating in the H2-A program also have to put up with more paperwork and regulations than they would if they just paid illegal immigrants in cash. In fact, tougher H2-A rules implemented by the Obama administration have made the program less attractive to farmers, according to Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
Hall is also a critic of the role played by Legal Services Corporation, a nonprofit agency funded in part through federal dollars that offers legal representation to low-income clients who would otherwise not have access to the court system.
“Over the past ten years, the LSC have filed frivolous lawsuits against Georgia fruit and vegetable growers, particularly farmers involved with the H2-A guest worker program,” Hall said, lauding an attempt by House Republicans to slash funding for the agency by $88 million.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2011/03/04/immigrant-labor-legal-or-illegal-offers-a-temptation-to-cheat/
Dayum, man, and here I thought that these tea party types were opposed to business’ hiring immigrant labor over Americans. What’s going on?
This is exactly the same as me saying women should support Sarah Palin and Bachmann because they are women. Doesn’t work, does it? 🙂
AOL would be bankrupt now if they didn’t drain the bank accounts of
unwilling legacy customers each month. When the net first begin to grow
AOL was a major player offering “state of the art” dial-up connection –
when you provided them with the info they needed to take a
monthly automatic charge from your account.
The kicker came when individuals began to switch away from AOL as
“dial up” hit the tech trash bin. Alas, AOL makes it almost impossible-
(Search how to do it on the net and the common observation is “good luck!”).
Work your way through their phone tree and after an hour get “Peggy”,
who provides a tracking number for your discconnect, but not before a ten
minute pitch for other AOL”products”. Of course, that was a sham – nothing
happened.
Ended up having to go through the expense and trouble of switching banks
to finally stop AOL. Thirty bucks isn’t a massive amount – until you consider
it is for the rest of your life for something you stopped using years ago and
don’t want or will ever need.
AOL is running a damn scam.
@Moon-howler
You are quite right about not seeing a $3 AOL stock. Now the question is (for me)……where the heck did I see it? Note to self……drink coffee, THEN post.
Taxpayers for Common Sense has a few issues with the $160M Michelle Bauchmann is seeking for a bridge. Not an earmark then?
I think what I saw with AOL stock price was a one-day decline number, not the actual stock price. That was somewhat equivalent to firing the pistol while drawing it out of the holster, thereby shooting myself in the foot (which is a funny visual to me).
Watching Fox Business. It’s really funny, the host is saying that it’s a rule: no running on the trading floor as folks are running past her top speed.
M-H, Market rollercoaster predicted to go back down today —
time to throw up our arms and scream – again.
Way to look long!
@Moon-howler
That’s ok, we still laugh at you for using Apple….. 😉
I admit, I’m a complete Apple fanboy. It’s shameful, but if Steve Jobs came up with iRubberDogCrap and told me to buy it, I’d probably be standing in line. And therein lies the difference between Apple and HuffPo. Apple produces a quality product that works (regardless of the company’s left-leanings), HuffPo….not so much!
@Cato the Elder
That is a joke. I wonder what politics were involved there? Warner wanted to be on the committee. Warner actually knows what he is talking about, even if we don’t want to hear it some of the time.
Interesting also that of the three, who has more budget experience????? Ding ding ding! Warner. He had a great deal of bipartisan support when he was Gov of VA.
He must have royally pissed off someone. Probably for being a human being?
That rant is over. Now I feel better.
@SlowpokeRodriguez
Bwaaahahahahahahaha irubberdogCrap indeed. You have done it now, pokie. Coffee sputtered on the screen.
Actually HuffPo has become fairly mainstream in the past several years, sort of like Apple.
The iphone actually made Apple mainstream rather than expensively geeky. i tunes, maybe a step out the door but the taint of geek was still there. Iphone killed off the last of the geek and is what made people like slowpoke stand in line to buy irubberDogCrap.
Jobs is a genius. I had one of the old apples that didn’t even have a real hard drive, then I got a mac of some sort. I fried the motherboard and it cost me as much to replace it as it did to go buy a pc. I bought a pc and never looked back as far as computers are concerned. My stepson and brother nearly disowned me. At what point was geek actually avant garde?
@Big Dog
@Big Dog
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
@Cargo, yea, I am laughing all the way to the bank with my apple stocks I bought 5 years ago, even in today’s stock market.
No one laughs at iphone and ipad. Not even a snicker. I have a droid phone. It has swype and flash. Apple doesn’t. Apple has netflix. Droid doesn’t. Hopefully the iphone 5 will have all swype and flash.
For those who aren’t familiar with swype (and I wasn’t when I got my droid) it is fabulous for people with fumble fingers. Texting is misery to me. Swype makes it bearable because you slide your finger across the letters rather than pecking individually. After a little use, the smart capabilities intuit what you are talking about.
@Moon-howler
You wonder what politics were involved there? Really?
Warner might be competent instead of a lackey. That’s why he was passed over. Reid doesn’t want anyone that might change the narrative and actually make cuts. They want it to fail so that the automatic cuts kick in and they get absolved of any problems. Business as usual. Boehner and Reid screwed over EVERYONE. I’m curious to see who the Republicans will be.
Here’s a good discussion on health insurance, company benefits, and possible reasons why companies are hesitating to hire.
http://blog.robballen.com/2011/07/15/p4946-sadly-this-logic-is-lost-on-the-vast-majority-of.post
@Moon-howler
I can’t help it! I really can’t! I know my weaknesses, and when I walk by the new 13 and 11 inch MacBook Airs and that 27inch iMac, my knees go all rubbery.
Now we’re having stock market woes. A Korean broker dove out the window. Now I have that “1928” feeling.
I won’t even go look. re imac. Its the same reason I wouldn’t get a certain camera. I knew the lens monster it would create.
I am salivating for the new iphone 5. I even went with droid to ward off temptation until it comes out.
Did a Korean really jump out a window?
@Cargosquid
Ahem! Crappy comment alert.
No, I don’t know why he wasn’t chosen. He should have been.
Did your comment advance discussion, smack me in the face or throw gasoline on a fire?
@Moon-howler
I was agreeing with you that picking those two over Warner is a sign of political payback and ideology/party over the good of the country.
@Moon-howler
Yep, he wrote a note to his colleagues apologizing for the losses and jumped out a window. A buddy of mine at work has a 27″ iMac that is used for nothing other than pandora music [facepalm].
That is sad. Money isn’t everything (but its a good start)
re imac–you will not be tempted. You will not be tempted. You will not be tempted.
http://manassaspark.patch.com/articles/federal-government-to-release-sol-scores-thursday
The MP Patch is reporting MP 2011 SOL scores and AYP results
will be released tomorrow. Is it correct to assume scores for all Virginia
school systems are to be released tomorrow?
(The MP Patch also has an interesting article on the growth of home schooling)
Perhaps we should repeal this tax-cut:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/08/sunday-reflection-why-gop-should-give-obama-higher-taxes-he-wants
Frankly, the article made my eyes glaze over. I resent the distainful way people look down on academnicians. There is really nothing wrong with them.
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2011 Perseid meteor shower
is best seen tonight
Los Angeles Times, by Deborah Netburn
Original Article
Posted By:Attercliffe, 8/10/2011 5:41:27 AM
Stargazers, get thee to the closest open space you can find! Astronomers say tonight may be the best time to view the Perseid meteor shower–one of the most spectacular (and reliable) of the annual meteor showers. The shower, which is visible across the nation, is not expected to peak until Saturday night. But the peak coincides with a full moon, meaning that night’s dazzling display of tiny streaks of light shooting across the sky–sometimes as fast as 60 to 120 meteor streaks per hour–won’t be so dazzling. The light of the moon will get in the way.
Comments:
To check for the best time in your area, see “Perseid Meteor Shower: Best Times to Spot ‘Shooting Stars’ This Week”:
http://www.space.com/12570-perseid-meteor-shower-skywatching-tips-2011.html
Thanks, Cargo. That one snuck up on me.
We have very few places in our area to view celestial events. There is way too much light pollution most places.
@Moon-howler
I posted this article about enacting these taxes on another thread. What are you talking about?
“I resent the disdainful way people look down on academicians. There is really nothing wrong with them.”
There’s nothing in the article that speaks about academicians. The author is a law professor. Can’t get any more academic than that.
First, we put a man on the moon, then we map the entire human genome, and now…..
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/08/10/group-pushes-to-let-bert-and-ernie-get-married-on-sesame-street/
Compassionate conservatism personified. Rick Perry had $1,109,562 in income in 2007 and his charitable contributions for the year totaled $4,458, including $90 he gave to his church and $62 in union and professional dues. A solid .04% of compassion.
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Perry2007.pdf
Must……Attack…….Perry………Must…….Attack……..Palin…….Must…….Attack……Bachmann…….Must……Attack…….Perry…….Must…….Attack…….Palin……..Must…….Attack……Bachmann…….
Good little soldier!
Here’s a little something that I hadn’t heard before. Scares the bejeebus out of me. Anyone know if this makes sense?
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=191700
Apparently the assets being claimed by banks are accounting tricks……that are going to be crushed by the fall in the stock market.
@Morris Davis
Compassionate Conservatism is the OTHER Republican politician. You really must keep them straight. Perhaps a score card?
Of course, there’s no telling if he donated without reporting it. My wife and I do that all of the time.
Why donate to charity when the current administration believes in redistributing the wealth? You give when you have a choice. When the giving is done at the other end of the IRS’s shotgun barrel, why bother?
What charity did you have in mind, pokie?
Speaking of Palin, family values, ya’ll.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/08/track-palin-baby-sara-palin-mercede-johnston.html
I used to be all about animal charities, but after I had my kids, now I only care about women’s shelters…..especially items for children in women’s shelters. For some strange reason, I can’t bear the thought of a baby or toddler without any toys, enough food, diapers, etc. If I knew that no child in a women’s shelter ever wanted for anything, I think I could put up with the animal abuse commercials on TV and be OK with them.
@Morris Davis
Ummm, I don’t mean to be overly-critical, but there’s no info here about what month of Playboy she’s going to be in. Piss Poor.
@Slowpoke Rodriguez
Remember the song that guy did on American Idol a year or so ago that became an overnight hit, “Pants on the Ground?” It may become the Alaska state anthem.
@Slowpoke Rodriguez
Don’t you read the articles? It hits this Friday.
@Morris Davis
Why are you talking about Palin’s family values when its LEVI’S sister? Or are you smirking about the “early” arrival of a baby to newly married parents?
Ohhhh, horrible. Sooooooo….what’s your point?