Pine forest wildfires major mercury source; Johnson endorses Paul

Montana's Don Pogreba is a Helena debate teacher who hosts one of the best political discussions in the state at his blog, Intelligent Discontent. He routinely roasts Representative Rehberg, rounding recently on the roles of the petrochemical and extractive industries on the Senate race.

I took my perspective on mercury emissions from the Colstrip generating plant and those effects on South Dakota lakes.

An anonymous commenter directed my attention to the volume of mercury released by wildfires in Canadian (and US) boreal forests where years of fire suppression have contributed to unhealthy pine overburden. Science Daily has several pieces on the wildfire/mercury connection. Here is a snip from one:

In pursuit of riches and energy over the last 5,000 years, humans have released into the environment 385,000 tons of mercury, the source of numerous health concerns, according to a new study that challenges the idea that releases of the metal are on the decline. The report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Former Vice President Al Gore tweeted his dismay with skeptics of climate change directing our attention to a report in Media Matters that identifies the root of the GOP's culture of denial.

Helena National Forest, recently identified as collapsed, is releasing massive amounts of methane as that biomass breaks down.

If human activity has released all those tons of mercury, would it not follow that we have also released proportional amounts of carbon?

A trip through the Trib revealed a series by environmental reporter, Jeremy Fugleberg, on Wyoming's groundwater pollution from fracking.

The Hill reports that Libertarian Gary Johnson has endorsed Rep. Ron Paul for the GOP presidential nomination.

Deadwood Mountain Grand not dead

Overheard at a drunken music video shoot:

This is the last goddamned check I'm going to write to you assholes!

--Big Kenny Alphin, handing a check for $5M to Mike Gustafson.

Construction is reportedly obscenely over budget.

Jaci Conrad Pearson writes in the Black Hills Pioneer:

For the second month in a row, Deadwood gaming numbers are up over prior year, with November seeing a nearly 7 percent increase in gross revenues and nearly a 10 percent increase in the handle. This year's total year to date handle is $1,011,187,788 as compared to $1,057,862,061 for the same period in 2010. Sen. Tom Nelson, president of the Deadwood Gaming Association is cautiously optimistic about the “up.”

Hey, Tom: how many hen houses have you been hired to guard anyway?

Everybody smokes in Hell.

Cannabis use decreases violence, traffic deaths, beer sales

This should be a no-brainer: states where cannabis is easily available can expect fewer instances of violent crimes.

Chelsi Moy tells readers of the Missoulian:

A report authored by a D. Mark Anderson, a Montana State University economics professor, and Daniel Rees, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, discovered a 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities in states that passed laws legalizing medical marijuana. The study points to marijuana as a substitute drug for alcohol. Researchers also aren't saying that smoking marijuana impairs drivers less than alcohol, but "it could be that," Anderson said. "We're saying our results would be consistent with that."

New York is a state that has seen dramatic decreases in crime where cannabis arrests are draining resources according to NPR:

We've reported that crime continues to fall in the United States. The FBI said it was down for the first six months of the year and the Justice Department said violent crime was down 12 percent in 2010. It's a 20-year trend. One that has continued, despite a recession when people expect crime to pick up.

Deadwood: everybody smokes in Hell*

Traffic is down in Deadwood.

The puny snow cover means the numbers of skiers skiing and Canucks driving crewcab duallies pulling trailers laden with motor sleds are depressingly depressed making the glittering gilded gambling gulch grumpily glum.

The smoking ban has apparently slowed downtown so significantly that State Senator/Mayor/Casino Investor/earth hater Tom Nelson wants to exempt the casino properties from the voter-initiated state law.

From the RCJ:

The exemption would affect the gambling floor only; the ban would remain at restaurants and bars, he said.

Hey, consenting adults, right?

Ron Paul is ahead in the polls among the murder of earth hating crows in South Dakota...Deadwood leans 'way into the Libertarian. So, let's debate exempting Deadwood and the gaming tribes from State cannabis law while we're at it.

*Everybody Smokes in Hell

Consumerism depleting Earth's resources

Even the Pope decried it from arguably the most decadent religious palace on Earth:

In his homily, Benedict lamented that Christmas has become an increasingly commercial celebration that obscures the simplicity of the message of Christ’s birth.

-AP, Washington Post

Truthout may have said it even more succinctly, h/t Lynn:

But what if all roads to prosperity don't lead to the shopping mall, as most economists would have us believe? What if, in fact, all that shopping -- and the imperative to grow corporate profits quarter after quarter and continuously expand the economy -- was actually the root of many of the problems we face today? That's the view of a renegade but increasingly influential band of economists, who say the myth of perpetual economic growth and "the iron cage of consumerism" are the chief causes of world economic dysfunction and environmental crisis -- and the biggest obstacle to our very happiness.

Royal Hassrick in his 1964 groundbreaking work on the Plains Indians said, "the Sioux practiced Communism with extreme prejudice." -The Sioux: Life and Customs of a Warrior Society.

Rewild the West.

Invest in an environmental lawyer now

There is copious evidence that coal-fired power plants and oil refineries have laced western watersheds with heavy metals like mercury.

Multinational chemical manufacturers like Koch Industries, Monsanto and Syngenta are enriching the lobbyists that buy off Congress and state legislatures from seeing nonpoint source pollution.

Mining companies contribute by spewing heavy metal laden cyanide salt spray from leach pads and distribute hazardous dusts downwind and downstream.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs and non-organic dairies are pumping antibiotics into watersheds at exceedingly higher ratios disrupting essential fungal communities and poisoning wetlands.

South Dakota tribes: there is plenty of evidence that mercury released by power plants and refineries in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota into reservation watersheds has caused devastation to your populations.

If these environmental hazards cross state lines and the offending state does nothing but collect a paycheck, it is incumbent on We the People to regulate them, cite and fine the shit out of the perpetrators, then shut them down if they are serial offenders.

Read the evidence provided by the USGS, EPA, and from our other Defenses Against the Dark Arts who protect the United States from the earth haters that perennially lobby to gut oversight.

If you believe that We the People are too slow at bringing the earth haters to justice, seek out an NGO with ties to the environmental movement, read their accomplishments, and support them with the resources they need to protect our resources.

There is a tiny list in the sidebar of this blog under Manifesto.

Help them to help US. Let's go sue somebody Monday.

Earth First! We'll bring democracy to the other planets later.

Occupy the Courts.

photo courtesy: AnonOps Communications

PRI: conservative christians support EPA mercury rules

RT @PRI

Public Radio International has begun airing the report of a stunning alliance:

Research suggests one in six U.S. babies are born with dangerously high levels of the neurotoxin and the Christian groups are linking that with their staunch support of the unborn to encourage elected officials to back the EPA's effort. "Coal burning power plants in our region have helped raise mercury levels in our waters, threatening the unborn with permanent brain damage. That’s why I am counting on Senator Alexander to defend the EPA’s ability to protect the unborn from mercury pollution," said a woman identifying herself as 'Pastor Tracey' in an ad that aired in Tennessee.

Hosted by Bruce Gellerman, "Living on Earth" is an award-winning environmental news program that delves into the leading issues affecting the world we inhabit and airs Fridays on Yellowstone Public Radio.

Update, 24 December: Don Pogreba at Intelligent Discontent follows up with Montana's version of red state failure.

Guggenheimer fleeing SDPB

Paul Guggenheimer, five year host of Dakota Midday, the flagship program at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio, posts his last show today at noon, Eastern; 11:00, Mountain. He will be moving to Pittsburg to host a similar program.

This is sad news for South Dakota: Paul has done an outstanding job.

It's easy to speculate that his exit is the result of red state collapse.

Polls akin to astragalomancy? Amanita muscaria and flying reindeer

Pollsters are wizards, shamans, diviners. They toss numbers around the way astragalomancers once tossed bones to foretell events to come.

-Roger Simon, Politico.

Shape some policy: vote on an ip poll now.

Life is a wacky deal, innit?:

Caution should also be exercised when relating flying reindeer to the effects of the hallucinogenic (actually a deliriant) fly agaric mushroom, or Amanita Muscaria, which was, and presumably still is, consumed during shamanic rituals by the Lapps and some Siberian peoples. The mushroom is the quintessential toadstool, usually bright red with small white spots and has long been depicted in stories and paintings.

Caution, schmaution.

Amanita muscaria is widely distributed in the Black Hills around the 4th of July...watch yer eyes.

Panel: corps not to blame for 2011 flooding

Matt Gouras, from his AP report:

The corps has said that the floods caused $630 million in damage to the levees, dams and channels built to control the river. The corps manages the 2,341-mile-long river, which flows from Montana through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri.

More shovel-ready jobs for returning Iraq War vets?

Mr. Obama: tear down these dams and rewild the West.

ip polling data in sync with PPP; Sibson: Romney=Satan

We know, right? It's crazy: the damnedest thing ever.

Public Policy Polling announces a new leader has surged to the front in Iowa:

Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

That 'Other earth hater' vote likely a split between Bachmann and Perry

Paul 8 (42%) 

Newt 4 (21%) 

Romney 5 (26%) 

Santorum 0 (0%) 

Huntsman 1 (5%) 

Other earth hater 1 (5%)

Give yerselves a round of clap, ip readers, you rock! h/t @BoiledOwl

Gifted South Dakota political pundit, Steve Sibson, reminds readers of Madville Times that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney answers to Santa Satan before country.

South Dakotans living in chemical toilet, RCJ spins EPA results

The computer boots up...it finds the internet...and opens to the Rapid City Journal obituaries. Lots of deaths from cancer, I'm not there...now the Sioux Falls Argus Leader obituaries, lots of deaths from cancer...I'm not there, either. ip blog stats...not bad.

Twitter, first line: RT @DonEWG. Sioux Falls Argus Leader cubs Cody Winchester and Megan Luther announce:

For the past five years in South Dakota, ethanol plants have been the leading emitters of carcinogens — toxins thought or known to cause cancer — having surpassed plastics manufacturers. Last year, the state’s ethanol industry accounted for 40 percent of all reported carcinogens, down slightly from 44 percent in 2009, according to an Argus Leader analysis of 11 years of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory data.

No shit.

More Ron Paul news.

Minnesota reporting river sediment woes, too.

Is President Obama an academiacrat?

President Obama: move the Black Hills National Forest, the Custer National Forest, and the Nebraska National Forest into the Bureau of Indian Affairs Forestry Division where they will be restored to historic habitats.

Stop the earth haters. Rewild the West.

4:01 PM MDT: The Rapid City Journal catches up to the story and spins it like Miracle Whip. RR, you pimpin' me?

Medical cannabis card? Turn in your guns

Second Amendment an absolute? Think again.

Sixteen states have legalized cannabis for those who qualify. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATFE) will make sure you lose your Second Amendment rights if you admit to it. From Brian Doherty's piece at ReasondotCom:

Merely having a state medical marijuana card, BATFE insists, means that you fall afoul of Sect. 922(g) of the federal criminal code (from the 1968 federal Gun Control Act), which says that anyone “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” is basically barred from possessing or receiving guns or ammo (with the bogus assertion that such possession implicates interstate commerce, which courts will pretty much always claim it does). While the BATFE has not yet announced any concerted program to go after people who may have had legally purchased weapons before getting a marijuana card, Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project says that it’s common practice in medical marijuana-related busts that “if weapons are present, there will be gun charges added on as well.”

The federal laws that restrict gun ownership were passed to deny people of color access to firearms just as the federal law that makes cannabis illegal does. Possession of crack cocaine has been recently leveled to mirror racial equality.

President Obama: end the drug war and legalize cannabis now!

Update, 18 December: Barney Frank holds George Will's feet to the fire on cannabis and the rights of consenting adults.

Christ performing miracle in Montana cannabis case as skiers declare war on Jesus

Lee Newspapers of Montana's Charles Johnson has covered that state's citizen-initiated cannabis law since it passed in 2004. Here is the latest gospel according to Johnson as he reports the progress of J. Christ's lawsuit against a 2011 law passed by that state's legislature:

Christ, who owns the Montana Caregivers Network, sued the state last week in state District Court in Missoula. Acting as his own attorney, Christ asked District Judge Ed McLean to strike the law as unconstitutional on several grounds and prevent the state from enforcing it. Earlier this year, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association and others challenged the same law in District Court in Helena. In June, District Judge Jim Reynolds temporarily blocked some provisions of the new law from taking effect. Christ was not part of that lawsuit. Christ has been the perhaps most controversial figure statewide in the lengthy medical marijuana controversy — whether it was for his traveling clinics or his lighting up a two-foot water pipe to smoke his medical pot on the Capitol lawn.

Calling methadone 'junk' Or Ritalin® 'speed' in a newspaper report about medicine would be reprehensible, Chuck.

In the lawsuit filed Dec. 6, Christ said the law violates his constitutional rights to equal protection, due process, dignity and his right to pursue life’s basic necessities, including personal health and to freedom of speech. Restricting access to medical marijuana for those under the Corrections Department’s supervision “is unconstitutional because it intrudes into the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and results in a profound chilling effect upon the ability of those in medical need to seek professional care when it comes to access to medical marijuana,” Christ said.

The often-civil disobedient Christ has been barred from the University of Montana law library further chilling his ability to act as his own attorney.

Jesus F. Christ.

PPP: Gary Johnson Libertarian run could shape 2012

Public Policy Polling has several pieces on Gary Johnson. From one article that gives the former governor a 49% favorable rating in his home state:

Despite popularity with the general electorate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has never been particularly well-liked with his home-state Republicans. He certainly outperforms his minuscule standing in the presidential primaries in other states, but still can muster no more than third here.

Here's a snip from other PPP findings among which cite Johnson's uninspiring Senate chances:

Newt Gingrich is up big in New Mexico, leading the way there with 39% to 14% for Mitt Romney, 11% for Gary Johnson, 8% for Ron Paul and Rick Perry, 6% for Michele Bachmann, 3% for Rick Santorum, and 2% for Jon Huntsman.

PPP just tweeted that Gary Johnson would take 23% of the general election vote in New Mexico running as a Libertarian. Presumably, their results depend on Romney winning the GOP nomination and Ron Paul not running as an Independent.

If the US is really divided among acceptors, deniers, and skeptics, Gary Johnson seems like the perfect none-of-the-above candidate if Ron Paul chooses not to make a third-party run, innit?

From my inbox, courtesy Ella:

David Axelrod, Obama's advisor, commented in a press briefing the other day on Newt Gingrich's rise in the poles [sic] by quoting an old saying from Chicago politics -- the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his asshole.

Gingrich authored earth haters' handbook

And it's still the official little red book of the Republican Party. NPR's Andrea Seabrook says:

New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat, was also in Congress with Gingrich. And what she remembers is a memo his staff circulated. It was called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control." "They had a lexicon of words that they could use when they talked about Democrats," she recalls. The memo listed positive words Republicans should use to describe their ideas — like "opportunity," "common sense" and "reform." It also listed negative words the GOP should use to describe Democrats' ideas — like "welfare," "pathetic" and "criminal rights."

Dems, take a lesson from Ron Paul: be consistent and use language wisely... and stand up to the goddamned earth hating bullies!

Guy Raz has become one of my favorite NPR hosts. Here he is talking with Sidney Milkis, a political scientist at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, courtesy WBUR:

One late January night in 1966, President Johnson went to the Capitol to deliver the annual State of the Union address. Johnson was at the peak of his power that night, and during the hourlong speech, he talked about his agenda for the year: Vietnam, social programs and expanding the war on poverty. But right in the middle, he offered up an idea that seemed to come out of nowhere when he proposed to change the term for a congressman from two years to four, concurrent with presidential terms.

Milkis goes on to say that Congress spends too much time campaigning and not enough time negotiating.

Another reason to amend the Constitution?

MPR hosting author of The Constitution Cafe. Christopher Phillips says Americans could have a representative for every 60,000 in population and congressional staff should be nearly eliminated.

Would you really want Newt's finger anywhere near The Button?

PPP: Ron Paul closing on Gingrich in Iowa

Public Policy Polling releases findings. Click here for whole piece.

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones just tweeted that Ron Paul is being talked about as a serious contender.

Who should nominee Ron Paul select for Veep?

Update, 14 December:

hipneck sent the results of a Pew study and Ron Paul's Twitter following. It's a fascinating read.

Nat Geo: The American Prairie Reserve

Montana's Fish, Wildlife, and Parks has approved wild bison preservation as reported by Matt Golz in the Billings Gazette:

"These majestic animals have played a very significant part in the history, religion and culture of our native people on the Fort Peck reservation," said Fort Peck tribal chairman Floyd Azure. "These bison have sustained our ancestors for thousands of years and they are in need of us of returning the favor. We are here to make sure they will always be here for our children."

Update, 13 Dec:

The Army Corps of Engineers announced that releases from the mainstem dams will continue, not because of pressure from red state politicians, but they want the storage if they are surprised (again) and because there are no resources to rebuild levees to protect the idiots that build in floodways.

President Obama: buy out the idiots, drain the dams, remove them from the face of the earth, and restore the Missouri River Basin to its historic role in healing the water cycle by rewilding the corridor.

Replace the dams with small hydro. Build overflow impoundments for floodwater to fix estuaries, to pump into geothermal generators, provide water for pulp mills that make packaging from beetle-killed trees, and irrigate truck crops.

Will: independent Paul run could re-elect Obama

I cannot imagine Ron Paul running as an independent candidate if he loses the GOP nomination.

George Will is not so sure Paul won't mount a third party effort based on his massive zealot following who could care less which party he runs in. Will's column in the Rapid City Journal divines a strategy:

So, assume three things:

That Obama is weaker in 2012 than he was when winning just 53 percent of the vote in 2008. That Paul could win between 5 percent and 7 percent of the vote nationally (much less than the 18 percent that a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed prepared to vote for Paul as an independent). And that at least 80 percent of Paul’s votes would come at the expense of the Republican nominee. Based on states’ results in 2000, 2004 and 2008, and on states’ previous votes for third-party candidates, and on current polling about the strength of potential Republican nominees in particular states, it is plausible to conclude that a Paul candidacy would have these consequences:
-- It would enable Obama to carry two states he lost in 2008: Missouri (10 electoral votes), which he lost by 0.13 points, and Arizona (11), which he lost by 8.52 points to native son John McCain.

-- It would enable Obama to again win four states he captured in 2008 and that the Republican nominee probably must win in 2012: Florida (29), Indiana (11), North Carolina (15) and Virginia (13).

-- It would secure Obama’s hold on the following states he won in 2008 but that Republicans hope to take back next year: New Mexico (5), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Michigan (16), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20) and New Hampshire (4).

No candidate runs as an 'Independent' unless s/he runs in the Independence Party that claims to be the third largest political party...where your candidacy loses its independence, right?

Rapid City YMCA perpetuating racism

Rapid City is considered by many demographers the most racist city in the United States.

Jesse Abernathy of Native Sun News pulls few punches in a journalistic indictment of the YMCA in Raped City (the preferred spelling and pronunciation of that pathetic and sad western South Dakota town) and examines an eight year old policy coming under fire after a fight between a white and a non-white.

Here are a few snips from the article:

Paradoxically, Rapid City’s YMCA franchise has come under fire recently by some area Native American residents for its membership policies and practices, which are alleged to be geared toward excluding Natives from the premises of the downtown center, located at 815 Kansas City Street. Membership, however, is strictly available on a for-fee basis only.

Ron Gallimore, the YMCA director, is quoted saying:

“On rare occasion, there can be an altercation in the YMCA gym. As to the race involved, I haven’t a clue. I can’t pinpoint a time where this was to white people or to Native people.”

Carl White is a Native community organizer. He reminds readers that this ‘members-only’ policy is not a national YMCA criterion and says in the Abernathy piece:

“They need to change their membership-only policy to allow more Natives to go in and enjoy a quick game of ball without having to feel discriminated against,” he said. “I know I’m not the only Native who feels like this.”

Food not Bombs shares food with the community down by the creek at East Boulevard on Wednesdays. Coats, gloves, and hats are always needed this time of year.

Ron Paul: "if you refuse, I'll haunt your prostate"

Ron Paul for President of the other party!

'RON PAUL' - A Bad Lip Reading SoundBite - watch more funny videos

hipneck made me do it

Hyalite ice climbing gala to attract thousands

Lead, South Dakota has pissed away another year of potential recovery and success by entombing itself in Republican stupidity.

From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

This week, ice climbers from around the country will head to Hyalite Canyon for the annual Bozeman Ice Climbing Festival. Once there, they’ll experience what Joe Josephson, the event’s organizer, calls “the most reliable and accessible ice in the country.” Josephson said he’s expecting to see 500 to 700 people per night.

South Dakota sucks.

US Ambassador to Colombia: drug legalization on the table

Breaking from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation via America's Mexico Blog:

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais on Monday (as reported in Colombia reports), US Ambassador for Colombia, Peter Michael McKinley, when the question of Colmbian [sic] president Santos' recent remarks on drug legalisation came up, said that the issue 'had to be addressed.' This is of course a long way from endorsing a reform position, indeed he makes the US opposition all too clear. However, the statement is effectively an endorsement of the Santos position - that there needs to be a debate of the options, and legalisation (or as [Mexican President] Calderon puts it 'market alternatives') needs to be amongst them.

Reagan Moscow speech: how we the people screwed the Indians, part 6; LA City Council blasts corporate personhood

Earth hater icon, Ronald Reagan, roundly inserts foot in mouth during a 1988 speech before a Moscow State University audience. Film maker Steven Lewis Simpson has been marketing Rez Bomb at a blog of the same name and revisits the Reagan gaffe:



Gingrich on dying wife bedside divorce:



Move to Amend clears Los Angeles City Council.

Amnesty International calls for US to end sales of tear gas to Egypt.

Archbishop of Canterbury: Jesus would side with OWS

From WaPo:

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says Jesus would have joined protesters from the anti-corporate Occupy movement who have been camped outside London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for more than seven weeks. The archbishop said that when Jesus said “give Caesar what belongs to Caesar,” he was asking “what’s the exact point at which involvement in the empire of capitalist economy involves you fatally.”

Eight year old tells Michele Bachmann that his mom doesn't need fixing:

Illuminati for Romney

Is Sibby right?

Are the other earth haters just pawns in the game to defend the would-be King against scrutiny?

Romney is even in the polls while Ron Paul is ignored by the mainstream press but the other batshit insane candidates plow the road in unison or tag the next whack-a-mole.

The game goes ever on.

RT @NatGeo

ProPublica: white people receive far more presidential pardons

Only one Native American was pardoned under the Bush regime. ProPublica's Dafna Linzer and Jennifer LaFleur reveal mostly unsurprising results (to me) of a study co-published in the Washington Post. Here is an excerpt from the first of two articles:

Blacks have had the poorest chance of receiving the president's ultimate act of mercy, according to an analysis of previously unreleased records and related data. Current and former officials at the White House and Justice Department said they were surprised and dismayed by the racial disparities, which persist even when factors such as the type of crime and sentence are considered. Obama officials believed changes in the pardon system could be made by executive order.

Leonard Peltier should be pardoned this year, Mr. President.

President Obama nominated Native American judge Arvo Mikkanen to Oklahoma federal circuit. Expect the white earth haters in the Senate threaten to filibuster.

Trump to host earth haters? Cain screws his way into the dustbin

Bwahahaha! The Hairball is scheduled to moderate another GOP 'debate.' From Greg Sargent in the WaPo. RT @washingtonpost:

What better way to build confidence in the GOP primary process, and to reinforce the gravtias [sic] of candidates who are aspiring to be seen as prepared for the presidency, then to submit them to questioning from a reality-TV star whose appeal to conservatives is rooted in the fact that he spent his own short-lived freak-show presidential campaign questioning Obama’s citizenship, right up until the killing of Bin Laden wiped the smug, megalomaniacal grin off his face?

The Donald v. The Newt: I can hardly contain my enthusiasm.

Herman Cain screws the pooch.

h/t hipneck:



The Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo tells readers that Norman Finkelstein and Chris Hedges will appear together 6 December at 6:30 in the James A. Little Theatre.

Occupy the Courts

Revolution too slow? Move to Amend. From my inbox:

Inspired by our friends at Occupy Wall Street, and Dr. Cornel West, Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision! Occupy the Courts will be a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday January 20, 2012.

Giago on 2012 elections.

Native American population is expected to grow to 8.6M by 2050. That represents at least eight congressional districts, tribes.

GOP scared shitless of OWS according to ThinkProgress.

Ron Paul dissects Newt:



Romney credibility gap widens.

Rick Perry's Texas: part n.

Gary Johnson mulling Libertarian run.

Fund your party now!