The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 60.

It states that every human, regardless of sex, skin colour, language, religion, country of origin, intellect, or wealth has the right to live, and to live in freedom and safety.

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Imagine that : just by dint of being born human, you have the right to food, shelter, education, and healthcare, the right to freedom of speech and religion, equality before the law, the right to work and to benefit from that work. You have the right to property, to marry whom you choose - or not, to belong to which groups you choose, to vote, and not to be persecuted or tortured. You have the right to care when you cannot care for yourself. And there's more.

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It is a fine ringing assertion of what is required to enable all of us to be fully human.

I would only ask that a 31st article be added : the right not to cause harm. This would pertain to non-religious conscientious objectors, and to the refusal to harm animals and the environment.

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You can put your own signature to it now at the Every Human Has Rights Campaign.

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h/t April Reign

Cross-posted at Creekside

US Enviable ? ? ? ?

While perusing Progressive Bloggers yesterday this post by Paulitics caught my eye. It deals with the impression inside the US that the rest of the world envies them.

Quite well done.

Check it out . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change! 

JOHN MCCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road... 

SARAH PALIN: That chicken never crossed the road. You betcha! I shot that liberal buzzard before it had a chance to sneak into Russia. 

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me. 

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here. 

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun? 

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road. 

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of crossing? What chicken? 

AL GORE: I invented the chicken. 

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it. 

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens. 

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems. 

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens. 

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road. 

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American. 

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of moulting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road. 

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road. 

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken? 

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

STEPHEN HARPER: The chicken was probably going to a gala.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A chicken and a trombone player were crossing the road. Both got hit by the same car. What was the difference?

The chicken was on his way to a gig.

Lo and behold : the $100M Olympic Village bail-out

In a secret meeting on October 14, Vancouver council voted unanimously to lend $100-million for cost over-runs to Millennium Development, the private corporation building the $1.1-billion 2010 Olympic Village.

Vancouver's Director of Finance, Estelle Lo, who reportedly had concerns about the city's involvement in the Olympic athletes' village and who was stripped of her control over financing decisions related to the athletes' village in April, was not at that meeting.
Ms Lo reportedly resigned on Oct 29.
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That's quite a lot of "reportedly"s and still no word from the city.
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Millenium is also leaking a $65-million cost overrun on its 176 unit Evelyn Drive project above Park Royal in West Van and in danger of default on a 170 room hotel contract in Nanaimo.
h/t Bill Tieleman
One of Millenium's backers is private-equity and hedge-fund manager Fortress Investment Group.
G&M :

"Donald Trump is tied up in a legal fight over a Chicago skyscraper that is now worth less at completion than the total value of the loans it took to build it. The shortfall is about $100-million. Interestingly, one of the lenders in this case is Fortress Investment Group, the primary lender in the athletes' village project."

Well we can always sell' em off, right? Right?
G&M :

"It is hard to make the athletes' village deal make sense no matter which way you slice it.
If the loan from Fortress is $750-million and you add, potentially, $100-million to cover cost overruns, and then another $193-million for the cost of the land, then you're looking at total costs of more than $1-billion. That means the 1,100 units in the residential complex that was once the athletes' village would have to average $1-million each.
In this market, it's not going to happen."

Interesting you should mention that, because over in the UK :

"Government ministers have delayed a taxpayer bail-out for the £1bn athletes' village at the London 2012 Olympics until the beginning of next year at the earliest.
The scheme hit trouble when the developer Lend Lease could not raise finance and the possible resale value of the flats slumped. Also at the meeting was John Armitt, the Olympic Delivery Authority chairman, who has said taxpayers might have to bail out the entire £1bn cost."

But that couldn't happen here? Right?

Ross has a half dozen excellent detailed posts up on this.
Keep scrolling.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Wednesday night update : G&M :

"Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan asked the police Wednesday to investigate the "theft" of documents from city hall that revealed that city council had authorized a loan of up to $100-million to the financially strapped developer of the 2010 Olympics athletes village."

Yeah, Sammy, coz it's the leak that's the most important issue here.

Banking - We're #1

Further to Noni's post below, World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report gave Canada the #1 ranking as the world's soundest banking system:
1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Luxembourg
4. Australia
5. Denmark
6. Netherlands
7. Belgium
8. New Zealand
9. Ireland
10. Malta
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39. Germany
40. USA
44. UK

Trading Masks

One reason the Canadian economy didn't suffer as much as it might have done, is that banks here are under federal control, and permission to allow mergers has been resisted steadily for more than 10 to 12 years.

Here's a current (October 8, 2008 ) article on the topic from the Report on Business: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/s...NStory/ Business

Ten years ago this fall, after [Prime Minister Jean Chretien's] government rejected a pair of proposed bank mergers, the financial community was awash in dire prophesy: Canadian banks were too small to compete with their bulked-up neighbours to the south, the critics complained.

They were too insulated to remain relevant in a global economy characterized by lightning change and mind-bendingly complex products.

Yet today, amid the worst financial crisis in a generation, those predictions have been turned squarely on their head. While Wall Street titans succumb to a credit meltdown, spreading their contagion to Europe, the Canadian banking system has emerged as the most stable and best performing in the world.

Three Canadian banks are now in the top 10 in North America by market value, and the remaining two are not far behind.

Two ironic points -- Mr. Chretien's party, the Liberal Party, under Chretien and his successor Paul Martin, behaved conservatively to limit the rush of the banks to get in on the gravy train of international banking and innovative instruments. Canada is now grateful for that prudence.

Meanwhile who was pushing for the financial gold rush? Why, the right wing, the "conservative" element of Canadian politics. The Progressive Conservative, Conservative and Reform parties urged greater international involvement and mergers, (Reform opposed a big 1998 proposed merger, but only because they wanted "consumers and businesses to be assured of open competition in the Canadian banking industry... the merger should not go ahead unless it's accompanied by changes to the Bank Act that would open the Canadian market to more international competition.")

Under the most recent 12 year reign of our Liberal Party, a whole whack of the federal debt was paid down too, and Canada's economy as a whole is one of the most stable in the world.

There is a reason why bank buildings are big and heavy and modeled after classical Greek and Roman architecture. They were supposed to be careful, far-seeing, stable and secure. Our left wing knew that and stubbornly upheld the idea. Our right wing apparently doesn't.

At what point in time did they exchange masks and decided to take on the other's role? I am not sure. But it would be a grand topic for a book.

Noni

Texas Two Step . . . .

To keep you up to speed, here's what's been going on:

I left Vancouver on Tuesday - yes, the day of the US election - for some time in our Florida residence. (Would anyone like to take it off our hands?!?!) The weather here has been glorious, as I expected it to be. Autumn in this part of the world is typically spectacular - barring any tropical storms.

So, I got to see the election results while actually being in the country involved. No big surprise, but at least the outcome was a positive one in light of the alternative. Now, let's hope Mr. Obama can deliver on his promise of "change." The proof will be in the results.

The following two video compilations have crossed my radar screen since arriving here, and I wanted to share them with you. They are indicative of some of the reasons "drf," The Four Footed Child, and myself felt compelled to leave this place for a better place. Coincidentally - or perhaps not - both take place in Texas, home of an infamous current - and soon to be former (we hope) - President.






And then this.

So. As I stated in a "queerie" posed by our friend MSEH in her upcoming ex-pat analysis:

As for actually moving back because of Obama's election, the answer is an emphatic "No." Granted, given the alternative, his election is an improvement and a BIG improvement over the past eight years. However, the US corporate power structure has taken decades to become entrenched, and a 4-year or 8-year Obama administration will not and can not substantially change that situation. That said, what would be the benefit to returning to the States? Nothing will be fundamentally different than it has been during my lifetime. There will still be a focus on military might, a lack of caring for it's citizen's welfare, gross inequities in income levels and a tendency to inject religion into politics and government.

We didn't make the decision to apply for Permanent Resident status and eventual Canadian citizenship on a whim. The two-plus year process gave us plenty of time to reconsider should we have had doubts.

Canada is by no means perfect, but in comparison to the US it's no contest for me.

I'm staying right here, thank you very much.

Is it any wonder we left?

I think not . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

Con Con '08 : Running with scissors

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BigCityLib says Winnipeg may just become the most hilarious city in Canada next week when the Cons hold their big ConConvention and publicly air their C.R.A.P. :

"A Conservative Government will support legislation defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

Yeah but not this Consevative Government - what else you got?

"The Conservative Party supports investing significantly in increasing our scientific knowledge base and in making firm and fair decisions based on facts ..."

Um .. yeah. Well, ok, I get it, CRAP, baby steps and all that ...

"Food. Food is one of the basic necessities of life, and a Conservative Government places high priority on assuring that Canada’s food supply is safe, secure, and sustainable."

OK, that's good - keep it mind-numbingly obvious.

No need to mention your recent policy forays into listeriosis sandwiches and having the food industry police itself ...

"... an investigation into the security of our long term freshwater resources as they pertain to exportation as a commodity."

Mentioning water exports as a commodity is pushing your luck a bit though, isn't it?

I also notice the original proposal was "protection and security of" but the "protection" part got crossed off somehow ...

"... recognizing the need for improving security and improved relations with the United States and establish a study of the feasibility of a North American perimeter."

Whoa! CRAP! What happened to not looking scary? Now is hardly the time to be rediscovering your Reform roots ...

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But wait! What's this? Antonia Z at Broadsides :

"Protecting Pregnant Women
The Conservative Party supports legislation to ensure that individuals who commit violence against a pregnant woman would face additional charges if her unborn child was killed or injured during the commission of a crime against the mother."

Not the anti-abortion C-484 thingey again? Seriously?

You guys may as well all go get fitted for new muzzles right now before Big Daddy gets home.

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Cross-posted at Creekside

What's wrong with this picture?

The federal government has scrapped plans to build a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada after seven years of planning and several million dollars of public investment.

"A number of developers submitted proposals," announced newly appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore in a statement.
He refused to say what was wrong with the submitted proposals due to confidentiality requirements.”

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Rainforest Fungus Makes Diesel

BOZEMAN, Montana, November 4, 2008 (ENS) - A unique fungus that makes diesel compounds directly from cellulose has been discovered living in trees in the Patagonian rainforest.

"These are the first organisms that have been found that make many of the ingredients of diesel," said Professor Gary Strobel from Montana State University. "This is a major discovery." From Environment News Service. Bet that critter gets its DNA sequenced pronto.

Culture plate of Gliocladium roseum, a fungus that produces myco-diesel hydrocarbons

Stick a foot in the door -- now! Then round up some extra feet

Digby at Hullabaloo had a good insight this morning. We would do well to jump on this idea too, we Progressives have a lot of catching up to do. To quote:

I realized that I need to remind people of something that's very important for successful governance:

FDR was, of course, a consummate political leader. In one situation, a group came to him urging specific actions in support of a cause in which they deeply believed. He replied: "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

He understood that a President does not rule by fiat and unilateral commands to a nation. He must build the political support that makes his decisions acceptable to our countrymen. He read the public opinion polls not to define who he was but to determine where the country was – and then to strategize how he could move the country to the objectives he thought had to be carried out.

If Obama wants to govern as liberally as the political circumstances allow, then we need to work to make sure that the political circumstances include a strong liberal base. Mindlessly cheerleading out of a misplaced sense of loyalty will not help him. As Roosevelt understood, politics are interlocking interests and constituencies that have to be brought to bear to achieve certain goals.

In the current political world, I believe that Obama and the Democrats need a strong left wing that is out there agitating in order that we can continue to build popular support and also give them a political excuse to do things that the political establishment finds too liberal. Being cheerleaders all the time, however enjoyable that is, is not going to help them. Leaving them out there with no left wing cripples them.

One of the problems for Democrats has been that there has not been an effective progressive voice pushing the edge of the envelope. Therefore, when they inevitably "go to the middle" as politicians often feel they must do, the middle become further and further right. It is my belief that one of the roles of the progressive movement is to keep pulling the politicians back to the left, which often means that we are not being publicly "supportive," in order that we really do end up in the middle instead of farther to the right than the country actually is.

I'm not an idiot and I know very well that Obama needs room to govern. A big historic victory, a village predisposed to at least give him a chance and a set of very serious crises to confront will give him that. My role is to make sure that the progressive agenda is pushed as well

The whole post is well worth reading, as Digby always is.

May I add a point to remember? I used to say "Someone has to go too far, so we can go far enough." There's a term for it (can't remember at the moment), but basically if you are bargaining, you never make your best offer first, or you are guaranteed to win less than that as the bargaining goes on.

There's a reason why the right wing is pre-preemptively screaming about the extreme left-wingedness of Obama -- it's to move the window of his possible choices as far to the right as they can, before any bargaining begins. Every time one of those rat-barstuds screams "commie!" they are like the barstud I met in Minnesota forty years ago who accused me, out of a clear blue sky, of being a "nigger lover".

There were no black people around, I didn't know my accuser, we hadn't been discussing race issues, but he slammed that label on me for two reasons -- to remind me he was mindlessly dangerous, and turn me against (or prevent me from cooperating with) a group he took pleasure in hating. Yes he was a jerk, but jerks do much of the killing in this world.

With people like this, reason and niceness will make no impact whatsoever. Aggressive and constant left-wing action won't affect them either, but it will affect the great mass of the population who can still reason -- and further marginalize the jerks.

So, go lefties go! ~flap flap flappity flap~

Noni

Genetically modified genocide

DailyMail : GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops

Here's how that works.
India gets IMF loans in exchange for allowing western companies like Monsanto access to the billion-strong Indian markets.
Government seed banks ban traditional seeds to promote uptake of GM seeds.
Farmers are pitched the very expensive "magic seeds", Monsanto's BT Cotton.
Farmers take out loans to buy them.
Drought. Too bad because GM seeds require twice the water of traditional seeds.
Crops die and farmers are unable to save seeds to plant next year because of course there are no seeds.
Farmers takes out additional loans to buy more seeds.
More drought plus parasitic bollworms. Crop failure.
Farmers can't pay off loans. Lose land. Suicide.

Monsanto official : "Suicides have always been part of rural Indian life."

Nice. And for what? Are more people fed?
No, because GM crops produce lower yields than traditional plantings.
So the entire purpose of GM is so that a few multinat corpses can own the entire food chain.

Prince Charles is on the case "setting up a charity, the Bhumi Vardaan Foundation, to help those affected and promote organic Indian crops instead of GM."
But Prince Charles has his own problems at home :

Independent : Europe's secret plan to boost GM crop production

"Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.
The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.
And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists"

Currently GM is only grown on .1% - that's point one percent - of agricultural land in Europe : none in Britain, France has suspended cultivation, and resistance is growing in Spain and Portugal.

And Canada? Well, we're riddled with the stuff - one of the world's largest producers of GMs.
A seldom mentioned aspect of the recent listeriosis story was the Ministry of Trade's decision to allow industry to oversee its own product labelling, meaning we're unlikely to become better informed of which foods are GM any time soon.
At present GM food labelling in Canada is voluntary.
In the absence of any other, I'd like to propose a genocide label.

Cross-posted at Creekside

Really, how dumb are they?

You know, for people who claim to hate marxism and communism so much, and think it is so vile, who consider it worse or at least on par with Nazism, it is amazing to me how readily the conservatives will slap the commie label on anyone who disagrees with them.
Don't they understand that every time they call a candidate who wants to raise taxes on the wealthy a few percent a communist, it denigrates all those who died at the hands of real communists like Stalin and Mao in jus the same way that calling the police raid on the Waco compound a holocaust denigrates the memories of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis?
Don't they get that having the government oversee a public medical insurance plan is not a precursor to Pol Pot's killing fields?
Are they so thick that they don't understand that a university or other large organization telling employees it is unacceptable behaviour to use racist epithets, fondle or ogle other employees or otherwise act like a jackass at work is not the same thing as sending people to labour camps because they wear eyeglasses or went to university?
Can they not understand that requiring multimillionaires to contribute a few more dollars to keeping people made jobless by their greed-driven wheeling and dealing from starving to death while they freeze in the street is not the same as the state seizing the means of production and sending the wealthy to labour camps?
Can they not understand the difference between requiring publicly funded facilities such as schools and courts to refrain from being seen to embrace or favor one religion above another, or to insisting that science be taught in science classes and myth, legend and philosophy be taught in other courses is not the same as burning churches?
And before anyone starts accusing me of attacking strawmen, go have a look at this or some of the gems the Sadlynauts gathered election night (and they were only joking about sending Gary Ruppert to a labour camp, at least I think they were only joking). Or the dicussions in the comments over at Treason-in-Defense-Of-Slavery Yankee of which guns would be best used to defend one's home against the coming roving masses of swarthy anarchists and gulag press gangs they deem the inevitable result of the Obama victory.
If you have a strong enough stomache go wade through the toxic crazy at Atlas Shrugs, where Pam Gellar attempts to explain that Barack Obama is literally the actual secret love child of Malcom X.
Or look at some of John McCain's remarks to the effect that because Obama wants to increase the tax rate by 3 % on people with an income of more than $250,000 and freeze or cut the tax rate for the other 95% of American citizens he is engaged in a Marxist class war to redistribute the wealth just like Mao and Stalin.
Have they at long last no shame?

The monster years

More people should have been saying this over at least the last four years. Krugman as usual sums it up beautifully:

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.

A monster that looks like one, is easy to oppose and hard to build sympathy for.

But a monster that looks like a good businessman or an effective political operative, or even an amiable old duffer, that's the kind that can get in the front door and ruin your life -- sometimes without you even realizing what happened.

"By their works shall ye know them." Indeed.

Though you may find it hard to read, the last volume of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy "That Hideous Strength" provides an unforgettable view of such kinds of monsters, and more. Read it, if only as an inoculation.

And remember, one meaning of the word "inoculate" is "to give them eyes".

More Sea Smurfs

Remember the Sea Smurfs?

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Sea Smurfs was the mercifully shorter nickname given to NorthCom's 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, the Consequence Management Response Force, which, as reported in Army Times, is a military unit to be deployed within the US to deal with "homeland scenarios" where among other duties they "may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control".

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Yeah, yeah, I know, the Posse Comitatus Act and all that, but since Bush attached a little note to the repeal of its repeal last year, if you can follow that, to say he does not feel bound by it, we are not greatly reassured.

More smurfs : Reporting on a National Homeland Defense and Security Symposium in Colorado last week, the Colorado Independent newspaper tells us the Sea Smurfs are about to grow by at least two more military units over the next two years, bringing their number to an estimated total of 4,700.
A worried ACLU is busy filing FOI's, while the commander of NorthCommand makes suitably soothing noises: "These are medical personnel, they’re chemical decontamination teams, they’re engineering teams, they’re logistics folks."

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Ok, but they've got tanks and guns too , although a public-affairs officer for Northern Command has stated that "any decision to use weapons would be made at a higher level, perhaps at the secretary-of-defense level".

Army Times previously reported that they'll be using "a non-lethal crowd control package" and "military tactics, including some tested in Iraq" within U.S. borders but has since retracted those statements. Did I mention that these smurfs previously hailed from 15 months in Iraq?

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As we discovered back in February : "Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other's borders during an emergency".

The definition of just what would constitute "an emergency" along the 100 mile deep "Constitution-Free Zone" on the U.S.-Canada border continues to worry me.

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Good little vid on one man's reaction to the Sea Smurfs from ACR.
Cross-posted at Creekside

Congratulations

Yo! Canada!

What PSA said

UpDate : and part of what my friend Chris answered in comments at PSA:

Okay look, this guy is running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. It's not a job that outsiders ever win. It's not a job he will be allowed to do as a radical left wing organizer. America is inherently conservative, and the political establishment is just that: established. Pretty firmly.

Having said all that, Obama's surge is doing three things worth noting. One, he is energizing non-white voters who are blinking their eyes in disbelief that a black man will become President on January 20th. Two, he is galvanizing world opinion positively towards the United States which helps a great deal to make for a more peaceful world. And three, and perhpas most important, take a look at the progressive political action going on in the US. The Presidential race is just one thing. At the local level there are scores of incredibly radical people about to be elected, and lots of ultra right wing agendas are suffering in the referendum campaigns. Gay marriage will be legalized in Conneticut and Proposition 8 in Calaifornia seems to be going down.

Radical politics will never have a place at the top of the American political food chain, but it lives at the local level and this year it is coming on. In that sense the President doesn't matter, but this year THIS President matters at that level.

Yo! America!

What Kevin said.

Juror Jilts Stevens for Nag . . . .

ted "Series of Tubes" stevens loses out to a horse race.

From McClatchy today:

Stevens juror left for horse race, not father's funeral

Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers - November 03, 2008

WASHINGTON — Juror No. 4 in Sen. Ted Stevens' federal corruption trial, otherwise known as Marian Hinnant, didn't leave to attend her father's funeral in California, as she told the judge at the time.

Instead, Hinnant had a plane ticket to see the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park and didn't want to miss it, she told the judge Monday, in what sounded like completely irrational and perhaps even delusional remarks.

"I just wanted to go to the Breeders' Cup," she told reporters after a hearing the judge held to find out why she'd left town and lost contact with him, forcing him to replace her just hours before the jury found Stevens guilty.

Hinnant also told reporters that she would have found the Alaska senator guilty had she remained on the jury.

"He was guilty, but these other guys are just as guilty," she said, referring to other members of Congress.

_______________


Hinnant, 52, told reporters that she works at Avis car rental in Union Station in Washington. She worked in horse racing for many years and simply wanted to see the race, since she already had a plane ticket to California.

Somehow, this sounds very appropriate to me.

After all, stevens' daily double of stupidity is exacta what caused the dam trifecta of this blow out of a court case to break down. You would have to have had blinkers on to not see the prosecution breeze to a guilty verdict and put 'ole ted on a fast track pace to a stint in the pokey place.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)

World Wildlife Fund - WTF?

WWF : CIRCLE THE GLOBE
PREPARE TO BE ASTONISHED

"Now, aboard a specially outfitted private jet, you can travel around the world with people who work to protect Earth’s incredible diversity.
In 25 extraordinary days, travel to six of World Wildlife Fund’s top priority places.

In the world of private jet expeditionary travel, there’s simply no such thing as “good enough.” There is only extraordinary.

Your journey is designed for excellence at every level. A private car meets your commercial flight in London, charming local gifts grace your pillow at every destination, and exclusive events and access punctuate your entire experience. Each detail has been orchestrated with meticulous attention, just as you expect.

Only a private jet can bring you to so many places all in comfort, safety, and ease.
Just 19 rows of spacious leather seats with full ergonomic support.
Gourmet meals, chilled champagne, your own chef.
Personable, professional jet staff who welcome you back aboard after each stop."

"Astonished?" Astonished hardly covers it, WWF.
Do you think the rest of us are bicycling to work, wearing an extra sweater indoors, using those god-awful fluorescent light bulbs, and putting bricks in our toilet tanks - at your behest - so you can jet-set the Green elite to "enjoy the company of" endangered species?

You do put out a fabulous brochure for jet travel, I must admit.
Presumably we will see those same pictures in the calendars we get every year from those grassroots college students who go door-to-door selling WWF subscriptions on foot so as not to be hypocrites.

"A treasured trademark of TCS Expeditions journeys by private jet is the concept of “Surprise and Delight.”
The brilliant expedition team, behind the scenes and on the jet, is carefully orchestrating every detail of your extraordinary journey — and planning special surprises."

What's the "special surprise" carbon foot print here, WWF?
And what the fuck were you thinking?

h/t to the indefatigable Toe at BnR
Cross-posted at Creekside