Susan Rice’s Iranian oil connection? …And Canadian oil connection?

…And, well, there’s a lot, really.

Well, well, well. It turns out that UN Ambassador and prospective Secretary of State nominee Susan Rice (she’s a multimillionaire, by the way) has some rather interesting financial ties to numerous foreign energy companies that still do business with that oppressive, misogynistic, homophobic, and downright barking mad insane regime currently controlling Iran.  The most interesting one of those is Royal Dutch Shell, which has about a billion dollars’ worth of interest (literally) in getting Iran’s sanctions lifted; Rice has also invested in at least two other companies that are operating in Iran against the wishes of pretty much most of the West.

Hmm.  Let’s scroll through some of her other investments:

  • Transcanada ($300-600K).  Keystone Pipeline company.  Wonder whether the Greenies are comfortable about that? Spoiler warning: no.
  • Monsanto (10-50K). Agricultural conglomerate that works with genetically engineered food.  Wonder if the Greenies are comfortable about that?
  • Walmart ($50-100K). …If you haven’t figured out by now that Big Labor is gunning for Walmart, then… Big Labor is gunning for Walmart.
  • Ishares Silver Trust ($100-250K), Newmont Mining Corp ($100-250K).  Metal mining companies.  Hey, guess who has even more of a vested interest than usual in making sure that the government keeps the current capital gains and dividends tax rates?  Metal mining companies!

Continue reading Susan Rice’s Iranian oil connection? …And Canadian oil connection?

So, how *do* you raise two kids in a 200 square foot hovel?

Pardon my use of the technical term ‘hovel’ to describe these things: ‘shack’ simply didn’t have the same connotation of ‘lived in by a beaten-down peasant’ attached to it.

Step into an alleyway in the Northeast Washington neighborhood known as Stronghold, and you will see a vegetable patch, a campfire, a view of the Capitol and a cluster of what neighbors call “those tiny people, building their tiny houses.”

The people aren’t really tiny, but their homes are — 150 to 200 square feet of living space, some with gabled roofs, others with bright cedar walls, compact bathrooms and cozy sleeping lofts that add up to living spaces that are smaller than the walk-in closets in a suburban McMansion.

Continue reading So, how *do* you raise two kids in a 200 square foot hovel?

Wait, this needed to be explained?

Sheesh.

Anyone signing up to Facebook agrees to their terms and conditions (which can be read here). In the same way that posting your own hotchpotch rental agreement in your lounge window makes no difference to your landlord once he’s got your original signed contract, neither does this status update amend your agreement with Facebook. You simply can’t retroactively alter the mutually-agreed terms by making a Facebook post.

So what should you do if you’ve already amended your Facebook privacy settings and you’re still unhappy with the site’s policies? Other than renegotiating your terms with them, your options are limited to this: lump it or leave.

It’s a miracle that everybody under 30 isn’t in jail for various forms of intellectual property rights violations.  What the hell were they teaching these kids instead of respect for property rights, anyway?

:pause:

Yeah, that was a loaded question, huh?

Via:

Mitch McConnell indicates his willingness to shoot the hostage.

And Mitch McConnell still has 47 votes in the Senate, which means that he has enough to prevent cloture.  So this is actually a pretty strong statement.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) slammed the door Thursday morning on Democratic demands to raise tax rates on families earning more than $250,000 per year.

“We’re insisting on keeping tax rates where they are, first and foremost, to protect jobs and because we don’t think government needs the money in the first place,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Continue reading Mitch McConnell indicates his willingness to shoot the hostage.

The fascinating thing about Hank Johnson…

…is that he’s still a better option than Cynthia McKinney*.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says, “corporations control the patterns of thinking” in the United States and that the Bill of Rights to the Constitution should be amended so that the government is given the power to restrict freedom of speech.

“We need a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to control the so-called free speech rights of corporations,” said Johnson.

Barely.

Moe Lane

*Even Google knows.

Somebody had a brawl on Thanksgiving? INCONCEVIABLE!

I normally don’t stoop to reporting tawdry celebrity gossip – unless, of course, there’s a political angle to it – but the story about Halle Berry’s ex-boyfriend getting the snot smacked out of him by Berry’s current fiance includes this, well, howler:

The fight took place during the American festival of Thanksgiving, traditionally the time for families to unite and celebrate their blessings.

HA! While the UK Daily Mail is not exactly incorrect about that, it is still being, shall we say, incomplete. Let’s just say that Festivus is not the only date on the American social calendar where there can be The Airing Of The Grievances, although I will admit that it rarely gets to the level of cracked ribs and stitches…

Gack. It’s like NOTHING IS GOING ON this week.

It’s either the political equivalent of the Sargasso Sea right now, or I’m in the political equivalent of a sensory deprivation tank. Or maybe I’m just too used to the frenetic campaign pace that was going on since that damned Ames Straw Poll thing. It’s so bad, in fact, that I almost wrote five hundred words about my substandard Cheesecake Factory experience this evening*. It’s been so bad that I actually went to bed before midnight last night. Shocked the hell out of my wife, that did.

Quick, somebody do somet… no, wait, the last time I suggested that was just before the 2000 elections. Never. Bloody. Mind. I’m good. Really.

Moe Lane

*They forgot my coffee and their chicken samosas were uninspiring. Add another 490 words of querulous blather and you’re ready to go.

But does Wayne County really WANT Detroit?

Would you?

It would no doubt be controversial, but the idea of dissolving the fiscally struggling city of Detroit and absorbing it into Wayne County is being tossed around in Lansing.

Then again, what does one do with Detroit? It’s probably – almost certainly – the largest utterly failed city in American history: large portions of it have already been abandoned. Would it perhaps make sense to shut down the rest and relocate as much of the population that wishes to leave? I honestly don’t know at this point.