Motley Moose – Archive

I don’t blame Him, I just wish He could have waited a little bit longer.

Rest in Peace, Goldenpipes. Miss Etta James, lost at 73.

By: Inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/

One of the most interesting maps to have come out recently is this one:

This is a map of Facebook connections as of December 2010. There are a lot of things which this map says, and it is quite interesting to make out patterns in the array of lights.

For instance, the lights in Brazil and Australia are almost entirely located along the coasts, while the inland region is empty. This is because almost everybody there lives along the sea-side cities, which may surprise a lot of people (especially for those not familiar with Brazil). The same is true for Canada, apart from the areas bordering America. It’s kind of like Canada is part of the United States.

There are also interesting patterns about Facebook usage. Russia and Brazil have a relatively low density of lights, because Facebook is not very popular in those countries. China is, of course, mostly devoid of lights since Facebook is banned there – although there are a smattering of connections from Beijing and Shanghai.

What was most interesting to this individual, however, was the map of Europe.

Below is a close-up.

The Republican party is in crisis, as has been evident for the bulk of this nomination race, but now its chickens have come home to roost.  The Tea Party experiment, already causing second thoughts and ruction among establishment and legislative Republicans, and their sponsors, was being assiduously ignored as the well-oiled Romney coronation rolled ever on while a clown-car of unlikely aspirants came and went, to the mortification of the electorate and the evident relief of party elders.  

However one rarely sees such a lengthy, cautious, well-funded campaign collapse in a single evening as Romney’s did at Thursday’s debate; a performance undermining with prevarication and dissembling the narrative his handlers had so carefully crafted for him over previous months.  

It was clearly his worst performance in several seasons of campaigning and at that moment it proved catastrophic.  Every pre-existing doubt about his candidacy was exacerbated by his weaselling over his tax returns; he plainly can’t be trusted, the gold standard of a presidential candidacy in either party.  And it changed the course of the campaign going forward.  He seemed damaged goods even before Gingrich cleaned his clock tonight.

So Newton Leroy Gingrich, the “bad boy” of Nineties conservatism, swoops in, channelling working-class, Right-wing angst, to deliver a crushing blow to the only credible argument Romney had; the slender one of electability from the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama.

Clearly the “base” would prefer going down in flames with Gingrich than slitting their wrists in a warm bath with Romney.

>I need to read your thoughts. I love election season.

The strategy and the narrative. The funny and the crisis management.

The debates and the drama.

The comments on the Moose.

Talk to me dude.  

(Written by an American Expat living in the E.U.)

The cold winter weather and squatting evictions have hurt the Occupy movement in America because squatting is criminalized in Ameria. . But this has to the same extent not been the case in England because squatting isn’t criminalized in England.

When is it enough? We’ve all read the headlines about the Occupy Movement being evicted from Zuccotti Park in New York and other public spaces all around the United States from sea to shining sea, but what we at the Kos haven’t been talking about is the Occupy Movement in the European Union to the same extent. As if it were a different movement, it isn’t! But yet it is in one very important way. Squatting isn’t criminalized in England. They get to occupy buildings legally to set up sleeping quarters, office space, have indoor plumbing, heating, lights, windows with real glass in them, paved flooring that don’t have grass growing up your azz! Toilets, oh my God the Occupy Movement lives in the age of toilets and showers with hot water, imagine they can get Internet installed and I don’t mean on a stick, landline telephones and occupiers can use that address to register if they are unemployed for jobless benefits from the state. Even if they are single, that is jobless benefits that never run out, and they get complete medical, dental, prescription medication coverage, but perhaps most importantly of all occupying in England, that is in the fair city of London, which is colloquially referred to as squatting is covered even to this very day by something called Squatter’s Rights.

Occupy London protesters take over fifth London site

Comments (34)

Protesters said they “occupied” the building in the early hours

The Occupy London protest group says it has taken over a fifth site in London.

Up to 20 demonstrators moved into Roman House, on Fore Street, Barbican, in the City of London, between midnight and 02:00 GMT, an Occupy spokesman said.

The group said they planned to “open the building to the public” on Monday. The empty office building is believed to be owned by Berkeley Homes.

City of London Corporation and police said they were aware of the occupation.

The latest move from the protesters comes after the corporation won its High Court case on Wednesday to evict protesters from outside St Paul’s Cathedral, where Occupy London Stock Exchange group set up their tents on 15 October.

“The City of London Police have visited the building and have agreed that it is a civil matter.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-e…

I understand some #OWS folks made it a point to protest this appearance and in that protest decided to call this President Hitler.  SMDH!

I’m not going to talk about that.  Nope.  Instead let’s listen to the dulcet tones of Barack Obama

Is this the Bill Clinton playing the sax moment for his four more years movement?

My parents sent me to Catholic grade school, catechism and the whole nine yards.  My mother was Catholic but she was also a Democrat, pro women’s rights.  She dragged us to church but she was not on board with a lot of the Church’s ways.  My dad was Presbyterian and never went to church.  He didn’t buy into much of the rah rah business.  But, Catholic school was where we went.

(Posted at SexGenderBody)

Rick Santorum is hardly my favorite human being. He is a representative of a brand of “Conservatism” that is abhorrent to me. A religious zealot who preaches that we need good Conservative leadership, and then proceeds to advance radicalized ideas of imposition of theocratic controls, promote monopolist interests, and all in the name of “safety” and “freedom.”

In a post SOPA Blackout world, that many across the Web didn’t get–I point to the folks who misinterpreted Drew Curtis’ “White Out” as support and obviously didn’t actually read the whole statement or even click the linked video that simply read: You can’t. It’s evil–and I realize that during the discussion, some things about the bill really have been glossed over.

For Lulz, here’s Rick’s defense of SOPA as framed that freedom of speech is too free and against good American values…

Crossposted to The Suicidal Cactus Hour.  

Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Many of us are thinking about the changes we want to make this year. For some, these changes will be financial; for others, physical or spiritual. But for all of us, there are important resolutions we can make to “green” our lives. Although this is often a subject focused on by industrialized nations, people in developing countries can also take important steps to reduce their growing environmental impact.

“We in the developing world must embark on a more vigorous ‘going green’ program,” says Sue Edwards, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). “As incomes rise and urbanization increases, a growing middle class must work with city planners to ensure our communities are sustainable.”

ISD’s Tigray Project recently received the Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development 2011, shared with Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Since 1996, Tigray has worked to help Ethiopian farmers rehabilitate ecosystems, raise land productivity, and increase incomes through such practices as composting, biodiversity enhancement, the conservation of water and soil, and the empowerment of local communities to manage their own development.

Broadening sustainability efforts is essential to solving many of the world’s challenges, including food production, security, and poverty. The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.

Hunger, poverty, and climate change are issues that we in the developing world can help address. Here are 12 simple steps to go green in 2012:

This is the second part of three posts analyzing the 2010 South Carolina  gubernatorial election, in which Republican Nikki Haley won a  closer-than-expected victory over Democrat Vincent Sheheen. The main focus of these posts will be to explore whether a racial effect  accounted for Ms. Haley’s unexpected poor performance.

The previous post can be found here, and the next post can be found here.

(Note: This is also part of a series of posts analyzing the 2010 midterm elections.)

More below.