Blogo de Marko

Dennis Kucinich's claim to genius, as I remember it, is that, as a youthful mayor of Cleveland, he let the city go into default rather than ‘privatize’ the electric company, and, though the mayor sacrificed himself politically, the result kind of worked out well. And now he’s a congresscreature.

His dumbass excuse for voting dumbass no on the healthcare bill ( http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=153995 ) reads as if he were talking about a proposal to ‘privatize’ an electric company. He uses the same kinds of arguments as you would use for that. He sounds like Bernie Sanders complaining about the price of gasoline. He seems to me to want to punish insurance companies more than get people a chance, any chance, to go see an effing doctor. Wouldn’t it actually be worth overpaying for a time if we can just clear up some of the backlog of people who are suffering and dying for fear of being diagnosed with something they can’t afford to have treated? And what of the people who pay premiums for nothing? Or the people who don’t buy individual insurance because it likely won’t be honored anyway?

No. To Kucinich this is like homeowners being gouged by an electric company. The generators keep running when you let the city go into default. It doesn’t work like that with healthcare.

Would he have voted differently if his vote were needed for passage? If so, say so, and don’t lie by omission. Does he praise the work of people who worked their butts off to get where we are today? If not, why would he have voted for the bill if his vote were needed for passage? Another lie of omission. Either he was willing to let the bill fail or he is lying in cowardly fashion, to make himself look impressive. If he is fulfilling his pledge to vote against anything that didn’t have a ‘robust’ public option, but would have broken that pledge if his vote had been needed, and now pretends to be upholding his pledge, then he deserves even more condemnation.

Dennis Kucinich, along with Ralph Nader, is an ineffective twit who is ineffective because he is sour and intolerant, no pleasure to work with, and almost guaranteed to try to make you look bad and get Democratic voters to curse you.

Dumbass Dennis Kucinich's dumbass statement on his dumbass no vote: http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=153995

I think today deserves a musical interlude.

Apparently the author of this was unaware that Dick Armey is from North Dakota, which is way, way, way up north, and that he is an emigrant to Texas: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/11/southern_man.cfm

Interestingly, Eric Cantor being Jewish makes him an ‘atypical’ Southerner, but Newt Gingrich and especially Dick Armey being Northerners isn’t to be treated similarly.

(My solution to this particular problem is not to count Jews as ‘atypical’. I would point out that Eric Cantor is the only Jew in Congress willing to be a Republican, but if anything this would make him more ‘Southern’, not less.)

This guy voted for healthcare reform: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cao

Update: This is the guy that beat corrupt Democrat William Jefferson in a really, really Democratic district, so we may be looking at a future party-switcher.

... as I write. Not officially until the vote is over, though. Maybe someone will change his or her vote. :)

Republicans sometimes, and just now, are defending the ‘right’ of young people to mooch by electing not to have insurance. Will they propose an amendment to deny young moochers healthcare? (We’ll surely vote it down, because we aren’t hardhearted.)

I say we rename it the Freeloader Party.

I’m listening to the House debate on C-SPAN radio [link] and the Republicans sometimes are hilarious!

( ĉu plaĉas al vi rigardi ĉiujn fotojn? )

Originale sendita je verdeskribitaj sensencaĵoj.Vi povas komenti ĉi tie aŭ tie.

Air America's Richard Greene has a burnt-out filament in his head.

I had meant to but forgot to mention what I think of as Ralph Nader’s greatest late-in-life accomplishment: As a consequence of Nader’s efforts to build a national third-party movement, Noam Chomsky endorsed weaseling Iraq-invasion supporter John Kerry for president.

(Mind you, I think that was a good thing, but surely it was not Nader’s goal.)

Listening to Ralph Nader recently, and reflecting now upon what he said, it occurs to me that Ralph Nader treats ‘everything’ like a lawsuit.

There he was, indicting Yoko Ono, accusing Gloria Steinem, and so on, of not doing this and not doing that in support of liberal causes. All that was missing was the monetary judgment and the payment; the judgment never comes down, because there is no judge or jury; the payment never is made, because, instead of appealing to good will and reason, Ralph Nader has viciously denounced the potential payer.

What a jerk. Were I the potential payer, I’d want to withhold my payment so I could use it to buy Ralph Nader dartboards for all the saloons in the Twin Cities. I hope Yoko Ono does that.

Here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1105/p02s01-usju.html

What I notice is that a string search on ‘Thomas’ turns up nothing.

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

antaŭajn kelkajn tagojn mi tute hazarde tralegis la paĝaron de la Japana Esperanto-Instituto kaj ekrimarkis, ke (mirinde) okazos baldaŭ esperanta kongreso en mia urbETo Kooĉi’. mi pensas, ke tio estas tute nekredebla kaj ankaŭ mirinda…. neniam mi havis ŝancon por paroli esperante for de komputiloj kaj subite mi finfine havas ŝancon…!

sed pro mia sinĝeneco, manko de kapableco rilate al esperanton ktp, mi hezitis peti retpoŝte pri partopreni… finfine mi kuraĝiĝis kaj petis, nun mi partoprenos la kongreson….. mian unuan eventon esperantan.

nun mi timas pli ol mi ekscitiĝas pri la evento. :’( la kongreso okazos je la 21a ~ 22a ĉi-monate…. mi havas nur ĉir. 2 semajnojn por plibonigi mian kapablecon rilate al aŭskulti kaj elparoli esperanton…. mi sentas min kondamnita al embaraso. :/ mia sinĝeneco kondamnas/os min al embaraso kaj malsukceso esperante….

…sed mi kiel eble plej bone igos mian esperanton antaŭ la kongreso. :(

parenteze, mi trovis esperantan klavaron por Vindozo, kiun mi sukcese instalis uzante la japanan Vindozo 7-on. bedaŭrinde, la instrukcia PDF-dosiero por instali la klavaron estas nur angle, do ĉi-sube mi skribos bazan klarigon esperante:

1. klaki [ ĉi tiun ligilon ].
2. por elŝuti la dosieron, klaki la ligilon “esperanto.zip”, kiu estas supre de la lasta klavara bildo.
3. malfermi la ZIP-dosieron kaj eltiri ties dosierojn ien.
4. klaki la eltiritan dosieron “setup.exe” kaj post iam mesaĝo aperos. kiam mesaĝo aperas, la instalo finis.
5. ie sur via ekrano, aperos (kutime malgranda) lingvoilo (”Microsoft IME”). klaki la lingvoilon kaj elekti “Angla (Kariba)” por uzi la esperantan klavaron.
6. por denove uzi la defaŭltan klavaron, denove klaki la lingvoilon kaj elekti la defaŭltan lingvon.

per afiŝojn je la ttt-ejo Twitter, mi eksciis, ke ankaŭ ekzistas esperantajn klavarojn por Makintoŝo. dankinde instrukcioj por tiuj klavaroj jam estas esperantaj.

Originale sendita je verdeskribitaj sensencaĵoj.Vi povas komenti ĉi tie aŭ tie.

Ralph Nader tries to motivate people by badmouthing them. He works contrary to his goal and gets reverse results. (His being a son of a bitch was useful in his earlier career and his reputation is based upon his accomplishments then.)

A curmudgeon, on the other hand, badmouths people with the goal, conscious or not, of making the listener or reader feel awful. I’ll take Ralph Nader over Alexander Cockburn, for instance.

Ralph Nader, amazingly, can say things that are right and true and with which I agree, and have the result be that I want nothing more than to punch him in the nose, kick him in the balls, and pelt him with peanuts while he squirms on the floor. I have never witnessed anyone, other than a parent or teacher, so inclined to motivate a person by badmouthing him or her.

Ralph Nader is what I thoroughly detest about school.

Of course, in a lawsuit court, his skill in vituperation was wondrous and good. But now he wonders why people don’t want to associate with him, even as he badmouths them viciously.

I love the man but I also hate him.

While I was wondering why people who spend all day cursing ‘Blue Dogs’ without distinction were celebrating the victory of Bill Owens in New York’s 23rd, I came across this bit of wishful thinking: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/11/03/ny-23rd-the-failure-of-blue-dogging/

A Wikipedia article on how it is done: [link]

‘Triggers’ indisputably are things hazardous to health. Very hazardous. I always think of a gunshot wound when I hear about ‘triggers’.

(OTOH I am not convinced that ‘public option’ is such a bad name. With that name it has gone from obscurity to prominence and popularity, perhaps in part because it makes reactionaries behave abusively. One of the tricks of public discourse is getting the ‘bad’ guys to abuse you in front of cameras.)