When the Cactus is in Bloom

Last night, our own member, latda had the good fortune of relaxing on her porch with someone she loves, sipping on margarita’s, watching the cactus bloom.  That sounded like pure heaven to me.  So, with that in mind, let’s sit back, relax, sip on your beverage of choice, and enjoy each others company.  Here are some pics latda sent to me.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  The cactus only blooms once a year so enjoy it.

And here’s some music to help put you in the right frame of mind:

New U.S. swine flu cases spread pandemic fears

Breaking from MSNBC:

Worries that the new swine flu strain that has killed as many as 68 people and sickened more than 1,000 across Mexico has “pandemic potential” increased with the announcement that the virus has spread to Kansas and likely to New York City.

On Saturday, two new cases were confirmed in Kansas — the first U.S. cases outside of California or Texas. And New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said tests showed that eight New York schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus that was “probable” swine flu.

Samples have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing to see if they are indeed the unusual H1N1 strain of swine flu. The students showed only mild flu symptoms and are feeling better

“What is concerning about this is that it is likely swine flu and second that it is spreading person to person,” Frieden said. He added, “We have seen no increase citywide in flu-like cases.”

About 100 students at a school in the New York City borough of Queens became sick last week, prompting the tests.

NBC News has also learned there are suspected cases in Minnesota and Massachusetts.

It may be too late to contain the sudden outbreak, warned the CDC, which has stepped up surveillance across the United States. “We are worried,” said the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat.

“We don’t think we can contain the spread of this virus,” said Schuchat, Interim Deputy Director for Science and Public Health Program. “We are likely to find it in many other places.”

From The Shtuey News Network: New Front in the War on Juice

Thank you to LadyBoomer for handing me this story.

The Revolutionary Government of Iran has opened a new front in the radical Islamist war on juice.  Countering a covert invasion of Iran by crack squads of Jaffa Orange commandos, the mullahs have ordered the rounding up and execution of all found Israeli oranges.

Go to the Shtuey News Network for more on this growing fruiting rights crisis.

National Popular Vote??

In our nation’s history we have had four presidents who did not win the popular vote. They are John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. We certainly remember the election of 2000, if you can call it that, when Al Gore won the popular vote and more than likely the electoral college but the Supreme Court of the United States decided whom our President would be. I know I will never forget it. Also, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote during the primaries of 2008. Even though the DNC makes it own rules and does not follow the Electoral College System, it does not negate the fact that the will of the voters was not born out. In other words, the system can be gamed and our votes mean jack. I’m pretty hot under the collar about it. I’ve been angry since 2000.

So, my interest has been peaked when reading about a bill that has been making its way through some State Legislatures. As I understand it, individual states make the rules in awarding electoral votes. So there would be no need for a Constitutional Amendment. Here’s how it would work:

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia).

The National Popular Vote bill has been enacted by Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland. These four states possess 50 electoral votes — 19% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect. The bill has passed 21 state legislative chambers, including one house in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The bill is currently endorsed by 1,181 state legislators — 439 sponsors (in 47 states) and an additional 742 legislators who have cast recorded votes in favor of the bill.

The shortcomings of the current system stem from the winner-take-all rule that awards all of a state’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state.

Under the winner-take-all rule, candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, or pay attention to the concerns of states where they are safely ahead or hopelessly behind. Instead, candidates concentrate their attention on a small handful of closely divided “battleground” states. This means that voters in two thirds of the states are ignored in presidential elections. In 2004, candidates concentrated over two-thirds of their money and campaign visits in just five states; over 80% in nine states; and over 99% of their money in just 16 states.

It sure would be nice to have every vote counted. The National Popular Vote seems to be a good alternative going in the right direction.

With that said, there is some resistance to it. An LTE in the Seattle Times outlines the flaws:

First is the possibility that voters in our state will have their electoral votes cast for someone they don’t want to be president.

Secondly, politicians would run their campaigns (and political payback in the form of pork), toward the most populous states, such as California, New York and Florida. Money would be spent and laws passed in ways that benefit these states in order to keep their votes. States with smaller populations could be ignored completely or just given lip service.

Lastly, and what is most alarming, is the increased fraud that would go along with this new system. Right now, the only places it is really worth the risks and paybacks to cheat are the states with the most electoral votes. If this new system were to come into play, a fraudulent vote anywhere in the country would be worth as much as a fraudulent vote anywhere else in the country. One fraudulent vote per precinct nationwide could be enough to steal an election.

I can see both sides to this, but I lean toward letting the will of the people be the final determinant. The make up of Congress will not change. Smaller states would have the same representation in Congress that they have always had. There will be fraud in any election, but it would be more difficult to perpetrate fraud across the entire country. Lastly, if most states decide to enact the National Popular Vote one shouldn’t worry about how an individual state has voted. It’s a matter of semantics. Let’s hear it for the National Popular Vote!

Send in the Clowns

Cross-posted from “Oy…My Valve!”

This past week was the Durban II conference on race.  Where do we begin with this nonsense?  Perhaps to the last international conference on race that took place in South Africa, where Israel was roundly condemned as a racist state.

Let’s take a look at the declaration put forward by the NGO Forum at the 2001 conference.

Farticle 164 states:

…targeted victims of Israel’s brand of apartheid and ethnic cleansing methods have been in particular children, women and refugees.

Farticle 425 calls for the implementation of:

a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state…the imposition of mandatory and comprehensive sanctions and embargoes, the full cessation of all links (diplomatic, economic, social, aid, military cooperation and training) between all states and Israel.

Farticle 426, much like George W. Shrub’s, You’re either a terrorist or in league with the terrorists statement following 9/11, calls for:

condemnation of those states who are supporting, aiding and abetting the Israeli apartheid state and its perpetration of racist crimes against humanity including ethnic cleansing, acts of genocide.

Before going on it is important to note, once and for all, that the comparison of Israel to Apartheid South Africa is inherently false as all Arab citizens can vote and hold office, and have full civic equality under the law.  Even Human Rights Watch has acknowledged that Arabs in Israel enjoy a far higher degree of civil liberties in a state with a Jewish majority than in virtually every Arab country.  That’s not to say that everything is sunshine, lollipops and rainbows between Arabs and Jews, but anyone who thinks it is remotely like South Africa was under Apartheid knows nothing about what living with Apartheid was about.  For those people I suggest reading Cry the Beloved Country, or Donald Woods’ books Biko, and South African Dispatches: Letters to My Countrymen as primers.  The Struggle is my Life by Nelson Mandela is another.  As far as the ethnic cleansing issue goes, Israel must just not be that good at it since, after all this time, those pesky Arabs are still around; even with all of the “help” Israel gets from the United States.

The tenor of the 2001 conference, in which Israel was singled out for special condemnation, cast a cloud over the 2009 conference which was set to reaffirm statements made in 2001.  There were calls early on that the United States boycott the conference.  The Resident withdrew the US delegation from the conference’s planning sessions, but as late as the week before the conference he was leaning to attend (would he have bowed to President of Iran too?).  He finally must have decided there was no way to attend the conference without blowing his FOI (Friend of Israel) cover.  How brave.  Though the final draft of this year’s conference omitted any references to Israel, Zionism, or Middle East conflicts in general, the fact that a special guest was on the list of speakers cast another shadow on the conference.

Of all the nations participating in this years hypocrisyfest, only one head of state actually showed up; Iran’s own megalomaniacal nebbish and schlemiel, Muhammed “I never miss an opportunity to have an opportunity to condemn Israel” Igogettajob.  Apparently, Igogettajob’s little tirade at the conference made quite a few people upset, causing them to walk out for the duration of the speech diatribe screed.  Here are some of the little dictator’s highlights:

“Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights at eradicating this barbaric racism… Efforts must be made to put an end to Zionism.”

Translation: no national self-determination for Jews.  So while we’re at it, let’s also end national sovereignty for Persians.  We are trying to end racism here after all.  It’s not as if Iran is committing acts of ethnic cleansing against its Arab population or anything…

Then there’s this little gem where Igogettajob said Israel is a, ”most cruel and oppressive, racist regime,” which was created from the “pretext of Jewish suffering” during World War II.

Apart from his complete and total denial that there are gay Iranians, his hobbies include Holocaust denial and collecting Chia Pet Famous Dictators.  If you believe that Israel was only created because of the Holocaust, the best way to delegitimate its existence is to deny that the Holocaust ever took place.  Makes sense…if you’re a psychopath.

As the rant got under way the entire French delegation walked out, along with 40 diplomats from more than twenty countries including Morocco.

Here’s the list of nations whose delegations walked out:

Austria
Belgium
Britain
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic (left the conference for good) ***
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden

Morocco

St. Kitts and Nevis

Good on you.

***Thank you Czech Republic

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was none too pleased stating,

“I deplore the use of this platform by the Iranian president to accuse, divide and even incite. This is the opposite of what this conference seeks to achieve. This makes it significantly more difficult to build constructive solutions to the very real problem of racism”.

Unfortunately, for Secretary Ban, he heads an organization whose history of Israel bashing is notorious.  This is the same UN that hosts Palestine Day (We’re Sorry That We Created Israel Day) on the anniversary of the day the UN voted to partition the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River into a Jewish state, and an Arab state.  Usually a map of the land is present depicting Palestine, with no Israel.  Usually not mentioned is the fact that the creation of the Arab state (which would have occupied more territory than the pre-1967 ceasefire lines), was rejected by the Arabs, with Israel invaded by Arab armies the following Spring.  This is also the same UN that resolved in the seventies that Zionism is racism (a resolution that was repealed in the early nineties).  So pardon me if I take Secretary Ban’s words with a grain of salt.

But the highlight of the conference were the Jewish protestors who spoke out against Igogettajob, and the UN.  The European Union of Jewish Students staged a protest against the UN’s continued inaction over the genocide in Darfur.  Inside the conference, members of the group donned rainbow clown wigs as Igogettajob was introduced, and threw their rubber noses at him as he began to speak yelling, “Racist! Racist!”  The clown regalia was declared to be a statement that the conference was a sham and a circus, especially when a racist like Igogettajob is allowed to address a conference that is allegedly supposed to be against racism.  The fact that so many nations walked out on the real clown is certainly a positive step forward, as is the EU’s sound rejection of singling out of Israel in this year’s declaration.

Stop reading this and go read the blog post by one of the members of the EUJS, Zach Novetsky, on his account of the events that day.  This is what happens when thoughtful people stand up to be counted.  Be inspired.

It is my hope that world Jewry adopts the throwing of clown noses as an expression of protest and anger, much like Arabs throw shoes as they did at the Shrub.  I believe that rubber clown nose throwing should be adopted by all recalcitrant citizens when they encounter their leaders.

Next time the man who would be king comes to your town to zap the populace with his dopeymange TelePrompter 5000 gather your friends.  Hide your rainbow clown wigs in your pants and keep the rubber noses handy.  When he takes the stage let the wigs go on and the rubber noses fly.  Is it a crime to throw a clown nose at a sitting Resident?  If it isn’t yet it probably will be, as it will most likely be declared illegal to wear a rainbow wig within 100 miles of anywhere he might be, including Air Force One fly-overs, which seem to happen rather a lot…

“Michelle, I’m thirsty.  I think I’m gonna jump in Air Force One and get a slirpy in Norfolk.”

“Shut up Barry I’m watching “Little House.”

And now for something completely different…Projectiles…Projectiles…Projectiles