JKane

Accountability and the teabaggers in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Look at O'Donnel's finances, or Palin's half-assed half-term of service to her state. Look at teabaggers not getting called on open racism or stating that violence is the answer if they don't get what they want in the election. Look at their Republican puppet-masters' 10 or so years of leadership of most or all branches of gov't that exactly coincided with getting us into this mess. Putting THEM *back* in control of the majority of the 3 branches of government is taking OUR country BACK HOW, exactly? Oh, wait, I get it, you obviously can't mean that; you must mean white Christian America taking itself *back* from uppity educated Negroes! Extra ironically, BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

I LOVE how people bring up $800,000 NOT $800,000,000--or even 1 Million fucking dollars--for a program to encourage people to do something that may be a cheap way to prevent the spread of STDs as if it's a bad, horrible example of gov't gone wrong. Well, here's the pushback on the BULLSHIT that the puritanical and vaguely racist coverage deserves from every corner--but is only getting on an escort review board's politics forum. In sub-Saharan Africa, genital washing has been theoretically proposed as a way to reduce STD and HIV incidence. Lack of circumcision in men may be a risk factor for development of chancroid, a common cause of genital ulcer disease in Africa. Genital ulcer disease appears to be a risk factor for contracting HIV. Health advocates suggest that education about postcoital and precoital washing with instructions on how to clean the area beneath the foreskin of the penis might be one way to reduce the incidence of STDs in east, central and southern Africa, where male circumcision is less common and genital ulcer disease more common than in west Africa. --O'Farrell N. Soap and water prophylaxis for limiting genital ulcer disease and HIV-1 infection in men in sub-Saharan Africa. Genitourin Med 1993; 69:297-300. ----It's still under study, there are some conflicting views, but that's the point, a STUDY to see if something almost everybody has access too can lessen the chances of STDs. I think it is shameful that somebody who participates in our subculture would further the belief that anything which may prevent an STD (especially AIDS) spreading is bad, especially for a measly $800k to serve a hard-hit subgroup! But hey, let's instead deride the government for funding research in an area that directly benefits US, and leave all medical research up to private pharmaceutical companies so we can get 3 more erection pills and another pill for restless leg syndrome! Forget unprofitable public health initiatives!

Whatever you do don't blame your bank, blame Obama! There are credit unions and plenty of other banks that would treat you better, and I agree with TY that you are reading the situation wrong. And certainly blame Obama for current interest rates! Doesn't every economist in their right mind agree that a raise in interest rates would crater the economy? Having to agree in advance to a defined fee for overdraft is better for the poor than growing to live on them and being eaten alive by hundreds of dollars in fees every month! Especially when the bank does all kinds of shady things to heighten those fees, which thanks to the much needed regulation you refer to they're no longer allowed to do, such as clearing big payments before smaller payments so you get multiple overdrafts. How the fuck people can sit a crater caused by deregulation and insist that it's the answer, that it *will* work ONE OF THESE TIMES when so far it never has is dumbfounding. It is by definition not a right, but a DUTY of government to regulate or even run infrastructure critical to the nation: Environmental impacts of oil production, especially near critical wetlands. National security including the screening of airport passengers. Anti-trust actions against monopolies and companies that get too big to fail. It's funny how your invisible hand never actually works yet you have endless faith in it.

I agree 100%!

Last Saturday I wandered through a "tribute to 9/11 memorial classic car show" in my hick right-wing town, there was live music, and the guy on stage went into a teabagger-like rant (while trying to be coy about it) and then played a 60's protest song--with no hint of irony. And it struck me (about as hard as I'd have liked to strike him) that last Saturday marked exactly as long into Obama's presidency as we were into Bush's on 9/11. Think about that. How does Obama get all the blame for the shit he inherited, especially the economy, while to this day Bush gets no blame whatsoever for 9/11? It's now absolutely clear that the Bush administration specialized in putting unqualified cronies into bureaucratic offices all over the government with disastrous effect, often people who didn't believe the bureacrasy they were appointed to head had any right to exist at all. We can mostly agree this happened at the EPA, the FDA, and certainly at FEMA. Clearly regulators of the banking and oil industry too. But Richard Clark's book made it clear this is also what happened in the early days within the national security apparatus. Fucking Condolezza Rice was more interested in consolidating her power and dipshit at justice department more interested in covering Justice's breast than perusing the clear and present danger the outgoing administration tried many times to express to them. Yet Bush gets a pass for the greatest terrorist attack on American soil in the nation's history, turning a surplus into the worst deficit in history, and cratering the economy *twice* in 8 years! Nobody even really calls him on fucking over the Afghanistan war in order to put all the resources into the senseless war in Iraq. But every single thing that's wrong now, INCLUDING THE AFGAN WAR is somehow Obama's fault according to the Republicans and especially the teabaggers! What the fuck? Of course the Republicans who had 110% control at the time would say that, but how THE HELL are they allowed to get away with it?

I do worry about tea partiers and any increase in the number of Republicans in congress worsening federal gridlock to California levels, but on the other hand maybe teabaggers will break the Republican caucus and the remaining moderates will be more likely to vote with Dems, at least for cloture. I think that Republican leadership may now be more afraid of the teabaggers than the bed-wettingest liberal, it was amazing seeing Rove *on Hannity on Fox* pretty much saying the Delaware candidate was unelectable and she really hurts their chances of taking control. Those tea party victories the other day gave me hope for the Dems for the first time in many months. If they manage to get out the word on who these people are and what they really believe I think Dems can maintain control. Though Jon Stewart had a great panel of three, each with a different idea of "how the Democrats will fuck this up". But at the moment the Democrats are finally moving towards a promising track. Pointing out the hypocrisy on the deficit, the radical positions of the teabaggers, the things Dems have actually accomplished, and even making a move on DADT which may help improve the morale of the base. Hopefully they've also realized that while it does work on the base, talking about Bush and where all the years of Republican leadership got us doesn't work that well on the apparently terminally Alzheimer's afflicted general electorate. I feel Obama did exactly what you describe in his Rose Garden press conference. 'WE want tax cuts on first $250k for all, THEY are holding those hostage in order to also get tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% which we simply can not afford.' I don't understand why some Dems are afraid of that particular tack, the right has been doing bullshit class warfare against 98% of Americans for at least 20 years now *while somehow* maintaining a bullshit "populist" image! Call them on that shit, once and for all. And then Biden did a pretty good job of talking to the base on Maddow last night. Hopefully he keeps that up with no more than his usual level of gaffs. And things seem to be going pretty well in California too (well, if we're counting maintaining the status quo as pretty good). I know the polls may be mixed, but I saw a great Boxer ad last night and I don't think the pollsters can account for the people who are going to turn out to vote for Marijuana legalization.

My point was I don't see how it could be!

Be sure to look at all the threads by Tomcal in this forum, especially the ones full of pictures! Should belay all your concerns in that regard. I really want to go but hesitate for a couple reasons (not the least of which is being an indecisive bastard who works for indecisive bastards), this thread is helping me firm up the idea of what it will cost per week. So far it sounds like: $1100-$1500 round trip airfare $800 PER WEEK for Hotel ~$1200 PER WEEK for entertainment/"entertainment"/meals Makes me realize how overambitious my first plans for around a month there were! Yet, I don't want to spend over 10 hours each way in an airline seat (esp. coach!) for only a couple days there. I'm not too far from having 100k AA frequent flier miles again though, which would be a business class round trip for free (IF booked enough in advance). Anybody new to FF miles, there are a couple Citi credit cards you can get offering 75k (or more) miles, and you might be able to get two at the same time (look at the AA forum at Flyertalk.com) One other concern I have is that for all the expense, hot young twinky latin (and black) guys are not something I have much trouble finding in Los Angeles. Tomcal has posted some photos from Puerto Alegre that show some nice variety there though. But intra-country flights ads a little to the expense and complexity of the trip too, and my initial plan was to visit Buenos Aires as well!

Why would next session be any more productive than this session, especially any actually progressive legislation?

I was surprised when I saw what it did, but figured it fit the nature of this thread.

01001001001000000110000101100011011101000111010 10110000101101100011011000111100100100000011001 11011011110110111101100111011011000110010101100 10000100000011001110110000101111001001000000110 00010111001101100011011010010110100100100000011 00001011100100111010000100000011101000110111100 10000001110000011011110111001101110100001000000 11010010110111000100000011100100110010101110000 01101100011110010010110000100000011000100111010 10111010000100000011001000110100101100100011011 10001001110111010000100000011001100110100101101 11001100100001000000110000101101110011110010111 01000110100001101001011011100110011100100000011 0011101101111011011110110010000101110 (Edited to shorten horizontal display as some uusers were having scrolling problems with this entire thread. TY)

“My Lonesome Cowboy” by Takashi Murakami, a life-sized sculpture of a bright-eyed anime manga-boy j**king off and whipping his j*zz into a gigantic lasso around his head at the Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening was estimated to go for $3-$4 million, surpassed expectations and ended up with a $13.5 million closing bid. Add in the 11% house commission and you've got yourself a world-famous Murakami for a cool $15.161 million. The only question that remains… where to put it? Link

I can't stand Palin but saw little of value and nothing of depth in this article... Couldn't stand the way it was written, the constant self-excusing for lack of depth due to people's fear which was odd when combined with being as explicit as possible about the identity of one of the only people who spoke--only to provide a sentence of info that was also heard from other sources. The article is 8 pages long with maybe 1-2 pages of content, and none of that is revelatory. I think John Stewart or Rachel Maddow have often done a more thorough job of reporting these things, in 5-10 minutes at that.

Saw Machete over the weekend, I was very amused. Some laugh out loud ultra-violence, I'd say a much better movie than Expendables. But you have to have the right mindset for it. From Rotten Tomatoes: Consensus: Machete is messy, violent, shallow, and tasteless -- and that's precisely the point of one of the summer's most cartoonishly enjoyable films.

I'd been planning to go for much of this month, and ran into the exact same issue. ~$120 per night multiplies to too damn much pretty quickly, especially since my finances are more up in the air than I'd hoped and it's hard for me to judge how much I'd spend on sauna fees, guys, and meals. And the Visa thing keeps us first timers from any spur-of-the-moment trips. It's a real catch-22 that you can't get one without a ticket.

I like Ralph Woods a lot, but I think the one that I've lusted after the most recently was Brent Everett. When I was younger I lusted after Chad Conners all the time, muscleboy who'd get fucked was fairly rare in porn back then it seemed. Back in the day: Recent: Can't imagine why he shaved his head, not going bald. He advertised on CL Los Angeles some, not long ago, though strangely without any hint or reference to his past (would think that'd be golden!), I hired him. Very nice guy, but never meet your heroes! Might be interesting to hire him as a handyman/contractor (which is the work he tries to do now). He's even fairly recently (but before shaved head) done a video with his partner from many videos back then, Chance Caldwell. I can see some images cached in google images but can't link 'em.

I agree they're a pretty different company, with a real small-company mentality. I don't blame them for this, and would not be surprised if they did not even seriously consider moving overseas. They held out as long as they could in our farking puritanical country, and didn't let the issue go quietly either. Much more praiseworthy than so many of Google's actions these last several years...

I'll certainly buy you dinner if you come to a MERmen (formerly Hooville) dinner, assuming we ever have another! I'm a bit hesitant since I realized that much if not most of the 'swirling vortex of shit' is between people I've personally met at the Hooville dinners I initiated (though Townsend often did the heavy lifting of organizing). As for a boy and a trip to France... I might buy a round at The Lovely Spotlight after, but good luck finding either! Only real bug I've had is that login stuff, but I haven't heard if anybody else had a similar experience. And the poll problem. Oh, and locked threads always looking unread. But the only one seemingly caused by the upgrade is polls. (Haven't tested login since the upgrade, I'm holding on to my restored cookie for dear life!) I also love that you notified in advance of the upgrade and apologized in advance for any (non-existent) glitches! It's night and day!

You should ad your links, location and info to your message center profile, and maybe create a signature with them.

They've required that for a long time. Phone number linked to email in personals plus credit card for adult/erotic services. They also took out the adult section of gigs, which was sometimes used for prostitution but also seemed widely used by porn makers.

Due to technical bit of goofiness anything that touches videotape (or gets broadcast, turns out) needs to be 23.98 or 29.97 FPS. What I just learned was the reason for that technical goofiness (the inclusion of color information in the signal), after years of working with it.

I agree it is extraordinary that you completed this feat without: locking out (with no notice), belittling and alienating all your contributors--while simultaneously begging them for money! I thought this was a required part of the upgrade cycle? You guys are doing a hell of a job! (Despite my technical niggles.)

I've wondered myself, especially when someone sets up a whole blog or forum for the main purpose of attacking somebody they know only through another blog or forum... I suppose arguments could be made that people like Daddy or BN had it coming, and since the existing forum didn't allow any critique on certain sacred topics... (and the plagiarism expose was brilliant), but once past the one or two insightful posts who really wants to read pages of bile and invective? Or really anything on somebody like Deej? If the author doesn't have better things to do with their own time I certainly have better to do with mine!

Closest I come to watching this or any other reality show is when Joel McHale skewers them mercilessly on The Soup. It's a great way to stay culturally informed without the painful self-lobotomy watching stuff like Jersey Shore, Kardashians, etc., etc. involves! Oops, I lied, I have watched a couple episodes of Ice Road Truckers, but am getting tired of all the over-hyped non-drama, so maybe not for long. Interesting job though.

And who took the picture?